country whose inhabitants made him a | Himilko, the Carthaginian, nearly two prisoner and bound him. They then thousand years before the birth of Codeliberated as to whether they should lumbus, had been very near discovering kill or make a slave of him. It seemed America. Starting from Gaddir (Cadiz), to him that the language of his enemies he rounded the Sacred Cape, proceedwas the Irish one. Then - so the re- ing northwards, and founding factories port goes on -a great crowd came, be- and colonies which afterwards became fore which a banner was borne, and a filled with a large Carthaginian populatall and stately white-haired man of tion. His fleet then ventured into the great age appeared. This was Björn open sea, and was driven to the south. Asbrandson. He had Gudleif before Thick fogs hid the sun, and the ships him, and when he heard that he was drove before the north wind. Afteran Icelander, asked him in Norse about wards they came to a warmer sea and home acquaintances at especially were becalmed. Vast plains of seaabout Thurid, his love, whose son, weed stretched there for many days' Kjartan, was held to be his own. journey, and the ship could hardly the neighborhood of dangerous reefs. The sea animals crept upon the tangled weed. "When the inhabitants, becoming be pushed through the interlacing restless during the too long conversa- branches. There seemed to be no depth tion, insisted on a decision concerning of water, as if the feet were passing over the treatment to be given to Gudleif, submerged land; and a fear arose as to the old and stately man took twelve men aside for a consultation. The verdict was to the effect that the captive was to be set free. At the same time he was warned to go away quickly, as the people were of evil disposition and not to be trusted. He was also urged to tell his friends and relations in Iceland that they should make no attempt to cross over, for he (Björn Asbrandson) was very aged and near his end; the country had few harbors; and there were foes everywhere. With these words, the old man gave to Gudleif a golden ring for Thurid as a token of remembrance, and a sword for Kjartan. Thereupon Gudleif returned with his crew (by way of Dublin) to Iceland; and everybody was convinced that it was Björn Asbrandson whom he had seen in that far-off land.” 1 Now, though all this sounds somewhat poetical, it is noteworthy that among an Indian tribe which had migrated from West Florida to Ohio an old tale was current that their original home had once been inhabited by white men, who used iron implements. It is like an echo from the Icelandic tale of the White Man's Land, or Great Ireland. Here it may be brought to mind that 1 Compare the Icelandic edition of the "Eyr byggia Saga," by G. Vigfusson, and the German translation by Mohnike in the appendix to the "Heimskringha." It was here, in the Sargasso Sea, that the magicians on board forbade the Himilko prosecution of the voyage. appears to have turned homewards from this point, and to have come upon the Azores and Madeira, which the mariners described, on their return, in such glowing language that others undertook the voyage, until the Senate, being afraid of an exodus from Carthage, forbade all further visits to "the Fortunate Islands" on pain of death. (See "Origins of English History." By Charles Elton, pp. 22-25.) In spite of the nearness of the opposite coast of Labrador [Humboldt writes] there yet passed one hundred and twenty-five years from the first settlement of the Norsemen on Iceland until Leif's great discovery of America. So small were the means which could be employed for the furtherance of navigation, in that out-of-the-way and desolate corner of the world, by a noble, vigorous, but poor race. The stretch of coast called Vinland- - so called on account of the wild grapes which a German, Tyrker, had found there-attracted settlers by the fertility of its soil and the mildness of its climate as compared with Iceland and Bjarne sailed further during two days, Greenland. Designated by Leif as "the when he perceived another country good Vinland" (Vinland it goda), it com- which was flat and grown over with prised the coast between Boston and New wood. From thence he went on, with York; also parts of the present States of a south-west wind, for three days more, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Con- when he saw a third country, with high necticut. This was the chief settlement of cliffs and icebergs near it. In a severe the Northmen. The colonists had often to storm he at last, after four days, reached Greenland.1 do battle with the very warlike tribe of the Eskimo, which then spread much more to the south, and whose people were called Skraelings by the Northmen. The first Bishop of Greenland, Erik Upsi, an Icelander, undertook a missionary expedition to Vinland in 1121; and the name of this colonized country has even been found in old national songs among the inhabitants of the Faroes. Concerning the intercourse of far northern Europe and of the Greenlanders and Icelanders with the American Continent proper, there are reliable reports reaching to the middle of the fourteenth century. As late as the year 1347, a ship was sent from Greenland to Markland (Nova Scotia) to fetch building wood and other necessaries. On the voyage back from Markland the vessel was cast away by a storm, and had to land at Straumfjord, in the western part of Iceland. This is the last news of Normannic America which the old Scandinavian sources have preserved. Now, the historical facts are, in the main, these : Now, when Bjarne Herjulfsson, during a visit to the Jarl Erik in Norway, described the country he had seen from afar, reproaches were addressed to him for not having made a closer inspection. Upon this, Leif, the son of Erik the Red, bought the ship of Bjarne Herjulfsson, after the latter's return to Greenland, and sailed westward, about the year 1000, with a crew of thirty-one men. Leif first came to that Helluland which Then he reached Bjarne had seen last. Markland, and then an island. Sailing through a sound between this island and a cape, he finally stepped upon the soil of the western continent. With his ship he went up a river, where he cast anchor. There he built, first, wooden booths or huts, then dwellings proper of wood. With Leif was a German, of the name of Tyrker (which perhaps may mean Dirk, that is, Dietrich), who had been his tutor or foster-father. It was this Tyrker who first discovered the wild grapes of America. Each evening – so the account runs - Leif divided his crew into two squads, one of which remained as a watch in the houses, whilst the other scouted the neighborhood, but with the order to come back, at all events, in the evening. In the year 986 Erik the Red (Eirikr Ranthri), a Norwegian jarl, who had fled from Norway to Iceland on account of having slain a man, sailed westward and found a country he called "Greenland," in the hope of thereby alluring settlers. They arrived, indeed, and a colony was founded. It had, however, mainly to rely on the chase and on fishing. Among those who came after Erik the Red was Herjulf, a relative of Irgulf, who had made the first settlement On one of those expeditions Tyrker in Iceland. Herjulf's son, Bjarne, on disappeared, and he was considered returning from a commercial voyage to lost. In the end, however, he reapNorway, intended to visit his own peared in such a state of over-joyous father, who had transferred his home agitation that, when asked by Leif why from Iceland to Greenland; but Bjarne he had come so late, it was at first imbecame fog-bound, so that for days he possible to make him give an answer was in doubt as to his whereabouts. At comprehensive to his comrades. Rolllast he and his crew saw a country ing his eyes about he talked excitedly without mountains, but covered with in German for some time, until he so far forest, and showing small hills near the collected himself as to use the Norse coast. As this outlook did not fit in 1 The Discovery of America in the Tenth Cenwith the description of Greenland,tury. By Karl Christian Rafn. tongue and to make himself properly | wish to make my abode!" A hostile understood. "Certainly," he said, "I have gone much farther into the country; but now I can tell you something new. Vines I have found, and grapes." "Is that true, my foster-father?" asked Leif. "True it is," answered Tyrker, "for I was brought up where vines and grapes exist in abundance.” The Icelandic report gives a curious description of the bodily appearance and the mental qualities of Tyrker. He had a high forehead, a quick and lively glance, but small, delicate features, and an undersized and somewhat weakly stature. At the same time he was well versed in many arts. In the Icelandic accounts we hear several times of the gathering of grapes, with which the skippers trading with the western land freighted their vessels. Building wood, called Mösur, is also mentioned. It seems to have been held so precious in Germany that a merchant from Bremen offered a surprisingly large amount of gold for an unimportant house implement made of such wood. conflict arose, however, with the natives. Eight of them were killed; the ninth escaped. Thereupon a vast number of them appeared from the bay. They had boats made of hide, and peculiar javelins, the description of which quite fits in with the canoes and the weapons still used by the Eskimo of today. For they were not Red-skins who then dwelt in those parts of America, but Eskimo-a race which, as before stated, arrived in Greenland only in the fourteenth century. A third son of Erik the Red, Thorstein, who still held to the faith of his forefathers, and would not forsake his belief in Odin, Thor, Freyr, and Freyja, started on a voyage, with his wife Gudrid, with the object of landing in the New World. He used the same old craft in which Bjarne Herjulfsson, Leif Erikson, and Thorwald Erikson had embarked. Failing, however, to reach the Transatlantic coast he returned to Greenland, and died there. After Thorstein's failure, we hear of Thorfinn Karlsefne, the offspring of an ancient family, who had great success. With two ships he had gone from Iceland to Greenland. There, with his companion, Snorre Thorbrandson, he celebrated the Yule festival in the manner of his forefathers, and then became smitten with love for Thorstein's widow, Gudrid. It was this doughty lady who urged him to seek the coast of the good Vinland. It After Leif Erikson, his brother, Thorwald, who had not been satisfied with the exploration of the discovered country, resolved upon an expedition of his own. He took with him thirty men, using the ship his brother had lent him, and following the advice and instruction of Leif. Thorwald found the wooden huts (Leifs-Budir) which the latter had constructed, and made further searches This he did, in 1007, with three ships in a well-wooded region. It appears and one hundred and sixty men. that he investigated the coasts of Con- was, until then, the largest enterprise of necticut and New York, perhaps even that kind. Thorfinn Karlsefne visited of New Jersey, Delaware, and Mary- Helluland, Markland, and Kjalarnes. land. Traces of human presence he did He came to a pathless and impassable not find, except a corn-stack. Sailing coast whose long shore was covered eastward, and then again northward, he with sand dunes (strandir lángar og came to a cape which the Norsemen sandar). Owing to its peculiar mirages, called Kjalarnes - probably on account producing effects of delusion of the of its likeness to a keel, or longboat. It senses, the Northmen called it the was, no doubt, the present Cape Cod, in" Wonder-Strand " (furdhustrandir). the state of Massachusetts, which may Similar optical deceptions, so frequent be likened, as regards its form, to an in the African desert, Humboldt obold Norse ship, with its peculiar bow. served in the pampas of Venezuela. There were two Scottish people on "Here it is beautiful. Here I should board Karlsefne's vessel, man and wife, Then Thorwald Erikson exclaimed: others Peter Kalm reported, who travelled in America in 1749, as a commissioner of the Swedish Academy. (See "Island, Hvitramannaland, Grönland und Vinland." Von Karl Wilhelmi.) of the name of Hake and Hekja. The | nay, even as far as Canada. The grapes Scots, it may be brought to recollection, were only eaten when the frost had were originally immigrants into Ireland, mellowed them. Until then they were which for some time, therefore, was unfit for consumption. So, among called "Scotia." From Ireland they went to North Britain, which in its eastern part once bore the name of Caledonia, in its western part that of Albain. The designation of "Scotland" for North Britain only dates from the be- With the Skraelings, or Eskimo, who ginning of the eleventh century. From in the spring of the year 1008 came in a the Hibernian Irish people, who were large number of canoes, Karlsefne enpartly of Iberian (non-Aryan), partly of tered into commercial intercourse, raisKeltic origin, the Skots of old are clearly ing a white shield as a sign of peace. marked off, and from the names of their | The Eskimo showed themselves chiefly leaders a conclusion may be drawn as to their Germanic kinship, although later on they were Kelticized in speech. Hake and Hekja certainly point to such Teutonic kinship. They are well-known Norse names, to be found - as Haki and Hakon in the Edda and in Scandinavian history. fond of red garments, for which they gave fur in exchange. Even for mere rags of red cloth, which the Northmen at last offered when their stock of garments had come to an end, the natives paid a great deal of fur. These rags they wound round their heads. Milkfood they also relished; for the discoverers had brought cattle with them. There was a steer among their cattle, whose bellowing so terrified the Skraelings that the Northmen used him afterwards in a fight in the same way as Pyrrhus had used elephants against the Romans. Swords and spears, which the natives would have liked to get from the Northmen, were, of course, denied to them. In the following winter the Eskimo began hostilities. The red shield of war had to be raised against them. Their projectiles, among which there was one At all events, the Scottish pair in question did good service during Thorfinn's expedition. They are described as having been extremely quick-footed, and so were set on shore with the request that they should go southward and gather intelligence about the country. With grapes and ears of wild wheat—that is manifestly maize or Indian corn-they came back. Then Thorfinn sailed to a bay where there was such a mass of eider ducks that it was nearly impossible to walk, on account of the number of eggs. This place the discoverers called Straumey of a very ingenious make, proved so (Stream Isle). A companion of Thorfinn Karlsefne, Thorhall, afterwards set sail northwards, in order to go to Vinland, whilst the leader of the expedition directed his own course southward. Driven to Iceland by a west wind, Thorhall, with nine of his crew, was made a captive. On his part, Karlsefne, with his one hundred and fifty men, arrived in a region where a river passed through a lake into the sea. There were islands in front. He found cornfields, sown by man's hand, and on higher parts wild vines. Travellers in the last century still testified to the exceedingly large number of wild vines they had seen in Albany, dangerous and destructive that the small troop of Northmen had to fly. Then Freydis, the natural daughter of Erik the Red, a lady far advanced in pregnancy, sneeringly exclaimed, "What! You boid men run away from these wights whom truly you might despatch like sheep! Had I a weapon, I think I would give a better account of them than any of you!" Thus she sought to spur the courage of the runaways; but they did not heed her taunts. With difficulty Freydis reached the forest, pursued by the natives, after having given another proof of her mettle by taking up the sword of one of her dead countrymen, Thorbrand Snor rason, and threatening her pursuers | itants of the high north, living hencetherewith. The bravery of this coura- forth little in contact with the remainder geous, but as a tragic event during an- of the world, still cherished the memory other voyage to Vinland showed - also of their old Vinland adventurers. criminal woman was afterwards duly praised by Karlsefne. Still, the country being so hostile, the Northmen left it and went to Markland. There they captured two Eskimo boys, whom they baptized and instructed in the Norse language. as But one day Columbus came to Iceland from Bristol. Towards the end of February, 1477, he landed at the harbor of Hvalfjartheyri, which then Rafn quotes from Finn Magnusen was mostly visited by foreigners, especially English and Irish. In the biograIn America, Gudrid, the widow of phy of his father,2 the son of Columbus Thorstein Erikson, and wife of Thor- testifies to the fact of his having been finn Karlsefne, gave birth to a son, to the northern Thule. In ordinary Snorre. Karlsefne went back to Ice- circumstances the ice, in spring, offers land, where he died. His widow, Gu- the greatest difficulties to the approach drid, made a pilgrimage to Rome, and of ships there, or rather makes it imthere became a nun. She must have possible. But in 1477 the landing was given a full report about Vinland, as easy; for, as the chronicle of that year the pope, who had formerly appointed a says, there was then quite unusually bishop for Iceland and Greenland, now mild weather. "The earth was snowalso appointed one for Vinland, transferring to him the ecclesiastical administration of the three countries named; and thus the last possible doubt as regards the discovery of north-eastern America by the Germanic Northmen is certainly set at rest, whatever we may think of some details or discrepancies in the Saga Chronicle. Erik Upsi was made Bishop of Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland by Pope Paschal II. in 1112. Upsi himself went nine years afterwards, in 1121, to Vinland. less " (Thá var snjólans jörd). With the Bishop of Kalholt, and other learned men of the country, Columbus had a conversation in Latin, during which it would have been passing strange had he not heard from these Icelanders something about the western continent. Rafn expresses his own opinion somewhat positively in these words: "Columbus, who in the year 1477 visited Iceland himself, obtained, through a conversation in Latinfar as he was able to carry it on with the priests and other learned men a knowledge of that discovery; and this great man was thereby confirmed in his conjecture as to the existence of Western lands." (Antiquitates Americanæ, as Enough has been said to make it clear that to a northern Germanic race belongs the glory of having set foot upon the soil of America, and founded settlements there, in the early Middle Ages, five hundred years before Columbus. p. xxiv.) Malte-Brun, the geographer, Further details may here be passed over. When the freedom of Iceland, which was once a self-governing commonwealth, perished, the spirit of bold enterprise, formerly so characteristic of Only one hundred and thirty years her people, began to decline. It was had passed as Mr. Rasmus B. Anderonly in the recollections contained in son (America Not Discovered by Columtheir Saga records that those inhab-bus) points out-since the last Norse 1 It is right to mention here a number of smaller or larger useful writings published on the subject, some years ago, by Miss Mary Brown (now Mrs. Shipley) and her husband, Mr. John Shipley. (The Icelandic Discoveries of America; Leif Erikson; Suppressed Historical Facts; The English Rediscovery and Colonization of America; The Full Significance of 1492.) who hailed from a Danish family in Jutland, but wrote in French, was also of opinion that Columbus must have heard of the Norse discovery of America. expedition to Vinland had taken place, when Columbus appeared in Iceland and had the interview in question. "There were undoubtedly people still living," the author says, "whose grandfathers 2 Vita dell' Admiraglio Christophoro Columbo. Venice, 1571. |