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Don't forget Madoc, Prince of Wales
According to ancient Chinese legend a small boat
captained by Huai Yuan was blown off course, and it
ran ahead of the wind for days. When it stopped,
finally, it ran aground on land which "faced the
setting sun."
This land was populated with many strange people and
animals. America?
The assumption had always been that this was just a
legend. The idea that a small boat could survive
being blown across thousands of miles of open water,
and then sail back to tell of it seemed impossible.
Still, the legends persist, and so it is possible that
Chinese sailors were early visitors to the Americas,
too. Obviously, nothing came of the visit.
Xiamen Lee
One also can't forget Leif Erikson, who made it to
Newfoundland
around
the same time. There are also stories among the
Iclandic Sagas of
their warriors arriving on the coast of
Canada/Newfoundland and
being
expelled the first few times by the fierce natives,
and some rather
Northern European traits among those Native
Americans as well.
-----Original Message----- From: Dean DeBolt
<ddebolt@MAIL.UWF.EDU>
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
<ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU> Date:
Tuesday, October 10, 2000 9:59 AM Subject:
[ARCHIVES] Don't
forget
Madoc, Prince of Wales
I did a wonderful historiographical paper for the
Gulf Coast
History and Humanities Conference back in 1991 or
1992
about the story and legend of Prince Madoc of Wales
who
reputedly sailed into Mobile Bay about 900 A.D. and
whose
Welsh culture was absorbed into the Native
Americans.
Echoes of this legend are shown by rumors of Welsh
Indians,
Elizabeth I's claim to North America as English by
right of
title from Madoc (led to Roanoke and Jamestown
settlement),
Jefferson's instructions to Lewis and Clark to look
for the
Welsh Indians in their exploration of the Louisiana
Territory,
and the discovery of a unique farming,
"coracle-like" boat
building, mud/thatch hut-living Indian tribe on the
upper waters of
the Missouri, the Mandans---and the later paintings
of them by George
Catlin who was struck by their blue-eyes and
"european" features.
It was a lot of fun tracing this story through time
and while we may
never know the answer, it is a good a contender as
any for
pre-Columbian "visits" to America.
Dean
Dean DeBolt
University Librarian
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