We have, as far as I can now remember, but one instance, upon record, of an amicable coalition of interests between public bodies; I mean that of William Penn, the excellent and justly celebrated Quaker, with the Inhabitants of the Country, now, after his Name called Pensylvania, a little before the Revolution in 1668.  The peace of that Colony has been less disturbed than that of any other.  The Indians have been very quiet:  He deals fairly and openly with them, and his descendants, as far as I can learn, have always done the same.  The consequence is that though he died in the Fleet Prison, his posterity now enjoy a Princely Fortune.[c]

[Footnote c:  European settlements in America.  Vol.  II. p. 195. &c.  Edit. 1758.  I know not how much they are affected by the late revolution in America.]

But to enter upon my Subject.

I known not how it comes to pass, but of late years most of our Historians seem to be over fastidious.  They object to, and call in question many facts which have been credited for Centuries, and which upon the whole are supported by very respectable authorities.  In reading History, I make in a strict rule to give every Writer a fair and candid perusal.  While I reject old Women’s Fables, monkish Tales, Absurdities, and pretended Miracles, I am disposed to receive as Truth, that which seems natural, reasonable, and well supported by evidence.  Agreeably to this rule, I shall now consider the accounts we have of the Discovery of America by the Ancient Britons.

I cannot, in Giraldus, find any thing upon the subject.  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.