The Antients were incapable of pursuing foreign discoveries by
Land or Sea. Their notion of the Figure of the Earth was not just,
for most of them thought that it was a flat extensive plain. Their
Knowlege of Astronomy was very much confined; and their Ignorance of
the Properties of the Loadstone would prevent their undertaking any
Voyage of Consequence. Supposing the Country which Madog discovered
was not America, yet to say the Story is a late Invention, and
forged after the discovery of that Continent by Columbus, with a
View to set up a prior Claim to it, is plainly false; for, besides
the testimony of Peter Martyr, respecting Names and Customs, we know
that the Fact had been celebrated by Welsh Bards before Columbus
first sailed to the West.[x]

[Footnote x: The Welsh Bards were also Historians. They were retained
in great Families to record the actions of their Ancestors, and their
own, in Odes and Songs. Their poems, therefore, may be considered,
as History, sometimes, probably, in some degree, embellished. Out
of Hatred to the Church of Rome, they seem, occasionly, to have
written something in the name of Taliossyn, &c. But the Voyage
of Prince Madog had nothing to do with Religion.]

Some Writers have said, that it was not to America our Welsh Prince
sailed, and in proof say, that America was well known in the 9th
and 10th Centuries. It is most certain that it was well known to
its Inhabitants for thousands of Years. But that it was at all
known to any European before the 12th Century, at soonest, is
incredible. (See page 12th, &c) for there is not even the Shadow of
Authority for it. We are also told that Greenland was the Country
to which Madog sailed, which is by no means probable, nor, indeed,