There is a certain rumour still going around by the Conspiracy Theorists and Mythomaniacs that Christopher Columbus was not the first to discover America in 1492 and that the award should instead be given to Henry Sinclair, who discovered America in 1398.

This rubbish was first popularised by Frederick J. Pohl in 1950 – borrowing the wild idea of Johan Reinhold Forster dating from the 18th century (Henry Sinclair was not a Templar) – and later championed by Andrew Sinclair, Niven Sinclair and Tim Wallace-Murphy (where all three claimed, without a shred of evidence, that Henry Sinclair was a Templar).

So many things can be said about this useless rubbish, but here are a few pointers (leaving out such obvious howlers like Saint Brendan the Navigator & the Chinese).

Mainstream scholarship has known that America was discovered by the Vikings since the 1960s when their remains were found in L'Anse Aux Meadows, Newfoundland, dating back to around the 10th century (see the book by Anne Stine Ingstad, The Discovery of A Norse Settlement In America, Two Volumes, 1977). Even the pseudo-documentary “Holy Grail In America” acknowledged this fact during the first five minutes of its transmission when it was first shown in 2009 (directed by Andy Awes, 2009).

So we know that America was discovered by the Vikings long before the myth of Henry Sinclair. Those pushing the Sinclair spam should also know the myth of the Welsh Prince Madoc (Madog, ab Owain Gwynedd), where it is traditionally claimed he travelled to America before 1398, in 1170. There have even been reports of Welsh-speaking Native American Indians to prove it!

Back to Christopher Columbus and the rubbish that he was “not the first to discover” America. Columbus WAS THE FIRST in that he brought back the information to Europe that America existed. Nobody else has done that. Not even the Vikings. Not even Henry Sinclair (his place of death remains a mystery).

Shame on the Conspiracy Theorists and the Mythomaniacs for perpetuating such arrant nonsense.

But honestly, what else can we expect from them – only a casual glance at all the Alternative Podcasts and what rubbish Prometheus Entertainment makes for television strongly suggests that our World is nose-diving back into the pre-Enlightenment Era!