126 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE. 



" I had a call last evening, (September 1, 1865,) from Lieutenant Colonel 

 Samuel Tappan, avLo has lived and served as a soldier in Colorado and 'Kew 

 Mexico for several years. He begged me to write you in regard to the Navajo 

 tribe in New Mexico, 250 miles south of Santa Fe. 



" ' They are 15,000 strong, on a reserve ; are the best farmers in New Mexico ; 

 have no religious instruction; live in good houses; take but one wife; do 

 the outdoor work, and treat their wives as women ; the most hopeful of all 

 Indians. 



From another source I learn that their language is almost pure Welsh ; that a 

 Welshman can understand them at once ; and that the blankets which they 

 make so beautifully are made in precisely the same way as the domestic blankets 

 in South Wales." 



The last paragraph of the above is very startling. If true, it suggests 

 a new train of thought for those engaged in the study of American ethnology. 

 Nay, it may go far to favor the views of Judge Hall, that the southern Indian 

 is of Phoenician origin, seeing that the Phoenician impress was strongly made on 

 the Welsh, while the former were developing the tin mines of Britain. Nay, 

 there is not a little to favor the idea that the natives of Wales and Cornwall 

 were themselves of Phoenician derivation. 



Now, my dear sir, would it be too much trouble for you to look into the records 

 of the Indian bureau, and ascertain whether there is any record of the fact of 

 the Navajo Indians having anything in language, manners, or customs resem- 

 bling Wales ? If you can learn anything of the kind, you will do a great 

 service to the public, and eliminate, at once, more than half the mystei-ies 

 of Indian history. True, this may not, in any way, affect the history of the 

 more northern tribes, but it will strongly suggest the idea that Indian history, 

 in general, is far more simple than Indians themselves think, or would have us 

 believe. 



If you can give me any information on this subject I shall be greatly obliged, 

 and will endeavor to follow it up. If you should not have time to examine the 

 matter. Professor Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, might look into it. 

 Yours, faithfully, 



[The following are the remarks of Mr. George Gibbs, to whom the forego- 

 ing letter was referred.] 



Washingtox, Fclruary 12, 1866. 



My Dear Sir : I have the pleasure of acknowledging your request that 

 I would answer the queries of Mr. Donnelly's correspondent, and herewith 

 submit such information as I can give, without, more research than I now have 

 time for. 



The reports of the existence of Indian tribes speaking Welsh are very old, 

 and their alleged location has been as fugitive as that of the Amazons. The 

 story, I presume, took its origin in the tradition of Prince Madoc's voyage, the 

 patriotism of his countrymen leading to the desire that they should participate 

 with the northmen in the glory of discovering this continent. Whatever may 

 have been his fate, it is certain that neither his followers nor the Scandinavians 

 ever left their impress on an American language. As the knowledge of the various 

 Indian tongues has advanced with the progress of settlement and more enlight- 

 ened inquiry, the identical tribe, speaking Welsh, has receded like the mirage, 

 until it is now sought in almost that last place upon the continent to which a 

 foreign colony could have reached. The Zuni Indians, a "pueblo" or settled 

 tribe, living in the neighborhood of the Navajos, have enjoyed this reputation 

 of late on the strength of the number of albinos found among them. 



