1.22.1804: “I inclosed you the map of a Mr. Evans, a Welshman, employed by the Spanish government for that purpose, but whose original object I believe had been to go in search of the Welsh Indians, said to be up the Missouri.” —to Captain Meriwether Lewis from President Thomas JeffersonContinue Reading
Welsh legend has it that a prince set sail for North America in the 1100’s. Madoc couldn’t have known where he was going. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have chosen to land at Mobile Bay in present-day Alabama.
Imagine, crawling out of a tiny boat after a trip across an ocean, only to have one’s carcass picked clean by mosquitoes and no-see-ums and alligators, not to mention the natives who were already there.Continue Reading
Historians argue about initial sightings of the New World. Few people really believe Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492, especially given that people had already been living here for centuries.
But how did they get here? Who from the outside (or from ‘off’ as we would say in Charleston) saw them first? Continue Reading