The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-04-08
WHO DISCOVERED AMERICA?

NEW YORK, April 6-Did Columbus dis
cover America? There are a great many
people in this country who believe that he
was not the original discOverer. General
Butterfield tried to show by photographs
and manuscripts last night at the meet
ing of the Gaelic society that he was not.
The subject discussed was ''St. Brendan
and His Voyage to America in the Sixth
Century, In demonstrating that st.
Brendan's voyage had contributed to the
discovery Of America, General Butter1eld
said:
'The early Portuguese explorer had ex-
plic!t faith in the existence of the Eldora-
do, the undiscovered country of St. Bren-
dam and kept looking for it. The strong
evidence of this is that when the crown of
Portugal ceded to the Castilians right and
dominion over the Canary islands the
treaty included ST. Brendau's Land as a
certain future discovery. Perhaps some
one will say, if we claim priority of discov-
cry of America for ST. Brendap. that Pliny
the elder refers to two foreigners-redskiBs
Undoubtedly American Indians)-who
were brought to Rome under Nero and
exposed to the crowd as satyrs by the
gladiators
But you may claim for st. Brendan. if
not AN original discovery of America, or if
not discovery at all, that his high re-
ligious character and renOwn gave such
power aud force to his narrative as to
cause it to be cherished and repeated and
handed down by his church for centuries.
and that it planted the seed which culmi-
mated in Lief Erickson's voyage; and
again. when the discovery had been lost.
bore fruit in Columbus brain to fulfil
the prophecy of the return of Brendan's
descendants, and brought to Columbus,
through the interest created III his church
and his religion by st. Brendan and his
f>ll1 boz hal
to prosecute his successful voyage.
''St. Brendan was born in 4S4 in Tratee,
county Kerry, Ireland, and died. in his
94th year at Clonfert, county Galway, in
the year ST. During seven years St.
Brendan nayigated the Atlantic ocean in
his first voyage, and Is, next 10 st. Peter,
associated most closely IN religious thought
with men of sea-faring life The Irish
abbot is pre-eminently the mariner saint
of the calendar wherein his memory is
honored on the 10th OF May. The sailor
saint is also known as St. Brendan, the
elder III contra-distnction to another
Brendan in Irish history, known as the
Abbott of Byrr. Throughout Europe
during the Middle Ages st.
Brendan's navigation was 4 popular
theme in the literature of the church. But
the Irish Abbot is scarcely less celebrated
for his works on land than for his venture
some exploits on the more treacnerous ele-
ment He travelled in Wales and Britain,
where he founded missions for people
converted by himself to the christian faith.
He built in Britain the monastery of
AIlech and a church in a place called Heth.
The former place is the electum of the
Romans of the olden time and the st. Malo
of our own day-the port of departure and
return, 1000 years later, of Jacques
Cartier, the founder of Montreal"
General Butterheld obtained the manu-
scripts and photographs with which he il
Iustrated his letter from Cardinal Gibbons,
who, it is said, got them from Rome.