A. D. 1171. 341 



winds, it is pretty evident that the ftory muft have been invented after 

 voyages to and from America, and fettlcments of colonies in that con- 

 tinent, were common, and had become ufual fubjedls of converl'aiion, 

 even in the uncommercial country of Wales *. 



The Grecian emperor Manuel, having quarreled with the republic 

 of Venice, feized the perfons and effeds of all the Venetian merchants 

 he could find in his dominions. But Venetian merchants were not to 

 be infulted with impunity. The outrage was immediately chaftiicd by 

 a Venetian fleet of a hundred gallies, which compelled Manuel to lub- 

 mit to terms of peace very humiliating to the pride of empire. This 

 event, the fecond within a few years which exhibits the Roman-Grecian 

 empire inferior in military force and political importance to the com- 

 naercial ftates of Italy, is introduced here, chiefly on account of its be- 

 ing conneded with the origin of the Bank of Venice. For the 'repub- 

 lic being opprefled by the charges of the war againfl: the emperor of 

 the Eafl:, and at the fame time involved in hofl:ilities with the emperor 

 of the Wefl:, the duke, Vitale Michel II, after having exhaufted every 

 other financial refource, was obliged to have recourfe to a forced loan 

 trom the moft opulent citizens, each being required to contribute ac- 

 cording to his ability. On this occafion, and by the determination of 

 the great council, the chamber of loans (' la camera degl' imprefliti') was 

 eftabliflied ; and the contributors to the loan were made creditors of the 

 chamber, from which they were to receive an annual intereft of four 

 per cent f . \_Saniito, Vite de duche di Venezia, ap. Muratori Script. V. xxii, 

 col. 502.} It may be prefumed that the rate of intereft, ftf very far be- 

 low the ufual ftandard of the age, was compulfive, as well as the loan 

 itfelf, and efteemed a hardlhip upon the creditors. 



* Gutryn Owen, the alleged author of the ftory American tribes very remote from each-other. So 



of Madoc's voyages and colony, is faid to have h'v- the childilh ftory of Whittin'jjton and his cat may 



ed in the reign ot Edward IV ; and the anthority be -ocrlficd by a ilone, actually inCtribed with his 



of a manufcript, really lurittcn hcj.jye the cUfcovery name, Handing at the lide of the road between 



nf Awierica by Columbus, would be ftrong indeed. Idington and Highgate, and fet up, one would 



But as G-utiyn's manufcript does not appear, nor thijik, with an intention to ftainp the appearance 



even Lhiyd's trandatlon of it into Englifli, except of veracity upon fable. — Colonel Vallancey [Ct/- 



.is edited nvith aJil}ttons, eorreiJ'wm, and improve- kLlariea, n'-. x, />. l6S2 has found a way of accouiit- 



mtnti, by I'owel in the year 15S4, he nuill, for iiig for the identity of names and cnftoms in Ame- 



ought we fee to the contrary, (land for the origin- rica (even as far fouth as Peru) with thofe of Ire- 



al author. Giraldus Cambrenfis, a Welfh author, land, founded on a conjeAure of Varenius that the ' 



v.'ho wrote an account of Wales about the end of north part of America once adhered to Ireland, 



the twelfth century (edited by the fame Powcl), and the difcovery of a bank extending from Ire- 



lias not a word of the ('cry, thoiigli fnfRciently land to Newfoundland. And fo the population of 



fond of the marvelous. But the Britilli origin of America, that perplexing fubject of difquihtion, 



the Americans has obtained fome imaginai-j- hip- appears to have been from Ireland. — I iiave feen 



port from the cafuil, perhaps llrained, refcmblance an account of the population of IrelandyVom Ame- 



of fome American words to the WeHh, icmaiked rica. 



by Wafer in his voyage to Darien, and by fome + ' A raggione del quattro per cento di pro.'^ 



others in other part:, of America : and, as fables, If it was fo expreffed in the original record from 



like fnowballs, ir:creale by rolling along, the au- which Sanuto cxtratled his account, it is an ear- 



thor of tlie Turkifli fpy [^V. viii, fi. 159] Jifcover- lier indance of the calculation per cent than 1 t 



ed, that the tomb of Madoc is ilill to be feen in found in the Venetian laws, to be notice 



the country of the Tufcoraras and Doegs, two the year 1242. 



