190 SUPPOSED WELCH INDIANS. 



Traditional ao that a colony of Celts had at any period prior to the difcoverj/ 



tantTof' Amerka of America b J/ Columbus, parted into this hemi fphere from 



fuppofed to have Britain. 



W^« tCdfr ° m It may be thought, from the flatement publifhed by Dr. 

 Williams and fome other writers on the fubject, that the belief 

 of the exiftence of a race of Welch Indians in America is ge- 

 nerally admitted by the Welch Indians and others. But this 

 is far from being the cafe. The late Mr. M'Gilivray, a man 

 of no inconfiderable powers of mind, and whofe curiofity was 

 by no means confined to his own relatives, the Mufcohge, or 

 Creek Indians, informed me, in the year 1790, that he knew 

 nothing of the exiftence of any white people in the trad of 

 country beyond the Miffiflippi. 



The following is an extract of a letter (dated Downing, June 

 14, 1792) from my learned and excellent friend the late Mr. 

 Thomas Pennant of Wales. 



" My countrymen are wild among the Padoucas, or Welch 

 Indians, defcendants of Madog, now feated about the upper 

 parts of the MiflTouri. I am rather in difgrace, not having the 

 warmeft hopes of their difcovery. Pray what is your opinion 

 and that of your philofonhers ?" 



In anfwer of the above I wrote a letter, of which the fol- 

 lowing is a part : 



" I have heard a great deal about the Welch Indians. I very 

 early imbibed your opinion, as delivered in your Arctic Zoo- 

 logy*, and mentioned you on the fubject in a little work f 

 which I publithed in England at the age of * * * *. I do not 

 know whether you have feen that work. I do not mean to 

 bint that it is worthy of your attention. I certainly think there 

 is fome foundation for the ftory; but I have no doubt but the 

 Mrhole affair will turn out very different from a difcovery of 

 Madog's defcendants in America. 



■« I have faid, that I think there is forae ground for the ftory. 

 I mall explain myfelf. You know that many of the firft viiitors 

 of the new world were ftruck with the refemblance winch 



* See the introduction to the work, pages 263, 9CA. 

 •f Obfervations on fome parts of natural hiftory ; to which is 

 prefixed an account of feveral remarkable veftiges, of an ancient 

 date, which have been difcovered in different parts of North America; 

 Part I. London, 1797. 



fubfifls 



