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QUERIES ANSWERED, NO. 2

MADOC THE SON OF OWEN GWYNED.

The student who confines himself to a single question, may fairly expect
a prompt and precise answer. To ask for general information on a
particular subject, may be a less successful experiment. Who undertakes
extensive research except for an especial purpose? Who can so far
confide in his memory as to append his name to a list of authorities
without seeming to prove his own superficiality? I throw out these ideas
for consideration, just as they arise; but neither wish to repress the
curiosity of _querists_, nor to prescribe bounds to the communicative
disposition of _respondents_.

Did Madoc, son of Owen Gwynedd, prince of Wales, discover America?
Stimulated by the importance of the question, and accustomed to admire
the spirit of maritime enterprise, at whatever period it may have been
called into action, I have sometimes reflected on this debatable
point--but can neither affirm nor deny it.

I advise the _student_, as a preliminary step to the inquiry, to attempt
a collection of all the accessible evidence, historical and
ethnographic, and to place the materials which pertain to each class in
the order of time. The historical evidence exists, I believe
exclusively, in the works of the chroniclers and bards of Wales; and the
ethnographic evidence in the narratives of travellers in America. The
opinions of modern writers, the gifted author of _Madoc_ not excepted,