certain that Welsh Indians no longer exist in this part of the New World, though Catlin imagined that he detected traces of Welsh in the Mandan tongue, amd found that this tribe was of lighter colour than the other Indians, and that it used skin coracles, similar to the old Celtic "curraghs."[1] In certain of their customs he thought he could see traces of a Welsh influence. This, however, has not been confirmed by subsequent observation; and there is no one now who connects the Mandans with the descendants of Madoc.
The indirect evidence does not point decisively to the Welsh settlement. North of Mexico there are no remains which can be referred to them; the pottery found in the Ohio tombs indicates the presence of a civilised race, but the skulls found near them are Mongolian not Caucasian. There are earth mounds in the Ohio valley, which are like those of the Celts, but this resemblance gives no proof.[2] A silver crucifix, with the letters I.S., dug up in 1844 near the Ohio, was almost certainly lost by some Frenchman or trader from Canada.
In Mexico, we are told, the Spaniards, when they landed, found that the cross was revered, and that baptism was in use. This, however, only proves that certain religious rites are common to all civilised men; it affords no real grounds for the conclusion that the Mexicans were Welsh. Their language makes this in the last degree improbable, unless the Celtic immigrants were wholly absorbed. The Mexicans, indeed, held some talk with the Spaniards to the effect that white men had visited then before; and the same tradition has been observed elsewhere amongst the Indians.[3] It may be only a tradition, and does not necessarily point to the reality of the Welsh voyages.
What evidence there is, is, then, by no means strong in favour of the story. If clear traces of the legend could be discovered in Welsh literature before the Columbian discovery of America, the case would be very different, especially if the evidence were of the trustworthy quality of the Icelandic Sagas. The vague, indefinite, and unprecise nature of what testimony we possess, is apparent on examination. The story does not appear in its present shape till
