fair and candid perusal. While I reject old Women's Fables, monkish
Tales, Absurdities, and pretended Miracles, I am disposed to receive
as Truth, that which seems natural, reasonable, and well supported by
evidence. Agreeably to this rule, I shall now consider the accounts
we have of the Discovery of America by the Ancient Britons.

I cannot, in Giraldus, find any thing upon the subject. He flourished
about the time when this supposed discovery was made; that is,
during the reigns of Henry the IId. Richard the 1st. and John Kings
of England.[d]

[Footnote d: Giraldus Cambrensis, or Silvester Giraldus, was of
a Noble Flemish Family, born near Tenby in Pembrokshire, South
Wales, 1145. He was Secretary to King Henry, and Tudor to King
John. He was Arch Deacon of St. David's and of Brecon, which seem to
have been his highest ecclesiastical preferments. He is represented
to have been a busy, meddling and troublesome man, which was the
reason, as it is supposed, why he never rose to higher Dignities
in the Church. He was buried at St. David's about 70 years of age.

Jones's Musical Relicks of the Welsh Bards, and the Life of Giraldus
drawn up by Leland and Bale from his writings, which is prefixed
to his Itinerary.

Purchas's Pilgrimage p. 779. Edit. 1626.]

When Prince Madog, the supposed first European discoverer of America
sailed, Giraldus was about 25 years of age, and probably abroad for
education. He therefore might have no intelligence of transactions
which took place in a distant, and, to him, little known part of