The legend was thrown into disrepute by the Caernarfonshire explorer John Evans who was sponsored by the brilliant but eccentric
 scholar and master forger, Iolo Morganwg and the London-Welsh Gwyneddigion Society. The following information on Evans is 
extracted from a lecture prepared and given by Dr Islyn Thomas OBE to the Madison Rotary Club in New Jersey in 1967.

Evans arrived in America in 1792 with burning ambitions to preach the gospel and to raise money to conduct an expedition to investigate the Welsh Indians. He carried letters of introduction to several worthy Welshman in Philadelphia and elsewhere, including a Dr Samuel Jones. He received very little encouragement from the Welsh settlers who strongly urged him to abandon the idea of such a quest, mainly on the grounds that the Indian tribes were savage and dangerous.

International politics now reared its ugly head. In the closing years of the eighteenth century, four nations were still battling for the right to rule the North American Continent. John Evans, a Welshman, arrived in St Louis at this time. Here was an inquisitive stranger, without visible means of support, crossing into Spanish territory with some wild story of looking for Welsh Indians. The Spanish officials, conscious that British spies would give much to learn of their plans, decided that Evans was an English agent, rather than a harmless crank, and he was put in gaol for a considerable period.

The Spaniards, however, were determined to find out more about Evans' aims and they eventually came to accept that his mission was simply a quest for Welsh Indians. They also realised that he had received little support from the Welsh settlers and that he was a potential ally, in that he was embittered by a lack of support from his fellow countrymen and that he had no particular love of the English. Could Evans be won over to the Spanish cause?

And so Evans was cajoled, coaxed, bullied and flattered into becoming an agent of Spain. A prime objective of the Spaniards was to seek out and win over Mandan territory. How better to achieve this than to employ a man who possibly had some kinship with the Mandans, and better still, who spoke their language?

Evans travelled 1,800 miles in 68 days with the Spaniards, arriving back in St. Louis in July 1797, from where he wrote to Dr Samuel Jones in Philadelphia:

'In respect to the Welsh Indians, I have only to inform you that I could not meet with such people and from what intercourse I have had with Indians from latitude 30 to 40 I think that I may safely inform our friends that they have no existence.'

This was a bitter blow to the theory of the Welsh Indians as far as the Welsh were concerned. If a Welshman as enthusiastic as John Evans had been, could only report failure, that must be the end of the matter.

Yet the very brevity and finality of Evans' letter and the fact that he never left St Louis, make this negative report strangely suspicious. Mr Arthur T Halliday's great-grandfather was convinced that 'Evans never returned to Philadelphia because he lied to his friends about the Indians.'

A P Nastair, and even such an authority on Indian and particularly Cherokee history as Mrs Penelope Allen, tell another story altogether about Evans and his motives. Mrs Allen points out that Evans made his report after a search of only six months and that in some of his earlier reports Evans 'appeared to be none too careful with the truth and inclined to be boastful.'

There seems little doubt, that for better or for worse, Evans had decided to stay with the Spaniards and that at their request he wrote the letter stating that no Welsh Indians existed. What better evidence was there to rebut a British claim to Mandan territory than the statement of a Welshman who had come to America solely to discover Welsh Indians?

Mr Halliday's great-grandfather added a postscript to his memoranda on the subject by stating in 1803 that Evans 'when heavily in strong liquor bragged to his friends in St Louis that the Welsh Indians would keep their secret to their graves because he had been handsomely paid to keep quite on the subject. He added that in a few more years there would be no more trace of any Welsh ancestry or language as time and disease would eventually remove all traces.'

Evans was intelligent and he could draw maps, but it seems far more likely that the generous treatment he received from the Spaniards was due to his refuting the Welsh Indian story rather than for any other services. Having written his letter to Dr. Samuel Jones, Evans continued on the downward path. He became a cheat as well as a drunkard and was involved in trouble when he took for himself land, which had been intended for others. He died in New Orleans in May 1799, at the early age of 29.

In response to Dr Thomas' lecture, R Gwynn Davies, Chairman of Antur Waunfawr (Waunfawr Venture), a community based charitable trust located in the village where John Evans' Father was a Methodist minister, has this to say:

My approach, as a person from Waunfawr, may be subjective but, I hope I will at any rate be correct factually.

In the first instance, it is untrue to say that John Evans was sponsored - he had to borrow £20 to travel steerage to America. Iolo Morgannwg, was a very colourful member of the "Gwyneddigion" a London based Welsh Society which had an extremely radical outlook and was responsible for publishing the first Welsh political periodical, which was edited by a Baptist Minister who had lived in France and was immersed in the French Revolution doctrine. It was Iolo Morgannwg himself who was supposed to go to look for the Welsh Indians, and he found in John Evans a dedicated ally, and eventually decided to stay at home himself (at his wife's orders - according to some reports!).

I have yet to find any reference to any attempt by John Evans to raise money for his expedition. It is true that John Evans was incarcerated by the Spaniards, but this could only have been for a short period in 1795, and he was released on representations being made by John Rice Jones a prominent citizen who had employed him as a Surveyor on Kaskascia, and Judge Turner of America. Incidentally, John Evans had already sworn an oath of allegiance to Spain when he entered New Madrid in 1793.

I find the description in paragraph five of "Evans was cajoled, coaxed, bullied and flattered" very amusing, and so far removed from what was possible in the case of a personality of Evans' stature as to show the whole of the article in its true perspective - in my view biased, so as to be absolutely and incredibly absurd.

Iolo Morgannwg and John Evans had decided before John Evans started on his journey that the attempt to find the "Madogwys" should be routed through Spanish territory.

Most of the articles deprecating John Evans have been written from an English standpoint the writers being unable to imagine that John Evans would have no compunction in taking over British Forts and lowering the Union Jack replacing it with the Spanish flag. Deacon in particular has referred to his treachery, and his whole account seems to be coloured by his inability to understand the difference between the English and Welsh concepts in that field - John Evans would probably, bearing in mind his upbringing and radicalism would have been proud to strike a blow for his friends at home in Wales.

John Evans was a highly intelligent, well educated member of a family that took the lead part in establishing the Calvinistic Methodist cause in Wales. He had a close relationship with foremost Welshman in religious, poetic and literary matters. The Rev. Thomas Charles, Bala, probably the foremost Welsh divine of all time entrusted him with reports to take with him to America. All his contacts in that country, and the people he stayed with were leaders of the communities in which they lived.

His courage and endurance in seeking to fulfil his mission to find his Welsh brothers is beyond belief. His ability to understand and to be accepted by the Indian tribes is difficult to fathom. For six months he lived with the Mandans who protected him when he was threatened by French traders at a time when he himself had no goods to give them indicates that he had remarkable traits in his personality.

The gratuitous reference "that he could draw maps" contained in the article is highly insulting to the person who mapped the Missouri in such a manner that President Jefferson personally handed over the maps to Lewis and Clarke to enable them, a decade later to find the route to the Pacific, and made use of the maps when he negotiated the Louisiana purchase.

I am prepared to accept that there is one credible reference to the fact that during the last few weeks of his short life John Evans drank heavily - BUT I would respectfully suggest that Mr Kimberley looks at the glowing references to John Evans' character, by friend and foe alike before he publishes any account relating to John Evans. Having failed in his mission - the purpose of the journey which took him across the world, having suffered ill-health during his travels, having had to leave the Mandan tribe because of the financial trouble of the Spanish Missouri Company and having lost his possessions in the Mississippi floods, it is not altogether surprising that he found solace in the bottle

Menna Jones, Chief Executive of Antur Waunfawr, had this to add:

Evans' journey from Waunfawr to the Mandan territory - a journey specifically made to find the 'Welsh Indians', and his declaration in his letter to Samuel Jones that there were no such people have made him a pivotal figure in the controversy as to the authenticity of the Madoc theory.

However, it may well be that the declaration he made should not be treated as being conclusive evidence so as to disparage the Prince Madoc Story.

Even John Evans compatriots who regard him so highly as an individual and our most renowned and daring explorer would concede -

1.      John Evans may well have expected to find Welsh speaking Indians and his failure to do so would have been an important factor in his decision there was no connection between the Mandans and the Welsh.

2.      By the time John Evans reached the Mandan territory it could well be that the strand joining the two people had been stretched over the years as to be so thin and frayed as to convince him there had never been a link and that his journey had been in vain.

3.      The statement as to the non-existence of Welsh Indians is one short sentence contained in a long letter giving detail of his travel and he does not dwell at all on the subject.

4.      If any credence were to be given to the theory that he made the statement in order to please the Spanish authorities it has to be conceded that his radicalism was such that he would very likely take that course rather than support an English claim to the territory.

Whatever view is taken of John Evans statement as to the non-existence of Welsh Indians, perhaps it was his vision, his persistence and perseverance in pursuing his remarkable journey which has served as the most important factor of all in keeping alive the controversy as to Prince Madoc theory be that fact or myth.

It has certainly given Waunfawr, the village where he was born and which honours his memory, an important place in world history.

So, was John Evans a reliable witness regarding the existence of Welsh-Indians? I believe that on balance, the evidence suggests that he was not. His motives may have been many and complex. As a Welsh radical, it is unlikely he would have felt any allegiance to what he may have perceived as an English Crown. Even today, Gwynedd is a stronghold of the Welsh Nationalist Movement. He may have felt resentful by the lack of support for his expedition by his fellow Welshmen? He may have been swayed by pecuniary gain? How many families have we seen divided over the proceeds of family wills? He may even have expected to find a tribe of white-men fluent in his native tongue? A highly improbable occurrence. Who are we to judge?

Yet, Evans' evidence has been used repeatedly to disparage the story of Prince Madoc and the White Indians. If, however, Evans was telling the truth, then he has been done a great injustice but it is as nothing to the injustice he has perpetrated against History, the Welsh and the Mandans if he did not tell the truth.