by the terrible scourge so graphically described by Boccaccio in the introduction to his Decameron, we believe there is no documentary evidence to show that this was actually the case. We know at least that upwards of half a century later there was still a bishop at Garda, and may therefore conclude that the colonists were able to resist the attacks of the Esquimaux, with whom they appear to have been in constant hostility. The real cause of the gradual decay and final extinction of these settlements was, no doubt, the pernicious system of commercial policy pursued by the mother country. Previous to the Calmar Union, Queen Margaret had made the trade with Iceland, Greenland, and the Færoe islands a royal monopoly, only to be carried on in vessels belonging to, or licensed by, the sovereign; and this monopoly was kept up by her successors, and, after the dissolution of the union, by the kings of Denmark, to a very late period, being only abolished for Iceland in 1776. Finn Magnusen, in a very able paper on the trade between England and Iceland during the Middle Ages, published in the Nordisk Tidskrift for Oldkyn dighed, very justly observes that "Iceland would probably have shared the same fate as Greenland, had not British merchants, in spite of opposition, supplied it with articles absolutely necessary for the existence of its inhabitants."

A few fruitless attempts were made in the sixteenth century to rediscover the lost colonies; but as it was not known at that period that Greenland had a west coast, the two Bygds were naturally supposed to have been situated on the eastern one. Subsequently to the voyages of Davis, Frobisher, and Baffin, it became the general opinion of northern antiquaries that the East and West Bygds were situated respectively on the east and west coasts of the peninsula. In 1721, Hans Egede, a zealous Norwegian clergyman, prevailed on the king of Denmark to form a new settlement on the west coast, Egede himself going out as missionary. Since the establishment of this colony numerous vestiges of the ancient one have been discovered; urns, implements, fragments of church bells, Runic inscriptions, and ruined edifices-especially in the district of Julianeshaab. We know by several very accurate topographical descriptions of the ancient settlements that the West Bygd only contained four churches, and as the ruins of seven have been discovered in the southern part of West

Greenland, the opinion gradually gained ground that both Bygds were situated on the west coast; the supporters of this hypothesis contending that the current, which sets southwestward from the Polar Seas, accumulates the ice on the east coast of Greenland to an extent which must, in all ages, have rendered the climate much more rigorous than that of the west coast, and formed an insurmountable barrier to colonization. This question was finally set at rest in 1829 by Captain Graah, who, by order of the Danish government, explored the east coast in umiaks—the larger kind of Esquimaux boats-from Cape Farewell to the sixty-fourth parallel of latitude, without finding a single trace of the ancient colonies *.

The prevailing opinion of the northern antiquaries at present is, that the East Bygd extended from Cape Farewell to Immartinek, in lat. 60° 50', and the West Bygd from Arksut Creek, lat. 61° 40′, to lat. 67°. The coast beyond the West Bygd, was called Nordrsetur f, and was much frequented in the summer season by the colonists for fishing. They also appear to have had some permanent settlements on this coast, both to the south and north of Disco Island.

In 1824, a stone was found in the island of Kingiktorsoak, in lat. 72° 54', long. 56°. west of Greenwich, bearing a Runic inscription, which was submitted to Finn Magnusen, Professor Rask, and Dr. Brynjulfvson of Iceland; and these celebrated Runologists, without any communication on the subject having passed between them, respectively arrived at the same interpretation of the characters, except the last six, which Professor Rask and Finn Magnusen at length agreed meant the numerals MCXXXV; Dr. Brynjulvson contenting himself with expressing an opinion that they might be mere ornaments, but that, from the form of the other characters, he should deem the inscription to be of the twelfth century. These gentlemen gave the inscription as follows:

See Narrative of an Expedition to the East Coast of Greenland by Capt. W. A. Graah, of the Danish Royal Navy. Translated by the late E. Gordon Macdougall.

+From seta, a seat. The northern seats; or, possessions.

ELLIGR SIGVATHS SON: ROK BJANNE: TORTARSON :

OK: ENRITHI ODDSSON: LAUKARDAK IN: FYRIR GAKNDAG HLOTHV VARDATE OK RYDU: MCXXXV.

which, in correct Norse, would be

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Erlingr Sighvatssonr, ok Bjarni Thórðarson, ok Eindriði Oddsson, laugardaginn fyrir gagndag, hlóðu varða thessa (vel thenna,) ok ruddu; MCXXXV.

In English:

Erling Sighvatsson, and Bjarni Thordasson, and Eindrid Oddsson, on Saturday before Gangday, raised these marks and cleared the ground, 1135.

We subjoin a woodcut of the Kingiktorsoak stone, copied from the Antiquitates Americana.

Professor Rafn derives gagndagr, from gagn, victory, and dagr a day-the day of victory; and observes that the Icelanders gave this appellation to two festivals of the church, one falling on the 14th of May, the other on the 25th of April, or Ascension Day, which was popularly termed gagndagrinn eini, and hinn mikli; the unique and the great day of (spiritual) victory. Ascension week was celebrated in Catholic times with peculiar solemnity; the priests, accompanied by the people, going in procession with lighted torches, and sprinkling holy water round the churches. It was no doubt from this going, or ganging, in procession, that the three

days before Ascension Day were called, in Anglo Saxon, gang dagas, and in old Scotch, gang dayis. Björn Haldorson in his Icelandic dictionary, renders them by gagndagar, vel gángdagar, the latter being, no doubt, the more popular appellation. Be this as it may, the meaning of the inscription is, that in the twelfth century—and if we admit Professor Rask's interpretation of the last six Runic characters— in 1135, on the Saturday, either before April 25th or May 14th-in all probability the former-three Northmen cleared the ground, and set up marks or mounds, some vestiges of which were observed on the spot where the stone was found, to show that they had taken possession of the landprobably of the whole island. This would indicate an intention of settling there, and they must at all events have passed the winter in this high latitude, Baffin's Bay being unnavigable at so early a season. The discovery of this Runic stone has thus made us acquainted with the singular fact that Northmen explored the Polar Seas, and wintered in these icebound regions, seven centuries previous to the expeditions of Captains Parry and Ross, and that, too, without being furnished with any of the numerous comforts and conveniences of a modern outfit.

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Other Runic stones have been discovered in the district of Julianeshaab, but they offer nothing of interest. One of these, a tombstone, with the epitaph Vigdis rests here, God glad her soul -was found on the shores of a creek called Igaliko, supposed to be Einarsfjörd, near the foundations of a church 96 feet in length, and 48 in breadth. Some dilapidated walls at the bottom of the same creek, inclosing an area of 120 feet by 100, are supposed to be the remains of the cathedral of Garda; but the most remarkable ruin yet discovered is at Kakortok, situated on a branch of this creek. It is an edifice, evidently a church, 51 feet in length, and 25 in breadth, having a round-headed window at each gable, and four square windows in each of the lateral walls, which are from 4 to 8 feet thick, and of massive stone *.

We have thus seen that the old Icelandic Sagas state explicitly that colonies of Northmen existed on the shores of

Two views of this ruin are given in the Antiq. Amer. Plate IX.

Greenland from the close of the tenth to the beginning of the fifteenth century. From that period, to the middle of the last century, nothing more was heard of them, and those who had not read the original documents, and been convinced from the internal evidence afforded by the simplicity and truthfulness of the narrative that they dealt with facts, and not with fiction, might reasonably doubt their testimony, and, by analogical reasoning, that of the Sagas in general. The Runic inscriptions, and the numerous vestiges of the former colonies, scattered along the east coast of Baffin's Bay, are therefore doubly interesting and important; for they not only confirm, in the most striking manner, the authenticity of the Sagas relating to Greenland, but warrant the conclusion that those which tell us, in the same artless manner, of the discovery of the American continent are equally trustworthy, though their statements have not as yet been confirmed by the same kind of palpable evidence.

The Sagas, relating to America, were made use of by Torfæus for his "Historia Vinlandia Antique," published in 1705, which contains a correct account of the discoveries of the Northmen in the western hemisphere. More or less ample information on the subject was also furnished by several. eminent writers of the last century; notwithstanding which, the literary world seemed unwilling to admit the startling fact, that a people, who were erroneously supposed to have been without the pale of European civilization, should have crossed the wild waves of the Atlantic, and trod the shores of a mighty continent ages before its name became associated with that of Columbus. In order to remove any further doubts on this point, Professor Rafn undertook the laborious task of publishing the original narratives of the voyages, and we believe that no impartial person who has examined the documentary evidence given in the "Antiquitates Americana" will any longer hesitate to acknowledge the claims of the Scandinavians to priority of discovery, though he may differ, as we do, very

*Antiquitates Americana; sive Scriptores Septentrionales rerum ante Columbianarum in Americâ, 1 vol. fol. Copenh. 1837, published by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquarians. Mr. Rafn, who was assisted in his task by Finn Magnusen, has given the Icelandic (Old Norse) text, with the various readings of the MSS., accompanied by translations in Danish and Latin.