E-text prepared by Robert J. Hall
from the library of Joseph S. Colello
| Note: | The original document contained a number of errors in spelling and punctuation, which the transcriber preserved. At the end of the book is a list of errata which have not been corrected in this transcription. The only revision has been to convert the long-s characters with an 's', where they occur. |
By JOHN WILLIAMS, L. L. D.
Hic, ubi nunc Roma est orbis caput, arbor et herbæ, Etpaucæ pecudes, et casa rara fuit.
Ov. Fast. L. 5. v. 93.
LONDON:
M. DCC XCI.
The following Observations are with Diffidence given to the Public;because the Subject is rather obscure and uncertain. However, it ispresumed that there are stronger Reasons for admitting the Truthof Prince Madog's landing on the American Shores, than for thecontrary. There are many Relations in History, which have obtainedCredit, that appear to me, not so well supported as this Tradition.
We find allusions to it in the Writings of Ancient British Bards,who were dead before Columbus sailed on his first Western Voyage.We are told, also, by credible Authors, that some plain traces ofChristianity, such as it was in the Days of Madog, were found inAmerica, when the Spaniards landed there. No Nation, in Europe,hath ever pretended to have visited America before Behaim, Columbus,or Americus Vespucius, but the Welsh: it is therefore almost, ifnot quite certain, that if its religious Notions and Customs werederived from Europe, it must have been from the Ancient Britons. TheWords in common use on different parts of the Continent, which arevery near, or undeniably Welsh, in both sound and sense, could nothappen by chance, and they could not be derived from any Europeansbut from the Ancient Britons.
Page viThe inhabitants of some parts, it is said had a Book among them,upon which they set a great Value, though they could not read it.This Book seems to have been a Welsh Bible, because it was foundin the Hands of a people who spoke Welsh; and because Mr. Jonescould read and understand it.
This Circumstance is of great Weight in the debate. For whetherthis Book was a Welsh Bible or not, it actually proves that theNatives of that Country where the Book was found, had been on thatContinent many Ages, and could not be the descendants of a Colonyplanted there after the discovery of Columbus in 1492. No writtenLanguage or Alphabetical Characters can be totally forgotten byany people, within the space of 160, or 170 Years, which was theperiod that intervened between the discovery of Columbus and Mr.Jones's visit.
It will be shewn in this short Treatise that there is not the leastreason to think that the whole was a Story invented to be the groundof a claim to a first Discovery. For before Columbus returned fromhis first Western Voyage, no Nation in Europe had any idea of aWestern Continent except the Ancient Britons; among whom thereseem