The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1883-08-17
miscellaneous.
A Curious Story.
A Welsh Settlement in this Country in
the Year II7O.

A Welsh Settlement in this Country in
the Year lI7O.
In n lecture delivered by Mr.. James Wood,
of Albany N. Y, he related the following
curious tradition which exists among the
Welsh:
In ITO two brothers, Da lid and Medoc,
quarreled for the throne. The younger,
struggled unsuccessfully, and fitting out ship
sailed west. The next year he returned, said
he had discovered fruitful country, and
called upon his friends to follow him. He
had no difficulty in filling ten ships, with men,
women and children. They sailed away, and
according to Welsh story, were never heard
of again.
This would not be worth much as history
were it not that it seemed confirmed by evil
dence found upon this side of the ocean.
In 1870, five hundred years after Prince
Medoc left Wales, Il Welsh minister named
Morgan was sent from New York to North
Carolina to preach to some Welsh people
who settled there. One day he wandered
too far beyond the outskirts of the settlement
and was captured by Indians They took
him many miles inland and prepared to burn
him at the stake. The fagots were piled
around him, and his doom seemed sealed
Suddenly he exclaimed, in Welsh "Have
come so far to die like a dog at last p To
his surprise, the Indian chief sprang forward,
loosed his bonds, and embraced him, crying
in Welsh, "No; not if you speak that Ian,
guage" IIenceiOrth he was the hOnored guest
of the tribe.
Morgan's surprise deepened when the prin-
cipal members of this Indian tribe gathered
around him and began to converse with him
in Welsh. He preached to them, and they
understood him. But what amazed him
III tl,nt hnI
script copy of the Bible in the Welsh Ian
gungc
Morgan relates this story in letter sent
to friends in Wales This letter is well all-
tLenlicated bat it is the only evidence that
we have in the matter. So far as we are
aware, nothing more was ever heard of this
Indian tribe who spoke Welsh and had
Welsh Bible.
But about fifteen or twenty years later an
| exploring party, returning from beyond the
Mississippi river, relate, among other Won
ders that they found tribe OF Indians who
speak the Welsh language. They, too, have a
manuscript copy of the Welsh Bible. None
of their number can read it, and they keep it
as a mysterious treasure, carefully rolled up
| in the skin of animals.
And fifteen or twenty years later still an
other exploring party brings us back strange
news from the Red River of the North. They
have found there u singular people, with
whitened hair and blue eyes. These people
| speak the Welsh language.
| Lastly, Catlin speaks ola tribe of white
Indians dwelling along the upper course OF
the Missouri They are different from the
| tribes around them. Some have fair hair and
blue eyes, and their language is strangely
mixed with great number of Welsh words
| "Now," says Mr.. Wood, "here we have
independent accounts which seem to tel
one story. They are so strange that hislor
| ians don't know what to do with them. But
| if Indians on the American continent car
speak the Welsh language, they must have
have been taught ut some time; il there arr
manuscript copies of the Welsh Bible here
they must have come here somehow. AnC
you can put the facts together as you please.
Another curious fact was stated by the lee
turer. In speaking of the discoveries ofJohr
Cabot, he said, in substances Here is {
strange thing John Cabot reached the shores
of Newfoundland in 1907, only five year.
after Columbus set sail He found that tn,
Indians were in possession ola great mum
Der of French words, and could understand
him when he spoke to them in that language
They knew the French term for Goldfish ant
fishing. lie soon learned that the Breton
fishermen from the rockbound coast of Nor
them France were i'm the habit of coming t
these bleak American shores in their tishin.
smacks and catching the cod with which
these shores abounded. Remember, this wa
only five years after the time of Columbus =
If these fearless fisherman, in their frai yes
sells, had been travelling backward and for
ward across the ocean long enough to teacl
the Indians a good part of their language
who know whether or not they saw tn
continent of America even before Columbu
did?"