ect. 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
the World; for it does not appear that he ever was in North Wales,
until he accompained Arch-Bishop Baldwin thither in the year 1188,
when he went to convert the Britons to the Romish Faith, and to
persuade them to engage in a Crusade.--Besides, being a Fleming
by descent, and so nearly connected with the English Court, he
could have very little correspondence with the Britons, who were
far from being easy under the Dominion of the usurping Saxons,
Normans, and especially the Flemings, who had lately invaded and
possessed a part of their Country.

The first account that I can find of the discovery of America by the
Britons is in an History of Wales written by Caradoc of Llancarvan,
Glamorganshire, in the British Language, translated into English
by Humphry Llwyd, and published by Dr. David Powel, in the year
1584. It was re-printed in 1697, under the inspection of W. Wynne,
A. M. Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. There was another edition
lately published.

This narrative bears the strongest Semblance of Truth, for it is
plain, natural, and simple. It says, that on the death of Owen
Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales, about the year 1169, several of
his Children contended for his Dominions; that Madog, one of his
Sons, preceiving his Native Country engaged, or on the eve of being
e