Rev. Josiah Rees, the editor of a Welsh magazine published in Wales in 1770, told the Welsh scholar Edward Williams that he had in his possession at that time two or three fair manuscripts of Caradoc of Llancarvan, with the continuation by the monks of Strata Florida, Guttun Owen, and others. He furthermore said that he had compared these originals with Dr. Powel's translation, or, more strictly speaking, with Humphrey Lloyd's translation, which Dr. Powel published in 1584. Mr. Rees said that it was the most faithful he ever met with in any language. Lord Lyttleton, in the last century, then, was very much mistaken, and withal quite ignorant, when he said that Dr. Powel "dressed up some tradition concerning Madoc in order to convey an idea that his countrymen had the honor of first discovering America." Dr. Powel himself did not entirely depend on Lloyd's translation in the preparation of the work for the press, for he says that he compared that translation with the original records, and therefore was able to correct his copy. All this proves that Caradoc's history, with the continuation from the registers of Conway and Strata Florida, the writings of Guttun Owen, Cynfrig ab Gronow, Sir Meredyth ab Rhys, and others, were extant in the days of Lloyd and Powel, and consequently these two latter historians would have been detected if they had been in any degree guilty of misrepresentation or forgery.
In Hakluyt's "Collection of Voyages," a large and costly edition published in 1589, there is found, in connection with other important statements, the following:
"After the death of Owen Gwynedd, his sons fell at debate who should inherit after him; for the eldest son born in matrimony, Iorweth, or Edward (Drwyndwn), was counted unmeet to govern, because of the maim upon his face, and Howel, that took upon him the rule, was a base son, begotten upon an Irishwoman. Therefore David, another son, gathered all the power he could, and came against Howel, and, fighting with him, slew him, and afterwards enjoyed quietly the whole land of North Wales until his brother Edward's son [Llewelyn] came to age.
"Madoc, another of Owen Gwynedd's sons, left the land in contentions betwixt his brethren, and prepared certain ships with men and munition, and sought adventures by seas, sailing west, and leaving the coast of Ireland so far north that he came to a land unknown, where he saw many strange things. This land must needs be some part of the country of which the Spaniards affirm themselves to be the first finders since Hanno's time (the Carthaginian admiral, supposed to have flourished about four hundred and fifty years before Christ); whereupon it is manifest that that country was by Britons discovered long before Columbus led any Spaniards thither.
"Of the voyage and return of this Madoc there be many fables framed, as the common people do use, in distance of place and length of time, rather to augment than to diminish; but sure it is, there he was. And after he had returned home and declared the pleasant and fruitful countries that he had seen, and, upon the contrary, for what barren and wild ground his brethren and nephews did murder one another, he prepared a number of ships, and got with him such men and women as were desirous to live in quietness, and, taking leave of his friends, took his journey thitherwards again.
"Therefore it is supposed that he and his people inhabited part of those countries; for it appears by Francis Lopez de Gomara that in Acuzamil, and other places, the people honored the cross. Whereby it may be gathered that Christians had been there before the coming of the Spaniards; but, because this people were not many, they followed the manner of the land which they came to, and the language they found there. This Madoc, arriving in that western country, unto the which he came in the year 1170, left the most of his people there, and, returning back for more of his own nation, acquaintance, and friends to inhabit that fair and large country, went thither again with ten sails, as I find noted by Guttun Owen. I am of opinion that the land whereunto he came was some part of the West Indies."
It is worthy of observation that Hakluyt distinctly says that he derived his account from Guttun Owen, and, therefore, from the original sources themselves, as it has been shown that Owen secured perfect copies from the abbeys. Hakluyt does not refer to Lloyd and Powel as his authorities, because he was fortunate in gaining access to the writings from which they too had compiled their histories. Thus the historical veracity of Lloyd and Powel is, without design, sustained by the learned Hakluyt.
Another point that should not be passed is in relation to the last sentence of the extract just given, wherein Hakluyt expresses his opinion that Madoc touched the West Indies. It will be understood that during the earlier discoveries that name—West Indies—embraced not only those islands which are now known by it, but also so much of the continent or mainland as had been occupied.
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who ascended the throne in 1558, the belief seems to have been universal that Madoc did sail and discover America; and most historical writers of the time have introduced the subject into their writings with the same credence that any other well-ascertained fact deserves.
Hornius, in his "De Originibus Americanis," gives an account of the same event. The following is an extract translated from the Latin: