II. —The Massachusetts Bay Colonists in Salem Harbor.
III. —Fire, Air, Earth, and Water in New England.
IV. —A Sea-Adventure of the Puritan Colonists.
V. —Governor Winthrop’s Night out of Doors.
VI. —The Privations of the Puritans.
BOOK I.
THE LEGENDS OF THE NORTHMEN.
(A.D. 985–1008.)
These extracts are taken from two Icelandic works called Tháttr Eireks Rauda (the piece about Eirek the Red) and Graenlendinga Thátt (the piece about the Greenlanders). These passages were translated by J. Elliot Cabot, Esq., and were published in “The Massachusetts Quarterly Review” for March, 1849.
It is now the general belief of historians, that these legends are mainly correct; and that the region described as Vinland was a part of the North-American Continent. Beyond this we do not know. The poet Whittier has written thus of these early explorers, in his poem called “The Norsemen:”—
“What sea-worn barks are those which throw
The light spray from each rushing prow?
Have they not in the North Sea’s blast
Bowed to the waves the straining mast?
Their frozen sails the low, pale sun
Of Thule’s night has shone upon;
Flapped by the sea-wind’s gusty sweep,
Round icy drift and headland steep.
Wild Jutland’s wives and Lochlin’s daughters
Have watched them fading o’er the waters,
Lessening through driving mist and spray,
Like white-winged sea-birds on their way.
Onward they glide; and now I view
Their iron-armed and stalwart crew:
Joy glistens in each wild blue eye
Turned to green earth and summer sky:
Each broad, seamed breast has cast aside
Its cumbering vest of shaggy hide:
Bared to the sun, and soft warm air,
Streams back the Norseman’s yellow hair.
I see the gleam of axe and spear;
The sound of smitten shields I hear,
Keeping a harsh and fitting time
To Saga’s chant and Runic rhyme.”
THE LEGENDS OF THE NORTHMEN.
I.—How the Northmen discovered North America.
[About the year 860, a Danish sailor named Gardar was driven upon the shores of Iceland, after which that island was settled by a colony from Norway. About a hundred years later, Greenland was settled from Iceland; Eirek the Red being the first to make the voyage. With him went one Heriulf, whose son Biarni had been in the habit of passing every other winter with his father, and then sailing on distant voyages. Then happened what follows.]
THAT same summer (985 or 986) came Biarni with his ship to Eyrar (Iceland), in the spring of which his father had sailed from the island. These tidings seemed to Biarni weighty, and he would not unload his ship. Then asked his sailors1 what he meant to do. He answered, that he meant to hold to his wont,2 and winter with his father; “and I will bear for Greenland, if you will follow me thither.” All said they would do as he wished. Then said Biarni, “Imprudent they will think our voyage, since none of us has been in the Greenland Sea.”
A NORSE SHIP.
Yet they bore out to sea as soon as they were bound,3 and sailed three days, till the land was sunk.4 Then the fair wind fell off, and there arose north winds and fogs, and they knew not whither they fared; and so it went for many days. After that, they saw the sun, and could then get their bearings. Then they hoisted sail, and sailed that day before they saw land; and they counselled with themselves what land that might be. But Biarni said he thought it could not be Greenland. They asked him whether he would sail to the land, or not. “This is my counsel, to sail nigh to the land,” said he. And so they did, and soon saw that the land was without fells,5 and wooded, and small heights on the land; and they left the land to larboard, and let the foot of the sail look towards land.6 After that, they sailed two days before they saw another land. They asked if Biarni thought this was Greenland. He said he thought it no more Greenland than the first; “for the glaciers are very huge, as they say, in Greenland.” They soon neared the land, and saw that it was flat land, and overgrown with wood.7 Then the fair wind fell. Then the sailors said that it seemed prudent to them to land there; but Biarni would not. They thought they needed both wood and water. “Of neither are you in want,” said Biarni; but he got some hard speeches for that from his sailors. He bade them hoist sail, and so they did; and they turned the bows from the land, and sailed out to sea with a west-south wind three days, and saw a third land; but that land was high, mountainous, and covered with glaciers.8 They asked then if Biarni would put ashore there; but he said he would not, “for this land seems to me not very promising.” They did not lower their sails, but held on along this land, and saw that it was an island; but they turned the stern to the land, and sailed seawards with the same fair wind. But the wind rose; and Biarni bade them shorten sail, and not to carry more than their ship and tackle would bear. They sailed now four days, then saw they land the fourth. Then they asked Biarni whether he thought that was Greenland, or not. Biarni answered, “That is likest to what is said to me of Greenland; and we will put ashore.” So they did, and landed under a certain ness9 at evening of the day. And there was a boat at the ness, and there lived Heriulf, the father of Biarni, on this ness; and from him has the ness taken its name, and is since called Heriulfsness. Now fared10 Biarni to his father, and gave up sailing, and was with his father whilst Heriulf lived, and afterwards lived there after his father.
II.—The Voyage of Leif the Lucky.
