2 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



mouth of the sea, in the passage to those straits, called the pillars ot 

 Hercules, did exist; and that island was greater and larger than Lybia 

 and Asia ; from which there was an easy passage over to other islands, 

 and from those islands to that continent, which is situated out of that 

 region." "Neptune settled in this island, from whose son, Atlas, its 

 name was derived, and divided it among his ten sons. To the youngest 

 fell the extremity of the island, called Gadir^ which, in the language of 

 the country, signifies fertile or abounding in sheep. The descendants of 

 Neptune reigned here, from father to son, for a great number of genera- 

 tions in the order of primogeniture, during the space of 9,000 years. 

 They also possessed several other islands ; and passing into Europe and 

 Africa, subdued all Lybia as far as Egypt, and all Europe to Asia Minor. 

 At length the island sunk under water ; and for a long time afterwards 

 the sea thereabouts was full of rocks and shelves." In a work ascribed 

 to Aristotle, [B. C. 38-i] the Carthaginians are said to have discovered a 

 great island beyond the Pillars of Hercules, very fertile, but uninhabited, 

 full of forests, navigable rivers and abounding in fruit. Seneca is sup- 

 posed [about A. D. 1] to have uttered a prophecy concerning America : 



" Vanient aiiuis 



Haecula seris, quibus oceanus 



Vincula reruni lavet, et ingcns 

 Pateat tcllus, TypMsque vomn 

 Detegat orbes; nee sit terris 



Ultima Thule.''^ 



Medea, III, 875. 



In English — "The time will come when the sea will loosen the 

 chains of nature and a mighty continent shall stand forth; Typhis 

 shall discover new worlds; nor shall Thule be any longer the extremity 

 of the known world." 



Leaving these ancient and legendary notices, we pass to more recent 

 claims. "The Scandinavians, after having colonized Iceland in A. D. 

 875 and Greenland in 983, had by the year 1000 discovered America as 

 tar down as 41° 30' N. L., a point near New Bedford in Massachusetts, 

 and if the account of a missing sailor, Avho, after some absence, returned 

 in a state of vinous excitement and flourishing bunches of grape, can be 

 believed, they must have come much further South. The chronicler 

 says that owing to this circumstance the captain of the ship called that 

 country Vinland. The next claimants to the discovery of America are 

 the "Welsh. In Cardoc's history of Cambria it is stated that Madoc, son 

 of Owen Gwynnedd, Prince of Wales, set sail westward in A. D. 1170. 

 with a small fleet, and after a voyage of several weeks, landed in a region 

 totally dififerent, both in its inhabitants and productions, from Europe. 

 He is supposed to have reached the coast of Virginia. Neither this. 



