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of wild stories. Colton not only makes Augustine Washington a country gentleman of Cheshire, instead of a Virginian planter, but he certainly implies that he met Mary Ball there. The whole statement, for which Colton gives no authority, may be ruled out as impossible.

Still it will be urged that such a story must have some foundation. Concede this; there are many possible Washingtons and Balls, who may have resided at Cookham. Perhaps Joseph Ball lived there at some time or we may more probably imagine that some Englishman named Washington resided there. That gives a sufficient

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ENGLAND'S TITLE TO AMERICA.

The following paper is copied from the "Gentleman's Magazine" for March, 174C:

That the vast Continent of America was first discovered by Britons above three hundred years before the Spaniards had any footing there; and that the descendants of that first colony of Britons who then seated themselves there, are still a distinct people, and retain their original language, is a matter of fact, which may be indisputably proved by the concurrent account of several writers and travellers. I shall first quote a letter of Mr. Morgan Jones, Chaplain to the Plantations of South Carolina, sent to Dr. Thomas Lloyd of Pennsylvania, by whom it was transmitted to Charles Lloyd of Dol-y-fran in Montgomeryshire, Esq. and afterwards. afterwards communicated to Dr. Robert Plot," by the hands of Mr. Edward Lloyd, M. M. keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It is as follows:

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"These presents may certify all persons

1 Thomas Lloyd came to America with William Penn, and was deputy-governor of that Province after the Proprietor returned to England. He was a native of Dol-y-fran, Montgomeryshire, Wales, where he was born in 1649. He was a minister among the Friends or Quakers. He suffered persecution because of that ministry, and was much rev led by the "miserable apostate," George Keith EDITOR.]

Robert Plot was an English naturalist and antiquary, and flourished during the last half of the seventeenth century. He became Professor of Chemistry at Oxford, in 1684, and historiographer-royal, in 1688. He published histories of Oxfordshire and Staffordshire, and died in 1696.-EDITOR.]

Upon

whatsoever, that in the Year 1660, I being an Inhabitant in Virginia, and Chaplain to Major General Bennet of Nanseman [Nansemond] County, the said Major Bennet and Sir William Berkeley' sent two ships to Port Royal, now called South Carolina, which is sixty leagues to the Southward of Cape Fair, [Fear] and I was sent therewith to be their Minister. the eighth of April we set out from Virginia, and arriv'd at the harbour's mouth of Port Royal" the nineteenth of the same month, where we waited for the rest of the fleet that was to sail from Barbadoes and Bermuda with one M. West, who was to be Deputy Governor of the said place. As soon as the Fleet came in, the small Vessels that were with us, sailed up the River to a Place called the Oyster Point. There I continued about eight

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1 Sir William Berkeley was governor of Virginia from 1641 to 1677. He was unpopular with the planters who were imbued with republicanism, and had to contend with civil war for a time, brought about by what is known as Bacon's Rebellion.-EDITOR.]

2 There, upon Beaufort Island, in Port Royal Sound, some Huguenots or French Protestants chose a spot for their home, built a fort, and named it Carolina, in honor of their king. That was in the year 1562. The settlement was not permanent. Another settlement there, was attempted by the English in 1670, but the plan was abandoned.-[EDITOR.]

3 Joseph West was an associate of William Sayle in leading emigrants in three ships to make a settlement at Beaufort. There Sayle died in 1671, when the spot was abandoned, and the settlers went to Oyster Point, at the junction of Ashley and Cooper Rivers, where the city of Charleston now stands. EDITOR.]

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months; all of which time being almost starved for want of provisions, I and five more travell'd thro' the wilderness, till we came to the Tuscarora Country. There the Tuscarora Indians took us prisoners because we told them we were bound for Roanoake. That night they carried us into their town and shut us up close by ourselves, to our no small dread. The next day they entered into a consultation about us; which after it was over, their interpreter told us, that we must prepare ourselves to die the next morning. Whereupon being very much dejected, and speaking to this effect in the British tongue, "Have I escaped so many dangers, and must I now be knocked on the head like a dog?" Then presently an Indian came to me, which afterwards appeared to be a war captain belonging to the Sachem of the Doegs (whose original I find must needs be from the Old Britons) and took me up by the middle and told me in the British tongue, I should not die and thereupon went to the Emperor of Tusca rora, and agreed for my ransom and the men that were with me. They then welcomed us to their town, and entertained us very civilly and cordially four months; during which time, I had the opportunity of conversing with them familiarly in the British language; language; and did preach to them three times a week in the same Language; and they would usually confer with me about anything that was difficult therein; and at our departure they abundantly supply'd us with whatsoever was necessary to our support and well-being. Pontigo River, not far from Cape Atros. This is a brief recital of my travels among the Doeg Indians.

"MORGAN JONES

the son of JOHN JONES, of Basaly, near New Port, in the County of Monmouth. "New York, March 10th, 1685-6. "P. S. I am ready to conduct any Welshman or others to the Country."

1 The Tuscaroras inhabiting the region of the Cape Fear River,in North Carolina, were related, in language, to the Five Nations in New York. They were broken up by the European settlers in North Carolina, in 1712, and going Northward joined their kindred in New York, in 1714, when the Confederacy became known as the Six Nations.-[EDITOR.]

I shall next make some remarks on the above letter.

2

It appears by this narrative, that the author, Mr. Morgan Jones, was probably unacquainted with the history of his own country. He was surpriz'd (and well he might) to hear the Doeg Indians talk the British language; and concludes (and indeed very justly) that they must be descended from the Old Britons;' but when and how, our author seems to be at a loss. But the Welsh history (first wrote by Carado, Abbot of Llancarvan, and since published by Dr. Powell) sets the whole. matter in a clear light, and unravels the mystery. For it informs us, that in the year 1170, Madoc of Owen Gwynneth (to avoid the calamities and distractions of a civil war at home) took a resolution to go in quest of some remote country to live in peace," and so having directed his course due west he landed in some place of that vast continent of America. There being charmed with the fertility of the soil (after having built some slight fortifications for the security of his people) he returns home to North Wales, leaving one hundred and twenty men behind. There reciting his successful Voyage, and describing the fruitful and pleasant land he found out, he prevailed with many of his countrymen, both men and women, to return with him to enjoy that tranquillity in a remote country, which they could not in their own. The brave adventurers put out to sea in ten barges, laden with all manner of necessaries, and by God's providence landed safely in the same har

1 The Tuscaroras were a lighter color than the rest of the Indians, and were sometimes mentioned as "White Indians. A hundred years or more ago there were remains of Welsh words heard among some of our Indians; and the Mandrans in the far West, are so light colored that they are supposed to have inherited some of the blood of Madoc and his men. -EDITOR ]

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2 In the abbeys of Conway and Strat Flur, are old Welsh annals which were used by Humphrey Llwoyd (Lloyd) in his translation and continuation of Caradoe's History of Wales." That continuation extends from the year A. D. 1157 to 1270.-EDITOR.]

3 In the preserved works of several Welsh bards who sang before the time of Columbus, this emigration of Prince Madoc Is mentioned. Hakluyt had an account of it from the bard Guttun Owen, who mentioned the fact that Northmen had found a continent to the westward. As they had visited America more than one hundred and fifty years before Madoc's emigration, he was doubtless well acquainted with the fact that such a continent existed.-{EDITOR.]

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1 The general impression has been that Madoc landed on

the coast of the Carolinas if anywhere in America. The whole story is sometimes regarded as a myth, but if the account given by Mr. Jones be true (and his veracity has never been impeached, nor has it been verified), it certainly gives an air of truth to the narrative. It was in North Carolina that Jones found the British speaking Indians, and preached intelligently to them. He makes no mention, however, of any information which he obtained from them respecting the origin of that language among them. He gave other accounts of his travels among them, but only the letter above quoted has been preserved.-E1OR.]

In the "Gentleman's Magazine" for April 1749. appeared

Bara, Tad, Mam, Buwch, Cligiar, Llwynoc, Coch-y-dwr, with many more recited in Sir Thomas Herbert's Travels' p. 222. But by this narrative it is evident, that they keep as yet a distinct people, at least in the year 1660, when our author was amongst them. For Mr. Jones says, he not only conversed with them about the ordinary affairs of life, but preached to them three times a week in the British tongue; and that they usually consulted him when any thing appeared difficult in the same Language, which evidently demonstrates, that they still preserve their original language, and are still a colony or people unmixed.

Now if a premier discovery confers a right (as it seems it is a maxim in politics) then the Crown of England has an indisputable right to the sovereignty of those countrys in America; for the Spaniards had no footing there 'till the year 1492, 322 years since the first discovery by Prince Madoc. Some Statesmen indeed would fain have persuaded Q. Elizabeth to insist on this title (as is mentioned by Dr. Heylin, p. 1900, Ed. 3, of his Geo

the following: Since our last, we have found the following graphy.) But they had only an obscure

translation of the British Epitaph (See page 105) on Prince Madoc. It is printed in Herbert's Travels, who saw the

monument."

"MADOC AP OWEN was I called,
Strong, tall and comely, not enthralled
With homebred pleasure, but for fame
Through land and sea I sought the same."

Sir Thomas Herbert above mentioned did not travel in America but in the East, and his work published on his re

tradition then, that was thought that would not bear proof. But this narrative sets off the whole matter beyond dispute; wherein our author writes with such simplicity and unaffected style, and without any studied Eloquence as 'tis plain he had

turn in 1634, gives an account of his "Travels in Africa and nothing in view but to state the naked

the Greater Asia, and he could not have seen the monument if it was in Mexico, as the vicar of St. David's observes. Some scholar in the "Gloucester (England) Journal” thus translated it, at the same time :

"Madoc my name, oft soaked in billows dire, OWEN, the Prince of North Wales was my sire: My sole ambition was to scour the main Despising native honors, wealth and fame."

Another translation was given by one who is described as "a young lady, who is excellently accomplished in all the amiable beauties of mind, person and conversation-the Graces, the Muses, and the Virtues are her own"'—as follows:

"Here lies the mighty Owen's Heir

In glorious deeds as well as birth:

I scorn'd of Lands the menial care
And sought through seas a foreign Earth."

Our classical readers may be gratified by a perusal of a Latin translation of the Epitaph which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, Volume x, page 519.

That the Welsh Prince Madoc, son of Owen King of Wales, went with a colony from that country to America, and left there traces of his language, seems probable. All accounts of him afterwards are doubtless fables and conjectures.[EDITOR.]

truth. And since this is a matter of fact, so well attested, backed with such a variety of incidents, let not the proud Dons any more assume the glory of this noble discovery; but let our most puissant Monarch of Great Britain claim his most just rights. Britons strike home. THEOPHILUS EVANS, Vicar of

St. David's in Brecon.

1 The English meaning of these words are: Pengum, a bird with a white head: Groeso, welcome; Gwenddur,

a river with a white stream: Bara, bread; Tad, father; Mam, mother: Burch, a cow: Cligiar, a partridge; Llunoc, a fox; Coch-y-dur, a bird with white feathers that frequents the waters.-"Gentleman's Magazine," Volume x, page 194.

AMERICA.-ORIGIN OF THIS NAME.

Editor of the American Historical Record: You desire of me an account how the name of America came to be applied to our Continent.

The beautiful, but unjust name of our portion of the globe may be said to be of German origin, in a twofold manner. Emric or Amric is an old Germanic personal name. Am means diligence or activity; hence Ameise, the German for ant, the industrious creature by way of excellence; and ric (our rich) signifies strong, abundant. Amric, therefore, meant the very industrious or active. German conquerors of Italy carried thither German names, and Amric was euphonized by the Italians into Amrico or Americo, which in turn was Latinized into Americus. So far the origin of Vespucci's name.

How it came to be applied to our continent was thus:

The Germans, neither among the early discoverers nor conquistadores, nevertheless took the deepest interest in the nascent science of cosmography, the name for nearly that which is now called geography, and through this science influenced positively and practically that great Age of Maritime Discovery and geographic expansion which widened commerce from the little yet wonderfully influential Mediterranean to the commerce of the Atlantic, the Southern Ocean, and the Pacific. Behaim's Globe,' and Mercator's (Krämer's) Plan, without which Navigation could not have much advanced, sufficiently prove this fact. Lorraine was a German principality at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and the reigning duke had formed, at his court, an Academy of Cosmography, of which a schoolmaster at Strasburg, then as now again, a Ger

1 It so happens that this evening (March 19th) a lecture will be delivered before the American Geographical Society, in New York, by Rev. M. Maury on Martin Behaim's Globe and its Influence upon Geographical Science.-I would suggest a lecture on the Influence of Behaim's Globe and Mercator's Chart on Navigation, Commerce and the Expansion and Progress of Civilization. It would be a noble lecture if well done and nobly planned.

man city, was a member, or to which at any rate he proposed the name of America for the the Western Hemisphere or for North America. The name of this resolute and sagacious school master was Waldseemüller (Wood-lake-miller,) which he transformed into the Graeco-Latin monster of a name, Hylacomilus; and Hylacomilus is the man that first wronged Columbus by immortalizing so grandly the name of one who followed the great proto-euretes at a long long distance, and who has been outstripped in the character of a discoverer by very many later navigators. But so it was; a name for North America had become an urgent want, felt by all the thinking men of Europe. A distinct thing or idea, must have a distinct name; it is a requisite of things. The West Indies, no good or correct name at all events, had become wholly useless since the northern mainland had became known, and since the vast Pacific had been revealed. Humboldt in his contributions to the history of geography has shown all this. Psychologically or ethically speaking there has never be erected a monument so magnificent, undeserving and cruelly unjust; as if the Madonna di Sisto were not called by Raphael's name, but by that of a man who framed it first! Phonetically speaking there could be no more beautiful name with its musically flowing four vowels over only three consonants, and they not rugged; and practically speaking there it is, and never to be changed. The misfortune of our namelessness led the men of our revolution to use America, along with Continent, for our country, and we find it again in the United States of America, not North America, although the seal of our treasury has to this day the Latin scroll : seal of the Treasury of North America as every dollar note shows.

As United States is often very inconvenient to be used in the adjective form, we still use frequently American for that which belongs to our country or govern

ment. Columbia was seized upon by poets, and ever so many towns and counties are called Columbia, while a republic in South America bears this name, but the continent or continental isle, which as appears from the Book of Prophecies, col

lected by Columbus himself, he meant to discover, has been for ever wrenched, as to its name, from him to whom it most justly belonged. FRANCIS LIEBER.

New York, March, 1872.

LIEUTENANT WILLIAM FELTMAN'S DIARY.

The RECORD is indebted to Mr. Louis C. Massey of Philadelphia, for the following extracts from the MS. diary of William Feltman, Lieutenant,

in the 1st Regiment of Pennsylvania, before Yorktown, A. D. 1781. The original is in the possession of Mr. Massey.

October 17th, 1781. This day flags passing and repassing. Lord Cornwallis propos'd deputies from each army to meet at Moor's House to agree on terms for the surrender of the Garrison at York and Gloster, [Gloucester] and hostilities to cease for twenty-four hours. His excellency, G Washington allow'd my Lord but two hours. An answer was sent by three o'clock, P. M. when a cessation of arms took place. Lord Cornwallis sent a flag he would surrender himself a prisoner of war only allowing him some small preliminary, which would be settled in the morning.2

1

This day we finished a very fine Battery of thirteen pieces of heavy Ordnance.

October 18th, 1781. Flags passing and re-passing this whole day. This day our Fleet hove in sight

1 Moore's House was very pleasantly situated in the midst of a broad lawn, within a quarter of a mile of the York river, when I visited and sketched it on Christmas day, 1848. A copy of the drawing may be seen in the Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution, volume II, page 324, second edi tion. This house stood on the right of the American lines, below Yorktown. There the commissioners met. were Colonel John Laurens and the Viscount de Noailles, a kinsman of Madame Lafayette, on the part of the Americans; and on the part of the British, Lieutenant Colonel Dundas and Major Ross. They met there early in the morning of the 18th. EDITOR.]

They

2 Washington requested Cornwallis to send his proposals in writing previous to the meeting of the commissioners, which he did. These commissioners could not settle the terms definitely, and the British commissioners desired to submit a rough draft of what might be agreed to, to Cornwallis. But Washington would brook no delay in negotiations. He had a fair copy of terms of capitulation made, and early on the morning of the 19th sent them to Cornwallis, with a letter expressing his expectation that they would be signed, by eleven o'clock. Cornwallis signed them before that hour

EDITOR]

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1 The French fleet under the Count de Grasse is here alluded to. It was blockading the mouth of the York river, transporting troops and assisting materially in the siege of Yorktown. The Pennsylvania troops here alluded to, were brought down from the " Head of Elk," near Chesapeake bay.

2 Colonel Alexander Hamilton. He had displayed great prowess during the siege as commander of a battallion of light infantry, and was, at all times, Washington's most trusted counsellor. Colonel Nicholas Fish, father of the present Secretary of State, related that when Washington received the sealed packet from Cornwallis, asking for a suspension of hostilities, he was riding along his lines. He had passed Hamilton, but so soon as he had received the dispatch, he sent for him, and asked his opinion of the proposition.

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