after the Revolution, are to be found the Osbornes, Brevards, Polks and others who had been interested in Liberty Hall.

Nor did the fair sex of Mecklenburg lack the patriotism which was so conspicuous in their brothers. The following is an extract from the South Carolina and American General Gazette, February 2-9, 1776:

The young ladies of the best families of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, have entered into a voluntary association that they will not receive the addresses of any young gentlemen of that place, except the brave volunteers who served in the expedition to South Carolina, and assisted in subduing the Scovilite insurgents. The ladies being of opinion, that such persons as stay loitering at home, when the important calls of their country demand their services abroad, must certainly be destitute of that nobleness of sentiment, that brave, manly spirit which would qualify them to be the defenders and guardians of the fair sex. The ladies of the adjoining County of Rowan, have desired the plans of a similar association to be drawn up and prepared for signature.

Thomas Polk's great-grandfather, Robert Polk, or Pollock, emigrated from Ireland and settled in Maryland. Thomas's father removed from Pennsylvania, where Thomas left the parental domicile and, after traveling through Maryland and Virginia, settled in Mecklenburg. He held the offices of surveyor, treasurer and commissioner of Charlotte. In the Revolutionary War he was colonel of the second of two battalions of minute men from the Salisbury district. He was subsequently colonel of the Fourth regiment which joined the army under Washington. The North Carolina troops were incorporated into the Southern Army under General Lincoln in November, 1779. Polk was appointed Commissary-General of North Carolina and Commissioner of Purchase for the army after the fall of Charleston. He subsequently resigned and became District Commissary. After the Revolution he amassed a considerable fortune from speculations in real estate. He died in Charlotte in 1793, sixty-one years of age. His son William, also attained prominence during the Revolutionary struggle and his grandson, Leonidas, was the bishop-general of the Confederate forces during the war of the rebellion.

Ephraim Brevard was graduated from Princeton in 1768, when he was eighteen years of age. He practiced medicine in Charlotte

MECKLENBURG

until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War when he and his six brothers enlisted. In 1780 he was taken prisoner at the fall of Charleston and he died about three years later, at Charlotte, in consequence of disease brought on by the privations incurred during his confinement.

Sources-Francois Xavier Martin, "History of North Carolina," 1829; North Carolina Legislative Publications Relative to Mecklenburg, 1831; Rev. W. H. Foote, "Sketches of North Carolina," 1846; Rev. Francis L. Hawks, lecture, 1853; North Carolina University Magazine, August, 1855; Hugh B. Grigsby, "The Virginia Convention of 1776," 1855; Richard B. Creecy, in North Carolina University Magazine, 1859; William Gilmore Simms, "History of South Carolina," 1860; North Carolina University Magazine, August, 1860; "Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings," 1871; E. L. Hunter, "Sketches of Western North Carolina," 1877; John W. Moore, "History of North Carolina," 1880; John H. Wheeler, "Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina," 1884; W. L. Saunders, "North Carolina," 1885; George Bancroft, "History of the United States," 1886; Appleton's "Cyclopaedia of American Biography," 1888; John Haywood, "History of Tennessee," 1891; W. J. Peele, "Lives of Distinguished North Carolinians," 1898; Colonial Records of North Carolina, 1890; William E. Dodd, in South Atlantic Quarterly, 1902; M. DeL. Haywood, "Governor William Tryon,' '1903; George W. Graham, "The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence," 1905; W. E. Fitch, "Some Neglected History of North Carolina," 1905; Samuel A'Court Ashe, "History of North Carolina," 1908; Archbald D. Murphey, in North Carolina Historical Commission Publications, 1914; "The Conquest of Virginia," Conway W. Sams, 1916.

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Glimpses into Ancient American Discoveries

(Continued)

BY JACQUES J. HEIT, BROOKLYN, New York

N the October, 1924, issue of "Americana” 'Americana" we have shown that ancient records are replete with allusions to the "western isles" or "isles of the blessed"; that long before 1492 Europe was cognizant of land to the west; and that when Columbus conceived of a western voyage, he was merely following a path which many had taken before him. He had no doubts as to the outcome of his undertaking. In the second half of our survey, we shall give historical documentary evidence to prove that many voyages had been made to the New World by the Irish, Northmen and other peoples, and that these voyages were of common knowledge in Europe at the time of Columbus.

Of the modern peoples to venture into the western ocean, the Irish are probably the earliest. These people, who were of an intensely religious bent, sent out missionaries at frequent intervals to Christianize the unenlightened peoples in newly-found lands. Despite the destruction of many valuable documents in an age when little thought was given to their preservation, we have ample evidence that these missionaries had journeyed to the Northwest. We quote De Roo:1

The loss and destruction of Ireland's most ancient records by almost uninterrupted civil and foreign wars has deprived us of positive information regarding voyages2 to the Northwest;

'P. De Roo, "Hist. of Amer. before Columbus," Vol. II, p. 30.

'P. De Roo quotes a number of voyages of the disciples of St. Thomas to both North and South America, and maintains that St. Thomas preached to the North American natives in an early century of our era. The learned author quotes copious extracts from the early fathers of the church to substantiate his claims, as well as from the Bible. The writer does not find that the evidence warrants insertion in these pages. There are, it is true, relics of early Irish colonization and missionary work, but in the writer's opinion, the advent of St. Thomas in America is purely hearsay. (Vol. 1, pps. 206, 208, 221, 223.)

GLIMPSES INTO ANCIENT AMERICAN DISCOVERIES

but it cannot be reasonably supposed that the Irish monks, so conspicuous for their zeal in the propagation of Christianity, especially from the sixth to the ninth century, should have learned the route to more pagan countries, and not have made renewed efforts to enlighten and convert their idolatrous inhabitants. It is rather likely, indeed, that St. Brendan and St. Cormac had many daring and eager followers, as facts plainly establish.

3

Fiske, who claims that no voyage to America prior to 1492 rests on definite historic foundation, and that all such voyages are historically without value, speaks as follows (see previous ed. of "Americana") of the "dim whispers" of voyages to America undertaken by the Irish:

So of the dim whispers of voyages to America, undertaken by the Irish, in the days when the cloisters of sweet Innesfallen were a center of piety and culture for northwestern Europe, we may say that this sort of thing has not much to do with history or history with it. Irish anchorites certainly went to Iceland in the seventh century.

Despite these uncertain "whispers" Fiske quotes no fewer than six authorities to prove that the Irish formed a colony in Iceland' which remained there until the arrival of the Northmen in 874.

DeCosta, it is to be regretted, in speaking of Irish discoveries antedating the Northmen, uses the word "traditions." That the author himself believed in Ireland's prior right of discovery is sufficiently borne out by his own text. His phraseology bespeaks his painstaking efforts at reaching exact conclusions. We read the following:

Claims have also been made for the Irish. Broughton brings forward a passage in which St. Patrick is represented as sending missionaries to the Isles of America. Another claim has been urged which is supported by striking, though not conclusive allusions in the Chronicles of the North, in which a distant land is spoken of as Ireland the Great. The Irish, in the early times, might easily have passed over to the Western continent, for which voyage they undoubtedly had the facilities. Even as early as the year 296, the Irish are said to have invaded Denmark with a large fleet.

"Discovery of America," Vol. 1, pps. 148, 149.

'Vol. 1, p. 149.

The reader will bear in mind that Iceland is properly a part of the New World. 'B. F. De Costa, "Pre-Columbian Discovery," pps. 18-19.

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1

GLIMPSES INTO ANCIENT AMERICAN DISCOVERIES

At that period the Irish were in most respects in advance of the Northmen, not yet having fallen into decline, and quite as likely as any people then existing, to brave the dangers of an ocean voyage.

The author of "Pre-Columbian Discovery" on the same page quotes no less an authority than Prof. Rafn, who is of the opinion that the Irish were a sea-faring people of Phoenician origin, who antedated the Northmen in American discovery.

Referring to one of the voyages of St. Brendan, whose labors in behalf of Christianity have become legendary, De Roo speaks of his meeting Irish monks on many of the islands he visited. He is supported in this by O'Donoghue and mentions Von Humboldt in further substantiation. De Roo writes:"

Dicuil, in the beginning of the ninth century, and Adam of Bremen, in the eleventh, attested that the Irish monks were the first discoverers of some of the oceanic solitudes, although from remarks of Wm. Reeves, who, in his edition of "St. Columba's Life," cites instances of the Irish finding in early times their way to Iceland we should rather think that to pagan Erin belongs the honor of more ancient boreal discoveries.

The intense zeal of the Irish in converting the heathen and in propagating the gospel can hardly be underestimated. These people sent their fiery missionaries to the cold regions of America many centuries before the Norsemen, and preached with an earnestness rarely encountered in history. The survival of many of their ancient names proves that the islands near our coasts, and even the mainland itself, were overrun with Irish Christians both clerics and laymen. These were doubtlessly the first to announce the gospel to the Picts and Finns.

The pirates who frequently swarmed on the north Atlantic seaboard dubbed these Irish missionaries "papas" and called their colonies "Papey" or "Papil." If corroborative testimony were needed to substantiate the fact that the "papas" so frequently referred to in Norse literature were Irish priests, one need only consult Pinkertons and quote De Roo' who says:

'Vol. 11, p. 31, and O'Donoghue, p. 137.

"Introductia Histor. Scot.," ap. Gravier, p. 15, from Barry, "Hist. of the Orkney Islands," p. 115.

Vol. 11, p. 32.

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