Page:Royalnavyhistory01clow.djvu/347

 perfected. The Norsemen, it is true, made very long voyages at an early date, but they usually coasted as much as possible, and in sailing from Norway to Winland would go by Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland, when the tract of open sea to be crossed was comparatively small. The Welsh had no reputation as navigators; and their bards do not mention other voyages; indeed, they hardly allude to ships. Norse literature is full of ships and nothing else. The ships of the Welsh are perfectly unknown to us, and therefore it is useless to speculate upon them. There is no evidence to show that they had advanced much beyond the coracle at this date: we do not often meet their navy in English history; we do not read much of Welsh pirates at a time when every seafaring nation took to piracy; and Welshmen were not prominent amongst our early sailors. There is some ground for thinking that the early Britons were fair sailors; there is none for supposing that the Welsh had a navy or ventured upon long voyages in the twelfth century. The tale of Madoc's ship is almost the only naval incident in Welsh arehæology. Of the great naval battle in the Menai Straits we can find no trace in contemporary authorities; it seems as much a figment as Madoc's voyages. It is, then, superfluous to discuss the question whether