Drych y prif Oesoedd. p. 25 and 35.]

I have no authority positively to assert it, but it is possible that the Scriptures, translated into Welsh, might be written in Creek Characters, for the Welsh-man could not read them.  Those Characters might be thought Sacred, because in these Characters, the Gospel was first written.  Had they been Roman, as they had been long in use, the Welsh-man, if he knew any Letters at all, could not be ignorant of them.  Some parts of North Wales, till of late Years, were far behind other parts, in every kind of Knowledge; but as Charity-Schools were opened in South Wales, above fifty Years ago, and in North Wales, above thirty, the Country is very much improved in this respect.[nn] Or, perhaps, the Book was written in the Ancient Greek Characters, of the same Form with those of the Alexandrian Manuscript in the British Museum.  In that Case it is not at all surprizing that neither the Captain, nor the Welsh-man could read them.

[Footnote nn:  A Welsh Gentleman observed to me that there may be found whole Parishes, in the principality, where there are more Persons who cannot read, than those who can; and as he very justly added, there is hardly any one in the whole Number, who can read a Manuscript of the twelfth Century.]

Though the Art of Printing was not discovered in the Days of Madog, yet there can be no doubt, but that the Britons had Copies of the Scriptures in their own Language many Centuries before that period; for it is almost certain that they were converted to Christianity about the Year 177.  Madog was of a Princely Family:  it may therefore be reasonably thought that he and his Companions had one or more Copies among them.

The Jewish Customs mentioned by Mr. Beatty seem to establish the opinion, that some of the Original Inhabitants of the New Continent, were Jews, Carthaginians, or Phoenicians, among who those Customs prevailed.

By the Way, we are told by Travellers, that some of these Customs now prevail among the Tartars.  As we have no Satisfactory, or even a plausible, Account of the Ten Tribes carried Captives to the East by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, we may be disposed to think that the Tartars are descended from them.  All the Discoveries of our late Navigators shew that the North Continent of America is at no great distance from the Northern, North Eastern, and North Western parts of Asia and Europe.  It is therefore possible that the Tartars, at different Periods, might have been driven on that Coast, and people the Country.  Some Tartars hunting upon the Ice, on a sudden Thaw, might be carried on the Ice to America, from whence they could not return.[oo]

[Footnote oo:  See Hornius, ubi supra, pages, 183, 186, 205, 215.  Forster’s History of the Voyages and Discoveries made in the North.  Clavigero’s History of Mexico and Brerewood on the Languages and the Religion of the World.