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Re: Books



"Following the Ark of the Covenent" is indeed full of errors. Its very main
hero is, from the start, fiction.  Niven doesn't believe it either.  The
story was initiated by an unconfirmed find of old armour in a cave near
Manti, Utah that were supposedly left by Knights Templars led by Oliver
Sinclair.  Our Sinclair tells me that there was another Oliver Sinclair but
he has yet to reveal who this person was and if he could possibly fit the
theory of this book.   No index in the book.

   Since then I have come across an interesting item in the book "Outpost"
by Dorothy Nafus Morrison.  This is a biography of John McLoughlin founder
of Fort Vancouver, WA and father of Oregon.  (McLoughlin's step-daughter
married William Sinclair s/o William Sinclair, Chief Factor of York Factory
(Canada).

 When McLoughlin arrived in the area he first lived at Ft. George (1824),
the former Ft. Astoria (Oregon side at the mouth of the Columbia River).
This fort was now a self-contained village and "boasted an astonishing
inventory, which included such items as coats of mail and ostrich plumes,
bought when the North West Company (the owners (1813) before the merging
1821 of the Northwest Company with the Hudsons Bay Company) was trying to
supply Spanish and Russian ships."

    So we see that before the arrival of settlers in Manti, Utah (1849),
between 1813-1821 coats of mail were trade items from this Fort to the
Spanish ships coming from the south.  Did this interest in armor just begin
in 1813?   I think not.  Before the existence of Ft. Astoria, European
traders began stopping in Hawaii as early as 1786.  If the Spanish were
interested in acquiring armor, the opportunity of acquiring it existed on
this western shore.   Of course the obviously easy way for armour to reach
the Spanish territories of North America would be from Spain itself. Spanish
explorers were all over this region from around 1540 when the Grand Canyon
was found.  Probably all official explorers are accounted for but could
there not be a quantity of free-lancers that will never be known?  Do we
know the names of all the old prospectors in Death Valley that just
disappeared?

   The authors of this book descend from the Gunns and give a history and
genealogy of them.  (did you know??? that Greenland is a corruption of
Gunnarland?  That is a theory put forth by the authors)  I was hoping to
find some insight into the relationship of Jarl Henry with Sir James Gunn
but this was not the direction of their research.

     What about Sir James Gunn?  Some accounts call him a cousin but I don't
see that in the records that I have at hand.  Cousin could, of course, be a
second or more degree and then be out of the range of our family tree lines.
Frederick Pohl's "Prince Henry Sinclair" -1967 does not give him a first
name.   Richard White's "Sword of the North" 1983- calls him Ingram.   Is
Ingram a nickname for James or vice versa?
Niven Sinclair says in his "Beyond Any Shadow" that "it is know that a Sir
James Gunn was a boon companion of Henry Sinclair -  some say a cousin but
this has not been verified"   Evidently that information was not known to
Richard White.   Where would we find the reference to Henry and James'
association?
Laurel








----- Original Message -----
From: <DSinc39156@aol.com>
To: <sinclair@quarterman.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2001 2:52 AM
Subject: Re: Books


> Steve, I would recommend :"Following the Ark of the Convenent" by Kerry
Ross
> Boren and Lisa Lee Boren. It does not seem to me to be historically
accurate,
> in fact some of the dates, names, have been proven wrong. I would only

[ Excess quotations omitted. ]

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