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diff --git a/40225-0.txt b/40225-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..739f68e --- /dev/null +++ b/40225-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4358 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40225 *** + +AMERICA DISCOVERED BY THE WELSH IN 1170 A.D. + +BY + +REV. BENJAMIN F. BOWEN. + + + Y Gwir yn erbyn y Byd. + + "The Truth against the World." + + +Philadelphia: + +J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 1876. + + +Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by + +BENJAMIN F. BOWEN, + +In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +Some time since, J. Sabin, the well-known book antiquarian of New York, +related a very amusing story to me of a clergyman from Rhode Island +coming into his store and inquiring whether he wished to purchase an +Indian Bible. At once Mr. Sabin replied that he did, and that he would +pay him five hundred dollars for it. The clergyman was delighted, +returned to his home in Rhode Island, and, fearing to intrust so costly +a relic to the express, determined to carry it himself to the city. With +great eagerness he opened the book in Mr. Sabin's presence, when the +latter, equally surprised and amused, exclaimed,-- + +"Why, sir, that's not an Indian Bible!" + +"Not an Indian Bible!" + +"Why, no, sir!" + +The clergyman at first thought the antiquarian was quizzing him, but, +seeing him so serious, asked,-- + +"Well, Mr. Sabin, what makes you think so?" + +"Because it is a _Welsh_ Bible." + +The clergyman hastily picked up the volume and disappeared. + +The two languages bear a marked resemblance to each other. In the +classification of the letters, the consonants in particular, including +the gutturals, palatals, dentals, and labials, with their forms and +mutations, hold such an identity in sound that any person not familiar +with either language might take them to be the same, while he who +understood both would as readily allow that in many respects they were +akin. + +The following pages are the result of an earnest desire to settle the +question of, and, if possible, to fix the belief in, the voyages of +Prince Madoc and his followers in 1170 A.D., and to assign them their +rightful place in American history. Although this recognition has been +very tardily given, by the almost utter silence of our historians, and +the apparent unconcern of those linked with the Prince by blood, +language, and country, the honor will be none the less real if bestowed +now. Indeed, in this age of claims, and when every scrap of our general +and local history is eagerly sought and read, it cannot be otherwise +than that what is set forth in his favor will receive some share of +attention from an intelligent public. Besides, so much earnest study has +been given by those in other countries to the subject of the early +discoveries on the American Continent, that it is hoped this +contribution to its literature will serve to foster still further the +spirit of inquiry, and be at the same time an acknowledgment of our debt +to those countries for what they have furnished us in brain, heart, +muscle, and life. + +At intervals extending through several years, when released from the +pressure of my public work, I have been engaged in the collection of the +materials, both at home and abroad, from old manuscripts, books, +pamphlets, magazines, and papers. The subject was not common, neither +were the materials. What are the facts? That is the question. Facts of +history, experience, observation. Speculative verbiage is avoided, for +want of time and space. Others are made to take my place, for the sake +of presenting what _they knew_. Such a method is more convincing than +the expression of empty opinions. + +B. F. B. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + PAGE +THE MIGRATIONS OF THE WELSH 9 + + +CHAPTER II. + +BY WHOM WAS AMERICA FIRST PEOPLED? 17 + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE VOYAGES OF PRINCE MADOC 25 + + +CHAPTER IV. + +SUPPORTED BY WELSH AND OTHER HISTORIANS 34 + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE NARRATIVE OF REV. MORGAN JONES 47 + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE NARRATIVE OF REV. CHARLES BEATTY 59 + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE WELSH INDIANS MOVING WEST 71 + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE DISPERSION OF THE WELSH INDIANS 85 + + +CHAPTER IX. + +MAURICE GRIFFITH'S AND HIS COMPANIONS' EXPERIENCE 96 + + +CHAPTER X. + +CAPTAIN ISAAC STUART, GOVERNORS SEVIER AND DINWIDDIE, +GENERAL MORGAN LEWIS--THEIR KNOWLEDGE +OF THE WELSH INDIANS 109 + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE MANDAN INDIANS: WHO ARE THEY? 120 + + +CHAPTER XII. + +WELSH BLOOD IN THE AZTECS 130 + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE MOQUIS, MOHAVES, AND MODOCS 145 + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +SIGNS OF FREEMASONRY AMONG INDIANS 156 + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE WELSH LANGUAGE AMONG AMERICAN INDIANS 159 + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE WELSH OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 165 + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +ADDRESS OF REV. DAVID JONES AT TICONDEROGA 180 + + + + +AMERICA DISCOVERED BY THE WELSH. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE MIGRATIONS OF THE WELSH. + + +The etymology of the names of persons, places, and things is a curious +subject of inquiry. It is one of the safest guides in an attempt to +distinguish the race-differences of a people whose history reaches back +to an immemorial era. + +The names of _Wales_ and the _Welsh_ are comparatively of recent origin. +The Welsh have always called themselves Cymru or Cymry,--Romanized into +Cambria or Cambrians. This has been the generic name of the race as far +back as any trace can be found of their existence. The Romans changed +Gal into Gaul; the Welsh sound _u_ as _e_: hence they pronounced the +Romanized word Gaul as Gael. The Saxons, as was their wont, substituted +_w_ for _g_: hence, as the people of Cambria were esteemed to be +analogous to the Gauls, they called their country Waels or Wales, and +its people Waelsh or Welsh; and these names have continued to the +present time. But this people always have called themselves "Y Cymry," +of which the strictly literal meaning is _aborigines_. They call their +language "Y Cymraeg,"--the primitive tongue. Celt, meaning a covert or +shelter, and Gaul, meaning an open plain or country, are terms applied +to various subdivisions by which the Cymric race have been known. In +this connection it may be appropriate to say that the word "Indian" is +one that does not apply or belong to the red race of the American +Continent, but was used by Columbus, who, anxious to discover the East +Indies by a northwest route, imagined that he had reached that country, +and called the inhabitants Indians. Subsequent events have proved his +mistake. The primitive races of this continent are more properly +designated by the word aborigines, as in the case of the Cymry. + +Through the rich and copious language and literature of Wales, the +student of history is able to gather a vast store of knowledge +respecting its inhabitants and their early ancestors. The substantial +result arrived at as to their origin and migrations may be briefly +stated as follows: + +First. That the inhabitants of Wales, known to Homer as the Cimmerii, +migrated thither from the great fountain-head of nations,--the land of +the Euphrates and Tigris. + +Second. That they went in successive bands, each in a more advanced +state of civilization than the former. + +Third. That they carried with them a peculiar language, peculiar arts +and superstitions, marking their settlement on the Island of Britain at +a very early period. + +Fourth. That their journey through Europe is marked with the vestiges of +tumuli, mounds, skulls, rude utensils, ornaments, and geographical names +in their language. + +The Welsh language is of a pure radical construction, and remarkably +free from admixture with other tongues. It is as copious, flexible, and +refined as it was two thousand years ago, when it existed alongside the +Greek and Latin, both of which it antedates and survives, for it is not, +like them, a dead language, but is in living use at the present day in +literature, commerce, home, and worship. + +"'Dim Saesenaig! Dim Saesenaig!'" exclaimed the astonished Thomas +Carlyle, when visiting the vale of Glamorgan, "'Dim Saesenaig!' (No +English! No English!) from every dyke-side and house comes. The first +thing these poor bodies have to do is to learn English." + +Thomas Carlyle was greatly mistaken, if he ever believed that the Welsh +would tamely surrender their Cymraeg. It has been the symbol of their +unconquerable hope, and they watch with jealous care any inroads made +upon it. Upon the principle that might is right, nations have been +forced from their own soil, but with a most passionate tenacity they +have still clung to their native tongue. True, there have been languages +which have become extinct, like the nations which have spoken them, by +conquest; but the Welsh continues to exist, because either the people +who speak it have never been conquered, or it has proved itself superior +to conquest. + +Edward the First is supposed to have directed the final blow towards +crushing Welsh independence; and yet there is at present preserved in +the cathedral of St. Asaph, North Wales, the celebrated Rhuddlan +Parliament Stone, on which is written this inscription: + + + This Fragment is the Remains + Where Edward the First held his + Parliament A.D. 1283; in which the + Statute of Rhuddlan was enacted + Securing to the Principality of Wales + _Its Judicial Rights and Independence_. + + +The Welsh have a property in the British Isle which no earthly power can +wrest from them. Henry the Second once asked a Welsh chieftain, "Think +you the rebels can withstand my army?" He replied, "King, your power may +to a certain extent harm and enfeeble this nation, but the anger of God +alone can destroy it. Nor do I think in the day of doom any other race +than the Cymry will answer for this corner of the earth to the Sovereign +Judge." + +Many centuries have elapsed since these brave and hopeful words were +uttered, and the destiny of Wales is more manifest,--that her +nationality will be swallowed up or merged with English laws, customs, +and habits: still her language and literature will survive, and the +names will continue fixed to assert the antiquity and greatness of her +people. More than half the names borne by the population of England are +of Cymric origin or derivation. More than three-fourths of the names in +Scotland, and about one-half of those of France, are from the same +source. Cambrian names are found all through Europe,--in Italy, +Switzerland, Holland, Germany, and about the Pyrenees. + +The Welsh name for London is _Llundain_. It was Latinized into +_Lundinum_, and Anglicized into Lundon or London. Its etymology is from +_llyn_, a pool or lake, and _Dain_ or _Tain_ for _Thames_ (the sound of +_d_ being like that of _t_): hence, a pool or lake on the Thames. The +low flat on the east side of London, known as "The Isle of Dogs," now a +part of the mainland, was at one time flooded by the Thames; and hence +the name of _Llundain_, or _Thames Lake_. Liverpool came from _Flowing +Pool_; that is, the tide flowed in and out. + +_Avon_ is the generic Welsh name for river: hence Avon-Clyde, +Avon-Conwy, Avon-Stratford. Cumberland stands for Cymbri-land; +Northumberland for North Cymbri-land. _Aber_ is the mouth of a river, +Anglicized into _harbor_: hence there is Aber-Conway, Aberdeen. There is +scarcely a river, mountain, or lake in England or in Scotland the +etymology of which is not found in the Welsh language at the present +day. + +The ancient British language, physique, skull, hair, eyes, and flexure +of pronunciation still preponderate in England, notwithstanding the +incessant boasts of the Saxon, who was a barbarous savage when he +arrived, and who did not exhibit a single instance of knowledge and +learning until after he had come in contact with the Cymric race. + +With a view to tracing the migrations of this race throughout Europe, +observe the ancient geographical terms, with their strong physical +traits. + +Caucasus is derived from the two Welsh words _cau_, to shut up, to fence +in, and _cas_, separated, insulated. This mountain-chain has borne this +name from the earliest human records; and how expressive of their +position and character, to inclose Europe from Asia! + +The Caspian Sea means, when derived, _cas_, separated, and _pen_, head; +literally, a sea with a head or source, but insulated and without an +outlet. Any one familiar with this body of water can understand the +force of the words. + +Crimea comes from the Welsh word _crymu_ (pronounced kri´me, the _c_ +being sounded as _k_, and the _u_ as _e_), which means to bend or +curve; literally, a circular peninsula. The Crimea was the Gwlad yr Haf +(summer land) of the Cymry. + +Alps is derived from _al_, grand, sublime, and _pen_, head,--a sublime +head. + +Armorica comes from _ar-y-môr_, upon the sea. + +Danube finds its derivation from _dan_, under, below, and _uf_ +(pronounced _uv_ or _ub_), spreading or diffused. Some of the Cymric +bands or colonies, in their migrations westward, halted along the banks +of the Danube; others settled on the Elbe, and were called the Wendi, +and their descendants speak at the present time a slightly-corrupted +Welsh language. Bautzen, in Bavaria, and Glogau, in Prussia, are old +Cymric towns; and an eminent German scholar has shown what ancient +Cymric relics are to be found in the museums of Dresden and Berlin. +Recently many learned philologists were excited into a sharp discussion +to account for the name of the German capital, Berlin. Its origin is +plainly Cymric, and is derived from _ber_, a curve, and _lin_, a river. + +There is such a striking resemblance between the ancient Cymric laws, as +compiled by Dyfnval Moelmud, and the Institutes of Menu, that many of +the most able Oriental and Welsh scholars have concluded that another +branch of the Cymric race must have gone eastward from the Caucasus and +penetrated into India. Sir William Jones, a son of a Welshman, +translated these Institutes of Menu, or Brahminic Laws, and says, "The +name '_Menu_' is clearly derived from _menses_, _mens_, or mind, as all +the Pandits agree that it means intelligent." _Menw_ in Welsh means the +seat of intelligence. + +Moreover, it is generally admitted that the Welsh contains a sufficient +number of root-words by which the original connection of the Semitic +(Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Egyptian, etc.) and the Indo-European +languages is distinctly shown. And, as will be subsequently proved, a +large number of words have been found in use by the aborigines of the +American Continent, whose roots or simplest forms were related to roots +of words in the old languages, many of which were directly connected +with the Cymric tongue. + +The object of this cursory sketch has been to show that, from the very +earliest period, the branches of the Cymric race have been extensively +spread over the earth, as indicated by the sure testimony of their +language; that they moved from east to west, preceding all other +races--the Teutonic, Sarmatian, etc.--by long intervals of time. From +the certain data of history these things are placed beyond doubt,--by +Herodotus, Cæsar, and others. Would it be surprising, then, if, in +accordance with the same nomadic principle and these westward +migrations, together with the fierce persecutions of the northern +hordes, some portions of the Cymry were driven still farther westward +and were wafted to the American Continent? + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +BY WHOM WAS AMERICA FIRST PEOPLED? + + +By whom and by what means the American Continent was originally peopled +has been, in the main, an unsolved problem. That it will always remain +so does not appear from new proofs which are being adduced to support +favorite theories. Four of these theories have, at different times, and +with much intelligent zeal, been maintained. + +(1.) That the ancestors of the American aborigines came from +Europe,--that they were Caucasians, but became changed in color by the +use of red roots and the bleachings of the sun; and of these were +represented the Romans, Grecians, Spaniards, Irish, Norsemen, +Courlanders, Russians, and Welsh. + +(2.) That they came from Asia, and comprised Israelites, Canaanites, +Assyrians, Phoenicians, Persians, Tartars, East Indians, Chinese, and +Japanese. + +(3.) That they came from Africa, the original cradle, it is maintained, +of the American aborigines, who are made the descendants of the +Egyptians, Carthaginians, or Numidians. + +(4.) That the American aborigines are the descendants of all the nations +in the world. + +The last is certainly the most accommodative, and can be made to bend +to suit the shifting exigencies of an imperfect state of knowledge. The +skeptical view would not be accepted, inasmuch as it broke the unity of +the race,--namely, that all the original people and animals of America +were distinct creations. + +Beginning with Peleg, whose name signifies division, when Noah divided +the earth between his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, there is found a +basis for the repeopling of the earth. Africa was assigned to Ham, the +temperate zones to Shem, and the frigid zones to Japheth. Heathen altars +and the mounds of early Scripture are taken as the original types of the +earthen monumental remains of America. At the dispersion on the plains +of Shinar, and after the confusion of tongues, "the Lord scattered them +abroad from thence upon the face of _all_ the earth." It was the opinion +of Ogilby, cosmographer to the English king in 1671, that men and +animals came soon after the flood from Armenia to Tartary, and thence, +by continuous land-route by way of the present Behring Straits, to +America. + +The Atlantis of Homer, Solon, Plato, and Hesiod, which was supposed to +unite the continents of Africa and America, or which was a great island +situated between them, seems to lose, by time, more of its mythical +character, and to be brought to the plane of a historic fact. It +certainly cannot be treated as a pure fiction. The story that Solon +brought from Egypt to Greece of the Atlantic island was not new there; +for a great festival was held in Greece, accompanied with symbols, to +show what advantage the Athenians had in their wars with the Atlantes. + +Diodorus Siculus (book v. chap. ii.) seems to refer to America in the +following: "Over-against Africa lies a very great island in the vast +ocean, many days' sail from Libya westward. The soil is very fruitful. +It is diversified with mountains and pleasant vales, and the towns are +adorned with stately buildings." He then alludes to the Phoenicians +sailing along the Atlantic coast of Africa. The theory that the land +forming the bed of the Atlantic Ocean between Brazil and Africa is a +vast sunken tract is hardly defensible. The remnants of Cape Verd and +Ascension Islands, and the numerous rock-formations and sand-banks +surveyed with great accuracy by Bauche, have been submitted in its +favor. Traditions exist that a people on the Mediterranean, sailing +through the Straits of Gibraltar, the ancient Calpe, were driven +westward by a storm, and were heard of no more. It is thought they +reached the American coast. Some time since, at a meeting of the Mexican +Geographical Society, it was stated that some _brass tablets_ had been +discovered in the northern part of Brazil, covered with Phoenician +inscriptions, which tell of the discovery of America five centuries +B.C. They are now in the museum of Rio Janeiro. They state that a +Sidonian fleet left a port of the Red Sea, rounding the Cape of Good +Hope, and following the southeast trade-winds until the northeast +trade-winds prevented farther progress north, and they were driven +across the Atlantic. The number of the vessels, the number of the crews, +the name of Sidon as their home, and many other particulars, are given. + +It is given as veritable history that a farmer near Montevideo, South +America, discovered in one of his fields, in 1827, a flat stone which +bore strange and unknown characters; and beneath this stone was a vault +made of masonry, in which were deposited two ancient swords, a helmet, +and a shield. The stone and the deposits were brought to Montevideo, and +most of the inscriptions of the former were sufficiently legible to be +deciphered. They ran as follows: + + + "_During the dominion of Alexander, the son of + Philip, King of Macedon, in the sixty-third + Olympiad, Ptolemais._" + + +On the handle of one of the swords was a man's portrait, supposed to +represent Alexander. The helmet had on it fine sculptured work, +representing Achilles dragging the corpse of Hector around the walls of +Troy. This would seem to point to an early Grecian discovery of America. + +Humboldt cites a passage of Plutarch, in which he thinks that both the +Antilles and the great continent itself are described. + +In "Varia Historia," book iii. chap, xviii., Ælian tells how one +Theopompus relates the particulars of an interview between Midas, King +of Phrygia, and Silenus, in which the latter reported the existence of a +great continent beyond the Atlantic, "larger than Asia, Europe, and +Libya together." + +In 1761, Deguignes, a French scholar, made known to the world that the +Chinese discovered America in the fifth century. He derived his +knowledge from Chinese official annals. He affirmed that in the year 499 +A.D., Hoei Shin (Universal Compassion), a Chinese Buddhist priest, +returned to Singan, the capital of China, and declared that he had been +to Tahan (Kamtschatka), and from thence on to a country about twenty +thousand _li_ (short Chinese miles), or about seven thousand English +miles. The measurements are taken to be about the distance between China +and California, or Mexico. He called the country Fusang, from the name +of an abundant plant,--the Mexican "maguey," or American aloe. + +He described the gold, silver, copper, and other ores which abounded; +also the customs, rites, and cycles of time; and these are made to agree +with what has been known of the American aborigines. Oriental scholars, +like Klaproth and Bretschneider, have handled these pretensions with +keen severity; while there have not been wanting others who allege that +the Japanese and Chinese do not record myths. There is a description of +Fusang in the Japanese Encyclopædia,--Wa-kan-san-taï-dzon-yé. + +Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg says, in his "Popol Vuh," a book on the +ancient people of Mexico and Central America, "There is an abundance of +legends and traditions concerning the passage of the Irish into America, +and their habitual communication with that continent, many centuries +before the time of Columbus. We should bear in mind that Ireland was +colonized by the Phoenicians. An Irish saint, named Vigile, who lived +in the eighth century, was accused to Pope Zachary of having taught +heresies on the subject of the antipodes. At first he wrote to the Pope +in reply to the charge, but afterwards went to Rome in person to justify +himself, and there proved to the Pope that the Irish had been accustomed +to communicate with a transatlantic world." + +Brereton's account of Gosnold's voyage to the New England coast in 1602 +mentions an occurrence off the coast of Maine, of his having met "eight +Indians, in a Basque shallop, with mast and sail, an iron grapple, and a +kettle; that they came aboard boldly, one of them being appareled with a +waistcoat and breeches of black serge, made after our sea-fashion, hose +and shoes on his feet: all the rest (saving one that had a pair of +breeches of blue cloth) were naked." + +Michel, in his "Les Pays Basques," thinks that the Basques, being +adventurous fishermen, were accustomed to visit the American coast from +time immemorial. They were engaged in the whale and other fisheries. + +The voyages of the Norsemen, and their temporary settlements on the +American Continent, are now too well authenticated to admit of any +doubt. + +In the preceding chapter it was shown that the Welsh were a migratory +race, and had moved from the lands of the Euphrates and Tigris in an +eastward direction, and also westwardly, till, in the time of Homer, +they occupied the British Island. They were surrounded by water. Their +very necessities made them navigators. They conducted large fisheries. +The Phoenicians and Greeks traded with them in tin and lead, and in the +Baltic for amber. Their commercial relations were extensive before +Julius Cæsar reached the island. He came to attack and subdue them, +because their naval power, as he himself says, assisted the Gauls. Their +ships were made of oak, and were so strong as to be impenetrable to the +beaks of the Roman ships, and so high that they could not be annoyed by +the darts of the Roman soldiers. + +King Canute, in the eleventh century, had vessels with sixty +rowing-benches. Early voyagers traversed seas and oceans with +comparative safety. Though they had not the compass (which, by the way, +is uncertain), they studied the elements of nature,--the winds, +currents, sun, and stars. Modern sailors have the advantage of accurate +instruments to reduce their observations. The ascensions and descensions +of the sun by day, and the polar star by night, are sufficient guides to +prevent sailing wide of points. + +Between America and Europe are two great currents,--the southwesterly +bearing towards the former continent, and the northeasterly towards the +latter. The majestic Gulf Stream sweeps around from Newfoundland till it +almost crosses the Atlantic near the British Island. That is why the +steamship-lines adopt the course of sailing-vessels. By the aid of the +simple forces of nature, early voyagers reached the American Continent. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE VOYAGES OF PRINCE MADOC. + + +Owain Gwynedd was esteemed one of the greatest princes Wales ever +produced. + +Upon the death of his father, which occurred in 1137 A.D., he took his +share of the possessions, which were divided, according to the custom of +the nation, among the sons, and he ruled North Wales, his seat of +government being at Aberfraw, till 1169 A.D., when he died. + +Gwalchmai, a Bard of his times, addressed to him the following spirited +ode in celebration of an important victory he achieved over the English +at the battle of Tal y Moelvre: + + + "The generous chief I sing of Rhodri's line, + With princely gifts endow'd, whose hand + Hath often curb'd the border land, + Owain, great heir of Britain's throne,-- + Whom fair Ambition marks her own, + Who ne'er to yield to man was known, + Nor heaps he stores at Avarice's shrine. + + "Three mighty legions o'er the sea-flood came, + Three fleets intent on sudden fray; + One from Erin's verdant coast, + One with Lochlin's arméd host, + Long burdens of the billowy way; + The third, from far, bore them of Norman's name, + To fruitless labor doom'd, and barren fame. + + "'Gainst Mona's gallant lord, where, lo! he stands, + His warlike sons ranged at his side, + Rushes the dark tumultuous tide, + Th' insulting tempest of the hostile bands: + Boldly he turns the furious storm, + Before him wild Confusion flies, + While Havoc rears her hideous form, + And prostrate Rank expiring lies; + Conflict upon conflict growing, + Gore on gore in torrents flowing, + Shrieks answering shrieks, and slaughter raving, + And high o'er Modore's front a thousand banners waving. + + "Now thickens still the frantic war; + The flashing death-strokes gleam afar, + Spear rings on spear, flight urges flight, + And drowning victims plunge to night; + Check'd by the torrent-tide of blood, + Backward Menai rolls his flood; + The mailéd warriors on the shore, + With carnage strew'd, and dyed with gore, + In awful anguish drag their mangled forms along, + And high the slaughter'd throng + Is heap'd, the King's red chiefs before. + + "Lloegria's onset thus, Lloegria's flight, + The struggle doom'd her power to tame, + Shall, with her routed sons, unite + To raise great Owain's sword to fame; + Whilst sevenscore tongues of his exploits shall tell, + And all their high renown through future ages swell." + + +Many other odes are extant in the Welsh language, written in honor of +this great prince, which have never been surpassed in true poetic +spirit, elegance of diction, and metrical ease, by the productions of +any other country. + +Owain Gwynedd had nineteen children. The names of the sons were Rhodri, +Cynoric, Riryd, Meredydd, Edwal, Cynan, Rien, Maelgon, Llewelyn, +Iorweth, Davydd, Cadwallon, Hywell, Cadell, Madoc, Einon, and Phylip; +and of this number Rhodri, Hywell, Davydd, and Madoc were the most +distinguished. + +Iorweth, being the eldest son, was entitled to succeed his father, but +was declared unfit to occupy such a position, on account of an injury +done to his nose, which gained for him the not very euphonious name of +Drwyndwn (Swarthy-nose). + +Hywell was a brilliant soldier and poet, and many of his best +productions are still preserved. His mother was a native of Ireland, and +although not born in wedlock, thus being regarded as an illegitimate +son, he aspired to the crown after the death of his father, and +succeeded in obtaining it, at the same time granting to Iorweth the +cantrevs of Nanconwy and Ardudwy. + +Soon after, he went to Ireland to receive possession of his mother's +property, but upon his return he found Davydd, the legitimate son of +Owain by another wife, asserting in arms his right to the throne under +the sanction of a legitimate birth. The consequence was that the entire +country became embroiled in a bitter civil war, Hywell was slain in +battle, and Davydd ab Owain occupied his father's throne. As a stroke +of perfidy, or policy, he married the sister of King Henry the Second, +whereby he succeeded in breaking for a time the independent spirit of +the Welsh. He gave aid to his brother-in-law in money and men, and +attended the Parliament at Oxford. Such a treacherous course excited the +disgust and hatred of his brothers, as well as of his subjects +generally, so that his realm continued in a state of wild revolt and +dissension. Davydd, suspicious and alarmed lest he might lose his throne +through some unforeseen intrigues, seized and imprisoned Rhodri, slew +Iorweth, and drove his other brethren into exile. + +He was so intractable in spirit, and so cruel, that he put out the eyes +of large numbers who were not subservient to his will. + +From all the concurrent evidences which can be gleaned, it appears that +Madoc was the commander of his father's fleet, which at that time was so +considerable as successfully to oppose that of England at the mouth of +the Menai in the year 1142. The poem in which Gwalchmai has celebrated +this victory has already been given in this chapter. There is also an +allusion to it in Caradoc's History, p. 163, 4th ed., 1607. + +Madoc was of a mild, gentle temperament, and must have felt deeply +grieved at the unnatural dissensions existing between his own brothers. +Moreover, he was an object of suspicion himself, exposed to his brother +Davydd's ferocity, who imagined that he might also dispute the question +of succession to the throne. Doubtless it was this that led Madoc to +resolve that he would leave those scenes of contention, and seek, in +exile from his native country, some other land in the west, if such +could be found. Being commander-in-chief of the fleet, he was able to +take a speedy departure. + +This emigration of Prince Madoc seems to have been commemorated by Bards +who lived very near the time in which it took place. According to +various old documents, his enterprise of exploring the ocean westward +resulted in the discovery of a new world, from which he returned to make +known his good fortune and to gather other emigrants to accompany him +thither. He accordingly fitted out a second expedition, and, taking his +brother Riryd, Lord of Clocran in Ireland, with him, they prevailed upon +a number to accompany them, sufficient to fill ten ships. They set sail +from a small port, five miles from Holyhead, in the island of Anglesea. + +There is a large book of pedigrees still extant, written by Jeuan +Brecva, who flourished in the age preceding the time of Columbus, where +the above event is thus noticed in treating of the genealogy of Owain +Gwynedd: "Madoc and Riryd found land far in the sea of the west, and +there they settled." + +The Bards were the historians of those times. By a perusal of the +compositions of those who were contemporary with Madoc, it is found +that his name is mentioned three or four times by Cynddelw, Llywarch, +and Gwalchmai. These are held to be among the most celebrated of the +Welsh Bards. Their works, which are mostly extant in manuscript, would +each of them make a respectable volume. + +Llywarch, who was the son of Llewelyn, wrote a poem while undergoing the +ordeal of the hot iron to prove his innocence respecting Madoc's death. +He invoked the aid of the Saviour "lest he should injure his hand with +the shining sword and his kinsmen should have to pay the _galanas_." It +is addressed + +"TO THE HOT IRON. + + + "Good Iron! free me from the charge + Of slaying. Show that he + Who smote the prince with murderous hand + Heaven's kingdoms nine shall never see, + Whilst I the dwelling-place of God + Shall share, safe from all enmity." + + +The same poet, in a panegyric, addressed to Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd, of +Hywell and Madoc, his brothers, says,-- + + + "Two princes were there, who in wrath dealt woe, + Yet by the people of the earth were loved: + One who in Arvon quench'd ambition's flame, + Leading on land his bravely toiling men; + And one of temper mild, in trouble great, + Far o'er the bosom of the mighty sea + Sought a possession he could safely keep, + From all estrangéd for a country's sake." + + +In a poem addressed to Prince Llywelyn ab Iorweth by the same bard, +there appear the following lines: + + + "Needless it is to ask all anxiously, + Who from invaders will our waters guard? + Llywelyn, he will guard the boundary wave; + The lion i' the breach, ruler of Gwynedd. + The land is his to Powys' distant bounds, + He met the Saxons by Llanwynwy lake, + Across the wave is he victorious, + Nephew of Madoc, whom we more and more + Lament that he is gone." + + +Gwalchmai addressed an ode to Davydd ab Owain Gwynedd, lamenting his +being deprived of that prince's brothers: + + + "Silent I cannot be without mentioning who they were, + Who so well of me merited praise: + Owain the fierce, above the muse's song, + The manly hero of the conflict; + Cadwallon, ere he was lost, + It was not with smooth words he praised me; + Cadwaladyr, lover of the harmony of exhilarating songs, + He was wont to honor me; + Madoc, distributing his goods, + More he did to please than displease me." + + +In an elegy on the family of Owain Gwynedd, by Cynddelw, Madoc is twice +mentioned, one passage particularly seeming worthy of attention: + + + "And is not Madoc by the whelming wave + Slain? How I sorrow for the helpful friend! + Even in battle was he free from hate, + Yet not in vain grasp'd he the warrior's spear." + + +There is a Welsh triad entitled "The Three Losses by Disappearance." +The first loss was that of Gavran, the son of Aeddan Vradog, a chieftain +of distinguished celebrity of the latter part of the fifth century. He +went on an expedition to discover some islands which are known by the +name of Gwerddonan Llion, or the Green Islands of the Ocean. He was +never heard of afterwards, and the situation of these islands became +lost to the Welsh. + +The second loss was that of Merddin, who was the Bard of Emrys Wledig, +or the Ambrosius of Saxon history, by whose command Stonehenge was +erected. + +Merddin is held as one of the three Christian Bards of Wales,--Merddin +Wyllt and Taliesin being the other two. + +This Merddin, with twelve Bards, went to sea, and they were heard of no +more. + +The third loss of this remarkable triad was Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd, who, +with three hundred men, went to sea in ten ships, and it is not known +whither they went. + +About 1440 A.D., Meredydd ab Rhys, having obtained the loan of a +fishing-net by a poem, sent a second poem with it when he returned it, +and wrote thus: + + + "Let Ivan, of a generous stock, + Hunt, like his father, on the land; + In good time, on the waters, I, + By liberal aid, will hunter be. + Madoc the brave, of aspect fair, + Owain of Gwynedd's offspring true, + Would have no land,--man of my soul!-- + Nor any wealth, except the seas. + Madoc am I, who, through my life, + By sea will seek my wonted prey." + + +Madoc was a navigator, and made the sea his home. No doubt can be +entertained on that point. In the above quotation the poet likens +himself to Madoc as the true type of a sailor. + +It has been said that the Welsh Bards were historians. They were +retained in families of importance to record the actions of their +ancestors and those of the Bards themselves in odes and songs. While +they may have employed a poetic license in their construction, the facts +themselves were not lost out of sight. So far as can be known, it +appears that these odes were written prior to any definite notion of a +Western world, known subsequently as the American Continent. Madoc's +voyages might not have been very familiar to many except the Welsh, and +they were ignorant whither he went. One thing, however, is absolutely +certain, that this tradition having existed for centuries could not have +been invented, as some have suspected, to support the English against +the Spanish claims of prior discovery. A period of three hundred and +twenty-two years intervened between that of Madoc and that of Columbus. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +SUPPORTED BY WELSH AND OTHER HISTORIANS. + + +Many valuable historical documents in prose and in poetry relating to +the Welsh nation were destroyed by the order of Edward the First of +England about the time that he so inhumanly massacred the Welsh Bards. +He feared that their recitations of patriotic poetry among the people +might serve to awaken and preserve the spirit of liberty and +independence among them, and lead eventually to their casting off the +yoke he was so cruelly imposing upon them. + +Sir John Wynne, who was born in 1553 and died in 1626, wrote the history +of the Gwedir family, which remained in manuscript until published by +Hon. Daines Barrington in 1773. It contains an enumeration of the +various branches of the descendants of Owen Gwynedd, especially those +who were claimed to be the more immediate ancestors of Sir John's +family. He mentions Madoc as the son of Owen Gwynedd, but makes no +reference to his voyages. He touches upon the subject of the massacre of +the Bards by Edward the First, "who," he says, "caused them all to be +hanged by martial law as stirrers-up of the people to sedition." Some of +the records of Welsh history were removed from their usually secure +retreats in abbeys to London, as testified to by Sir John and others, +particularly William Salesbury, who declared that they were burned, "and +that there escaped not one that was not incurably maimed, and +irrecuperably torn and mangled." + +This happened in the Tower, where, previous to their destruction, many +of the political prisoners from Wales obtained leave to read "such books +of their tongue as they most delighted in." + +In view of these facts, and considering that the history of the events +contemporaneous with the period at which Madoc is alleged to have left +his native land is unusually scanty on this subject, it is more than +probable that some of these lost manuscripts contained particular +accounts of Madoc's departure. Fortunately, however, enough has escaped +the spoiler's hand to furnish such proof to every rational mind that the +question must be regarded as settled. + +Caradoc, of Llancarvan, Glamorganshire, wrote, in his native language, a +history of Wales. He lived at the time Owen Gwynedd was in the height of +his power and fame, and was familiar with all the more important events +in connection with his country. His history was translated into English +by Humphrey Lloyd, and published by Dr. David Powel in the year 1584, +and has been reprinted several times since. In it is contained the +following narrative, which bears all the semblance of historical truth +that any narration of facts can. Its plainness, naturalness, and +simplicity are at once evident: + +"On the death of Owain Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales, about the year +1169, several of his children contended for his dominions; and Madoc, +one of his sons, perceiving his native land engaged, or on the eve of +being engaged, in a civil war, thought it best to try his fortune in +some foreign clime. Leaving North Wales in a very unsettled state, he +sailed, with a few ships which he had fitted up and manned for that +purpose, to the westward, leaving Ireland to the north. He came at +length to an unknown country, where most things appeared to him new and +uncustomary, and the manners of the natives far different from what he +had seen in Europe. Madoc, having viewed the fertility and pleasantness +of the country, left the most part of those he had taken with him behind +(Sir Thomas Herbert says that the number he left behind was one hundred +and twenty), and returned to North Wales. Upon his arrival he described +to his friends what a fair and extensive land he had met with, void of +any inhabitants, whilst they employed themselves and all their skill to +supplant one another for only a ragged portion of rocks and mountains. +Accordingly, having prevailed with considerable numbers to accompany +him to that country, he sailed back with ten ships, and bid adieu to his +native land." There is an apparent contradiction between "the manners of +the natives" and "void of inhabitants." The historian meant to convey +the idea by the latter phrase that the portion Madoc discovered was +thinly peopled, and might be occupied without much difficulty. + +But it is conjectured that Caradoc's writings do not reach any lower +than the year 1157,--which would be thirteen years earlier than the time +of Madoc's departure, or 1170. Some suppose that Caradoc must have died +in 1157, because the _Brut_ or Annales from which Humphrey Lloyd chiefly +compiled his history of Cambria, and which bore Caradoc's name, did not +extend beyond that year. There is no sound reason for this belief: many +of the various _Bruts_ bore his name, and it is altogether likely that +he was living when Madoc set sail and returned, prior to his final +leave. It would not be wise, however, to dispute Humphrey Lloyd, +Caradoc's translator into English, who says that that part of the +history beyond 1157, and, of course, that including Madoc's voyages, was +compiled from collections made from time to time, and kept in the abbeys +of Conway in Carnarvonshire, North Wales, and Strata Florida, +Cardiganshire, South Wales. These and other abbeys were the repositories +of literature and history for many centuries, whose registers were +carefully compared together every third year, when the Beirdd or Bards +belonging to these houses went on their customary visitations, which +were called _clera_. This practice continued until the death of Prince +Llewelyn, or a little prior, about the year 1270. If Caradoc did not +continue his history beyond 1157, and that because of his death in that +year, even then there is no reason to question the veracity of those +monks of Conway and Strata Florida who continued the same history in +their registers. Guttun Owen, a Bard in the reign of Edward the Fourth +of England, about the year 1480 obtained one of the most perfect copies +of these registers. He doubtless had special facilities, since he was +personally commissioned by Henry the Seventh to search the pedigree of +Owen Tudor, that king's grandfather, among the Welsh annals. Another +Bard about the same time with Guttun Owen mentioned this event. His name +was Cynfrig ab Gronow. Thus, step by step, for the space of three +hundred years, can be traced through Bards and historians this recital +respecting Madoc, and all prior to the discovery of America by Columbus; +so that it cannot possibly be said that the claims afterwards advanced +in favor of Madoc were an after-thought. + +Rev. Josiah Rees, the editor of a Welsh magazine published in Wales in +1770, told the Welsh scholar Edward Williams that he had in his +possession at that time two or three fair manuscripts of Caradoc of +Llancarvan, with the continuation by the monks of Strata Florida, +Guttun Owen, and others. He furthermore said that he had compared these +originals with Dr. Powel's translation, or, more strictly speaking, with +Humphrey Lloyd's translation, which Dr. Powel published in 1584. Mr. +Rees said that it was the most faithful he ever met with in any +language. Lord Lyttleton, in the last century, then, was very much +mistaken, and withal quite ignorant, when he said that Dr. Powel +"dressed up some tradition concerning Madoc in order to convey an idea +that his countrymen had the honor of first discovering America." Dr. +Powel himself did not entirely depend on Lloyd's translation in the +preparation of the work for the press, for he says that he compared that +translation with the original records, and therefore was able to correct +his copy. All this proves that Caradoc's history, with the continuation +from the registers of Conway and Strata Florida, the writings of Guttun +Owen, Cynfrig ab Gronow, Sir Meredyth ab Rhys, and others, were extant +in the days of Lloyd and Powel, and consequently these two latter +historians would have been detected if they had been in any degree +guilty of misrepresentation or forgery. + +In Hakluyt's "Collection of Voyages," a large and costly edition +published in 1589, there is found, in connection with other important +statements, the following: + +"After the death of Owen Gwynedd, his sons fell at debate who should +inherit after him; for the eldest son born in matrimony, Iorweth, or +Edward (Drwyndwn), was counted unmeet to govern, because of the maim +upon his face, and Howel, that took upon him the rule, was a base son, +begotten upon an Irishwoman. Therefore David, another son, 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 Edward's son [Llewelyn] came to age. + +"Madoc, another of Owen Gwynedd's sons, left the land in contentions +betwixt his brethren, and prepared certain ships with men and munition, +and sought adventures by seas, sailing west, and leaving the coast of +Ireland so far north that he came to a land unknown, where he saw many +strange things. This land must needs be some part of the country of +which the Spaniards affirm themselves to be the first finders since +Hanno's time (the Carthaginian admiral, supposed to have flourished +about four hundred and fifty years before Christ); whereupon it is +manifest that that country was by Britons discovered long before +Columbus led any Spaniards 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, and, upon the contrary, for what barren and +wild ground his brethren and nephews did murder 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 appears by Francis Lopez de Gomara that in Acuzamil, +and other places, the people honored the cross. Whereby it may be +gathered that Christians had been there before the coming of the +Spaniards; but, because this people were not many, they followed the +manner of the land which they came to, and the language they found +there. This Madoc, arriving in that western country, unto the which he +came in the year 1170, left the most 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 sails, _as I +find noted by Guttun Owen_. I am of opinion that the land whereunto he +came was some part of the West Indies." + +It is worthy of observation that Hakluyt distinctly says that he derived +his account from Guttun Owen, and, therefore, from the original sources +themselves, as it has been shown that Owen secured perfect copies from +the abbeys. Hakluyt does not refer to Lloyd and Powel as his +authorities, because he was fortunate in gaining access to the writings +from which they too had compiled their histories. Thus the historical +veracity of Lloyd and Powel is, without design, sustained by the learned +Hakluyt. + +Another point that should not be passed is in relation to the last +sentence of the extract just given, wherein Hakluyt expresses his +opinion that Madoc touched the West Indies. It will be understood that +during the earlier discoveries that name--West Indies--embraced not only +those islands which are now known by it, but also so much of the +continent or mainland as had been occupied. + +During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who ascended the throne in 1558, +the belief seems to have been universal that Madoc did sail and discover +America; and most historical writers of the time have introduced the +subject into their writings with the same credence that any other +well-ascertained fact deserves. + +Hornius, in his "De Originibus Americanis," gives an account of the same +event. The following is an extract translated from the Latin: + +"From hence he [Hakluyt] concludes that Madoc, with his Cambrians, +discovered a part of North America. A cursory attention to the figure of +the earth must convince every one that on this direction he must have +landed on that continent; for beyond Ireland no land can be found except +Bermuda to this day [1650] uncultivated but the extensive continent of +America. As Madoc directed his course westward, it cannot be doubted but +that he fell in with Virginia or New England, and there settled. + +"Nor is this contradicted by its being said that the country was +uninhabited and uncultivated; for that country is very extensive, and in +our times, after six centuries, is but thinly peopled. Besides, that +tract on which Madoc landed might be desert, and yet other places in the +interior parts, possessed by the barbarous Chichimecas, might be +populous, with whom the Cambrians mingled, and, the communication being +dropped between them and their mother-country, they adopted the language +and manners of the country. The traditions prevailing among the natives +strongly confirm me in this opinion; for the Virginians and +Guahutemallians, from ancient times, worshipped one Madoc as a hero. +Concerning the Virginians, see Martyr, decade vii. chap. 3; concerning +the Guahutemallians, decade viii. chap. 5. Among them we have Matec +Zungam and Mat Ingam; and why this should not be Madoc the Cambrian, +whom the monuments in the country prove to have been in those parts, no +reason can be given. As to antiquity, five centuries are sufficient, +beyond which American traditions do not ascend." + +In another part he says, "For when it is demonstrated that Madoc, a +prince of Cambria, with some of his nation, discovered and inhabited +some lands in the West, and that his name and memory are still retained +among them, scarcely any doubt remains." + +Peter Martyr, alluded to in the above extract, lived in the court of +Ferdinand, King of Spain. He was the author of several works, among them +the "Decades," which contain the references to Matec Zungam, or Madoc +the Cambrian. He was at court when Columbus returned from his first +voyage, and is considered good authority with respect to what he wrote +about in those times. He distinctly affirms that some nations in America +honored the memory of one Madoc when Columbus landed on that coast. + +Our next quotation will be from "Letters writ by a Turkish Spy," who +lived forty-five years undiscovered in Paris, giving an impartial +account to the Divan at Constantinople of the most remarkable +transactions of Europe from the year 1673 to 1682. They were originally +written in Arabic. The author of this work, which caused a great +sensation at the time, as well from the highly-interesting character of +its contents as from the profound secrecy in which the name of the +writer was long involved, was John Paul Marana, a native of Italy. He +says, "This prince [Charles II.] has several nations under his +dominions, and it is thought he scarce knows the just extent of his +territories in America. There is a region on that continent inhabited by +a people whom they call Tuscorards and Doegs. Their language is the +same as is spoken by the Welsh. They are thought to descend from them. +It is certain that when the Spaniards first conquered Mexico they were +surprised to hear the inhabitants discourse of a strange people that +formerly came thither in corraughs, who taught them the knowledge of God +and immortality, instructed them also in virtue and morality, and +prescribed holy rites and ceremonies of religion. 'Tis remarkable, also, +what an Indian king said to a Spaniard, viz., that in foregoing ages a +strange people arrived there by sea, to whom his ancestry gave +hospitable entertainment, in regard they found them men of wit and +courage, endued also with many other excellencies, but he could give no +account of their original or name. The Welsh language is so prevalent in +that country that the very towns, bridges, beasts, birds, rivers, hills, +etc., are called by Welsh names. Who can tell the various +transmigrations of mortals on earth, or trace out the true originals of +any people?" + +Sir Thomas Herbert visited Persia and many other countries about 1626, +and in connection with his travels mentioned Madoc's emigration to the +West. He states that Madoc embarked at Abergwilly, and first reached +Newfoundland, whence, coasting along, he in time came to a convenient +place for settlement; that, after recruiting the health of his men, and +fortifying the spot he had pitched upon, leaving a hundred and twenty of +his crew, he returned to Wales, and conducted back to his new home a +fleet of ten barks, and found but few of those he left remaining. With +the aid of Einon and Idwal, he soon put things in order again, and +waited vainly for the arrival of other emigrants from Wales, of those +who were to have followed him; but none came, owing to the wars with +England. Sir Thomas concludes by saying that "had this voyage of the +Prince of Gwynedd been known and inherited, _then had not Columbus, +Americus Vespucius, Magellan, nor others, carried away the honor of so +great a discovery, nor had Madoc been defrauded of his memory, nor our +kings of their just title to a portion of the West Indies_." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE NARRATIVE OF REV. MORGAN JONES. + + +In the year 1740 there appeared in the "Gentleman's Magazine," London, +England, a very remarkable narration, written by Rev. Morgan Jones. It +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 Berkeley sent +two ships to Port Royal, now called South Carolina, 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 harbor's mouth of Port Royal the 19th 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 said place. As soon as the fleet came in, the smallest vessels that +were with us sailed up the river to a place called the Oyster Point. +Here I continued about eight months, all which time being almost starved +for want of provisions, five others, with myself, travelled through the +wilderness till we came to the Tuscarora Country. Here the Tuscarora +Indians took us prisoners, because we told them that we were bound to +Roanoke. That night they carried 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. Whereupon, 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 must 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 the Tuscaroras, and agreed for my ransom and the men +who 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. At +our departure they abundantly supplied us with whatever was necessary to +our support and well-doing. They are settled upon Pontigo River, not +far from Cape Atros [Hatteras]. This is a brief recital of my travels +among the Doeg Indians. + +"MORGAN JONES, +"Son of John Jones, Basaleg, +near Newport, County of Monmouth. + +"I am ready to conduct any Welshmen or others to the country. + +"NEW YORK, March 10, 1685-6." + +It appears that the origin of this narration came about in the following +way, as described by Charles Lloyd, Esq., of Dôl y Frân, +Montgomeryshire, in a letter which he has written. He says, "My brother, +Dr. Thomas Lloyd, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, having heard of Rev. +Morgan Jones's adventures, and meeting him in New York, desired him to +write them out with his own hand in his house; and to please me and my +cousin, Thomas Price, of Llanvyllin, he sent me the original. Mr. Jones +was living then within twelve miles of New York, and was contemporary +with me and my brother at Oxford. He was of Jesus College, and called +there 'Senior Jones,' by way of distinction." + +The original was given to Dr. Thomas Lloyd, and transmitted to his +brother, as mentioned above; subsequently it came into the possession of +Dr. Robert Plott, through Edward Lloyd, A.M., keeper of the Ashmolean +Museum at Oxford, the former having maintained in his writings his +implicit belief in Madoc's emigration and Mr. Jones's narrative. Rev. +Theophilus Evans afterwards communicated the narration to the +"Gentleman's Magazine." He was a Welsh clergyman, vicar of St. David's +in Brecon, and well versed in the history of his nation. It is to be +regretted that other accounts of the travels of Mr. Jones among the +Doegs of the Tuscaroras, which were published at an earlier period, have +not been preserved, inasmuch as they would materially assist in more +fully establishing the veracity of the writer. As it is, however, it +does not appear that his truthfulness has ever been questioned. He was +an educated man, a graduate of Oxford, and not likely to be mistaken or +led into an easy credulity. He is explicit as to the mode of his rescue, +while engaged in prayer and deploring his wretched fate, the time he +remained among them, his conversing with them and explaining anything +difficult between them,--nothing unreasonable to expect, after the lapse +of so many centuries,--his preaching to them three times a week. All +these things, taken in connection with his accurate description of the +location of this tribe, must impress the candid reader that this +clergyman gave a recital of unvarnished facts. + +At the time Mr. Jones was captured, the Tuscaroras inhabited a range of +country that extended from Virginia down into the Carolinas. They +comprised several branches, known as Doegs, Chowans, Meherrins, and +Nottoways, who dwelt along the rivers bearing some of their names. They +were often called the Southern Iroquois, because they were chiefly +kindred in dialect with the main body of that mighty confederacy, the +Five Nations, or Iroquois proper. They made frequent incursions into the +territory of the Carolinians, by whom they were severely defeated in +1712: large numbers were taken prisoners, while the remainder fled +northward and formed the sixth nation of the celebrated Iroquois +Confederacy. Iroquois was a term applied to this confederacy by the +French; Mingoes was the name given to those composing it by the great +Algonquin race of red men, by whom they were largely surrounded, and +with whom they were almost incessantly engaged in bloody and decimating +wars. + +The Five Nations called themselves Konoskioni, or "Cabin-Builders." The +territory they occupied when Europeans obtained a more general +acquaintance with them, which embraced New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, +Virginia, and portions of the Carolinas, evidently had not been in their +possession a very great length of time. From all that can be +ascertained, they came from the west, in an easterly direction, crossing +the Nauraesi Sipu (Mississippi), and made war upon another nation, +called the Alligewi or Alleghanians, destroyed their works, and drove +them into the interior, the conquerors taking possession of the eastern +country. Now, who were these Alligewi? That they were expelled from the +lands held by the Five Nations there can be no doubt; that they moved +westward is equally certain. But who were they? They were supposed to be +whites. McCulloh, in his "Researches on America," says that an +exterminating war appears to have taken place between the barbarous +natives (Iroquois) and their more refined and civilized neighbors, +ending in the nearly total destruction of the latter, the few survivors +of whom fled to happier climes; and to these aboriginal whites, perhaps, +the Mexicans were indebted for their refinement and knowledge. Traces of +these Alligewi are found throughout those portions of the country of the +Eastern States once held by them, afterwards by Iroquois. Their line of +march westward may be clearly traced by the earthen fortifications they +threw up for purposes of defence against their savage and wily enemies. +Almost without exception the traditions of the red men ascribe the +construction of these works to white men. Some of them belonging to +different tribes at the present say that they had understood from their +prophets and old men that it had been a tradition among their several +nations that the eastern country and Ohio and Kentucky had once been +inhabited by white people, but that they were mostly exterminated at the +Falls of Ohio. The red men drove the whites to a small island (Sandy +Island) below the rapids, where they were cut to pieces. _Kentuckee_, in +Indian, signifies _river of blood_. Some of the fragments of the +ancient tribe of the Sacs expressed astonishment to a gentleman at St. +Louis that any person should live in Kentucky. The country, they said, +had been the scene of much blood, and was filled with the _manes_ of the +butchered inhabitants, who were white people. + +The westward movements of the tribes which were overpowered and +displaced by the Iroquois are distinctly marked, and show that a +European civilization had some influence in directing the construction +of those lines of defences along the largest valleys and streams of the +countries through which they passed, until, arriving at the Ohio, they +made a vigorous stand, with the resolution not to be driven any farther +into the interior. This will account for the much greater number of +earthen defences found along the Ohio, and, besides, agrees with the +traditions of the red men. When, however, defeated here, after a +residence extending over many years, the remnants of those tribes which +survived the bloody battles fled up the Missouri. + +But who were these Alligewi, or Alligenians? The word is strikingly +familiar to the Welsh ear, with its double _l_, and corresponds with the +Welsh words _alii_, mighty, and _geni_, born, or "mighty born." + +Although the Tuscaroras, among whom Mr. Jones lived and preached, were +supposed to be akin to the Iroquois in language and finally +confederated with them, it is altogether probable that they were more +anciently a branch of the Alligewi, who could not be driven from their +soil. These Tuscaroras were lighter in color than the other tribes, and +so noticeable was this peculiarity that they were generally mentioned as +_White Indians_. Emanating from this source, many travellers +subsequently applied the title to tribes through whose boundaries they +passed in the West and South. Doubtless they had a common origin. + +They stated that their ancestors were Welsh. If the objection is made, +how they could have lost traces of European civilization so soon, it may +be recollected that the buccaneers of St. Domingo had in thirty years +forgotten all knowledge of Christianity. Such radical differences as +exist between the white and red races could not have been lost without +the lapse of centuries; while their languages would undergo, more or +less, some marked modifications. Dr. Williams, writing upon this subject +in his "Enquiry," published in 1791, says, "When it is considered that +Mr. Jones's visit to these nations was nearly five hundred years after +the emigration of Prince Madoc, it can be no wonder that the language of +both Mr. Jones and the Indians was very much altered. After so long a +period, Mr. Jones must have been obliged to make use of words and +phrases in preaching Christianity with which they must have been +altogether unacquainted. Besides, all living languages are continually +changing: therefore, during so many centuries, the original tongue must +have been very much altered, by the introduction of new words borrowed +from the inhabitants of the country. Though the language was _radically_ +the same, yet Mr. Jones, especially when treating of abstract subjects, +was hardly intelligible to them without some explanations. We are told +that the religious worship of the Mexicans, with all its absurdities, +was less superstitious than that of the ancient and learned Greeks and +Romans. May we not conclude that the Mexicans derived some part of their +religious knowledge from a people enlightened by a Divine revelation, +which, though very much corrupted in the days of Madoc, yet was superior +to heathen darkness?" + +Many of the names mentioned by Mr. Jones in his narrative seem to have a +Welsh origin, and bear a precisely similar sound to words in that +language. + +_Pontigo_--a name applied to a river in that country where he found +them--seems derived from Pont y Go, "The Smith's Bridge," or Pant y Go, +"The Smith's Valley;" a smith dwelling beside a river or bridge being +sufficient to originate such a name. Dr. Robertson says, in his "History +of America," vol. ii. p. 126, that "the Indians were very ignorant of +the use of metals; artificers in metals were scarce, and on that account +a name might be given to a bridge or valley where one dwelt." Doeg +Indians might be a corruption of Madog's Indians. The majority of those +who have had any convictions on this subject have believed that Madoc +first landed with his colony somewhere in New England, and that they +then moved down the coast and inhabited portions of the country between +Virginia and Florida. New England has some vestiges of European +civilization which were there before the Pilgrim Fathers landed. The +celebrated round tower at Newport, Rhode Island, about the origin of +which tradition and history are silent, is certainly constructed on the +same principle as Stonehenge, England, and many other Cambrian +memorials. It conforms exactly to the Druidic circle. Its materials are +unhewn stone. It rests upon eight round columns, twenty-three feet in +diameter, and twenty-four feet in height. Any person familiar with +Cambrian and Scandinavian archæology will not hesitate to attribute the +construction of this tower rather to the Cambrian than to the +Scandinavian navigators. + +A letter written by Charles Lloyd, Esq., of Dôl y Frân, in +Montgomeryshire, already mentioned, published in 1777 by Rev. N. Owen, +jun., A.M., in a pamphlet entitled "British Remains," strongly confirms +Mr. Jones's narrative, and the truth of Madoc's voyages. + +Mr. Lloyd says that he had been informed by a friend that a Mr. Stedman, +of Breconshire, about thirty years before the date of his letter, was +on the coast of America in a Dutch bottom, and being about to land for +refreshment the natives kept them off by force, till at last this +Stedman told his fellow Dutch seamen that he understood what the natives +spoke. The Dutch bade him speak to them, and they were thereupon very +courteous; they supplied them with the best things they had, and told +Stedman that they came from a country called Gwynedd (North Wales), in +Prydain Fawr (Great Britain). Prydain was the son of Hugh the Mighty, +and supposed to have been the first to establish government and set up +royalty in the isle of Britain, and the island was called by his name. +Mr. Lloyd said that Mr. Stedman found these Welsh Indians along the +coast between Virginia and Florida. Furthermore, this gentleman said +that a Mr. Oliver Humphreys, a merchant, who died not long before the +date of Mr. Lloyd's letter, told him that when he lived at Surinam he +spoke with an English privateer, or pirate, who, being near Florida, +careening his vessel, had learned, as he thought, the Indian language, +which his friend said was perfect Welsh. + +It is to be regretted that Rev. Morgan Jones and these others could not +have given more of the traditional history of these Indians; but what +they have recited is explicit. Here is no collusion, no attempt to meet +the tradition concerning Madoc, for they, in all probability, knew +nothing about it. + +If the Welsh Indians could be identified as descendants of Madoc's +colony, or if the Alligewi could be ascertained to have been the Welsh, +the discovered traces of civilization, Christianity, and the arts might +partly be referred to their instrumentality. They may have contributed +to swell the tide of population, and aided in constructing those forts +and works which so much resemble those of their own country. Our +American mounds agree in the minutest particulars with those described +by Pennant as found during his "Tour in Wales." + +This is the opinion of De Laet, Hornius, Mitchel, and others. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE NARRATIVE OF REV. CHARLES BEATTY. + + +In a "Journal of a Two Months' Tour," written by Rev. Charles Beatty, +A.M., and dedicated to the Earl of Dartmouth, London, 1768, the author +presents a sketch of a visit to some of the inland parts of North +America during the year 1766. He was accompanied by a Mr. Duffield. Mr. +Beatty was a missionary from New York, and travelled several hundred +miles in a southwest direction from that city. During his tour he met +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. + +When at the foot of the Alleghany Mountains, Pennsylvania, he stopped at +the house of Mr. John Miller, where he met with one Benjamin Sutton, who +had been taken captive by the Indians, had been in different nations, +and had lived many years among them. He informed Mr. Beatty and his +companion that "when he was with the Choctaw nation or tribe of Indians, +at the Mississippi, he went to an Indian town a very considerable +distance from New Orleans, whose inhabitants were of different +complexions,--not so tawny as those of the other Indians,--and who spoke +Welsh. He said that he saw a book among them, which he supposed was a +Bible, which they kept carefully wrapped up in a skin, but they could +not read it; and that he heard some of these Indians afterwards in the +lower Shawanese town speak Welsh with one Lewis, a Welshman, who was a +captive there. This Welsh tribe now live on the west side of the +Mississippi, a great way above New Orleans." + +At Tuscarora Valley--a name, be it remembered, the same as that of the +tribe among which Rev. Morgan Jones found those speaking Welsh--Mr. +Beatty met with another man, named Levi Hicks, who had been a captive +from his youth. He said that he "was once attending an embassy at an +Indian town on the west side of the Mississippi, where the inhabitants +spoke Welsh (as he was told, for he did not understand them); and our +Indian interpreter, Joseph Peepy, said he once saw some Indians, whom he +supposed to be of the same tribe, who talked Welsh. He was sure that it +was Welsh, for he had been acquainted with Welsh people and understood +some words. + +"Mr. Sutton farther told us that he had often heard the following +traditions among them; that of old time their people were divided by a +river, and one part tarrying 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 left his kingdom to his two sons; that the one son making war +upon the other the latter thereupon determined 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 forty +years they at length came to the Delaware River, where they settled, +three hundred and seventy years ago. The way, he says, they keep an +account of this is by putting a black bead of wampum every year since on +a belt they had for that purpose. He farther added that the king of that +country from whence they came, some years ago, when the French were in +possession of Fort Duquesne (Pittsburg), sent out some of his people in +order, if possible, to find out that part of their nation that departed +to seek a new country, and that these men, after seeking six years, came +at length to the Pickt Town, on the Ouabache River, and there happened +to meet with a Delaware Indian named Jack, after the English, whose +language they could understand; and that by him they were conducted to +the Delaware towns, where they tarried one year, and returned; that the +French sent a white man with them, properly furnished, to bring back an +account of their country, who, the Indians said, could not return in +less than fourteen years, for they lived a great way toward the setting +sun. It is now, Sutton says, about ten or twelve years since they went +away." + +Dr. Williams, who wrote upon this subject, thought that these traditions +referred to the unsettled state of North Wales, the departure of Madoc, +and his travels before he finally settled. + +It would not be surprising if Mr. Beatty's Indian interpreter, Joseph +Peepy, had been among Welsh people in Pennsylvania, for large colonies +of Welsh settled, in early colonial days, in and around Philadelphia. +"The Welsh Tract" is still well known. William Penn and his family were +of Welsh extraction. A large number of his followers were Welshmen. +Philadelphia contains a larger proportion of Welsh descendants than any +other city in the United States. The first mayor of the city, Anthony +Morris, and the first Governor of the colony of Pennsylvania, Thomas +Lloyd, were both Welshmen. + +These colonies extended more and more into the interior, and came in +contact with the nearest tribes. Traffic was carried on between them, +and in this way Mr. Beatty's interpreter became somewhat acquainted with +the Welsh tongue. Afterwards, penetrating far into the interior, where +he spent many years, he found, as he informed Mr. Beatty, Indians +speaking the same language he had heard among the Welsh people of +Pennsylvania. To his testimony is added that of Benjamin Sutton and Levi +Hicks, each independent of and consistent with the other. By means of +these, and others, the residents of Pennsylvania were made acquainted +with the existence of Welsh Indians. It is not at all likely that all, +if indeed any, of them then knew of the historical records in Wales +relating to Madoc; it was afterwards that they found out there were +such. + +The Rev. Thomas Jones, of Nottage, in the county of Glamorgan, came to +America in 1737. His son, Samuel, was then about three years of age. He +gave him a liberal education in Philadelphia, where he took the degree +of Doctor of Divinity. He, (Dr.) Samuel Jones, wrote a letter to Rev. +William Richards, of Lynn, in Norfolk. In that letter, speaking of the +Madocian Indians, he says, "The finding of them would be one of the most +pleasing things to me that could happen. I think I should go immediately +amongst them, though I am now turned fifty-five; and there are in +America Welsh preachers ready to set out to visit them as soon as the +way to their country is discovered. I know now several in Pennsylvania +who have been amongst those Indians." + +The following words are in a letter from Mr. Reynold Howells to a Mr. +Mills, dated Philadelphia, 1752: "The Welsh Indians are found out: they +are situated on the west side of the great river Mississippi." + +William Pritchard, a bookseller and printer of Philadelphia, when in +London, in 1791, told some Welsh scholars, among them Mr. Owen and Dr. +Williams, that he had often heard of the Welsh Indians, that in +Pennsylvania they were universally believed to be very far westward of +the Mississippi, that he had often heard of people who had been among +them, and that if he should be but very little assisted he should +immediately visit them. + +A writer in the "Mount Joy Herald," after alluding to Powel's "History" +upon this subject, which has been quoted already, gives this additional +extract from the same:--"Three hundred and twenty-two years after this +date,--Madoc's departure,--when Columbus discovered this continent a +second time and returned to Europe to make his report, it caused great +excitement, and he was justly applauded. But his enemies, and those who +envied his fame, boldly charged him with acquiring his knowledge from +the charts and manuscripts of Madoc. In the year 1854 I had a +conversation with an old Indian prophet, who styled himself the +fifteenth in the line of succession. He told me, in broken English, that +long ago a race of white people had lived at the mouth of Conestoga +Creek, who had red hair and blue eyes, who cleared the land, fenced, +plowed, raised grain, etc., that they introduced the honey-bee, unknown +to them. He said the Indians called them the Welegcens, and that in the +time of the fifth prophet the Conestoga Indians made war with them, +and, after great slaughter on both sides, the white settlers were +driven away. Our fathers and grandfathers used to tell us what a hatred +and prejudice the Conestoga Indians had against red-haired and blue-eyed +people in all their wars in Eastern Pennsylvania. When taking white +prisoners, they would discriminate between the black-haired and the red, +showing mercy to the former, and reserving the latter for torture and +death. This would seem to indicate that they knew from tradition of +Prince Madoc and his followers, and of the fearful fight they had made. + +"About the year 1800 (for I must quote from memory), a man digging a +cellar in the vicinity of the Indian Steppes came upon a lot of small +iron axes, thirty-six in number. My father, who resided in Manor +township and followed blacksmithing, was presented with one of these +relics; and I recollect seeing it in his shop twenty-five years after +that date. It was curiously constructed; the eye was joined after the +fashion of the old garden hoe; it had no pole end, and had never been +ground to an edge, nor had the others ever been. It had lain so long in +the ground that the eye was almost eaten through with rust; and its +construction was so ancient that I looked upon it as the first exodus +from the stone to the iron axe." + +Rev. Morgan Jones, of Hammersmith, England, wrote a letter to Dr. John +Williams, in which he says that his father and his family went to +Pennsylvania about the year 1750, where he met with several persons whom +he knew in Wales,--one in particular with whom he had been intimate. +This person had formerly lived in Pennsylvania, but then lived in North +Carolina. Upon his return to Pennsylvania, the following year, to settle +his affairs, they met a second time. Mr. Jones's friend told him that he +then was very sure there were Welsh Indians, and gave as a reason, that +his house in North Carolina was situated on the great Indian road to +Charlestown, where he often lodged parties of them. In one of these +parties, an Indian, hearing the family speak Welsh, began to jump and +caper as if he had been out of his senses. Being asked what was the +matter with him, he replied, "I know an Indian nation who speak that +language, and have learnt a little of it myself by living among them;" +and when examined, he was found to have some knowledge of it. When asked +where they lived, he said, "A great way beyond the Mississippi." Being +promised a handsome reward, he said that he would endeavor to bring some +of them to that part of the country; but Mr. Jones, soon after returning +to England, never heard any more of the Indian. + +In the "Gentleman's Magazine" for July, 1791, page 612, Mr. Edward +Williams says that about twenty years prior he became acquainted with a +Mr. Binon, of Coyty, in the county of Glamorgan, who had been absent +from his native country over thirty years. Mr. Binon said he had been +an Indian trader from Philadelphia for several years; that about the +year 1750 he and five or six others penetrated much farther than usual +to the westward of the Mississippi, and found a nation of Indians who +spoke the Welsh tongue. They had iron among them, lived in stone built +villages, and were better clothed than the other tribes. They gave Mr. +Binon a kind reception, but were suspicious of his companions, taking +them for Spaniards or Frenchmen, with whom they seemed to be at war. +They showed him a manuscript book, which they carefully kept, believing +that it contained the mysteries of religion, and said _that it was not +long since a man had been among them who understood it_. This man, whom +they esteemed a prophet (could it have been the Rev. Morgan Jones?), +told them, they said, that a people would some time visit them and +explain to them the mysteries contained in their book, which would make +them completely happy. They very anxiously asked Mr. Binon if he +understood it, and, being answered in the negative, they appeared very +sad, and earnestly desired him to send some one to them who could +explain it. After he and his fellow-travellers had been for some time +among them, they departed, and were conducted by those friendly Indians +through vast deserts, and were supplied by them with plenty of +provisions, which the woods afforded; and after they had been brought +to a place they well knew, they parted with their numerous Indian +guides, who wept bitterly on their taking leave, and very urgently +entreated them to send a person to them who could interpret their book. +On Mr. Binon's arrival in Philadelphia, and relating the story, he found +that the inhabitants of the Welsh Tract had some knowledge of these +Indians, and that some Welshmen had been among them. He also learned +then that on several occasions parties of thirty and forty of these +Welsh Indians had visited the Welsh settled on the Tract near +Philadelphia. Mr. Binon furthermore said that when he told those +Indians, whom he had visited, that he came from Wales, they replied, "It +was from thence our ancestors came, but we do not now know in what part +of the world Wales is." + +Mr. Edward Williams, who gave to the world the above account from Mr. +Binon, also had an interview with a Mr. Richard Burnell, a gentleman who +went to America about the year 1763, and who returned to England when +the American war broke out. + +During Mr. Burnell's residence in and near Philadelphia, he became well +acquainted with the Welsh people, who informed him that the Welsh +Indians were well known to many in Pennsylvania. He personally knew Mr. +Beatty, whose narrative opens this chapter, and a Mr. Lewis, who saw +some of these Welsh Indians in a congress among the Chickasaws, with +whom and the Natchez Mr. Burnell says they are in alliance. He also said +that there was in Philadelphia a Mr. Willin, a very rich Quaker, who had +obtained a grant of a large extent of country on the Mississippi, in the +district of the Natchez; and, having taken with him a great number of +settlers, he had among them Welshmen who understood the Indians. Mr. +Burnell, anxious to be informed, waited upon Mr. Willin, who assured him +that among his colony there were two Welshmen who perfectly understood +the Indians and would converse with them for hours together, and that +these Welshmen had often assured him the Indians spoke the Welsh +language; that some of them were settled in those parts, some on the +west side of the Mississippi, and others in remote parts. At this time +Mr. Burnell had a son, Cradog Burnell, settled at Buck's Island, near +Augusta, Georgia. He was a capital trader in the back settlements. A +company of about a hundred persons had purchased forty millions of acres +from the Natchez and Yazoos along the Mississippi and the rivers Yazoo +and Tombecbe, which fall into it. Mr. Burnell's son was connected with +this large colony; and he said that probably his son knew more about +these Welsh Indians "than any man living. He had the best opportunities, +for he reads and writes the Welsh language extremely well." + +If it be granted that Mr. Binon saw a manuscript book among those whom +he visited, and that neither they nor he could read it, that would not +be surprising; for many persons of greater intelligence in these times +cannot read old books in the manuscript or old-style print of centuries +ago. Most of them were written in the Roman character; but there are +some in the Greek character, which, transferred to the Welsh or old +English, would demand scholarship to interpret. + +Let it be borne in mind, too, that the time is not very far back when it +was considered quite an accomplishment for kings and queens to be able +simply to read. There are books in manuscript and print in the public +libraries of the world, dating back many centuries, which cannot be read +and understood by those in whose vernacular they were written or +printed. + +Enough recitals have been added to the narrative of Rev. Charles Beatty +to render it absolutely certain that in his time and during his tour +through Pennsylvania there existed a firm conviction, based on personal +knowledge and experience, that there was a tribe of Indians who spoke +the Welsh language; that they formerly had occupied the eastern portions +of the country, but, pressed by their enemies, red and white, they had +retreated farther and farther into the interior, and had become broken +into scattering fragments, incorporating themselves in some cases with +other tribes. Can they be pursued by the antiquary or the historian? Let +the succeeding pages answer. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE WELSH INDIANS MOVING WEST. + + +Modern investigations and discoveries show that there once existed an +almost unbroken system of defences, extending from New York, +Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas, in a diagonal direction, to +the valley of the Ohio, and thence into the great basin of the +Mississippi. These works increase in size and number as they advance +towards the centre, and may properly be classified into forts for +defence and tumuli or mounds for sepulture. They are chiefly found along +the fertile valleys through which run large rivers, and at their +junctions with one another. It is quite usual with writers on these +remarkable works to assign to them so great an antiquity that the +employment of figures is almost useless if they tell the truth. But +there are substantial reasons for the belief that they were erected by +the Welsh, aided by those Indians with whom they became incorporated and +whom they directed in their labor. The route they took, either by choice +or necessity, and the exact correspondence of these earthen monuments +with those found in England and Europe known to be of Cambrian origin, +go very far to support this belief. + +In Onondaga, New York, there are vestiges of ancient settlements dating +back beyond the time when the council-fires of the Six Nations burned +there. These are protected by three circular forts. + +Isaac Chapman, Esq., says, in his "History of Wyoming," Pennsylvania, +"In the valley of Wyoming there exist some remains of ancient +fortifications, which appear to have been constructed by a race of +people very different in their habits from those who occupied the place +when first discovered by the whites. Most of these ruins have been so +obliterated by the operations of agriculture that their forms cannot now +be distinctly ascertained. That which remains the most entire was +examined by the writer during the summer of 1817, and its dimensions +carefully ascertained, although from frequent plowing its form had +become almost destroyed. It is situated in the township of Kingston, +upon a level plain, on the north side of Toby's Creek, about one hundred +and fifty feet from its bank, and about half a mile from its confluence +with the Susquehanna. From present appearances, it consisted probably of +only one mound, which in height and thickness appears to have been the +same on all sides, and was constructed of earth, the plain on which it +stands not abounding in stone. On the outside of the rampart is an +intrenchment, or ditch. When the first settlers came to Wyoming, this +plain was covered with its native forest, consisting principally of oak +and yellow pine, and the trees which grew in the rampart and the +intrenchment are said to have been as large as those in any other part +of the valley; one large oak particularly, upon being cut down, was +ascertained to be _seven hundred years old_. The Indians had no +tradition concerning these fortifications; neither did they appear to +have any knowledge of the purposes for which they were constructed. They +were, perhaps, erected about the same time with those upon the waters of +the Ohio, and probably by a similar people and for similar purposes." + +Directly opposite, on the eastern bank of the Susquehanna, a little +above the city of Wilkesbarre, another fortification has been discovered +and measured, and found to have been of precisely the same size and +dimensions as that described by Mr. Chapman. + +In these earthen works, and along the banks of the river up as far as +Towanda, have been found human skeletons,--as many as six at one time +having been washed out from old fire-places by the freshets,--large +earthen vessels, and relics of various kinds. One of these earthen +vessels was twelve feet in diameter, thirty-six feet in circumference, +and three inches thick. It was found on the farm of a Mr. Kinney. Relics +of iron instruments have also been found--which agrees with a +remarkable tradition of the Shawanese Indians who emigrated from +Pennsylvania to Ohio, "that the coasts were inhabited by white men who +used iron instruments." + +Six buttons were also discovered bearing on their faces the _mermaid_, +the coat of arms of the Principality of Wales. + +Passing thence westward to the streams which empty into the Ohio,--the +Alleghany, Monongahela, Muskingum,--and down the Ohio itself on both +sides, many wonderful earthen remains have been brought to view, those +circular in form being the most frequent. They show, too, that they were +constructed by a people who were migrating from one part of the country +to another through the pressure of enemies or the inducement of more +fertile lands. + +In the year 1784, Mr. John Filson published a pamphlet entitled "The +Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucky," wherein, after +mentioning the story of Madoc, he has these words: "This account has at +different times drawn the attention of the world; but, as no vestiges of +them [the Welsh] had then been found, it was concluded, perhaps too +rashly, to be a fable,--at least, that no remains of the colony existed. +But of late years the Western settlers have received frequent accounts +of a nation at a great distance up the Missouri (a branch of the +Mississippi) in manners and appearance resembling other Indians, but +speaking Welsh and retaining some ceremonies of the Christian worship; +and at length this is universally believed to be fact. Captain Abraham +Chaplain, a gentleman whose veracity may be entirely depended upon, +assured me that in the late war, being with his company in garrison at +Kaskaskia, some Indians came there, and, speaking the Welsh language, +were perfectly understood, and conversed with two Welshmen in his +company, and that they informed them of their situation as mentioned +above." Mr. Filson then continues: "That there are remains in Kentucky +which prove that the country was formerly inhabited by a nation farther +advanced in the arts of life than the Indians, and that these are +usually attributed to the Welsh, who are supposed formerly to have +inhabited these parts; that a great number of regular intrenchments are +found there, and ancient fortifications with ditches and bastions,--one +in particular containing about six acres of land, and others three +acres; that pieces of earthenware were plowed up, a manufacture the +Indians were never acquainted with." + +About the time Mr. Filson's pamphlet appeared, Rev. Mr. Rankin, a +resident of Kentucky, told William Owen, of London, that it was certain +that a tribe or tribes of Welsh Indians then existed far westward, and +that a vast uncultivated hunting-ground intervened, through which it was +dangerous to pass, because of the depredations of the wild Indians, who +destroyed everything that came in their way. He declared that there were +unmistakable evidences of their formerly having occupied the country +about Kentucky, such as _wells dug_ which remained unfilled, _the ruins +of buildings_, _mill-stones_, _implements of iron_, _ornaments_, etc. + +The statements of these early writers have been abundantly confirmed, +respecting the existence of monumental remains and traces of civilized +life, by the patient explorations of such workers as Schoolcraft, +Squier, Davis, Pidgeon, and others, who have opened up many of these +half-concealed monuments and disclosed their contents. Squier, in +speaking of those found along the Ohio Valley, says, "The British +Islands only afford works with which any comparison can safely be +instituted. The 'ring-forts' of the ancient Celts are nearly identical +in form and structure with a large class of remains in our own country." +The same author has given some deeply interesting accounts in his +"Aboriginal Monuments" of his explorations of mounds, his finding human +skeletons in rude frame-works of timber, instruments and ornaments of +silver, copper, stone, and bone, sculptures of the human head, pottery +of various kinds, and a large number of articles, some of which evince +great skill in art. He says, "In every instance falling within our +observation, the skeleton has been so much decayed that any attempt to +restore the skull, or indeed any portion of it, was hopeless. +Considering that the earth around these skeletons is wonderfully compact +and dry, and that the conditions for their preservation were exceedingly +favorable, while in fact they are so much decayed, we may form some +estimate of their remote antiquity. In the barrows and cromlechs of the +ancient Britons, entire and well-preserved skeletons are found, although +having an undoubted antiquity of eighteen hundred years." There is, +however, no safe rule by which to judge the antiquity of human skeletons +by the surroundings. Some have been kept in a wonderful state of +preservation under apparently the least favorable conditions, while +others have crumbled to dust when it was thought they ought to have been +preserved. + +It must be borne in mind that these mounds bear no resemblance to Indian +burying-grounds. They are the sepulchres of a superior people. + +In 1844 a gentleman in Ohio sent to the librarian of the American +Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts, a cross, the emblem of +the Christian faith. It was made of silver, and was about two and a half +inches long. It was found on the breast of a female skeleton which was +dug from a mound at Columbus, over which a forest of trees had grown. On +this cross the capital letters I. S. are perfectly visible. These +initials are interpreted to mean the sacred name, Iesus Salvator. + +A relic which obtained great celebrity some years ago, and which is now +in the possession of some person in Richmond, Virginia, was found at +Grave Creek, Virginia, near the Ohio, in the upper vault of the +celebrated mound there. The attention of the learned world was brought +to it by Mr. Schoolcraft, who made a correct drawing and published it. +The mound went by the suggestive name of "_The Grave_." It was pointed +out to travellers on the Ohio, and was frequently visited. Dates were +cut upon the trees surmounting it as early as 1734. The relic was found, +with other things, by the side of some skeletons. It is nearly circular +in form, and composed of a compact sandstone of a light color. The +inscription upon it runs in three parallel lines, and comprises +twenty-four distinct characters, having at the bottom a hieroglyphic or +ideographic sign. It has been subjected to the studious scrutiny of many +learned men, with various results. The most of the characters have been +decided to be Celtic or old British; and therefore they afford some clue +as to the origin of the relic itself. The very fact of these characters +being alphabetical indicates that the inscription was made by those of +European origin. + +What, then, is the conclusion? That it was inscribed by those who +understood the old British or Welsh language, who occupied the valley of +the Ohio centuries ago, and who were the followers or descendants of +Madoc. + +Some years ago, a circular plate, made of copper and overlaid with a +thick plate of silver on one side, was found near the city of Marietta, +Ohio. The copper was nearly reduced to an oxide, or rust. The silver was +black, but could be brightened by being rubbed. A small piece of leather +was inserted between the two plates of silver and copper, and both held +together with a central rivet. This relic exactly resembled the bosses +or ornaments appended to the belt of the broadsword of the ancient +Briton or Welshman. It lay on the face of the skeleton, preserving the +bone, as it did the leather and the lint or flax around the rivet. Near +the body was found a plate of silver, six inches long and two in +breadth, and weighing one ounce. There were also several pieces of a +copper tube, filled with rust. + +These are supposed to have belonged to the equipage of a sword; though +nothing but iron rust could be found to answer for such a weapon. Near +the feet of the skeleton was a copper plumb, of about three ounces' +weight, and resembling an ordinary clock-weight. + +The construction of the earthen defences found in the valley of the Ohio +and along the Mississippi evinces that those who erected them had great +proficiency in engineering and military skill. They comprised all the +parts of a systematic defence,--walls, ramparts, fosses, intrenchments, +and even the lookout, corresponding to the _barbican_ in the British +system of the Middle Ages. So that it may be asked, in the language of +Dr. S. P. Hildreth, a zealous antiquarian of Marietta, Ohio, "Of what +age, or of what nation, was this race that once inhabited the territory +drained by the Ohio? From what we see of their works, they must have +been acquainted with some of the fine arts and sciences. They have left +us perfect specimens of circles, squares, octagons, parallel lines, on a +grand and noble scale; and, unless it can be proved that they had +intercourse with Asia or Europe, we must attribute to them the art of +working metals." + +But the red race knew nothing of the art or science of smelting raw +ores. Their copper instruments were beaten into shape from the native +metal, and these at best were very rare and rude. The hundreds and +thousands of relics in the various metals, many curiously finished, +found in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, in mounds and caves, +must, therefore, be the product of another people. Nor is it necessary +to go back to dim or immemorial ages to account for their origin. + +The Welsh are the best miners and workers in metals in the world. The +Phoenicians carried on a large trade in the metals with the inhabitants +of the British Isles centuries before the Christian era, and their mines +of iron, copper, tin, etc., have since enriched the British Empire. + +The mines of the Upper Lake regions were doubtless worked by the Welsh +in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, all the +evidences seeming to allow four or five hundred years since their +opening. Old trees showing three hundred and ninety-five rings of annual +growth have been found standing among the débris at the surface of some +of these mines. Huge chunks of copper, in some cases weighing six tons, +have been lifted out of their beds by finished tools and mining +appliances. + +Wooden frame-works and skids have been found, which were made with +sharp-edged instruments, but upon being exposed to the air have turned +to dust. It is thought that the area covered by the ancient works in the +Lake Superior region is more extensive than that which includes the +modern mines, but that the forests have overgrown and conceal from view +the excavations. Of course a considerable period elapsed after the Welsh +occupied the Ohio valley before they and those with whom they became +incorporated penetrated so far northward to work these mines. Most of +the relics which have been discovered in the mounds were, in all +probability, made from the metals of that region. Colonel Whittlesey, +who is an authority on this subject, thinks that the miners "went up +from the settlements farther south in the summers, remained in the +copper regions through the season, and worked the mines in organized +companies until the advance of winter terminated their operations. As +they were more advanced in civilization than the aborigines, they +probably had better means of transportation than bark canoes." + +In the enthusiasm of antiquarian research, many have been led to assign +too great an age to the earthen defences and mounds of our country. The +Cardiff Giant was pronounced, with scholarly awe, to be a fine specimen +of an extinct race which trod this earth thousands of years before Adam +drew breath, but was subsequently discovered to have been made from a +chunk of gypsum taken from a quarry in Iowa. The remains of Fort +Necessity, erected to cover the retreat of Braddock's defeated army, now +wear such an antiquarian aspect that if there were no historical data +respecting them they would be classed with the mounds. So with Forts +Hamilton and Meigs, on the Miami and Maumee Rivers, and others, +constructed only about one hundred years ago. When native forest trees +are cleared away and the soil is turned over for the purpose of +embankments, a new growth of vegetation is quickly started. + +Some years ago, a large oak was cut down in Lyons, New York, and on its +being sawed there were found near the centre the marks of an axe. On +counting the concentric circles, it was discovered that four hundred and +sixty had been formed since the cutting was made. The block was brought +to Newark and exhibited in a hotel there. All who saw it declared that +the work had been done with an _edged_ tool. + +The trees covering the mounds in Wyoming, as described by Chapman, had +annular rings numbering from six to seven hundred. President Harrison +observed that it would take the trees, growing where a forest was cut +down fifty years since, five hundred years to equal in height the +surrounding woods; and that a forest of the largest trees at the mouth +of the Great Miami, consisting of fifteen acres, covers the ruins left +by former races. + +It is worthy of notice, too, that the age of the trees found standing on +these ancient fortifications and mounds, and the number of their annular +circles, diminish with striking regularity in the ratio of their +distance from the eastern coast. The first found reach as high a number +as seven hundred; then, decreasing, they are found in Ohio with from +four hundred to five hundred; and then in the copper regions of Lake +Superior with from three hundred and fifty to four hundred annular +rings. Comparing these figures with the time (1170) when Madoc and his +followers landed on this continent, and allowing for their progress into +the interior such reasonable periods as their peculiar circumstances +demanded, adding also whatever other proofs have been adduced, scarcely +a single doubt can linger in the mind of the candid inquirer as to the +origin of these earthen defences and mounds, the removal of the native +forests, the working of the mines, and the many relics unearthed. + +If it be objected that a small band of a few hundreds could not cover +so much territory or accomplish so much work, it may be said, in reply, +that one century alone offers sufficient time for the achievement of +wonders. Under favorable conditions peoples multiply rapidly. Surrounded +as the Welsh were with populous tribes of red men, they affiliated with +some of them for self-protection and aid, and degraded remnants of them +are found at the present time in different parts of the far West. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE DISPERSION OF THE WELSH INDIANS. + + +It was only after the most stubborn and sanguinary resistance that the +Welsh Indians yielded the fertile plains of the Ohio valley to their +enemies. They moved down the Ohio River to its confluence with the +Mississippi, and here for a period took another stand, as is evinced by +the many remarkable remains and relics which have been brought to light +by accident and the diligent researches of antiquarians and +archæologists. + +At this point there began a series of dispersions, south, west, and +north, by which they became spread over a vast area of the Western +country. The Lower and Upper Mississippi, the Missouri, and many of the +smaller rivers abound with remains which exhibit the same knowledge and +skill with those along the Ohio. Such a dispersion offers the best +solution for the construction of the numerous accounts given of them +into an intelligible and consistent whole. These accounts coming from so +many different parties, separated from one another in time and distance, +and independent of one another, excluding the possibility of preconcert +or collusion, it would not be wonderful if they appeared to vary in the +minor details. Their differences are a proof of the absence of falsehood +or trickery. That the Welsh did not lose all the radical characteristics +of their race can be made evident: still, when it is considered how +numerous the peoples were with whom they amalgamated, it will be seen +that it did not require a great length of time for them to exhibit also +traits of savage life. Such a result would follow from physical laws and +the conditions of their wild state. + +This dispersion, and their being discovered in various sections of the +country along and west of the Mississippi, will account for the +different names by which they were called by intelligent travellers and +captured whites, who had either heard of them or had been in their +country and conversed with them. + +In 1792 a gentleman who had resided more than twenty years in New +Orleans and on the banks of the Mississippi wrote a letter to Griffith +Williams, London, being on a visit to the latter city himself at the +time, from which the following extract is given: "That the natives of +America have, for many years past, emigrated from the east to the west +is a known fact. That the tribes mentioned by Mr. Jones, who spoke the +Welsh tongue, may have done so is much within the order of probability; +and that a people called the Welsh or White Indians now reside at or +near the banks of the Missouri, I have not the least doubt of, having +been so often assured of it by people who have traded in that river, and +who could have no possible inducement to relate such a story unless it +had been founded in fact. + +"Since writing the above, a merchant from the Illinois country, and a +person of reputation, is arrived in London. He assures me there is not +the smallest doubt of a people existing on the west side of the +Mississippi, called by the French the White Bearded Indians, none of the +natives of America wearing beards; that these people are really white; +that they are said to consist of thirty-two villages or towns, are +exceeding civilized, and vastly attached to certain religious +ceremonies; that a Mr. Ch., a merchant of reputation at the Illinois, +has been to their country, which is, as he supposes, upwards of a +thousand miles from the Illinois. + +"Yours, etc., +"J. J." + +Mr. Williams, to whom the above was written, adds, "I have met the above +gentleman several times, and he confirms the latter part of this +narrative; that Mr. Ch. is a near relation of his; that Mr. Ch. was +introduced to the chief of the Padoucas, by whom he was received with +much solemnity, owing to his being of white complexion, from which +circumstance, as far as Mr. Ch. could understand by being amongst them, +he was deemed an angel of God, his hands and his feet being washed by +order of the chief, who appeared much advanced in years, his hair being +long and perfectly white; that the people chiefly subsist by the produce +of the chase; that the instruments they use on the occasion are +generally bows and arrows; that the farther he advanced from the +frontiers, the different tribes he passed through were the more +civilized." + +Upon the occasion of the visit of General Bowles, a chief of the +Cherokees, to London, on official business, in 1792, he was waited on by +several eminent Welsh gentlemen to inquire if he knew anything of the +Welsh Indians. He replied, "Yes, I know them, and they are called the +Padoucas, or White Indians. This title is given them because of their +complexions." When a map was laid before him on which that name was +inscribed, he said that these were the people, and showed the limits of +their country. He said that "generally they were called the White +Padoucas, but those who live in the northern parts are called Black +Padoucas, because they are a mixture of the White Padoucas and other +Indians. The White Padoucas are as you are, having some of them sandy, +some red, and some black hair. They are very numerous, and one of the +most warlike people on the continent." + +The gentlemen present then informed General Bowles of the times and +circumstances of Madoc's voyages, when he replied, "They must have been +as early as that period, otherwise they could not have increased to be +so numerous a people. I have travelled their southern boundaries from +one side to the other, but have never entered their country. Another +reason I have for thinking them to be Welsh is, that a Welshman was with +me at home for some time, who had been a prisoner among the Spaniards +and had worked in the mines of Mexico, and by some means he contrived to +escape, got into the wilds, and made his way across the continent, and +eventually passed through the midst of the Padoucas, and at once found +himself with a people with whom he could converse, and he stayed for +some time. He told me that they had several books, which were most +religiously preserved in skins and were considered by them as mysteries. +These they believed gave an account from whence they came. They said +they had not seen a white man like themselves, who was a stranger, for a +long time." + +General Bowles was of Irish descent, and had many respectable relatives +residing in London, whither he had come on a public mission in behalf of +the Cherokees. + +Mr. Price, another chief, who was born among the Creeks, said that he +understood not the Welsh tongue, but that his father, who was a +Welshman, had frequent interviews and conversed with the Padoucas in his +native language. He lived the greatest part of his life in the Creek +country, and died there. + +In Cox's description of Louisiana, 1782, p. 63, it is said "that Baron +La Hontan, having traced the Missouri for eight hundred miles due west, +found an east lake, along which resided two or three great nations, much +more civilized than other Indians; and that out of this lake a great +river disembogues itself into the South Sea." + +The name by which he designates these people is Metocantes. + +Charlevoix, vol. ii. p. 225 of the English translation, mentions "a +great lake very far to the west of the Mississippi, on the banks of +which are a people resembling the French, with buttons on their clothes, +living in cities, and using horses in hunting buffaloes; that they are +clothed with the skins of that animal, but without any arms but the bow +and arrow." He calls them the Mactotatas. + +Bossu, in his account of Louisiana, vol. i. p. 182, says that he had +been informed by the Indians of a nation of clothed people, far to the +westward of the Mississippi, who inhabited great villages built with +white stone, navigated in great piraguas on the great salt-water lakes, +and were governed by one despotic chief, who sent great armies into the +field. + +On page 393 he gives a particular account of Madoc's alleged voyages, +and observes, "The English believe that this prince discovered +Virginia. Peter Martyr seems to give a proof of it when he says that +the nations of Virginia and Guatemala celebrate the memory of one of +their ancient heroes, whom they call Madoc. Several modern travellers +have found ancient British words used by the North American nations. The +celebrated Bishop Nicholson believes that the Welsh language has formed +a considerable part of the languages of the American nations. There are +antiquarians who pretend that the Spaniards got their double or guttural +_l_ (_ll_) from the Americans, who, according to the English, must have +got it from the Welsh." + +Bossu adds that these Welsh Indians seem to go by various names, such as +Panes, Panis (Pawnees). + +During the war of the Revolution, Sir John Caldwell, Bart., was +stationed on the east side of the Mississippi. He lived in the country a +long time, acquired a perfect knowledge of the language of the +inhabitants, was adopted by them, and married a daughter of one of their +chiefs. He was informed by them that the Panis (Pawnees) were a people +considerably civilized, that they cultivated the ground, and built +houses. Some Welshmen in his company understood their language, which +they said was Welsh. Sir John said that he became acquainted with a Mr. +Pond, a very sensible and intelligent Indian trader, who frequented the +country of the Panis, which lies about the head of the river Osages. He +said that they were whiter and more civilized than any other Indian +tribe. + +Mr. Rimington said that he had known for a long time that there were +civilized Indians west of the Mississippi, who were called by those on +the eastern side (the Chickasaws, etc.) Ka Anzou or Ka Anjou (Kansas), +which in their language signifies _first of men_, or _first men_, and he +was very strongly inclined to think that they were the Welsh Indians. + +Mr. Rimington, who was a native of England, had been a long time among +the Indians. He said that being once with several Englishmen and one +Jack Hughes, a Welshman, at the Forks of the Ohio, where was an Indian +mart, some strange Indians came there from the west of the Mississippi. +A Shawanese Indian, who understood English, came to Mr. Rimington and +desired him to be his interpreter. He went, but found that the language +of these strangers was not intelligible to him. When he returned, and +told his companions that he knew not their language, one of them +exclaimed, "Oh, they are the Welsh Indians!" Jack Hughes was sent, who +understood them well; and he was their interpreter while they continued +there. He said that these Indians are tolerably white in complexion, and +their dress like that of the Europeans,--a kind of trousers, coats with +sleeves, and hats or caps made of small and very beautiful feathers +curiously wrought. Furthermore he said that these white Indians are to +be met with at the Indian marts on the Mississippi, at the Natches, +Forks of the Ohio, Kaskaskies, etc., for all the Indian tribes on this +continent, even from the shores of the South Sea, resort thither. + +Thus it may be seen that the Welsh Indians went by different names, the +most of them bearing a similitude to what they called themselves, and by +which they were known to the Indians and the whites: as Padoucas by Mr. +Binon, General Bowles, Mr. Ch., Mr. Price and his father; Panis +(Pawnees) by Sir John Caldwell, Mr. Pond, and others; Ka Anzou (Kansas) +by the Chickasaws, and Mr. Rimington; Matocantes by Coxe; Mactotatas by +Charlevoix; and Madawgwys, Madogian or Madogiaint by many others. + +Padoucas would more nearly approach the general name in sound if the +letter _m_ were substituted for _p_, thus changing the word into +Madoucas, the former being regarded as a corruption which might arise +from the difficulty some tribes have experienced in pronouncing certain +letters. + +In the common maps of the country a century ago, an extensive nation +called the White Padoucas were placed about eighty-eight degrees north +latitude, and one hundred and two degrees west longitude of London; but +they extended in detached communities from about thirty-seven degrees +north latitude and ninety-seven degrees west longitude to forty-three +degrees north latitude and one hundred and ten degrees west longitude. +The city of Paducah, Kentucky, doubtless derived its name from this +nation, which once occupied the region in which it is situated. The +Padoucas, Pawnees, and Kansas were intermixed with one another, and +suffered a fearful decimation by wars and diseases, so that the tribal +name of the first is now extinct; but a few straggling bands still +survive under the second and third names. In 1874 the Pawnees numbered +about two thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, and the Kansas or Kaws +less than that number. From the document accompanying President +Jefferson's message to Congress in 1806, it may be discovered that the +Pania Pique in Arkansas were formerly known by the name of the White +Panias, and are of the same family as the Panias of the river Platte. +According to that communication, the Padoucas, a once powerful nation, +had apparently disappeared. In 1724 they resided in villages at the head +of the Kansas River. Oppressed by the Missourians, they removed to the +upper part of the river Platte, where they had but little intercourse +with the whites. The northern branch of that river is still called the +Padoucas Fork. It is conjectured that, being still more oppressed, they +divided into small wandering bands, which assumed the names of the +subdivisions of the Padoucas nation which have since been known under +the appellation of Wetepahatoes, Kiawas, Kanenavish, Katteka, and +Dotamie, who still inhabit the country to which the Padoucas are said +to have removed. + +In the map attached to Du Pratz's Louisiana the "White Panis" are placed +at the head of the Arkansas; Panis Mahas, or White Panis, at the head of +the south branch of the Missouri; and between those rivers is marked the +country of the Padoucas. + +During the last two centuries the Indian races have waned so rapidly, +their places of habitation have been so often changed, and so many of +the tribes have become amalgamated, that names are not an unerring guide +by which to determine their early history, or to what stock many of the +remnants still surviving belong. + +As to the names given by the French travellers cited +elsewhere,--Matocantes, etc.,--there is some resemblance to the name of +Madoc. A Welshwoman in South Wales calling her son by that name would +say Matoc, which is pure Silurian Welsh, the _d_ being changed into _t_: +hence there might follow such names as Matociait, Matociaint, +Matocantes, as applied to the followers of Madoc. These changes are not +arbitrary, but inhere in the laws and euphony of human language. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +MAURICE GRIFFITH'S AND HIS COMPANIONS' EXPERIENCE. + + +The following letter, published in the "Kentucky Palladium" in 1804, by +Judge Toulmin, of Mississippi, will be read with keen interest by those +who have any desire to study everything relating to this subject: + + +"SIR,--No circumstance relating to the history of the Western country +probably has excited, at different times, more general attention and +anxious curiosity than the opinion that a nation of white men speaking +the Welsh language reside high up the Missouri. By some the idea is +treated as nothing but the suggestion of bold imposture and easy +credulity; whilst others regard it as a fact fully authenticated by +Indian testimony, and the report of various travellers worthy of credit. + + * * * * * + +"Could the fact be well established, it would afford perhaps the most +satisfactory solution of the difficulty occasioned by a view of the +various ancient fortifications with which the Ohio country abounds, of +any that has been offered. Those fortifications were evidently never +made by the Indians. The Indian art of war presents nothing of the kind. +The probability, too, is that the persons who constructed them were, _at +that time_, acquainted with the use of iron. The situation of these +fortifications, which are uniformly in the most fertile land of the +country, indicates that those who made them were an agricultural people; +and the remarkable care and skill with which they were executed afford +traits of the genius of a people who relied more on their military skill +than on their numbers. The growth of the trees upon them is very +compatible with the idea that it is not more than three hundred years +ago that they were abandoned. + +"These hints, however, are thrown out rather to excite inquiry than by +way of advancing any decided opinion on the subject. Having never met +with any of the persons who had seen these white Americans, nor even +received their testimony near the source, I have always entertained +considerable doubts about the fact. + +"Last evening, however, Mr. John Childs, of Jessamine County, a +gentleman with whom I have been long acquainted, and who is well known +to be a man of veracity, communicated a relation to me which at all +events appears to merit serious attention. After he had related it in +conversation, I requested him to repeat it, and committed it to +writing. It has certainly some internal marks of authenticity. The +country described was altogether unknown in Virginia when the relation +was given, and probably very little known to the Shawanese Indians. Yet +the account of it agrees very remarkably with later discoveries. On the +other hand, the story of the large animal, though by no means +incredible, has something of the air of fable, and it does not +satisfactorily appear how the long period which the party were absent +was spent,--though the Indians are, however, so much accustomed to +loiter away their time that many weeks, and even months, may probably +have been spent in indolent repose. Without detaining you any more with +preliminary remarks, I will proceed to the narration as I received it +from Mr. Childs. + +"Maurice Griffiths, a native of Wales, which country he left when he was +about sixteen years of age, was taken prisoner by a party of Shawanese +Indians, about forty years ago, near Vosses Fort, on the head of the +Roanoke River, in Virginia, and carried to the Shawanese Nation. Having +stayed there about two years and a half, he found that five young men of +the tribe had a desire of attempting to explore the sources of the +Missouri. He prevailed upon them to admit him as one of their party. +They set out with six good rifles and with six pounds of powder apiece, +of which they were, of course, very careful. + +"On reaching the mouth of the Missouri, they were struck with the +extraordinary appearance occasioned by the intermixture of the muddy +waters of the Missouri and the clear, transparent element of the +Mississippi. They stayed there two or three days, amusing themselves +with the view of this novel sight; they then determined on the course +which they should pursue, which happened to be so nearly in the course +of the river that they frequently came within sight of it as they +proceeded on their journey. After travelling about thirty days through +pretty farming woodland, they came into fine open prairies, on which +nothing grew but long luxuriant grass. Here was a succession of these, +varying in size, some being eight or ten miles across, but one of them +was so long that it occupied three days to travel through it. In passing +through this large prairie, they were much distressed for water and +provisions, for they saw neither beast nor bird; and, though there was +an abundance of salt springs, fresh water was very scarce. In one of +these prairies the salt springs ran into small ponds, in which, as the +weather was hot, the water had sunk and left the edges of the pond so +covered with salt that they fully supplied themselves with that article, +and might easily have collected bushels of it. + +"As they were travelling through the prairies, they had likewise the +good fortune to kill an animal which was nine or ten feet high and a +bulk proportioned to its height. They had seen two of the same species +before, and they saw four of them afterwards. They were swift-footed, +and had neither tusks nor horns. After passing through the long prairie, +they made it a rule never to enter on one which they could not see +across, till they had supplied themselves with a sufficiency of jerked +venison to last several days. After having travelled a considerable time +through the prairies, they came to very extensive lead-mines, where they +melted the ore and furnished themselves with what lead they wanted. They +afterwards came to two copper-mines, one of which was three miles +through, and in several places they met with rocks of copper ore as +large as houses. + +"When about fifteen days' journey from the second copper-mine, they came +in sight of white mountains, which, though it was in the heat of summer, +appeared to them to be covered with snow. The sight naturally excited +considerable astonishment; but, on their approaching the mountains, they +discovered that, instead of snow, they were covered with immense bodies +of white sand. + +"They had in the mean time passed through about ten nations of Indians, +from whom they received very friendly treatment. It was the practice of +the party to exercise the office of spokesman in rotation; and when the +language of any nation through which they passed was unknown to them, +it was the duty of the spokesman, a duty in which the others never +interfered, to convey their meaning by appropriate signs. + +"The labor of travelling through the deep sands was excessive; but at +length they relieved themselves of this difficulty by following the +course of a shallow river, the bottom of which being level, they made +their way to the top of the mountains with tolerable convenience. After +passing the mountains they entered a fine fertile tract of land, which +having travelled through for several days, they accidentally _met with +three white men in the Indian dress_. Griffith immediately understood +their language, as it was pure Welsh, though they occasionally made use +of a few words with which he was not acquainted. However, as it happened +to be the turn of one of his Shawanese companions to act as spokesman or +interpreter, he preserved a profound silence, and never gave them any +intimation that he understood the language of their new companions. + +"After proceeding with them four or five days' journey, they came to the +village of these white men, where they found that the _whole nation was +of the same color_, having all the European complexion. The three men +took them through their villages for about the space of fifteen miles, +when they came to the 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 acquainted +with their language, they were suffered to be present at their +deliberations. + +"The great question before the council was, what conduct should be +observed towards the strangers. From their fire-arms, their knives, and +their tomahawks, it was concluded that they were a warlike people. It +was conceived that 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 powerful invaders; but that if these six men were put to death, +nothing would be known of their country, and they would still enjoy +their possessions in security. It was finally determined that they +should be put to death. + +"Griffith then thought it was time for him to speak. _He addressed the +council in the Welsh language._ He informed them that they had not been +sent by any nation; that they were actuated merely by private curiosity, +and had no hostile intentions; that it was their wish to trace the +Missouri to its source; and that they should return to their country +satisfied with the discoveries they had made, without any wish to +disturb the repose of their new acquaintances. + +"An instant astonishment glowed in the countenances, not only of the +council, but of his Shawanese 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 him with the utmost friendship. Griffith +and the Shawanese continued eight months in the nation, but were +deterred from prosecuting their researches up the Missouri by the advice +of the people of the country, who informed them that they had gone a +twelvemonth's 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. +The only account they could give was, that their forefathers had come up +the river from a very distant country. 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 +watercourses which fell into the Missouri, on the banks of each of which +they were likewise settled. He supposed that 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 barks 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. + +"Griffith and his companions had some large iron tomahawks with them. +With these they cut down a tree and prepared a canoe to return home in; +but their tomahawks were so great a curiosity, and the people of the +country were so eager to handle them, that their canoe was completed +with very little labor to them. When this work was accomplished, they +proposed to leave their new friends, Griffith, however, having promised +to visit them again. + +"They descended the river with considerable speed, but amidst frequent +dangers from the rapidity of the current, particularly when passing +through the white mountains. When they reached the Shawanese Nation, +they had been absent about two years and a half. Griffith supposed that +when they travelled they went at the rate of about fifteen miles per +day. He stayed but a few months with the Indians after his return, as a +favorable opportunity offered itself to him to reach his friends in +Virginia. He came with a hunting-party of Indians to the head-waters of +Coal River, which runs into New River not far above the falls. Here he +left the Shawanese, and easily reached the settlements on the Roanoke. + +"Mr. Childs knew him before he was taken prisoner, and saw him a few +days after his return, when he narrated to him the preceding +circumstances. Griffith was universally regarded as a steady, honest +man, and a man of strict veracity. Mr. Childs has always placed the +utmost confidence in his account of himself and his travels, and has no +more doubt of the truth of his relations than if he had seen the whole +himself. Whether Griffith be still alive or not he does not know. +Whether his ideas be correct or not, we shall probably have a better +opportunity of judging on the return of Captains Lewis and Clarke, who, +though they may not penetrate as far as Griffith alleged he had done, +will probably learn enough of the country to enable us to determine +whether the account given by Griffith be fiction or truth. + +"I am, sir, +"Your humble servant, +"HARRY TOULMIN. + +"FRANKFORT, December 12, 1804." + + +With regard to the exploring expeditions of Lewis and Clarke, to which +Judge Toulmin refers, it was found in their published records that +although they pursued a different branch of the Missouri from the one +which was supposed to lead to the Welsh Indians, they discovered +straggling Indians similar to those mentioned by Griffith, Vancouver, +and many others. They belonged to those who had a tribal existence in +other localities. + +However, they describe long lines of embankments which they saw before +leaving the main channel of the Missouri, some of them enclosing an area +of six hundred acres. They found them as high up as one thousand miles +from the junction with the Mississippi. Captain Lewis was a Welshman. In +their long and perilous journey, extending to the Columbia River, they +lost but one man, William Floyd, also a Welshman, and who was buried on +top of one of these mounds west of the Missouri,--called to this day +"_Floyd's Mound_." + +The Missouri, taken in connection with the Mississippi, is the longest +river in the world, its length from the highest navigable stream to the +Gulf of Mexico being four thousand four hundred and ninety-one miles, +and its length to its junction with the Mississippi, three thousand and +ninety-six miles. Add to this the immense distance not navigable because +of the cataracts and falls, next to Niagara the grandest on this globe, +and reaching to the Rocky Mountains, and some idea may be formed of the +great extent of this river. The entrance of the Yellow-Stone is nearly +two thousand miles above its mouth. A journey of one thousand miles up +the Missouri a century or more since, while it was an undertaking of no +slight magnitude and attended with many hardships and dangers, did not +bring the traveller over more than one-fourth of its length. The course +pursued by Griffith and his companions can be marked out with singular +accuracy by the use of subsequent knowledge, obtained during the last +one hundred years, respecting the country that river traverses. + +He speaks of finding lead-mines. The lead-mines of Missouri are +extremely valuable, and yield millions of pounds annually. + +He speaks of salt springs. The line of his journey conducted him by the +salt licks of Nebraska, which, when the springs are low and evaporation +is rapid, have the appearance of layers of snow. + +He speaks of white mountains. Passing from the broad open prairies to +the uplands and mountains, the soil is sandy and in many places +remarkably white. The writer himself has often seen on the Missouri bold +projections of limestone which in the distance appeared like banks of +snow. + +He speaks of the Indians being all white. This presents a difficulty not +easily reconcilable with the intermixture theory. The predominating +color, it would be supposed, was that of the red race. But he partially +explains this by saying that "they intermixed with no other people by +marriage: there was not a dark-skinned man in the nation." Could they +without intermixture have increased to such considerable numbers as to +be able, as he supposes, to put into the field "fifty thousand men +capable of bearing arms"? It need not be thought impossible, but it +certainly is improbable. At any rate, this people were sufficiently +white to be called, by Griffith and by a large number of reliable +witnesses, "White Padoucas," "White Panis," "White Indians." + +He speaks of their having no records and no horses. In this respect his +recital differs somewhat from those given by others, some of whom assert +that they saw some old manuscript books, and that they had horses for +the chase. His statement, however, offers no contradiction to that made +by others, because it is pretty certain that many of them came upon +different branches of the same extensive nation. + +He speaks of their speaking "pure Welsh," but qualifies it by saying +that they occasionally made use of a few words with which he was not +acquainted. He meant no more than that the radical structure of the +language was still preserved and could be readily distinguished, though +some of the words had undergone modification. This is the case with all +languages, not even excepting the Welsh in Wales, which has shown itself +superior to all others to resist any great change. + +It is somewhat surprising that Griffith did not give some account of the +religious institutions of this people; for if they were the descendants +of Madoc some traces of the Christian religion might have been +discovered. Or had they been all effaced in six hundred years? + +It must be admitted that what he does relate bears every internal mark +of simple, honest truth. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +CAPTAIN ISAAC STUART--GOVERNORS SEVIER AND DINWIDDIE--GENERAL MORGAN +LEWIS--THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF THE WELSH INDIANS. + + +Captain Stuart was an officer in the Provincial Cavalry of South +Carolina, and the following sketch was taken from his own lips by I. C., +Esq., an intelligent gentleman, in March, 1782. Lieutenant-Colonel +Conger, of South Carolina, regarded Captain Stuart as a man who could be +implicitly trusted in what he said. + +"I was taken prisoner about fifty miles to the westward of Fort Pitt, +about eighteen 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 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 among the Indians, a Spaniard came +to the nation, having been sent from Mexico on discoveries. He made +application to the chief for redeeming me and another white man, who +was in like situation, named John Davey (David), which they complied +with. + +"And we took our departure, in company with the Spaniard, to the +westward, crossing the Mississippi near Rouge, or Red, River, up which +we travelled seven hundred miles, when we came to a nation remarkably +white, and whose hair was of a reddish color, or mostly so. They lived +on the banks of a small river which is called the river Post. In the +morning of the day after our arrival, the Welshman informed me that he +was determined to remain 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 information, 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 other Indian tongues that I ever heard, that their forefathers of +this nation came from a foreign country and landed on the east side of +the Mississippi, describing the country particularly now called Florida, +and that on the Spaniards taking possession of Mexico they fled to their +then abode. + +"And, as a proof of the truth of what he advanced, he brought forth _a +roll of parchment_, which was carefully tied up in otters' skins, on +which were large characters 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, and intrepid people, very warlike, and the women +beautiful when compared with other Indians." + +John Sevier, at one time Governor of Tennessee, in a letter dated +October 9, 1810, and published by Major Stoddard in his "Sketches, +Historical and Descriptive, of Louisiana," Philadelphia, 1812, p. 483, +says that in 1782 he was on a campaign against the Cherokees. Observing +on his route traces of very ancient fortifications, he afterwards took +occasion, on exchange of prisoners, to inquire into their origin, of +Oconostoto, who for sixty years had been a ruling chief of the Cherokee +Nation, and particularly as to the origin of the remarkable +fortifications on the branch of the Highwasse River. The venerable chief +replied, that it was handed down by their forefathers that those works +were made by _white people_ who had formerly inhabited the country. When +the Cherokees lived in the country now South Carolina, wars existed +between them, and were only ended when the whites consented to abandon +the country. Accordingly, they ascended the Tennessee to the Ohio, then +to the big river Mississippi, then up the muddy Missouri to a very great +distance. They are now on some of its branches, but are no longer white +people; they have become Indians, and look somewhat like the other red +people of the country. "I then asked him," continues Governor Sevier, +"if he had ever heard any of his ancestors say to what nation of people +the whites belonged. He answered, 'I heard my grandfather and other old +people say that they were a people called Welsh; that they had crossed +the great waters and landed near the mouth of the Alabama River, and +were finally driven to the heads of its waters, and even to the +Highwasse River, by the Mexican Spaniards.' + +"Oconostoto also said that an old woman in his nation had some parts of +an old book given her by an Indian living high up the Missouri, and +thought he was one of the Welsh tribe. Unfortunately," observes Governor +Sevier, "before I had an opportunity of seeing the book, her house and +all its contents were destroyed by fire. I have conversed with several +persons who saw and examined it; but it was so worn and disfigured that +nothing intelligible remained." + +Governor Sevier was informed by a Frenchman, a great explorer of the +country west of the Mississippi, that he had been high up the Missouri, +and traded several months with the Welsh tribes, who spoke much of the +Welsh dialect. Although their customs were savage and wild, yet many of +them, particularly the females, were fair and white. They often told him +that they had sprung from a white people; and that they had yet some +small scraps of books remaining, but in such a tattered and mutilated +order that they were unintelligible. + +The very year that Robert Dinwiddie, Governor of Virginia, sent a +letter of remonstrance to M. de St. Pierre, the French commander, +complaining of the hostile movements of The Ohio Company, George +Washington, then a young man of twenty-two, being chosen bearer of the +dispatches, the Governor received a letter from a gentleman named George +Chrochan, showing that the French knew of the Welsh Indians. This was in +1753. The original letter was deposited in the Foreign Office in London, +and several gentlemen were enabled to obtain copies of it through +Maurice Morgan, Esq., secretary to Sir Guy Carleton. It is as follows: + +"Last year I understood, by Colonel Lomax, that your Honor would be glad +to have some information of a nation of people settled to the west, on a +large river that runs to the Pacific Ocean, _commonly called the Welsh +Indians_. + +"As I had an opportunity of gathering some accounts of those people, I +make bold, at the instance of Colonel Cressup, to send you the following +accounts. As I formerly had an opportunity of being acquainted with +several French traders, and particularly with one who was bred up from +his infancy amongst the Western Indians on the west side of Lake Erie, +he informed me that the first intelligence the French had of them was by +some Indians settled at the back of New Spain, who, in their way home, +happened to lose themselves, and fell down on this settlement of +people, which they took to be French by their talking very quick; so, +on their return to Canada, they informed the Governor that there was a +large settlement of French on a river that ran to the sun's setting; +that they were not Indians, although they lived within themselves as +Indians; for they could not perceive that they traded with any people, +or had any trade to sea, for they had no boats or ships as they could +see; and, though they had guns amongst them, yet they were so old and so +much out of order that they made no use of them, but hunted with their +bows and arrows for the support of their families. + +"On this account the Governor of Canada determined to send a party to +discover whether they were French or not, and had three hundred men +raised for that purpose. + +"But, when they were ready to go, the Indians would not go with them, +but told the Governor if he sent but a few men they would go and show +them the country; on which the Governor sent three young priests, who +dressed themselves in Indian dresses and went with those Indians to the +place where these people were settled, and found them to be Welsh. + +"They brought some old Welsh Bibles, to satisfy the Governor that they +were there; and they told him that these people had a great aversion to +the French; for they found by them that they had been at first settled +at the mouth of the Mississippi, but had been almost cut off by the +French there: so that a small remnant of them escaped back to where they +were then settled, but had since become a numerous people. The Governor +of Canada, on this account, determined to raise an army of French +Indians to go and cut them off; but, as the French have been embarrassed +in war with several other nations nearer home, I believe they have laid +that project aside. The man who furnished me with this account told me +that the messengers who went to make this discovery were gone sixteen +months before they returned to Canada: so that these people must live at +a great distance from thence due west. This is the most particular +account I ever could get from those people as yet. + +"I am yours, etc., +"GEORGE CHROCHAN. + +"WINCHESTER, August 24, 1753." + +Governor Dinwiddie became so positively assured of their existence that +he agreed with a party of black traders to go in quest of the Welsh +Indians, and promised to give them for that purpose the sum of five +hundred pounds; but he was recalled before they could set out on the +expedition. + +General Morgan Lewis was an officer in the American Revolutionary army. +He was the son of Francis Lewis, one of the signers of the Declaration +of Independence. The general was a well-known citizen of New York. He +was aide-de-camp to General Gates at the battle of Saratoga, and, on the +surrender of the English army at that place, was requested by him to +receive the sword of General Burgoyne. In Turnbull's picture, +commemorative of the event, found in the rotunda of the Capitol at +Washington, the figure of General Lewis occupies a prominent position. +He was distinguished for many honorable military and civil services. He +was the successor of George Clinton as Governor of the State. In 1838 he +became president of the Society of Cincinnati, an institution founded by +Washington, who was its first president. His portrait hangs in the +Governor's room of the New York City Hall. He died on the 7th of May, +1844, in his ninetieth year, beloved and respected by all. He used +frequently to relate many stirring incidents which occurred during the +life of his father. The latter, while on a military expedition in the +French War, was captured at Oswego, and was assigned over, with thirty +others, by Montcalm, the acting French commander, to certain Indians, as +their share of prisoners. Among the Indians was a chief whose language +resembled the Gaelic (a dialect of the Celtic with which Mr. Lewis, who +was a native of Wales, was thoroughly acquainted). On hearing him +converse, Mr. Lewis understood him sufficiently to discover that his +language was of that ancient dialect, although modified by usage and +lapse of time. He then addressed the chief in Welsh, and was understood. +The chief selected Mr. Lewis from the rest of the prisoners, and +accompanied and guarded him personally. Subsequently Mr. Lewis was sent +to England in a cartel for exchange of prisoners, and after his return +frequently mentioned to his family and others the circumstances. His +name and memory are linked with the immortal band of signers. He was a +merchant of New York city, owned property on Long Island which was +destroyed by the English, and died in 1803, aged ninety years, the +father and the son having attained the same age. + +Here are several strong testimonies from four entirely independent +sources, each separate from the others, with no motives of prejudice or +self-interest to mislead wilfully, and the parties too intelligent to be +betrayed into a blind credulity. The disclosures of this chapter, if +they stood alone, would be sufficient to carry conviction to every +candid inquirer, that there was a remarkable people, different from the +common red races of this continent, inhabiting a portion of the Western +country during the last century. And to such an extent did this +conviction prevail that it was made the basis of official action by +Governor Dinwiddie, whose plans were frustrated by his recall, and the +Governor of Canada, who sent out an expedition, which returned in +safety and reported the existence of Welsh Indians. + +Mr. Binon, Captain Stuart, Governor Sevier, the members of the Canadian +expedition, and others, state that these people had manuscript books in +parchment, but that they could not be read or understood even by those +Welshmen who were with some of these parties. Some of these manuscripts +contained the mysteries of religion, and were carefully preserved. + +Even to this day there are classes of the population of Wales who cannot +read and write; a century ago their condition was far worse, before the +establishment of parish schools; but, granting that all were learned in +the rudiments of education, there is not probably one in a thousand who +could read a manuscript of the twelfth century. Most of them stagger +those who claim to have scholarly attainments. If they were in the Greek +instead of the Roman character, as some of them have been discovered to +be, the mystery would be still greater. The Greek alphabetical character +was used in the British Island prior to the invasion by Julius Cæsar, +after which the Roman character was adopted and became generally used in +common life and writing. + +Yet so sacred was the Greek character held by monastic schools, because +the gospel was written in it, that many transcribers--and they were the +book-makers--clung with a religious enthusiasm to it. Christianity was +certainly introduced into the Island in the second century, the Greek +forms in the Welsh language had not become lost, and it is likely that +many parchment manuscripts were extant. Madoc's position as a member of +the royal house of Wales, notwithstanding the scarcity and great cost of +books in those times, would enable him to possess some of the most +valuable, even those illuminated in rich, fixed colors, and which +required many years of patient toil to manufacture. It is far more +within the order of reason to believe that Madoc and his emigrants, upon +leaving their own native shores, would take with them copies of the +great book of books,--the king of books on the throne of letters,--than +that they would leave them behind. Some of his followers, perhaps the +most of them, were not able to read them then, but knew somewhat their +contents. Under their new conditions of life, relapsing gradually from a +civilized state, these manuscripts came at length to be invested with a +certain sacred mystery, as the depository of their ancestors' religious +faith. No wonder that they should be so carefully preserved. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE MANDAN INDIANS: WHO ARE THEY? + + +During the present century various travellers have called the attention +of the civilized world to a small body of Indians inhabiting the banks +of the Upper Missouri, called Mandans. They, with the Minatarees and +Crows, are classed with the Dacotahs or Sioux, although it is known that +their language bears no affinity whatever with the latter people. The +Mandans are very light-colored. + +George Catlin, the well-known student of Indian life, character, +language, and manners, was, without any doubt, more intimately +acquainted with this people than any others who preceded him or have +followed him. + +Mr. Catlin was born in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, and was for some years a +practising lawyer. He removed to Philadelphia, and, upon meeting with a +delegation of Indians, resolved to employ his talents as a painter in +the best school, by painting man in the simplicity of his nature. +Accordingly, he made arrangements to spend the most of his time among +the Indian tribes of the Western country. His enthusiasm in his work +arose to the height of an intense passion. He studied every phase of +Indian life, nothing seeming to have escaped his attention. Withal, he +was an ardent admirer of the Indian character; and he says, "No Indian +ever struck me, betrayed me, or stole from me a shilling's worth of my +property, that I am aware of." In another place he says, with a touching +pathos, "They are fast travelling to the shades of their fathers, +towards the setting sun." In his "Notes on the American Indians" he has +portrayed a complete picture of the Mandans, giving the minutest +details, so that the reader can study them as well from his two volumes +as if he were daily living among them,--indeed, better than if he wished +to visit them at present, they have been of late years so much reduced +by the ravages of that fearful scourge, smallpox. After Mr. Catlin +visited them, this disease was introduced by one of the steamers of the +Fur Company, which had two cases aboard. + +One reason assigned why so many perished was, that the Mandan villages +were surrounded by the hostile Sioux. Many destroyed themselves with +knives and guns, while others dashed their brains out against rocks, by +leaping from the ledges. When the disease was at its greatest height, +there was one incessant crying to the Great Spirit. The bodies lay in +loathsome piles in their wigwams, and there remained to decay or be +devoured by dogs. Some became crazed, and plunged into the coldest +water when the fever was raging, and died before they could get out. + +Mat-to-toh-pa, "Four Bears," great chief of the Mandans, watched his +tribe, wives, and children die about him, then starved himself, dying on +the ninth day, his body prostrate over the remains of his kinsmen. Their +numbers are now so reduced that the last statistics give them four +hundred only. + +When Mr. Catlin made his first entrance into this nation, numbering +several thousands, he was struck with their appearance, and at once +concluded that they belonged to an amalgam of native and white. He was +at a loss for some time how to account for this; and it was only after +the most careful study that he reached the conviction that the Mandans +were a branch of the descendants of Madoc's colony. He believed that the +ten ships of Madoc, or at least a part of them, either entered the +Balize at the mouth of the Mississippi, or the colonists landed on the +Florida coast and made their way inward. They began agriculture, but +were attacked and driven to erect those immense earthen fortifications, +and subsequently were driven still farther and farther inward. Mandans +was a corruption of Madawgwys, a name applied by Cambrians to the +followers of Madoc. + +The following brief summary, arranged by the writer of these pages, may +be taken as Mr. Catlin's principal reasons why he thought the Mandans +were Welsh: + +(1.) Their physical appearance. + +They were of medium height, and stout. They did not share that high, +stalwart physical frame which is so usual with Indians of the forest +before they have become degraded by the vices of civilization. + +Their complexions were very light-colored, but not uniform in shade. + +Their hair was of all colors found in civilized societies. The hair of +the unmixed Indian is a straight black. They wore beards,--which Indians +do not have. They must have been the people who were called the Bearded +Indians. They had different-colored eyes,--hazel, gray, and blue. + +(2.) Form of Mandan villages. Here it may be remarked that the +Minatarees construct their villages upon the same plan. They sink holes +in the ground to the depth of two feet and having a diameter of forty +feet, of a circular form, for the foundation of their wigwams, which are +built of substantial materials and display more skill than is found +among the other Indians. + +(3.) Mandan remains. The method of sinking down into the earth for the +purpose of obtaining a foundation has, singularly enough, offered a clue +as to the authors of all those remains along the Ohio, at the confluence +of the Mississippi and Ohio, and along up the Missouri to the present +abode of the Mandans. Their earthen works and huts, built in Druidic +circles, are exact counterparts of those along the paths of their +migrations. Of course the larger works have no modern counterparts, for +those were erected when they were more numerous and able to cope with +their foes. + +The villages of the dead are uniformly built in circles. + +(4.) Their social and domestic customs. + +They exhibit great skill in the manufacture of pottery, and the +specimens found in the earthen remains of the Ohio Valley, many of them +at present in the museum at Cincinnati, correspond with many of the +products of the Mandans. The Mandan women mould vases, cups, pitchers, +and pots out of the black clay, and bake them in little kilns in the +sides of the hill, or under the bank of the river. They possess secrets +of manufacturing known only to themselves. They have the extraordinary +art of making a very beautiful and lasting kind of blue glass beads, +which they wear on their necks in great abundance. This must be the +nation, or at least a portion of it, which Captains Lewis and Clarke +saw, and whom they declared to be light-colored, and whose manufacture +of beads and glass articles they described thirty years before Mr. +Catlin. + +Their canoes are the exact shape of the Welsh coracle, made of raw +hides,--skins of buffaloes,--stretched underneath a frame made of +willows or other boughs, and shaped nearly round like a tub, which the +women carry on their heads. The Welsh coracle, a boat which has been +used by fishermen from time immemorial, is made in the same way by +covering a wicker frame with leather or oil-cloth, and is carried on the +head or with straps from the shoulders. + +In their social and domestic habits generally they are different from +other Indians. + +(5.) Their religious belief and ceremonies. + +There is something reaching the marvellous connected with their +religion. Their traditional belief one would imagine was nothing less +than a corrupted epitome of the Christian belief. + +(_a._) The account of the transgression of mother Eve, involving the +doctrine of the temptation, is quite explicit. The Evil Spirit, who was +a black fellow, came and sat down by a woman and told her to take a +piece out of his side, which she did, and ate it, which proving to be +buffalo fat, she became _enceinte_. + +(_b._) The traditions of the Deluge are far more rational, and could +more easily be believed, than many which have been entertained by other +nations. + +(_c._) The most important religious ceremony among the Mandans is a +representation of the death and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It takes +place annually, as soon as the willow is in full leaf; for, they say, +"the twig which the bird brought in was a willow bough, and had +full-grown leaves upon it." The spectacle presented in the crucifixion +of the Saviour by the young men of the Mandan nation might not accord +with our civilized tastes and notions of propriety, yet it is +wonderfully impressive, and calculated to turn the spectator's thoughts +to the tragedy of Calvary. The finest-looking young man is selected as +the central figure, and others surround him, when they are stuck full of +skewers, and suspended on beams around their rude temple where they +worship. + +(6.) The Mandan language. + +In their own language they call themselves See-pohs-ka-mi-mah-ka-kee +(the people of the pheasants), which Mr. Catlin thinks they would not do +if they had not lived where pheasants abounded, as in Pennsylvania, +Ohio, and Indiana, for there are none on the prairies until within six +or seven hundred miles of the Rocky Mountains. + +The most convincing proof, probably, to the mind of Mr. Catlin, and to +all others who have studied the possible identification of the Mandans +with Madoc's colony, is found in their language. The resemblance in form +and sound is so very marked that it cannot escape the eye and ear of any +individual, much less those of a Welshman. It is expected that he would +catch the soonest any similarity in the two languages,--the Mandan and +the Welsh. And fortunately there are too many instances of this +similarity to admit for a moment the idea of chance or coincidence. + +That the reader may see that this is the case, his attention is called +to the subjoined table of words selected from the English, Mandan, and +Welsh, and their pronunciations: + + + ENGLISH. MANDAN. WELSH. PRONOUNCED. + + I Me Mi Me. + You Ne Chwi Chwe. + He E A A. + She Ea E A. + It Ount Hwynt Hooynt. + We Eonah Huna, _masc._ Hoona. + Hona, _fem._ Hona. + + Those ones ... ... Yrhai Hyna. + No, or there Megosh Nagoes Nagosh. + is not {Nage + No Meg {Nag + {Na + Head Pan Pen Pen. + The Great Maho peneta Mawr penaethir Maoor penaethir + Spirit Ysprid mawr Usprid maoor. + + Father Tautah Tadwys Tadoos. + Foh! Ugh! Paeechah Pah Pah. + Hammock Caupan Gaban Gaban. + To call Eenah Enwi Enwah. + + +Many other words might be given, but the above is sufficient to show the +remarkable similarity of form, and that where they do not agree as to +certain letters the resemblance is preserved in the pronunciation. Every +language has its own individuality in respect to that. The Welsh is +noted for its deep gutturals, and, to the ear unaccustomed to hear it, +it seems very harsh. Travellers have observed this guttural +pronunciation very extensively among the American Indians. Lossing says +that the language of the Uchees, the remnant of a once powerful nation +who were seated in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and farther west, was +exceedingly harsh, and unlike that of any other nation. Mr. Baldwin, in +his recent work on "Ancient America," in his endeavors to determine the +origin of the Natches Indians, says, "they differed in language, +customs, and condition from all other Indians in the country." He then +attempts to affix their traditions with the people of Mexico. It may be +remembered that elsewhere it is stated that it was right in the midst of +the territory occupied by the Natches that Mr. Willin, a rich Quaker, +had among his settlers a number of Welshmen, who conversed in their +native tongue with the Indians. Also, that Mr. Burnell and his son, +Cradog, were part of a company who purchased forty millions of acres +from the Natches and Yazous, and that both father and son, particularly +the latter, understanding the Welsh language, could converse with the +Indians. Is it not altogether likely, then, that the Uchees and Natches, +being known to be so very different from the surrounding nations in +language, spoke the same as the Mandans, and that the language of the +three did not differ much from the Welsh? + +Dr. Morse, in the report of his tour (printed in New Haven in 1822) +among the Western Indians, performed in the behalf of the Government, +in 1820, mentions, upon the information furnished by Father Reichard, of +Detroit, a report that prevailed at Fort Chartres, among the old people, +in 1781, that Mandan Indians had visited that post and could converse +intelligibly with some Welsh soldiers then in the British army. Dr. +Morse suggested the information as a hint to any person who might have +an opportunity of ascertaining whether there was any affinity between +the two languages. By a guidance more than human, Mr. Catlin was led +into the midst of that people, and he has shown that such an affinity +does exist, and has performed a service of permanent value by his +contributions to the literature of a question which was thought to be a +bold imposture foisted upon a credulous age by an equally credulous but +more ignorant rabble. But time is making things more equal, and the +sturdy defenders of Madoc's voyages and American colony are having his +claims ratified in a most astonishing manner. It is very fortunate that +more recent researches have brought to light the language of a people so +rapidly melting away, and thus supplied an answer to the question as to +how the many Welshmen who came in contact with them could understand and +converse with these Welsh Bearded Indians. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +WELSH BLOOD IN THE AZTECS. + + +Mexico and Peru were the most civilized parts of the continent when the +Spaniards arrived. If it had not been for the bigoted zeal of the +Spanish priests, and most signally that of Zumarraga, the abundant and +astonishing national picture-writings which were the historical records +of the Aztecs might still be in existence, and serve to reveal the +successive links in the mighty chain of migrations of the early peoples, +so that much of the mystery that still lingers in regard to their +settlement and civilization could be removed. But these priests looked +upon those writings as the memorials of pagan idolatry, and, having +collected them together, committed them to the flames, thus +extinguishing in a day, as it were, the history of a once powerful +empire. The historian is consequently forced to rely upon whatever +fugitive pieces escaped the hands of those infamous ravagers, the study +of the monumental remains, and the broken and scattered remnants of this +people, scarcely recognizable, found on the Mexican plateau and in the +various parts of the American territories. + +According to the most authentic records which remain, the Aztecs came +from the regions of the North, "the populous hive of nations in the New +World, as it has been in the Old." + +Clavigero, the patient and voluminous historian of New Spain, assigns +the following dates to some of the most important events in the early +history of Mexico: + + + A.D. + The Toltecs arrived in Anahuac 648 + They abandoned their country 1051 + The Chichemecs arrived 1170 + The Acolhuans arrived about 1200 + + The Aztecs or Mexicans reached Tula 1196 + They founded the Mexican Empire 1325 + + Conquest by Cortez 1521 + + +Zurita, a celebrated jurist, whose personal experience and observation +among the Aztecs extended over a period of nineteen years, and who +returned to Spain in 1560, was indignant at the epithet _barbarian_ as +applied to the Aztecs,--an epithet, he says, "which could come from no +one who had personal knowledge of the capacity of the people or their +institutions, and which in some respects is quite as well merited by the +European nations." + +Their high degree of civilization, their remarkable advance in the +knowledge and practice of the arts and sciences, so wondrously displayed +in their architecture, their causeways, their temples, their homes and +their adornments, their agriculture and systems of irrigation, their +floating gardens and beautiful feather-work, their strange religion and +military displays, must have produced an impression upon the Spaniards +which they never forgot. The vast wealth of the Aztecs so excited the +spirit of avarice in them, however, that, for a time, each one planned +how best to enrich himself. + +In complexion they were much lighter than the common American Indians. +Their style of dress, which was often the most elaborate, and made from +the finest materials of their own weaving, more nearly approached that +of Europeans,--trousers, jacket, surtout, cloak, and cap or hat +ornamented with fine feather-work. The same dress is worn by their +descendants in Mexico at the present time. Their treatment of their +women was not Asiatic, but resembled more that which is accorded to them +by the civilized nations of the world. Their duties were domestic, and +they were not degraded by servile bondage. Throughout the different +cities were barber-shops, where the men assembled to have their beards +shaved. No such thing was known among the American Indians. + +"Quetzalcoatl, god of the air," says Prescott, "instructed them in the +use of the metals, in agriculture, and the arts of government. It was +the golden age. For some cause he was compelled to abandon the country. +On his way he stopped at the city of Cholula, where a temple was +dedicated to his worship, the massy ruins of which still form one of the +most interesting relics of antiquity in Mexico. When he reached the +shores of the Mexican Gulf, _he took leave of his followers, promising +that he and his descendants would revisit them hereafter_, and then, +entering his wizard skiff made of serpents' skins, embarked on the great +ocean for the fabled land of Tlapallan [are there not here the Welsh +words _lla_, place, softened into _tla_, and _pell_, distant, meaning +"distant place"?] He was said to have been tall in stature, _with a +white skin, long dark hair, and a flowing beard_. The Mexicans looked +confidently to the return of this benevolent deity; and this remarkable +tradition, deeply cherished in their hearts, prepared the way for the +success of the Spaniards." + +Their religion was a compound of Christianity and mythology, of +spiritual refinement and ferocity. Indeed, so much was this the case +that the most intelligent and judicious historians of the Aztecs could +not resist the conviction that one part of their religion emanated from +a comparatively refined people, while the other sprang from barbarians. +Everything pointed to the doctrine that their religion had _two distinct +sources_. + +Some historians have erred in supposing that they indiscriminately +sacrificed human beings. Their sacrifices were criminals collected from +all parts of the country, kept in cages, and slain upon the same day to +make a religious exhibition. This ought to be stated, so that, if +possible, there might be some mitigation of their dark and bloody +practices. + +They recognized the existence of one God, Supreme Creator and Lord of +the Universe. In their prayers they addressed Him as their God, "by whom +they lived, omnipresent, who knoweth all thoughts and giveth all gifts, +without whom man is as nothing, the incorporeal, invisible, one God, of +perfect perfection and purity, under whose wings we find repose and a +sure defence." + +They made confession but once, and that usually was deferred to a late +period of life. The following was the language of the confessor for the +penitent: "O merciful Lord, thou knowest the secrets of all hearts, let +thy forgiveness and favor descend like the pure waters of heaven, to +wash away the stains from the soul. Thou knowest that this poor man has +sinned, not from his own free will, but from the influence of the sign +under which he was born." He then teaches charity: "Clothe the naked and +feed the hungry, whatever privations it may cost thee; for, remember, +their flesh is like thine, and they are men like thee." + +The ceremony of naming children shows a wonderful coincidence with what +are called Christian rites. The lips and bosom of the infant were +sprinkled with water, and "the Lord was implored to permit the holy +drops to wash away the sin that was given to it before the foundation +of the world, so that the child might be born anew." + +Their prayers, too, inculcated Christian morality: "Wilt thou blot us +out, O Lord, forever? Is this punishment intended not for our +reformation, but for our destruction? Impart to us out of thy great +mercy thy gifts, which we are not worthy to receive through our own +merits." + +"Keep peace with all." "Bear injuries with humility. God who sees will +avenge you." "He who looks curiously on a woman commits adultery with +his eyes." What parallels with Scripture teachings! + +The Aztec nobles had bards in their houses, who composed ballads suited +to the times, and sang and played on instruments in honor of the +achievements of their lord. In this is discovered a resemblance to the +customs of Welsh minstrelsy. + +They had also musical councils, held on special days in the presence of +large public assemblies, for the trials of historians, poets, and +musicians, in their respective compositions, before the monarchs of +Mexico, Tezcuco, and Tlacopan. These were exactly identical with the +Welsh Eisteddfods,--bardic and musical contests, which have long been +and are still held in Wales, and in other countries where the +descendants of the people of that country reside. They had also a +complete system of orders and badges resembling those in Europe. By a +study of their stone calendars, they are known to have had regular +divisions of time; and their years consisted of three hundred and +sixty-five days. Historians relate that in the first interview of Cortez +with Montezuma in his palace, the latter said that his ancestors were +not the original proprietors of the land. They had occupied it but a few +ages, and had been led there by a great Being, _who, after giving them +laws and ruling over the nation for a time, had withdrawn to the region +where the sun rises_. He had declared upon his departure that he or his +descendants would again visit them and resume his empire. The wonderful +deeds of the Spaniards, their fair complexion, and the quarter whence +they came, led him to believe that they were his descendants. + +It was this tradition, inflexibly maintained by all the natives, which +enabled Cortez and his followers to secure such a complete conquest +throughout the Aztec empire; and yet so cruel a monster was he that he +put to death the two emperors, Montezuma and Guatemozin, and nearly four +millions of their subjects, in the most cruel manner. At least, this is +stated by historians; possibly the number is exaggerated. At any rate, +he slew an immense number. + +A gentleman who was in Mexico saw in 1748, in a Spanish manuscript +there, the speech which Montezuma delivered to his subjects just prior +to his death, and which is probably still in existence: + +"Kinsmen, Friends, Countrymen, and Subjects: You know I have been +eighteen years your sovereign and your natural king, as my illustrious +predecessors and fathers were before me, and all the descendants of my +race since we came from _a far distant northern nation, whose tongue and +manners we yet have partly preserved_. I have been to you a father, a +guardian, and a loving prince, while you have been to me faithful +subjects and obedient servants. + +"Let it be held in your remembrance that you have a claim to a noble +descent, because you are sprung from a race of freemen and heroes, who +scorned to deprive the native Mexicans of their ancient liberties, but +added to their national freedom principles which do honor to human +nature. Our divines have instructed you of our natural descent from a +people the most renowned upon earth for liberty and valor; because of +all nations they were, as our first parents told us, the only unsubdued +people upon the earth by that warlike nation [Romans] whose tyranny and +ambition assumed the conquest of the world; but nevertheless our great +forefathers checked their ambition, and fixed limits to their conquests, +although but the inhabitants of a _small island_, and but few in number, +compared to the ravagers of the earth, who attempted in vain to conquer +our great, glorious, and free forefathers," etc. + +In the above, Montezuma and his people looked upon themselves as the +descendants of freemen and heroes who had not been subdued, who were +the inhabitants of a small island in the north. The description very +strikingly answers to the character, manners, and principles of the +Welsh, and the place as the British Island. When Cortez came to their +country, Montezuma was the eleventh emperor of Mexico in the Aztec line. +Now, allowing an average reign to each emperor of twenty years, it will +be found that Prince Madoc's arrival in this country will about coincide +with the time of the establishment of this empire. This is also true +with regard to the Peruvian empire. Atahualpa, who was treacherously and +inhumanly put to death by the cruel and avaricious Pizarro, was the +twelfth emperor of Peru in succession from Manco Capac. By the same +method of calculation it will be seen that the dynasty of the Incas was +established about the time of Madoc's arrival. In consequence of this, +with many other proofs which cannot be introduced here, it has been +maintained that he also was the founder of the Peruvian empire and +civilization. John Williams, an author of no small repute, in his +"Natural History of the Mineral Kingdom," vol. ii. p. 410, maintains +that not only Mexico but Peru also was discovered by Madoc; that the few +fair and white persons found there by the Spaniards were the descendants +of Madoc's colony; and that Manco Capac and Mamma Ocello were Madoc and +his wife. They are supposed to be the progenitors of the Peruvian +Incas. As they were so different from the original natives in their +complexions, they were thought to be the children of the sun; a +sentiment which Manco might encourage for his own preservation. Mamma +Ocello he thinks a corruption of Mamma Ichel, or Uchel, the Welsh for +"high or stately mother." He gives it as his opinion that Madoc in his +first voyage landed in the Gulf of Mexico, and that when he went back to +his native country he promised those whom he left behind to return to +them; but that in his second voyage he was driven by a storm from the +north down as low as Brazil, and was shipwrecked near the mouth of the +Amazon River; that he and his wife and the survivors sailed up that +river; that after some time he arrived at Cuzco, the capital of the +Peruvian empire; and that he never came to his first colony. He then +assigns many reasons for his belief. It cannot be denied that some of +those reasons are ingenious. The fact of Madoc or some of his followers +having reached Peru is not denied; but they reached that country from +the _western_, not the _eastern_, side of the continent. They went down +the sea-coast west of Mexico to make explorations, or were carried +against their choice by a storm to Peru, where they settled. Such a +theory is in harmony with the foregoing pages, while it does not in any +way conflict with the founding of that empire by Madoc. + +Three South American nations ascribe their civilization and religion to +three white men who appeared among them. + +Abbé Molina, in his "History of Chili," vol. ii. book i. chap. i., says +that "there is a tribe of Indians in Baroa, Chili, whose complexions are +a clear white and red." + +Baron Humboldt, in his "Political Essays," remarks that "in the forests +of Guiana, especially near the sources of the river Oronoco, are several +tribes of a whitish complexion." + +Captain John Drummond, who resided in Mexico for many years in a +military capacity, as an engineer, geographer, and naturalist, favored +Dr. Williams, the author of the "Enquiry," with his opinion on the +subject. He said that he "was fully persuaded and convinced that Madoc +was one of the confederate chiefs who went upon an expedition westward +from Britain about the year 1170; and that he has heard of colonies of +Welsh people now existing, who, he thinks, are descendants of Madoc's +people; that the emigrants were a mixture of Welsh, North Britons, and +Irish, and that Madoc was naval commander." + +This was not at all unlikely, since upon Madoc's return from his first +voyage he made his discoveries as public as possible. The North Britons +and Irish were on friendly terms with the Welsh, and all were hostile to +the English. Jeuan Brecva, a Bard who flourished about the year 1480, +says that Rhiryd, an illegitimate son of Owen Gwynedd, and who, +according to Powell, was Lord of Clochran, in Ireland, "accompanied +Madoc across the Atlantic (Morwerydd) to some lands they had found +there, and there dwelt." There can be no doubt, therefore, that some +Irish went with Madoc to America. + +It is probable, too, that some Scots were in the expedition; for Captain +Drummond said that at one time he was accompanied by his servant, who +was a Highlander, on a journey through the country, when they came to a +Mexican hut where they heard a woman singing to her child. His servant +began to show signs of astonishment, and turned to the captain and told +him that the woman was using words from the Erse,--the language of the +Highlands in Scotland. + +The captain further observed, that Don Juan de Grijalva, a Spaniard, +said that "he found the Celts of Mexico, some having little or no arms, +but clothed in hides; and that the fierceness of their manners and their +undaunted courage resembled the old Britons, as described by Henry II. +to the Emperor Emmanuel Commenes. He also found others with +short-skirted vests of different colors, with targets and short black +spears, and that these new men in Mexico were adored by the natives for +their courage and dexterity, for that they never had seen ships till +they came among them from afar." + +Antonio Goluasco, a Portuguese author of great celebrity, mentions the +expedition of a Captain Machan, a British adventurer, in 1344, who had +been in Mexico, and had got store of wealth and silver from the native +sovereign of that day, but who was cast away on his return to Europe, +with all his treasure, near Madeira. + +Also, from the negotiations of Sir John Hawkins, an English admiral, in +the latter part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and from the speeches of +various Mexican chiefs to Sir John's officers who were sent from Vera +Cruz to Mexico to negotiate with the Spanish Viceroy, is deduced strong +proof that these chiefs looked upon themselves as descended from the +Welsh. + +The Tlascalans belonged to the same great family with the Aztecs. They +came on the grand Mexican plateau about the same time with the kindred +races, at the close of the _twelfth_ century. Their immense +fortifications and walls, which extended for many miles, show the same +methods of construction, in semicircular lines and overlapping one +another, as those in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi. + +Most of the historians say that the two great pyramids--teocalli--just +northeast of the city of Mexico were constructed by an ancient people +that came to Mexico from some country east situated on the Atlantic +Ocean. + +What, then, is the conclusion? That the Aztecs were the Alligewi, who +were found in Virginia and the Carolinas by Madoc's colony, and with +whom the latter became amalgamated and moved westward. Being more and +more pressed by the powerful Indian nations which subsequently gained +control of the middle and eastern countries, they were at length obliged +to abandon the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. Some portions of these +people had reached, as a sort of advance-guard, the Mexican plateau +before those who were left behind entirely surrendered the country. The +date of founding the Aztec empire--1325--necessitates this view, and +Clavigero, whose table of dates has been given in another part of this +chapter, places the first arrival of the Aztecs in Tula as early as +1196,--twenty-six years after the arrival of Madoc. + +When this mighty migration took place, a portion, from necessity, +convenience, or inclination, ascended the Missouri; and of these the +Mandans are the descendants; while the main body moved in a southwest +direction, leaving unmistakable traces of their progress from the +Mississippi to Mexico. Some of these will be noticed in a subsequent +chapter. + +The Aztec empire became a controlling power on this continent, and +exacted tribute for the Mexican kings from all the Indian tribes. But +the Welsh element was no more in point of numbers, though they were in +power, to the Aztecs than the Tartars were to the Chinese. The ships +which are represented on Mexican monuments as crossing an ocean are +Madoc's vessels, floating on the Atlantic from Wales to America. + +Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, the most profound investigator in Mexican +and Peruvian antiquities, says, "The native traditions generally +attribute their civilization to bearded white men, who came across the +ocean from the east." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE MOQUIS, MOHAVES, AND MODOCS. + + +Sebastian Cabot, in 1495, some two or three years after the first voyage +of Columbus, discovered Florida and Mexico, and found along the coast +the descendants of the Welsh discoverers who eventually settled in +Mexico. + +Sir George Mackenzie, in a letter to his grandfather, the fourth Earl of +Perth, writing on the subject of Celtic discoveries in Europe and +America, cites Baronius, Scaliger, Salmasius, Lipsius, and others as +authorities for believing in these early emigrations. As early as the +sixteenth century are found explicit accounts of strange peoples +inhabiting certain portions of America and possessing different +characteristics from the aborigines. Hakluyt, in his third volume, has +an extract from Antonio de Epejo, written in 1583: "The Spaniards along +the Rio del Norte, latitude 37° upwards, found the Indians far more +civilized, and having a better form of government, than any others in +Mexico. They had a great number of large and very populous towns, well +built of stone and lime, three or four stories high; their country is +very large and extensive. The chief town, called Cia, has not less than +eight markets. The inhabitants are very warlike, have great plenty of +cows and sheep, dress neat's leather very fine, and make of it shoes and +boots, which no other Americans do. They have also deer-skins and +chamois equal to those of Flanders (probably brought to Flanders from +Switzerland), and abound with excellent provision in the greatest +profusion. They have large fields of corn, and make curious things of +feathers of various colors. They manufacture cotton, of which they make +fine mantles, striped with blue and white. They have many salt lakes in +their country, that abound with excellent fish, and from the waters of +which they make excellent white salt. The country abounds with wild +beasts, wild fowl, and all sorts of game. They breed great numbers of +hens. The climate is very fine, the soil rich, producing great +quantities of delicious fruits. They have amongst them grapes the same +as those of Castile, and fine roses like those of Europe. They have also +abundance of excellent metals, gold and silver. The people are very +industrious and laborious, and the cultivation of the ground occupies +all their time. Their houses are flat-roofed. The country is very +mountainous, and has excellent timber; and the inhabitants seem to have +some knowledge of the Christian faith. They have many chapels, and erect +crosses, and they live in general in great security and peace. The +largest lake is in the western part of the country, and around it is a +great number of large, well-built, and populous towns. The people are +neatly dressed, in clothes made of exceeding well-dressed skins and +cotton cloth." + +Captain Carver, in his "Travels in North America," says that "northwest +of the Missouri and St. Pierre, the Indians farther told me that there +was a nation rather smaller and whiter than the neighboring tribes, who +cultivate the ground, and (as far as I could gather from their +expressions) in some measure the arts. They are supposed to be some of +the different tribes that were tributary to the Mexican kings, and who +fled from their native country to seek an asylum in these parts about +the time of the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, about two centuries +ago." + +Farther on (page 386), he says, "The Jesuits and French missionaries +also pretended that the Indians had, when they first travelled into +America, some notions--though these were dark and confused--of the +Christian institutions, for they were greatly agitated at the sight of +the cross, which made such impressions on them that showed that they +were not unacquainted with the sacred mysteries of Christianity." + +Very little has been known until late years of the Rio del Norte and its +source or sources, which flows in a southerly direction through New +Mexico and empties into the Gulf. But as the population has increased in +this country with astonishing rapidity, and settlements have been opened +in the Territories, and there was a necessity for a well-organized +Indian Bureau to provide for the scattered tribes living in the +Southwest, the condition and character of the country and of the people +in New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona are being brought to light. +Military and scientific expeditions have been sent into those countries, +which have returned with reports of having discovered new nations about +whom nothing has been hitherto known. + +In the campaign of General Crook against the Apaches, a large tract of +country, rich with the relics of the past, was opened. It contains a +chain of cities in ruins and ancient towns still inhabited by a race +which holds itself aloof from Mexicans, Indians, and Americans, and +prides itself on its descent from the ancient inhabitants of the +country, and maintains a religion and government peculiar to itself. The +largest settlement was found in Mexico, about thirty miles south of the +border line. A strong wall surrounds it. Within are houses for about +four thousand people. The population had dwindled at the time they were +discovered to about eighteen hundred. Montezuma is their deity, and his +coming is looked for at sunrise each day. Their priests wear +heavily-embroidered robes, while their religious ceremonies are very +formal and pompous. They have a high order of morality. The chief powers +of government are vested in thirteen caciques, six of whom are elected +for life. They are quite advanced in civilization. Their women are not +treated as beasts of burden, but are respected, and permitted to confine +themselves to housekeeping. From all that can be gleaned, it appears +that these people have maintained their traditions unbroken for at least +three centuries and a half. + +Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Baca published, in 1529, a description of his +wanderings in America. He was in New Mexico, and, in writing of the +Indian villages, said, "The New Mexico pueblos--villages--are generally +two stories high, with doors on the roof and the staircase ladders on +the outside." Within a circle of sixty miles from Santa Fé there are to +be found the ruins of over forty deserted towns; and in various other +portions of New Mexico and Arizona similar ruins are in existence, all +showing that there once resided here a powerful people essentially +differing from the common American Indians. They were not placed here by +the Spaniards, but had occupied these towns and cities long before their +coming. By some it is believed that Montezuma originated in New Mexico; +and some even designate his birthplace. Some locate it at the old pueblo +of Pecos; while others maintain that it was near Ojo Caliente, the ruins +of which are still to be seen. A document is now extant purporting to +be copied from one of the legends at the capital in Mexico, in which it +is stated that Montezuma was born in Teguayo, one of the ancient pueblos +of New Mexico. This was not his original name, but was applied to him +upon his elevation to the Aztec throne, as it was to his predecessors. +It is supposed by some that in this region was situated the Aztlan, +whence came the Aztecs to Mexico; by others that it was along the Gila +River, in Arizona. But throughout that entire country the ancient towns +which are now inhabited and the deserted ruins show a common origin. + +The view has been entertained by some who have given this subject +attention that it was at this point in the progress of the migrations +that Madoc and his followers finally became amalgamated with the Aztecs. + +Within the past few years, several visits have been made by the members +of Wheeler's Surveying Expedition--Samuel Woodworth Cozzens and a few +others--to the seven wonderful cities of the Moquis, situated near the +Colorado Chiquito, in Arizona. + +Dr. Oscar Leow, chemist to Wheeler's Surveying Expedition, has +contributed a brief but intensely interesting article to the "Popular +Science Monthly" for July, 1874, on "The Moquis Indians of Arizona." By +reference to the Indian reports, it appears that this nation has never +been brought in contact with the Indian Bureau, nor with the Arizona +agency, although within its jurisdiction. Small appropriations have +recently been made for them; and it is likely that much more will soon +be learned about them,--their habits, industries, language, and strange +history. + +Their seven cities stand upon very high, precipitous cliffs of +sandstone, which, when seen in the distance, present such bold fronts +that it appears out of the question for any one to think of climbing +them. As the traveller approaches, however, he discovers narrow and +circuitous paths, which must be passed over single file, up and up, till +the summit is reached. On this giddy height is the home of the Moquis. +Dr. Leow terms it the "Gibraltar of the West," which the Navajos and +Apaches have never been able to conquer. The Moquis number about two +thousand five hundred. The cities rest on four sandstone +_mesas_,--tables,--which are about eight miles apart. On the first table +are three of the cities, named Tehua, Tsitsumo-vi, and Obiki; on the +second are Mushangene-vi and Shebaula-vi; the third is Shongoba-vi; and +on the fourth is Orai-vi. + +The houses are built in rows of two, three, and four stories in height, +and constructed in terrace style, with the upper stories removed a few +feet back from the lower ones. The sides fronting the bluffs are quite +near, with only a narrow ledge along which to walk, and where the +children were seen by the doctor, playing, unconscious of danger, while +the mothers were within the houses performing their duties, though an +awful gulf hundreds of feet in depth yawned beneath. Here the +habitations are not built of adobe, like Indian and Mexican huts, but of +stones firmly held in place by a cement of clay and sand. The stories +are about seven feet high, divided into rooms, and each provided with a +fire-place. Windows are cut into the walls about a foot square. + +The architecture of these stone houses bears a marked conformity with +that of the ruder ages among the Welsh. + +The physical appearance of the Moquis is a nearer approach to that of +the Caucasian than to that of the Mongolian race. The complexion is a +light red-brown, and the countenance unusually intelligent. + +Mr. Cozzens says that "their faces were so bright and intelligent that I +fancied they only required to be clothed in American dress, and shorn of +their long locks of coarse black hair, to enable them to easily pass for +people of our own race who had become brown from exposure to the sun. + +"Their clothing is neat, and they have an abundance of it. They knit, +spin, and weave blankets, cloaks, etc. They also manufacture certain +kinds of pottery. They have a system of reservoirs or stone tanks, built +of masonry in a substantial manner, and which hold millions of gallons +of water. These are connected with smaller ones below by pipes, and +thus utilized for their stock, which comprise dogs, donkeys, sheep, +goats, and chickens. The sheep and goats are driven some eight or ten +miles from the mesas to some pasture-lands. The principal crop is corn, +which is planted deep in the ground to obtain a greater degree of +moisture. The corn is ground, and then mixed with water, so as to form a +paste. The woman who makes it dips her hand in the paste and rapidly +passes some of it over hot stones, where it is soon baked. The cakes +resemble the Welsh _bara llechan_, noted in their cookery. They have a +kind of food called _panoche_, and still another called _tomales_,--by +mixing flour and meat in a powdered state. They also raise beans, +cotton, and tobacco. + +"The women appear more intelligent than the men, and dress with far more +taste. The daughters of the chief are said to be exceedingly interesting +ladies. The hair is worn à la Pompadour, with two inverse rolls on the +side of the head, by the unmarried. When married, the rolls give place +to broad braids. The Moquis girls have one privilege which ladies do not +generally enjoy: they have the right to propose for their own husbands. +When they have made their proposals, the fathers make the arrangements. +The bride then prepares with her own hands the wedding-dinner. + +"Females are not permitted to dance; their places are taken by young men +who dress in imitation of the women. All the dancers wear masks made of +peeled willow twigs nicely woven together; males have theirs dyed brown, +and supposed females bright yellow. + +"The vice of drunkenness and crime of murder are not known among this +people. + +"They are kind, warm-hearted, and hospitable. They believe that their +great father, Montezuma, lives where the sun rises." + +Mr. Cozzens studied their manners and customs, and endeavored to learn +something of the history of this singular race. He says that it is +asserted by the people of the other pueblos "that they are descendants +of the Aztecs, though with Welsh blood in their veins." + +That they have occupied their present location for a long time may be +inferred from the fact that their feet have worn down the path in the +rock between the several villages to the depth of some inches. + +The Mohaves, who are on the Colorado River Reservation, Arizona, are a +small, isolated tribe, not more than perhaps a thousand all told. They +are different from all other Indians. The women are tall, cleanly, and +less servile than most Indian women. Their language is peculiar, and has +Welsh words in it. The more recent reports of the United States +Government agents contain complaints against the vile traders who are +leading this once sober and respectable tribe into all sorts of vice, +drunkenness, immorality, loathsome diseases, and crimes. White men, with +their boasted civilization and virtues, drag the Indians to the brink of +ruin, and then crowd them over as vile and disgusting creatures. + +The perfidious and barbarous massacre of General Canby, Rev. Eleazer +Thomas, and others, by that savage band called the Modocs, brought them +into an unenviable notoriety; but, while passing, it is worthy of query +how they came by a name so much like that of Madoc. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +SIGNS OF FREEMASONRY AMONG INDIANS. + + +The first printed evidence of the introduction of Freemasonry in America +is found in the "Pennsylvania Gazette" of December 8th, 1730, published +by Benjamin Franklin. It is as follows: "As there are several lodges of +Freemasons erected in this province, and people have been lately much +amused with conjectures concerning them, we think the following account +of Freemasonry from London will not be unacceptable to our readers." +This is followed by a letter on the mystery. But, if the testimony of +intelligent travellers can be accepted, it seems quite evident that +lodges of Freemasons were in existence among the American Indians +centuries prior to this time, all of which point to a Welsh origin. They +certainly had private societies, which met at certain times, and the +proceedings of which were kept inviolably secret under an oath. + +Governor De Witt Clinton believed that the signs of Freemasonry were +found among the Indians. He was an eminent member of the craft himself, +and was as familiar with its history, government, rules, and signs as +any person of his time. In an interview that he had with an Indian +preacher, the latter unmistakably made revelations which convinced the +former that he was familiar with the order. This Indian said that he had +obtained this knowledge from a Menomonie chief. + +There was one order among the Iroquois consisting of five Oneidas, two +Cayugas, two St. Regis, and six Senecas. The period of their meeting +could never be ascertained. These private societies were not confined to +the Iroquois, but seem to have extended among all the tribes. Their +rules of government and the admission of members were the same as among +the whites. No one could be received as a member of the fraternity +except by ballot, and the concurrence of the whole body was necessary to +a choice. They had different degrees in the order. Their ceremonies of +initiation were remarkable, and the mode of passing from one degree to +another would awaken astonishment among civilized Masons. + +Whence did they originate? There was a long period in Europe when the +knowledge of Freemasonry was mostly confined to the Druids, and in Wales +this order was the most generally found. It was their home. There they +had their colleges and schools of learning. They were, indeed, priests, +legislators, and historians. Through their order the principles of the +mystic craft were preserved throughout Europe. It was associated with +the later system of Bardism; and when under James the First there was +such a revival of the order, and it began to spread with such rapidity, +embracing all classes, from the king on his throne down to his humblest +subject, it was known that its deepest roots were struck in the soil of +Wales. Madoc, the son of a king, and surrounded by a heroic band of +eminent men, could not be ignorant of the principles of Freemasonry, and +when they landed in America they brought those principles with them, to +be afterwards imparted to such of those with whom they mingled as to +offer material means of safety. There are not wanting instances where +the lives of many whites have been spared by the Indians because they +understood certain secret signs communicated to them. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE WELSH LANGUAGE AMONG AMERICAN INDIANS. + + +An eminent modern linguist has said "that the genealogy and antiquities +of nations can be learned only from the sure testimony of their +languages." Admitting the correctness of such a statement, though it +does not possess axiomatic accuracy, it may furthermore be added, that +the discovery of portions of a language among other distant nations, +separated by a vast ocean, and differing in race, language, habits, and +conditions of life, surely indicates that some who spoke that language +must have brought it there. It may be urged that distant resemblances +have led enthusiastic philologists in support of their cause to imagine +a similarity in the form and sound of certain words, when, in fact, +those words are entirely different in meaning. Instances of this kind +have occurred in the study of the European languages. But when it is +found that an identity exists in (1) the form, (2) the sound, and (3) +the signification, and that, too, in multiplied instances, there is +reason to believe that this identity does not rest on accident or +coincidence. The student of language searches for some more +satisfactory solution of the question, by ascertaining, if possible, how +those portions were introduced. + +Now, this is just the case with the Celtic language found among the +Indian dialects. From New England to South America, Celtic words have +been found whose structure, pronunciation, and signification were the +same as those in use by the Gaels, Erse or Irish, and Welsh. Names of +tribes, persons, places, rivers, and of many living and inanimate +objects on the American continent, have been applied, and are now used, +which can find their right place only by assigning to them a Celtic +origin. This very soon came to be observed by all Europeans who arrived +in the country, and some set themselves diligently to work to find out +the cause. Some said that was not to be wondered at,--the finding of +Celtic words among Americans,--for undoubtedly the Celts have been very +widely spread over the globe. This, however, was too general an +affirmation to satisfy others. The celebrated Bishop Nicholson believed +that the Welsh language formed a considerable part of the languages of +the American nations. Sir Thomas Herbert, who published his travels in +London in 1683, has given a list of words taken from the Indian +dialects, which have an undoubted Welsh origin: _groeso_, "welcome," +_gwenddwr_, "white or limpid water," _bara_, "bread," _tad_, "father," +_mam_, "mother," _buch_ or _buwch_, "cow," _llwnog_, "fox," _coch y +dwr_, "a red water-bird," _clugjar_ (American, _clugar_), "partridge." +Some doubt the derivation of "penguin" from _pengwyn_, because it is +thought that "white head"--its literal meaning--would be a misnomer when +applied to the American penguin. By no means. As it stands on its short +legs it presents a white front from its head and exposed breast, and +might very well have received this appellation. There is some similarity +in the name of a once powerful chief who lived in New England to that of +Madoc, viz., Madokawando,--Madoc and _gwrando_, "to listen" or "to be +obedient to," "to submit to or follow." The guttural g in the Welsh +language is often dropped, especially before a vowel. Take the Welsh +verb _gallu_, "to be able," or the noun _gall_, "energy, might," and by +the omission of the letter _g_ the words will stand _allu_, _all_. _U_ +is sounded like _e_ in English, hence allu would be pronounced alle. +Alligeni (Alleghany) is a compound word, composed of _allu_, "mighty," +and _geni_, "born," or "mighty born." This is the name of the people who +once dwelt along the immense range called by that name, and were +displaced by the powerful nations, particularly the Iroquois, who came +from the northwest. Potomac has a more evident Greek origin, for its +word for "river" is _potamos_. Pontigo seems to come from _pont_, "a +bridge," and _go_, "a smith,"--"a smith's bridge." Nanticoke is found in +_nant-y-cwch_, "a curved brook or river,"--a very appropriate +designation for that tribe, whether applied prior to their leaving the +river in Maryland or after ascending the Susquehanna. + +Appomattox--now well known to the world--signifies _appwy_, "appoint" or +"name," and _Mattox_, "Madoc" or "Mattoc," the latter having the soft +Silurian sound; hence, "Madoc's name." + +Madoc's Creek is known by most Virginians, and by others. + +It is well known that in the origin of Indian names it was customary for +the tribes to assume those of the country they inhabited which had some +distinct peculiarities. By this means, as they removed from one place to +another, these names became multiplied. For example, the U-in-tats, +known as a branch of the Utes, belonged to the Uintah Valley. U-imp is +the name for pine; U-imtoo-meap, pine-land, which, contracted, means +U-intahs. The origin of Ute is as follows: U is a term signifying arrow; +U-too-meap, arrow-land, because the country bordering Utah Lake +furnished the reeds for arrow-shafts. + +Aztlan seems clearly to have been derived from Welsh words having become +mingled with Indian dialects, as _as_, "plane surface" or "area," and +_lan_, "up," an elevated area or table-land. What better definition +could be found to describe the Aztec plateau, beginning in Aztlan proper +and continuing to widen into the Mexican plateau? The termination _lan_ +is very common in the Aztec language. It is found in the names of +tribes, their cities, and a multitude of other objects,--Tlascalans, +Cholulans, and other peoples who dwelt in and around the upper countries +of the Aztec empire. The terminations _an_ and _pan_, the latter +indicating locality, as prefix or suffix, are very noticeable. So +frequent also is the use of _ch_, _th_, and _ll_, that the Welsh student +who speaks or reads aloud Aztec words is simply astounded by their +perfect consonance with those of his native tongue. + +Rev. Morgan Jones affirms that in 1660 he conversed with Indians who +spoke and understood the Welsh language, that he remained among them and +preached in that language four months, and that it was his intention +when he left to return and visit them. Rev. Charles Beatty, General +Bowles, Messrs. Price, Binon, Willin, Burnell, Griffith, Stuart, Sevier, +Lewis, and many others unhesitatingly relate that they personally, or +those whom they knew to be veracious, intelligent witnesses, had visited +Indians who spoke the Welsh language sufficiently to be understood by +them, without taking into account their other peculiarities of color, +beard, customs, traditions, arts, etc. + +George Catlin, who spent years of patient investigation into the +language of the Mandans and of other Indians, has given a table of +Mandan and Welsh words, with their pronunciations. Those who have any +acquaintance with the Moquis and Mohave tongues declare that they +contain Welsh words. Relics with Celtic inscriptions have been +unearthed. Aztec and Spanish chroniclers confirm more recent researches +respecting the presence of Celtic words in the old Aztec language. The +speech of Montezuma discloses their eastern origin, and that their +astounding civilization was due to white men. + +What then? + +Why, that such a mass of testimony under such a variety of +circumstances, precluding the idea of preconcert, interest, prejudice, +or downright ignorance, establishes the fact that the Welsh were on this +continent prior to its discovery by Columbus, and that those Welsh were +led thither by Prince Madoc in 1170 A.D. Many historical facts to which +the world has given implicit credence are far less supported than the +above. Hereafter let not American historians pass over these facts in +contemptuous silence. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE WELSH OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. + + +The Welsh have claims for recognition and patriotic gratitude by the +American people, because of the prominent part taken by some of their +descendants in founding the American Republic. The Welsh mind and heart +have contributed no small share, in common with the good, the noble, and +the enlightened of other lands, to mould its institutions and to make +possible a country where the highest conditions of a Christian +civilization may be enjoyed. + +That little vessel of one hundred and eighty tons' burden, the +Mayflower, embryo of a free republic, was commanded by a Welshman, +Captain Jones. Among those who came as passengers were several of Welsh +origin,--Thomas Rogers, Stephen Hopkins, John Alden, and John Howland. +The last one named was attached to Governor Carver's household. So the +Welsh have a share in the celebration of the landing of the Pilgrim +Fathers. What must have been the thoughts of that band of forty-one men +(one hundred and one souls in all) as they stood on Plymouth Rock and +looked into the vast forests before them, so soon by their sturdy energy +and that of their descendants to be transformed into fruitful farms and +splendid cities and towns! + +Roger Williams was born in Wales in 1599. He was a relative of the +Protector, Oliver Cromwell. Banished from Massachusetts in 1635, he +penetrated the forests in mid-winter till he came to the country of the +Narragansets,--where the chief sachem, Canonicus, gave him a grant of +land, which, in token of "God's merciful providence to him in his +distress," he called Providence. Here he established a pure democracy, +all equally sharing the dignity and privileges of the government. He was +so kind in his treatment of the surrounding Indians that he was much +beloved by them, and it was by his great power over them that he saved +his white persecutors from destruction. Yet his enemies did not revoke +his sentence of banishment. The city government of Providence is +honoring his memory by the erection of a bronze statue. + +Of that immortal band of men who composed the Continental Congress, and +were signers of the Declaration of Independence, eighteen were Welshmen: + + + John Adams Massachusetts. + Samuel Adams " + Stephen Hopkins Rhode Island. + William Williams Connecticut. + William Floyd New York. + Francis Lewis " " + Lewis Morris " " + Francis Hopkinson New Jersey. + Robert Morris Pennsylvania. + George Clymer " + John Morton " + John Penn North Carolina. + Arthur Middleton South Carolina. + Button Gwinnett Georgia. + Thomas Jefferson Virginia. + Benjamin Harrison " + Richard Henry Lee " + Francis Henry Lightfoot Lee " + + +Notwithstanding abler pens have sketched them all, it may not be +uninteresting to touch upon a few facts in the biography of the above +list. Commencing with New England, where so many of Welsh blood came +after the Restoration, having been the followers of Cromwell, it will be +in order to notice John and Samuel Adams. + +John Adams was born at Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1735. His services were +distinguished in the American Revolution; he was a member of the +committee which made the draft of the Declaration, and a signer of the +document. He was President and Vice-President of the United States. He +died at the age of ninety-one, in 1826, just half a century after the +Declaration. + +Samuel Adams was born in Boston, in 1722. He was a fearless patriot and +a stirring orator. He was educated for the ministry at Harvard College, +but became so engrossed in politics that he relinquished that +profession. He was in the Continental Congress, was Governor of +Massachusetts, and left the impress of his power on the Constitution of +his State, which he helped to frame. He died at the age of eighty-one, +in 1803. + +Stephen Hopkins was born in Providence, and was a self-taught man. He +wrote and acted against the oppression of the colonies by the +home-government long prior to the Revolution. He filled important +offices in his State, became a member of the Continental Congress, and +signed the Declaration. He died in July, 1785. + +From Connecticut came William Williams. He graduated at Harvard College, +at the age of twenty, in 1751. He became a lawyer, but afterwards chose +the profession of arms, and was aide to his brother who fell at Fort +George in 1755. He died at the age of eighty-one, in 1811. + +New York furnished three Welshmen out of her four delegates,--the +fourth, Mr. Livingston, being of Scotch origin, though the family came +from Holland. William Floyd was born in the year 1734, on Long Island. +He was possessed of large means. He was in the first Continental +Congress in 1774, and signed the Declaration in 1776. His losses of +property by the English were large. He died at the age of eighty-seven, +in 1821. + +Francis Lewis was born in South Wales, in 1713. His education was partly +acquired in Scotland and in Westminster, London. He was in business in +that city, came to New York, and conducted business for English +merchants. He was taken prisoner in the French War and carried to +France; after his return to New York he was sent to Congress, and signed +the Declaration in 1776. His property on Long Island was destroyed by +the English. He died at the age of ninety, in 1803. + +Lewis Morris, the fourth and last from New York, was born of a Welsh +family, in 1726. He was a graduate of Yale, and afterwards settled on +his father's farm, now known as Morrisania, Westchester County. Lewis's +father was the son of an officer in Cromwell's army, and first royal +governor of New Jersey, in 1738. Lewis was sent to the Continental +Congress in 1775, and served till 1777. His losses by the Revolution +were immense. He died at the age of seventy-two, in 1798. + +Francis Hopkinson, a delegate from New Jersey, was from a Welsh family. +He was born in Philadelphia, in 1737. He was noted as a lawyer, wit, and +poet. He wrote several political pamphlets, and was the author of many +poetical _jeux-d'esprit_, one of the best-known of which is "The Battle +of the Kegs," which begins,-- + + + "Gallants, attend, and hear a friend + Trill forth harmonious ditty; + Strange things I'll tell, which late befell + In Philadelphia City." + + +Mr. Hopkinson signed the Declaration, afterwards was eminent as a judge, +and died at the age of fifty-three, in 1791. His son, Joseph Hopkinson, +was the author of the national song "Hail Columbia," the origin of which +was as follows. It was in 1798. The country was excited in anticipation +of war with France. Mr. Fox, a theatrical singer and actor, called upon +Mr. Hopkinson and remarked, "To-morrow evening is appointed for my +benefit at the theatre. Not a single box has been taken, and I fear +there will be a thin house. If you will write some patriotic verse to +the tune of the 'President's March,' I feel sure of a full house." Mr. +Hopkinson went to his study, wrote the first verse and chorus, then +submitted them to Mr. Fox, who sang them to a harpsichord accompaniment. +The song was completed, the next morning the placards announcing that +Mr. Fox would sing a new patriotic song. The theatre was crowded, the +song was sung, and the audience thrilled with patriotic delight. + +The name of George Clymer indicates his Welsh origin. Thomas Jefferson +boarded in the house of Mrs. Clymer, on the southwest corner of Seventh +and High Streets, Philadelphia, where he drew the original draft of the +Declaration. + +John Morton, although a resident of Pennsylvania, was born in Delaware, +and was descended from a Welsh family on his mother's side. His father +was of Swedish descent. He was on the committee which reported the +Articles of Confederation. + +John Penn, of a Welsh family, was born in Virginia. He studied law with +Mr. Pendleton, and subsequently settled in North Carolina. From there he +was sent as delegate, and signed the Declaration. + +Arthur Middleton, from South Carolina, was a Welshman. He was a graduate +of Cambridge University, England, and arrived in America in 1773. He was +taken prisoner when Charleston surrendered to the British. He lost most +of his fortune by the Revolution. He died in January, 1789, aged +forty-four. + +Button Gwinnett was a native of Wales. He was born in 1732, was well +educated, entered mercantile life, went to Georgia and purchased a large +tract of land. He signed the Declaration, aided in framing the State +Constitution, was Governor, and fell in a duel which he fought with +General McIntosh, aged forty-six. + +Thomas Jefferson's ancestors came from the foot of Mount Snowdon, Wales, +to the colony of Virginia. He boasted of his Welsh blood. He stands in +the front as a defender of civil and religious liberty, and had engraved +upon his seal, "_Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God_." + +As the author of the Declaration, of the abolition of the connection +between Church and State, the laws of primogeniture, the restrictions +upon the Federal Constitution respecting the States, so as forever to +prevent a centralized and an aristocratic government, he must be +recognized as one of the most valuable men this country has ever had. By +a strange coincidence--shall it be called that?--at the age of +eighty-four, he breathed his last on the same day that John Adams did, +July 4, 1826. They were life-long personal friends, with a brief +interruption, but political opponents. On a plain marble slab at +Monticello is the following inscription: + + + HERE LIES THOMAS JEFFERSON: + _Author of the Declaration of Independence; + of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom; + and Father of the University of Virginia._ + + +Benjamin Harrison, chairman of the Committee that reported the +Declaration, was descended from the Welsh. He was related to General +Thomas Harrison, one of the regicides, the Commonwealth men of Cromwell, +and who was executed at Newgate. When he was approaching the scaffold, +one of the king's scoffers stood by and tauntingly asked, "Where is your +good old cause now?" The brave Harrison, with a cheerful smile, replied, +clapping his hand on his breast, "_Here it is, and I am going to seal +it with my blood_." Some of that grand stuff was afterwards found in his +descendants. Benjamin Harrison filled various positions, and was +Governor of the State from 1782 to 1784. He died on his farm in 1790. +His son, William Henry Harrison, served in the War of 1812, and was +elected President of the United States in 1840, but died on the 4th of +April, 1841, precisely one month after his inauguration. + +Richard Henry Lee was from a Welsh family, as, in fact, were all the +Lees of that period. He was born in 1732, educated in England, and after +his return to America in 1757 was elected a member of the House of +Burgesses. + +He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1774, and in July, 1776, +he had the honor to offer the resolution declaring the colonies free and +independent. The day before the appointment of the committee to draft +the Declaration, Mr. Lee was called away to the bedside of a sick wife, +or he would doubtless have been appointed chairman. In 1773 he, Thomas +Jefferson, and Patrick Henry had a serious consultation in the old +Raleigh Tavern, at Williamsburg, Virginia, in respect to submitting a +resolution to the Virginia House, recommending the appointment of a +Committee of Vigilance and Correspondence, and expressing the hope that +the other colonies would do the same. It was passed; and from that time +the Revolution began to assume organic form, and prepared the way for +1776. Mr. Lee was United States Senator under the Constitution, which +office he held with signal ability. He died June 14, 1794, in his +sixty-second year. + +Francis Henry Lightfoot Lee was of Welsh origin, and a signer. He was +born in Virginia on the 10th of September, 1734. He was educated at +home, and from 1765 to 1775 served his State as a member of the House of +Burgesses. He died in April, 1797, in his sixty-third year. + +Many of the facts given above concerning these signers are not found in +their usual biographies, and therefore they are inserted here. + +Robert Morris, who came to this country when a child, served an +apprenticeship with a merchant, became a successful business man by his +energy and integrity, and during the Revolution his fortune and +unlimited commercial credit were superior to Congress itself. In the +darkest days, when the army was unfed and unclothed, Washington could +turn to his dear friend Robert Morris for help. He gave his immense +means to his country, and died, in comparative poverty, in 1806, aged +seventy-three years. + +Gouverneur Morris, who wrote the first connected draft of the American +Constitution, was a Welshman. + +Among those who fought in the Revolution may be found a long list of +Welsh by nativity or descent: + + + GENERALS. + + Charles Lee, + Isaac Shelby, + Anthony Wayne, + Morgan Lewis, + William R. Davie, + Edward Stevens, + Richard Winn, + Daniel Morgan, + John Cadwallader, + Andrew Lewis, + Otho H. Williams, + John Thomas, + Joseph Williams, + James Reese. + + COLONELS. + + David Humphreys, + Lambert Cadwallader, + Richard Howell, + Ethan Allen, + Henry Lee, + Thomas Marshall, + James Williams (_killed at Bennington_). + + CAPTAINS. + + John Marshall (_afterwards Chief Justice_), + Isaac Davis, + Anthony Morris, + Captain Rogers. + + +Besides these, there was a host of subordinate officers who could claim +descent from the Welsh. + +In the navy were Commodore Hopkins and others; and at a later period +Commodores Rogers, Perry, Jacob Jones, and Ap Catesby Jones. + +Dr. John Morgan was Surgeon-in-Chief of the American army, and one of +the founders of the Philadelphia Medical School, the first of the kind +established in America, and the beginning of the great University. He +came from a Welsh family. + +Among the divines were Revs. David Jones, Samuel Davie, David Williams, +Morgan Edwards, and others. Perhaps the most distinguished of these was +Mr. Jones. His ancestors came from Wales, and settled on the "Welsh +Tract" in Delaware county, Pa. He was on a mission among the Shawanese +and Delaware Indians in 1772-73. In 1776 he was appointed chaplain to +Colonel St. Clair's regiment, and was on duty at Ticonderoga when the +enemy was momentarily expected from Crown Point. He delivered a +characteristic discourse, which produced a powerful impression upon the +troops. When with General Wayne, he saw an English dragoon alight and +enter a house for refreshments. The chaplain went to the dragoon's +horse, took the pistols from the holsters, went into the house, made him +a prisoner, and marched him into camp: Wayne complimented him for his +bravery. He was also with General Gates; also at the battles of +Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth; with the army at Valley Forge, and +in all subsequent campaigns to the surrender of Yorktown by Cornwallis. +At the age of seventy-six he served as chaplain in the War of 1812. He +died in February, 1820, aged eighty-four. + +Rev. Samuel Davies became President of Princeton College. When +Washington was colonel, and after Braddock's defeat, Mr. Davies, who was +addressing the volunteer company, used this language in allusion to +Washington: "I cannot but hope that Providence has hitherto preserved +him in so signal a manner for some important service to his country." + +General Washington's family associations were with the descendants of +the Welsh. His wife, Martha, whom he called, familiarly "Patsy," was the +grand-daughter of Rev. Orlando Jones, who came to Virginia from Wales. +Colonel Fielding Lewis, of Welsh descent, married Washington's sister; +and his son, George Washington Lewis, was commander of the general's +life-guard. + +Elihu Yale, the founder of Yale College, Jonathan Edwards, Daniel +Webster, Charles Davies the mathematician, and a long array of brilliant +men and women who have adorned every station in American society, were +of Welsh origin or descent. Mr. Webster, however, was descended only +from his mother's side. + +Seven Presidents of the United States have descended from the Welsh +race,--John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John +Quincy Adams, and William Henry Harrison. + +Chief-Justice John Marshall, the first to expound the Constitution, was +the grandson of a native of Wales; and, as if the office should continue +in such a lineage, Chief-Justice Roger B. Taney was sprung from a family +descended from the northern part of Wales. + +William Penn, founder of the great State of Pennsylvania, Thomas Floyd, +the first Governor of the colony, and Anthony Morris, the first mayor of +the refined city of Philadelphia, were Welsh. + +Oliver Evans, so famous for his inventions in high-pressure engines, by +means of which all turbid streams could be successfully navigated, was +born of a Welsh family near that city. It was found that the sediment of +the water choked up or wore off the sliding-valves of the low-pressure +engines. He was the third person who received a patent from the United +States--Samuel Hopkins being the first--for his inventions, and +concerning which President Jefferson remarked that they were "too +valuable to be covered by a patent, for they were such things that the +people could not do without, once they were known." + +Mrs. De Witt Clinton was the daughter of Dr. Thomas Jones, the son of a +Welsh physician whose father settled at Jamaica, Long Island, and who +was widely known as Dr. John Jones. He was attached to the Revolutionary +army as a surgeon, and a personal friend of Washington and Franklin. He +was one of the founders of the New York Hospital, and a professor in the +medical faculty in Columbia College at its institution. He was the first +successful lithotomist in the country. Mrs. Clinton was his +grand-daughter, having Dr. Thomas Jones for her father, and a daughter +of Philip Livingston, signer of the Declaration, for her mother. Maturin +Livingston, a son of Philip, married a daughter of General Morgan +Lewis. Of Mrs. Clinton it has been said that "she was in every sense a +remarkable woman,--not less for her strength of mind than for her noble +good breeding, purity, and polish of manners. She was liberal and frank, +and fully appreciated the great mind of her noble husband; and the +harder the storms of personal and political strife blew upon him, the +closer her affections twined around him, while she nobly and devoutly +cherished his memory to the last." + +Their services, in connection with those of almost every other land, +have helped to lay the foundations, deep and broad, of the great +American republic, whose majestic proportions are rising higher and +still higher, commanding the wonder and admiration of all; but, while +the later builders are at work, they will not forget to offer some +souvenir in behalf of those who worked so wisely and so well. + +The memory of ALL "smells sweet, and blossoms in the dust." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +ADDRESS OF REV. DAVID JONES TO GENERAL ST. CLAIR'S BRIGADE, AT +TICONDEROGA, WHEN THE ENEMY WERE HOURLY EXPECTED, OCTOBER 20, 1776. + + +"My countrymen, fellow-soldiers, and friends: + +"I am sorry that during this campaign I have been favored with so few +opportunities of addressing you on subjects of the greatest importance, +both with respect to this life and that which is to come; but what is +past cannot be recalled, and NOW time will not admit an enlargement, as +we have the greatest reason to expect the advancement of our enemies as +speedily as Heaven will permit. [The wind blew strongly to the north.] +Therefore, at present let it suffice to bring to your remembrance some +necessary truths. + +"It is our common faith, and a very just one too, that all events on +earth are under the notice of that God in whom we live, move, and have +our being: therefore we must believe that in this important struggle +with the worst of enemies he has assigned us our post here at +Ticonderoga. Our situation is such that, if properly defended, we shall +give our enemies a fatal blow, and in a great measure prove the means of +the salvation of North America. Such is our present case, that we are +fighting for all that is near and dear to us, while our enemies are +engaged in the worst of causes, their design being to subjugate, +plunder, and enslave a free people that have done them no harm. Their +tyrannical views are so glaring, their cause so horribly bad, that there +still remains too much goodness and humanity in Great Britain to engage +unanimously against us: therefore they have been obliged--and at a most +amazing expense, too--to hire the assistance of a barbarous, mercenary +people, that would cut your throat for the small reward of a sixpence. +No doubt these have hopes of being our task-masters, and would rejoice +at our calamities. + +"Look, oh, look, therefore, at your respective States, and anticipate +the consequences if these vassals are suffered to enter! It would fail +the most fruitful imagination to represent in a proper light what +anguish, what horror, what distress, would spread over the whole! See, +oh, see the dear wives of your bosoms forced from their peaceful +habitations, and perhaps used with such indecency that modesty would +forbid the description! Behold, the fair virgins of your land, whose +benevolent souls are now filled with a thousand good wishes and hopes of +seeing their admirers return home crowned with victory, would not only +meet with a doleful disappointment, but also with such insults and +abuses that would induce their tender hearts to pray for the shades of +death! See your children exposed as vagabonds to all the calamities of +this life! Then, oh, then adieu to all felicity this side of the grave! +Now, all these calamities must be prevented if our God be for us,--and +who can doubt of this who observes the point in which the wind now +blows?--if you will only acquit yourselves like men, and with firmness +of mind go forth against your enemies, _resolving either to return with +victory or to die gloriously_. + +"Every one who may fall in this dispute will be justly esteemed a martyr +to liberty, and his name will be had in precious memory while the love +of freedom remains in the breasts of men. All whom God will favor to see +a glorious victory will return to their respective States with every +mark of honor, and be received with joy and gladness of heart by all +friends to liberty and lovers of mankind. As our present case is +singular, I hope, therefore, that the candid will excuse me if I +conclude with an uncommon address, in substance principally extracted +from the writings of the Bible, though at the same time it is freely +acknowledged that I am not possessed of any similar power either of +blessing or cursing. + +"1. Blessed be that man who is possessed of a true love of liberty; and +let all the people say, _Amen_. + +"2. Blessed be that man who is a friend to the United States of +America; and let all the people say, _Amen_. + +"3. Blessed be that man who will use his utmost endeavors to oppose the +tyranny of Great Britain, and to vanquish all her forces invading North +America; and let all the people say, _Amen_. + +"4. Blessed be that man who is resolved never to submit to Great +Britain; and let all the people say, _Amen_. + +"5. Blessed be that man who in the present dispute esteems not his life +too good to fall a sacrifice in defence of his country: let his +posterity, if any he has, be blessed with riches, honor, virtue, and +true religion; and let all the people say, _Amen_. + +"Now, on the other hand, as far as is consistent with the Holy +Scriptures, let all these blessings be turned into curses to him who +deserts the noble cause in which we are engaged, and turns his back to +the enemy before he receives proper orders to retreat; and let all the +people say, _Amen_. + +"Let him be abhorred by all the United States of America. + +"Let faintness of heart and fear never forsake him on earth. + +"Let him be a _major miserabile_, a terror to himself and all around +him. + +"Let him be accursed in his outgoings, and cursed in his incomings; +cursed in his lying down, and cursed in his uprising; cursed in basket, +and cursed in store. + +"Let him be cursed in all his connections, till his wretched head, with +dishonor, is laid low in the dust; and let all the soldiers say, _Amen_. + +"And may the God of all grace, in whom we live, enable us, in defence of +our country, to acquit ourselves like men, to his honor and praise. +_Amen_ and _Amen_." + +There were no traitors or cowards _that_ day; and the deeds of the +patriots have been emblazoned in prose and song, in monuments of brass +and stone, in a great and glorious government, and in the praise and +gratitude of a free people who meet to do them honor. + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of America Discovered by the Welsh in +1170 A.D., by Benjamin Franklin Bowen + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40225 *** |