Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-11-30
ANOTHER IDOL IN DANGER.
Perhaps Columbus Did Not Discover
America.
From the New York Tribune

From the New York Tribune
General Daniel Butterheld, who went
abroad some months ago, was passenger
on the steamer Columbia from Hamburg
which arrived at this port on Friday
While in Paris General Butterfeld spent
a good deal of time in delving among the
old parchments at the Bibliotheque Ma.
tionale, and succeeded in bringing to light
a mass of information regarding the dis.
covery of America, which Just now, when
the country is making elaborate prepare
tions to celebrate the 400th anniversary OF
the event, will be of peculiar interest
The General talked yesterday most enter
tainingly of what he had seen.
'My researches at the Bibliotheque Ma
| tionale," he said, were undertaken TO sat
isfy some close friends of mine, as well as
myself, as to whether there was any found
alton in fact for the belief that St. Bren-
din, renowned abbott Of the fifth and
sixth centuries, had really ever made a
voyage to sea, and, if so, if his voyage was
made to America. Brendin was the oldest
son of Fenloga, and was born in Ireland
in the year 494 He was abbott OF Clon-
fert, and died May 16, SIS, so that if he
did make voyage it must have been ia
about the year 515. l found thirteen diff
ferent manuscripts of the eighth and ninth
centuries at the Bibliotheque, some of
them in an excellent state of preservation
There were Others in the British Museum,
the Bodleian Library, at Oxford, and in
the library at Nuremberg.
"Most Of the manuscripts | examined
were very legibly written, but the abbre-
viations and methods of writing Latin
in those days were so different from any
thing known to us now that it required
great deal of work and careful compar-
ison of the various parchments to get the
Latin itself clearly written out before
venturing upon a translation. However,
my examinations and researches have
gone far enough to convince me that ST.
Brendin did make a voyage to sea; that
his ground for the voyage was through
confessions made to him in his priestly
capacity by Barenas, which told of land
beyond the seas, the promised land of the
saints. The matter impressed itself so
strongly upon st. Brendin that he called a
council of his brethren. 1t was decided by
them to build ship and make voyage
to this promised land.
uc uiuET SOIlSWndL as 10
the direction taken, whether it was east or
west. This variation is probably due to
the mistakes of the monks who wrote out
the story after having heard it from st.
Brendin. But whatever the truth of the
matter may be, have determined to give
our people who are interested in such
things chance to study the facts for
themselves. | have had the most ancient
of the manuscripts photographed, and in
tend to place them, with resume of what
have learned, in the State Library at
Albany, under the care of the Board of
Regents, where they will be accessible to
the general public, as feel that the two
square acres of fire proof surface, the prop
erty of the State at large, and under the
care of the State, will be the natural re-
ceptacle for every document, book or OBJ
ject of historical value and interest to our
State and to our country.
"Many writer's have treated of this sub
ject, and / do not claim to have made
discovery of these manuscripts. | have
simply made study of them for my own
pleasure and the benefit of anyone who
cares to examine them. In the course of
the narrative St. Brendin describes having
seen a volcano and having sailed in a sea
which looked like milk 1t is quite posi-
bic that Columbus got his first idea for his
voyage from these very parchments. Ger
tainly we don't want to steal from him the
credit of his discoveries"