lease. He talked freely with his old friend of the past, and of
Iceland, but would not leave his savage friends.

How little we know of what has been in the past ages, notwithstanding
our many volumes of history! We listen attentively to what gets a wide
and brilliant publication, and either fail to hear or doubt every thing
else. If these Norse adventurers had sailed from England or Spain, those
countries being what they were in the time of Columbus, their colonies
would not have failed, through lack of men and means to support and
extend them, and the story of their discoveries would have been told in
every language and community of the civilized world. But the little
communities in Iceland and Greenland were very different from rich and
powerful nations. Instead of being in direct communication with the
great movements of human life in Europe, recorded in what we read as
history, they were far off in the Northern Ocean, and, out of Norway,
almost unknown to Europe. Afterward, when the name and discoveries of
Columbus had taken control of thought and imagination, it became
difficult for even intelligent men, with the old Norse records before
them, to see the claims of the Northmen.

B.

THE WELSH IN AMERICA.

The story of the emigration to America of Prince Madoc, or Madog, is
told in the old Welsh books as follows:

About the year 1168 or 1169 A.D., Owen Gwynedd, ruling prince of North
Wales, died, and among his sons there was a contest for the succession,
which, becoming angry and fierce, produced a civil war. His son Madoc,
who had "command of the fleet," took no part in this strife. Greatly
disturbed by the public trouble, and not being able to make the
combatants hear reason, he resolved to leave Wales and go across the
ocean to the land at the west. Accordingly, in the year 1170 A.D., he
left with a few ships, going south of Ireland, and steering westward.
The purpose of this voyage was to explore the western land and select a
place for settlement. He found a pleasant and fertile region, where his
settlement was established. Leaving one hundred and twenty persons, he
returned to Wales, prepared ten ships, prevailed on a large company,
some of whom were Irish, to join him, and sailed again to America.
Nothing more was ever heard in Wales of Prince Madog or his settlement.

All this is related in old Welsh annals preserved in the abbeys of
Conway and Strat Flur. These annals were used by Humphrey Llwyd in