Possessions, which after all, for the most part, were only a small
beggarly, wild, and uncultivated District; ragged Rocks and Precipices;
barren Mountains; or boggy, unfruitful, and unfriendly Soil.

If an Objection be made to the Truth of Madog's Voyages, grounded
upon the silence of History for so many Years, it may with no great
difficulty be answered.[v]

[Footnote v: The History of the Gwedir Family by Sir John Wynne,
published by the Honorable Daines Barrington, 1773, and afterwards
in his Miscellanies, in 1781, takes no notice of Madog's Voyages;
but mentions him as a Son of Owen Gwynedd. This Author was born in
1553, and died in 1626. He seems, chiefly, at least, to enumerate
those Branches of Owen Gwynedd's Descendants, who were his own
Ancestors. The present Sir Thomas Wynne, Bart. and Lord Newborough
of the Kingdom of Ireland is, I think, a Descendant of our Author.]

The only History of that Period of British affairs were the Registers
kept at Conway, and Strata Florida, above mentioned; or which Guttun
Owen took the most exact and perfect Copy; and the Odes of the
Bards, for several Years afterwards.[w] These are the only records
we have of there Times.

[Footnote w: It may naturally be supposed that many Historical
Documents perished, when the Bards were destroyed by King Edward
the Ist.]

Objections shall be more particularly considered when I come to
consider what Lord Lyttlelton and Dr. Robertson have advanced on
this Subject.