As mentioned in my previous post, David Ingram mentioned the use of Welsh words by some natives he encountered during his long walk from Mexico to Nova Scotia. His story was recorded roughly 11 years after his adventure took place and you can read it online here (The Third Hawkins Voyage. [First Narrative by a Survivor.] The relation of David Ingram, of Barking, Essex...), recorded in 1582. See page 161 onwards.
David Ingram was born in Barking, Essex, England around 1542. He set out to make some money and live adventures with English privateer John Hawkins in 1567. But the endeavour didn't go as expected. After an encounter with the Spaniards, Ingram and one-hundred crewmates were left stranded in Tampico, Mexico (see map) in 1568. Hawkins returned to England and planned to come back and rescue his men. But a round trip would take several years. Facing the ire of the Spanish, the unfriendly natives in Mexico, and knowing that English ships sailed to and from Newfoundland, he and several mates set out on foot to walk from Mexico to the coasts facing Newfoundland in Nova Scotia. This would become a 2,000 mile hike (3,200 km).
He and his companions walked for 11 months, and never stopped more than 3 or 4 days at any campsite.
Highlights of Ingram's story
Interesting things he noted in his story:
- Native spears had iron heads: "Their weapons are darts headed with iron... They have short broad swords of black iron, of the length of a yard, or very near an ell; bearing edges thicker than backs of knives : somewhat like the foils in our fence schools. They have crooked knives of iron" (p. 164) First report of Amerindians using iron!
- "Their Ensign [flag] is a horse’s tail" (p.164). Were they European or Pre-Hispanic horses?
- "They have in every house, scoops, buckets, and divers other vessels of massy silver; wherewith they do throw out water and dust, and otherwise do employ them to their necessary uses in their houses. All which this Examinate did see common and usual in some of these countries; especially where he found the great pearls. There are also great rivers; at the heads of which, this Examinate and his companions did find sundry pieces of gold, some as big as a man’s fist; the earth being washed away with the water." (p. 165). Silver, pearls, and gold. So many riches!!
- "There is also a great plenty of buffes [buffaloes], bears, horses, kine, wolves, foxes, deer, goats, sheep, hares, and conies. Also other cattle like ours, and very many unlike ours, to this Examinate unknown, the most part being wild." (p. 167-168). Horses and cattle!
- "This Examinate did also see in those countries, a monstrous beast twice as big as a horse, and in proportion like to a horse, in mane, hoof, hair, and neighing; saving it was small towards the hinder parts like a greyhound. This beast hath two teeth or horns, of a foot long, growing straight forth by their nostrils. They are natural enemies of the horse. He did also see in that country, both elephants and ounces. He did also see one another strange beast bigger than a bear. He had neither head nor neck. His eyes and mouth were in his breast. This beast is very ugly to behold, and cowardly of kind. It beareth a very fine skin like a rat, full of silver hairs." (p. 168) Very interesting Elephants, monsters with sabre teeth or horns, others bigger than a bear!.
- "There is also another kind of fowl in that country which hunteth [haunteth] the rivers, near unto the islands. They are of the shape and bigness of a goose ; but their wings are covered with small yellow feathers, and cannot fly. You may drive them before you like sheep. They are exceeding fat, and very delicate meat. They have white heads, and therefore the countrymen call them Penguins, which seemeth to be a Welsh name [!]. And they have also in use divers other Welsh words [!]. A matter worth the noting." (p. 169). The penguin (the great auk, Pinguinus impennis, now extinct, and the Welsh words!
- "There is also a very strange bird, thrice as big as an eagle, very beautiful to behold. His feathers are more orient [brilliant] than a peacock’s feathers; his eyes are glistering as a hawk’s eyes, but as great as a man’s eyes : his head and thigh as big as a man’s head and thigh. It hath a crest and tuft of feathers of sundry colours, on the top of the head, like a lapwing, hanging backwards. His beak and talons are in proportion like eagles, but very huge and large." A gigantic thunderbird?
Ingram is credible in many ways, because he describes maize (corn), the American bison or buffalo, tornadoes (which he describes as tempests, whirlwinds), and great rivers (he had to cross the Mississippi River). It seems that he dis walk across what is now the U.S. and eastern Mexico.
Finally, David Ingram and two companions named Browne and Twide reached a river roughly 200 miles west of Cape Breton (see map) and by the sea found a "French Captain, named Monsieur Champaigne : who took them unto his ship, and brought them unto Newhaven [Havre] in France; and from thence, they were transported unto England, Anno Domini 1569" He named the ship as Gargarine that traded " fine furs ; and of great red leaves of trees almost a yard long and about a foot broad, which he thinketh are good for dyeing. Also the said Monsieur Champaigne had there, for exchange of trifling wares, a good quantity of rude and unwrought silver."
The Elephant. Was it a Mammoth?
We all know there are no elephants in America. Even Haklyut considered Ingram's story as far-fetched, so he omitted it in his book's later editions. But, what if it wasn't an elephant, and instead he had seen a mammoth? Then there is the creature twice as big as a horse with horns or fangs. Some megafaunal animal? a smilodon (sabre-tooth felid) or a mastodon (elephant-like). The beast bigger than a bear could have been a e short-faced bear (Arctodus simus), all of these animals died out roughly 11,000 years ago. Could some have survived until 1568 AD?
The gigantic eagles, 3-times larger than regular ones, could have been surviving teratorns.
Iron smelting
Native Americans made copper, gold, and silver artifacts. Copper was used in the Great Lakes area, where pure native copper was exploited by the Old Copper Culture that flourished between 7500 and 1000 BC. They mined and cold-worked the copper (no smelting) into spearheads, fishooks, axes, and decorative articles that they traded.
The Vikings used a simple technique to obtain iron, a process called bog iron smelting. It uses bog ore, found in bogs which is smelted in a simple clay oven (bloomery furnace) roughly 3 feet high (90 cm) it produces iron which can be forged. The process was also used by the first American settlers well into the early 1800s.
Could the natives have learned this technology from the Vikings (or Madoc's Welshmen)? Or did they learn it themselves. Their iron tools would have rusted away centuries ago, leaving no trace. Alternatively, the natives could have peddled goods with European voyagers in exchange for iron which they fashioned into their spears and knives.
Horses and Cattle
Ingram mentions buffalo, the American bison, and cattle, and horses. By 1568, there were horses in America. The Spaniards brought them after the discovery of America in 1492. But, did he encounter pre-Hispanic horses and cattle? He also mentions sheep.
Their Route
Did Ingram and his companions follow a well-established trail, used for trade in pre-Hispanic times. There were trade routes moving turquoise from Arizona and New Mexico into Mexico. Copper around the Great Lakes. Which one did Ingram follow? Where did he cross the Mississippi?
Comments
Tall story? True? I believe him, though his recollections may have become fuzzy after 13 years. He also embellished his tale and must have added fantasy, fiction, and imagination to the facts.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall ©
