manners.
About the spring of the year, there arrived a fleet of ships from, Genoa, at the port of Joppa; and when the Christian merchants had exchanged all their commodities in the towns upon the coast, and had likewise visited the holy places, we all embarked. After being tossed about upon the seas by many storms and tempests, we landed at Brundusium; whence, with a prosperous journey, we travelled through Apulia to Rome, where we visited the habitations of the holy apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and performed our devotions at various monuments of the holy, martyrs in different parts of the city. From thence, the archbishops and other princes of the empire Journeyed towards the right hand for Germany, while we declined to the left hand into France, taking our leaves of each other with indescribable courtesey and kindly greeting. And at length, of thirty horsemen of us who went from Normandy fat and lusty, scarce twenty poor pilgrims returned, all on foot, and reduced almost to skeletons with fatigue and hardships.
CHAPTER II.
Original Discovery of Greenland by the Icelanders.[1]
[1] Forster, Voy. and Disc. 79.
Although the discoveries contained in this and the next subsequent chapter were certainty preceded, in point of time, by the voyages of the two Mahomedans, in Chap. IV. and the insertion of these two chapters, II. and III. in this place may therefore be considered as a deviation from the chronological order of our plan; it seemed proper and even necessary, that they should be both introduced here, as presenting an unbroken series of the discoveries of the Norwegians, and as fully authorized by the geographical principles of our arrangement.
Among the many petty sovereigns, vikingr or chieftans of Norway, who had been reduced to subjection by Harold Harfagr, or the fair-haired, was one named Thorer. Thorwald, the relative of this person, had lived at the court of Earl Hayne, whence he had been obliged to fly, on account of having committed a murder, and went to Iceland, where he settled a considerable track of country with a new colony. Eric-raude, or red-head, the son of Thorwald, was long persecuted by a powerful neighbour named Eyolf Saur, because Eric had killed some of Eyolf's servants; and at length Eric killed Eyolf likewise. For this and other crimes he was condemned to go into banishment for three years; and knowing that a man named Gunbiorn had previously discovered certain banks to the west of Iceland, named from him Gunbiorn's Schieran, or Gunbar banks, and likewise a country of considerable extent still farther to the westwards, he determined on making a voyage of discovery to that country. Setting sail therefore from Iceland, he soon fell in with a point of land called Hirjalfs-ness; and continuing his voyage to the south-west he entered a large inlet, to which he gave the name of Erics-sound, and passed the winter on a pleasant island in that neighbourhood. In the following year he explored the continent; and returning to Iceland in the third year, he represented his new discovery in the fairest light, bestowing lavish praises on the rich meadows, fine woods, and plentiful fisheries of the country, which he called Greenland, that he might induce a considerable number of people to join with him in colonizing this new country. Accordingly, there set out for this place twenty-five vessels, carrying people of both sexes, household furniture, implements of all kinds, and cattle for breeding, of which only fourteen vessels arrived in safety. These first colonists were soon followed by many more, both from Iceland and Norway; and in a few years their number is said to have increased so much, as to occupy both the eastern and western coasts of Greenland.
This is the ordinary and best authenticated account of the discovery and settlement of Old Greenland, which rests on the credit of the great northern historian, Snorro Sturleson, judge of Iceland, who wrote in the year 1215. Yet others assert that Greenland had been known long before, and ground their assertion on letters-patent from the Emperor Lewis the Pious in 834, and a bull of Gregory IV. in 835, in which permission is given to Archbishop Ansgar to convert the Sueones, Danes, Sclavonians; and it is added, the Norwaehers, Farriers, Greenlanders, Halsingalanders, Icelanders, and Scridevinds. Even allowing both charter and bull to be genuine, it is probable that the copy which has come down to our time is interpolated, and that for Gronlandon and Islandon, we ought to read Quenlandon and Hitlandon, meaning the Finlanders and Hitlanders: Quenland being the old name of Finland, and Hitland or Hialtaland the Norwegian name of the Shetland islands. It is even not improbable that all the names in these ancient deeds after the Sueones, Danes, and Sclavonians, had been interpolated in a later period; as St. Rembert, the immediate successor of Ansgar, and who wrote his life, only mentions the Sueones, Danes, and Sclavonians, together with other nations in the north; and even Adam of Bremen only mentions these three, and other neighbouring and surrounding nations[2]. Hence the authority of St. Rembert and Snorro Sturleson remains firm and unshaken, in spite of these falsified copies of the papal bull and imperial patent; and we may rest assured that Iceland was not discovered before 861, nor inhabited before 874; and that Greenland could hardly have been discovered previous to 982, or 983, and was not inhabited before 985 or 986.-->Forst.
[2] Vit. S. Anscharii, ap. Langeb. Script. Dan. I. 451. Ad. Brem. Hist. Eccles. Lib. I. cap. 17.
CHAPTER III.
Early Discovery of Winland by the Icelanders, about A.D. 1001.[1]
[1] Forster, Hist. of Disc. in the North, 82.
The passion which the Nordmen or Normans had always manifested for maritime expeditions, still prevailed among them in the cold and inhospitable regions of Iceland and Greenland. An Icelander, named Herjolf, was accustomed to make a trading voyage every year to different countries, in which latterly he was accompanied by his son, Biorn. About the year 1001, their ships were separated by a storm, and Biorn learned on his arrival in Norway that his father had sailed for Greenland, to which place he resolved to follow his father; but another storm drove him a great way to the south-west of his intended course, and he fell in with an extensive flat country covered all over with thick woods; and just as he set out on his return, he discovered an island on the coast. He made no stay at either of these places; but the wind being now fallen, he made all the haste he could to return by a north-east course to Greenland, where he reported the discovery which he had made.
Lief, the son of Eric-raude, who inherited from his father an inordinate desire of distinguishing himself by making discoveries and planting colonies, immediately fitted out a vessel carrying thirty-five men; and taking Biorn along with him, set sail in quest of this newly discovered country. The first land discovered in this voyage was barren and rocky, on which account Lief gave it the name of Helleland, or Rockland. Proceeding farther, they came to a low coast having a sandy soil, which was overgrown with wood, for which reason it was called Mark-land, or the Woody-land. Two days after this they again saw land, having an island lying opposite to its northern coast; and on the mainland they discovered the mouth of a river, up which they sailed. The bushes on the banks of this river bore sweet berries; the temperature of the air was mild, the soil fertile[2], and the river abounded in fish, particularly in excellent salmon. Continuing to sail up the river, they came to a lake, out of which the river took its rise; and here they passed the winter. In the shortest day of winter, the sun remained eight hours above the horizon; and consequently the longest day, exclusive of the dawn and twilight, must have been sixteen hours. From this circumstance it follows, that the place in which they were was in about 49° of north latitude; and as they arrived by a south-westerly course from Old Greenland, after having cleared Cape Farewell, it must either have been the river Gander or the Bay of Exploits, in the island now called Newfoundland. It could not be on the northern coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence; as in that case, they must have navigated through the straits of Belleisle, which could not have escaped their notice. In this place they erected several huts for their accommodation during
