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Wales, and Dr. Plott's paper, published, I think, in Phil. Transact. and also in Owen's British Remains.

The part of the American continent on which these Cambrian emigrants landed, is supposed to be somewhere about Florida. How long they continued to inhabit the sea-coast, cannot now perhaps be ascertained: but as the interior parts are known to be far the most healthy, as well as the most pleasant and fertile, it may be concluded that they would not hesitate to change their situation as soon as they became sufficiently acquainted with those circumstances. By degrees they passed on towards the banks of the Mississippi, and settled some time, it seems, in the country now known under the name of Kentucky; for it is affirmed by a person of veracity now residing there, in a letter to a friend of mine, dated since the commencement of last year, that the ground there appears in many places to have been formerly cultivated, and that it is not uncommon there in ploughing the land to dig up pieces of very fine earthen ware, and I presume we may very safely conclude that these can be no vestiges of Indian settlements.

These, however, seem now to have been the first, among modern adventurers, who found out this Cambrian colony; for I am credibly informed that a letter from a respectable gentleman in Pennsylvania, to a friend in Wales, dated in the year 1752, contained these words-" The Welsh Indians are found out, situated on the Western side of the great river

Mississippi." Now, Sir, admitting that they were then indeed discovered, it may appear rather odd to some, that the Welshmen of Pennsylvania, who are known to be pretty numerous, should not in all this time acquaint themselves more fully with them. But perhaps their very great distance, and their having settled so far in the interior parts of the continent, might render such an undertaki for any of the Welsh, or other private individual in that province too expensive and hazardous, and so, in a sense, impracticable. As to Government, or any public and affluent bodies of men, for whom such a project seems most fit, it might not appear to them an object of sufficient magnitude to deserve any serious attention or encouragement.

Here I beg leave to add, that there are what some deem very authentic accounts of the discovery of this same British colony so long ago as the year 1669, by Mr. Morgan Jones, a Welsh clergyman, who had lived some time in Virginia, during the governorship of Sir William Berkeley, in the quality of chaplain to Major General Bennet. A number of people being then sent to settle in South Carolina, this gentleman was ordered to accompany them as their minister. He staid there, he says, between seven and eight months, and being then with his companions neglected by the Virginia government, and almost starved for want of provisions, he and five more left the place and as they could not proceed straight on to Virginia, by reason of the numerous creeks and great rivers which lay in their way, they

took to the back parts, and travelled through the wilderness till they came to the Tuscorara country, where they were all made prisoners; that nation being then at war with the English colonists. After they had been a short time confined, it was resolved to put them to death; and an interpreter was dispatched to apprize them of the bloody resolution, that they might be prepared for their exit. "Whereupon (says Jones) being something cast down, and speaking to this effect in the British or Welsh tongue, &c. they said, You are very civil and courteous to us."

Jones describes the residence of those people as on the banks of Pantigo river, and not far from Cape Atros. Whereabout that might be, I will not take upon me to say; but it seems at no small distance from the banks of the Missouri, which is certainly a great way from any capes. These, however, might be a part of the same people, who might choose to stay behind in one of their old settlements, when the main body of their brethren passed on towards the delightful and fertile plains of the Missouri, where they finally settled; or they might be the very same people, who afterwards, for reasons unknown to us, may have removed and fixed their abode on the banks of the last-mentioned river, especially as it does not appear that any such are now to be found in those parts which Jones mentions.

This Jones, Sir, who was a man of character, and brought up at Jesus College, in Oxford, solemnly

attested the truth of this narration to the last. He lived the latter part of his life, in the neighbourhood of New York, and offered to conduct to the country of the Welsh Indians any who wanted further satisfaction, provided his expenses might be defrayed: which certainly was not at all unreasonable.

Having related the substance of what I recollected on this topic, I now submit the whole to your consideration, Sir, and that of your judicious readers. GWILYM DYFED.

P. S. Since the above had been written, I happened to have an opportunity to examine what is deemed a very correct draft of the American coast. There I found Cape Hatteras, in North Carolina, which, I suppose, is the same that Jones calls Cape Atros; near to that I found Pantecoe Bay, into which a river of the same name empties itself, and which seems to be that which Jones calls Pantigo river, on the banks of which his Welsh or Doeg Indians, were then settled; but how far within land their settlement was, seems still to remain an uncertainty at any rate I should imagine it could not be a vast way from Kentucky, though at a very great distance from the river Missouri. After all, it seems not unlikely, that these ancient colonists spread in time from different settlements, which might lie considerably wide of each other: or there might be two settlements from the beginning, as it is not improbable that MADOC each time might land at a different place. One time near Cape Hatteras, and

the other about Florida, or the Gulf of Mexico. It may not be improper here to add, that a Mr. Charles Lloyd, who wrote on this subject many years ago, judged that Cape Hatteras might be the same with Jones's Cape Atros, and that Doeg Indians, might be a corruption of Madog Indians. He also observes, that Pantigo hath a British sound, which is very true. It might have sprung, perhaps, from Pant-teg, which in the British signifies a Fair or Calm Vale; or from Panttecca, which is the same word in the superlative degree. Mr. Lloyd also mentions a certain Dutch ship, in the last century, having put in for provisions, somewhere between Florida and Virginia, on board of which was a Brechnockshire man, who affirmed, on his dying bed, that the natives they found there spoke the Welsh language. He also mentions a Mr. Oliver Humphreys, merchant, who had lived in Surinam, and who, during that time, had some conversation with a certain pirate, who pretended to have learned the Indian language, during an intercourse he once had with the natives somewhere about Florida; but which the said Mr. Humphreys declared was perfect Welsh.

GWILYM DYfed.

Since this period communications have multiplied pro and con in the several periodical publications. Dr. John Williams, formerly of Sydenham, wrote a pamphlet on the subject. Dr. Morgan Jones also, in his Letter to MR. RICHARDS, already in

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