assist his brother-in-law. In 1177, his brother Rhodri escaped from prison, and obtained possession of Anglesey, where he was received by the people as their sovereign, and being joined by Maelgwn, his brother from Ireland, where he had made his escape, he forced David to the English side of the Conwy, where he only kept possession of Rhuddlan Castle. His cruelty to his own countrymen and his alliance with King Henry having made him unpopular among the Welsh, he depended for assistance on the English army, but was never able to gain his lost ground.

That the passage alluded to refers to David's defeat by Rhodri, assisted by Maelgwn, is very apparent. Not one of "temper mild" can be found. in the original, but of "strong passion," "breaking off in wrath," "one on land in Arvon allaying ambition, and another high-minded on the sea." That is, David's overwhelming defeat was accomplished by forcing him from Arvon on the land, and preventing him to re-gain Anglesey on the Menai, leaving no alternative but to retreat over the Conwy near the confluence of which with the Menai at Aberconwy was the fiercest struggle. The "possession easily succored separated from every one for a settlement," meaning undoubtedly the island of Mona (Anglesey), then in the possession of Rhodri. The date, circumstances, and their description are of no avail to the Madoc disappearance. The poem proceeds to describe the second conflict "on the shore of Lleyn," where

Rhodri was and the people on his side "ten to one," literally conforming with the prose history of the events.

The next extract misquoted in the endeavor to establish the Madogian tradition is from a poem by the same author to Prince Llewelyn, and rendered thus:

Needless is it to ask all anxiously

Who from invaders will our waters guard; Llewelyn, he will guard the boundary

wave;

The lion i' the breach, ruler of Gwynedd, The land is his to Powys' distant bounds, He met the Saxons by Llauwynwy lake, Across the wave is he victorious

Nephew of Madoc whom we more and

more

Lament that he is gone.

Again the words in italics have no equivalents in the original, and have been added, evidently, to support the Madoc migration fallacy. The next succeeding line of the original added to these will dispose of this matter at once. A translation of the whole passage in the original is here given to show how it has been distorted in the foregoing to serve unauthoritative purposes:

The fortifications are calcareous around

Maelgynig

Like the greyhound their men on every path;

It is needless to follow too far to enquire who it is,

Who shall guard the boundary water against every violence?

Llewelyn guards it, the lion in the breach, The governor who owns Gwynedd as far as Mawddwy,

An overpowering hand whilst swaying on the water course,

Lloegria's adversary beyond the lake of Llwmynwy,

The grandson of Madoc inured to conflicts;

The grandson of Owain the comely whom

we mourn.

The

It will be observed that the "nephew" has disappeared, and that we have instead "the grandson of Madoc," and "the grandson of Owain" in the same person. Llewelyn to whom this poem is addressed is the son of Iorwerth Drwyndwn, or the broken nosed, the oldest legitimate son of Owain Gwynedd, and rightful successor of his father to the throne, but was objected to as a ruler on account of the blemish on his face. The mother of Llewelyn was Marred, the daughter of Madoc ap Meredydd, Prince of Powys, consequently he was grandson of Madoc through his mother, and grandson of Owain through his father. Therefore this passage is void of any allusion to Madoc his uncle, his father's brother, and the "boundary water" of Gwynedd will afford him no assistance to migrate.

A passage from an ode by Gwalchmai to Dafydd, son of Owain Gwynedd, is next brought to our notice, although in chronological order it should have been the first:

tion which we must add, it being the first line of the next stanza:

One son of Maredudd and three sons of Gruffudd

Hold the advantage of ministering to the bards.

The poet in the foregoing passage mentions four persons, viz., Owain, Cadwallawn, Cadwaladyr and Madoc, and adds that they are

One son of Maredudd and three sons of Gruffudd.

Gruffydd ab Cynan, Prince of North Wales, was the father of Owain, Cadwallawn and Cadwaladyr; Maredudd ab Bleddyn, Prince of Powys, was the father of Madoc. Owain succeeded his father, Gruffydd ab Cynan, to the throne of Gwynedd (North Wales) as Owain Gwynedd. After the death of Maredudd ab Bleddyn, Prince of Powys, his son Madoc, mentioned in the poem, succeeded to one moiety of Powys, which from him was called Powys Fadawg, or the Powys of Madoc, while the other division was called Powys Wenwynwyn, from Gwenwynwyn, the grandson of his brother Owain Gwynedd. Madoc

they were,

Who so well of me merited praise; Owain the fierce above the muse's song; The manly hero of the conflict Cadwallawn ere he was lost,

It was not with smooth words he praised me;

Cadwaladyr lover of the harmony of exhil arating songs

He was wont to honor me.
Madoc distributing his goods,
More he did to please than displease.
The above extract stops short of
one line to give it the key of explana-

udd ab Cynan, sister of Owain Gwynedd. Here again, the apparition of Madoc, the son of Owain Gwynedd, as the migrator to America, vanishes in the light of investigation in favor of Madoc his uncle.

We now come to the last quotation from the poems of contemporary bards, supposed to be corroborative of the migration argument. It is taken from an elegy on the family of Owain Gwynedd by Cynddelw:

wave

Slain? How I sorrow for the helpful friend!
Even in battle was he free from hate.
Yet not in vain grasp'd he the warrior's
spear.

Dr. W. Owen Pughe, the eminent Welsh lexicographer, in his Welsh dictionary explained in English, containing above 100,000 words, with 12,000 quotations, gives the following rendering of the original of the above under the word "dygyforth," which means overwhelming:

Where did the wrath of overflowing seas Cut Madoc off? Grief for the aiding friend Remains to me! in ruthless conflicts high His hate; nor tame was in the porch his spear.

But under the word "anwas," which means a coward, he gives a different translation to the last sentence:

The coward was hateful in the toiling conflict,

Violent was the spear in the pɔrch.

The various readings prove the difficulty to interpret the works of the bards of the 12th century, owing to the difference between the orthography of that time and the present, the construction of the meters, and the brevity in which the meaning is expressed. Cynddelw flourished

from about 1150 to 1200. He was bard to Owain Gwynedd, Madoc ap Maredudd, and to David, son of Owain Gwynedd.

In his elegy on the family of Owain Gwynedd, from which we quote, he enumerates those of the family who had fallen in battles, with

tics and encounters. A lengthy extract is not required, but after a careful reading and a close examination of the construction, we venture another version, different from any former attempts, believing it to be more in unison with the original, and better suited to the circumstances alluded to. The bard after naming among others, Asser, Goronwy, Morgan, Rhys, Einiawn and Ardderch, brings Madoc in the same category of slain heroes:

Is not Ardderch slain? in defending a host.

He was slain the beloved of my soul; A body of tumultuous host impetuous with their flamed quivers,

A circle of his equal the world needeth.

Is not Madoc slain by the overflowing sea?
I am grieved for my aiding friend;
There was a coward in the hateful conflict,
There was a violent preparation in the
passage.

The unequivocal meaning of “anwas" is a "coward," an appellation not likely to be applied to Madoc in lamenting the loss of an "aiding friend." "Par," may mean a spear, but the most common use of the word is in a causative sense, synonymous with the English "pare." It would appear that Dr. W. O. Pughe, knowing of the Madoc tradition, endeavored to reconcile the meaning of the words quoted, with that supposition, thereby making his rendering of this passage obscure and conflicting.,

Wales lies on the western coast of the island of Great Britain. It is bounded on the north by the Irish Sea, on the west by St. George's Channel, on the south by Bristol Channel, and on the east by the border counties of Monmouth, Hereford, Salop and Chester. Wales is about 140 miles from north to south, and an average of a little over 50 miles from east to west, having an area of 7,219 square miles, a little less than the State of Massachusetts, and a little more than one-sixth the area of the State of Ohio. It has about 300 miles of coast line, with many good harbors; from the estuary of the Dee on the north to the estuary of the Severn on the south. Milford Haven is said to be one of the best harbors in England. Wales is a mountainous country. It has three chains of mountains, the Snowdon, the Berwyn and the Black mountain. Beside these, there are mountain groups, so that every county has its mountains, except the Island of Anglesey. The highest mountain in England and Wales is Snowdon, 3,570 feet. There are a number of other peaks in the Snowdon range nearly as high. The highest in the Berwyn range is Aran Mawddwy, 2,972 feet, and the next highest is Cader Idris, 2,929 feet. The highest in the Black mountain.

chain is Brecknock Beacon, 2,910 feet.

The principal rivers of Wales, on the east, are the Dee and the Severn. Both these rivers have their origin and embouchure in Wales, though

a

considerable portion of their course is in England. The Usk and the Wye also have their sources in Wales, but pass into England. The streams having their origin in the mountains of Wales flow in different directions; the Dee, the Clwyd, the Conway, the Ogwen, and the Seiont, flow north; the Dovy, Rheidiol, Ystwyth,Teifi and many smaller streams flow west; the Cleddy and Cledden Towy, Bury, Taff and Romney flow south; the Dee, the Severn, the Usk and Wye flow eastward from Wales. then change their course. These streams generally run very rapidly, and form many beautiful waterfalls. There are many beautiful mountain lakes in Wales, but nearly all quite small, the largest being the Bala lake, 4 miles long and one wide.

The geology of Wales is interesting. The principality rests on solid foundations. In Anglesey and Harlech, in Merionethshire, we find the Cambrian rock; in all Cardigan, the greater portion of Carmarthen, in parts of Pembroke, Montgomery, Merioneth, and Carnarvon, the upper silurian. The Devonian old red *Copyrighted.