[MR] Welsh in Pre-Columbian North America?

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Today the BBC is reporting that Conwy in Wales is planning to promote the
legend of a Welsh prince's 12th C journey to North America as a tourist
draw: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-43398910

Long ago I read about the claims that a Welsh prince named Madoc had
settled in Alabama some 900 years ago in a book called THEY ALL DISCOVERED
AMERICA. Supposedly Madoc's followers intermarried with local Indians and
their descendants continued to speak Welsh into the 19th C. According to
the book, the Welsh Indians were all conveniently wiped out by smallpox.
There are many other claims and stories that "prove" this tale is true, but
sadly nothing has ever been verified. The story is like Shakespeare's lost
works supposed hidden in a grave at Williamsburg (or on Oak Island of cable
TV fame), or that the Newport Tower in Rhode Island was built as a fort by
Prince Henry Sinclair of Orkney (it was a late 17th C windmill). Still it
would be nice . . . .

Wikipedia has a page about the legend at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madoc

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆