CHAPTER XX. NEW ENGLAND UNDER WILLIAM AND MARY, CHAPTER XXI. NEW ENGLAND FROM THE ACCESSION OF QUEEN ANNE TO O historical question is more interesting to the American than that which relates to the original discovery of the Western Continent. The honour of making it effectively known to the inhabitants of the Old World unquestionably belong to Columbus. From his glory as the great discoverer, it would be unjust in the slightest degree to detract. But the claim to a prior discovery, urged in favour of the Northmen, and never relinquished by the Icelandic scholars, has recently been revived by the Royal Society of Antiquaries at Copenhagen, and sup 12 VOYAGE OF BIARNE. ported by such weighty testimony that it is now treated with respect by most historical writers. The facts, as recorded by the Icelandic authorities, cited by the Danish antiquaries, in their recently published volume* are briefly these :† "In the spring of the year 986, Eric Rauda, that is Eric the Red, emigrated from Iceland to Greenland, and formed a settlement there called Brattalid, at a place named from himself Ericsfiord. Among those who accompanied him was Heriulf Bardson, who established himself at a place which still bears the name of Heriulfsness. Heriulf had a son named Biarne, Biorne, or (in some modern writers) Biron. Biarne was absent on a trading voyage in Norway, when his father accompanied Eric to Greenland. Returning to Iceland in the course of the summer, and finding his father gone, he sailed in pursuit of him, though wholly ignorant of the navigation between Greenland and Iceland. His vessel was soon enveloped in fogs; and after many days' sailing, he knew not whither he had been carried. When the fog cleared up, the voyagers found themselves sailing with a south-west wind, and saw land to the left. It was without mountains, overgrown with woods, and rose in several gentle elevations. As it did not correspond with the descriptions of Greenland, the country of which they were in scarch, they left it to larboard, and continued sailing for two days, when they saw another land, which was flat and overgrown with wood. From thence they stood out to sea, and sailed three days with a south-west wind, when they saw a third land, which was high and mountainous, and covered with glaciers. Coasting along its shore, they discovered that it was an island. They bore away from it without landing, and after four days' sailing with fresh gales, reached Heriulfsness in Greenland. Such is the tradition of Biarne's voyage in 986. He appears to have been carried by a north-east wind and currents far to the south till he struck the coast of America; and thence, with an opposite wind, stretched along the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, till he reached his destination in Greenland. Biarne is stated not to have landed on the continent of America. * Antiquitates Americanæ. † North American Review, Jan. 1838. VOYAGE OF LIEF. 13 Some time after this, probably in 994, Biarne made a visit to Eric, Earl of Norway; and gave him an account of his voyage, and of the unknown land he had seen. He was censured by the earl, for not having explored the region. On his return to Greenland, a voyage of exploration was determined upon. Leif, a son of Eric the Red, for this purpose bought Biarne's ship, and put on board a crew of twenty-five men, among whom was a German, named Tyrker, who had been long attached to the family of Eric. They sailed in the year 1000, and came first to the land which had been last discovered by Biarne. Here they landed. No grass was visible; the shore was lined with icebergs, and the intermediate space between them and the water was one continuous stratum of slate. This substance is called Hella, in the Icelandic tongue, and hence the region was named HELLULAND. have been Newfoundland or Labrador.* This must The voyagers now put out to sea from Helluland, and descried another land, where they also went on shore. It was level, covered with wood, and presented a front of white sand bluffs. This they called MARKLAND OF WOODLAND. It is supposed to have been the coast of Nova Scotia. Again, standing out to sea, they sailed for two days, with a north-east wind, before they saw land again. They then came to an island, east of the main, and entered a channel between this island and a promontory projecting in an easterly (or northerly) direction from the main land. They sailed westward; there was much land left dry at ebb tide. Afterwards, they went on shore at a place, where a river, issuing from a lake, fell into the sea. They brought their ship into the river, thence into the lake, and there anchored. Here they first constructed temporary huts; but having determined to pass the winter, they erected more permanent buildings, which they called LEIFSBUTHIR, Leif's booths or huts. Thus established, Leif divided his company into two parties, whose business it was alternately to watch the settlements • Dunham's History of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. can Review. North Ameri 14 DISCOVERY OF GRAPES. and to explore the country.* It happened one day that Tyrker, the German, was missing, and as Leif set a great value upon the youth, on account of his skill in various arts, he sent his followers in search of him in every direction. When they at last found him, he began to speak to them in the Teutonic language, with many extravagant signs of joy. They at last made out to understand him in the North tongue, that he had found in the vicinity vines bearing wild grapes. He led them to the spot, and they brought to their chief a quantity of the grapes which they had gathered. At first, Leif doubted whether they were really that fruit; but the German assured him that he was well acquainted with it, being a native of the southern wine countries. Leif, thereupon, named the country VINLAND or Wineland. After passing the winter at this spot, Leif and his party returned to Greenland, in the spring. The island above-mentioned is supposed by the editor of the Antiquitates Americana to have been Nantucket; and the region called Vinland, the * Wheaton's History of the Northmen. |