Timster wrote:Oh aye, if by that you mean that the "Weshie" referred to was a serving wench on a Danish Viking ship, I agree.Gob wrote:Oh aye, and it were a Welshie who first discovered America.
According to Welsh legend, that man was Prince Madog ab Owain Gwynedd.
A Welsh poem of the 15th century tells how Prince Madoc sailed away in 10 ships and discovered America. The account of the discovery of America by a Welsh prince, whether truth or myth, was apparently used by Queen Elizabeth I as evidence to the British claim to America during its territorial struggles with Spain. So who was this Welsh Prince and did he really discover America before Columbus?
Owain Gwynedd, king of Gwynedd in the 12th century, had nineteen children, only six of whom were legitimate. Madog (Madoc), one of the bastard sons, was born at Dolwyddelan Castle in the Lledr valley between Betws-y-Coed and Blaenau Ffestiniog.
On the death of the King in December 1169, the brothers fought amongst themselves for the right to rule Gwynedd. Madog, although brave and adventurous, was also a man of peace. In 1170 he and his brother, Riryd, sailed from Aber-Kerrik-Gwynan on the North Wales Coast (now Rhos-on-Sea) in two ships, the Gorn Gwynant and the Pedr Sant. They sailed west and landed in what is now Alabama in the USA.
Prince Madog then returned to Wales with great tales of his adventures and persuaded others to return to America with him. They sailed from Lundy Island in 1171 and were never heard of again.
They are believed to have landed at Mobile Bay, Alabama and then travelled up the Alabama river along which there are several stone forts, said by the local Cherokee Indians to have been constructed by "White People". These structures have been dated to several hundred years before Columbus and are of a similar design to Dolwyddelan Castle in North Wales. Were they built by Madog and his fellow settlers?
Early explorers and pioneers found evidence of Welsh influence among the tribes of Indians along the Tennessee and Missouri Rivers. In the 18th century an Indian tribe was discovered that seemed different to all the others that had been encountered before. Called the Mandans this tribe were described as white men with forts, towns and permanent villages laid out in streets and squares. They claimed ancestry with the Welsh and spoke a language remarkably similar to it. They fished with coracles, a type of boat still used in Wales today. It was also observed that unlike members of other tribes, these people grew white-haired with age. In addition, in 1799 Governor John Sevier of Tennessee wrote a report in which he mentioned the discovery of six skeletons encased in brass armour bearing the Welsh coat of arms.
According to research conducted by an English College professor, America did not take its name from Amerigo Vespucci, but from a senior collector of Customs at Bristol, the main port from which English voyages of discovery sailed in the late 15th century. Dr. Basil Cottle, who is himself of Welsh birth, tells us that the official was Richard Amerik, one of the chief investors in the second transatlantic voyage of John Cabot, which led to the famous navigator receiving the King's Pension for his discoveries.
John Cabot landed in the New World in May 1497, becoming the first recorded European to set foot on American soil. As far as Amerik's Welsh connection is concerned, the word "Amerik" itself seems to be derived from ap Meuric, Welsh for the son of Maurice. (The later was anglicized further to Morris). There was a large Welsh population in Bristol in the late 15th century.
Because Cabot's voyages were made before the year 1500, they pre-date Amerigo Vespucci's interest in the New World. Professor Cottle reminds us that new countries or continents are never named after a person's first name, always after his or her second name. Thus, America would have become "Vespucci Land" if the Italian explorer really gave his name to the newly discovered continent (i.e. Tasmania, Van Dieman's Land, Cook Islands, etc.). It seems that countries or territories are named after first names only when the name is that of a royal personage such as Prince Edward Island, Victoria, etc.).
John Cabot, father of later more-famed explorer Sebastian Cabot, was the English name of the Italian navigator whose voyages in 1497 and 1498 laid the groundwork for the later British claim to Canada. He moved to London in 1484 and was authorized by King Henry VII to search for unknown lands to the West. On his little ship Matthew, Cabot reached Labrador and mapped the North American coastline from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. As the chief customs official in Bristol, Richard Amerik could well have had his name attached to these maps; so the newly discovered continent, in England at least, became known as "Amerik's Land." We have to remember that Vespucci's voyages did not lead to the exploration or mapping of North America, maps of which were mainly British.
Vespucci had met and been inspired by Columbus. His voyages in 1499-1500 and 1501-1502 took him along the coast of South America where he discovered the Rio Plata. He discovered that the coast was that of a continent and not part of Asia (as John Cabot had thought). It was suggested in 1507 (the year Vespucci's discoveries were published) that the new lands be called America, but the name was only applied to South America, and it could very well have been taken from that already given the more northerly regions explored and mapped by Cabot. The voyage of the "Matthew" was recreated in 1997 when it sailed from Bristol to New England.
1. Welshmen may have settled America before Columbus.
2. Canada was explored and mapped by a Welshman.
3. America may have taken its name from a Welshman.
4. Pennsylvania is not named after William Penn.
5. St. Patrick was not an Irishman.
6. Wales is not represented on the British Flag.
7. A pungent vegetable is the national emblem of Wales.
8. The Welsh language is not Gaelic.
9. The modern Olympics did not begin in Athens.
10. A Welshman invented Lawn Tennis in Wales.
11. Welsh Immigrants began The Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
12. The Prince of Wales is not Welsh.
13. Golf's Stableford System was invented in Wales.
14. A Welshman was responsible for the mid-19th century US industrial might.
15. The Holy Grail is found in Wales.
16. A Welshman founded The New York Times.
17. A Welsh-American invented the automobile.
18. The world's biggest second-hand bookshop is in Wales.
19. Thanks to a Welshman hanged for murder, Britain has no Death Penalty.
20. The names of three geological divisions are derived from Wales.
21. Tre'r Ceiri is the largest Iron-Age fort in northwestern Europe.
22. A Welshman translated the first English account of the New World.
23. The world's longest railroad station name is in Wales.
24. Welshmen invented two important mathematical symbols.
25. Three leading universities owe their founding to Welshmen.
26. Wales is the most important sheep raising area in Europe.
27. The world's first mail-order shopping began in Newtown, Wales.
28. The last Briton to die in WW I was a Welshman.
29. Welsh gypsies were the last speak Romani in Europe.
30. A Welshman composed the music for the 1998 Academy Awards.
31. A Welshman discovered the link between Asian and European Languages.
32. One of the world's greatest botanic gardens is taking shape in Wales.
33. The earth's highest mountain is named after a Welshman.
34. The world's first wireless transmission took place in Wales.
35. A Welsh amputee conquered Everest.
36. Welshman Overdosed on Valium.
37. Public Enemy Number One was a Welshman.
38. Welsh Prison was Training Ground for IRA.
39. America's Oldest Ethnic Society is Welsh.
40. Cardiff is Home toWorld's Largest Retractable-Roof Arena.
41. The "Ugly House" was was built and inhabited in one day.
42. A Welsh coracle crossed the English Channel in 1974.
43. The Mumbles Swansea Railroad was the first to accept paying passengers.
44. A Welshman was the first to transmit and receive radio waves
