Hic, ubi nunc Roma est orbis caput, arbor et herbæ, Et paucæ pecudes,
et casa rara fuit.

Ov. Fast. L. 5. v. 93.




PREFACE

The following Observations are with Diffidence given to the Public;
because the Subject is rather obscure and uncertain. However, it is
presumed that there are stronger Reasons for admitting the Truth
of Prince Madog's landing on the American Shores, than for the
contrary. There are many Relations in History, which have obtained
Credit, that appear to me, not so well supported as this Tradition.

We find allusions to it in the Writings of Ancient British Bards,
who were dead before Columbus sailed on his first Western Voyage.
We are told, also, by credible Authors, that some plain traces of
Christianity, such as it was in the Days of Madog, were found in
America, when the Spaniards landed there. No Nation, in Europe,
hath ever pretended to have visited America before Behaim, Columbus,
or Americus Vespucius, but the Welsh: it is therefore almost, if
not quite certain, that if its religious Notions and Customs were
derived from Europe, it must have been from the Ancient Britons. The
Words in common use on different parts of the Continent, which are
very near, or undeniably Welsh, in both sound and sense, could not