"There is hardly any longer doubt as to the ethnic relationship of these races and their connection with the peoples of Asia and Polynesia. The testimony of many sciences—linguistics, archeology, traditions, and especially ethnology proper—points uniformly to the Asiatic and Pacific derivation of the ancestors of those widely distributed races extending northward and southward from the Arctic archipelago to the Strait of Magellan, and westward and eastward from the Alaskan peninsula to Pernambuco.
"By common consent the ethnic history of our American continents should begin from the West. It is evident that the American Mongoloids—for so we may designate the aboriginal nations of the New World—are connected by race affinity and descent with the Asiatic and Polynesian Mongoloids.
"The routes by which they came were two or, at the most, four: The one by way of Polynesia; the other, Siberia. The first, or Polynesian line, seems to have divided, sending one branch through lower Polynesia against the central western coast of South America, while the upper or western branch was directed by way of the Sandwich Islands to Mexico and Central America. The second, or Siberian route (many centuries later), one branch appears to have gone by way of Behring's Strait, and the other through the Aleutian Islands." In this manner, we believe South America was peopled in remote antiquity by the Malays of Polynesia, and North America by rude barbarians from northeastern Asia. We do not assume that all the aborigines of the two continents came in this way. But for the many unanswerable reasons given, we do believe that the earliest, most numerous and probably most disposed to civilization, came in this manner to South and Central America, where they established an original civilization; and that the most numerous, but also the latest and most barbarous aborigines of North America came from northeastern Asia.
Having become established in America, they gradually spread from west to east until they reached the Atlantic coast. Here in time they came in contact with a few representatives of other races from Europe, Western Asia and Africa, who, at various times and at different points, reached the eastern shore. But the few were absorbed by the larger population, with little visible result save to augment their numbers, give variety to the physiognomy of certain tribes, and perhaps modify the civilization where it existed.
We know of at least two modern instances of voyages having been made from Europe to America, and there were doubtless others of prehistoric times. We refer now to the discovery of America by Herjulfson in A. D. 986, who was driven in sight of Newfoundland or Labrador while sailing from Iceland to Greenland. Fourteen years later, the actual discovery of America was made by Lief Erickson, who sailed from Greenland and reached Labrador in the spring of the year 1001. After landing and making explorations, he and his companions continued along the coast southward until they reached Massachusetts, Rhode Island and possibly New York harbor. Other Norsemen afterward reached America, but they made no permanent settlements, planted no colonies, and kept their knowledge of the new continent a state secret.
The other instance of a pre-Columbian voyage to America is that of the Welsh prince, Modoc or Madog, which is told in the old Welsh books as follows:
About the year 1168 or 1169 A. D., Owen Gwyneeld, ruling prince of North Wales, died, and among his sons there was a contest for the succession, which produced a civil war. His son Madog, who had "command of the fleet," took no part in this strife. Greatly disturbed by the public trouble, and unable to reconcile his two brothers, he resolved to leave Wales and go across the ocean to the new land at the west, of which he had probably heard through the Irish or Norse navigators. Accordingly, in the year 1170 A. D., he left with a few ships, going south of Ireland, and sailing westward. The object of this voyage was to explore the western land and select a place for settlement. He found a pleasant and fertile region, where his settlement was established. Leaving one hundred and twenty persons, he returned to Wales, prepared ten ships, induced a large company, some of whom were Irish, to join him, and sailed again to America. Nothing more was ever heard in Wales of Prince Madog or his settlement.
It is supposed that Madog settled somewhere in the Carolinas, and that his colony, unsupported by new arrivals from Europe, and cut off from communication with that side of the ocean, became weak, and, after being much reduced, was destroyed or absorbed by some powerful Indian tribe. In our colonial times, and after, there was no lack of reports that relics of Madog's Welshmen, and even their language, had been discovered among the Indians; but generally they were entitled to no credit. The report of Rev. Morgan Jones, made in 1686, and published in the Gentleman's Magazine for the year 1740, is quoted by Baldwin in his "Ancient America," as follows:
"These presents certify all persons whatever, that in the year 1660, being an inhabitant of Virginia, and chaplain to Major-General Bennet, of Mansoman County, the said Major-General Bennet and Sir William Berkley sent two ships to Port Royal, now called South Carolina, which is sixty leagues southward of Cape Fear, and I was sent therewith to be their minister. Upon the 8th of April we set out from Virginia and arrived at the harbor's mouth of Port Royal the 19th of the same month, where we waited for the rest of the fleet that was to sail from Barbadoes with one Mr. West, who was to be deputy governor of said place. As soon as the fleet came in, the smallest vessels that were with us sailed up the river to a place called Oyster Point; there I continued about eight months. At last, being almost starved for want of provisions, I and five others traveled through the wilderness till we came to the Tuscarora country.
"There the Tuscarora Indians took us prisoners, because we told them we were bound to Roanock. That night they carried us to their town and shut us up close, to our no small dread. The next day they entered into a consultation about us, and, after it was over, their interpreter told us that we must prepare ourselves to die next morning, whereupon, being very much dejected, I spoke to this effect in the Welsh tongue: 'Have I escaped so many dangers, and must I now be knocked on the head like a dog!' Then presently came an Indian to me, which afterward appeared to be a war captain belonging to the sachem of the Doegs (whose original, I find, must needs be from the Old Britons), and took me up by the middle, and told me in the British (Welsh) tongue I should not die, and thereupon went to the Emperor of Tuscarora, and agreed for my ransom and the men that were with me.