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the eleventh century, again, far excelled the neighboring natives, who, covered with the pelts of their game, were so delighted with the novelty of a woven fabric that they readily gave the richest furs for a strip of a finger's breadth of common cloth.1

A further proof of European civilization in Great Ireland consists in the fact of its inhabitants having the use of large domesticated animals; for, while the aborigines of the adjoining countries fled in dismay at the appearance of a bellowing bovine, while an ox was expected by Thorfinn Karlsefne to turn back an army of Skraelings, we read that the old man, Björn Asbrandson, approached Gudleif, riding a horse under a flag or a canopy in the centre of a troop of horsemen.3 This statement of the sagas is all the more remarkable, as it is well known that no specimens of the equine species were ever found on American soil by later discoverers; from which it would seem that these useful companions of civilized man became extinct on our continent, together with the settlements to which they had originally been shipped across the Atlantic Ocean.

Some authors have so keenly felt the probatory power of this argument as to venture the denial of the sagas' correctness in this particular, while others, convinced of the perfect truthfulness of the Icelandic records, have tried to interpret the original expressions in such a manner as to escape the natural conclusion. Thus Rafn, who translates, however, the Icelandic statement into the Latin,-"Ingentem cohortem virorum equis advehi conspexerunt . . viderunt sub vexillo equitare virum," 5-and Munch remark that

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5 Document XXXII.; Rafn, Antiquitates, p. 248.

6 Det Norske Folks Historie, pt. i. t. ii. p. 464, n. 2.

the verb "reidha," although generally used to express riding on horseback, properly means to move on without the use of the feet, and may thus signify being carried in a sedan or portable chair. But if this ingenious explanation might be admitted in regard to an elderly chief, it is evidently preposterous in its attempted application to a great crowd of natives,1 who, though barbarous enough to know nothing of horses, should all have indulged in the Oriental luxury of being carried in litters.2

Nor should we wonder at finding in Great Ireland all these tokens of material and civil progress, when we meet there with the most essential practice and the saving spirit of that religion which always was and is yet the only teacher and protector of true and absolute civilization. The sagas give a plain and concise but striking testimony when they state that Ari Marson was baptized in Hvítramannaland.3 What else, indeed, can we conclude from this fact so simply told, than that Christianity had been introduced into this portion of America? Torfæus supposes that the holy rite may have been conferred by a Bishop Jón or John, who from Greenland had sailed to Scandinavian Vinland or the present New England States; but it is well known that this bishop must have arrived rather late to convert and baptize Ari Marson, having been in Iceland-not in Greenland-no sooner than the middle of the eleventh century, 1049-1053. Moreover, the northern historian has here egregiously confounded the American Vinland with the Vindland or land of the Wendes in the North of modern Prussia, where the same Bishop Jón suffered martyrdom in the year 1066.

1 Flokr mikill.

3 Supra, p. 76; see Document

2 Beauvois, La Découverte, p. 23, XXXI. n. 5; Gravier, p. 132, n. 1.

Rafn, to explain the undeniable yet puzzling statement, makes several suppositions, one as unlikely as another. But it is easily understood that Ari must have been persuaded to embrace Christianity and have been instructed in it, in a country where our holy religion predominated already at the end of the tenth century, and whose inhabitants were by his conversion rather inclined to establish him a magistrate among them than dissuaded from so doing. This facile induction is further supported by the probable opinion of the learned, who consider the information received by Thorfinn Karlsefne from the Skraeling captives in regard to Great Ireland as a fitting description, in barbarian style, of a Christian procession, in which religious banners were carried aloft by clerics dressed in white linen and singing psalms and holy hymns. From all these reports it is evident, says Gravier, that White-man's Land was settled by a Christian nation.

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The names under which these ancient American settlements were familiarly known to the Scandinavians of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, both of Whiteman's Land and of Ireland the Great, are by themselves satisfactory proof that the settlers were none other than Irish Papas, who, says the "Historia Norwegiæ," written in the twelfth century, were thus called because of the white garments which they wore like the clerics designated in German as Papas, "Pfaffen." "How," Beamish asks, "could the name of Great Ireland have arisen but from the fact of the country having been colonized by the Irish, called White men

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by the neighboring Esquimaux ?" Rask, the eminent Danish philologist, who thinks there exists some similitude between the Hiberno-Celtic and the American Indian dialects, also considers the name of Írland it mikla to be a sufficient indication of the Irish having immigrated there from their native isle. "Judging from the ancient documents, we can have no doubt," says the learned Rafn," "that Great Ireland was settled before the year 1000 by a Christian colony from Ireland."

Some authors, it is true, secure the credit of cautious criticism, by hesitating to admit as an historical fact the existence of the ancient colonies of Ireland in our country; and of such we find a remarkable example in De Costa, who says, "Ari Marson's connection with Ireland the Great, though undoubtedly real, hardly proves what may nevertheless be true, a pre-Scandinavian discovery of America by the Irish. This not improbable view demands clearer proof and will repay investigation." They all, however, agree in establishing the possibility and even the high probability of the facts which they choose to doubt. The same De Costa writes that "the Irish of early times might easily have passed over to the Western Continent, for which voyage they undoubtedly had facilities." Bancroft 5 states that "there is no great improbability that the natives of Ireland may have reached, by accident or otherwise, the northeastern coasts of the new continent in very early times. Justin Winsor takes likewise a prudent step, saying, "The extremely probable and

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1 Beamish, Discovery, pp. 210, boldt, Kosmos, Bd. ii. S. 272; Mal

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almost necessary pre-Columbian knowledge of the northern parts of America follows from the venturesome spirit of the sailors of the North Atlantic seas after fish and traffic, and from the easy transitions from coast to coast, by which they would have been lured to meet more southerly climes." The great northern scholars Rafn and Rask are more explicit in the statement of their conviction: "The Land of the White men," says the former, "was situate across the Chesapeake Bay, corresponding to the present States of Virginia and North Carolina, with tracts of land farther to the West. The saga of Karlsefne as well as the Landnámabók testifies that this country was also called Great Ireland, giving thus to understand that the White men were Irishmen, who had settled in America before the year 1000; and these were Christians, as appears from Ari Marson's baptism." He adds that many expert and learned men have noticed some vestiges of the Irish among the native tribes of our continent. He doubts, however, how far the immigrants from Ireland may have extended their colonies and at what time they may first have arrived.

Rask observes that some philologists pretend to have found similarities between the Irish language and the eastern idioms of North America. "We may believe," he continues, "that some Irish people have immigrated into America, and thus can easily be explained the traditions of the Mexicans anterior to the Spanish conquest in regard to an eastern land across the ocean and its powerful people. It is, moreover, sufficiently known that the Irish had discovered and partly settled Iceland before the Scandinavians took possession of it. Since, therefore, the Icelanders went over to Greenland and together with the Greenlanders discovered North America, it is but natural to admit that the Irish, who

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