without a man in it who belongs to one of these nations; and their ancestors had the same love of the sea. Now, when we look on the map, we see that it does not look very far from Norway to Iceland, nor from Greenland to Labrador. When once arrived at Labrador, any persevering navigator would be tempted to follow down the coast of North America. But the Northmen

certainly settled Iceland a thousand years ago and it is known from the annals of Iceland that a colony was sent thence to Greenland, and there remained for a long time; and some of these emigrants may easily have sailed on to Labrador; or some vessel bound for Greenland may have been driven too far west, and so reached the mainland without intending it. At any

rate, it is recorded in the Norse traditions that the Northmen in sailing west actually arrived, about A.D. 1000, at some country beyond Greenland.

This is the way the story is told in the Norse books. A prince, named Leif the Lucky, son of Erik the Red, sailed west from Greenland with thirty-five men, one of whom was a German. After they had landed on a strange land, this German, named Tyrker, strayed off one day, and was thought to be lost. When he came back, he talked German, and rolled his eyes around, and seemed out of his senses. But at last he said in the Norse language, "I have not been far; but I have found something to tell of: I have found vines and grapes."

"But is it true, my foster-brother?" asked Leif.

Surely it is," he answered; "for I came from the land of grapes and vines."

"Then they slept for the night," the Norse narrative says; "but in the morning Leif said to his sailors, 'Now we shall have two jobs. Each day we will either gather grapes, or hew grape-vines, or fell trees, so there will be a cargo for my ship;' and that was the counsel taken. It is said that their long-boat was filled with grapes. Now was hewn a cargo for the ship, and, when spring came, they got ready and sailed off; and Leif gave a name to the land, after its sort, and called it 'Vinland.' They sailed then afterwards into the sea, and had a fair wind until they saw Greenland."

A year or two afterwards Leif's brother, Thorwald, wished to visit Vinland; for he thought that the land had been too little examined. They came to the place where Leif had built huts. There they spent the win

ter, and in the spring went exploring along the shore "to the westward." At last they saw three boats made of skin, with three men in each. These the Northmen attacked, and killed all but one.

They were, apparlegends "Skrael

ently, Indians, called in the Norse ings." Then came from within the firth innumerable skin-boats, and made toward them. Thorwald said then, "We will set up our battle-shields, and guard ourselves the best we can, but fight little against them." So they did; and the Skraelings shot at them for a while, but then fled as fast as they could. But they had wounded Thorwald by an arrow, so that he died; and this party of Norsemen also became discouraged, and went back to Greenland the next spring.

But Vinland was now well known; and still larger parties of Northmen came afterwards. They sent home very enthusiastic accounts of their new dwelling-place ; praising the grapes and the salmon and the soil, and saying that the day and night were more nearly equal than in Greenland or Iceland. The Indians, or Skraelings, soon came in skin-boats to trade with them. In one case the Skraelings were all busy, selling furs for red cloth, when a bull, that belonged to the strangers, came bellowing out of the wood; and the Skraelings jumped into their canoe, and rowed away. The next time the Skraelings came, it was as warriors; and they attacked the Northmen with their arrows, and could not be easily beaten off. So the strangers did not have an easy time. But they staid there several winters; and a woman named Gudrid had a son named Snorri, who was, perhaps, the first white child born on this continent.

There is much more of this same sort in the traditions of the Northmen; but there is nothing to yield us any more definite knowledge. There is little doubt of their having reached the North American coast; but whether Vinland was Rhode Island, or Nova Scotia, or some other place, we perhaps shall never know. For a time it was thought that it must be Rhode Island. The Norse narratives describe a mild climate, with wild grapes; and it was thought that this must refer to Newport, R.I., where there are plenty of these grapes on the islands in the harbor. But wild grapes grow in Nova Scotia also; and the climate there might seem mild to those who had come from Iceland. This is all we know about the matter. Perhaps there may yet be found along the coast of New England some real memorial of the Northmen; and in the mean time, if it were not for their own legends, it would be hard to believe that they ever came.

CHAPTER V.

WH

THE COMING OF COLUMBUS.

HATEVER may have been the truth about the visit of the Northmen to America, it is certain, that, if they came, they sailed away again, never to

Some

return. Even their colony in Greenland was at last abandoned; and the memory of Vinland almost disappeared. For nearly five centuries, so far as we know, not a European vessel crossed the Atlantic. of the older people in Iceland may have remembered that their grandparents had told them of a country far to the west, where vines grew; and perhaps they used to tell these legends, in the long, dark evenings, to the Spanish and English sailors who went on trading-voyages to Iceland. There came a time of great commercial activity among the nations of Southern Europe; and voyages began to be

TOMB OF COLUMBUS.