[Footnote nn: A Welsh Gentleman observed to me that there may be found whole Parishes, in the principality, where there are more Persons who cannot read, than those who can; and as he very justly added, there is hardly any one in the whole Number, who can read a Manuscript of the twelfth Century.]
Though the Art of Printing was not discovered in the Days of Madog, yet there can be no doubt, but that the Britons had Copies of the Scriptures in their own Language many Centuries before that period; for it is almost certain that they were converted to Christianity about the Year 177. Madog was of a Princely Family: it may therefore be reasonably thought that he and his Companions had one or more Copies among them.
The Jewish Customs mentioned by Mr. Beatty seem to establish the opinion, that some of the Original Inhabitants of the New Continent, were Jews, Carthaginians, or Phœnicians, among who those Customs prevailed.
By the Way, we are told by Travellers, that some of these Customs now prevail among the Tartars. As we have no Satisfactory, or even a plausible, Account of the Ten Tribes carried Captives to the East by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, we may be disposed to think that the Tartars are descended from them. All the Discoveries of our late Navigators shew that the North Continent of America is at no great distance from the Northern, North Eastern, and North Western parts of Asia and Europe. It is therefore possible that the Tartars, at different Periods, might have been driven on that Coast, and people the Country. Some Tartars hunting upon the Ice, on a sudden Thaw, might be carried on the Ice to America, from whence they could not return.[oo]
[Footnote oo: See Hornius, ubi supra, pages, 183, 186, 205, 215. Forster's History of the Voyages and Discoveries made in the North. Clavigero's History of Mexico and Brerewood on the Languages and the Religion of the World.
In the Hebrew we have
exploravit, "he search'd," and a Substantive,
exploratores, "Searchers." Hence some would derive the word Tartar,