John Evans (explorer)

John Evans (* 1770 in Waunfawr near Caernarfon , † 1799 in New Orleans ) was a Welsh explorer who went to North America in search of the traces of Madoc .

Part of the map that Evans produced in the Missouri area in 1795–1796

In the 1790s, the legend of Madoc, a Welsh prince who is said to have discovered North America around 1170 and founded the first settlements, was very popular in Wales. There were also rumors that the Mandan , an indigenous Indian people , should be descendants of those Welsh colonists and should also speak the Welsh language .

With this in mind, Edward Williams planned an expedition to North America, Evans should accompany him. After Williams had refrained from the project, however, Evans went alone to the United States , he arrived in Baltimore in 1792 .

In 1793 he reached St. Louis in the then Spanish-occupied Louisiana , where Evans was suspected of espionage and captured.

In April 1795 he finally gained the confidence of the Spaniards and, with their support, equipped an expedition to the Missouri . The official goal was to find a route to the Pacific, but Evans kept the Madoc legend in mind.

In 1796 Evans joined the Mandan and spent the whole winter with them. His hopes of finding traces of the Madoc legend or even verifying them were disappointed: Evans discovered that the Mandan language did not correspond to Welsh; He could not find any other indications of European influences either.

However, Evans' trip was geographically successful: he had covered 1,800 miles along the Missouri, starting from its confluence with the Mississippi , and made a map of the area, which was eventually used by the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804– 1806) was used.