ful name to the country, calling it "Vínland it Gódha" or Wineland the Good. The news soon spread all over the northern countries, as we may conclude from the statement of a well-known historian of the eleventh century, Adam of Bremen, who assures on the authority of the Danish king, Sweinn Estridson, that in Vinland grape-vines grew spontaneously.'

After the vines loaded with grapes had been found and admired by all, Leif employed his men in preparing a cargo for his vessel. Besides ample provisions of water and wood and of game and fish, they loaded samples of all useful products of Vinland; but the grapes and the building-timber were the two principal articles of the lading. The long boat was filled with the fruit of the vines, and the great ship was made to carry hewn beams and other lumber in quantity sufficient to erect a Greenland villa.

The next spring the daring explorers spread their canvas, retraced their ocean route, and soon landed in Greenland's Eiriksfjord in the presence of an admiring

crowd.2

The expedition of Leif the Fortunate and his discoveries formed the subject of every conversation in Greenland, and all agreed on the advisability of further researches along the American coast. Leif was, however, satisfied with the riches and the glory he had won, and wished to remain with his failing old father, who died during the following winter.3 Thorvald, on the contrary, the second son of Eric the Red, expressed his desire of continuing his brother's noble and useful

1 De Situ Daniæ, and Historia Ecclesiastica, cap. ccxlvi., ap. Gravier, p. 54.

The incidents of the narrative are compiled from the epitomes of the ancient sagas, made by Moos

müller, S. 80, seq.; Rafn, Mémoire, p. 5, seq.; Peschel, Geschichte des Zeitalters, S. 81; Bancroft, vol. v. p. 105, seq.

3

Farnum, p. 31; Rafn, Antiq. Amer., p. 39.

work. Leif, therefore, said to him, "If you are eager to see Vinland, take my ship and sail to it." The offer was readily accepted, and the vessel, manned this time with thirty sailors, was soon fitted out for a new voyage. After taking Leif's directions and advices, Thorvald stood out to sea, the same year of his brother's return, in 1002.1

No incidents are recorded of his sailing outward, but we know that he landed in Vinland and wintered at Leifsbudhir, finding plenty of provisions for himself and his men in the waters of the neighborhood.

In the spring of the year 1003 Thorvald sent out some of his companions in his long boat to explore the coast towards the South and the West. This expedition lasted until the fall, and Rafn does not exaggerate when assuming that the daring seamen sailed forth in sight of the modern States of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. The description which they gave of these shores is fitting yet until this day. The land, they said, was beautiful and covered with forests; the space between the water and the trees was generally small and in most places covered with white sand, and all along the coast they found many shoals and islands. Of human vestiges they had not met any, nor any sign that man had ever set foot in that country before; with the exception, however, of a shed or barn built of wood and presumably destined to shelter corn or other produce in one of the westernmost islands.

In

All passed the next winter at Leifsbudhir again. the summer of the year 1004 Thorvald chose a number

1 Amer. Cath. Quar. Rev., vol. xiv. p. 607; Moosmüller, S. 88; Rafn, Mémoire, p. 7; Gravier, p. 60; Bancroft, vol. v. p. 107; Gaffarel, Histoire, p. 311; Kunstmann,

S. 26. We compare these authors, all based upon their Icelandic predecessors, in giving the following account of Thorvald's exploration. 2 Mémoire, p. 26.

of his men to accompany him on another reconnoitring excursion. He rigged the large craft, and sailed first to the East and then to the North,-through Nantucket Sound and along Barnstable peninsula. But it happened that heavy weather overtook him, and drove him against a tongue of land with sufficient force to break the keel of his vessel. Here, then, they were compelled to disembark and to spend a long time in repairing their ship. Rafn,' Kohl, and Beauvois think the headland to be Cape Cod.2

When the ship-carpenters had finished their work, Thorvald set sail again to coast along the eastern shores of the continent. Passing by several bays, he soon came to a remarkable promontory covered with trees, where he dropped anchor in a small inlet, swung a bridge to the strand, and disembarked with all his men. Looking around, he exclaimed, "What a beautiful place this is; here I wish to establish my home!"

3

While walking along the beach, the explorers noticed at a distance three puzzling eminences. They made for them, and found them to be three canoes turned upside down, and under each one were three men, Skraelings, or natives of low stature. The Northmen had not yet lost the spirit and habits of their piratical ancestors. A battle ensued, if so it can be called, in which eight of the Skraelings were put to death, while the ninth succeeded in fleeing to the ocean with his canoe. Farther up the adjoining bay other elevations were descried, which the explorers supposed to be human habitations.

1 Mémoire, p. 17.

2 Gravier, p. 61, ref. to Kohl, A History of the Discovery of the East of Maine, 2d ser. 1st vol. of the Documentary History of Maine, p. 67, and Beauvois, Découverte, p. 112, n. 1.

3 Rasmus Anderson, p. 73, n., remarks that this name is derived from the adjective "skrall" (Sw. "skral," weak, sickly), which means lean: hence 'Skraeling" is an allusion to their low, shrivelled features.

Tired after their long search and bloody crime, the crew returned to the ship and fell asleep, not one being able to keep watch. But all of a sudden one of them was roused, and cried out with terror, "Thorvald, awake, and men, all of you, if you want to save your lives!" Lo! there was shooting forth from the depth of the bay an innumerable multitude of canoes, full of warriors, making straight for the vessel. "Men," Thorvald spoke, "get what you can and build a parapet along the sides; we will defend ourselves as valiantly as possible, yet not return the attack." So they did. The Skraelings hurled volleys of arrows at them for a while, and then took to flight in the greatest disorder.

Thorvald asked his companions whether any of them had been struck, but they all answered, no. "I," said he, "have a wound under my arm from an arrow that passed through a flaw of the breastwork and glanced on my shield. See here that arrow, of which I shall die. Now, it is my advice that you prepare to return home as quickly as possible, but me you shall carry to the headland, which seemed to be so pleasant a place to dwell upon. Forsooth, the words that fell from my lips shall prove true, and I shall, indeed, abide there for a season. Bury me there, and place crosses at my head and at my feet, and call that place for evermore Krossanes," Cape of the Cross. "Greenland," an ancient chronicle adds, "had become Christian at that time." 1

The learned identify Krossanes with either Gurnet Point or Point Allerton, southeast of Boston Bay.2

As soon as Thorvald's companions had performed the sad duty of burying their captain, they sailed back to

1 Rafn, Antiq. Amer., pp. 44-46, 426, 430; Heimskringla, Kap. cviii.; Torfæus, Vinland. Ant., pp. 10-14.

' Rafn, Mémoire, p. 19; Gravier, p. 63; Amer. Cath. Quar. Rev., vol. xiv. p. 608.

Leifsbudhir, where they passed the third winter in preparing a cargo of lumber, grapes, and other useful articles; and in the spring of 1005 they returned to Greenland, bearing the mournful news of Thorvald's tragic death to Leif Ericsson and other relatives, together with the interesting account of their explorations and a share of the fruit of their labor.

The tidings of his brother's loss and burial in unblest ground fell particularly hard on Eric's youngest son, named Thorstein; and he resolved to make a voyage in search of the body. He fitted out a good ship, and, accompanied by his wife Gudrida, Thorbjörn's daughter, and twenty-five strong men, he left Greenland that same spring of the year 1005. He tossed about on the ocean the whole summer, and at last accidentally arrived at the coast of Greenland's Vestrebygd, or northern settlement, at the end of the first week of the following winter,-i.e., about the 20th day of October.' His efforts had proved a failure: he had come in view of Iceland and noticed the sea-fowl of the Irish shores, but had not found the route to Krossanes.2

Worn out with fatigue and disappointment, Thorstein and his wife concluded to sail no farther, and to pass the winter on Lysufjord, where they were, although without a home and far away from their friends. Their first care was to provide their crew with shelter on land, remaining themselves on their ship. It happened, however, that one early morning some strangers came near them, and their leader asked who they were. Thorstein answered, "Here are two persons; but who asks the question?" "Thorstein is my name," said the other,

1 Snorre Sturluson, Heimskringla, S. 315, n. f: "Initium hiemis veteres nostrates a 14 mensis Octobris computarunt," ap. Gravier, p. 66; Finn Magnussen, De calendario

Veterum Borealium, ad calcem iii. vol. Edda, p. 1115, ap. Moosmüller, S. 91. n.

2

Rafn, Antiq. Amer., pp. 48, 120.