Madoc

Madoc or Madog (Madoc ap Owain Gwynedd) , fl. 1170?, quasi-historical Welsh prince. According to Welsh legend, Madoc, said to be a son of Owain Gwynedd, discovered America 300 years before Columbus. Witnesses' accounts of finding supposedly Welsh-speaking Native Americans have served to keep alive the story, which is otherwise unsupported by evidence. He is the subject of Robert Southey's Madoc.

Madoc, a Welsh sailor, probably legendary, who in the 12th century is said to have dreamed of a new continent beyond the western horizons and to have sailed in search of it, discovering America nearly 350 years before Columbus reached it in 1492 and spending the remainder of his life with the indigenous people. The story was widely believed in Wales, and its acceptance grew with reports filtering back of hunters and traders in the new continent having met local inhabitants who spoke Welsh. It received a tremendous boost in 1669 when the Revd Morgan Jones returned from a missionary tour through North Carolina with a story of how he and some companions were captured by local inhabitants who threatened to kill them. When Jones turned to his companions and told them, in Welsh, to prepare themselves for death, their captors were said to have understood Jones's remark, welcomed them as cousins, and set them free. But when between 1792 and 1797 another Welsh preacher, John Evans, explored the valleys of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio rivers in search of Welsh-speaking indigenous people he was unable to find one. There is general acceptance today that the story of Madoc's discovery is a complete myth and that Columbus can remain unchallenged in his claim to fame so far as Madoc is concerned.