"Madoc,.true whelp of ()wain Gwynedd, would not have lam[ or

great wealth. but the hroad sea," and alludes to his passion for the sea. l ut even here from the context it appears t.h;;t t.he Iadoc referred to was a fishcnm rather than a navigator, ;red there is not the slightest indication that he ever made a great voyage. z These passages exhaust all that c;m be found in the hVelsh bards, as they now sinwive, which has any rclatim to Madoc ap Owain.

The Welsh historians are not more satisfactory. A triad which has heen often quoted speaks thus: "The three v;mishcd losses of the Isle f Britain: First, Gayran. son of Acdd;m, and his men, who went in search of the Green Isles of Floods and were never heard of more; second, 5Icrlin . . . who went to sea in the House of Glass; third, 5Iadoc, son of Owain Gwyncdd, who went to sea with three hundred nlen in ten ships, and i is not known where they went." It is to be noted that here 5Iadoc is coupled with two wholly mythical persons, and that no knowledge is expressed of the place o which he went. The triad is by experts ascribed to the sixteenth century, md has no sort of historic wdue, a even if it,s mereting were Mtogcthcr clear, which it is not. The next writer cited is Ieuan rcchva, who is quoted as saying that "an illegitimate son of Owain Gwyncdd accompanied Madoc across the broad sea to lands which they had found, and there dwelt." 4 But as yet the passage has uot been discovered, and the word translated "broad sea" might perfectly well mean the Irish Sea. Guttyu )wain's chronicle has been as recklessly adduced, as saying th;t Madoc sailed with ten ships, but here, too, the passage cited cannot be discovered. Some have surmised that the origimd nnmuscripts have perished, and that only mutilated copies have survived2 This is doubtless possible, yet what is required is positive evidence, and the uncritical assumptions of perfervid patriots and atomlists camlot be regarded with too great suspicion.

In its present form the story obtMns cun'cncy late in the sixteenth century, md apparently originates with the discoveries oi' one ])avid Iugram, who sailed with Hawkyns to the West Indies in 1568, and afterwards travelled on the American continent. Finding that the natives called certain bird "penguin," he jumped to the conclusion that this was the WeLsh word "pengwyn" or "whitt.

Qu-ted Madoc, 18, Il. 2 Madoc, 205, 206. * 3Tads% 21, 21}. leu.m Bl-e.hva fi-urished, 14Y). Ma,lot-, 22, 23.

As t, the h*s ,1' the Welsh MSS. lhrtmgh decay, etc., see Madoc, 217, 218.