.MTA3NQ.NzI2OTY

very far in the east, and from over the great waters. I conversed with him in Welsh, I asked him to count in Welsh, he immediately counted to a hundred or more. Amongst other things I asked him how [underlined:] they came to retain their language so well from mixing with the language of other Indians - He answered that they had a law or an established custom in their country, forbidding any to teach their children any other language until they had attained their 12th year, and after that age they were at liberty to learn any language they pleased - I was astonished when I heard and saw a man with his face painted, his arms ornamented and feathers in his hair, speaking Welsh as fluently as if he had been born in the vicinity of Snowdon - His hair was shaved, excepting round the crown of his head, and there it was very long and neatly plaited, and it was on the crown of the head he had placed the feathers, which I mentioned before, to ornament himself. The situation of these Indians is about 800 miles N.E. of Philadelphia, according to his statement, and they are called in general the [underlined] Asquaws or the [underlined] Asquaw nation. Among the great variety of accounts of the Welsh Indians, formerly collected, some of them point out a tribe of them agreeing with the above; but the main body of this people is represented as situated at a very great distance from this, as we conceive, a detached party; their country being on the upper branches of the Missouri, coming from the S.W. and are

/*reviewed CDM Dec 2018*/