REUBEN T. DURRETT, A.B., LL.B., A.M., LL.D. 
 
 President of The Kilbon Cluh 
 
FILSON CLUB PUBLICATIONS No. 23 
 
 TRADITIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Earliest Visits of Foreigners 
 
 TO 
 
 NORTH AMERICA 
 
 The First Formed and First Inhabited of the 
 
 Continents 
 
 BY 
 
 REUBEN T. DURRETT 
 
 A. B., LL. B., A.M., LL. D. 
 President of The Filson Club 
 
 UUitatratri 
 
 LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY 
 JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY 
 
 (Incorporated) 
 
 PRINTERS TO THE FILSON CLUB 
 1908 
 
 Or THE 
 
 :nsiry 
 
 ,vub# 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1908, 
 
 THE FILSON CLUB 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 AT the beginning of our Civil War there lived in 
 Louisville an elderly gentleman by the name of 
 Griffin, who, though belonging to neither of the 
 learned professions, had read many books and stored 
 his excellent memory with much useful information. He 
 was of Welsh descent, and proud of the long line of Cam 
 brians he numbered among his ancestors. I knew him 
 well, and was fond of talking with him about the many 
 interesting things that occurred while Louisville was pro 
 gressing from a straggling row of log cabins and ponds 
 along unpaved Main Street, between First and Twelfth, 
 to the mansions of brick and stone along the many paved 
 streets now occupied by wealth and fashion. 
 
 Knowing that he prided himself upon being of Welsh 
 descent, I asked him one day what he thought of the 
 tradition that Madoc, a Welsh prince, had planted a col 
 ony of his countrymen in America in the Twelfth cen 
 tury. He answered that he had become interested in the 
 subject when he was young in years; that he had read 
 all he could secure of what had been printed about it; 
 that he had also learned some things from tradition which 
 had not gotten into print, and that this country in early 
 
IV 
 
 Introduction 
 
 times had many traditions on the subject which came 
 originally from the Indians. He added that he considered 
 the Madoc tradition as plausible and as worthy of belief 
 as any of the stories of the pre-Columbian discoveries of 
 America. 
 
 I then asked him if any of the traditions he had heard 
 were connected with the Falls of the Ohio, and if they 
 were so related would he much oblige by giving them to 
 me? He answered that he was not at the Falls of the 
 Ohio when Louisville was founded, but that he knew some 
 of the pioneers, such as General Glark, Squire Boone, 
 James Patten and others whose lives had been prolonged 
 to his times. These pioneers had intercourse with friend 
 ly Indians, who frequently visited the Falls for the pur 
 pose of trade, and from them the following traditions con 
 nected with the Falls were obtained. 
 
 On the north side of the river, where Jeffersonville 
 now stands, some skeletons were exhumed in early times 
 with armor on which had brass plates bearing the Mer 
 maid and Harp, which belong to the Welsh coat-of-arms. 
 On the same side of the river, further down, a piece of 
 stone supposed to be part of a tombstone was found with 
 the date 1186 and what seemed to be a name or the ini 
 tials of a name so effaced by time as to be illegible. If 
 that piece of stone was ever a tombstone over a grave, 
 
 ERRATUM. 
 
 In the eleventh and twelfth lines from the top, on the fourth 
 
 page of the Introduction, strike out the folio wing words and names 
 
 Such as General Clark, Squire f Boone, James "Patten and others" 
 
 which were inserted here by mistake and belong in another place. 
 
Introduction v 
 
 the party laid beneath it must have been of the Welsh 
 colony of Madoc, for we have no tradition of any one 
 but the Welsh at the Falls so early as 1186. In early 
 times the forest along the river on both sides of the Falls 
 for some miles presented two kinds of growth. Along the 
 margin of the river the giant sycamores and other trees 
 of the primeval forest stood as if they had never been 
 disturbed, but beyond them was a broad belt of trees of 
 a different growth, until the belt was passed, when the 
 original forest growth again appeared. This indicated 
 that the belt had been deprived of its original forest for 
 agricultural or other purposes, and that a new forest had 
 grown up in its stead. He said, however, it was possible 
 that the most important of these traditions learned frorii 
 the Indians concerned a great battle fought at the Falls 
 of the Ohio between the Red Indians and the White In 
 dians, as the Welsh Indians were called. It has been a 
 long time ago since this battle was fought, but it was 
 fought here and won by the Red Indians. In the final 
 struggle the White Indians sought safety on an island 
 since known as Sandy Island, but nearly all who sought 
 refuge there were slaughtered. The remnant who escaped 
 death made their way to the Missouri River, where by 
 different movements at different times they went up that 
 river a great distance. They were known to exist there 
 
vi Introduction 
 
 by different parties who came from there and talked 
 Welsh with the pioneers. Some Welshmen living at the 
 Falls of the Ohio in pioneer times talked with these White 
 Indians, and although there was a considerable difference 
 between the Welsh they spoke and the Welsh spoken by 
 the Indians, yet they had no great difficulty in under 
 standing one another. He further said, concerning this 
 tradition of a great battle, that there was a tradition 
 that many skeletons were found on Sandy Island min 
 gled promiscuously together as if left there unburied after 
 a great battle, but that he had examined the island a 
 number of times without rinding a single human bone, 
 and that if skeletons were ever abundant there they had 
 disappeared before his time. 
 
 Mr. Griffin in the foregoing statement added but little 
 to the Madoc tradition as it had already appeared in the 
 text and appendix of the publication under consideration, 
 but as far as he went he confirmed the statement of oth 
 ers As these traditions are fully set forth in the text 
 and appendix they will be left there to speak for them 
 selves. There are stranger things in Welsh history than 
 these traditions. The Welsh stand out in history as one 
 of the most remarkable of peoples. Their patriotism and 
 endurance and courage have seldom been surpassed by 
 any nation. The legions of Rome were not able to sub- 
 
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Introduction vii 
 
 due them in five hundred years; the Saxons, Angles, Jutes, 
 and Danes failed to conquer them in another five hundred 
 years, and the Anglo-Normans, after all the bloody work 
 of their predecessors, failed to subdue them. They were 
 not subdued until the reign of Edward the First of Eng 
 land, and were then the victims of fraud. When David 
 and Llewellyn, the last princes chosen by the people, 
 were gotten rid of by the foulest of means and the prince 
 dom of Wales without an acceptable sovereign, King Ed 
 ward had an act of Parliament passed attaching Wales 
 to England. But when he came to the appointing of 
 a Prince of Wales the Welsh gave him to understand 
 that they would never submit to a prince of English ap 
 pointment unless the prince chosen were a native of Wales, 
 who spoke the Welsh language and whose life was spot 
 less. King Edward, seeing that the Welsh were in earn 
 est in their demands for a prince and being anxious for 
 such a peace in the country as would enable him to in 
 vest certain Welsh estates in his English friends, be 
 thought him of a fraud to satisfy the Welsh. His wife 
 Eleanor was soon to become a mother, and he had her 
 removed from England to Caernarvon Castle in Wales, 
 where she soon gave birth to a son. King Edward then 
 summoned the barons and chief men of Wales to meet 
 him at Ruthin Castle, also in Wales. When they were 
 
viii Introduction 
 
 assembled he told them he was now prepared to give 
 them a prince who was a native of Wales, who could not 
 speak a word of English, and whose life no one could 
 stain. He then made his infant son Prince of Wales, 
 and the firstborn of the English sovereign has ever since 
 been Prince of Wales. The fraud which was quite un 
 worthy of a King of England had the effect of subdu 
 ing the Welsh after the Romans, the Saxons, the Jutes, 
 the Danes, and the Normans had failed to conquer them 
 in a thousand years. They fought against odds among 
 their protecting mountains, and could neither be con 
 quered nor driven from their rugged homes nor made to 
 submit to a foreign ruler. After twelve centuries of hard 
 but successful fighting against frightful odds and after 
 many frauds and deceptions practiced both by themselves 
 and the English, they at last were captured by a fraud 
 and deception which it would seem ought not to have 
 deceived them under the circumstances. They had often 
 before been deceived by the English to their cost, and 
 ought not to have given credence to the words and prom 
 ises of a king whose words and promises they had often 
 before found unworthy of belief. 
 
 It has been the habit of The Filson Club to illustrate 
 its publications with a likeness of the author and such 
 other pictures as Were deemed appropriate. When it 
 
Introdttction ix 
 
 came to selecting illustrations for the twenty-third publi 
 cation but little that was deemed appropriate seemed to 
 be in reach. It was at last determined to illustrate the 
 Madoc tradition, which is the principal part of the book, 
 with pictures from Wales, the native land of Madoc and 
 his colony. In a book entitled "Wales Illustrated" 
 enough and more than enough beautiful steel engravings 
 were found to answer the purpose. Many of the originals 
 of these illustrations were connected with Prince Madoc 
 by having been in the possession of different members of 
 his family, which made the pictures particularly appro 
 priate. There are but few lands which present such an 
 array of natural and artificial scenes of beauty and gran 
 deur as Wales. The antiquarian will find there castles 
 and the remains of castles, churches and the remains of 
 churches, cathedrals and the wrecks of cathedrals, abbeys 
 and the ruins of abbeys which the Welsh built in different 
 ages from the ancient Celts to the modern English. The 
 buildings show the style of architecture used in fortifica 
 tions by the Celts, the Romans, the Saxons, the Danes, 
 and the Anglo-Normans as the centuries advanced from 
 the First to the Thirteenth, and during these centuries 
 castles were built on the mountains heights at almost 
 every accessible point, until the whole country seemed 
 to be covered with castles and castellated structures to 
 
x Introduction 
 
 secure the inmates from the assaults of those on the out 
 side. Abbeys and churches and cathedrals were also erec 
 ted in the valleys on which the mountains frowned, at 
 places enough to indicate that the Welsh had early been 
 converted to Christianity and that they had kept the 
 faith through the centuries. The lover of nature will 
 look in vain to find elsewhere so many striking views 
 of mountains and valleys, of picturesque villages, of 
 cataracts and of natural passes between mountain 
 peaks. 
 
 One of the most charming of these illustrations is the 
 picture of the village of St. Asaph and its cathedral which 
 dates back to the middle of the Sixth century. In pioneer 
 times the name of this Welsh village was given to a sta 
 tion erected by General Ben Logan in Lincoln County, 
 Kentucky, in 1775. Logan afterward, in 1781, donated 
 a part of his land to the District of Kentucky for a court 
 house and other public buildings, and the town of Stan 
 ford was built thereon and took the place of the original 
 St. Asaph. Who in the wilderness of Kentucky could 
 have suggested the name of St. Asaph? 
 
 Another is the castle of Caernarvon, which is perhaps 
 the finest castellated structure in Wales. It was chosen 
 by the King of England as an abode worthy of royalty 
 when Edward removed his Queen Eleanor there from 
 
Introduction xi 
 
 England and she there gave birth to the first English 
 Prince of Wales. He was born in fraud, made prince 
 in fraud, and was nothing more than a fraud all his 
 life. 
 
 Another is the castle of Harlech, which was besieged 
 and taken by Owen Gwynnedd, the father of Prince Ma- 
 doc, in 1144. The assault was desperate against a for 
 tress up to that time deemed impregnable, but Owen 
 Gwynnedd, a prince of exceptional courage, endurance, 
 and tact, by perseverance reduced walls that had stood 
 firm since the days of William Rufus. 
 
 These illustrations, with but a single exception, repre 
 sent scenes in Wales with which Prince Madoc and his 
 colony must have been familiar. That exception is a view 
 of the Falls of the Ohio as they existed in their primeval 
 state, when Madoc and his Welsh colony are said by 
 tradition to have been here in the Twelfth century. The 
 picture was drawn by Thomas Hutchins while viewing 
 the Falls in 1766, before the white man had felled a tree 
 or in any way interfered with the work of nature. The 
 picture drawn by Hutchins, who was a fine engineer and 
 accomplished artist, shows well beside the Welsh pictures, 
 and if it had had the advantage of a steel plate, as they 
 have had, it would have equaled some of them as a 
 striking landscape. 
 
xii Introduction 
 
 A picture might be drawn of the fleet of Prince Madoc 
 leaving Wales, of the passing through the Sargasso sea, 
 and of the landing in America, but it would only be a 
 picture of imagination. So might an artist take from 
 Southey s poem of Madoc fine word-pictures of the battles 
 between Madoc s men and the Mexicans and convert them 
 into descriptive pictures, but they would also be pictures 
 which added the doubt of tradition to the illusion of the 
 imagination. On the contrary, the pictures presented 
 from Wales the landscapes, the castles, the churches, 
 the cathedrals, the abbeys, the cataracts, the villages, etc., 
 are all realities drawn by the finest of artists and engraved 
 on steel by eminent engravers. They are all worthy of 
 artistic admiration, and we seem while looking at them 
 to be viewing the originals from which they have been 
 taken. 
 
 All that is known of Prince Madoc and his colony of 
 Welshmen in America in the Twelfth century is tradition. 
 No authentic history comes to our relief in telling or hear 
 ing the story. All that is claimed of the daring prince 
 sailing across unknown seas and into an unknown world 
 may be true and it may be false. But even when all is 
 apparent tradition there may be some hidden truth worthy 
 of our further research. The wise Humboldt, when allud 
 ing to the Madoc tradition, said " I do not share the scorn 
 
Introduction xiii 
 
 with which national traditions are so often treated, and 
 am of the opinion that with more research the discovery 
 of facts entirely unknown would throw much light upon 
 many historical problems." 
 
 Tradition, however, has but little to do with that part 
 of the book under consideration which attempts to show 
 that America was the first formed and the first inhabited 
 of the continents. All that is claimed on this part of 
 the subject is the result of scientific research. Tradition 
 could not well go back to the rising of our globe above 
 the universal ocean, because there was no one there to 
 hand the matter down from father to son through the 
 generations. But geology has examined the structure of 
 the earth and found the first sedimentary rocks along 
 the line which separates the United States from Canada, 
 and claims that here was the first continent begun. There 
 is no tradition in the facts of this, and none in the con 
 clusion drawn from them. All is science, with facts gath 
 ered from the rock-ribbed globe and conclusions drawn 
 from them. 
 
 Neither is the assertion that America was the first 
 of the continents which was inhabited by man dependent 
 upon tradition. Man could not well have started a tra 
 dition about the first of his race and sent it down his 
 descending line through the centuries. He would have 
 
xiv Introduction 
 
 had to employ some such machinery as the Greeks and 
 Romans had in their numerous gods to account for his 
 own origin. Immortals might give the information, but 
 it would be beyond the scope of plain mortals. Again, 
 science has taught us what we know about the subject. 
 It has gathered facts from the bones and works of man 
 found in the caverns and hidden places of the earth, and 
 from these drawn conclusions as to where and when and 
 how he first existed. Science may not be able to prove 
 its conclusions to the satisfaction of others, but it would 
 be equally hard to prove the contrary. It would be as 
 difficult to prove any well-known tradition void of historic 
 truth as to prove the nebulous origin of our solar system 
 and the millions of years our planet has been in progres 
 sion before reaching its present state, void of scientific 
 determination. We should not aim to know too much 
 and to know that all we know is truth. If tradition can 
 amuse us without injury, if the doubtful story of King 
 Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table can give us 
 pleasure, it may be as well not to spend too much time 
 in learning whether the story is true or false. There are 
 many such stories that are just as good as if they were 
 true, and let us have them as they are. 
 
 The story of Madoc I would give as I have given it 
 in this monograph whether I believed it or not. It was 
 
ST. ASAPH VILLAGE 
 
 ST. ASAPH CATHEDRAL 
 
Introduction xv 
 
 \ 
 
 believed by Kentuckians in pioneer times, and that is 
 reason enough for repeating it in later times. It amused 
 the patriarchs of our country and gave them many happy 
 moments as it was told in their log cabins. And not 
 only this, but it amused many of our cultured pioneers 
 as they recited it and believed it. We put in books many 
 things of the truth of which we know no more than we 
 do about Madoc and his Welsh colony, and if the tradi 
 tion is here repeated at this late day as an historic story 
 
 it will do no harm. 
 
 R. T. DURRETT. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE ATLANTIS TRADITION 2 
 
 THE PHOENICIAN TRADITION 7 
 
 THE CHINESE TRADITION 11 
 
 THE NORSE TRADITION 13 
 
 THE IRISH TRADITION 15 
 
 THE MADOC TRADITION 17 
 
 THE MADOC TRADITION IN EUROPE 19 
 
 THE MADOC TRADITION FROM HAKLUIT 20 
 
 THE MADOC TRADITION IN WELSH HISTORY 22 
 
 THE MADOC TRADITION IN AMERICA INTRODUCED BY JOHN SMITH 28 
 
 REVEREND MORGAN JONES STATEMENT 30 
 
 LETTERS FROM REVEREND MORGAN EDWARDS HISTORY OF 
 
 BAPTISTS 34 
 
 CAPTAIN ISAAC STEWART S STATEMENT 35 
 
 CHARLES BEATTY S STATEMENT 38 
 
 BENJAMIN SUTTON s STATEMENT 38 
 
 REVEREND JOHN WILLIAMS INQUIRY INTO THE TRUTH OF THE 
 
 MADOC TRADITION 38 
 
 LEVI HICKS STATEMENT . . 39 
 
 GEORGE BURDER s WELSH INDIANS 42 
 
 GEORGE CATLIN S WORK ON THE INDIANS 44 
 
 BRYANT & GAY S POPULAR HISTORY 45 
 
 THE MADOC TRADITION IN .KENTUCKY 46 
 
 FILSON s ACCOUNT OF THE TRADITION. 46 
 
 OPINIONS OF PROMINENT KENTUCKY PIONEERS AT CLUB 
 
 MEETING 48 
 
 WHAT FILSON SAYS IN HIS HISTORY OF KENTUCKY 52 
 
 LIEUTENANT JOSEPH ROBERT s STATEMENT 54 
 
 MAURICE GRIFFITHS STATEMENT.. 57 
 
xviii Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THOMAS S. HINDE s LETTER 62 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF WHOLE TRIBES OF INDIANS 65 
 
 AMERICA THE OLDEST OF THE CONTINENTS 70 
 
 AGASSIZ ON AGE OF AMERICA 74 
 
 AMERICA FIRST INHABITED OF THE CONTINENTS 75 
 
 JEFFERSON ON FIRST INHABITANTS OF AMERICA 77 
 
 RELICS OF QUATERNARY MAN FOUND IN EUROPE 78 
 
 RELICS OF TERTIARY MAN FOUND IN AMERICA 79 
 
 IMPLEMENTS IN GLACIAL DRIFT OF DELAWARE RIVER 79 
 
 RELICS IN AURIFEROUS SANDS OF CALIFORNIA 80 
 
 THE BOURBOIS RIVER MASTODON 80 
 
 THE MUMMY OF MAMMOTH CAVE, KENTUCKY 81 
 
 THE FLORIDA REEF SKELETON 83 
 
 THE SKELETON OF THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA 83 
 
 THE MOUND BUILDERS 83 
 
 BURIAL OF PIONEER WIDOW S SONS 85 
 
 OUR LOVE OF THE ANCIENT NATURAL 86 
 
 APPENDIX 91 
 
 CATLIN ON EXTINCTION OF THE MANDANS 91 
 
 CATLIN ON WELSH COLONY 97 
 
 WINDSOR S HISTORY OF ISLAND OF ATLANTIS 104 
 
 BRYANT & GAY s HISTORY OF MADOC TRADITION 108 
 
 BANCROFT ON ATLANTIS AND ABORIGINAL RACES OF AMERICA .. 113 
 
 GEORGE CROGHAN TO GOVERNOR DINWIDDIE 117 
 
 SPEECH OF CARACTACUS BEFORE CLAUDIUS 120 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE WELSH BY GIRALDUS 122 
 
 THE "UNIVERSAL HISTORY" ON THE MADOC TRADITION 124 
 
 THE WELSH A MARITIME PEOPLE 126 
 
 JOHN WILLIAMS ON CULTURE OF THE WELSH 129 
 
 INFORMATION FROM GENERAL BOWLES 130 
 
 WHAT MORGAN JONES KNEW OF THE WELSH INDIANS 132 
 
 BINON S ACCOUNT OF WELSH INDIANS. . 133 
 
Contents xix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 SPEECH OF THE EMPEROR MONTEZUMA 135 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM THE GENTLEMAN S MAGAZINE 137 
 
 UNBELIEVERS IN THE MADOC TRADITION 143 
 
 LORD LITTLETON ON THE MADOC TRADITION 144 
 
 WILLIAM ROBERTSON ON THE MADOC TRADITION 148 
 
 LIST OF THE MEMBERS OF THE FILSON CLUB 151 
 
 BRIEF CATALOGUE OF FILSON CLUB PUBLICATIONS 163 
 
 INDEX . 173 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 OPPOSITE PAGE 
 
 LIKENESS OF COLONEL R. T. DURRETT Frontispiece 
 
 FALLS OF THE OHIO IN STATE OF NATURE vi 
 
 ST. ASAPH VILLAGE xiv 
 
 ST. ASAPH CATHEDRAL xiv 
 
 MOLD VILLAGE 8 
 
 HARLECH CASTLE : 8 
 
 CHIRK CASTLE 16 
 
 CORWEN VILLAGE 16 
 
 DENBIGH CASTLE 24 
 
 DENBIGH VILLAGE 24 
 
 PONT Y CYSSYLLTE 32 
 
 LLANGOLLEN VILLAGE 32 
 
 PASS OF LLANBERIS 40 
 
 RHAIADYR-Y-WENOL 40 
 
 VIEW NEAR ABER 48 
 
 LLYN GWYNANT 48 
 
 SNOWDON VILLAGE 56 
 
 FALL OF THE OGWEN 56 
 
 TREMADOC VILLAGE 64 
 
 RHAIADYR Du CATARACT 64 
 
 FLINT VILLAGE 72 
 
 FLINT CASTLE 72 
 
 LLYN OGWEN 80 
 
 GWRYCH CASTLE 80 
 
 ABERMAW, OR BARMOUTH VILLAGE 96 
 
 RHUDDLAN CASTLE 96 
 
 BEAUMARIS VILLAGE 104 
 
 ENTRANCE TO BEAUMARIS CASTLE. . 104 
 
xxii Illustrations 
 
 OPPOSITE PAGE 
 
 RUTHIN CASTLE 112 
 
 HAWARDEN CASTLE 112 
 
 WELSH POOL VILLAGE 120 
 
 Powis CASTLE 120 
 
 CAERNARVON VILLAGE. 128 
 
 CAERNARVON CASTLE 128 
 
 LLANRWST BRIDGE 136 
 
 LLANRWST CHURCH 136 
 
 BANGOR VILLAGE 144 
 
 BANGOR CATHEDRAL. . 144 
 
TRADITIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EARLIEST VISITS OF FOREIGNERS 
 
 TO 
 
 NORTH AMERICA 
 
 THE FIRST FORMED AND FIRST INHABITED 
 OF THE CONTINENTS 
 
 WHEN Kentucky was a part of Virginia there 
 was a tradition widespread and generally believed 
 that a Welsh prince by the name of Madoc 
 planted a colony of his countrymen in America about 
 the year 1170. This colony was believed to have been 
 located for some time at the Falls of . the Ohio, where, 
 after it grew strong and became offensive to the more 
 numerous aborigines, it was attacked by overwhelming 
 numbers and nearly all the members slaughtered. Some 
 remnants who escaped the tomahawk and scalping-knife 
 were scattered among the different tribes, and absorbed 
 by them. In this way, a race known as Welsh Indians 
 came into existence in different parts of the country, 
 and kept alive the tradition until a comparatively recent 
 period, when a considerable body of them, located some 
 sixteen hundred or more miles up the Missouri River, 
 were exterminated by the smallpox. This wholesale 
 
2 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 destruction by pestilence gradually diminished the gen 
 erality of the belief in the tradition and deprived it of 
 many of its advocates. The belief, however, did not 
 entirely die, and will bear reviving even at this late 
 date. It has never been fully written up in this coun 
 try, and an historic sketch of it can hardly fail to be in 
 teresting. It is of kin to the pre-Columbian discoveries 
 of America, of which quite a number have been credited 
 and a still greater number rejected. Five of these seem 
 to be sufficiently divested of myth and absurdity to ap 
 proach historic truth, and may be mentioned here as 
 a kind of introduction to the Welsh tradition which is 
 the principal subject of this paper, because this Welsh 
 colony, according to tradition, once resided at the Falls 
 of the Ohio. 
 
 I. THE ATLANTIS TRADITION 
 
 Our first authority for the existence of America, and 
 its habitation by human beings thousands of years be 
 fore the discovery of Columbus, was Plato, the famous 
 Grecian philosopher. He does not mention America and 
 its inhabitants in so many words, but when he designates 
 a large island called Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean op 
 posite the Pillars of Hercules, from which the inhabi 
 tants passed over to the continent beyond and vice versa, 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 3 
 
 the location of the continent is such that we can reason 
 ably infer it was America, although it presupposes a knowl 
 edge of geography far in advance of the times. This 
 was about twelve thousand years ago, when our ortho 
 dox teachers instructed us there were no human beings 
 on the earth. Modern ethnologists, however, assure us 
 that twelve thousand were far too few for the years of 
 man upon the earth, and different ones give him an ex 
 istence here of from twenty to two hundred thousand 
 or more years. If man was in America twelve thousand 
 years ago, as Plato says, he was earlier here than any 
 of the many peoples from which his origin has been erro 
 neously claimed, and was therefore the true autochthon 
 of the land. 
 
 Plato, in his "Timaeus" and "Critias," gives the At 
 lantis tradition as Solon, the wise man of Greece, learned 
 it from the Egyptian priests, while visiting their coun 
 try in search of knowledge during the later years of his 
 life. These priests informed Solon that nine thousand 
 years before that time there was a vast island opposite 
 the Straits of Gibraltar, in the Atlantic Ocean, and a 
 number of smaller islands near to it, by which there was 
 communication with a continent beyond; that this great 
 island had a dense population of warlike inhabitants, 
 ruled by powerful kings, who had subdued some of the 
 
4 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 smaller islands and parts of the continent beyond; that 
 these kings finally combined their forces for the purpose 
 of conquering the countries inside the Straits of Gibral 
 tar, but were repulsed by the Athenians, and that after 
 ward the great island and all its inhabitants were sub 
 merged by earthquakes and inundations in the depths of 
 the ocean. 
 
 This island was called Atlantis, and if there ever was 
 such a body of land between Europe and America, it 
 might have been easy enough for some of its inhabitants 
 to have crossed over to America and for the Americans 
 to have crossed over to Atlantis. There have not been 
 wanting scientists who believed they had found, in the 
 modern world, evidence of the existence of this island in 
 the ancient world. On the southern coast of England 
 strata of fluviatile deposit two hundred miles long and 
 two thousand feet thick had been laid down there by a 
 large river of fresh water running for a long time. The 
 England of our day does not afford enough land for such 
 a river, and even if England once joined France, as geolo 
 gists teach, such a river running from France or Ger 
 many into England would hardly have had land enough 
 for its course. If Plato s island, however, existed and 
 joined the British Islands, it would have afforded terri 
 tory for such a river running from the southwest. No 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 5 
 
 small river coursing through limited territory could form 
 such a fluviatile deposit. Nothing short of a volume of 
 water such as flows in the channel of the Amazon, the 
 Mississippi, the Ganges, or the Nile could have made 
 such great deposits in any conceivable length of time. 
 Scientists, moreover, assure us that some of the islands 
 now in the Atlantic Ocean, between America and Africa, 
 indicate that they were once mountains or highlands of 
 a country sunk beneath the sea, and that a ridge of vol 
 canic wrecks along the trend of these islands, on the bot 
 tom of the Atlantic Ocean, assures us of a sunken conti 
 nent or vast island submerged. An island, extending east 
 and west from the neighborhood of the Straits of Gibral 
 tar to the vicinity of the Gulf of Mexico, with a sufficient 
 width from north to south, would be large enough for 
 the Atlantis of Plato and for such a mighty river, and 
 to leave when submerged such remnants of its former 
 greatness as the British Isles, the Azores, the Madeiras, 
 the Canaries, and the Bermudas. 
 
 It was about three hundred and fifty years before the 
 Christian era when the Egyptian priests told Solon that 
 nine thousand years before that time the Atlantic island 
 was sunk in the sea; so that from the date of that catas 
 trophe to our times about twelve thousand years have 
 elapsed. This was time sufficient to have so changed 
 
6 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 the geography of the Atlantic Ocean and the surround 
 ing continents as to make us moderns unable to deter 
 mine whether such an island ever existed. 
 
 It may be wiser, however, to accept as founded in 
 truth what the Egyptian priests told Solon about Atlan 
 tis than to dismiss it as a myth. They lived nearer the 
 time of Atlantis than we do, and may have known more 
 about it. They stated that they had records in their 
 temples about the cataclysm which destroyed the island, 
 and although nine thousand years seem a long time for 
 such records, modern discoveries of human relics in bur 
 ied cities of both hemispheres are yearly taking us back 
 further and further toward this shadowy past. The 
 way is yet long to the confines of this remote period, 
 but while older and older records are constantly being 
 found on the land, human relics amid seismic wrecks 
 may also be lifted from the bottom of the sea, which 
 will help to convince the incredulous that a vast island 
 between Europe and America was once submerged with 
 all its people, as stated by the Egyptian priests. 
 
 This account of Atlantis by Plato leaves undeter 
 mined whether America was originally peopled from At 
 lantis or whether Atlantis drew its primal inhabitants 
 from America. It is as easy to assert or prove the one 
 as the other; but as Plato has not specifically decided 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 7 
 
 the question, I shall not presume a decision. It is suf 
 ficient for my purpose that Plato says the Atlantians 
 subdued parts of the continent which by its location 
 must have been America, which they could not have 
 done unless there had been continental inhabitants there 
 to subdue. The Atlantians would hardly have peopled 
 the neighboring continent for the sole purpose of its sub 
 jugation, and it can not be an unwarranted inference, 
 therefore, that America was not indebted to Atlantis 
 for its population. 
 
 II. THE PHOENICIAN TRADITION 
 
 Diodorus Siculus, who flourished three-quarters of a 
 century before the Christian era, furnished a somewhat 
 detailed account of a great island in the Atlantic Ocean 
 west of Africa. In the second chapter of the fifth book 
 of his "Historical Library" he says that opposite to Af 
 rica lies a very great island in the vast ocean, of many 
 days sail from Libia westward, which was unknown 
 for a long time because of its remote situation; that it 
 was finally discovered, accidentally, by some Phoenicians 
 sailing along the west coast of Africa, who were prevent 
 ed from landing and driven far to the west by violent 
 storms; that they found a new country, rich in fauna and 
 flora and in everything suitable to the wants of man ; that 
 
8 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 it was the intention of the Etrurians to plant colonies 
 there, but they were prevented by the Carthaginians, who 
 feared too many of their people might emigrate, and, 
 besides, who wanted to preserve the new country for their 
 own use as a place of refuge in case of trouble at home. 
 
 Now, if the Phoenicians in ancient times discovered 
 a very great island west of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean, 
 it could hardly have been one of the Azores, the Ma 
 deiras, the Canaries, or the Cape Verdes, because no one 
 of these groups is large enough or distant enough from 
 Africa to answer the description. It could not have 
 been one of the British Islands, because they are specifi 
 cally mentioned in the same history. Newfoundland 
 was too far north and had too severe a climate and was 
 not large enough for the description. It might have 
 been the Atlantis of Plato before that island had gone 
 to the bottom of the sea. 
 
 All of Plato s island, however, might not have gone 
 down. Indeed, it is possible that the Azores, the Ma 
 deiras, the Canaries, and even the British Islands, as 
 parts of the ill-fated island, may have been left above 
 water when the main island went down amid earthquakes 
 and inundations. Diodorus might have found his island 
 in a combination of the unsubmerged remnants of Plato s 
 great island which were afterward submerged, or the 
 
MOLD VILLAGE 
 
 HARLECH CASTLE 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 9 
 
 island indicated by him might have been America. He 
 certainly could not have found such a country and such 
 a people as he describes in America as it was at the time 
 of Columbus. We must not forget, however, that there 
 were people in America for many centuries before the 
 Red Indians. We call some of them Mound-builders for 
 want of a better name, and we know precious little about 
 them. They left mounds of earth and implements of 
 copper and vessels of pottery and other evidences of a 
 civilization far above that of the Indians found here at 
 the Columbian discovery of America. If a European 
 had been in America some thousands of years ago and 
 seen one of these old Mound-builders seated upon his 
 mound smoking his pipe and giving orders to numerous 
 subjects who were working his fields of maize and tobac 
 co, cultivating his gardens and orchards, and having 
 plenty of the fruits of the earth and the product of the 
 fields around him, he might have seen something of the 
 picture Diodorus drew for his island. These Mound- 
 builders, however, passed away many centuries ago and 
 left neither a history, a tradition, or a name. They may 
 have been exterminated by immigrants from the east, 
 who after a conquest established themselves as the mod 
 ern Indians on a lower plane of civilization. The fol 
 lowing is what Diodorus says of his island: 
 
io Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 "The soil here is very fruitful, a great part whereof 
 is mountainous, but much likewise champaign, which is 
 the most sweet and pleasant part of all the rest; for 
 it is watered with several navigable rivers, beautified 
 with many gardens of pleasure, planted with divers sorts 
 of trees, and abundance of orchards, interlaced with cur 
 rents of sweet water. The towns are adorned with state 
 ly buildings, and banquetting houses up and down, pleas 
 antly situated in their gardens and orchards. And here 
 they recreate themselves in summer-time as in places 
 accommodated for pleasure and delight. 
 
 "The mountainous part of the country is clothed 
 with many large woods and all manner of fruit trees, 
 and for the greater delight and diversion of people in 
 these mountains they ever and anon open themselves 
 into pleasant vales, watered with fountains and refresh 
 ing springs, and indeed the whole island abounds with 
 springs of sweet water, whence the inhabitants not only 
 reap pleasure and delight, but improve in health and 
 strength of body. 
 
 " There you may have game enough in hunting all sorts 
 of wild beasts, of which there is such plenty that in their 
 feasts there is nothing wanting either as to pomp or de 
 light. The adjoining sea furnished them plentifully with 
 fish, for the ocean there naturally abounds with all sorts. 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 1 1 
 
 "The air and climate in this island is very mild and 
 healthful, so that the trees bear fruit (and other things 
 that are produced there are fresh and beautiful) most 
 part of the year; so that this island (for the excellency 
 of it in all respects) seems rather to be the residence of 
 some of the gods than of man." 
 
 In addition to this glowing description of the island, 
 Diodorus expressly states that the Carthaginians permit 
 ted no colonies to be planted there, but reserved the 
 island for their own habitation if political events should 
 make it necessary for their abandoning their own home. 
 If, therefore, the island of Diodorus was America, it was 
 not indebted to the Etrurians, the Carthaginians, or any 
 other ancient nation for its inhabitants. It was fully 
 inhabited when discovered by the Phoenicians, and must 
 have been inhabited for a long time to have enabled its 
 people to have arrived at such a stage of civilization and 
 luxury as is assigned to them. 
 
 III. THE CHINESE TRADITION 
 
 The third account we have of an early visit to Amer 
 ica is that of a Buddhist priest from China, in the Fifth 
 century of our era. When the religion of Buddha was 
 introduced into China the Celestials became propagan 
 dists. Their missionaries went from land to land bearing 
 
i 2 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 images of Buddha and preaching his doctrine for the 
 conversion of souls. A monk by the name of Hoei Schin 
 made a very long voyage and claimed to have reached 
 what has been pronounced the American continent, in 
 the year 499. He called the country Fusang, and it 
 was claimed to have been explored probably as far south 
 as Mexico. An account of his discoveries is recorded in 
 the Year Books of China, and a translation of the im 
 portant parts of the" narrative is given in Leland s "Fu 
 sang, or the Discovery of America." There is no suffi 
 cient reason why Hoei Schin might not have made the 
 journey to America at the close of the Fifth century. 
 He could have gone from China to the Japanese Islands 
 and thence sailed to the Kurile Islands, thence to the 
 Aleutian Islands and thence to the continent of America, 
 without being out of sight of land long enough to alarm 
 any experienced or capable sailor. It is quite as likely, 
 however, if there was a Mongolian discovery of Amer 
 ica, that some of those Scythians who inhabited the north 
 east of Asia were the pioneers who led the way across 
 Bering Strait and landed in America, as that another 
 Mongolian from distant China made the discovery. The 
 Scythians who dwelt in bleak Siberia went farther to 
 make war upon distant countries than they would have 
 to go to cross Bering Strait and become discoverers of 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 13 
 
 America. The resemblance of the American Indian to 
 the Asiatic races is held by some to establish the theory 
 that Mongolians did cross from the northeast of Asia to 
 America, but would it not have been as easy for Amer 
 icans to have crossed over to Asia as for Asiatics to have 
 come to America? Either would have been possible, and 
 one is as probable as the other. The Asiatic races could 
 as satisfactorily be traced back to the Americans as the 
 Americans to the Asiatics. Hoei Schin, however, if he 
 was a discoverer of America, found America according 
 to his own account already peopled, and by a people 
 who must have been here for a long time. 
 
 IV. THE NORSE TRADITION 
 
 The next in age of the alleged pre-Columbian dis 
 coveries was by Norsemen at the close of the Tenth cen 
 tury or the beginning of the Eleventh. Iceland is claimed 
 to have been visited by the Greek geographer Pytheas 
 several centuries before the Christian era, but little was 
 known of it until the Norwegians discovered it in 860. 
 Whatever civilization has done for this cold and barren 
 island, in fitting it for human habitation, it owes to the 
 Norsemen, who founded there a republic in the year 874. 
 It is claimed that Bjarne Herjulson, while searching for 
 his father, who in his absence had emigrated from Ice- 
 
1 4 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 land to Greenland, was driven by contrary winds as far 
 south as Nantucket, on the American shore, and in coast 
 ing northward in search of Greenland saw Newfoundland 
 and Nova Scotia before he reached Greenland. The 
 Norse discovery of the continent of America, however, 
 is with better evidence attributed to Lief Erickson, in 
 the year 1000. Nor is there sufficient reason why this 
 discovery may not have been made by Lief as claimed. 
 If Norwegian ships could sail from Norway to Iceland 
 and from Iceland to Greenland, as they admittedly did, 
 they could surely go from Greenland to America. The 
 distance from Norway to Iceland is about seven hundred 
 miles, that from Iceland to Greenland about three hun 
 dred miles, and that from Greenland to America about 
 five hundred miles. The wonder would rather be that 
 they did not discover America, after discovering Iceland 
 and Greenland. They were great navigators, and made 
 voyages to England, France, Italy, Greece, and other 
 countries far more distant, and there can be no good 
 reason why they should not have crossed the compara 
 tively few miles of water between Greenland and Amer 
 ica, as their sagas record they did. Their discovery, 
 however, amounted to nothing so far as the planting of 
 a permanent colony is concerned. Neither the round tow 
 er of Newport nor the hieroglyphic rock of Dighton, nor 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 15 
 
 the armored skeleton of Fall River, has taught us any 
 thing more than that if the Norsemen came, they also 
 went. It would have been as easy for the aboriginal 
 Americans to discover Greenland and Iceland and Nor 
 way as for the vikings of these countries to discover Amer 
 ica. The same arguments which apply to the discovery 
 of the one apply with equal force to the other. The 
 Norsemen, moreover, fought battles with the natives, 
 which show that America was already inhabited when 
 they visited it. 
 
 V. THE IRISH TRADITION 
 
 Rasmus B. Anderson, in his book entitled "America 
 Not Discovered by Columbus," published in 1877, be 
 sides giving a full account of the Norse discovery of Amer 
 ica and partial accounts of other discoveries, also gives 
 the substance of a saga which credits the Irish with a 
 colony in America before 1029. They were found there 
 by some Icelanders who had been to Ireland on a trad 
 ing expedition, and were called Irish because "it rather 
 appeared to them that they spoke Irish." This was 
 putting the Irish speech of the colonists rather mildly, 
 but the colonists themselves were not so mild when an 
 Icelandic ship, in after years, landed among them. They 
 seized and bound the captain and his crew, with the in- 
 
1 6 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 hospitable intention of putting them all to death. When, 
 however, they brought the prisoners -before their chief, 
 he released them and bade them get out of the country 
 and never return. The chief who was thus merciful 
 was a famous viking named Bjarni Asbrandon, who had 
 been compelled to leave Iceland on account of his too 
 free habits with married women. He was expatriated 
 with the understanding that he was to be gone one year, 
 but had never been heard of since his departure until 
 this occasion, after thirty years had elapsed. He had 
 in some way gotten into this Irish colony, south of the 
 Norse settlement and supposed to be somewhere between 
 Chesapeake Bay and Florida. It was known as Great 
 Ireland or White Man s Land, and it is not impossible 
 that the Irish should have discovered this part of the 
 country. They were good navigators in the early cen 
 turies, and are known to have gone to the Faroe Islands 
 and to Iceland. If they could get safely to Iceland and 
 back again to Ireland they could certainly go to America. 
 But the same argument applies to the Irish as to the 
 other alleged discoverers of America. It would have 
 been as easy for the Americans to discover Ireland by 
 way of Iceland and the Faroe Islands as for the Irish 
 to discover America by the same route. When the Irish 
 colonized or discovered land in America they were taken 
 
CHIRK CASTLE 
 
 CORWEN VILLAGE 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 17 
 
 prisoners by the Americans, and when they were released 
 (instead of being put to death) they proceeded to de 
 populate America, so far as they were concerned, by 
 going back to Ireland, instead of helping to people it. 
 America was not, therefore, indebted to Ireland for her 
 population. 
 
 VI. THE MADOC TRADITION 
 
 And now, having presented five of the principal tra 
 ditions of pre-Columbian discoveries in America, all of 
 which occurred before the close of the Eleventh century 
 of the Christian era, I shall take up that of the Welsh 
 in the Twelfth century. This was one of the most pop 
 ular of these traditions, especially in Virginia, Pennsyl 
 vania, and Kentucky. It was not only believed by the 
 common people, but got into the newspapers and maga 
 zines and books, and was credited by the learned as well 
 as by the ignorant. There were a few Welshmen among 
 the pioneers, and they took pride in making the Welsh 
 tradition as popular as possible. There was scarcely a 
 log cabin in which the subject was not discussed by the 
 family, and in the stations where families were numerous 
 it furnished the material for many stories which were 
 told to eager listeners. Madoc was the hero of the hour. 
 His leaving Wales with ships loaded with his country- 
 
1 8 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 men, and sailing across an unknown sea to inhabit an 
 unknown land to avoid civil war with his brothers for 
 the crown of his father, was an act of self-sacrifice which 
 they deemed worthy of universal admiration. They were 
 not sure at what point he landed in America, but they 
 were sure that he did land and that his descendants once 
 dwelt at the Falls of the Ohio, from which they were 
 driven by a force too powerful to resist. They believed 
 that the mounds and earthworks in the Ohio and the 
 Mississippi valleys had been built by the Welsh for pur 
 poses not fully understood by moderns, but nevertheless 
 erected by them for purposes of their own. They be 
 lieved that those strange tombs made by encasing dead 
 bodies between six flat stones forming the sides and ends 
 and top and bottom of rough sarcophagi and placing 
 them side by side and piling them one upon another, 
 until a kind of pyramid was constructed holding a great 
 number of their dead, were made by the Welsh. If they 
 had any doubt about the Madoc colony, all doubts were 
 removed by an occasional Welsh Indian coming among 
 them from a distant tribe, for the purpose of trade, and 
 talking to Welshmen among the pioneers in their own 
 language. 
 
 I propose now to present what I have been able to 
 learn concerning this Welsh tradition, both in Europe 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 19 
 
 and America. I shall quote from the authorities so as 
 to make somewhat of a documentary narrative, and thus 
 place the authorities within reach of the general reader, 
 which is not possible while they are scattered through 
 rare manuscripts and prints both in this country and 
 in Europe. With these rare documents before them all 
 can judge for themselves as to the reliability of the Madoc 
 tradition. 
 
 VII. THE MADOC TRADITION IN EUROPE 
 
 The first account of the migration of Prince Madoc 
 to unknown lands was printed in the voyages of Hakluit, 
 first published in London in 1582. Hakluit took it from 
 the writings of Gutton Owen, a Welsh bard who flour 
 ished in the latter part of the Fourteenth and early part 
 of the Fifteenth century, and who in turn had copied 
 it from the records of the abbeys of Conway in North 
 Wales and Strata Florida in South Wales. It was the 
 custom of the Welsh at that time to record important 
 events in their abbeys, as the Egyptians did in their tem 
 ples. The bards, who were the .historians of the times, 
 had free access to these abbeys and copied the records 
 and repeated or sang them on public occasions. Gutton 
 Owen was a well-known bard, and of sufficient stand 
 ing for King Henry VII to appoint him one of a com- 
 
20 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 mission to search the records of Wales for the genealogy 
 of Owen Tudor, his grandfather. Hence Hakluit gives 
 him as authority for the Madoc tradition. This tradition 
 appears in Hakluit s "Divers Voyages Touching the 
 Discovery of America, etc.," first published in 1582, 
 as follows: 
 
 The Madoc Tradition from Hakluit s Voyages- 
 Volume 3, Page 1 
 
 "After the death of Owen Gwynedd, his sonnes fell 
 at debate who should inherit after him, for the eldest 
 sonne born in Matrimony Edward or Jorwerth Drwidion 
 (Drwyndwn) was counted unmeet to govern because of 
 the maime upon his face, and Howel that took upon him 
 the rule, was a base sonne, begotten upon an Irish woman. 
 Therefore, David, another Sonne, gathered all the power he 
 could and came against Howel, and fighting with him, slew 
 him and afterwards enjoyed quietly the whole land of North 
 Wales until his brother Jorwerth s Sonne came to age. 
 
 "Madoc, another of Owen Gwyneth s Sonnes, left 
 the land in contentions betwixt his brethren and pre 
 pared certain ships with men and munition and sought 
 adventures by seas, sailing west and leaving the coast 
 of Ireland so farre north, that he came to a land unknown, 
 where he saw many strange things. 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 2 1 
 
 "This land must needs be some parts of the Country, 
 of which the Spanyards affirm themselves to be the first 
 Finders since Hanno s Time; whereupon it is manifest 
 that that country was by Britons discovered long before 
 Columbus led any Spanyards thither. 
 
 " Of the voyage and return of this Madoc, there be 
 many fables framed, as the common people do use in 
 distance of place and length of time, rather to augment 
 than to diminish, but sure it is, there he was. And after 
 he had returned home, and declared the pleasant and 
 fruitful countries, that he had seen without inhabitants; 
 and upon the contrary, for what barren and wild ground 
 his brothers and nephews did murther one another, he 
 prepared a number of ships and got with him such Men 
 and Women as were desirous to live in quietness, and 
 taking leave of his friends, took his journey thitherwards 
 again. 
 
 "Therefore, it is supposed that he and his people 
 inhabited part of those countries, for it appeareth by Fran 
 cis Lopez de Comara that in Acuzamil, and other places, 
 the people honoured the Cross. Whereby it may be 
 gathered that Christians had been there before the com 
 ing of the Spanyards but because this people were not 
 many, they followed the manner of the land which they 
 came to, and the language they found there. 
 
22 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 "This Madoc arriving in that western country, unto 
 the which he came in the year 1170, left most of his peo 
 ple there, and returning back for more of his own nation, 
 acquaintance and friends to inhabit that fair land and 
 large country, went thither again with Ten Sailles, as I find 
 noted by Gutton Owen. I am of the opinion that the land 
 whereunto he came was some part of the West Indies." 
 
 This Madoc tradition next appears in the history 
 of Wales by Caradoc, translated into English by Llwyd 
 and published by Powell in 1584. It does not, however, 
 appear in the original work of Caradoc, whose history 
 only comes down to the year 1157. Llwyd, the trans 
 lator, added to the original text of Caradoc the Madoc 
 tradition, which he got from the abbeys of Conway and 
 Strata Florida, as Owen had gotten what was published 
 by Hakluit. The source of the tradition is therefore 
 the same in both Hakluit and Powell and the facts sub 
 stantially the same. The following is the Welsh tradi 
 tion as given in the new edition (London, 1812) of 
 Powell s Caradoc, pages 194-196: 
 
 The Madoc Tradition in Welsh History 
 
 " Prince Owen Gwynedd being dead the succession 
 was of right to descend to his eldest legitimate son, lor- 
 werth Drwydwn, otherwise called Edward with the Bro- 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 23 
 
 ken Nose; but by reason of that blemish upon his face, 
 he was laid aside as unfit to take upon him the govern 
 ment of North Wales. Therefore his younger brothers 
 began every one to aspire, in hopes of succeeding their 
 father; but Howel, who was of all the eldest, but base 
 born begotten of an Irish woman, finding they could not 
 agree, stept in himself and took upon him the govern 
 ment. But David, who was legitimately born could not 
 brook that a bastard should ascend his father s throne, 
 and therefore he made all the preparations possible to 
 pull him down. Howel, on the other hand, was as reso 
 lute to maintain his ground, and was not willing so quick 
 ly to deliver up, what he had not very long got posses 
 sion of; and so both brothers meeting together in the 
 field, were resolved to try their title by the point of the 
 sword. The battle had not lasted long, but Howel was 
 slain; and then David was unanimously proclaimed and 
 saluted Prince of North Wales, which principality he en 
 joyed without any molestation, till Llewlyn, lorwerth 
 Drwynden s son came of age, -as will hereafter appear. 
 But Madoc, another of Owen Gwynedd s sons, finding 
 how his brothers contended for the principality, and that 
 his native country was like to be turmoiled in a civil war, 
 did think it his better prudence to try his fortune abroad; 
 and therefore leaving North Wales in a very unsettled 
 
24 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 condition, sailed with a small fleet of ships which he had 
 rigged and manned for that purpose, to the westward; 
 and leaving Ireland on the north, he came at length to 
 an unknown country, where most things appeared to him 
 new and uncustomary, and the manner of the natives 
 far different from what he had seen in Europe. This 
 country, says the learned H. Llyod, must of necessity 
 be some part of that vast tract of ground, of which the 
 Spaniards, since Hanno s time, boast themselves to be 
 the first discoverers, and which by order of Cosmography, 
 seems to be some part of Nova Hispania, or Florida; 
 where by it is manifested, that this country was discov 
 ered by the Britains, long before either Columbus or Amer- 
 icus Vesputius sailed thither. But concerning Madoc s 
 voyage to this country, and afterwards his return from 
 thence, there are many fabulous stories and idle tales in 
 vented by the vulgar, who are sure never to diminish 
 from what they hear, but will add to and increase any 
 fable as far as their invention will prompt them. How 
 ever, says the same author, it is certain that Madoc ar 
 rived in this country, and after he had viewed the fer 
 tility and pleasantness of it, he thought it expedient to 
 invite more of his countrymen out of Britain; and there 
 fore leaving most of those he had brought with him al 
 ready behind, he returned for Wales. Being arrived there, 
 
DENBIGH CASTLE 
 
 DENBIGH VILLAGE 
 
or 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 25 
 
 he began to acquaint his friends with what a fair and 
 extensive land he had met with, void of any inhabitants, 
 whilst they employed all their skill to supplant one an 
 other, only for a ragged portion of rocks and mountains; 
 and therefore he would persuade them to change their 
 present state of danger and continual clashings for a 
 more quiet being of ease and enjoyment. And so having 
 got a considerable number of Welsh together, he bid 
 adieu to his native country, and sailed with ten ships 
 back to them he had left behind. It is therefore to be 
 supposed, says our author, that Madoc and his people 
 inhabited part of that country, since called Florida by 
 reason that it appears from Francis Loves, an author 
 of no small reputation, that in Acusanus and other places, 
 the people honoured and worshipped the cross; whence 
 it may be naturally concluded that Christians had been 
 there before the coming of the Spaniards; and who these 
 Christians might be, unless it were this colony of Madoc s, 
 it cannot be easily imagined. But by reason that the 
 Welsh who came over, were not many, they intermixed 
 in a few years with the natives of the country and 
 so following their manners and using their language, they 
 became at length undistinguishable from the barbarians. 
 But the country which Madoc landed in, is by the 
 learned Dr. Powell supposed to be part of Mexico for 
 
26 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 which conjecture he lays down these following rea 
 sons : first as it is recorded in the Spanish chronicles 
 of the conquest of the West Indies the inhabitants and 
 natives of that country affirm by tradition, that their 
 rulers descended from a strange nation, which came thith 
 er from a strange country; as it was confessed by King 
 Montezuma, in a speech at his submission to the King 
 of Castile, before Hernando Cortez, the Spanish general. 
 And then the British words and names of places used 
 in that country, even at this day do undoubtedly argue 
 the same; as when they speak and confabulate together, 
 they use this British word, Gwarando, which signifies 
 to hearken, or listen, and a certain bird with a white 
 head, they call Pengwyn, which signifies the same in 
 Welsh. But for a more complete confirmation of this, 
 the island of Corroeso, the cape of Bryton, the river of 
 Gwyndor, and the white rock of Pengwyn, which are 
 all British words, do manifestly shew, that it was that 
 country which Madoc and his people inhabited." 
 
 The closing paragraph of the preface to Doctor Pow 
 ell s Caradoc (new edition, London, 1812) explains how 
 the Madoc tradition got into the work of Caradoc after 
 his death. Caradoc s history ends with the year 1157, 
 and Llyod undertook to make such additions as would 
 bring it down to 1270 and then publish the whole in an 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 27 
 
 English translation. Among the additions was the Ma- 
 doc tradition obtained from the Welsh abbeys through 
 Gutton Owen. Death, however, overtook Llyod before 
 he could publish his work, and Doctor Powell becoming 
 possessed of his manuscript published it with his own 
 edition in 1584. 
 
 In the foregoing extracts from Hakluit and Powell, 
 which contain the earliest information outside of the 
 Welsh abbeys on the subject, nothing appears to deter 
 mine the country to which Madoc went. He is simply 
 represented as leaving Ireland to the north and sailing 
 west until he reached a satisfactory country; then re 
 turning to Wales for recruits and sailing back to where 
 he had landed on the first voyage. What is said by Hak 
 luit about the West Indies being the Madoc land and 
 by Powell about Florida and Mexico being the place, 
 was simply their opinion after the discovery of Colum 
 bus. We now know that if Madoc had continued to sail 
 westward and did not come in contact with an interven 
 ing island he would have been. bound to reach some part 
 of America, but neither Madoc nor his contemporaries 
 knew this, from the fact that America was then unknown. 
 These two extracts, short and wanting in detail as they 
 are, form the historic basis upon which the whole 
 fabric of the tale of the Welsh discovery in the Twelfth 
 
28 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 century rests. Corroborative evidence had to come from 
 America. But for this American evidence it may be 
 doubted whether the Madoc tradition would ever have 
 gotten beyond a limited circle in the mountains of Wales. 
 Giraldus, a Welsh author who wrote at the time of the 
 Madoc expedition, does not mention it, and but for the 
 rolls of the Welsh abbeys it is possible that the record 
 of the event would have perished at that time. The 
 American authorities have given it color and shape and 
 strength, and I now propose to present such of them 
 as I have been able to collect. As far as possible they 
 will be given in their order of time, and extracts made 
 from them for the benefit of those who may not have 
 access to the originals. 
 
 VIII. THE MADOC TRADITION IN AMERICA 
 
 Captain John Smith, the first historian of Virginia, 
 is entitled to whatever honor may belong to the first 
 record of the Madoc tradition in America. At the be 
 ginning of an enumeration of the discoveries of Amer 
 ica in his history, after simply naming the stories of Ar 
 thur, Malgo, Brandon, etc., as something he knew nothing 
 about and doubtless cared less, he gives the Madoc tra 
 dition from the Welsh Chronicles as the only discovery 
 before that of Columbus. It will be found at the begin- 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 29 
 
 ning of his enumeration, in his "Generall Historic of 
 Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles," pub 
 lished at London in 1624, page i. It is as follows: 
 
 "The Chronicles of Wales report, that Madock, fonne 
 to Owen Quineth, Prince of Wales, feeing his two breth 
 ren at debate who fhould inherit prepared certaine Ships, 
 with men and munition; and left his Country to feeke 
 adventures by Sea; leaving Ireland north he fayled weft 
 till he came to a land unknowne. Returning home and 
 relating what pleafant and fruitful countries he had feen 
 without inhabitants and for what barren ground his breth 
 ren and kindred did murther one another, he provided a 
 number of Ships, and got with him fuch men and women 
 as were defirous to live in quietneffe that arrived with 
 him in this new land in the yeare 1170; Left many of 
 his people there and returned for more. But where this 
 place was no Hiftory can fhow. " 
 
 The best American evidence corroborative of this 
 tradition, however, begins with a statement made by 
 the Reverend Morgan Jones in 1685. Parson Jones was 
 a resident of Virginia in 1660, and was sent by Governor 
 Berkeley as chaplain of an expedition to South Carolina. 
 Afterward, while residing in New York, he made the 
 following written statement and delivered it to Doc 
 tor Thomas Llwyd of Pennsylvania, from whom, after 
 
30 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 passing through the hands of several other respectable 
 persons, it reached the Reverend Theophilus Evans, 
 who had it published in the "Gentleman s Magazine," 
 in London, in 1740, page 103. Parson Jones statement 
 is as follows: 
 
 " These presents may certify all persons whatever, 
 that in the year 1660 being an inhabitant of Virginia, 
 and Chaplain to Major General Bennet of Mansoman 
 county, the said Major Bennet and Sir William Berk 
 ley sent two ships to Port Royal, now called South Car 
 olina, which is sixty leagues to the southward of Cape 
 Fair, and I was sent therewith to be their minister. Upon 
 the 8th of April we set out from Virginia, and arrived 
 at the Harbour s Mouth of Port Royal the ipth of the 
 same month, where we waited for the rest of the Fleet 
 that was to sail from Barbadoes and Bermuda with one 
 Mr. West, who was to be Deputy Governor of the said 
 Place. As soon as the Fleet came in, the smallest ves 
 sels that were with us sailed up the river to a place called 
 the Oyster Point. There I continued about 8 months, 
 all which time being most starved for want of provi 
 sions, I and five more travelled through the Wilderness, 
 till we came to the Tuscorara Country. There the Tus- 
 corara Indians took us prisoners, because we told them 
 we were bound for Roanoke. That night they carried 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 31 
 
 us to their town, and shut us up close to our no small 
 dread. The next day they entered into a consultation 
 about us, which after it was over their interpreter told 
 us that we must prepare ourselves to die next morning. 
 Thereupon being very much dejected and speaking to 
 this effect in the British tongue Have I escaped so many 
 dangers and must I now be knocked on the head like 
 a Dog, then presently an Indian came to me, which 
 afterwards appeared to be a War Captain belonging to 
 the Sachem of the Doegs (whose original I find needs 
 be from the Old Britons) and took me up by the middle, 
 and told me in the British tongue I should not die, and 
 thereupon went to the Emperor of Tuscorara and agreed 
 for my ransom, and the men that were with me. They 
 then welcomed us to their town, and entertained us very 
 civilly and cordially four months, during which time I 
 had the opportunity of conversing with them familiarly 
 in the British language, and did preach to them three 
 times a week in the same language, and they would confer 
 with me about anything that was difficult therein; and 
 at our departure they abundantly supplied us with what 
 ever was necessary to our support and well-doing. They 
 are settled upon Pontiago River, not far from Cape Atros. 
 This is a brief recital of my travels, among the Doeg 
 Indians, Morgan Jones, the son of John Jones, of Basaleg, 
 
32 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 near Newport, in the county of Monmouth, I am ready 
 to conduct any Welshmen, or others to the country. 
 
 New York, March loth, 1685-6." 
 Geography was not as well understood at the date 
 of this statement by Parson Jones as it is at the pres 
 ent, and as it was published fifty-five years after it was 
 written, and probably without proof-sheets being seen by 
 the author, it was to be expected that it would contain 
 errors, especially in the names of persons and places. 
 He doubtless meant for Mansoman the county of Nanse- 
 mond, in southeast Virginia; for Cape Fair, Cape Fear; 
 for Pontiago River, Pamlico River; and for Cape Atros, 
 Cape Hatteras. The important word, however, in the 
 statement is Doeg, the name by which he designates the 
 tribe of Indians who spoke Welsh. I know of but one 
 tribe of Indians that bore the name of Doeg. They were 
 located in Maryland, in what is now Prince George Coun 
 ty, and entered into a treaty with Lord Baltimore in 
 1666. They might easily enough, with the proclivity of 
 their race, have wandered from Maryland through Virgin 
 ia to North Carolina or vice versa. If they were origi 
 nally called Madocs, after the Welsh prince, the length of 
 time between the coming of the Welsh to America and 
 the date of the Baltimore treaty, or the Jones narrative, 
 would be sufficient to account for the change in name. 
 
PONT Y CYSSYLLTE 
 
 LLANGOLLEN VILLAGE 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 33 
 
 But if this statement of Parson Jones be true, it would 
 be difficult to account for this tribe of Indians in North 
 Carolina in 1660, speaking the Welsh language, upon 
 any hypothesis more reasonable than that of their being 
 descendants of the Madoc colony. Parson Jones did not 
 seem to know anything about Madoc, or at most 
 said nothing about him. He does say, however, that he 
 lived for four months among Indians who called them 
 selves Doegs; that he conversed with them, and that he 
 preached to them in the Welsh language, which they 
 understood, and that they were located on Pamlico River 
 at no great distance from Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. 
 It is a great pity that he did not give a description of 
 the persons and habits of these Indians and record their 
 traditions, if any they had, of their origin, et cetera. If 
 they had only stated why they were called Doegs, they 
 might have furnished a key to unlock the mystery of their 
 origin ; for the taking of names is an important act among 
 Indians, and never occurs without a meaning. It has 
 been suggested that the Delawares were meant by the 
 Doegs, but this takes us no nearer to Madoc. Different 
 writers have thought that the Pawnees and the Padoucas 
 and the Mandans were descended from the Madoc colony, 
 but none of these Indians could ever give such an account 
 of their origin as to point to any certain line of descent. 
 
34 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 In 1770 was published in Philadelphia a work entitled 
 Materials towards a History of the American Baptists," 
 by Morgan Edwards. In appendix number eight to this 
 work appears the following letter, dated March i, 1733, and 
 addressed to the British Missionary Society in London: 
 "It is not unknown to you that Madoc Gwynedd, a 
 prince of Wales, did about 500 years ago, sail to the west 
 ward with several ships and a great number of his sub 
 jects; and was never heard of after. Some relics of the 
 Welsh tongue being found in old and deserted settlements 
 about the Mississippi make it probable that he sailed up 
 that river. And we, being moved with brotherly love 
 to our countrymen are meditating to go in search of them, 
 but are discouraged by the distance of the place and un 
 certainty of the course we should steer. If you can give 
 us any information and direction together with some 
 help to bear the expense we shall find men adventurous 
 enough to undertake the expedition having no other end 
 in view than to carry the gospel of peace among our an 
 cient brethren; and believing it will be to the enlarge 
 ment of the British empire in America and a proof of prior 
 right to the whole continent should we happily succeed. 
 "We remain, gentlemen, your loving countrymen, 
 John Davis Nathaniel Jenkins 
 
 David Evans Benj. Griffiths 
 
 Rynalt Howel Joseph Eaton." 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 35 
 
 Now here are half-a-dozen gentlemen in Philadelphia 
 who have faith enough in the Madoc tradition to offer 
 to search for any remnant that may remain of the Welsh 
 colony, provided the necessary money can be raised to 
 pay the expense of the expedition. These gentlemen make 
 no allusion to the statement of Reverend Morgan Jones, 
 which they possibly had not seen, but simply rely upon 
 the tradition which was prevalent concerning Madoc. If 
 a claim to the country by discovery were a part of their 
 object, as they suggest, it would have been difficult, 
 even if they had found the Madoc colony, to have 
 set up a valid claim founded on the right of discovery. 
 As the French held the country when this search 
 was proposed, it would have been quite a serious 
 undertaking to have driven them out, for Wales or any 
 other country. 
 
 Captain Isaac Stewart, an officer of the Provincial 
 Cavalry of South Carolina, in 1782, made the following 
 statement, which was published in the second volume of 
 the "American Museum" for July, 1787, page 92: 
 
 " I was taken prisoner about 50 miles to the west 
 ward of Fort Pitt, about 18 years ago, by the Indians, 
 and was carried by them to the Wabash with many more 
 white men, who were executed with circumstances of 
 horrid barbarity; it was my good fortune to call forth 
 
36 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 the sympathy of what is called the good woman of the 
 town who was permitted to redeem me from the flames, 
 by giving, as my ransom, a horse. 
 
 "After remaining two years in bondage amongst the 
 Indians, a Spaniard came to the nation, having been 
 sent from Mexico on discoveries. He made application 
 to the chiefs, for redeeming me and another white man 
 in the like situation, a native of Wales, named John Da- 
 vey, which they complied with, and we took our depart 
 ure in company with the Spaniard, and travelled to the 
 westward, crossing the Mississippi near the River Rouge, 
 or Red River, up which we travelled 700 miles, when we 
 came to a nation of Indians, remarkably white and whose 
 hair was of a reddish color, at least mostly so; they lived 
 on the banks of a small river that empties itself into Red 
 River, which is called the River Post. In the morning 
 of the day after our arrival among these Indians, the 
 Welshman informed me that he was determined to re 
 main with them, giving as a reason that he understood 
 their language, it being very little different from the Welsh. 
 My curiosity was excited very much by this informa 
 tion, and I went with my companion to the chief men 
 of the town, who informed him (in a language I had no 
 knowledge of, and which had no affinity to that of any 
 other Indian tongue I ever heard) that their forefathers 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 37 
 
 of this nation came from a foreign country, and landed 
 on the east side of the Mississippi describing particularly 
 the country now called, West Florida, and that on the 
 Spaniards taking possession of Mexico, they fled to their 
 then abode, and as proof of the truth of what he advanced, 
 he brought forth roles of parchment which were care 
 fully tied up in otter skins, on which were large char 
 acters, written with blue ink, the characters I did not 
 understand and the Welshman being unacquainted with 
 letters, even of his own language, I was not able to know 
 the meaning of the writing. They are a bold, hardy 
 intrepid people, very warlike, and the women beautiful 
 when compared with other Indians." 
 
 The Spaniards had recently come into possession of 
 the country west of the Mississippi by cession from France, 
 and it was natural enough that they should have explor 
 ers in the field examining it. Captain Stewart and his 
 Spanish companion went a long way south before cross 
 ing the Mississippi into this territory, but that seeming 
 wandering may have been a part of their explorations. 
 They crossed the Mississippi at Red River and went up 
 this stream toward its source in Northwestern Texas. 
 Here they found Indians who were white, and talked 
 Welsh. This was in the region of the Padoucah tribe 
 of reputed White Indians, on the Rio Del Norte, who, 
 
38 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 according to General Bowles, an intelligent Irishman liv 
 ing among the Cherokees, spoke Welsh. Captain Stewart s 
 geography, like that of all early explorers, was not 
 very accurate, but it could hardly have been otherwise 
 when there was no one to teach geography and make 
 reliable maps, as in later times. 
 
 In 1796, Reverend John Williams, LL. D., published in 
 London a book entitled "An Inquiry into the Truth of 
 the Tradition concerning the Discovery of America by 
 Madog. " This book abounds in valuable information on 
 the subject of the Madoc colony in America, and from it 
 the following extracts, beginning at page 41, are taken: 
 
 " Mr. Chas. Beatty, a Missionary from New York, 
 accompanied by a Mr. Duffield, visited some inland parts 
 of North America in the year 1766. If I rightly under 
 stood his journal, he travelled about 400, or 500 miles 
 to the southeast of New York. During his Tour he met 
 with several persons who had been among the Indians 
 from their youth, or who had been taken captives by 
 them, and lived with them several years. Among others 
 one Benjamin Sutton, who had visited different Nations, 
 and had lived many years with them. His account, in 
 Mr. Beatty s words, was as follows: 
 
 " He (Benjamin Sutton) informed us, when he was 
 with the Chactaw Nation, or tribe of Indians at the Mis- 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 39 
 
 sissippi, he went to an Indian town a very considerable 
 distance from New Orleans, whose inhabitants were of 
 a different complexion; not so tawny as those of other 
 Indians, and who spoke Welsh. He said he saw a book 
 among them, which he supposed was a Welsh Bible, which 
 they kept carefully wrapped up in a skin, but they could 
 not read it; and that he heard some of the Indians af 
 terwards in the lower Shawanaugh Town speak Welsh 
 with one Lewis a Welshman, captive there. This Welsh 
 tribe now live on the West side of the Mississippi River, 
 a great way above New Orleans. 
 
 " Levi Hicks, as being among the Indians from his 
 youth, told us he had been, when attending an Embassy 
 in a town of Indians, on the west side of the Mississippi 
 River, who talked Welsh (as he was told, for he did not 
 understand them) and our interpreter Joseph saw some 
 Indians whom he supposed to be of the same Tribe, who 
 talked Welsh, for he told us some of the words they said, 
 which he knew to be Welsh, as he had been acquainted 
 with some Welsh people." 
 
 Following the preceding extract in the book of Mr. 
 Williams is a lengthy account of a minister of the gos 
 pel who was captured by the Indians in Virginia and 
 condemned to death. Just before he was to be execu 
 ted whether by fire or some other torture is not stated 
 
40 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 he fell upon his knees and prayed aloud in the Welsh 
 language. His executioners understood his words, had 
 his death sentence set aside, and restored him to liberty. 
 No name or date is given, but the facts stated are so near 
 ly identical with those in the narrative of the Reverend 
 Morgan Jones that there can be no doubt about his be 
 ing the minister referred to. The narrative of Mr. Jones 
 has been previously given in this article, and need not 
 be repeated here. These two accounts of the same event, 
 related so distantly apart in both space and time, indi 
 cate how widely spread the Madoc tradition was in Amer 
 ica. It does not appear that Mr. Sutton had ever seen 
 the Jones narrative, and yet more than one hundred 
 years afterward, and more than one thousand miles dis 
 tant in the wild West, he substantially repeated from 
 tradition facts set forth in the Jones narrative. Such 
 coincident narratives indicate that this tradition was 
 known all over both savage and civilized America. 
 
 " Sutton further informed us that in the Delaware 
 tribe of Indians he observed their women to follow ex 
 actly the custom of the Jewish women, in keeping sep 
 arate from the rest seven days at certain times prescribed 
 in the Mosaic law; that from some old men among them 
 he had heard the following Traditions: That of old time 
 their people were divided by a river, and one part tar- 
 
PASS OF LLANBERIS 
 
 RHAIADYR-Y-WENOL 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 41 
 
 rying behind, that they knew not for certainty how they 
 first came to this continent, but account for their coming 
 into these parts, near where they are now settled. That 
 a King of their nation where they formerly lived far to 
 the west, left his Kingdom to his two sons that the one 
 son making war upon the other, the latter thereupon de 
 termined to depart and seek some new Habitation; that 
 accordingly he set out accompanied by a number of his 
 people, and that after wandering to and fro for the space 
 of 40 years, they at length came to Delaware River, where 
 they settled 370 years ago. The way, he says, they keep 
 account of this, is by putting on a black bead of Wam 
 pum every year since on a Belt they have for that pur 
 pose. " 
 
 This tradition is evidently a distorted and confused 
 version of the original account of the Madoc narrative 
 as related Hakluit s Voyages and Powell s Caradoc. After 
 passing through Indian tribes for centuries we could 
 hardly expect it to show less changes than it exhibits, 
 and yet through all the changes the original is plainly 
 seen. Madoc is the dissatisfied son who wanders for 
 forty years, and thus confounds the narrative with the 
 Israelites in the journey to Palestine through the Red 
 Sea and the Wilderness. If there were truth in this 
 Indian version of the tradition, we should be much 
 
42 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 obliged for being informed that Madoc and his colony 
 landed on the Delaware River three hundred and seventy 
 years ago. 
 
 In this learned work of Mr. Williams, the testimony 
 of numerous persons who had been among the Welsh 
 Indians in America is given in the shape of letters and 
 statements. It also contains a vast number of authori 
 ties on the subject which were accessible to the author 
 at the time it was published. It is in fact an exhaustive 
 work on the subject. 
 
 Following this work of Mr. Williams was a small vol 
 ume entitled "The Welsh Indians, or a Collection of Pa 
 pers respecting Prince Madoc, by George Burder, Lon 
 don, 1797." It contains much of the same matter as 
 the work of Mr. Williams, but has some articles not 
 in the Williams work. It can not be said, however, 
 to add many material facts to the story as already 
 told, but only adds cumulative evidence. The following 
 article is copied from Mr. Burder s work, page 7, 
 because it gives something of the history of the Madoc 
 family : 
 
 "Owain, Prince of Gwynez, who died in the year 1169 
 had nineteen children, the names of the Sons were Rho- 
 dri, Cynoric, Riryd, Meredyz, Edwal, Cynan, Rien, Mael- 
 gon, Lywelyn, lorwerth, Davyz, Cadwallon, Hywell, Ca- 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 43 
 
 dell, Madoc, Einion, and Phylip; of thefe Rhodri, Hywell, 
 Davyz and Madoc were the most diftinguifhed. Hywell 
 was a fine poet as appears by his compofition; of which 
 eight are preferred. His mother was a native of Ireland, 
 and though not born in wedlock, he was the firft who 
 afpired to the crown after the death of Owain, which 
 event no sooner took place but his brother Davyz be 
 came his competitor, under the fanction of a legitimate 
 birth. The confequence was, the country became em 
 broiled in a civil war. 
 
 " Influenced by difgust at the unnatural diffenfions 
 among his brothers Madoc, who is reprefented of a very 
 mild difpofition, refolved upon the matchlef enterprise of 
 exploring the ocean westward, in fearch of more tran 
 quil fcenes. The event was, according to various old doc 
 uments, the dif covering of a new world, from which he 
 effected his return to inform his country of his good for 
 tune. The confequence of which was the fitting out of 
 a fecond expedition, and Madoc with his brother Riryd, 
 Lord of Clocran, in Ireland, prevailed upon fo many to 
 accompany them as to fill feven fhips and failing from 
 the Ifle of Lundy, they took an eternal leave of Wales. 
 There is a large book of pedigrees ftill extant, written 
 by Jeuan Brecva who flourished in the age preceding the 
 time of Columbus. Madoc and Riryd found land far in 
 
44 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 the fea of the weft and there they fettled. Lywarc, the 
 fon of Lywelyn, feems to have compofed two of his poems 
 in the time between the firft and the fecond of the two 
 voyages of Madoc. One of thefe pieces miift be confid- 
 ered of great importance and curiofity; it is an invoca 
 tion, as if he were undergoing the fiery ordeal, to exhon- 
 erate himfelf from having any knowledge of the fate of 
 Madoc; the fecond, being a panegyric upon Rhodri an 
 other brother, has a remarkable allufion to the fame 
 event. It is thus translated: 
 
 Two princes, of ftrong paffion, broke off in wrath, 
 beloved by the multitude of the earth. One on land, in 
 Arvon, allaying of ambition, and another, a placid one, 
 on the bofom of the vaft ocean, in great and immeafur- 
 able trouble prowling after a profeffion easy to be guard 
 ed, eftranged from all for a country." 
 
 In 1857, George Catlin published in Philadelphia two 
 volumes entitled " Letters and Notes on the Manners of 
 the North American Indians. Mr. Catlin lived for some 
 time among the Mandan Indians and studied their his 
 tory and peculiarities. In the appendix to his work, 
 volume 2, page 777, he expressed the opinion that the 
 Mandans were descendants of the Welsh colony estab 
 lished in America by Prince Madoc in the Twelfth cen 
 tury. In support of the theory he described some of 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 45 
 
 their peculiarities, and gave a list of words which resem 
 bled each other and had a similar meaning both in the 
 Mandan and Welsh. He related also the destruction of 
 the entire tribe by the smallpox, introduced among them 
 by British traders, so that if this Welsh colony, unlike 
 other early discoverers of America, helped to populate 
 the country, they also perished by one of the epidemics 
 of the new land. The country, however, was already in 
 habited and in no need of any immigrants from a for 
 eign land to give it population when the Welsh colony 
 appeared. What Mr. Catlin said on the subject will be 
 found in the appendix to this monograph. 
 
 In the "Popular History of the United States," by 
 Bryant and Gay, published in London in 1876, a con 
 siderable portion of the fourth chapter of the first volume 
 is devoted to the Madoc tradition. Other articles from 
 books, magazines, and papers on this subject might here 
 be added, but they would contribute no important fact 
 to the story as already told. They would simply be pres 
 entations in different forms of what has already been 
 stated. What appears in Bryant and Gay s history will 
 be found in the appendix to this monograph, as will other 
 articles which would overload the text. 
 
46 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 IX. THE MADOC TRADITION IN KENTUCKY 
 
 There is, however, in the State of Kentucky, consider 
 able matter relating to the Madoc tradition which will 
 not be found elsewhere and belongs to this country alone. 
 This tradition was especially popular in Kentucky, where 
 the Welsh Indians were believed to have dwelt in early 
 times and where they were finally exterminated at the 
 Falls of the Ohio by the Red Indians. The Kentucky 
 pioneers were full believers in this tradition, and in the 
 family circle, by the warmth and light of the huge log 
 fires of the cabins, the story of Prince Madoc was told 
 on long winter nights to eager listeners who never wear 
 ied of it. I now propose to present not only what ap 
 pears in the Kentucky newspapers, magazines, and books, 
 but also some of the traditions which have never before 
 been published. 
 
 John Filson, the author of the first History of Ken 
 tucky, published at Wilmington, Delaware, in 1784, was 
 a native of Pennsylvania, where the Madoc tradition was 
 well known. He was also the first one in Kentucky to 
 take the tradition from the oral sphere in which it cir 
 culated and dignify it with a place in history. He was 
 a believer in the tradition, and employed the opportuni 
 ties which he had among the pioneers to talk about it 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 47 
 
 and gather facts concerning it from those who had met 
 Indians in different places who spoke the Welsh or an 
 cient British language. These Welsh Indians sometimes 
 came among the Kentucky pioneers for the purpose of 
 trade, and although Filson may never have met any of 
 them himself, he took care to learn all he could from 
 those who had seen and talked with them. He came to 
 Kentucky early in the pioneer period, perhaps in 1782, 
 and employed his time in hunting up information for a 
 history of "Kentucke," as the new country was then 
 spelled. He was a very busy man in collecting facts, 
 and so persistent in his work that he was sometimes an 
 noying to the settlers, who were more interested in loca 
 ting lands, fighting Indians, and killing game than they 
 were in historical matter. He was upon the best of 
 terms with such pioneers as Daniel Boone, Levi Todd, 
 James Harrod, Christopher Greenup, John Cowan, and 
 William Kennedy, all of whom he mentions in his 
 history and records his obligations to them for the 
 help they gave him in compiling it. He also published 
 in his history the indorsement of Daniel Boone, Levi 
 Todd, and James Harrod, among the most prominent 
 of the pioneers, that it was a valuable history, pre 
 senting a true account of the country. His oppor 
 tunities were the best to learn what was known and 
 
48 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 believed about the Madoc tradition, and hence he 
 recorded in his history that it was universally known 
 and believed. 
 
 When Filson had gotten well under way with his 
 "History of Kentucke" he made a visit to Louisville 
 for the purpose of collecting information about the Welsh 
 Indians, who it was believed once resided at the Falls 
 of the Ohio. There was then a club in Louisville made 
 up of such prominent citizens as General George Rogers 
 Clark, Colonel James F. Moore, William Johnston, Doc 
 tor Alexander Skinner, Captain James Patten, Major 
 John Harrison, John Sanders, and others. The club some 
 times met in the quarters of General Clark, in the fort 
 at the Falls of the Ohio, and sometimes at the "Keep" 
 of John Sanders, near the northeast corner of the present 
 Main and Third streets. The main object of the club 
 was to secure the earliest information about the Indians 
 and the progress of the Revolutionary War. When on 
 the eve of one of its meetings it was learned that Cap 
 tain Abraham Chaplain was the guest of General Clark, 
 and that John Filson the historian was stopping with 
 Captain James Patten for the purpose of securing infor 
 mation about the Madoc colony, it was decided to invite 
 them to the club meeting, which on this occasion was 
 to be held in the " Keep of John Sanders. This " Keep, 
 
VIEW NEAR ABER 
 
 LLYN GWYNANT 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 49 
 
 as it was called, was a large flatboat which had been con 
 verted by Sanders into a warehouse, in which he received 
 the peltry of the country and gave receipts therefor, 
 which were to be paid when the articles were sold. These 
 receipts passed by delivery and circulated as money. 
 They were therefore popular in the country, and the 
 warehouse of Sanders, which he called his "Keep," was 
 a kind of bank which was very useful. 
 
 When the members of the club and their guests had 
 assembled and the news pertaining to the war and the 
 Indians had been received and discussed, it was resolved 
 that each person present, who might feel so inclined, 
 should have the opportunity to state what he knew con 
 cerning the Madoc tradition, for the benefit of the his 
 torian who was their guest. There was in the statements 
 made at this meeting, as in previous narratives made 
 by others, some little confusion on account of the use of 
 the names White Indians and Welsh Indians. They prob 
 ably both meant the same thing in the use made of them 
 by the early settlers of the country. From James Har 
 rison, a son of Major John Harrison, one of the speakers, 
 the following account of the proceeding was obtained: 
 
 General Clark spoke first, and confined himself to 
 what he had learned from a chief of the Kaskaskia In 
 dians concerning a large and curiously shaped earthwork 
 
50 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 on the Kaskaskia River, which the chief, who was of 
 lighter complexion than most Indians, said was the house 
 of his ancestors. Colonel Moore spoke next, and related 
 what he had learned from an old Indian about a long 
 war of extermination between the Red Indians and the 
 White Indians. The final battle, he said, between them 
 was fought at the Falls of the Ohio, where nearly the 
 whole of the White Indians were driven upon an island 
 and slaughtered. General Clark, on hearing this state 
 ment by Colonel Moore, confirmed it by stating that he 
 had heard the same thing from Tobacco, a chief of the 
 Piankeshaws. Major Harrison next spoke, and told about 
 an extensive graveyard on the north side of the Ohio, 
 opposite the Falls, where thousands of human bones were 
 buried in such confusion as to indicate that the dead 
 were left there after a battle, and that the silt from inun 
 dations of the Ohio had covered them as the battle had 
 left them. Sanders spoke next and said that in his inter 
 course with different tribes of Indians he had met sev 
 eral of light complexion, gray eyes, and sandy hair, but 
 had never talked with them in the Welsh language, if 
 they spoke it, because he did not understand it himself. 
 The last White Indian he ever saw was in a hunt on the 
 Wabash River. A White Indian had joined a party of 
 Red Indians, as Sanders had, for a hunt. While sep- 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 5 T 
 
 arated from the rest of the party the White Indian had 
 come upon a panther and wounded it. The infuriated 
 animal turned upon him and literally tore him to pieces 
 before any assistance could reach him. Doctor Skinner 
 came next, and called attention to the large mound at 
 the northeast corner of Main and Fifth streets in Lou 
 isville, and the larger one on the northwest corner of 
 Sixth and Walnut streets. He said that the Red In 
 dians never made mounds of this kind, and if they were 
 artificial, as he believed they were, they might have been 
 erected by the Welsh or White Indians for some purpose 
 unknown to the people of this age. He had heard that 
 there were Welsh Indians in this country long ago, but 
 he had never seen one. 
 
 The guests were then called upon for any remarks 
 they wished to make upon the subject. Captain Chap 
 lain said he was familiar with most of the traditions that 
 had been related by the speakers before him and could 
 testify as to their popularity, but as he was not in the 
 habit of speaking he hoped he would be allowed to re 
 main a listener. He was excused and Filson was the 
 last to speak. His speech was longer than all the others 
 put together. He began with the Madoc tradition, at 
 the death of the king of North Wales, and gave details 
 of the civil war between the sons of the king for the sue- 
 
52 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 cession; of the determination of Madoc, one of the sons, 
 to get out of the country and escape the horrors of a civil 
 war, and of his securing and preparing ships to take 
 him and his friends to some foreign land. He went so 
 much into detail and consumed so much time that he 
 never got his emigrants beyond the shores of Wales, where 
 he had them in ships and about to sail, when he discov 
 ered that his hearers were paying no attention, and all 
 of them except Doctor Skinner seemed to be asleep. He 
 sat down and spoke of his mortification to Doctor Skin 
 ner, who consoled him with the remark that his hearers 
 might not be asleep, but spellbound by his eloquence. 
 
 Filson, in his "History of Kentucke, " gave a lengthy 
 and kindly account of the Indians, but they were not 
 kind to him in turn. While he was going through the 
 woods from the Miami River to where Cincinnati now 
 stands, to establish a city by the name of Losantiville, 
 he disappeared and was never heard of more. None of 
 his remains were ever found, and he was supposed to 
 have been murdered by the Indians. In his account of 
 the Indians in his "History of Kentucke," original edi 
 tion of 1784, the following concerning the Madoc tradition 
 appears on pages 95 and 96: 
 
 "In the year 1170 Madoc, son of Owen Gwynedd, 
 prince of Wales, dissatisfied with the situation of affairs 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 53 
 
 at home left his country, as related by the Welsh his 
 torians, in quest of new settlements and leaving Ireland 
 to the north proceeded west till he discovered a fertile 
 country where leaving a colony he returned and persua 
 ding many of his countrymen to join him put to sea with 
 10 ships and was never more heard of. 
 
 "This account has several times drawn the attention 
 of the world but as no vestiges of them had then been 
 found it was concluded, perhaps too rashly to be 
 a fable or at least that no remains of the colony 
 existed. Of late years, however, the western settlers 
 have received frequent accounts of a nation inhabiting 
 at a great distance up the Missouri, in manners and 
 appearance resembling the other Indians but speaking 
 Welsh and retaining some ceremonies of the Christian 
 worship and at length this is universally believed to 
 be a fact. 
 
 "Captain Abraham Chaplain of Kentucky, a gentleman 
 whose veracity may be entirely depended upon, assured 
 the author that in the late war, being with his company 
 in garrison at Kaskasky, some Indians came there and 
 speaking in the Welsh dialect were perfectly understood 
 and conversed with by two Welshmen in his company 
 and that they informed them of the situation of their 
 nation as mentioned above." 
 
54 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 In the "Public Advertiser," a newspaper published in 
 Louisville, Kentucky, by Shadrach Penn, early in the 
 last century, appeared an interview between Lieutenant 
 Joseph Roberts and an Indian in Washington City. Lieu 
 tenant Joseph Roberts was a Welshman born and reared 
 in North Wales, and capable of judging of the kind of 
 Welsh the Indian spoke. The following is his account of 
 this interview as it appeared in the "Public Advertiser," 
 May 15, 1819: 
 
 " In the year 1801 being at the City of Washington 
 in America, I happened to be at a hotel, smoking a cigar 
 according to the custom of the country and there was 
 a young lad, a native of Wales, a waitor in the house 
 and because he had displeased me by bringing me a glass 
 of brandy and water, warm instead of cold, I said to him 
 jocosely in Welsh, I 11 give thee a good beating. 
 
 ;< There happened to be at the time in the room one 
 of the secondary Indian chiefs who on my pronouncing 
 those words, rose in a great hurry stretching forth his 
 hand, at the same time asking me in the ancient British 
 tongue Is that thy language ? I answered him in 
 the affirmative shaking hands at the same time, and the 
 chief said that was likewise his language and the language 
 of his father and mother and of his nation. I said to 
 him so it is the language of my father and mother and 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 55 
 
 also my country. Upon this the Indian began to inquire 
 from whence I came and I replied from Wales, but he 
 had never heard of such a place. I explained that Wales 
 was a principality in the kingdom called England. He 
 had heard of England and of the English, but never of 
 such a place as Wales. 
 
 " I asked him if there were any traditions amongst 
 them whence their ancestors had come? He said there 
 were and that they had come from a far distant country, 
 very far in the east and from over the great waters. I 
 conversed with him in Welsh and English; he knew bet 
 ter Welsh than I did and I asked him how they had come 
 to retain their language so well from mixing with other 
 Indians. He answered that they had a law or estab 
 lished custom in their nation forbidding any to teach 
 their children another language until they had attained 
 the age of 12 years and after that they were at liberty 
 to learn any language they pleased. I asked him if he 
 would like to go to England and Wales; he replied that 
 he had not the least inclination to leave his native coun 
 try and that he would sooner live in a wigwam than in 
 a palace. He had ornamented his naked arms with brace 
 lets, on his head were placed ostrich feathers. 
 
 " I was astonished and greatly amazed when I heard 
 such a man who had painted his face of yellowish red 
 
5 6 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 and of such an appearance speaking the ancient British 
 language as fluently as if he had been born and brought 
 up in the vicinity of Snowden. His head was shaved 
 excepting around the crown of his head and there it was 
 very long and plaited and it was on the crown of his head 
 he had placed the ostrich feathers which I mentioned 
 before to ornament himself. 
 
 "The situation of those Indians is about 800 miles 
 southwest of Philadelphia, according to his statement 
 and they are called Asguaws or Asguaw nation. 
 
 "The chief courted my society astonishingly, seeing 
 that we were descended from the same people. He used 
 to call upon me almost every day and take me to the 
 woods to show me the virtues of the various herbs which 
 grew there; for neither he nor his kindred were acquaint 
 ed with compound medicine. 
 
 JOSEPH ROBERTS. 
 
 This statement of Lieutenant Roberts is one of the 
 best of all the contributions to the literature of the Ma- 
 doc colony of Welshmen among the North American In 
 dians. The Indian with whom Lieutenant Roberts con 
 versed spoke the ancient British or Welsh language flu 
 ently, gave a good reason for this language being so long 
 retained by his people in America, and indicated that 
 Wales, a country unknown to him, was the land from 
 
SNOWDON VILLAGE 
 
 FALL OF THE OGWEN 
 
Traditions of the Rarliest Americans 57 
 
 which his nation had come, by speaking its ancient lan 
 guage and locating it far to the east, beyond the great 
 waters. I can recall nothing said by any other Welsh- 
 speaking Indian which throws more light on the Madoc 
 colony or that contributed as much in such few words 
 to the plausibility of the tradition. If there be no truth 
 in the tradition, then there is an astonishing amount of 
 untruth in the numerous accounts of it. It is almost 
 impossible to believe that so many witnesses as have 
 testified in this case should have been plain liars about 
 a matter in which they seem to have had no personal 
 interest. 
 
 In 1804 the Honorable Harry Toulmin, who was Sec 
 retary of State under Governor Garrard, of Kentucky, 
 wrote a letter to the editor of the "Palladium," a weekly 
 newspaper published at Frankfort, Kentucky, in which 
 he sets forth what had been learned from one Maurice 
 Griffiths concerning the Welsh Indians. Griffiths was born 
 in Wales, and while a mere lad emigrated to Virginia. 
 While residing on the Roanoke River in Virginia he was 
 taken prisoner by the Shawnees, about the year 1764, 
 and conducted to their towns. After remaining with 
 these Indians some two or three years he joined a party 
 of five young braves, to go on a hunting and exploring 
 expedition up the Missouri River. After ascending the 
 
58 Traditions of the Rarliest Americans 
 
 Missouri for many days, amid great difficulties, they 
 came to a nation of Indians who were white or of a light 
 complexion, and spoke the Welsh language. Mr. Grif 
 fiths made his statement to John Chiles, a respectable 
 citizen of Woodford County, who in turn related it to 
 Mr. Toulmin, who reduced it to writing and gave it to 
 the "Palladium" for publication. It appeared in the 
 "Palladium" on the i2th of December, 1804. Mr. Grif 
 fiths is endorsed by Mr. Chiles as a gentleman of stand 
 ing and veracity and Mr. Chiles is endorsed by Mr. Toul 
 min as a citizen worthy of all confidence and credit. Mr. 
 Toulmin needs no endorsement. He was President of 
 Transylvania University, Secretary of State, Judge of 
 the United States District Court, and author of an early 
 history of Kentucky, as well as several valuable law-books. 
 He was a minister of the gospel, of the Unitarian faith, 
 and stood high as a Christian statesman, judge, literary 
 man of broad culture and strict integrity. His letter to 
 the "Palladium" is too long for insertion, and the fol 
 lowing extracts are taken from it: 
 
 "After passing the mountains they entered a fine, 
 fertile tract of land, which having traveled through for 
 several days, they accidentally met with three white men 
 in the Indian dress. Griffiths immediately understood 
 their language, as it was pure Welsh, though they occa- 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 59 
 
 sionally made use of a few words with which he was not 
 acquainted. However, as it happened to be the turn 
 of one of his Shawnee companions to act as spokesman, 
 or interpreter, he preserved a profound silence, and never 
 gave them any intimation that he understood the lan 
 guage of their new companions. 
 
 "After proceeding with them four or five days jour 
 ney, they came to the village of these white men, where 
 they found that the whole nation were of the same color, 
 having all the European complexion. The three men 
 took them through their village for about the space of 
 fifteen miles, when they came to a second council house, 
 at which an assembly of the king and chief men of the 
 nation was immediately held. The council lasted three 
 days, and as the strangers were not supposed to be ac 
 quainted with their language, they were suffered to be 
 present at their deliberations. The great question before 
 the council was, what conduct should be observed toward 
 the strangers. From their firearms, their knives, and 
 their tomahawks, it was concluded that they were a war 
 like people. It was conceived that if they were sent 
 to look out for a country for their nation, that if they 
 were suffered to return they might expect a body of pow 
 erful invaders, but that if these six men were put to death 
 nothing would be known of their country, and they would 
 
60 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 still enjoy their possessions in security. It was finally 
 determined that they should be put to death. Griffiths 
 then thought that it was time for him to speak. He 
 addressed the council in the Welsh language: he in 
 formed them that they had not been sent by any nation; 
 that they were actuated merely by private curiosity; 
 that they had no hostile intentions; that it was their 
 wish to trace the Missouri to its source, and that they 
 would return to their country satisfied with the discov 
 ery they had made, without any wish to disturb the re 
 pose of their new acquaintances. An instant astonish 
 ment glowed in the countenances not only of the council, 
 but of his Shawnee companions, who clearly saw that 
 he was understood by the people of the country. Full 
 confidence was at once given to his declarations; the 
 king advanced and gave him his hand. They abandoned 
 the design of putting him and his companions to death, 
 and from that moment treated them with the utmost 
 friendship. Griffiths and the Shawnees continued eight 
 months in the nation, but were deterred from prosecu 
 ting their researches up the Missouri by the advice of the 
 people of the country, who informed them that they had 
 gone twelve months journey up the river, but found it 
 as large there as it was in their own country. As to the 
 history of this people he could learn nothing satisfactory. 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 61 
 
 The only account they could give was that their fore 
 fathers had come up the river from a very distant coun 
 try. They had no books, no records, no writings. They 
 intermixed with no other people by marriage; there was 
 not a dark-skinned man in the nation. Their numbers 
 were very considerable. There was a continued range of 
 settlements on the river for fifty miles, and there were 
 within this space three large water courses which fell 
 into the Missouri, on the banks of each of which likewise 
 they were settled. He supposed there must be fifty 
 thousand men in the nation capable of bearing arms. 
 Their clothing was skins, well dressed. Their houses 
 were made of upright posts and the bark of trees. 
 The only implements they had to cut them with were 
 stone tomahawks. They had no iron; their arms were 
 bows and arrows. They had some silver, which had 
 been hammered with stones into coarse ornaments, but 
 it did not appear to be pure. They had neither horses, 
 cattle, sheep, hogs, nor any domestic or tame animals. 
 They lived by hunting. He said nothing about their 
 religion." 
 
 In 1842, Thomas S. Hinde, an antiquarian of more 
 than local reputation, in answer to inquiries made by 
 John S. Williams, editor of the "American Pioneer," 
 gave some valuable information touching the Madoc 
 
62 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 tradition. Mr. Hinde spent many years in investigating 
 the antiquities of the West, and was of no little help to 
 the Reverend John P. Campbell in the vast amount of 
 information he gathered upon this subject. He was au 
 thority upon all questions touching the antiquities of 
 Kentucky and the Western States. In answering the 
 queries of Mr. Williams, he wrote a letter which appeared 
 in the "Pioneer," volume i, page 373, and from which 
 the following extract is taken: 
 
 "Mount Carmel, 111., May 30, 1824. 
 "Mr. J. S. Williams. 
 "Dear Sir: 
 
 Your letter of the lyth, to Major Armstrong, 
 was placed in my hands some days ago. The brief re 
 marks and hints given you are correct. I have a vast 
 quantity of western matter, collected in notes gathered 
 from various sources, mostly from persons who knew the 
 facts. These notes reach back to remote periods. It 
 is a fact that the Welsh under Owen ap Zuinch, in the 
 1 2th century found their way to the Mississippi and as 
 far up the Ohio as the Falls of that River at Louisville 
 where they were cut off by the Indians; others ascended 
 the Missouri, were either captured, or settled with and 
 sunk into Indian habits. Proof i: In 1799, six sol 
 diers skeletons were dug up near Jeffersonville, each 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 63 
 
 skeleton had a breast-plate of brass, cast with the Welsh 
 coat-of-arms, the Mermaid and Harp with a Latin in 
 scription, in substance, "virtuous deeds meet their just 
 reward." One of these plates was left by Captain Jon 
 athan Taylor, with the late Mr. Hubbard Taylor, of Clarke 
 county, and when called for by me in 1814 for the late 
 Dr. John P. Campbell of Chillicothe, Ohio, who was pre 
 paring notes of the antiquities of the west, by a letter 
 from Mr. Hubbard Taylor, Jr. (a relative of mine), now 
 living, I was informed that the breast plate had been 
 taken to Virginia by a gentleman of that state, I sup 
 posed as a matter of curiosity. Proff 2nd. The late 
 Mr. Mclntosh, who first settled near this and had been 
 for fifty or sixty years prior to his death, in 1831 or 2 
 a western Indian trader, was in Fort Kaskaskia, prior 
 to its being taken by General George Rogers Clarke in 
 1778 and heard as he informed me himself, a Welshman 
 and an Indian from far up the Missouri, speaking and 
 conversing in the Welsh language. It was stated by 
 Gilbert Imlay, in his history of the West, that it was 
 Captain Abraham Chaplain, of Union county, Kentucky, 
 that heard this conversation in Welsh. Dr. Campbell 
 visiting Chaplain found it was not him, afterwards the 
 fact was stated by Mclntosh, from whom I obtained 
 other facts as to western matters. Some hunter, many 
 
64 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 years ago, informed me of a tomb-stone being found in 
 the southern part of Indiana, with initials of a -name, 
 and 1 1 86 engraved upon it. The Mohawk Indians had 
 a tradition among them respecting the Welsh, and of 
 their having been cut off by the Indians at the Falls of 
 the Ohio. The late Col. Joseph Hamilton Davis who 
 had for many years sought for information on this 
 subject, mentions this fact, and of the Welshman s 
 bones being found buried on Corn Island so that 
 Southey, the king s laureat, had some foundation for his 
 Welsh poem." 
 
 This statement of Mr. Hinde in the above extract, 
 that six skeletons in the Welsh armor were exhumed 
 near the Falls of the Ohio in 1799, does not strike the 
 reader as a truth too evident for doubt, and reminds 
 one of the skeleton in armor found near Fall River in 
 1831. If the Fall River skeleton was any proof of the 
 Norse colony on Fall River, in the Eleventh century, 
 the other six skeletons should be accepted as six times 
 as much proof of the Welsh colony at the Falls of the 
 Ohio in the Twelfth century. But instead of the six 
 skeletons of the Falls of the Ohio having the strongest 
 proof, the single skeleton of Fall River got the start 
 by the help of scientists. The celebrated chemist Ber- 
 zelius analyzed the metal upon the Fall River skeleton 
 
TREMADOC VILLAGE 
 
 RHAIADYR DU CATARACT 
 
Traditions of the Rarliest Americans 65 
 
 and found it to be identical in composition with the 
 metal known to have been used on Norse armor in the 
 Tenth century. After this analysis, some antiquarians 
 took the liberty to conclude that the Fall River skeleton 
 was that of an Icelander, and claimed that this Iceland 
 er might have been Thorsvald Erickson, who was killed 
 by the Skraellings in America about the beginning of 
 the Eleventh century. The Falls of the Ohio skeletons 
 could not compete with such assuming as this. A chem 
 ist should have analyzed them, and if he had done so 
 and found their metal to be the same as that used by 
 the Welsh in the Twelfth century then it might have 
 been in order, according to the imagining in the Fall 
 River case, to have pronounced one of the skeletons 
 that of Prince Madoc and the others those of his five 
 principal men, if their names could have been found, 
 who were slain in the great battle of Sand Island be 
 tween the White and the Red Indians, in which the 
 White Indians were the vanquished and the Red In 
 dians the victors. 
 
 X. DESTRUCTION OF WHOLE TRIBES OF AMERICAN INDIANS 
 
 The tmth of the Madoc tradition has been questioned 
 by some, because they claim that no Indian tribe in Amer 
 ica could be readily traced back to a colony of Welsh 
 
66 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 planted here by Madoc. This view is in direct opposi 
 tion to the testimony of dozens of respectable witnesses 
 who stated that they had seen and talked with Indians 
 in different localities who spoke the ancient British or 
 Welsh language, and indicated that their ancestors had 
 come from a far distant land beyond the great waters. 
 But even if there are now no Welsh Indians in America, 
 it does not follow that they were not here at a previous 
 date. Whole tribes of Indians have been swept from 
 the face of the earth by war, pestilence, and famine be 
 fore and since the discovery of Columbus. 
 
 Drake, in his "Aboriginal Races of North America," 
 enumerated nearly five hundred tribes, a large percentage 
 of which were extinct when the list was made out 
 and known only by the name they bore in former days. 
 The Iroquois Indians, after getting possession of fire 
 arms in the Seventeenth century, carried death and 
 desolation to many neighboring tribes. Among the 
 nations destroyed by them were the Eries, who gave 
 their name to one of the great lakes in this country. 
 War between different tribes has been constant from 
 time immemorial, and some tribes have always been 
 destroying others. There is no telling at this date how 
 many tribes have been utterly destroyed in one way 
 or another. 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 67 
 
 Smallpox has been a great destroyer of different tribes 
 of Indians. This disease, until it was brought among 
 them by the whites, was unknown to them, and they 
 were utterly incapable of controlling it. Catlin, in his 
 "North American Indians," mentions the destroying of 
 the Mandans by smallpox as late as the summer of 1838. 
 They were confined within their villages by the hostile 
 Sioux, when a boat from St. Louis landed traders with 
 the smallpox among them. Not being able to get out 
 and scatter in the country on account of the besieging 
 enemy, they died in their quarters, not by individuals, 
 but by families. Deaths were so fast and so numerous 
 that no attempts were made to bury, and the dead lay 
 in heaps to putrify in every wigwam. Out of the whole 
 nation only about thirty were left alive, and these sought 
 self-destruction by rushing upon the besieging enemy 
 and thus securing death. The whole nation perished in 
 a few days, and passed forever from the number of liv 
 ing tribes. 
 
 It must be stated also, however bitter may be 
 the acknowledgment, that civilization has been a 
 great destroyer of the Indians. The white man, with 
 civilization in one hand and the whisky bottle in 
 the other, has caused the death of more savages 
 than he has civilized. He has also introduced among 
 
68 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 them a loathsome disease more revolting than the 
 smallpox, which contests the death rate with the 
 other destroyers. 
 
 It is therefore well known to us that whole tribes 
 have perished and left only a name behind. That the 
 Madocs were one of these extinguished tribes we have 
 some Indian traditions in evidence. An old Indian told 
 Colonel James F. Moore, of Kentucky, that long ago a 
 war of extermination was waged between the Red In 
 dians and the Indians of a lighter complexion in Ken 
 tucky, and that the last great battle between them was 
 fought at the Falls of the Ohio, where the light-colored 
 Indians were driven upon Sand Island as the last hope 
 of escape, and there all were slaughtered by their pur 
 suers. It was the opinion of George Catlin, who spent 
 years among the Indians and a good part of the time 
 among the Mandans, that these Mandaiis were direct 
 descendants from the Madoc colony. He reached this 
 conclusion after living with this tribe and studying their 
 habits and learning their traditions. With this opinion 
 of Catlin and what was said by the old Indian to Colonel 
 Moore and the statements of the many witnesses hereto 
 fore mentioned in this article, all of whom had seen Welsh 
 Indians in America and talked with them in the Welsh 
 language, it would hardly seem just to doubt the truth 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 69 
 
 of the Madoc tradition for no better reason than that 
 there is now no existing tribe of Welsh Indians in this 
 country. 
 
 The principal pre-Columbian discoveries of America 
 have now been presented, and not one of them found 
 America uninhabited. Madoc, the Welsh prince, in his 
 discovery in the Twelfth century is said in Llwyd s trans 
 lation of Caradoc s history of Wales to have found the 
 continent without inhabitants, but this is a typographi 
 cal error. It was probably intended to be stated that 
 the country did not have "many" inhabitants, instead 
 of "not any" inhabitants. The text bears this inter 
 pretation, from the fact that it states a few lines above 
 that Madoc found the natives different from what he had 
 seen in Europe. It is possible, however, that Madoc 
 may have landed at some point where there were no in 
 habitants in sight, as there might have been many such 
 places in a country as vast as America. While a single 
 spot reached by Madoc may have been void of inhabi 
 tants, the rest of the country might have been more or 
 less populated. He doubtless, however, found the new 
 country inhabited, as it is so stated elsewhere in the 
 text. 
 
70 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 XI. AMERICA THE OLDEST OF THE CONTINENTS 
 
 After the discovery by Columbus in the latter part 
 of the Fifteenth century, it was customary to speak of 
 the eastern hemisphere as the Old World, and the west 
 ern as the New. No one seemed to care how long the 
 western hemisphere may have existed before this discov 
 ery. The discovery was new, and therefore the country 
 was deemed new also. After the discovery by Columbus 
 made it known, many alleged discoverers, before un 
 heard of, came into existence from different nations. 
 Besides the six discoveries set forth in this article, there 
 were Arabians, and Italians, and Dutch, and Poles, Japan 
 ese, Jews, and others who laid claim to this honor. None 
 of these, however, could make out a satisfactory claim 
 to its discovery, and it may not have been possible to 
 satisfy all doubts in any one case. We knew that the 
 eastern hemisphere existed and had existed for thousands 
 of years, but, disregarding the claims of some of the 
 ancients, we did not certainly know of the western 
 world until it was discovered by Columbus, and as the 
 discovery was new, the country discovered was called 
 new also. 
 
 We have no certain way of arriving at the age of con 
 tinents or of determining the relative age of any one of 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 7 1 
 
 them, especially if the age is to be calculated in years. 
 Geologists get over the difficulty of estimating in years 
 by the use of such terms as eras, ages, periods, epochs, 
 etc. They will tell you what geological age a thing be 
 longs to by the fossils imbedded in it, but when they 
 undertake to tell the year in which anything existed, it 
 is by estimation only. Professor Shaler estimated that 
 the North American continent had existed between one 
 hundred and four hundred millions of years since it was 
 prepared for life since plants and animals began to be 
 developed and live upon it. To say nothing of four hun 
 dred million years, one hundred millions present a 
 period of which the human mind can have no rational 
 conception. We could form quite as just a conception of 
 four hundred million as of one hundred million. Both 
 terms suggest an incomprehensible duration of time. 
 It probably makes no difference, therefore, whether we 
 designate this period as four hundred million or one 
 hundred million or one million, or even a less number 
 of years. There is no danger of an error being dis 
 covered in the addition, because there has been no fixed 
 unit to start from in estimating the existence of a 
 continent in years, and possibly can be none. 
 
 If, however, it has been between one hundred million 
 and four hundred million of years since animals and plants 
 
72 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 began life in America, how long did America exist before 
 it was fit for the life of man? If the theory of the nebu 
 lous origin of the earth be correct, quite as long a period 
 may have been necessary for the central nebulous mass 
 out of which our solar system was evolved to break up 
 into sections, and for these sections to whirl around in 
 space until they were consolidated into worlds. Our 
 planet probably acted in common with others until cool 
 ing formed a crust sufficiently strong for an ocean bed 
 over its internal fires, and rains to descend from an at 
 mosphere which held them in suspension, until they cov 
 ered the crust with the waters of a universal ocean. Then 
 it began to act for itself by eroding this crust and con 
 tracting from further cooling until it pressed the sides 
 of sections of the crust upon one another and crushed 
 and pushed them upward in the confusion of a crum 
 pled, peaked, and valleyed mountain range. Such were 
 the first mountains of the earth, and they formed the 
 nucleus of the North American continent along the line 
 which separates the United States from Canada. It is 
 known as the Laurentian range, and is made up of the 
 first metamorphosed sedimentary rocks that were formed. 
 It extended from the Atlantic Ocean on the east along 
 the trend of the St. Lawrence River and the lakes west 
 ward beyond the Mississippi River nearly to the subse- 
 
FLINT VILLAGE 
 
 FLINT CASTLE 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 73 
 
 quently erected Rocky Mountains, a distance of some 
 two thousand miles in length and three hundred miles 
 in width. This continent may have been outlined be 
 neath the universal ocean long before its upheaval, but 
 this was its first appearance above the water, and it was 
 before any one of the other continents made its appear 
 ance above the sea. As it first appeared, America was 
 a mass of metamorphic rocks contorted and crumpled 
 and twisted and jumbled into a shape which had nothing 
 of the appearance of suitableness for plant or animal 
 life. It would require much time after this bleak and 
 barren assemblage of rocks got above the water for them 
 to expand into a continent and assume a fit form for 
 the habitation of man. It had to go through the long 
 years of the Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Triassic, 
 Jurassic, Cretaceous, and possibly into the Tertiary 
 period before it could be ready for human life. It, 
 however, got the start of other continents, and there 
 is no good reason for supposing that it did not con 
 tinue in the lead until it became the habitation of the 
 original man. There is reason > therefore, for believing 
 that the existence of the earth from its nebulous stage 
 to the beginning of the Azoic age was as long as from 
 its beginning in the Azoic to the Psychozoic age. And 
 if this be so, another fearful period of from one 
 
74 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 hundred to four hundred millions of years would have 
 to be added to the entire duration of the earth. Such 
 figures, however, are about as reliable as counting the 
 sands of the seashore without seeing them. 
 
 It has recently, however, been contended by some of 
 the most eminent of geologists that North America was 
 the first of the continents. In the Canadian geological 
 surveys the earliest sedimentary rocks were found in the 
 Laurentian Mountains, and as no older rocks have been 
 found anywhere, America was pronounced the first 
 born of the continents. Louis Agassiz, in speaking of 
 America as the oldest of the continents, grew eloquent 
 and expressed himself in his "Geological Sketches," 
 volume i, page i, and paragraph i, in the following 
 language : 
 
 " First born among the continents, though so much 
 later in culture and civilization than some of more re 
 cent birth, America, so far as her physical history is con 
 cerned, has been falsely denominated the New World. 
 Hers was the first dry land lifted out of the waters, hers 
 the first shore washed by the ocean that enveloped all 
 the earth beside; and while Europe was represented only 
 by islands rising here and there above the sea, America 
 already stretched an unbroken line of land from Nova 
 Scotia to the far west. 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 75 
 
 XII. AMERICA THE FIRST INHABITED OF THE 
 CONTINENTS 
 
 It was the belief of the wise Thomas Jefferson that 
 America was the first seat of the human race, and tha^t 
 the eastern hemisphere was peopled from the western. 
 A letter written by him to President Stiles of Yale Col 
 lege, in 1786, while he represented the United States at 
 the Court of France, was published in the "American 
 Museum" for November, 1787, page 492. From this let 
 ter the following extract is taken, clearly stating Mr. 
 Jefferson s belief that the first inhabitants of Asia, who 
 so much resembled the American aborigines, went from 
 America to Asia instead of coming from Asia to America: 
 
 " I return you my thanks for the communications 
 relative to the weftern country. When we reflect how 
 long we have inhabited thofe parts of America, which lie 
 between the Alleghany and the ocean that no monument 
 has ever been found in them, which indicated the ufe of 
 iron among its aboriginal inhabitants that they were as 
 far advanced in arts, at leaft as the inhabitants on the 
 other fide of the Alleghany a good degree of infidelity 
 may be excufed as to the new difcoveries which fuppofe 
 regular fortifications of brick work to have been in ufe 
 among the Indians on the waters of the Ohio. Intrench- 
 
76 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 ments of earth they might indeed make, but brick is 
 more difficult. The art of making it may have preceded 
 the ufe of iron; but it would fuppofe a greater degree 
 of induftry than men in the hunter ftate ufually poffefs. 
 I should like to know whether General Parfons himfelf 
 faw actual bricks among the remains of fortifications. I 
 fuppofe the fettlement of our continent is of the moft 
 remote antiquity; the similitude between its inhabitants 
 and thofe of the eastern parts of Aria, render it probable 
 that ours are defcended from them, or they from ours. 
 The latter is my opinion, founded on this fingle fact. 
 Among the red inhabitants of Afia there are but few lan 
 guages radically different; but among our Indians, the 
 number of languages is infinite, which are fo radically 
 different as to exhibit at prefent no appearance of their 
 having been derived from a common fource. The time 
 neceffary for the generation of fo many languages muft 
 be immenfe." 
 
 Mr. Jefferson gave the best reason he could for his 
 belief that the first inhabitants went from America to 
 Asia instead of coming from Asia to America. Since his 
 time, however, scientific research, in its wonderful prog 
 ress, has developed other reasons for the truth of this 
 theory. Scientists have exhumed, in America, the skele 
 tons of past geological ages and the remains of dead 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 77 
 
 human beings which gave evidence of as early existence 
 here as any yet found outside of America. Had Mr. 
 Jefferson lived to this time he might have been foremost 
 among the scientists whose investigations look to solv 
 ing the problem of the oldest continent and the first 
 human beings on the globe. 
 
 The Red Indians were the oldest inhabitants of Amer 
 ica known to white men, though there were here, doubt 
 less, older beings who antedated them by many centuries 
 and had many traditions as to their origin, but none 
 sufficiently divested of myth and absurdity to lead to a 
 rational conclusion as to the first country inhabited by 
 them or the beginning of its occupation. They had some 
 vague traditions of a very long-ago people who were in 
 habitants of this country before them, but nothing suf 
 ficiently definite for reliable information as to the char 
 acter or the time of this people. Some tribes believed 
 that their ancestors had sprung from the ground in this 
 country, and that they and their descendants had never 
 lived in any other land. Others believed that their an 
 cestors had come from a distant land, but they could 
 give no intelligent account as to where that distant land 
 might be or when they left it and came to this. The 
 traditions of the wigwam throw no satisfactory light on 
 the dark problem as to which of the continents was first 
 
7 8 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 inhabited by man. All information on this subject that 
 is worth knowing has come from another source, and 
 that source is not from the living of the present or of 
 the unknown past. As we must look into the rock-built 
 graveyards of buried fossilized animals to learn their 
 history, so we must exhume the relics and skeletons of 
 dead and forgotten human beings to learn where and 
 how they began life on the earth, and on this con 
 tinent. 
 
 The implements and bones of primitive man have 
 been found in the caves and in the river-drift of Europe 
 mingled with the bones of extinct animals which inhab 
 ited the earth during the Quaternary age. In the drift 
 of the upper terrace of the river Somme, in France, have 
 been found flint implements which had been chipped 
 into shape by man, associated with the bones of such 
 extinct Quaternary animals as the mammoth, the rhinoc 
 eros and the cave lion. In a cave at Mentone, near Nice, 
 the skeleton of a man was found with paleolithic imple 
 ments near him and the bones of extinct Quaternary 
 animals about him. The bones had been preserved by a 
 covering of stalagmite, and the teeth of the reindeer 
 which had probably been used as ornaments showed the 
 holes with which they had been pierced. In a cave on 
 the river Vizere was found a piece of bone shaped by man 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 79 
 
 on which there was a rude drawing of the mammoth 
 whose tusk had furnished the plate on which the picture 
 was etched. Such findings as these in the undisturbed 
 dust of the cave or the drift of the river clearly indicate 
 that man was there in the Quaternary age, and possibly 
 contending with those extinct animals for the caves as 
 a habitation. The cases cited are among the oldest evi 
 dences of man yet found in the eastern hemisphere and 
 there is no need of citing others, though many exist not 
 only in France, but in Belgium, in England, in Norway, 
 and in other countries. As early, however, as they in 
 dicate the presence of man in the eastern hemisphere, 
 there have been findings of his relics and his bones in 
 America which show his presence here as early, if not 
 earlier. Evidences of man in America during the Qua 
 ternary age, which some geologists estimate as two hun 
 dred thousand years ago, while others make the time 
 much longer, have been found in the sands and gravels 
 drifted by glacial currents and in localities with sur 
 roundings possibly indicating the Tertiary age. 
 
 In the glacial drift on a bluff in the valley of the Del 
 aware River, near Trenton, New Jersey, have been found 
 rudely chipped argillite implements which scientists have 
 pronounced paleolithic. They were found imbedded in 
 the sands and gravel, which clearly indicated that they 
 
8o Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 had reposed undisturbed ever since they had been de 
 posited there by the glacial flood which deposited the 
 sands and pebbles around them. The hard stone of which 
 they had been made could not have been worn or chipped 
 into the shape they bore by any force except that of the 
 hand of man, and hence it is inferred that man was there 
 when the current of the melting ice of the early glacial 
 period bore them there. This would take man back 
 thousands of years beyond the Quaternary age to his 
 possible existence in America in the Tertiary age. 
 
 In the auriferous gravels of an old river bed in Cala- 
 veras County, California, was found at the bottom of a 
 mining shaft, one hundred and fifty feet below the sur 
 face, the skull of a human being. Over it had been de 
 posited four successive beds of gold-bearing drift and five 
 streams of lava from volcanoes long since extinct. The 
 gold-bearing gravels in which it was found belonged to 
 the Tertiary age, and man is therefore assumed to have 
 been in California during that age. 
 
 On the Bourbois River, in Missouri, the skeleton of 
 a mastodon was found buried in such a position and with 
 such surroundings as to indicate that the animal had 
 been rendered helpless by being mired, and in that con 
 dition killed by human beings. Arrow-heads were found 
 about and around it, and wood ashes indicated that fire 
 
LLYN OGWEN 
 
 GWRYCH CASTLE 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 8 1 
 
 had helped in its destruction. As no animal but man 
 is known to have used fire, it was assumed that the 
 monster had been killed by a fire when the paleolithic 
 weapons had failed. 
 
 Many other instances of the relics of man found in 
 the glacial drift might be cited, but the above three are 
 enough to show that he was in America as early as he 
 was in the eastern hemisphere and perhaps earlier, and 
 that America did not need immigrants from the east or 
 from any other terrestrial source to begin her population. 
 America possibly had citizens to spare while the eastern 
 hemisphere was void of inhabitants. 
 
 Besides the three cases before cited, which carried 
 the inhabitants of America back beyond the Quaternary 
 and into the Tertiary age, there are examples of man s 
 very early appearance upon the American continent, in 
 which the time is sometimes given in years. 
 
 In the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky a mummy was 
 to be seen, early in the last century, about the age of 
 which no reliable conjecture was formed, from the fact 
 that it was said to have been removed from an adjacent 
 cave without noting with sufficient particularity the orig 
 inal position it occupied. As it appeared in the Mam 
 moth Cave, it was sitting in an excavation about four 
 feet square and three feet deep. The skeleton that of 
 
82 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 a female was perfectly preserved, with the flesh and 
 skin dried upon it. It was clad first in the skin of a deer 
 and over this was a mantle made of the inner bark of 
 the linden tree. The hair was cut short and was of a 
 dark red color. The woman was above the average size 
 and was neither black nor red, but of a light complexion. 
 By her side was a large reticule or sack, made of the in 
 ner bark of the linden tree. In this ample portmanteau 
 were the following articles: one cap of woven or knit 
 bark; seven head-dresses made of the quills of birds, so 
 put together that when placed upon the head the quilled 
 ends would bind the head while the feathered ends would 
 expand like an umbrella and make a showy head-dress; 
 hundreds of seeds of a dark color strung together like 
 beads; a number of the red hoofs of the fawn, strung 
 together into a necklace; the claw of an eagle, with a string 
 through it so it could be worn as a pendant; the jaw of 
 a bear, seemingly designed to be worn also as a pendant; 
 the skins of two rattlesnakes, with fourteen rattles still 
 upon one of them; a quantity of coloring matter done up 
 in leaves; a small bunch of threads or strings made of 
 the sinews of the deer; a number of needles made of bone, 
 and two whistles of cane. How long she was an occu 
 pant of the cave we have no means of determining or 
 even of rationally estimating, but if the cave was two 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 83 
 
 million years old, as stated by Professor Shaler, she might 
 be allowed a few thousand of these years for her enjoy 
 ment of the darkness and solitude of her subterranean 
 abode. 
 
 The skeleton of a man found in a Florida reef was 
 pronounced by Agassiz to be ten thousand years old. 
 
 While excavating for the gas-works in New Orleans 
 a human skeleton was found in the delta of the Missis 
 sippi below four successive forests and pronounced by 
 Doctor Fowler to have been there fifteen thousand years. 
 
 That mysterious people who antedated the Red Indian 
 and covered the Mississippi Valley with mounds, circum- 
 vallations, temples, and fortifications, and scattered every 
 where stone axes, flint arrow-heads, pottery, pipes, and 
 ornaments of copper and clay, may have been the autoch 
 thons of America. Some of their mounds and especially 
 those immense piles at Cahokia and Grave Creek remind 
 us of the mass heaped over the body of Alyattes near 
 Sardis, but unlike that monarch s mound, believed to 
 have existed twenty-five hundred years, they furnish no 
 key to the time at which they were reared. Trees have 
 been found growing upon some of them whose annulations 
 showed them to be eight hundred years old, but this 
 determined nothing as to the real age of the mounds. The 
 trees that measured eight hundred years may have been 
 
84 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 preceded by others and those again by others of equal 
 or greater age, and so on until thousands of years were 
 exhausted in the indeterminate calculation. Some of these 
 trees may have antedated the giant redwoods of Cali 
 fornia or the fossil forests of Yellowstone Park, but we 
 have nothing to guide us in arriving at a just conclusion 
 as to their age. 
 
 In the midst of these perplexities, we can have no 
 reason to doubt that the Power which is said to have 
 created man in Asia might have created him elsewhere, 
 and placed him in habitable quarters in America before 
 any part of the eastern hemisphere was ready for his 
 occupancy. The first formed rocks which have yet been 
 seen upon the globe, and the earliest forms of life yet 
 discovered, and the oldest human relics which have yet 
 been found, were in America. If, therefore, man first 
 lived and died and laid down his bones in the western 
 world before he died and laid them down in the eastern 
 hemisphere, why should we look for his origin in the East 
 instead of the West? Why not claim him where we first 
 find his remains, instead of troubling ourselves about the 
 time of his coming and the place whence he came? The 
 Orientals have not been able in thousands of years to 
 fix the latitude and longitude of the Garden of Eden, 
 where the human race is claimed to have first begun 
 
Traditions of the Rarliest Americans 85 
 
 existence, and as the question is still open the Occi 
 dentals may reasonably claim America as the first land 
 above the ocean and the first inhabited by man, until 
 the proof is made clear of an earlier inhabited continent. 
 When the two sons of a pioneer widow of Kentucky 
 were slain by the Indians and their dead bodies brought 
 home for interment, she was asked if she had any choice as 
 to the location of the graves. She said that she wanted 
 space left next to her husband for her own grave, and 
 her eldest son laid next to where she was to lie; that he 
 was her firstborn, and was entitled to burial next to her 
 who had given him life. And so Americans should feel 
 toward their country. If America was the first-born and 
 first-inhabited of the continents, she is entitled to the 
 place of honor in the construction and the peopling of 
 the globe. Other continents like the American may have 
 had contemporaneous foundations laid down in the an 
 cient seas that enveloped the infant world. America, 
 however, was the first built up, and the first to show 
 dry land above the universal ocean. A length of time 
 that defies all computation was necessary for each of the 
 continents to rise from its submerged position and pass 
 through the Azoic, the Silurian, the Devonian, the Car 
 boniferous and the Reptilian ages to the age of Man, the 
 most exalted of all animals; but when man was crea- 
 
86 Traditions of the Earliest Americans 
 
 ted and to be placed upon the earth, the continent that 
 first rose above the water and showed the first dry land 
 was presumably the first ready for his occupancy. He 
 was doubtless a frightful barbarian, as he first appeared 
 naked in summer and skin-wrapped in winter, living in 
 caverns and feeding upon the spontaneous fruits of the 
 earth and on such of the wild animals as he could subdue. 
 He had no member like the paw of the cave bear to seize 
 his food and fight his battles, but he had a hand which 
 could fashion the adamantine rocks and make them 
 more effective than the great claws and huge teeth and 
 mighty strength of other animals. He soon rose above 
 the formidable beasts around him and made them subject 
 to his will, because he had a mind which reasoned and 
 added each new item of knowledge to the store already 
 gathered, while the other animals never advanced beyond 
 that with which they started. 
 
 There is deeply implanted in our nature a love of the 
 distant past, and the nearer it approaches the confines of 
 the dark unknown the more we are enamored of it. We 
 like old things, and the older they are the better we like 
 them. Americans should be proud to claim theirs as the 
 first of the continents to rise above the waves of the uni 
 versal ocean and the first to furnish an abiding-place for 
 the human race. This may be likened by some to those 
 
Traditions of the Earliest Americans 87 
 
 genealogical enthusiasts who would trace their descent 
 from Adam, but such extravagance can hardly eradicate 
 the sentiment. They are proud to look back to the hum 
 ble beginning of barbarian man upon this continent, and 
 to follow his progress through incalculable ages to the 
 splendors of the present and the possibilities of the future. 
 America, long deprived of the honor of her proper place 
 among the continents by being called the New World, 
 has at last been pronounced by geologists the first to ex 
 ist, and the analogical inference is reasonable that she 
 was the first to be inhabited. Americans expect of scien 
 tists that they will continue to study the rock-leaved vol 
 umes of the world and to search among the undestroyed 
 remains of primeval man until it is clearly determined 
 that as America is the oldest of the continents, she was 
 also the first to be inhabited by man. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 i 
 
 EXTINCTION OF THE MANDANS 
 
 [Catlin s North American Indians, Volume 2, Pages 777-781] 
 
 From the accounts brought to New York in the fall 
 of 1838, by Messrs. M Kensie, Mitchell, and others, from 
 the upper Missouri, and with whom I conversed on the 
 subject, it seems that in the summer of that year the 
 small-pox was accidentally introduced amongst the Man- 
 dans, by the Fur Traders; and that in the course of two 
 months they all perished, except some thirty or forty, 
 who were taken as slaves by the Riccarees; an enemy 
 living two hundred miles below them, and who moved up 
 and took possession of their village soon after their ca 
 lamity, taking up their residence in it, it being a better 
 village than their own; and from the lips of one of the 
 Traders who had more recently arrived from there, I had 
 the following account of the remaining few, in whose de 
 struction was the final termination of this interesting and 
 once numerous tribe. 
 
 The Riccarees, he said, had taken possession of the vil 
 lage after the disease had subsided, and after living some 
 months in it, were attacked by a party of their enemies, 
 the Sioux, and whilst fighting desperately in resistance, in 
 which the Mandan prisoners had taken an active part, the 
 latter had concerted a plan for their own destruction, 
 which was effected by their simultaneously running through 
 the piquets on to the prairie, calling out to the Sioux (both 
 men and women) to kill them, " that they were Riccaree 
 
92 Appendix 
 
 dogs, that their friends were all dead, and that they did 
 not wish to live, that they here wielded their weapons as 
 desperately as they could, to excite the fury of their enemy, 
 and that they were thus cut to pieces and destroyed. 
 
 The accounts given by two or three white men, who 
 were amongst the Mandans during the ravages of this 
 frightful disease, are most appalling and actually too heart 
 rending and disgusting to be recorded. The disease was 
 introduced into the country by the Fur Company s steam 
 er from St. Louis; which had two or three of their crew 
 sick with the disease when it approached the upper Mis 
 souri, and imprudently stopped to trade at the Mandan 
 village, which was on the banks of the river, where the 
 chiefs and others were allowed to come on board, by which 
 means the disease got ashore. 
 
 I am constrained to believe that the gentlemen in 
 charge of the steamer did not believe it to be the small 
 pox; for if they had known it to be such, I cannot 
 conceive of such imprudence as regarded their own 
 interests in the country, as well as the fate of these 
 poor people, by allowing their boat to advance into 
 the country under such circumstances. 
 
 It seems that the Mandans were surrounded by sev 
 eral war-parties of their most powerful enemies, the Sioux, 
 at that unlucky time, and they could not therefore dis 
 perse upon the plains, by which many of them could have 
 been saved; and they were necessarily inclosed within the 
 piquets of their villages, where the disease in a few days 
 became so very malignant that death ensued in a few 
 hours after its attacks; and so slight were their hopes 
 when they were attacked, that nearly half of them de 
 stroyed themselves with their knives, with their guns, 
 
Appendix 93 
 
 and by dashing their brains out by leaping headforemost 
 from a thirty-foot ledge of rocks in front of their village. 
 The first symptom of the disease was a rapid swelling of 
 the body, and so very virulent had it become, that very 
 many died in two or three hours after their attack, and 
 that in many cases without the appearance of the disease 
 upon the skin. Utter dismay seemed to possess all classes 
 and all ages, and they gave themselves up in despair, as 
 entirely lost. There was but one continual crying and 
 howling and praying to the Great Spirit, for his protec 
 tion during the nights and days, and there being but few 
 living, and those in too appalling despair, nobody thought 
 of burying the dead, whose bodies, whole families together, 
 were left in horrid and loathsome piles in their own 
 wigwams, with a few buffalo robes, etc., thrown over them, 
 there to decay and to be devoured by their own dogs. That 
 such a proportion of their community as that above men 
 tioned, should have perished in so short a time, seems yet 
 to the reader, an unaccountable thing; but in addition to 
 the causes just mentioned, it must be borne in mind that 
 this frightful disease is everywhere far more fatal amongst 
 the native than in civilized population, which may be 
 owing to some extraordinary constitutional susceptibility ; 
 or, I think more probably, to the exposed lives they lead, 
 leading more directly to fatal consequences. In this, as in 
 most of their diseases, they ignorantly and imprudently 
 plunge into the coldest water, whilst in the highest state 
 of fever, and often die before they have power to get out. 
 Some have attributed the unexampled fatality of this 
 disease amongst the Indians to the fact of their living en 
 tirely on animal food; but so important a subject for in 
 vestigation I must leave for sounder judgments than mine 
 
94 Appendix 
 
 to decide. They are a people whose constitutions and 
 habits of life enable them most certainly to meet most of 
 its ills with less dread, and with decidedly greater success, 
 than they are met in civilized communities; and I would 
 not dare to decide that their simple meat diet was the cause 
 of their fatal exposure to one frightful disease, when I am 
 decidedly of opinion that it has been the cause of their 
 exemption and protection from another, almost equally 
 destructive, and, like the former, of civilized introduction. 
 
 During the season of the ravages of the Asiatic chol 
 era, which swept over the greater part of the western 
 country, and the Indian frontier, I was a traveller 
 through those regions, and was able to witness its effects; 
 and I learned from what I saw, as well as from what I 
 have heard in other parts since that time, that it 
 travelled to and over the frontiers, carrying dismay and 
 death amongst the tribes on the borders in many cases, 
 so far as they had adopted the civilized modes of life, 
 with its dissipations, using vegetable food and salt; but 
 wherever it came to the tribes living exclusively on 
 meat, and that without the use of salt, its progress 
 was suddenly stopped. I mention this as a subject 
 which I looked upon as important to science, and there 
 fore one on which I made many careful inquiries; and so 
 far as I have learned along that part of the frontier over 
 which I have since passed, I have to my satisfaction ascer 
 tained that such became the utmost limits of this fatal 
 disease in its travels to the west, unless where it might 
 have followed some of the routes of the Fur Traders, who, 
 of course, have introduced the modes of civilized life. 
 
 From the trader who was present at the destruction 
 of the Mandans I had many most wonderful incidents of 
 
Appendix 95 
 
 this dreadful scene, but I dread to recite them. Amongst 
 them, however, there is one that I must briefly describe, 
 relative to the death of that noble gentleman of whom 
 I have already said so much, and to whom I became so 
 much attached, Mah-to-toh-pa, or The Four Bears." 
 This fine fellow sat in his wigwam and watched every 
 one of his family die about him, his wives and little chil 
 dren, after he had recovered from the disease himself; 
 when he walked out, around the village, and wept over 
 the final destruction of his tribe, his braves and warriors, 
 whose sinewy arms alone could he depend on for a con 
 tinuance of their existence, all laid low; when he came 
 back to his lodge, where he covered his whole family in 
 a pile, with a number of robes, and wrapping another 
 around himself, went out upon a hill at a little distance 
 where he laid several days, despite all the solicitations of 
 the Traders, resolved to starve himself to death. He re 
 mained there till the sixth day when he had just strength 
 enough to creep back to the village, when he entered the 
 horrid gloom of his own wigwam, and laying his body 
 alongside of the group of his family, drew his robe over 
 him and died on the ninth day of his fatal abstinence. 
 
 So have perished the friendly and hospitable Mandans, 
 from the best accounts I could get; and although it may 
 be possible that some few individuals may yet be remain 
 ing, I think it is not probable; and one thing is certain, 
 even if such be the case, that, as a nation, the Mandans 
 are extinct, having no longer an existence. 
 
 There is yet a melancholy part of the tale to be told, 
 relating to the ravages of this frightful disease in that 
 country on the same occasion, as it spread to other con 
 tiguous tribes, to the Minatarees, the Knisteneaux, the 
 
9 6 Appendix 
 
 Blackfeet, the Cheyennes, the Crows; amongst whom twen 
 ty-five thousand perished in the course of four or five 
 months, which most appalling facts I got from Major Pil- 
 cher, now Superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis, 
 from Mr. M Kenzie and others. 
 
 It may be naturally asked here, by the reader, wheth 
 er the Government of the United States have taken any 
 measures to prevent the ravages of this fatal disease 
 amongst these exposed tribes; to which I answer, that 
 repeated efforts have been made, and so far generally, 
 as the tribes have ever had the disease (or at all events, 
 within the recollections of those who are now living in 
 the tribes) the Government agents have succeeded in in 
 troducing vaccination as a protection; but amongst those 
 tribes in their wild state, and where they have not suffered 
 with the disease, very little success has been met with 
 in the attempt to protect them on account of their su 
 perstitions, which generally resisted all attempts to intro 
 duce vaccination. Whilst I was on the Upper Missouri, 
 several surgeons were sent into the country with the In 
 dian agents, where I several times saw the attempts made 
 without success. They have perfect confidence in the skill 
 of their own physicians, until the disease had made one 
 slaughter in their tribe, and then having seen white men 
 amongst them protected by it, they are disposed to receive 
 it, before which they cannot believe that so minute a 
 puncture in the arm is going to protect them from so 
 fatal a disease; and as they see white men so earnestly 
 urging it, they decide that it must be some new mode or 
 trick of pale faces, by which they are to gain some new 
 advantage over them, and they stubbornly and success 
 fully resist it. 
 
ABERMAW, OR BARMOUTH VILLAGE 
 
 RHUDDLAN CASTLE 
 
Appendix 97 
 
 ii 
 
 [Catlin s North American Indians, Volume 2, Pages 781-786] 
 THE WELSH COLONY, 
 
 Which I barely spoke of in page 319, which sailed under 
 the direction of Prince Madoc, or Madawe, from North 
 Wales, in the latter part of the Twelfth century in ten 
 ships, according to numerous and accredited authors, and 
 never returned to their own country, have been supposed 
 to have landed somewhere on the coast of North or South 
 America; and from the best authorities (which I will sup 
 pose everybody had read rather than quote them at this 
 time) I believe it has been pretty clearly proved that 
 they landed either on the coast of Florida or about the 
 mouth of the Mississippi, and according to the history and 
 poetry of their country, settled somewhere in the interior 
 of North America, where they are yet remaining, inter 
 mixed with some of the savage tribes. 
 
 In my letter just referred to, I barely suggested, that 
 the Mandans whom I found with so many peculiarities 
 in looks and customs, which I have already described, 
 might possibly be the remains of this lost colony amal 
 gamated with a tribe, or part of a tribe of natives which 
 would account for the unusual appearances of this tribe 
 of Indians and also for the changed character and cus 
 toms of the Welsh colonists, provided these be the re 
 mains of them. 
 
 Since those notes were written as will have been seen 
 by my subsequent letters, I have descended the Missouri 
 river from the Mandan village, to St. Louis, a distance 
 of eighteen hundred miles, and have taken pains to 
 
98 Appendix 
 
 examine its shores; and from the repeated remains of the 
 ancient location of the Mandans, which I met with on 
 the banks of that river, I am fully convinced that I have 
 traced them down nearly to the mouth of the Ohio River, 
 and from exactly similar appearances, which I recollect 
 to have seen several years since in several places in the 
 interior of the state of Ohio, I am fully convinced that 
 they have formerly occupied that part of the country, 
 and have, from some cause or other, been put in motion, 
 and continued to make their repeated moves until they 
 arrived at the place of their residence at the time of their 
 extinction, on the Upper Missouri. 
 
 These ancient fortifications, which are very numer 
 ous in that vicinity, some of which inclose a great many 
 acres, and being built on the banks of the rivers, with 
 walls in some places twenty or thirty feet in height, with 
 covered ways to the water, evince a knowledge of the 
 science of fortifications, apparently not a century behind 
 that of the present day, were evidently never built by 
 any nation of savages in America, and present to us in- 
 contestible proof of the former existence of a people very 
 far advanced in the arts of civilization, who have, from 
 some cause or other, disappeared, and left these imperish 
 able proofs of their former existence. 
 
 Now, I am inclined to believe that the ten ships of 
 Madoc, or a part of them at least, entered the Mississippi 
 River at the Balize, and made their way up the Missis 
 sippi, or that they landed somewhere on the Florida coast, 
 and that their brave and persevering colonists made their 
 way through the interior to a position on the Ohio River, 
 where they cultivated their fields, and established in one 
 of the finest countries on earth, a flourishing colony; but 
 
Appendix 99 
 
 were at length set upon by the savages, whom, perhaps, 
 they provoked to warfare, being trespassers on their 
 hunting-grounds, and by whom, in overpowering hordes, 
 they were besieged, until it was necessary to erect there 
 fortifications for their defense, into which they were at 
 last driven by a confederacy of tribes, and there held 
 till their ammunition and provisions gave out, and 
 they in the end had all perished except perhaps that 
 portion of them who might have formed alliance by 
 marriage with the Indians, and their off-spring, who 
 would have been half-breeds, and of course attached to 
 the Indians side; whose lives have been spared in the 
 general massacre; and at length, being despised, as all 
 half-breeds of enemies are, have gathered themselves into 
 a band, and severing from their parent tribe, have moved 
 off, and increased in numbers and strength, as they have 
 advanced up the Missouri river to the place where they 
 have been known for many years by the name of 
 Mandans, a corruption or abbreviation, perhaps, of 
 "Madawgwys, " the name applied by the Welsh to the 
 followers of Madawc. 
 
 If this be a startling theory for the world, they will 
 be the more sure to read the following brief reasons which 
 I bring in support of my opinion; and if they do not sup 
 port me, they will at least be worth knowing, and may, 
 at the same time, be the means of eliciting further and 
 more successful inquiry. 
 
 As I have said on page 415 and in other places, the 
 marks of the Mandan villages are known by the excava 
 tions of two feet or more in depth and thirty or forty 
 feet in diameter, of a circular form, made in the ground 
 for the foundations of their wigwams, which leave a de- 
 
ioo Appendix 
 
 cided remain for centuries, and one that is easily detected 
 the moment that it is met with. After leaving the Man- 
 dan village, I found the marks of their former residence 
 about sixty miles below where they were then living, and 
 from which they removed (from their own account) about 
 sixty or eighty years since; and from the appearance of 
 the number of their lodges, I should think, that at that 
 recent date there must have been three times the num 
 ber that were living when I was amongst them. Near 
 the mouth of the big Shienne river, two hundred miles 
 below their last location, I found still more ancient re 
 mains, and in as many as six or seven other places between 
 that and the mouth of the Ohio, and each one, as I vis 
 ited them, appearing more and more ancient, convincing 
 me that these people, wherever they might have come 
 from, have gradually made their moves up the banks of 
 the Missouri, to the place where I visited them. 
 
 For the most part of this distance, they have been 
 in the heart of the great Sioux country, and being looked 
 upon by the Sioux as trespassers, have been continually 
 warred upon by this numerous tribe, who have endeav 
 ored to extinguish them, as they have been endeavoring 
 to do ever since our first acquaintance with them; but 
 who being always fortified by a strong piquet or stock 
 ade, have successfully withstood the assaults of their en 
 emies, and preserved the remnant of their tribe. Through 
 this sort of gauntlet they have run, in passing through 
 the countries of these warlike and hostile tribes. 
 
 It may be objected to this, perhaps, that the Ricca- 
 rees and the Minatarees build their wigwams in the same 
 way, but this proves nothing for the Minatarees are Crows, 
 from the northwest; and by their own showing fled to 
 
Appendix 101 
 
 the Mandans for protection, and forming their villages 
 by the side of them, built their wigwams in the same 
 manner. 
 
 The Riccarees have been a very small tribe, far in 
 ferior to the Mandans, and by the traditions of the Man- 
 dans, as well as from the evidence of the first explorers, 
 Lewis and Clark, and others, have lived, until quite late 
 ly, on terms of intimacy with the Mandans, whose vil 
 lages they have successively occupied as the Mandans 
 have moved and vacated them, as they are now doing, 
 since disease has swept the whole of the Mandans away. 
 
 Whether my derivation of the word Mandan from 
 Madawgwys be correct or not, I will pass it over to the 
 world at present merely as presumptive proof, for want 
 of better, which perhaps, this inquiry may elicit; and at 
 the same time, I offer the Welsh word Mandon (the wood- 
 roof, a species of madder used as a red dye) as the name 
 that might possibly have been applied by the Welsh 
 neighbors to these people on account of their very ingeni 
 ous mode of giving the beautiful red and other dyes to 
 the porcupine quills with which they garnish their dresses. 
 In their own language they called themselves See-pohs- 
 ke-nu-mah-kee (the people of the pheasants) which was 
 probably the name of the primitive stock, before they 
 were mixed with any other people; and to have got such 
 a name, it is natural to suppose that they must have come 
 from a country where pheasants existed, which cannot 
 be found short of reaching the timbered country at the 
 base of the Rocky mountains, some six or eight hundred 
 miles west of the Mandans, or the forests of Indiana and 
 Ohio, some hundreds of miles to the south and east of 
 where they last lived, 
 
102 Appendix 
 
 The above facts, together with the one which they 
 repeatedly related to me, and which I have before alluded 
 to, that they had often been to the hill of the Red Pipe 
 Stone, and that they once lived near it, carry conclusive 
 evidence, I think, that they formerly occupied a country 
 much farther to the south; and that they have repeated 
 ly changed their locations, until they reached the spot 
 of their last residence, where they have met with their 
 final misfortune. And as evidence in support of my opin 
 ion that they came from the banks of the Ohio, and have 
 brought with them some of the customs of the civilized 
 people who erected those ancient fortifications, I am able 
 to say, that the numerous specimens of pottery which 
 have been taken from the graves and tumuli about those 
 ancient works, (many of which may be seen now, in the 
 Cincinnati Museum, and some of which, my own dona 
 tions, and which have so much surprised the inquiring 
 world) were to be seen in great numbers in the use of 
 the Mandans; and scarcely a day in the summer, when 
 the visitor to their village would not see the women at 
 work with their hands and fingers, moulding them from 
 black clay, into vases, cups, pitchers, and pots, and 
 baking them in their little kilns in the sides of the hill, or 
 under the bank of the river. 
 
 In addition to this art, which I am sure belongs to 
 no other tribe on the continent, these people have 
 also, as a secret with themselves, the extraordinary 
 art of manufacturing a very beautiful and lasting kind 
 of blue glass beads, which they wear on their necks 
 in great quantities, and decidedly value them above 
 all others that are brought amongst them by the Fur 
 Traders. 
 
Appendix 103 
 
 This secret is not only one that the Traders did not 
 introduce amongst them, but one that they cannot learn 
 from them; and at the same time, beyond a doubt, an 
 art that has been introduced amongst them by some civ 
 ilized people, as it is as yet unknown to other Indian 
 tribes in that vicinity or elsewhere. Of this interesting 
 fact, Lewis and Clark have given an account thirty-three 
 years ago, at a time when no Traders or other white peo 
 ple had been amongst the Mandans, to have taught them 
 so curious an art. 
 
 The Mandan canoes which are altogether different from 
 those of all other tribes, are exactly the Welsh caracle, 
 made of raw hides, the skins of buffaloes, stretched un 
 derneath a frame made of willow or other boughs and 
 shaped nearly round, like a tub; which the woman car 
 ries on her head from her wigwam to the water s edge, 
 and having stepped into it, stands in front, and propels 
 it by dipping her paddle forward and drawing it to her 
 instead of paddling by the side. 
 
 How far these extraordinary facts may go in the esti 
 mation of the reader, with numerous others I have men 
 tioned in volume i, whilst speaking of Mandans, of their 
 various complexions, colors of hair, and blue and grey 
 eyes, towards establishing my opinion as a sound theory, 
 I cannot say; but this much I can safely aver, that at 
 the moment I first saw these people, I was so struck with 
 the peculiarity of their appearance, that I was under the 
 instant conviction that they were an amalgam of a na 
 tive with some civilized race; and from what I have seen 
 of them, and of the remains on the Missouri and Ohio 
 rivers, I feel fully convinced that these people have emi 
 grated from the latter stream; and that they have, in 
 
104 Appendix 
 
 the manner that I have already stated, with many of 
 their customs, been preserved from the almost total de 
 struction of the bold colonists of Madawe, who, I believe, 
 settled upon and occupied for a century or so, the rich 
 and fertile banks of the Ohio. 
 
 in 
 
 THE ISLAND OF ATLANTIS 
 
 [Windsor s Narrative and Critical History of the United States, Volume 1. Pages 15-21] 
 
 The story of Atlantis, by its own interest and the 
 skill of its author, has made by far the deepest impres 
 sion. Plato, having given in the Republic a picture of 
 the ideal political organization, the state, sketched in the 
 Timasus the history of creation, and the origin and 
 development of mankind; in the Critias he apparently 
 intended to exhibit the action of two types of political 
 bodies involved in a life and death contest. The latter 
 dialogue was unfinished, but its purport had been 
 sketched in the opening of Timasus. Critias there relates 
 "a strange tale but certainly true as Solon declared, 
 which had come down in his family from his ancestor 
 Dropidas, a near relative of Solon. When Solon was in 
 Egypt he fell into talk with an aged priest of Sais, 
 who said to him : Solon, Solon, you Greeks are all 
 children, there is not one old man in Greece. You 
 have no traditions, and know of but one deluge, 
 whereas there have been many destructions of mankind, 
 both by flood, and fire. Egypt alone has escaped 
 them, and in Egypt alone is ancient history recorded; 
 you are ignorant of your own past. For long before 
 
BEAUMARIS VILLAGE 
 
 ENTRANCE TO BEAUMARIS CASTLE 
 
Appendix 105 
 
 Deucalion, nine thousand years ago, there was an 
 Athens founded, like Sais, by Athena; a city rich in pow 
 er and wisdom, famed for mighty deeds, the greatest of 
 which was this. At that time there lay opposite the col 
 umns of Hercules, in the Atlantic, which was then navi 
 gable, an island larger than Libya and Asia together, 
 from which sailors could pass to other islands, and so to 
 the continent. The sea in front of the straits is indeed 
 but a small harbor; that which lay beyond the island, 
 however, is worthy of the name, and the land which sur 
 rounds that greater sea may be truly called the continent. 
 In this island of Atlantis had grown up a mighty power, 
 whose kings were descended from Poseidon, and had ex 
 tended their sway over many islands and over a portion 
 of the great continent; even Libya up to the gates of 
 Egypt and Europe as far as Tyrrhenia, submitted to their 
 sway. Ever harder they pressed upon the other nations 
 of the known world seeking the subjugation of the whole. 
 Then O Solon, did the strength of your republic become 
 clear to all men, by reason of her courage and force. Fore 
 most in the arts of war, she met the invader at the head 
 of Greece; abandoned by her allies she triumphed alone 
 over the western foe; delivering from the yoke all the 
 nations within the columns. But afterwards came a day 
 and night of great floods and earthquakes; the earth en 
 gulfed all the Athenians who were capable of bearing arms, 
 and Atlantis disappeared, swallowed by the waves; hence 
 it is that this sea is no longer navigable from the vast 
 mud- shoals formed by the vanished island. This talk so 
 impressed Solon that he meditated an epic on the subject, 
 but on his return, stress of public business prevented his 
 design. In the Critias the empire and chief city of 
 
io6 Appendix 
 
 Atlantis is described with wealth of detail, and the descent 
 of the royal family from Atlas, son of Poseidon, and a 
 nymph of the island, is set forth. In the midst of a coun 
 cil upon Olympus, where Zeus, in true epic style, was 
 revealing to the gods his designs concerning the approach 
 ing war, the dialogue breaks off." 
 
 Such is the talk of Atlantis. Read in Plato, the na 
 ture and meaning of the narrative seem clear, but the 
 commentators, ancient and modern, have made wild work. 
 The voyage of Odysseus has grown marvelously in extent 
 since he abandoned the sea ; lo has found the pens of 
 the learned more potent goads than Hera s gadfly; but 
 the travels of Atlantis have been even more extraordinary. 
 No region has been so remote, no land so opposed by 
 location, extent, or history to the words of Plato, but 
 that some acute investigator has found in it the origin 
 of the lost island. It has been identified with Africa, 
 with Spitzbergen, with Palestine. The learned Latreille 
 convinced himself that Persia best fulfilled the conditions 
 of the problem; the more than learned Rudbeck ardent 
 ly supported the claims of Sweden through three folios. 
 In such a search America could not be overlooked. Go- 
 mara, Guillaume de Postel, Wytfliet, are among those 
 who have believed that this continent was Atlantis; San- 
 son in 1669, and Vaugondy in 1762, ventured to issue a 
 map, upon which the division of that island among the 
 sons of Neptune was applied to America, and the out 
 skirts of the lost continent were extended to New Zea 
 land. Such work, of course, needs no serious consider 
 ation. Plato is our authority, and Plato declares that 
 Atlantis lay not far west from Spain, and that it disap 
 peared some 8,000 years before his day. An inquiry into 
 
Appendix 107 
 
 the truth or meaning of the record as it stands is quite 
 justifiable, and has been several times undertaken, with 
 divergent results. Some, notably Paul Gaffarel and Igna 
 tius Donnelly, are convinced that Plato merely adapted 
 to his purpose a story which Solon had actually brought 
 from Egypt and which was in all essentials true. Corrob- 
 oration of the existence of such an island in the Atlantic 
 is found, according to these writers, in the physical con 
 formation of the Atlantic basin, and in marked resemblance 
 between the flora, fauna, civilization and language of the 
 old and new worlds, which demand for their explanation 
 the prehistoric existence of just such a bridge as Atlantis 
 would have supplied. The Atlantic islands are the loft 
 iest peaks and plateaus of the submerged islands. In 
 the widely spread deluge myths Mr. Donnelly finds strong 
 confirmation of the final cataclysm. He places in Atlantis 
 that primitive culture which M. Bailly sought in the high 
 lands of Asia, and President Warren refers to the North 
 Pole. Space fails for a proper examination of the matter 
 but these ingenious arguments remain somewhat top- 
 heavy when all is said. The argument from ethnological 
 resemblance is of all arguments the weakest in the hands 
 of advocates. It is of value only when wielded by men 
 of judicial temperament who can weigh differences against 
 likenesses, and allow for the narrow range of nature s 
 moulds. The existence of the ocean plateaus revealed by 
 the soundings of the "Dolphin" and the "Challenger" 
 prove nothing as to their having been once raised above 
 the waves; the most of the Atlantic islands are sharply 
 cut off from them. Even granting the pre-historic migra 
 tions of plants and animals between Europe and America, 
 as we grant it between America and Asia, it does not 
 
io8 Appendix 
 
 follow that it took place across mid-ocean, and it would 
 still be a long step from the botanic "bridge" and ele 
 vated "ridge" to the island empire of Plato. In short, 
 the conservative view advocated by Longinus, that the 
 story was designed by Plato as a literary ornament and 
 a philosophic illustration, is no less probable to-day than 
 when it was suggested in the schools of Alexandria. At 
 lantis is a literary myth, belonging with Utopia, the New 
 Atlantis, and the Orbis alter et idem of Bishop Hall. 
 
 IV 
 
 THE TRADITION OF PRINCE MADOC OF WALES IN AMERICA 
 
 ABOUT 1170 
 
 [Bryant and Gay s History of the United States, Volume 1, Pages 66-70] 
 
 The tradition that America was discovered about the 
 year 1170 by a Welsh prince named Madog, or Madoc, is 
 still more circumstantial and attempts to support it by 
 later evidence have been made from time to time for the 
 last two hundred years. Even so cautious and judicial a 
 critic as Humboldt says in allusion to it: "I do not share 
 the scorn with which national traditions are too often 
 treated and am of the opinion that with more research 
 the discovery of facts, entirely unknown, would throw 
 much light on many historical problems. 
 
 Certainly we are not to forget the distinction between a 
 tradition and an invention; it is impossible to establish 
 the one, and, as a lie can never be made the truth, it is 
 not worth repeating; but the other is an honest relation, 
 accepted as such by those who first repeated it, and which 
 may yet be sustained by evidence. This tradition rela- 
 
Appendix 109 
 
 ting to Madoc had, no doubt, some actual basis of truth, 
 however much it may have been misapprehended; the 
 evidence adduced from time to time in support of it has 
 been believed by many, and is curious and entertaining; 
 the tradition itself in its original baldness has found a place 
 in historical narrative for three hundred years; for each 
 and all of these reasons it demands brief consideration. 
 The story was first related in Caradoc s "History of 
 Wales" published by Mr. David Powell, in 1584. Cara 
 doc s history, however, came down only to 1157, and 
 Humphrey Llwyd (Llyod) who translated it, added the 
 later story of Madoc. Llyod received it from Guttun 
 Owen, a bard who about the year 1480, copied the regis 
 ters of current events which, as late as the year 1270, 
 were kept in the abbeys of Conway, North Wales, and 
 Strat Flur, South Wales, and compared together every 
 three years by the bards belonging to the two houses. 
 Another bard, Cynfrig ab Gronow, referred to the tradi 
 tion of western discovery by Madoc about the same time 
 with Owen; and another allusion to it is claimed in the 
 following lines, literally translated, written three years 
 earlier by Sir Meredyth ab Rhy: 
 
 "On a Happy Hour, I, on the water 
 Of manners mild, the Huntsman will be, 
 Madog bold of pleasing Countenance, 
 Of the true Lineage of Owen Gwyned. 
 I coveted not Land, my ambition was, 
 Not great wealth, but the seas." 
 
 This may certainly be accepted as conclusive evidence, 
 at least, that the mild-mannered and good-looking prince 
 was fond of the sea; but it is difficult to find anything 
 else in it that can be supposed to refer to the discovery 
 
1 10 Appendix 
 
 of America. The only real authorities may properly be 
 considered as reduced to two the bards Guttun Owen 
 and Cynfrig ab Gronow. 
 
 The story is briefly this: When Owen Gwynnedd, 
 Prince of North Wales, was gathered to his fathers, a 
 strife arose among his sons as to who should reign in his 
 stead. The eldest legitimate son, Edward, was put aside 
 as unfit to govern "because of the maime upon his face," 
 he was known as "Edward with the broken-nose," and 
 the government was seized by Howel who was illegiti 
 mate, "a base son begotten of an Irish woman." But 
 the next brother, David, refusing allegiance to this Howel, 
 and civil war followed. At length the usurper was killed 
 in battle, and the rightful heritage established, David 
 holding the reins of government as regent till the son of 
 Edward, eldest brother, was of age. In this contention, 
 Madoc took no part, but endeavored to escape from it; 
 which inasmuch as it was a struggle for the lineal suc 
 cession of his family, was not much to his credit. Leav 
 ing his brothers (about 1170) to fight it out among them, 
 he got together a fleet and put to sea in search of adven 
 tures. He sailed westward, leaving Ireland to the North, 
 which it may be remarked, is nearly the only thing he 
 could do in sailing from Wales, unless he laid his course 
 northward through the Irish Sea. But at length he came 
 to an unknown country, where the natives differed from 
 any people he had ever seen before, and all things were 
 strange and new. Seeing that this land was pleasant 
 and fertile, he put on shore and left behind most of those 
 in his ships and returned to Wales. 
 
 Coming among his friends again, after so eventful a 
 voyage, he told them of the fair and extensive region he 
 
Appendix 1 1 1 
 
 had found; there, he assured them, they could live in peace 
 and plenty, instead of cutting each other s throats for 
 the possession of a rugged district of rocks and moun 
 tains. The advantages he offered were so obvious, or his 
 eloquence so persuasive that enough determined to go 
 with him to fill ten ships. There is no account of their 
 ever having returned to Wales; but on the contrary, it 
 is said "they followed the manners of the land they came 
 to, and used the language they found there, "a state 
 ment which, if true, not only proves that they did not 
 return, but that some intercourse was preserved with 
 their native land. Their numbers, nevertheless, must have 
 been sufficient to have formed a considerable colony, and 
 if, as the narrative asserts, the new country "was void 
 of inhabitants (meaning probably that it was only sparse 
 ly peopled) it is difficult to believe that they could have 
 become so entirely assimilated to the savages as to lose 
 their own customs and their own tongue. 
 
 Moreover, if such were the fact, it destroys all other 
 evidence which was supposed to be subsequently found, 
 of the existence of such a colony. That supposed evi 
 dence is, that a tribe of Indians of light complexion and 
 speaking the old British language, was found within the 
 present limits of the United States in the seventeenth 
 century, and the traces of such a people were still evident 
 at a quite recent period. 
 
 The earliest testimony on this point is a letter to Dr. 
 Thomas Llyod of Pennsylvania, and by him transmitted 
 to his brother, Mr. C. H. S. Llyod in Wales. The letter 
 purported to have been written by the Rev. Morgan Jones 
 and was dated New York, March 10, 1685-6, more than 
 half a century before its publication in the Magazine. 
 
I 12 
 
 Appendix 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Jones declares that in the year 1660, twen 
 ty-five years before the date of the letter, he was sent 
 as chaplain of an expedition from Virginia to Port Royal, 
 South Carolina, where he remained eight months. Suffer 
 ing much from want of food, he and five others at the 
 end of that time started to return to Virginia by land. 
 On the way they were taken prisoners by an Indian tribe, 
 the Tuscaroras, and condemned to die. On hearing this 
 sentence, Mr. Jones, being much dejected, exclaimed, in 
 the British (i. e. Welsh) tongue, "Have I escaped so 
 many dangers, and must I now be knocked on the head 
 like a dog ? Immediately he was seized around the waist 
 by a War Captain, belonging to the Doegs, and assured 
 in the same language that he should not die. He was 
 immediately taken to the "Emperor of the Tuscaroras" 
 and with his five companions, ransomed. The Providen 
 tial Doeg took them to his own village, where they were 
 kindly welcomed and hospitably entertained. For four 
 months, Mr. Jones remained among these Indians, often 
 conversing with them, and preaching to them three times 
 a week in the British tongue. The conclusion is that 
 these Indians were descendants of the Welsh colonists 
 under Madoc. 
 
RUTHIN CASTLE 
 
 HAWARDEN CASTLE 
 
Appendix 1 1 3 
 
 THE ISLAND OF ATLANTIS AND THE ABORIGINES 
 OF AMERICA 
 
 [Bancroft s Native Races, Volume 5, Pages 125-132] 
 
 Foremost among those who have held and advocated 
 this opinion stands the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg. 
 This distinguished Americaniste goes farther than his fel 
 lows, however, in that he attempts to prove that all civi 
 lization originated in America, or the Occident, instead 
 of in the Orient, as has always been supposed. This the 
 ory he endeavors to substantiate not so much by the 
 Old World traditions as by those of the New World, us 
 ing as his principal authority an anonymous manuscript 
 written in the Nahua language; which he entitles the Co 
 dex Chimalpopoca. This work purports to be on the face 
 of it a " History of the Kingdoms of Calhuacan and Mex 
 ico" and as such it served Brasseur as almost his sole 
 authority for the Toltec period of his Historic des nations 
 Civilisees. At that time the learned Abbe regarded the 
 Atlantis theory, at least so far as it referred to any part 
 of America, as an absurd conjecture resting upon no au 
 thentic basis. In a later work, however, he more than 
 retracts this assertion; from a skeptic he is suddenly 
 transformed into a most devout and enthusiastic believer, 
 and attempts to prove by a most elaborate course of 
 reasoning that that which he before doubted is indubi 
 tably true. The cause of this sudden change was a strange 
 one. As by constant study, he became more profoundly 
 learned in the literature of ancient America, the Abbe 
 discovered that he had entirely misinterpreted the Codex 
 
ii4 Appendix 
 
 Chamalpopoca. The annals recorded so plainly upon the 
 face of the mystic pages were intended only for the un 
 derstanding of the vulgar; the stories of the kings, the 
 history of the kingdoms, were allegorical and not to be 
 considered . literally, deep below the surface lay the true 
 historic record hidden from all save the priests and the 
 wise men of the West of the mighty cataclysm which 
 submerged the cradle of all civilization. Excepting a 
 dozen, perhaps of the kings who preceded Montezuma, 
 it is not a history of men, but of American nature, that 
 must be sought for in the Mexican manuscripts and paint 
 ings. The Toltecs, so long regarded as an ancient civi 
 lized race, destroyed in the Eleventh century by their 
 enemies, are really telluric forces, agents of subterranean 
 fire, the veritable smiths of Orcus and of Lemnos, of which 
 Tollan was the symbol, the true masters of civilization 
 and art, who by the mighty convulsions which they caused 
 communicated to men a knowledge of minerals. 
 
 I know of no man better qualified than was Brasseur 
 de Bourbourg to penetrate the obscurity of American 
 primitive history. His familiarity with the Nahua and 
 Central American languages, his indefatigable industry 
 and general erudition, rendered him eminently fit for such 
 a task, and every word written by such a man on such 
 a subject is entitled to respectful consideration. Never 
 theless, there is reason to believe that the Abbe was often 
 rapt away from the truth by excess of enthusiasm, and 
 the reader of his wild and fanciful speculations cannot 
 but regret that he has not the opportunity or ability to 
 intelligently criticise by comparison the French savant s 
 interpretation of the original documents. At all events, 
 it is certain that he honestly believed in the truth of his 
 
Appendix 1 1 5 
 
 own discovery, for when he admitted that, in the light 
 of his better knowledge, the Toltec history, as recorded 
 in the Codex Chimalpopoca, was an allegory, that no 
 such people as the Toltecs ever existed, in fact, and 
 thereby rendered valueless his own history of the Toltec 
 period, he made a sacrifice of labor, unique, I think, in 
 the annals of literature. 
 
 Brasseur s theory supposes that the continent of Amer 
 ica occupied originally the Gulf of Mexico and the Car- 
 ribean Sea, and extended in the form of a peninsula so 
 far across the Atlantic that the Canary Islands may have 
 formed part of it. All this extended portion of the con 
 tinent was many ages ago engulfed by a tremendous con 
 vulsion of nature, of which traditions and written records 
 have been preserved by many American peoples. Yuca 
 tan, Honduras, and Guatemala were also submerged, but 
 the continent subsequently rose sufficiently to rescue them 
 from the ocean. The testimony of many modern men of 
 science tends to show that there existed at one time a 
 vast extent of dry land between Europe and America. 
 
 ****** * 
 
 It only remains now to speak of the theory which as 
 cribes an autochthonic origin to the Americans. The time 
 is not long past when such a supposition would have 
 been regarded as impious, and even at this day its advo 
 cates may expect discouragement if not rebuke from cer 
 tain quarters. It is nevertheless an opinion worthy of 
 the gravest consideration, and one which, if we may 
 judge by the recent results of scientific investigation, may 
 eventually prove to be scientifically correct. In the pre 
 ceding pages, it will have been remarked that no theory of 
 a foreign origin has been proven, or even fairly sustained. 
 
n6 Appendix 
 
 The particulars in which the Americans are shown to 
 resemble any given people of the Old World are insignifi 
 cant in number and importance when compared with the 
 particulars in which they do not resemble that people. 
 As I have remarked elsewhere, it is not impossible 
 that stray ships of many nations have at various times 
 and in various places been cast upon the American coast, 
 or even that adventurous spirits, who were familiar with 
 the old-time stories of a western land, may have design 
 edly sailed westward until they reached America, and 
 have never returned to tell the tale. The result of such 
 desultory visits would be exactly what has been noticed, 
 but erroneously attributed to immigration en masse. The 
 strangers, were their lives spared, would settle among the 
 people, and impart their ideas and knowledge to them. 
 The knowledge would not take any very definite shape 
 or have any very decided effect, for the reason that the 
 sailors and adventurers who would be likely to land in 
 America under such circumstances would not be thorough 
 ly versed in the arts or sciences; still they would know 
 many things that were unknown to their captors, or hosts, 
 and would doubtless be able to suggest many improve 
 ments. This, then would account for many Old World 
 ideas and customs that have been detected here and there 
 in America, while at the same time the difficulty which 
 arises from the fact that the resemblances, though strik 
 ing are yet very few, would be satisfactorily avoided. 
 The foreigners, if adopted by the people they fell among, 
 would of course marry women of the country and beget 
 children, but it cannot be expected that the physical pe 
 culiarities so transmitted would be perceptible after a gen 
 eration or two of re-marrying with the aboriginal stock. 
 
Appendix 1 1 7 
 
 At the same time, I think it just as probable that the 
 analogies referred to are mere coincidences, such as might 
 be found among any civilized or semi-civilized people of 
 the earth. It may be argued that the various American 
 tribes and nations differ so materially from each other as 
 to render it extremely improbable that they are derived 
 from one original stock, but, however this may be, the 
 difference can scarcely be greater than that which appar 
 ently exists between many of the Aryan branches. 
 
 Hence it is that many not unreasonably assume that 
 the Americans are autochthons until there is some good 
 ground for believing them to be of exotic origin. To ex 
 press belief, however, in a theory incapable of proof ap 
 pears to me idle. Indeed, such belief is not belief; it is 
 merely acquiescing in or accepting a hypothesis or tradi 
 tion until the contrary is proved. No one at the present 
 day can tell the origin of the Americans; they may have 
 come from any one, or from all the hypothetical sources 
 enumerated in the foregoing pages, and here the question 
 must rest until we have more light upon the subject. 
 
 VI 
 
 LETTER OF GEORGE CHROCHAN TO GOVERNOR DINWIDDIE 
 
 [Burder a Welch Indians in America, Pages 11-13] 
 
 Winchefter, Auguft 24, 1753. 
 May It Please Your Honor: 
 
 Laft year I underftood, by Col. Lomax, that your 
 Honour would be glad to have fome information of a na 
 tion of people fettled to the weft on a large river that 
 runs to the Pacific Ocean, commonly called the Welch 
 
n8 Appendix 
 
 Indians. As I had an opportunity of gathering fome ac 
 count of thofe people I make bold, at the inftance of Col. 
 Creflup, to fend you the following accounts. As I for 
 merly had an opportunity of being acquainted with fev- 
 eral French Traders, and particularly with one that was 
 bred up from his infancy amongft the Weftern Indians, 
 on the weft side of the lake Erie, he informed me, that 
 the firft intelligence the French had of them was by fome 
 Indians fettled at the back of New Spain; who, in their 
 way home, happened to lofe themf elves, and fell down 
 on this fettlement of people which they took to be French, 
 by their talking very quick; fo, on their return to Canada, 
 they informed the Governor, that there was a large fettle 
 ment of French on a river that ran to the fun s fetting; 
 that they were no Indians, although they lived within 
 themf elves as Indians; for they could not perceive that 
 they traded with any people or had any trade to fea, for 
 they had no boats or fhips as they could fee and though 
 they had guns amongft them, yet they were fo old, and 
 fo much out of order, that they made no ufe of them, 
 but hunted with their bows and arrows for the fupport 
 of their families. 
 
 On this account, the Governor of Canada determined 
 to fend a party to difcover whether they were French 
 or not, and had 300 men raifed for that purpofe. But 
 when they were ready to go, the Indians would not go 
 with them, but told the Governor that if he fent but a 
 few men, they would go and fhew them the country; on 
 which the Governor fent three young priefts, who dreffed 
 themfelves in Indian dreffes and went with thofe Indians 
 to the place where thefe people were fettled, and found 
 them to be Welch. They brought fome old Welch Bibles 
 
Appendix 1 i 9 
 
 to fatisfy the Governor that they were there, and they 
 told the Governor that thefe people had a great averfion 
 to the French; for they found by them, that they had 
 been at firft fettled at the mouth of the river Miffiffippi, 
 but had been almoft cut off by the French there. So 
 that a fmall remnant of them efcaped back to where they 
 were then fettled, but had fince become a numerous peo 
 ple. The Governor of Canada, on this account, deter 
 mined to raife an army of French Indians to go and cut 
 them off; but as the French have been embarraffed in war 
 with feveral other nations nearer home, I believe they 
 have laid that project afide. The man who furnifhed me 
 with this account told me, that the meffengers, who went 
 to make this difcovery, were gone fixteen months before 
 they returned to Canada, fo that thofe people muft live 
 at a great diftance from thence due weft. This is the 
 moft particular account I ever could get of thofe people 
 as yet. I am, 
 
 Your Honour s 
 
 Moft Obedient Humble Servant 
 (Signed) GEORGE CHROCHAN. 
 
 N. B. Governor Dinwiddie agreed with three or 
 four of the back traders to go in quest of the Welch 
 Indians, and promifed to give them 500 for that purpofe; 
 but he was recalled before they could fet out on that 
 expedition. 
 
I2O 
 
 Appendix 
 
 VII 
 SPEECH OF CARACTACUS BEFORE THE EMPEROR CLAUDIUS 
 
 [Annals of Tacitus, Book 12, Chapter 36-37] 
 
 Caractacus himself sought the protection of Cartisman- 
 .dua queen of the Brigantes, but as is generally the case, 
 adversity can find no sure refuge; he was delivered up 
 in chains to the conquerors, in the ninth year after the 
 commencement of the war in Britain. Whence his renown 
 overpassing the limits of the isles, spread over the neigh 
 boring provinces, and became celebrated even in Italy, 
 where all longed to behold the man who, for so many 
 years, had defied the Roman arms; not even at Rome 
 was the name of Caractacus unassociated with fame; and 
 the emperor while exalting his own glory, added to that 
 of the vanquished. For the people were summoned to 
 see him, as a rare spectacle; and the praetorian bands 
 stood under arms in the field before their camp. Then 
 first the servants and followers of the British king moved 
 in procession, and the trappings and collars, and all he 
 had taken in wars with his neighbors, were borne along; 
 next came his brothers, his wife and daughter; and last 
 himself, attracting the gaze of all. All the rest descended 
 to humiliating supplications under the impulse of fear; 
 but Caractacus, who seemed not to solicit compassion 
 either by dejected looks or pitiful expressions, as soon as 
 he was placed before the imperial tribunal, thus spoke: 
 
 " If my moderation in prosperity had been as great as 
 my lineage was noble and my successes brilliant, I should 
 have entered this city as a friend, rather than as a cap 
 tive; nor would you then have disdained to receive a 
 
WELSH POOL VILLAGE 
 
 POWIS CASTLE 
 
Appendix 1 2 1 
 
 prince descended from illustrious ancestors, and the ruler 
 of many nations, into terms of alliance. My present lot, 
 as it is to me ignominious and degrading, so it is a mat 
 ter of glory and triumph to you. I had men and arms, 
 horses and riches; where is the wonder if I was unwilling 
 to part with them? If you Romans aim at extending 
 your dominion over all mankind, it does not follow that 
 all men should take the yoke upon them. Had I at once 
 been delivered into your hands a prisoner at discretion, 
 neither had my lot nor your glory been thus signal. If 
 you inflict punishment upon me, the affair will sink into 
 oblivion; but if you preserve my life, I shall form an im 
 perishable record of your clemency." 
 
 Claudius upon this pardoned him, with his wife and 
 his brothers. The prisoners released from their chains, 
 did homage to Agrippa also, who at a short distance oc 
 cupied another throne, in full view of the assembly with 
 the same expressions of praise and gratitude as they had 
 employed to the emperor. A spectacle this, strange and 
 unauthorized by the customs of our ancestors, for a wo 
 man to preside over the Roman ensigns. She herself, 
 claimed to be a partner in the empire which her ances 
 tors had acquired. 
 
122 
 
 Appendix 
 
 VIII 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE WELSH ACCORDING TO THE 
 HISTORIAN GIRALDUS 
 
 [Knight s Popular History of England, Volume 1, Pages 278-9] 
 
 Light and active, hardy rather than strong, the nation 
 universally is trained to arms. Flesh is consumed by the 
 people more than bread with milk, cheese and butter. 
 With this pastoral character, having little agriculture, they 
 are always ready for war; and they have neither com 
 merce nor manufactures. They fish with the little wicker 
 boats which they carry to their rivers. Lightly armed 
 with small breastplates, helmets and shields, they attack 
 their mailed foes with lance and arrow. They have some 
 cavalry, but the marshy nature of the soil compels the 
 greater number to fight on foot. Abstemious both in 
 food and drink, frugal and capable of bearing great pri 
 vations, they watch their enemies through the cold and 
 stormy nights, always bent upon defence or plunder. 
 Their hospitality is universal; for the houses of all are 
 common to all. The conversation of the young women, 
 and the music of the harp, give a charm to their humble 
 fare; and no jealousy interferes with the freedom with 
 which a stranger is welcomed by the females of the house 
 hold. When the evening meal is finished, a bed of rushes 
 is placed in the side of the room, and all without dis 
 tinction lie down to sleep. The men and women cut 
 their hair close round to the ears and eyes; and the men 
 shave all their beard except their whiskers. Of their 
 white teeth, they are particularly careful. They are of 
 an acute intellect, and excel in whatever studies they pur- 
 
Appendix 123 
 
 sue. They have three musical instruments, the harp, the 
 pipe, and the crowd; and their performances are executed 
 with such celerity and delicacy of modulation, that they 
 produce a perfect consonance from the rapidity of seem 
 ingly discordant touches. Their bards, in their rhymed 
 songs, and their orators, in their set speeches, make use 
 of alliteration in preference to all other ornament. In 
 their musical concerts they do not sing in unison, but in 
 many different parts; and it is unusual to hear a simple 
 melody well sung. The heads of families think it is their 
 duty to amuse their guests by their facetiousness. The 
 highest, as well as the lowest of the people, have a re 
 markable boldness and confidence in speaking and answer 
 ing; and their natural warmth of temper is distinguished 
 from the English coldness of disposition. They have 
 many soothsayers among them. Noble birth, and gener 
 ous descent,, they esteem above all things. Even the 
 common people retain genealogy. They revenge with ve 
 hemence any injuries which may tend to the disgrace of 
 their blood, whether an ancient or a recent affront. They 
 are universally devout, and they show a greater respect 
 than other nations to churches and ecclesiastical persons, 
 and especially revere relics of saints. Giraldus, having de 
 scribed at much length the particulars which redound to 
 the credit of the British nation (for so he calls the Welch) 
 then proceeds to those things which pass the line of en 
 comium. The people, he says, are inconstant, and regard 
 less of any covenant. They commit acts of plunder, not 
 only against foreigners, and hostile nations, but against 
 their own countrymen. Bold in their warlike onsets, 
 they cannot bear a repulse, and trust to flight for safety; 
 but defeated one day, they are ready to resume the 
 
124 Appendix 
 
 conflict on the next. Their ancient national custom of di 
 viding property amongst all the brothers of a house leads 
 to perpetual contests for possessions, and frequent fratri 
 cides. They constantly intermarry within the forbidden 
 degrees, uniting themselves to their own people, presum 
 ing on their own superiority of blood and family; and 
 they rarely marry without previous cohabitation. Their 
 churches have almost as many parties and parsons as 
 there are principal men in the parish; the sons after the 
 decease of the father, succeed to the ecclesiastical bene 
 fices, not by election, but by assumed hereditary right. 
 Finally, in setting forth how this people is to be subdued, 
 and preserved to the English crown, Giraldus says that, 
 from the pride and obstinacy of their dispositions, they 
 will not, like other nations, subject themselves to the 
 dominion of one lord and king. How long a time it was 
 before that subjection was even imperfectly accomplished, 
 will be seen as we proceed in our narrative. 
 
 THE TRADITION OF THE WELSH IN AMERICA IN THE 
 
 TWELFTH CENTURY SOMETHING MORE 
 
 THAN MERE CONJECTURE 
 
 [The Universal History, Volume 20, Pages 193-4] 
 
 That the Welch contributed towards the peopling of 
 America, is intimated by fome good authors; and ought 
 to be confidered as a notion fupporting more than bare 
 conjectures. Powell, in his hiftory of Wales, informs us, 
 that a war happening in that country for the fuccefrlon, 
 upon the death of their prince Owen Guinneth, A. D. 
 
Appendix 125 
 
 1170, and a baftard having carried it from his lawful 
 fons, one of the latter, named Madoc, put to sea for new 
 difcoveries; and sailing weft from Spain, he dif covered a 
 new world of wonderful beauty and fertility. But finding 
 this uninhabited, upon his return, he carried thither a 
 great number of people from Wales. To this delightful 
 country he made three voyages, according to Hakluyt. 
 The places he dif covered feem to be Virginia, New Eng 
 land, and the adjacent countries. In confirmation of 
 this, Peter Martyr fays, that the natives of Virginia and 
 Guatimala, celebrated the memory of one Madoc, as a 
 great and ancient hero; and hence it came to pafs, that 
 modern travelers have found feveral old Britifh words 
 among the inhabitants of North America. The fame 
 author mentions the words Matoc-Zunga and Mat-Inga, 
 as being in ufe among the Guatimallians, in which there 
 is a plain allufion to Madoc, and that with the d softened 
 into t, according to the Welch manner of pronunciation. 
 Nay, Bifhop Nicolfon feems to believe, that the Welch 
 language makes a confiderable part of feveral of the Amer 
 ican tongues. According to a famous Britifh antiquary, 
 the Spaniards borrowed their double L (LL) from the 
 people of Mexico, who received it from the Welch, and 
 the Dutch brought a bird with a white head from the 
 Streights of Magellan called by the natives Penguin ; which 
 word, in the old British, fignifies White-head, and there 
 fore feems originally to have come from Wales. This 
 muft be allowed an additional argument, to omit others 
 that occur, in favor of Madoc s three American expedi 
 tions. 
 
i26 Appendix 
 
 REVEREND JOHN WILLIAMS, LL. D. 
 
 John Williams, an eminent dissenting minister and 
 scholar, was born in Wales in 1726 and died in 1798. He 
 was the author of several learned works, and among them 
 "An Inquiry into the Truth of the Tradition concerning 
 the Difcovery of America by Prince Madoc about the 
 Year 1170," which was published in London in 1791. 
 The next year, 1792, he published a second work entitled 
 "Further Observations" on the same subject. I have 
 had occasion to refer to Doctor Williams in the text, and 
 deeming him the best authority in favor of the Welsh 
 tradition and entitled to further notice, I shall make the 
 following additional extracts from both of his works: 
 
 THE WELSH A MARITIME PEOPLE 
 
 [From The Inquiry, etc., Pages 59-62] 
 
 The reafon for which he (Caefar) invaded this ifland 
 was, as he fays, becaufe the Britons affifted the Gauls by 
 Land and Sea. Their Naval Power must have been very 
 confiderable, when Vincula dare Oceano, and Britannos 
 fubjugare, were convertible Terms. Had not the Britifh 
 Naval Power been then formidable, this would not have 
 been faid. 
 
 Their maritime force, it is true, was much weakened 
 by Csefar; yet in no long time it feems to have been con- 
 fiderably reftored, as appears from the conduct of later 
 Emperors. Had their navy, as hath been aflerted by 
 fome writers, confifted only of fmall fifhing Boats, now 
 
Appendix 127 
 
 in the Principality called Coracles, they could not have 
 afforded fuch affiftance to the Gauls, as to bring upon 
 them the Roman power. As to unfkilfulnefs, it doth not 
 appear from Hiftory, that this, with truth, could be faid 
 of them. 
 
 I know not upon what authority, it is faid by his Lord- 
 fhip that the Britons were lefs expert Mariners than any 
 other in Europe, for they feem to have had connections 
 in the way of Commerce with very diftant nations, before 
 Julius Caefar; indeed a very confiderable and extenfive 
 trade with Phoenicians, and others. 
 
 For thefe reafons, I am inclined to believe that the 
 Naval power of the Britons was confiderable before the 
 coming of the Romans. As to fucceeding Times, when 
 the Britons were driven into Wales, a Country with an 
 extenfive Sea Coaft, they had little to fubfift upon, but 
 a f canty Agriculture, and rich Fifheries; fo that very great 
 Numbers of them were compelled by necefhty to purfue 
 a Seafaring Life. 
 
 The ftrongeft objection to the Truth of this event, 
 which is urged by his Lordfhip and by others, is the great 
 Improbability that fuch a voyage could be performed 
 without the affiftance of the Mariner s Compafs, not then 
 dif covered. This difcovery was made about the year 
 1300; others fay, by Behaim above mentioned, about 100 
 Years later. In anfwer to this Objection, it may be 
 obferved that previoufly to Madog s Voyage, we read 
 of feveral others, which appear to me fully as im 
 probable. It is generally underftood that the Phoenicians, 
 Grecians, &c., were acquainted with, and failed to 
 Britain, and other countries, for Tin and Lead, and 
 unto the Baltic Sea for Amber; voyages which feem as 
 
128 Appendix 
 
 difficult as that of Madog s and a longer Navigation. 
 It was hardly poffible for the Britons not to learn how 
 to navigate Ships, when they faw how it was done by 
 others. 
 
 The return of our Prince to North Wales, and back 
 again to his colony, is the moft difficult to be accounted 
 for, in the whole story. However, I apprehend, that this 
 is not altogether impoffible. 
 
 Let it be obferved that the fpace of Time in which 
 thefe voyages of Madog s were performed is no where 
 mentioned. They might have taken up twenty years or 
 more. Madog, on his return to Wales, might have failed 
 Northward by the American Coaft, till he came to a fit- 
 uation where the light of the sun at noon was the fame, 
 at the Seafon, as it was in his Native country, and then 
 failing Eaftward (the Polar Star, long before obferved 
 would prevent his failing on a wrong point) he might 
 fafely return to Britain. The experiences he derived from 
 his firft Voyage would enable him to join his Companions 
 whom he had left behind. 
 
 That there are ftrong currents in the Atlantic Ocean 
 is well known. On his return to North Wales, Madog 
 might fall into that current, which it is faid, runs from 
 the Weft Indian Iflands Northward to Cape Sable in 
 Nova Scotia, where interrupted by the land, it runs 
 Eaftward towards Britain. 
 
 There is a Tradition that a Captain of a Ship dined 
 at Bofton, in New England, on a Sunday, and on the 
 following Sunday dined at his own Houfe in Penzance, 
 Cornwall. This is by no means impoffible, for with 
 favourable Winds and ftrong currents, a ship may run 
 above 14 miles in an Hour. 
 
CAERNARVON VILLAGE 
 
 CAERNARVON CASTLE 
 
Appendix 129 
 
 The late celebrated Dr. Benjamin Franklin of Phila 
 delphia, in a letter to a friend well known in the literary 
 world, which I heard read, faid that he was fully con 
 vinced that there was fuch a current from Weft to Eaft, 
 and that he did not think the Captain s remarkable 
 expedition impoffible, nor even, altogether, improbable. 
 
 XI 
 
 CULTURE OF THE EARLY WELSH 
 
 [From The Enquiry, etc., Pages 78-80] 
 
 From the earlieft accounts we have of the ancient 
 Britons they feem to have been the beft informed, and 
 moft enlightened of all the northern Nations in Europe. 
 The fpeech of Caractacus addreffed to the Emperor Clau 
 dius, and prefer ved by Tacitus, is a proof that good nat 
 ural Senfe and Literature, fuch as it was in that age, in 
 fome meafure, flourifhed in Britain. 
 
 We have alfo in Caefar feveral paffages favourable to 
 Britifh learning; I fee no reafon, therefore, why Britifh 
 Writers fhould be treated with contempt. 
 
 The Scotch writers, efpecially of late years, have 
 ftrained every nerve to eftablish the reputation of their 
 ancient Authors. Oman and Fingal are oftentatioufly 
 held out, as inftances of fuperior merit and excellence; 
 but the poor Britons are treated with difdain; as having 
 no merit for imagination, or original Compofition. 
 
 Taliefsyn, a Welfh bard, who, as already obferved, 
 flourifhed about the middle of the 6th century, and who 
 by way of eminence was called Pen Beirrd y Gorllewin, 
 "Head of the Weftern bards," fome of whofe works are 
 
130 Appendix 
 
 come down to us; particularly, an ode, in Welch tranf- 
 lated into Latin fapphic Verfe, by David Jones, Vicar of 
 Llanfair, DufTryn Clwyd, Denbighfhire ; in 1580, Owen 
 Cyfeiliog, and Gwalchmai in the i2th century; and many 
 others, at different periods of diftinguifhed merit, have 
 appeared in Wales, some of whom have plainly alluded 
 to Madogs Adventures. For the Names, Times, and the 
 Works of these bards, I refer to Mr. Evans specimens 
 of the ancient Welch bards, 1764. To Sir Thomas Her 
 bert s Travels and to Mr. Warrington s Hiftory of Wales, 
 p. 307, Edit. 1788. 
 
 XII 
 
 INFORMATION IMPARTED BY GENERAL BOWLES, 
 A CHEROKEE CHIEF 
 
 From Further Observations, etc., Pages 3-5 
 
 My worthy and ingenious friends, Mr. William Owen 
 and Mr. Edward Williams, for feveral months paft, have 
 fent various particulars to the editor of the Gentleman s 
 Magazine, relative to the Welch Indians. 
 
 Mr. Owen had two interviews with General Bowles 
 and a Mr. Price the Cherokee chiefs, who lately left Lon 
 don; an account of which he obligingly communicated to 
 me. 
 
 When Mr. Owen told the General the occafion of his 
 waiting upon him that it was to enquire whether he knew 
 anything of a tribe of Welch Indians he replied that he 
 well did, and that they are called, "the Padoucas, or 
 White Indians." (Mr. Owen, previous to his interview 
 with Mr. Bowles, thought that the Padoucas were the 
 Welsh tribe.) They are called "The White Indians" on 
 
Appendix 1 3 1 
 
 account of their complexions. When a map was laid be 
 fore him, on which that name was infcribed, he faid, 
 thefe are the people, and shewed the limits of their coun 
 try. He faid that in general they were called the White 
 Padoucas, but thofe who live in the northern parts of 
 their country, are called the "Black Padoucas." On be 
 ing afked the reafon, he replied "becaufe they are a mix 
 ture of the White Padoucas, and other Indians ; and there 
 fore are of a darker complexion. The White Padoucas 
 are as you are (Mr. Owens is a Welchman) having fome 
 of them f andy , fome red, and fome black hair. He alfo 
 faid that they are very numerous, and one of the moft 
 warlike people on that Continent. When he was informed 
 of the time and circumftances of Madog s Navigation, he 
 faid "They muft have been as early as that period, oth- 
 erwife they could not have increafed to be fo numerous 
 a people." The General faid that he had travelled their 
 fouthern boundaries from one fide to the other, but that 
 he had never entered into their country. He was of opin 
 ion that they firft came to the Floridas, or about the 
 mouths of the Miffiffippi ; and finding that a low and rather 
 a bad country, they pufhed forward by degrees till they 
 came to, and fettled in the country where they now live 
 in, it being a high and hilly country, but as fertile and 
 delightful a fpot as any in the world. 
 
 When he was afked the reafon, why he thought them 
 to be Welfh he replied, "A Welchman was with me at 
 home for fome time, who had been a Prifoner among 
 the Spaniards, and worked in the Mines of Mexico; and 
 by fome means, he contrived to efcape, got into the wilds, 
 and made his way acrofs the Continent, and eventually 
 paffed through the midft of the Padoucas, and at once 
 
i3 2 Appendix 
 
 found himfelf with a people with whom he could converfe 
 and he ftaid there fome time." Amongft other particu 
 lars he told me, "that they had feveral books, which 
 were moft religioufly preferved in fkins, and were con- 
 fidered by them as myfteries. Thefe they believed gave 
 an account from whence they came. Thefe people told 
 the Welchman that they had not feen a White man like 
 themfelves, who was a stranger, for a long time." This 
 was the fubftance of General Bowies information. 
 
 XIII 
 
 WHAT MORGAN JONES KNEW OF THE WELSH INDIANS 
 
 [From Further Observations, etc., Pages 10-11] 
 
 Mr. Jones alfo fays that about the Year 1750, his 
 father and family went to Penfylvania, where he met 
 with feveral Perfons whom he knew in Wales; one in par 
 ticular, with whom he had been intimate. This perfon 
 had formerly lived in Penfylvania, but then lived in North 
 Carolina. Upon his return to Penfylvania, the following 
 year, to fettle his affairs they met a fecond fate. Mr. 
 Jones friend told him that he was then very fure there 
 were Welfh Indians; and gave for reafon, that his Houfe, 
 in North Carolina, was fituated on the great Indian Road 
 to Charleftown, where he often lodged parties of them. 
 In one of thefe parties, an Indian hearing the family 
 f peaking Welch began to jump and caper as if he had 
 been out of his fences. Being afked what was the matter 
 with him, he replied, " I know an Indian Nation who 
 fpeak that language, and have learnt a little of it my- 
 felf, by living among them"; and when examined, he was 
 
Appendix 133 
 
 found to have fome knowledge of it. When afked where 
 they lived, he faid, "a great way beyond the Miffiffippi . " 
 Being promifed a handfome reward he faid that he would 
 endeavor to bring fome of them to that part of the Coun 
 try but Mr. Jones foon afterwards returning to England, 
 he never heard any more of the Indian. 
 
 XIV 
 
 MR. BINON S ACCOUNT OF THE WELSH INDIANS 
 
 [From Further Observations, etc., Pages 11-13] 
 
 In the Gentleman s Magazine for July laft, page 612, 
 Mr. Edward Williams fays that about twenty years ago 
 he became acquainted with a Mr. Binon of Coyty in the 
 county of Galmorgan, who had been abfent from his na 
 tive country about thirty years (in a letter I received 
 from him fince, he fays that on further confideration he 
 thinks it muft have been feveral years longer). Mr. Bi 
 non faid that he had been an Indian trader from Phila 
 delphia, for feveral Years; that about the year 1750 he 
 and five or fix more penetrated much farther than ufual 
 to the weftward of the Miffiffippi and found a Nation of 
 Indians, who fpoke the Welfh tongue. They had Iron 
 among them, lived in ftone built villages, and were bet 
 ter clothed than the other tribes. There were alfo ruin 
 ous buildings among them; one appeared like an Old 
 Welch castle; another like a ruined church, etc. They 
 fhewed Mr. Binon a book, in Manufcript, which they care 
 fully kept, believing it to contain the myfteries of Re 
 ligion. They told Mr. Binon that it was not very long 
 fince a Man had been among them who underftood it. 
 
1 34 Appendix 
 
 This Man (whom they ef teemed a prophet) told them 
 that a people would fome time vifit them, and explain 
 to them the myfteries in their book, which would make 
 them completely happy. When they were informed, that 
 Mr. Binon could not read it, they appeared very much 
 concerned. They conducted him and his companions for 
 many days thro vaft Deferts, and plentifully fupplied 
 them with provifions which the woods afforded, until they 
 had brought them to a place they well knew; and at part 
 ing, they wept bitterly, and urgently entreated Mr. Binon 
 to fend a perfon to them who could interpret their book. 
 On his return to Philadelphia, he related the ftory, and 
 was informed that the inhabitants of the Welfh tract 
 (in Penfylvania) had fome knowledge of them, and that 
 fome Welfhmen had been among them." 
 
 A Gentleman in company with Meffrs. Binon and Wil 
 liams at that time, in a letter to me confirms the above 
 account. He fays that Mr. Binon declared that thefe 
 Indians worfhipped their book as God, but could not read 
 it. They alfo faid that thirty or forty of them fome- 
 times vifited the Ancient Britons fettled on the Welfh 
 Track in Pennfylvania. This circumftance, by the way, 
 will help us to account for the interviews, which it is faid 
 have taken place between thefe Indians and the Europe 
 ans at different times. When Mr. Binon faid that he 
 came from Wales, they replied, " It was from thence that 
 our Anceftors came, but we do not know in what part 
 of the world Wales is." 
 
Appendix 1 35 
 
 xv 
 
 THE SPEECH OF MONTEZUMA TO HIS PEOPLE 
 
 [From Further Observations, etc., Pages 31-35] 
 
 In a letter to the Right Hon. William Pitt, figned 
 Columbus, inferted in the Public Advertifer, September 
 23rd, 1790, there are feveral very interefting facts and 
 obfervations on this fubject. 
 
 We are there told that Sebastian Cabot, about the 
 year 1495, two years after the firft voyage of Columbus, 
 difcovered Florida and Mexico and that he found on the 
 different parts of the Coaft, the defcendants of the firft 
 Britifh difcoverers, who fettled at Mexico about the year 
 1170. In the records of the Mexican Emperors, are fet 
 down the arrival and fettlement of their great Progen 
 itors, whom the unfortunate Montezuma defcribes in 1520, 
 in a fpeech made to his fubjects, after he had been taken 
 prifoner by that monfter of cruelty, Cortez: 
 
 "Kinfmen, Friends, Countrymen and Subjects: You 
 know I have been eighteen years your sovereign and your 
 natural king, as my illuftrious predeceffors and fathers 
 were before me, and all the defcendants of my race, fince 
 we came from a far diftant Northern Nation, whofe tongue 
 and manners we yet have partly preferved. I have been 
 to you a father, Guardian, and a loving Prince, while you 
 have been to me faithful fubjects, and obedient fervants. 
 
 "Let it be held in your remembrance, that you have 
 a claim to a noble descent, becaufe you have fprung from 
 a race of Freemen and Heroes, who fcorned to deprive 
 the native Mexicans of their ancient liberties, but added 
 to their rational Freedom, principles which do honour to 
 human nature. Our divines have inftructed you of our 
 
i3 6 Appendix 
 
 natural defcent from a people the moft renowned upon 
 earth for liberty and valour, becaufe of all nations they 
 were, as our firft parents told us, the only unfubdued 
 people upon the earth, by that warlike nation, whofe tyr 
 anny and ambition affumed the conqueft of the world; 
 but neverthelefs, our great fore-fathers checked their am 
 bition and fixed limits to their conquefts, altho but the 
 inhabitants of a fmall ifland, and but few in number, com 
 pared to the ravagers of the earth, who attempted in vain 
 to conquer our great, glorious and free forefathers, &c." 
 
 The author of the above account told me, that he had 
 feen Montezuma s fpeech, in a Spanifh manuscript, in 
 the year 1748, when he arrived at Mexico, and that moft 
 probably, it is ft ill extant. 
 
 I would here juft obferve that as the ancient Romans 
 were the Conquerors alluded to, we may naturally fufpect 
 that Julius Caefar s attempt on Britain, was rather un- 
 fuccefsful, or at least not fo brilliant as he cautioufly en 
 deavors to reprefent it. 
 
 The above fpirited fpeech plainly fhows that the Mex 
 icans in 1520 looked upon themf elves as the defcendants 
 of Freemen and Heroes, the only unfubdued people upon 
 Earth, who fet limits to the Roman conqueft though 
 only the inhabitants of a fmall ifland in the north, and in 
 comparifon, few in number; and who taught them prin 
 ciples, which did honour to human nature, probably the 
 principles of Chriftianity, which though miferably dis 
 figured in 1170, yet were greatly fuperior to thofe of an 
 enlightened favage people. 
 
 The above defcription remarkably and exactly anfwers 
 to the Character, Manners and Principles of the Ancient 
 Britons. 
 
LLANRWST BRIDGE 
 
 LLANRWST CHURCH 
 
Appendix 137 
 
 XVI 
 THE GENTLEMAN S MAGAZINE OF LONDON 
 
 This magazine was the first to lay before the world 
 one of the most important papers concerning the tradition 
 of the Welsh under Prince Madoc in America in the Twelfth 
 century. In the year 1740 it published in Volume 10, 
 page 103, the letter of Reverend Morgan Jones of Vir 
 ginia, who had lived with the Welsh Indians in North 
 Carolina and talked with them and preached to them in 
 the Welsh language. In after years it published many 
 important articles on the same subject, and hence the 
 following have been selected for insertion here. 
 
 William Owen s Account of the Welsh Indians 
 [Gentleman s Magazine, 1791, Volume 1, Page 329] 
 
 In the year 1170, Madawg, a younger fon of Owen 
 Gwynedd, prince of North Wales, obferving a continued 
 ftrife among his brethren for a fcanty inheritance of bar 
 ren rocks, determined to try his fortune in fearch of a 
 more peaceful country. He accordingly fitted out two 
 fhips, and failed weftward, and difcovered the fouthern 
 fhores of North America, as the event has proved. Leav 
 ing part of his followers there, he was enabled providen 
 tially to return to Europe; and on reprefenting to his 
 countrymen what had happened, fo many of them were 
 induced to fhare in his enterprize, that in his fecond emi 
 gration, he failed nearly in the fame direction, with ten 
 fhips, completely filled, but without being fo fortunate 
 as to fall in with them he had left behind in his 
 
138 Appendix 
 
 firft voyage. There are good grounds to affert that Ma- 
 dawg, in this fecond voyage, fell in with the coaft of the 
 Carolinas; for the firft difcovery of the defcendants of 
 that emigration was made by the Rev. Mr. Morgan Jones, 
 in 1685, who found them, or at leaft a part of them, up 
 Pontigo river. In confequence of the European colonies 
 fpreading over that country, or for fome other caufes, 
 they removed up the country to Kentucky, where evi 
 dent traces of them have been lately found; fuch as the 
 ruins of forts, millftones, earthen ware, etc. It is pre- 
 fumed that, as their fituation was fecluded, and not liable 
 to be molefted, they left it only in confequence of dif- 
 covering a more inviting country; and none could be more 
 fo than where they finally fettled. The center of the coun 
 try of the Madawgwys, and where their villages are moft 
 numerous, is about 38 degrees north latitude, and 102 
 degrees weft longitude of London; but they extend (pof- 
 fibly in detached communities) from about 37 degrees 
 north latitude and 97 degrees weft longitude. The gen 
 eral name of Cymry is not left -among them, though they 
 call themfelves Madawgwys, Madogiaid, Madagiaint, and 
 Madogian; names of the fame import, meaning the peo 
 ple of Madawg. Hence the French travellers in Louif- 
 iana have called them Padoucas, Montocantes and other 
 names bearing a fimilitude to what they call themfelves, 
 and by which they are known to the native Indians. 
 From the country of the Madawgwys fome of the rivers 
 run eaftward and others to the weft; by the former they 
 came into the MifTouri, and fo into the Miffiffippi, bring 
 ing with them fkins, pickled buffalo-tongues, and other 
 articles for traffic, and by the latter they have a communi 
 cation with the Pacific ocean, from a great fait lake in 
 
Appendix 139 
 
 their country, down the Oregon, or the great river of the 
 weft, through the f traits of Juan de Fuca, and other open 
 ings. The character of thefe infulated Cambrians, who 
 are a numerous people, is that they are very warlike; are 
 more civilized than the Indians; live in large villages in 
 houfes built of ftone; are commodioufly clad; ufe horfes 
 in hunting. They have iron, of which they could make 
 tools, but have no fire-arms and they navigate the lake 
 in large piragunas. Their government is on the feudal 
 fyftem, and their princes are confidered as the direct de 
 scendants of Madawg. 
 
 William Owen s Further Account of the Welsh Indians 
 [Gentleman s Magazine, 1791, Volume 1, Page 397] 
 
 The accounts which were received prior to Mr. Bowles s 
 communications had not furnifhed me with the name by 
 which the Welch Indians were known; but, on comparing 
 them together, I was fully of opinion that the Padoucas 
 were thofe people; efpecially as the name was but a flight 
 deviation in found from Madawgwys, the real appellation 
 which we may juftly fuppofe they gave themf elves. There 
 fore it made a very forcible impreffion on my mind, when 
 the firft thing Mr. Bowles faid was, what they are called, 
 the Padoucas, in confirmation of the idea I had formed, 
 prior to any inquiry being made at all on the fubject. 
 And as to the moft important point, whether the language 
 fpoken by thofe people was Welch, the proofs adduced 
 were equally fatisfactory and clear; there was, faid Mr. 
 B., a Welchman with me, at home, who efcaped from 
 the Spaniards in Mexico, by making his way acrofs the 
 Continent, pairing through the country of the Padoucas, 
 
i4 Appendix 
 
 where to his great furprife, he found himfelf with a peo 
 ple f peaking his own language. He remained among 
 them for fome time, and found they had fome books, 
 which were wrapped up in fkins, and religiously preferved, 
 and confidered to be fome kind of myfteries, as there 
 was a tradition that thofe things contained an account 
 from whence they had come. That the Padoucas fpeak 
 the Welch language is further confirmed by Mr. Price, 
 one of the companions of Mr. Bowles, who was born 
 amongft the Creeks. 
 
 He, after obferving his being acquainted with Welch 
 himfelf, declared that his father, who was a Welchman, 
 had opportunities of frequent interviews, and converfed 
 with the Padoucas in his native language, as he had lived 
 the greateft part of his life, and died in the Creek Country. 
 
 Mr. Bowles, in confequence of being told at what peri 
 od Madawg s emigration took place, obferved, that his 
 followers could not have increafed to fo numerous a peo 
 ple confidering how few they were when they emigrated. 
 But the accounts of Mr. Price and of Rev. Mr. Rankin, 
 of Kentucky, agree in faying, that the Padoucas have 
 lately leffened their number, through the rage of civil 
 difcord. 
 
 Mr. Rankin alfo reprefents, that there are evident 
 traces of their having formerly inhabited the country 
 about Kentucky ; particularly wells dug, which ftill remain 
 unfilled, and ruins of buildings, neither of which were 
 the works of the Indians. From the laft particulars we 
 may infer, that the Welch Indians found by Morgan Jones 
 in North Carolina, about one hundred and thirty years 
 ago, were the Padoucas, or at leaft a part of them; who, 
 receding into fuch of the interior parts as were unpoffeffed 
 
Appendix 141 
 
 by the natives, as the European Colonifts fpread over 
 the maritime countries, remained ftationary for a time 
 on the banks of the Ohio ; but, in confequence of exploring 
 that river to its junction with the Miffiffippi, and ftill 
 preffing onward, they difcovered, and finally fettled in, 
 the beautiful region where we now find them. 
 
 WILLIAM OWEN. 
 
 Columbus Discovery of America Questioned 
 [Lady Frazer s Papers in Gentleman s Magazine Quoted in Burder s Welch Indians, Page 5] 
 
 The chief thing that induced me to look into fome 
 authors here mentioned, was my reading a fmall book 
 in octavo lent me by a French gentleman to purfue about 
 twenty-five years ago; it was tranflated into English and 
 gave an account of a great nation of Indians within-land 
 from Cape Florida that actually fpeak Welch. 
 
 i. Pleafe to look into James Howell s Letters, vol. ii., 
 p. 71, concerning the ancient Brittaines, and you will find 
 that Madoc ap Owen, the firft in the year 1170, which 
 is three hundred and fixteen years before Columbus faw 
 it. He died at Mexico, and this following epitaph was 
 found engraven on his tomb in the Welch language. 
 
 "Madoc wifmio ydie wedd, 
 Jawn ycnan Owen Gwynedd, 
 Ni fennum dvi enriddoedd, 
 Ni dv mawr ondy mervedd." 
 
 [ENGLISHED] 
 
 " Madoc ap Owen was I call d, 
 Strong, tall, and comely, not enthrall d 
 With home-bred pleafures; but for fame, 
 Through land and fea I fought the fame. 
 
i4 2 Appendix 
 
 2. See third volume of the Voyages of the Englifh 
 Nation, by Richard Hakluyt, Student of Chrift Church, 
 in Oxford, p. i. 
 
 3. See Pagett s Chriftianography, p. 47. 
 
 4. See the third and laft volume of the Turkifh Spy, 
 p. 202. 
 
 5. See Purchas s Pilgrimage, book viii, p. 899. 
 
 6. See Broughton, who affirms that the faith of Chrift 
 was preached in America by some of our firft planters 
 that preached in Britain. 
 
 7. See George Abbot, Lord Archbifhop of Canterbury s 
 Hiftory of the World, p. 255, 56, and 57, who informs 
 us that King Arthur had fome knowledge of America, 
 and that a prince of Wales firft found it out. 
 
 8. See the Welch Cambria, wrote by David Powell, and 
 Sir John Price, Knt. tranflated into Englifh by Hum 
 phrey Llyod, Gent., there you will fee the reafons that 
 induced the Prince Madoc ap Owen Gwynedd to travel. 
 
 9. See Sir Walter Raleigh s Hiftory of the World, and 
 the words the natives ufed when they talked together. 
 They fay thefe and the like words: gwrundo, which is 
 hearken, or liften, in Welch; a bird with a white head, 
 they call pengwyn; the white rock, caregwen; a river, 
 gwndwr; and there is a promontory, not far from Mex 
 ico, called Cape Breton, all which are Britifh words; and 
 many more words of like nature; which does manifeftly 
 fhew that it was that country that Prince Madoc s peo 
 ple inhabited. 
 
Appendix 143 
 
 XVII 
 UNBELIEVERS IN THE MADOC TRADITION 
 
 Nearly all the extracts taken from various authors 
 and authorities and inserted in the foregoing appendix or 
 text are in favor of the truth of the tradition of a Welsh 
 colony established by Prince Madoc in America in the 
 Twelfth century. Only a fraction of them can be con 
 sidered as dissenting, and this dissent is generally given 
 in such mild terms as to carry no weight. It was not 
 my purpose in preparing this monograph to present only 
 one side of the question, or to quote from authorities 
 only who were in full accord. I proposed to present facts 
 as they appear in history and tradition and to bring to 
 their support the authorities which sustain them, without 
 any wish on my part to give the weight of authority to 
 either side. With the facts as stated in the text and 
 presented in the extracts the reader has the means of 
 forming an opinion of his own as to whether the tradition 
 be true or false. It might seem fairer, however, when 
 so many authorities in favor of the tradition are given, 
 to present some which do not favor it, if any such be 
 known. I know of but two authors of eminence enough 
 to speak on the subject, who did not believe in the truth 
 of the Madoc tradition and put themselves on record to 
 that effect. These were Lord Littleton, who in his "Life 
 of King Henry II" with considerable energy denied the 
 truth of the Madoc tradition, and William Robertson, 
 who in his "History of America" did likewise. Neither of 
 these historians had much to say on the subject, but 
 what was said left no doubt of his unbelief in the truth 
 
144 Appendix 
 
 of the tradition. If it were my undertaking to establish 
 the truth of the Madoc tradition, I might say that neither 
 Littleton nor Robertson use uncontestible facts or unan 
 swerable arguments in what they say; but as it is my pur 
 pose only to present an historic sketch of the subject, 
 I have no criticism to offer. In the following two extracts, 
 one from Littleton and the other from Robertson, the 
 reader will have before him all that these two authors said 
 on the subject. 
 
 Littleton on the Madoc Tradition 
 
 This being the laft mention made of the Welfh in my 
 account of thefe times, I will take notice here of a re 
 markable paffage in Dr. Powell s hiftory of Wales, con 
 cerning a voyage performed by one of their princes in 
 the 1 6th year of the reign of King Henry the Second. 
 The words are thefe: 
 
 "Madoc, another of Owen Gwyneth s fons, left the 
 land in contention betwixt his brethren, and prepared 
 certain fhips with men and munition, and fought adven 
 tures by sea, failing weft, and leaving the Coaft of Ire 
 land fo far to the north, that he came to a land unknown 
 where he faw many ftrange things." 
 
 In enquiring what credit is due to this ftory, it will 
 be neceffary to premife that this part of the Hiftory pub- 
 lifhed by Dr. Powell is not taken from the Chronicle of 
 Caradoc of Llancarvan, who (as Powell affirms) ended 
 his collections in the year 1156, antecedent to the date 
 of this fuppofed event; but it is faid by Humphrey Lluyd, 
 the tranflator of Caradoc, to have been compiled from 
 collections made from time to time, and kept in the ab 
 beys of Conway and Stratflur. 
 
BANGOR VILLAGE 
 
 BANGOR CATHEDRAL 
 
OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
Appendix 145 
 
 We are alfo told that the beft and faireft copy of thefe 
 was written by Gutryn Owen in the days of Edward the 
 Fourth, and tranflated into Englifh by the Humphrey 
 Lluyd before-mentioned, who flourifhed in the reign of 
 King Henry the Eighth, and continued the hiftory to 
 the death of Prince Llewelyn ap Gruffyth in the year 
 1282. But, this gentleman having been prevented by 
 death from publifhing his work, it was not fent to the 
 prefs till the year 1584, when Dr. Powell publifhed it, 
 with many additions and interpolations of his own. The 
 latter fays in his preface "that he had conferred Lluyd s 
 translation with the Britifh book, whereof he had two 
 ancient copies, and corrected the fame when there was 
 caufe so to do," and adds, "that, after the moft part 
 of the book was printed, he received another larger copy 
 of the fame tranflation, being better corrected, at the 
 hands of Robert Glover, Somerfet herald, a learned and 
 ftudious gentleman in his profeffion, the which if he had 
 had the beginning, many things had come forth in better 
 plight than they now be." 
 
 It is therefore very doubtful whether the above-cited 
 paffage concerning the Madoc voyage gives the fenfe of 
 the Britifh book which Gutryn Owen had tranfcribed, as 
 tranflated by Lluyd, or as corrected by Powell, and wheth 
 er we can depend on its being agreeable to the original 
 text. It may be fufpected that Lluyd, living after the 
 difcovery of America by Columbus, may have dreft up 
 fome accounts of traditions about Madoc, which he found 
 in Gutryn Owen, or other ancient Welfh writings, in fuch 
 a manner as to make them convey an idea, that this prince, 
 who perhaps was a bolder navigator than any of his coun 
 trymen in the age when he lived, had the honour of 
 
Appendix 
 
 being the firft difcoverer of that country. Sir Philip Her 
 bert, a writer of the fame nation, who is zealous for the 
 truth of this fuppofed difcovery (which he conceives would 
 give our kings a title to the Weft Indies) adds to the au 
 thority of Gutryn (or Guten) Owen, that of Cynwrick 
 ap Grono, another ancient Welfh bard, and alfo of Sir 
 Meredith ap Rhees who lived in the year 1477. The 
 words of the former bard he does not quote, but thofe 
 of the latter he does, and tranflates them into Englifh. 
 The poet, f peaking in the perfon of his hero, fays, 
 
 " Madoc ap Owen was I call d, 
 Strong, tall and comely, not enthralled, 
 To home-bred pleafure, but to fame: 
 Thro land and fea I fought the fame." 
 
 This proves indeed that Madoc was famous in thofe 
 days for fome voyage he had made, but, not marking 
 the courfe, it is of no importance to the matter in quef- 
 tion, which entirely depends on his difcovering land to 
 the fouth-weft of Ireland. Dr. Powell, having given the 
 defcription above cited, viz: that he failed weft, and 
 leaving the coaft of Ireland far north, came to a land 
 unknown, adds the following note: 
 
 "This Madoc arriving in that weftern country, into 
 which he came in the year 1170, left moft of his people 
 there, and returning back for more of his own nation, 
 acquaintance and friends, to inhabit that fair and large 
 country, went thither again with ten fails, as I find it 
 noted by Gutryn Owen." 
 
 And then he gives us fome reafons why he takes this 
 land unknown to have been fome part of Mexico, rather 
 than of Nova Hifpania, or Florida as Lluyd had fuppofed. 
 Without comparing the arguments for their different con- 
 
Appendix 147 
 
 jectures (as none of them feem to me to have much weight) 
 I will only fay that if Madoc did really difcover any part 
 of America, or any iflands lying to the fouth-weft of Ire 
 land in the Atlantic ocean, without the help of the com- 
 pafs, at a time when navigation was ill underftood, and 
 with mariners lefs expert than any others in Europe, he 
 performed an atchievment incomparably more extraor 
 dinary than that of Columbus. But, befides the incredi 
 bility of the thing itfelf, another difficulty occurs; that 
 is, to know how it happened that no Englifh hiftorian, 
 contemporary with him, has faid a word of this furpriz- 
 ing event, which, on his return into Wales, and public 
 report of the many ftrange things he had feen, muft have 
 made a great noife among the Englifh in thofe parts, 
 and would have certainly reached the ears of Henry him- 
 felf. Why is no notice taken of a fact fo important to 
 the honour of his country by Giraldus Cambrenfis, who 
 treats fo largely of the ftate of Wales in his times? One 
 may alfo be in fome doubt, what could have caufed fo 
 entire a deftruction of the colony planted by Madoc, and 
 of all belonging to it, as that in no land, fince difcovered 
 to the south-weft of Ireland, any certain monument, vef- 
 tige, or memory of it, has ever yet been found. But 
 the firft foundation of all enquiry about this adventure, 
 which many good modern writers have inclined to be 
 lieve, fhould be a faithful and well-attefted tranflation 
 of the words of Gutryn Owen, or Cynwrick ap Grono, 
 relating thereto, if their writings ftill remain. (Notes 
 to Littleton s Henry II, edition of 1767, Volume 4, 
 page 371.) 
 
148 Appendix 
 
 Robertson on the Madoc Tradition 
 
 The pretensions of the Welsh to the discovery of Amer 
 ica seem not to rest on a foundation much more solid. 
 In the Twelfth century, according to Powell, a dispute 
 having arisen among the sons of Owen Guyneth, king of 
 North Wales, concerning the succession to his crown, 
 Madoc, one of their number, weary of this contention, 
 betook himself to sea in quest of a more quiet settle 
 ment. He steered due west, leaving Ireland to the north, 
 and arrived in an unknown country, which appeared to 
 him so desirable that he returned to Wales, and carried 
 thither several of his adherents and companions. This 
 is said to have happened about the year 1170, and after 
 that, he and his colony were heard of no more. But it 
 is to be observed that Powell, on whose testimony the 
 authenticity of this story rests, published his history 
 about four centuries from the date of the event which 
 he relates. Among a people as rude and illiterate as the 
 Welsh at that period, the memory of a transaction so 
 remote must have been very imperfectly preserved, and 
 would require to be confirmed by some author of greater 
 credit, and nearer to the era of Madoc s voyage, than 
 Powell. Later antiquaries have indeed appealed to the 
 testimony of Meredith ap Rees, a Welsh bard who died 
 A. D. 1477. But he, too, lived at such a distance of time 
 from the event that he can not be considered as a wit 
 ness of much more credit than Powell. Besides, his verses, 
 published by Hakluit, Volume III, page i, convey no 
 information but that Madoc, dissatisfied with his domes 
 tic situation, employed himself in searching the ocean 
 for new possessions. But even if we admit the authen- 
 
Appendix 149 
 
 ticity of Powell s story, it does not follow that the un 
 known country which Madoc discovered by steering west, 
 in such a course as to leave Ireland to the north, was 
 any part of America. The naval skill of the Welsh in 
 the Twelfth century was hardly equal to such a voyage. 
 If he made any discovery at all, it is more probable that 
 it was Madeira, or some other of the Western isles. The 
 affinity of the Welsh language with some dialects spoken 
 in America has been mentioned as a circumstance which 
 confirms the truth of Madoc s voyage. But that affinity 
 has been observed in so few instances, and in some of 
 these is so obscure, or so fanciful, that no conclusion can 
 be drawn from the casual resemblance of a small num 
 ber of words. There is a bird which, as far as is yet 
 known, is found only on the coasts of South America, 
 from Port Desire to the Straits of Magellan. It is dis 
 tinguished by the name of Penguin. This word in the 
 Welsh language signifies White-head. Almost all the au 
 thors who favor the pretensions of the Welsh to the dis 
 covery of America mention this as an irrefragable proof 
 of the affinity of the Welsh language with that spoken 
 in this region of America. But Mr. Pennant, who has 
 given a scientific description of the penguin, observes 
 that all the birds of this genus have black heads, " so 
 that we must resign every hope (adds he) founded on 
 this hypothesis of retrieving the Cambrian race in the 
 New World." Philos. Transac., Volume LVIII, page 91, 
 etc. Besides this, if the Welsh, towards the close of the 
 Twelfth century, had settled in any part of America, 
 some remains of the Christian doctrine and rites must 
 have been found among their descendants when they were 
 discovered about three hundred years posterior to their 
 
1 50 Appendix 
 
 migration; a period so short, that in the course of it we 
 can not well suppose that all European ideas and arts 
 would be totally forgotten. Lord Littleton, in his notes 
 to the fifth book of his History of Henry II, page 371, 
 has examined what Powell relates concerning the discov 
 eries made by Madoc, and invalidates the truth of his 
 story by other arguments of great weight. (Robertson s 
 History of North and South America, London edition, 
 1834, page 241.) 
 
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 GRUBBS, CHARLES S 513 Ormsby Avenue Louisville. 
 
 GUNN, JOHN T Lexington. 
 
 HAGAN, FRANK 233 Fifth Louisville. 
 
 HALDEMAN, BRUCE Courier-Journal Louisville. 
 
 HARDING, JOHN Pleasureville. 
 
 HARRIS, HONORABLE WALTER O. .940 Third Louisville. 
 
 HARMAN, T. A 1692 Everett Avenue Louisville. 
 
 HARRISON, MRS IDA WITHERS 530 Elmtree Lane Lexington. 
 
 HART, MRS. REBECCA T Versailles. 
 
 HARDY, MRS. SALLIE E. M 223 East Breckinridge Louisville. 
 
 HAYS, MRS. ROSA BELLE McCuL- 
 
 LOUGH 1021 Fourth Louisville. 
 
 HAZELRIGG, JUDGE JAMES H Frankfort. 
 
 HELM, JAMES P 1112 Fourth Louisville. 
 
 HELM, JOHN L 1523 Fourth Louisville. 
 
 HENDRICK, HONORABLE WILLIAM J .302 Broadway New York City. 
 
 HEWITT, GENERAL FAYETTE Frankfort. 
 
List of Members 155 
 
 HILL. THOMAS P Stanford. 
 
 HINES, EDWARD W Third and Broadway Louisville. 
 
 HITE, WILLIAM W 176 Fourth Louisville. 
 
 HITCHCOCK, C. J 502 Belgravia Court Louisville. 
 
 HOCKER, JESSE S Stanford. 
 
 HOPKINS, ANDERSON H Carnegie Library Pittsburgh, Pa. 
 
 HOPPER, JAMES W 950 Fifth Louisville. 
 
 HOWARD, HONORABLE HENRY L Harlan C. H. 
 
 HOWE, BENJAMIN 207 East Chestnut Louisville. 
 
 HUBBELL, PROFESSOR GEORGE A.. Kentucky University Lexington. 
 
 HUMPHREY, HON. ALEXANDER P. .608-14 Louisville Trust Bldg.. Louisville. 
 
 HUMPHREY, E. W. C 1403 Fourth Louisville. 
 
 HUNDLEY, JOHN B 241 West Main Louisville. 
 
 HUNTER, MRS. ROBERT 1216 First Louisville. 
 
 HURST, WILLIAM L Campton. 
 
 HUTCHCRAFT, REUBEN, JR Lexington. 
 
 JOHNSON, CHARLES F 928 Second Louisville. 
 
 JOHNSTON, COLONEL J. STODDARD.IOS East Broadway Louisville. 
 
 JONES, JUDGE L. H 620 First Louisville. 
 
 JONES, THOMAS S 205 East Chestnut Louisville. 
 
 KAUFMAN, HENRY 1609 Fourth Louisville. 
 
 KEARNS, DOCTOR CHARLES Eighth and Madison Covington. 
 
 KINCHLOE, JESSE B Shelbyville. 
 
 KINKEAD, ROBERT C. 425 Park Avenue Louisville. 
 
 KINKEAD, CLEVES G 425 Park Avenue Louisville. 
 
 KIRBY, HONORABLE SAMUEL B. . . Upper River Road Jefferson County. 
 
 KNOTT, RICHARD W Evening Post Louisville. 
 
 KNOTT, STUART R First National Bank Kansas City, Mo. 
 
 LAFON, Miss MARY 1501 Fourth Louisville. 
 
 LANCASTER, MRS. CATHERINE. ... 1161 Sixth Louisville. 
 
 LAU, MRS. HELEN ADAMS Madison House Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 LEAK, JOHN S 2010 Floyd Louisville. 
 
List of Members 
 
 LEECH, MRS. CAROLINE A ........ 1735 First .................. Louisville. 
 
 LEOPOLD, LAWRENCE S ........... Kentucky Title Building ...... Louisville. 
 
 LEWIS, Miss BETTIE ............. 1012 Fourth ................ Louisville. 
 
 LEVI, Miss LILY E .............. 2406 West Chestnut .......... Louisville. 
 
 LEWIS, JOHN C ................ . . 568 Fourth ................. Louisville. 
 
 LEWIS, HENRY JOHN ....................................... Terlingua, Tex. 
 
 LINDSAY, HONORABLE WILLIAM . .205 West Fifty-seventh ....... New York City. 
 
 LYTLE, MRS. ELIZABETH ......... 820 Fourth ................. Louisville. 
 
 MACKOY, HONORABLE WILLIAM H. 714-1 5 First Nat, Bank Bldg, . Cincinnati, O. 
 MACKOY, HARRY BRENT ......... United Bank Building ........ Cincinnati, O. 
 
 MARTIN, MRS. C. L .............. 841 Second ................. Louisville. 
 
 MATTHEWS, MRS. M. C. DUKE ... 60 West Fifty-ninth .......... New York City. 
 
 MERCER, S. C .............................................. Hopkinsville. 
 
 MILLER, HOWARD ............... 1125 West Broadway ........ Louisville. 
 
 MILLER, MADISON L ............. 224 East Ormsby ............ Louisville. 
 
 MILLER, DOCTOR JOSEPH L .................................. Thomas, W. Va. 
 
 MORTON, HONORABLE J. R .................................. Lexington. 
 
 MORTON, THOMAS B. . . .......... 438 West Main .............. Louisville. 
 
 MOURNING, G. H ................ 1332 Third .................. Louisville. 
 
 MUIR, HONORABLE PETER B ..... Louisville Trust Building ..... Louisville. 
 
 MURPHY, D. X .................. 250 Fifth ................... Louisville. 
 
 MURPHY, JAMES C ............... 250 Fifth ................... Louisville. 
 
 McBRAYER, JAMES A., SR ................................. Lawrenceburg. 
 
 McCnoRD, WILLIAM C ....................................... Springfield. 
 
 McLxosKEY, RIGHT REVEREND 
 
 WILLIAM GEORGE ............. 1307 Brook ................. Louisville. 
 
 McCoRMicK, DOCTOR J. M ................................... Bowling Green. 
 
 McCREARY, HONORABLE JAMES B ............................ Richmond. 
 
 McCuLLOUGH, JOSEPH G ......... 1625 Third .................. Louisville. 
 
 McDowELL, MRS. CATHERINE G.W. 1237 Second ................ Louisville. 
 
 McGoNiGALE, W. J .............. 2212 Third .................. Louisville. 
 
 MCKNIGHT, STUART ........ ..... 401 West Broadway ......... Louisville. 
 
List of Members 157 
 
 MCKNIGHT, WILLIAM H 401 West Broadway Louisville. 
 
 McPHERSON, ERNEST 612 West Broadway Louisville. 
 
 NEWCOMB, HERMAN DANFORTH . . 509 West Ormsby Louisville. 
 
 NEWMAN, GEORGE A., JR 1616 Fourth Louisville. 
 
 NELSON, JUDGE GEORGE B Winchester. 
 
 NORMAN, ALBERT C U. S. S. Winona Gulf port, Miss. 
 
 O DoHERTY, JUDGE MATTHEW O. .519 West St. Catherine Louisville. 
 
 O NEAL, JOSEPH T 1 104 Second Louisville. 
 
 OTTER, ROBERT H 1105 Fourth Louisville. 
 
 OTTER, WILLIAM M 214 Sixth Louisville. 
 
 OTTER, JOHN D 214 Sixth Louisville. 
 
 OWENS, HONORABLE WILLIAM C. .Kentucky Title Building Louisville. 
 
 PARISH, PHILEMON P Midway. 
 
 PATTERSON, JAMES K., LL. D Lexington. 
 
 PARKER, DOCTOR JOHN W. F Somerset. 
 
 PARKER, CHARLES A Columbia Building Louisville. 
 
 PENDLETON, DWIGHT L Winchester. 
 
 PENNEBAKER, ELLIOTT K Kentucky Title Building Louisville. 
 
 PETER, Miss JOHANNA R. F. D. No. 7 Lexington. 
 
 PETER, M. CARY 2002 Third Louisville. 
 
 PETTET, Miss CATHERINE 1400 Third Louisville. 
 
 PETTUS, JOSEPH 2104 Fourth Louisville. 
 
 PICKETT, DOCTOR THOMAS E 213 Wall Maysville. 
 
 PIRTLE, HONORABLE JAMES S 1215 Third Louisville. 
 
 PIRTLE, CAPTAIN ALFRED 1720 Brook Louisville. 
 
 PIRTLE, JOHN ROWAN 1326 West Chestnut Louisville. 
 
 POTTINGER, SAMUEL FOREST Pension Office Washington, D. C. 
 
 POWELL, REVEREND EDWARD L. .101 East Kentucky Louisville. 
 
 POWER, LIEUTENANT CARROLL 1659 Everett Avenue Louisville. 
 
 POWERS, JOSHUA DEE National Trust Company Louisville. 
 
 PRICE, GENERAL SAMUEL W 4600 McPherson Avenue Ferguson, Mo. 
 
 PRICE, VERNON D 1513 Fourth Louisville. 
 
List of Members 
 
 PRIEST, WILLIAM C 351 Fifth Louisville. 
 
 QUARRIER, CUSHMAN Third and Burnett Louisville. 
 
 QUEEN, Miss OCTAVIA 304 West St. Catherine Louisville. 
 
 QUISENBERRY, JOHN A Danville. 
 
 QUISENBERRY, A. C Inspector General s Office. . . . Washington, D. C. 
 
 REEVE, JOHN L Henderson. 
 
 REED, JOHN DUFF 1410 Garvin Place Louisville. 
 
 REVENAUGH, AURELIUS 562 Fourth Louisville. 
 
 REYNOLDS, DOCTOR DUDLEY S... .316-358 Fourth Louisville. 
 
 REYNOLDS, REVEREND CHARLES LEE, D. D Lexington. 
 
 RICHARDSON, ORLA C 1604 Second Louisville. 
 
 ROBINSON, C. BONNYCASTLE 529 West Main Louisville. 
 
 ROBINSON, A. H 808 Columbia Building Louisville. 
 
 RowELL, JOSEPH KIRK 1512 Twenty-first Louisville. 
 
 RUSSELL, JOHN C Louisville Trust Building Louisville. 
 
 RUTLEDGE, ARTHUR Louisville Trust Building Louisville. 
 
 SACKETT, FREDERICK M 1614 Third Louisville. 
 
 SANDERS, Miss MYRA Shepherdsville. 
 
 SCHROEDER, Miss EM SIDELL Middleburgh, Va. 
 
 SCOTT, JOHN MATTHEW Kentucky Title Building Louisville. 
 
 SCHULTE, BATTS OVERTON 1018 Fourth Louisville. 
 
 SELLIGMAN, ALFRED 57 Kenyon Building Louisville. 
 
 SEMPLE, MRS. PATTY B 1222 Fourth Louisville. 
 
 SEMPLE, Miss ELLEN C 509 West Ormsby Louisville. 
 
 SHACKELFORD, W. RHODES Richmond. 
 
 SHELBY, MRS. SUSAN HART Lexington. 
 
 SHELBY, EVAN 116 West Seventy-fourth New York City. 
 
 SHELBY, JOHN T Trust Company Building Lexington. 
 
 SHELDON, GENERAL H. S 502 Belgravia Court Louisville. 
 
 SHREVE, CHARLES U 1618 Third Louisville. 
 
 SHERLEY, HONORABLE SWAGER. . .301 Louisville Trust Building . Louisville. 
 SLOSS, STANLEY E 1517 Second Louisville. 
 
List of Members 159 
 
 SMITH, DOCTOR DAVID T ......... 115 East Broadway .......... Louisville. 
 
 SMITH, Miss MARY LULA ........ 204 East Broadway .......... Louisville. 
 
 SMITH, CLARK ................. 228 East Jacob .............. Louisville. 
 
 SMITH, ROGERS M .......................................... Worthington. 
 
 SMITH, MILTON H ............... 1240 Fourth ................ Louisville. 
 
 SMITH, ZACHARY F .............. 644 Third ................... Louisville. 
 
 SMITH, CAPTAIN S. CALHOUN ..... 742 Seventh ................ Louisville. 
 
 SPEED, JAMES B ................. 501 West Ormsby ........... Louisville. 
 
 STEGE, Miss LILLIAN E .......... 1912 First .................. Louisville. 
 
 STEELE, JOHN A ............................................ Midway. 
 
 STEPHENSON, HONORABLE WILLIAM W ....................... Harrodsburg. 
 
 STEWART, Miss JESSIE ........... 620 West Breckinridge ....... Louisville. 
 
 STEWART, JEFFERSON DAVIS ..... R. F. D. No. 10. . .-^ ......... Buechel. 
 
 STITES, JOHN ................... 1604 Cherokee Road ......... Louisville. 
 
 STROTHER, JOHN C .............. Louisville Trust Building ..... Louisville. 
 
 SWEARINGEN, EMBRY L .......... Kentucky Title Building ..... Louisville. 
 
 SWEETS, REVEREND DAVID .................................. Shelbyville. 
 
 SWEETS, REVEREND HENRY H. . . 232 Fourth ................. Louisville. 
 
 TAYLOR, EDWARD H., JR .................................... Frankfort. 
 
 TERRY, ALVAH L ................ 502 West Ormsby ........... Louisville. 
 
 TEVIS, ROBERT C ................ 1608 Fourth .................. Louisville. 
 
 TEVIS, JOHN .................... Kentucky Title Building ..... Louisville. 
 
 THATCHER, MAURICE H .......... 722 West Chestnut ........... Louisville. 
 
 THARP, PROFESSOR WILLIAM H.. .1526 First .................. Louisville. 
 
 THOMAS, REV. FRANK MOREHEAD .211 East Fourth ............. Owensboro. 
 
 THORNTON, DAVID L ..................... . .................. Versailles. 
 
 THRUSTON, R. C. too..... 
 
 TODD, HONORABLE GEORGE D. ... 33 St. James Court .......... Louisville. 
 
 TODD, ADMIRAL C. C ....................................... Frankfort. 
 
 TOWNSEND, JOHN W ............. 304 South Limestone ......... Lexington. 
 
 TUCKER, MRS. MATTIE B ......... Gait House ................. Louisville. 
 
160 List of Members 
 
 TURNER, MRS. EUGENIA Cherokee Drive Louisville. 
 
 VEECH, RICHARD S St. Matthews. 
 
 WALKER, WALTER 1710 Fourth Louisville. 
 
 WALLER, GRANVILLE B 322 East Chestnut Louisville. 
 
 WALTER, LEWIS A 1618 Floyd Louisville. 
 
 WALTZ, REVEREND S. S 419 East Broadway Louisville. 
 
 WARREN, EUGENE C 730 Eighth Louisville. 
 
 WARREN, REVEREND EDWARD L.. 1631 Cherokee Road Louisville. 
 
 WATHEN, DOCTOR WILLIAM H 400 Belgravia Court Louisville. 
 
 WATSON, ADMIRAL JOHN CRITTEN- 
 
 DEN 817 Second Louisville. 
 
 WATHEN, Miss MARGARET A 412 West Oak Louisville. 
 
 WATTS, Miss LUCY 2909 Portland Avenue Louisville. 
 
 WATTERSON, HONORABLE HENRY. Courier-Journal Louisville. 
 
 WELLS, LEWIS G 102 West Hill Louisville. 
 
 WEISSINGER, HARRY 1242 Fourth Louisville. 
 
 WELCH, JOHN HARRISON Nicholasville. 
 
 WHEAT, JOHN L 1026 Seventh Louisville. 
 
 WHEELER, F. CLAY Winchester. 
 
 WHITE, HONORABLE JOHN D 205 Crescent Hill Louisville. 
 
 WICKLIFFE, JOHN D Bardstown. 
 
 WILHOIT, E. B Wilhoit Building Grayson. 
 
 WILLIS, DOCTOR C. C 215 West Broadway Louisville. 
 
 WILLIAMS, DOCTOR MARGARET C..2909 Portland Avenue Louisville. 
 
 WILLSON, GOVERNOR AUGUSTUS E Frankfort. 
 
 WILSON, DOCTOR DUNNING S 222 East St. Catherine Louisville. 
 
 WILSON, SAMUEL M Lexington 
 
 WILSON, GEORGE H 39 St. James Court Louisville. 
 
 WOOD, WILLIAM F 1135 First Louisville. 
 
 WOODS, HONORABLE CLARENCE E Richmond. 
 
 WOODRUFF, MRS. JANIE SCOTT.. . .309-11 Peters Building Atlanta, Ga. 
 
 WOODS, REVEREND NEANDER Clarksville, Tenn. 
 
List of Members 161 
 
 WOODS, ROBERT E 2109 Brook Louisville. 
 
 WOODSON, ISAAC T 105 West Barret Avenue Louisville. 
 
 WOOLFOLK, LEANDER C 1401 Fourth Louisville. 
 
 WORTHINGTON, DOCTOR SAMUEL M Versailles. 
 
 YAGER, PROFESSOR ARTHUR Georgetown. 
 
 YEAMAN, REVEREND M. V. P Harrodsburg. 
 
 YOUNG, COLONEL BENNETT H. . . . 1535 Fourth Louisville. 
 
 YOUNGLOVE, JOHN E Bowling Green. 
 
 YUST, WILLIAM F Free Public Library Louisville. 
 
LIST OF FILSON CLUB PUBLICATIONS 
 
 The Filson Club is an historical, biographical, and 
 literary association located in Louisville, Kentucky. It 
 was named after John Filson, the first historian of Ken 
 tucky, whose quaint little octavo of one hundred and 
 eighteen pages was published at Wilmington, Delaware, 
 in 1784. It was organized May 15, 1884, and incorporated 
 October 5, 1891, for the purpose, as expressed in its char 
 ter, of collecting, preserving, and publishing the history 
 of Kentucky and adjacent States, and cultivating a taste 
 for historic inquiry and study among its members. While 
 its especial field of operations was thus theoretically lim 
 ited, its practical workings were confined to no locality. 
 Each member is at liberty to choose a subject and pre 
 pare a paper and read it to the Club, among whose ar 
 chives it is to be filed. From the papers thus accumulated 
 selections are made for publication, and there have now 
 been issued twenty- three volumes of these publications. 
 They are all paper-bound quartos, printed with pica old- 
 style type on pure white antique paper, with broad mar 
 gins, untrimmed edges, and halftone illustrations. They 
 have been admired both at home and abroad, not only 
 for their original and valuable matter, but also for their 
 tasteful and comely appearance. They are not printed 
 for sale in the commercial sense of the term, but for dis 
 tribution among the members of the Club. Only limited 
 editions to meet the wants of the Club are published, 
 but any numbers which may be left over after the mem 
 bers have been supplied are exchanged with other associ- 
 
1 64 List of Filson Club Publications 
 
 ations or sold at about the cost of publication. The 
 following is a brief catalogue of all the Club publications 
 to date. 
 
 1. JOHN FILSON, the first historian of Kentucky. An 
 account of his life and writings, principally from original 
 sources, prepared for The Filson Club and read at its 
 second meeting in Louisville, June 26, 1884, by Reuben 
 T. Durrett, A. B., LL. B., A. M., LL. D., President of 
 the Club. Illustrated with a likeness of Filson, a fac 
 simile of one of his letters, and a photo-lithographic re 
 production of his map of Kentucky printed at Philadelphia 
 in 1784. 4to, 132 pages. John P. Morton & Company, 
 Printers, Louisville, Kentucky. 1884. 
 
 2. THE WILDERNESS ROAD: A description of the 
 routes of travel by which the pioneers and early settlers 
 first came to Kentucky. Prepared for The Filson Club 
 by Captain Thomas Speed, Secretary of the Club. Illus 
 trated with a map showing the routes of travel. 4to, 75 
 pages. John P. Morton & Company, Printers, Louisville, 
 Kentucky. 1886. 
 
 3. THE PIONEER PRESS OF KENTUCKY, from the print 
 ing of the first paper west of the Alleghanies, August n, 
 1787, to the establishment of the Daily Press, 1830. Pre 
 pared for The Filson Club by William Henry Perrin, mem 
 ber of the Club. Illustrated with facsimiles of pages of 
 the Kentucky Gazette and Fanner s Library, a view of 
 the first printing house in Kentucky, and likenesses of 
 John Bradford, Shadrack Penn, and George D. Prentice. 
 4to, 93 pages. John P. Morton & Company, Printers, 
 Louisville, Kentucky. 1888. 
 
 4. LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE CALEB WALLACE, some 
 time a Justice of the Court of Appeals of the State of 
 
List of Filson Club Publications 165 
 
 Kentucky. By the Reverend William H. Whitsitt, D. D., 
 member of the Club. 4to, 151 pages. John P. Morton 
 & Company, Printers, Louisville, Kentucky. 1888. 
 
 5. AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ST. PAUL S CHURCH, 
 Louisville, Kentucky, prepared for the Semi- Centennial 
 Celebration, October 6, 1889. By Reuben T. Durrett, 
 A. B., LL. B., A. M., LL. D., President of the Club. Il 
 lustrated with likenesses of the Reverend William Jackson, 
 the Reverend Edmund T. Perkins, D. D., and views of 
 the church as first built in 1839 and as it appeared in 
 1889. 4to, 90 pages. John P. Morton & Company, 
 Printers, Louisville, Kentucky. 1889. 
 
 6. THE POLITICAL BEGINNINGS OF KENTUCKY: A nar 
 rative of public events bearing on the history of the 
 State up to the time of its admission into the American 
 Union. By Colonel John Mason Brown, member of the 
 Club. Illustrated with a likeness of the author. 4to, 
 263 pages. John P. Morton & Company, Printers, Lou 
 isville, Kentucky. 1889. 
 
 7. THE CENTENARY OF KENTUCKY: Proceedings at 
 the celebration by The Filson Club, Wednesday, June i, 
 1892, of the one hundredth anniversary of the admission 
 of Kentucky as an independent State into the Federal 
 Union. Prepared for publication by Reuben T. Durrett, 
 A. B., LL. B., A. M., LL. D., President of the Club. Il 
 lustrated with likenesses of President Durrett, Major Stan- 
 ton, Sieur LaSalle, and General George Rogers Clark, 
 and facsimiles of the music and songs of the Centennial 
 Banquet. 4to, 200 pages. John P. Morton & Company, 
 Printers, Louisville, Kentucky. 1892. 
 
 8. THE CENTENARY OF LOUISVILLE: A paper read 
 before the Southern Historical Association, Saturday, May 
 
1 66 List of Filson Club Publications 
 
 i, 1880, in commemoration of the one hundredth anniver 
 sary of the beginning of the city of Louisville as an in 
 corporated town under an act of the Virginia Legislature. 
 By Reuben T. Durrett, A. B., LL. B., A. M., LL. D., 
 President of the Club. Illustrated with likenesses of Col 
 onel Durrett, Sieur LaSalle, and General George Rogers 
 Clark. 4to, 200 pages. John P. Morton & Company, 
 Printers, Louisville, Kentucky. 1893. 
 
 9. THE POLITICAL CLUB, Danville, Kentucky, 1786- 
 1790. Being an account of an early Kentucky debating 
 society, from the original papers recently found. By Cap 
 tain Thomas Speed, Secretary of the Club. 4to, xii-i67 
 pages. John P. Morton & Company, Printers, Louisville, 
 Kentucky. 1894. 
 
 10. THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF RAFINESQUE. Pre 
 pared for The Filson Club and read at its meeting Monday, 
 April 2, 1894. By Richard Ellsworth Call, M. A., M. Sc., 
 M. D., member of the Club. Illustrated with likenesses 
 of Rafinesque and facsimiles of pages of his Fishes of the 
 Ohio and Botany of Louisville. 4to, xii-227 pages. John 
 P. Morton & Company, Printers, Louisville, Kentucky, 
 
 1895- 
 
 11. TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY. Its origin, rise, de 
 cline, and fall. Prepared for The Filson Club by Robert 
 Peter, M. D., and his daughter, Miss Johanna Peter, mem 
 bers of the Club. Illustrated with a likeness of Doctor 
 Peter. 4to, 202 pages. John P. Morton & Company, 
 Printers, Louisville, Kentucky. 1896. 
 
 12. BRYANT S STATION and the Memorial Proceedings 
 held on its site under the auspices of the Lexington Chap 
 ter D. A. R., August 1 8, 1896, in honor of its heroic moth 
 ers and daughters. Prepared for publication by Reuben 
 
List of Filson Club Publications 167 
 
 T. Durrett, A. B., LL. B., A. M., LL. D., President of 
 the Club. Illustrated with likenesses of officers of the 
 Lexington Chapter D. A. R., President Durrett of The 
 Filson Club, Major Stanton, Professor Ranck, Colonel 
 Young, and Doctor Todd, members of the Club, and full- 
 page views of Bryant s Station and its spring, and of the 
 battlefield of the Blue Licks. 4to, xii-227 pages. John 
 P. Morton & Company, Printers, Louisville, Kentucky. 
 1897. 
 
 13. THE FIRST EXPLORATIONS OF KENTUCKY. The 
 Journals of Doctor Thomas Walker, 1750, and of Colonel 
 Christopher Gist, 1751. Edited by Colonel J. Stoddard 
 Johnston, Vice-President of the Club. Illustrated with a 
 map of Kentucky showing the routes of Walker and Gist 
 throughout the State, with a view of Castle Hill, the 
 residence of Doctor Walker, and a likeness of Colonel 
 Johnston. 4to, 256 pages. John P. Morton & Company, 
 Printers, Louisville, Kentucky. 1898. 
 
 14. THE CLAY FAMILY. Part First The Mother of 
 Henry Clay, by Zachary F. Smith, member of the Club. 
 Part Second The Genealogy of the Clays, by Mrs. Mary 
 Rogers Clay, member of the Club. Illustrated with a 
 full-page halftone likeness of Henry Clay, of each of the 
 authors, and a full-page picture of the Clay coat-of-arms, 
 also four full-page grouped illustrations, each containing 
 four likenesses of members of the Clay family. 4to, vi- 
 276 pages. John P. Morton & Company, Printers, Lou 
 isville, Kentucky. 1899. 
 
 15. THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. Part First The 
 Battle and Battle-ground; Part Second Comment of the 
 Press; Part Third Roll of the Army commanded by Gen 
 eral Harrison. By Captain Alfred Pirtle, member of the 
 
1 68 List of Filson Club Publications 
 
 Club. Illustrated with a likeness of the author and like 
 nesses of William Henry Harrison and Colonel Joseph 
 Hamilton Daveiss and Elkswatawa, "The Prophet," 
 together with three full-page views and a plot of the 
 battle-ground. 4to, xix-i58 pages. John P. Morton & 
 Company, Printers, Louisville, Kentucky. 1900. 
 
 1 6. BOONESBOROUGH, a pioneer town of Kentucky. 
 Its origin, progress, decline, and final extinction. By 
 George W. Ranck, historian of Lexington, Kentucky, etc., 
 and member of the Club. Illustrated with copious half 
 tone views of its site and its fort, with likenesses of the 
 author and of Daniel Boone, and a picture of Boone s 
 principal relics. 4 to, xii-286 pages. John P. Morton & 
 Company, Printers, Louisville, Kentucky. 1901. 
 
 17. THE OLD MASTERS OF THE BLUEGRASS. By Gen 
 eral Samuel W. Price, member of the Club. Consisting 
 of biographic sketches of the distinguished Kentucky 
 artists Matthew H. Jouett, Joseph H. Bush, John Grimes, 
 Oliver Frazer, Louis Morgan, Joel T. Hart, and Samuel 
 W. Price, with halftone likenesses of the artists and 
 specimens of their work. 4to, xiii-i8i pages. John P. 
 Morton & Company, Printers, Louisville, Kentucky. 1902. 
 
 18. THE BATTLE OF THE THAMES. By Colonel Ben 
 nett H. Young, member of the Club. Presenting a re 
 view of the causes which led to the battle, the prepara 
 tions made for it, the scene of the conflict, and the vic 
 tory. Illustrated with a steel engraving of the author, 
 halftone likenesses of the principal actors and scenes and 
 relics from the battlefield. To which is added an appen 
 dix containing a list of the officers and privates engaged. 
 4to, 288 pages. John P. Morton & Company, Printers, 
 Louisville, Kentucky. 1903. 
 
List of Filson Club Publications 169 
 
 19. THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. By Zachary F. 
 Smith, member of the Club. Presenting a full account of 
 the forces engaged, the preparations made, the prelimi 
 nary conflicts which led up to the final battle and the 
 victory to the Americans on the 8th of January, 1815. 
 Illustrated with full-page likenesses of the author, of Gen 
 erals Jackson and Adair, of Governors Shelby and Slaugh 
 ter, and maps of the country and scenes from the bat 
 tlefield, to which is added a list of Kentuckians in the 
 battle. 4to, 224 pages. John P. Morton & Company, 
 Printers, Louisville, Kentucky. 1904. 
 
 20. THE HISTORY OF THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF 
 TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY. By Doctor Robert Peter, 
 deceased. Prepared for publication by his daughter, Miss 
 Johanna Peter, member of the Club. Illustrated with 
 full-page likenesses of the author and principal professors, 
 and a view of the old medical hall and its janitor. 410, 
 205 pages. John P. Morton & Company, Printers, Louis 
 ville, Kentucky. 1905. 
 
 21. LOPEZ S EXPEDITIONS TO CUBA. By A. C. Quis- 
 enberry, member of the Club. Presenting a detailed ac 
 count of the Cardenas and the Bahia Honda expeditions, 
 with the names of the officers and men, as far as ascer- 
 tainable, who were engaged in them. Illustrated with 
 full-page likenesses of A. C. Quisenberry the author, Gen 
 eral Narciso Lopez commander-in-chief, Colonel John T. 
 Pickett, Colonel Theodore O Hara, Colonel Thomas T. 
 Hawkins, Colonel William Logan Crittenden, Captain Rob 
 ert H. Breckenridge, Lieutenant John Carl Johnston, and 
 landscape views of Cuba, Rose Hill, Moro Castle, and a 
 common human bone-heap of a Cuban cemetery. In the 
 appendix, besides other valuable matter, will be found a 
 
1 7 List of Filson Chib Publications 
 
 full list of The Filson Club publications and of the mem 
 bers of the Club. 4 to, 172 pages. John P. Morton & 
 Company, Printers, Louisville, Kentucky. 1906. 
 
 22. THE QUEST FOR A LOST RACE. By Thomas E. 
 Pickett, M. D., member of the Club. Presenting the the 
 ory of Paul B. DuChaillu, an eminent ethnologist and 
 explorer, that the English-speaking people are descended 
 from the Scandinavians rather than the Teutons, from 
 the Normans instead of the Germans. Examples of simi 
 lar customs and peculiarities between the Scandinavians 
 and English are given, and the work illustrated with half 
 tone likenesses of the author, of William the Conqueror, 
 of DuChaillu, and of "Our Beautiful Scandinavian," with 
 maps of Scandinavia and Northumbria, and with like 
 nesses of a number of distinguished Kentuckians whose 
 names, aspects, and habits indicate descent from the 
 Scandinavians or Norman-French. 4 to, 229 pages. John 
 P. Morton & Company, Printers, Louisville, Kentucky. 
 1907. 
 
 23. TRADITIONS OF THE EARLIEST VISITS OF FOREIGNERS 
 TO NORTH AMERICA, the first formed and first inhabited 
 of the continents. By Reuben T. Durrett, A. B., LL. 
 B., A. M., LL. D., President of the Club. An attempt 
 to show that history, tradition, and science favor the 
 probability that the East was originally peopled from 
 the West, that the first Oriental visitors found this 
 country already with occupants, and that America was 
 really the first formed and first inhabited of the conti 
 nents. The principal pre-Columbian discoveries are 
 cited, and ample space given to the tradition that 
 Prince Madoc planted a Welsh colony in America in 
 the Twelfth century which at one time occupied the 
 
List of Filson Club Publications 171 
 
 country at the Falls of the Ohio. Copiously illustrated 
 with halftone views of mountains, valleys, castles, churches, 
 abbeys, etc., in Wales, the native country of the colony, 
 a view of the Falls of the Ohio at the time the colony 
 may be supposed to have dwelt there, and a likeness of 
 the author. 4to, 200 pages. John P. Morton & Com 
 pany, Printers, Louisville, Kentucky. 1908. 
 
INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Absence of a tribe of Welsh Indians no evidence that they 
 
 never existed 68 
 
 After Columbus made known America, there were numerous 
 
 claimants to its discovery 70 
 
 Agassiz pronounced North America the oldest of the continents . . 72 
 
 America oldest of the continents 70 
 
 America never found uninhabited by visitors from the Eastern 
 
 continent 69 
 
 America first inhabited of the continents 75 
 
 Americans could go to Ireland as easy as the Irish could come 
 
 to America 16 
 
 Atlantis the vanished island of Plato 2 
 
 Atlantis tradition originated in Egypt twelve thousand years 
 
 ago 4 
 
 Atlantis tradition has support from geology 4 
 
 Atlantis submerged twelve thousand years ago 3 
 
 Atlantis described in the "Timaeus" and "Critias" of Plato 3 
 
 Autochthons of America 115 
 
 Bancroft on the Madoc tradition 113 
 
 Beatty, Charles, tells what he learned of the Welsh Indians while 
 
 a missionary 38 
 
 Binon s account of the Welsh Indians 133 
 
 Bones and implements of man found in Europe indicating the 
 
 Quaternary age , . . . . 78 
 
 Bones of man in caves and gravels best proof of his former exist 
 ence 78 
 
 Bones and implements of Tertiary man found in America 79 
 
1 74 Index 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Bowles, a Cherokee chief, on the Welsh Indians 130 
 
 Bourbois River, Missouri, yielded the skeleton of a mastodon of 
 
 the Tertiary age 80 
 
 Bryant & Gay s Popular History on the Welsh Indians 45 
 
 Brasseur de Bourbourg on the Island of Atlantis 113 
 
 Burial of a widow s two sons 85 
 
 Burder, George, on the Welsh tradition 42 
 
 Catlin lived for years among the Mandans and believed them 
 
 to be the Welsh Indians 44 
 
 Catlin, George, on the Welsh Indians 44 
 
 Calaveras County, California, yielded a human skull in auriferous 
 
 gravel of the Tertiary age 80 
 
 Caractacus his speech before Emperor Claudius 120 
 
 Caernarvon Castle x 
 
 Chinese claim of a visit to America in 499 12 
 
 Civil war between the sons of Prince Gwynedd 23 
 
 Civilization and whisky destroyed many Indians 67 
 
 Clark, George Rogers, tells about curious house near Kaskaskia . . 49 
 Croghan, Colonel George, his letter to Governor Dinwiddie about 
 
 the Welsh Indians 117 
 
 Delaware River gravels yield argillite implements of the Terti 
 ary age 79 
 
 Different authors have varied opinions about Plato s Atlantis . . 107 
 
 Diodorus Siculus glowing account of his island 7 
 
 Doeg Indians in Maryland in 1666 . 32 
 
 Doeg Indians secure Jones release from the Tuscaroras 31 
 
 Drake s Aboriginal Races of America 66 
 
 Erickson s better claim to discovery of America than Herjulson . . 14 
 
Index 175 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Falls of Ohio in state of nature xi 
 
 Fall River skeleton in Norse armor 65 
 
 Filson, John, on Madoc tradition 46 
 
 Filson tells all about the Madoc tradition and puts his hearers 
 
 asleep 51 
 
 Filson s kind notices of Indians 52 
 
 Filson, John, with eminent Kentucky pioneers 47 
 
 Filson, John, in meeting of Kentucky pioneers to learn about 
 
 Madoc tradition 48 
 
 Frazer, Lady, her opinion of the Columbian discovery 141 
 
 Fusang, the name given America by the Chinese 12 
 
 Geologists measure age of continents not in years but in eras, 
 
 ages, periods, etc 71 
 
 Giraldus, the historian, on the Welsh 122 
 
 Griffin relates early traditions of Falls of the Ohio iv 
 
 Griffiths and five Shawnees reach the Welsh Indians up the 
 
 Missouri 51 
 
 Griffiths and companions are condemned to death and his speak 
 ing Welsh saved them 60 
 
 Gutton Owen s copy of the Madoc tradition 22 
 
 Gwynedd s oldest son could not inherit the crown because of his 
 
 broken nose 23 
 
 Harrison tells of a grayevard opposite the Falls 50 
 
 Harlech Castle xi 
 
 Levi Hicks also tells of Indians who talked Welsh 39 
 
 Hinde mentions six Welsh skeletons found at the Falls of the 
 
 Ohio 62 
 
 Hinde states that the Welsh colony was once at the Falls 62 
 
 Hinde, Thomas S., on the Madoc tradition 61 
 
1 76 Index 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Illustrations of twenty-third publication viii 
 
 Importance of Parson Jones statement 33 
 
 Indians superstition about the cholera 96 
 
 Irish claim of discovery extended from Virginia to Florida 16 
 
 Irish claim of the discovery of America 15 
 
 Island of Atlantis as told by Windsor 104 
 
 Jefferson s belief that immigrants went from America to Asia 
 
 instead of from Asia to America 75 
 
 Jones, etc., saved by his use of Welsh words 31 
 
 Jones and companions taken prisoners by the Indians 31 
 
 Jones starving condition at Port Royal 30 
 
 Jones, Reverend Morgan, his account of the Madoc tradition . . 30 
 
 Jones errors as to geography 31 
 
 Journey of Israelites through Red Sea and Wilderness distorted 
 
 in Indian tradition 40 
 
 List of members of The Filson Club, 1908 151-161 
 
 Lord Littleton s opinion of the Madoc tradition 144 
 
 Madoc tradition as given in Hakluit 20 
 
 Madoc tradition widely known in America 17 
 
 Madoc tradition from Filson s History 52 
 
 Madoc tradition in Welsh history 22 
 
 Madoc tradition in Kentucky 46 
 
 Madoc tradition in America 28 
 
 Madoc tradition as known in Europe 19 
 
 Madoc tradition in Powell s edition of Caradoc s Wales 22 
 
 Mammoth Cave mummy of unknown age 81 
 
 Mammoth Cave mummy 82 
 
Index 177 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Man s love for the ancient 86 
 
 Man might have been placed first in America as well as in Asia .... 84 
 
 Mandan derived from Madawgwys 101 
 
 Mandans destroyed by smallpox in 1838 90 
 
 Mclntosh hears Welshman talk with Indians 63 
 
 Moore tells of battle of Sand Island, in which the White Indians 
 
 perished 50 
 
 Morgan Jones opinion of the Welsh Indians 132 
 
 Montezuma s speech to his people when dethroned by Cortez ... 135 
 
 Mound Builders equal to the Atlantians 9 
 
 Mound Builders antedated the Red Indians 77 
 
 Mound Builders, The 83 
 
 Mounds of Louisville . 51 
 
 Nebulous theory of the origin of our solar system 72 
 
 Norse claim of the discovery of America 13 
 
 No certain way of measuring the age of continents in years 70 
 
 Ocean soundings indicate a sunken island on its bed 5 
 
 Origin of Prince of Wales vii 
 
 Owen s account of the Welsh Indians 137-139 
 
 Philadelphians propose to go in search of the Madoc colony 34 
 
 Phoenician tradition as to Atlantis 7 
 
 Pottery and ornaments peculiar to Mandans 102 
 
 Prehistoric river in England 4 
 
 Red Indians first people found here by Europeans 77 
 
 Red Indians could give no rational account of their origin 77 
 
 Relics of Welsh Indians along the Missouri River 99 
 
178 Index 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Roberts, Lieutenant Joseph, gives account of a Welsh Indian 
 
 he met in Washington , 54 
 
 Robertson, the historian, on the Madoc tradition 148 
 
 Rough catalogue of Filson Club publications 163-171 
 
 Sanders tells of a White Indian killed by a panther 50 
 
 Scythians could more easily have reached America than Chinese . . 12 
 
 Selections from the Gentleman s Magazine 137 
 
 Selections from the "Inquiry" and "Further Observations" by 
 
 Reverend John Williams 126 
 
 Shaler s estimate of the time America had existed before life 
 
 began 71 
 
 Skeletons in Welsh armor found at the Falls suggest doubt 64 
 
 Skinner, Doctor, consoled Filson by suggesting his hearers were 
 
 spellbound instead of being asleep 52 
 
 Sutton, Benjamin, tells what he learned while among the Welsh 
 
 Indians 38 
 
 Smallpox among the Indians very fatal 67 
 
 Smallpox cause of its virulence and fatality among Indians .... 92 
 Smith, Captain John, first published the Madoc tradition in 
 
 America 29 
 
 Stuart, Captain Isaac, tells what he learned about the Welsh 
 
 Indians while living with them as a prisoner and when at 
 
 liberty 35 
 
 St. Asaph x 
 
 Sutton further tells of Jewish customs among the Indians 40 
 
 Toulmin gives to the "Palladium" Griffiths account of the Welsh 
 
 Indians 57 
 
 Tradition of Madoc s colony in America as told by Bryant & Gay . . 108 
 
 TY )) 
 \ 
 
Index 1 79 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Unbelievers in the Madoc tradition 143 
 
 "Universal History" on the Madoc tradition . . 124 
 
 Welsh colony at the Falls of the Ohio 18 
 
 Welsh Indians spoke Welsh as well as Roberts, the Welshman .... 55 
 
 Welsh Indians builders of mounds in Mississippi Valley 98 
 
 Welsh a maritime people 126 
 
 Welsh a cultured people 129 
 
 Welsh colony ancestors of Mandans 97 
 
 Where in America Madoc landed his colony 98 
 
 Whole tribes of Indians destroyed 65 
 
 Williams, Reverend John, his valuable work on the subject. . . 42