[Footnote pp:  Were the Herald’s Office carefully searched, there possibly might be found some papers on this Subject.]

His Lordship supposes that the Doctor dressed up some Tradition concerning Madog which he found in Guttun Owen and others, in order to convey an Idea that his Country-man had the Honour of first discovering America.—­It hath already been observed (page 8th) that this part of History from 1157, to 1270, was not written by Dr. Powel, but by Humphry Llwyd.  Had these additions been Inventions, Humphry Llwyd and Dr. Powel must have been very bad and weak Men; for as Guttun Owen’s Works were extant in their Time, the Forgeries must have been immediately detected.  I really believe that his Lordship is the first Writer that has charged Dr. Powel with wilful and designed misrepresentations.

Those writings of Guttun Owen’s, which his Lordship allows were extant in the Days of Dr. Powel, were certainly known before Columbus’s first Voyage; for the Doctor expressly says that he found the particulars concerning Madog’s emigration noted by Guttun Owen, who wrote, in 1480:  consequently this Bard’s Writings were known to Dr. Powel.

Lord Lyttelton grants that Prince Madog was a bolder Navigator than any of his Countrymen, in the age he lived, and that he was “famous for some Voyage; but as the Course was not mark’d, it is of no Importance to the matter in question.”

With Submission to his Lordship, I think that the Course is clearly marked, and so thought Hornius, as appears from what he says in the Extract above cited:  for it is said that Madog sailed west-ward, and left the Coast of Ireland to the North, and that he fell in with Land in that Direction.  And it is certain that no Land is found in that Direction, but America.

His Lordship also says “that if Madog did really discover any part of America, or any Islands lying to the South-west of Ireland, in the Atlantic Ocean, without the help of the Compass, at a time when Navigation was ill understood, and with Mariners less expert than any other in Europe, he performed an atchievement incomparably more extraordinary than that of Columbus.”

I agree with his Lordship, that is was an extraordinary atchievement, superior to that of Columbus, who had many advantages which the other had not:  but as I have already observed, it does not appear that Prince Madog’s first Voyage was the result of Sagacity and Judgment, but of meer Necessity and Prudence.  Most probably, chance threw him on the American Coast.[qq]

[Footnote qq:  In the Space of about 300 Years, a report of Prince Madog’s successful Western Navigations might obtain through Europe; and the penetrating and enterprizing Genius of Columbus might excite him to pursue the same Course, in Hopes of finding a nearer Way to China and other Countries.]

In this paragraph his Lordship, happens, unfortunately, to be mistaken.  The Naval force of the Britons seems to have been very considerable in the Days of Julius Caesar.