The Irish standard., 1902-05-03
The Great Sailor Saint Lived a Thousand
Years Before the Genoese
Crossed the Main.
His Early Voyage to America Tradition
Among the Peoples of Many
European Nations.

AS to the Irish, every student of
history knows that from the sixth to
the tenth century they were the great
missionary people of the world. Ire
land was at once the home and the
sanctuary Of religion and civilization,
of the arts and the sciences. The
Roman empire was being overthrown
by the Goths, the Vandals and the
Huns. There We're war and strife and
bloodshed everywhere throughout the
continent Of Europe, Ireland alone shut
off in the Western ocean, being exempt.
To her great schools or universities
which covered the whole country like
vast network, fiocked the thousands
and tens of thousands of the students
of all the countries Of Europe.
The Irish missionaries, filled with
unbonnded zeal for the salvation Of
souls, went everywhere. No difficulties
could deter, no dangers could appall
them.
In 1474 Columbus tells us he visited
Iceland; that is, eighteen years before
his discovery of America. Can any
one doubt that while there he heard of
the greater Ireland beyond the western
ocean which their fathers had visited,
and that this knowledge gave him re-
newed hope and courage for the great
enterprise which he was beyond doubt
even then contemplating
But ages before Columbus had plant
ed the banner of Spain in the New
World, and centuries before the Dub
lin Norsemen had even heard of Amer
lea, there were traditions among the
| peoples Of the different European coun-
| tries to the effect that great Irish
navigator and saint, st. Brendan. had
discovered a great new country. Now,
in our time, I am pleased to say, these
traditions are as we'll supported by the
historical data as the average facts of
| history-in fact. much better supported
than many historical statements that
are generally accepted.
Let me very briefly refer to some of
| the evidence in favor of my proposition
that the Irish were here not only be-
fore Columbus, but long before the
Norsemen. The Danish historian, Raiu,
| in his antiquities of America" says
that poon1o uybo cpo1,o tho I,,;.l, lo,,
guage We're found in Florida as early
as the eighth century; or two centuries
and more before Ari-Maisen and Left
Erickson. Won Iscudi, the distinguish
ed historian, in his "Antiquities of
Peru" tells us the Irish settled along
the American coast from what is now
called Chesapeake bay, through the
Carolinas, to Florida in the very early
Christian ages; and he added that
while he wrote some important docu-
ments had been discovered which
proved beyond doubt what had here
tofore been regarded as tradition or
conjecture only, namely, that the Irish
were the original discoverers of this
continent. But perhaps the strongest
proof in favor of this contention Is
! found in the fact that in the great map
Of the world drawn up at the COM
mand Of Roger H., of Sicily, by the
famous Arabian geographer, Abdullah
| Mahomed Edrisi, who was born at
Centa in Africa in the year 1899. Amer
lea is shown, and is called Magnum
| Hibernia, the greater Ireland.
If the reader should still have any
doubts on this matter, l will now pre-
sent another witness, one of those hard
headed, practical Americans who re,
jects everything that cannot be sup.
ported by unquestionable facts-Gen
Daniel Butterfeld. General Butter.
field, need scarcely remind the read.
er, was distinguished United States
army officer and a prominent figure in
the Civil War. The general, while in
Paris some years ago, at the earnest re-
quest of a dear Irish-American friend
undertook to make, and did make, an
exhaustive investigation of the tradi
ton to which I have referred. With
this subject he went to the great Bib