f America. Vol. I. p. 373. Edit. 1788.]

What he hath, in general, advanced, is much the same with what
had been said by Lord Lyttelton and others; and therefore, what
I have already said, will serve as a general Answer: but I must
examine some particulars.

He first says, "that the Pretensions of the Welsh to the Discovery
of America, seem not to rest on a foundation much more solid, (than
the Discovery of it by Behaim) because that Powel, on whose Testimony
the authenticity of the Story rests, published his History above
four Centuries from the Date of the Event which he relates." It
is granted that Humphry Llwyd, and Dr. Powel, lived some Centuries
after Madog's Emigration; but Dr. Robertson must also grant that
there are several Events, mentioned in History, now commonly believed,
even by the learned, which have no memorials for as long a Period.
Where shall we find any Evidence for the Originality of Ossian and
Fingal, from the Time in which they are said to have been written,
till their publication, a few Years ago by Mr. Macpherson? Whether
these Poems are of Scots or Irish Origin I know not; but they were
not known to the World till very lately. If Dr. Robertson says that
they always were, and now are known in the Highlands of Scotland;
I say in Answer, so was the Expedition of Madog in the High Lands
of Wales, as appears from the Poems of Sir Meredyth ab Rhy's, and
of other Bards. This, by the Way, is an Evidence in which the Poems
of Ossian and Fingal are deficient. The silence of History for
about 1400 Years is much more unfriendly to the Authenticity of
these Poems, than that of about 400 to the Truth of Madog's Voyages.
Ossian and Fingal are supposed to have flourished about the End of
the 3d Century. The Bards drew their Information, chiefly, from the
Collections preserved in the Abbies of Conway and Strata Florida,
and from the current Traditions of the Country. We have no regular
History of the period in which this Prince emigrated, but this
History of Caradoc, and of Llwyd's, and Dr. Powel's additions. I
think that Dr. Robertson cannot produce better Authority for any
Facts, equal in Antiquity; I am sure none, for Ossian and Fingal.

The Manner in which Dr. Robertson mentions the Verses published,
by Hakluyt and others, is rather observable. "Later Antiquarians,
indeed, appealed to the Testimony of Meredith ab Rhees, a Welsh
Bard, who died in 1477; but he cannot be considered of much more
credit tha