On the Origin of the Americans: Canary Islands and Phoenicians
Turning now to western Asia, we find the honor of first settling America given to the adventurous Phoenicians. The sailors of Carthage are also supposed by some writers to have first reached the New World; but, as the exploits of colony and mother-country are spoken of by most writers in the same breath, it will be the simplest plan to combine the two theories here. They are based on the fame of these people as colonizing navigators more than upon any actual resemblance that have been found to exist between them and the Americans. It is argued that their ships sailed beyond the Pillars of Hercules to the Canary Islands, and that such adventurous explorers having reached that point would be sure to seek farther. The records of their voyages and certain passages in the works of several of the writers of antiquity are supposed to show that the ancients knew of a land lying in the far west.
Diodorus Siculus relates that the Phoenicians discovered a large island in the Atlantic Ocean, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, several days' journey from the coast of Africa. This island abounded in all manner of riches. The soil was exceedingly fertile; the scenery was diversified by rivers, mountains, and forests. It was the custom of the inhabitants to retire during the summer to magnificent country-houses, which stood in the midst of beautiful gardens. Fish and game were found in great abundance. The climate was delicious, and the trees bore fruit at all seasons of the year. The Phoenicians discovered this fortunate island by accident, being driven upon its coast by contrary winds. On their return they gave glowing accounts of its beauty and fertility, and the Tyrians, who were also noted sailors, desired to colonize it.
Several authors have believed these "Fortunate Islands" to be America, but in all probability they were the Canary Islands.
The theory that the Americans are of Jewish descent has been discussed more minutely and at greater length than any other. Its advocates, or at least those of them who have made original researches, are comparatively few; but the extent of their investigations, and the multitude of parallelisms they adduce in support of their hypothesis, exceed by far any we have yet encountered.
Of the earlier writers on this subject, Garcia is the most voluminous. Of modern theorists, Lord Kingsborough stands pre-eminently first, as far as bulky volumes are concerned; though Adair, who devotes half of a thick quarto to the subject, is by no means second to him in enthusiasm--or rather fanaticism--and wild speculation.
The idea advanced is that America was settled by the ten lost tribes of Israel, in support of which a multitude of similarities between American and Jewish customs and characteristics are adduced, yet none of them sufficient to influence any cool-headed critic.
We now come to the theory that the Americans, or at least part of them, are of Celtic origin. In the old Welsh annals there is an account of a voyage made in the latter half of the twelfth century by one Madoc, a son of Owen Gwynedd, prince of North Wales. The story goes, that after the death of Gwynedd his sons contended violently for the sovereignty. `Madoc, who was the only peaceable one among them, determined to leave his disturbed country and sail in search of some unknown land where he might dwell in peace. He accordingly procured an abundance of provisions and a few ships, and embarked with his friends and followers. For many months they sailed westward without finding a resting-place; but at length they came to a large and fertile country, where, after sailing for some distance along the coast in search of a convenient landing-place, they disembarked and permanently settled. After a time Madoc, with part of his company, returned to Wales, where he fitted out ten ships with all manner of supplies, prevailed on a large number of his countrymen to join him, and once more set sail for the new colony, which, though we hear no more about him or his settlement, he is supposed to have reached safely.
Claims have also been put in for an Irish discovery of the New World. St. Patrick is said to have sent missionaries to the "Isles of America," and early writers have gravely discussed the probability of Quetzalcoatl [the Mexican white deity] having been an Irishman. There is no great improbability that the natives of Ireland may have reached, by accident or otherwise, the northeastern shores of the new continent in very early times, but there is certainly no evidence to prove that they did.
The evidences in favor of the several theories described by Mr. Bancroft, as presented by the many writers upon these subjects, are given by him in considerable detail, and their probability discussed, with the final conclusion that none of the theorists have succeeded in proving that the Americans were of Old-World origin, and that "no one at the present day can tell the origin of the Americans: they may have come from any one or from all the hypothetical sources enumerated in the foregoing pages, and here the question must rest until we have more light upon the subject."