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 Madoc landed in Newfoundland, in Virginia, in Florida, in Mexico, or in the Azores, all of which have at various times been suggested for his landfall. The Welsh-speaking Indians are as historical as the Hebrew, Scotch, and Gaelic-speaking tribes which have at various dates been discovered in America by various enthusiasts.

Between the close of the twelfth century and the middle of the fourteenth, English shipping made great advances, in spite of the pirates who haunted the Narrow Seas. Lundy, at the close of the twelfth century, was one of their strongholds, and more than one expedition was sent against them by the English kings. Continual embargoes on shipping must, however, have interfered greatly with the development of trade. Vessels were wanted for the fleet, and as there was no great difference between a ship of war and a merchantman in these times, the vessels of traders were stopped and armed. The Crusades carried English seamen into the Mediterranean; the fisheries took them north to Scotland and the coast of Norway. The treaty of friendship and reciprocity between England and Norway in 1217 shows that there was intercourse between the two, in spite of the terrible pirates, amongst whom the men of the Cinque Ports were not the least formidable. The merchants and subjects of each power were to pass to and fro without let or hindrance. This treaty was renewed in 1269. Yarmouth at or about this time was a flourishing port with a large herring fishery, and Lynn was also a very prosperous place. Contemporary civic seals show the merchant vessel of that time to have been a ship of some size, carrying one mast and a square sail furled aloft, with a long boat on deck amidships. There are elevated stages at the bow and stern.

Scots voyages must have been stopped for a time by an absurd