The men of the expedition were mainly employed in felling and hewing timber for ship-building and similar purposes, in hauling it near the shore to dry on the sand, and afterwards in lading the vessels with it. They also collected precious wood and other natural produce of the country. It is specially related that for a time they were engaged in dissecting a huge whale, stranded by the waves, and in drawing its oil.

An important event took place in the fall of that year, 1008. Gudrida, Thorfinn's wife, gave birth to a son, who received the name of Snorre, and was the first child of white parents mentioned as born on the American continent. He made himself worthy of the distinction by his conduct in riper age, and is noted as the ancestor of one of Iceland's most prominent and illustrious families.

While watching by the cradle of her child one day, Gudrida, as a popular tradition tells, witnessed a strange apparition. She saw, as it were, a shadow enter by the door, and suddenly there stood before her a woman of low stature, dressed in black, with gray hair encircled by small bands, with pale lips and strange eyes. "What is thy name?" the stranger asked. "Gudrida. And thine?" "Gudrida," she said. "Then Thorfinn's wife bade her sit down; but a great noise was then heard about the house, and the visitor vanished away." More serious facts were taking place out of doors. It was in the beginning of the winter of 1009, and behold! the natives who had not shown themselves for a long time, appeared all at once in much larger numbers than they were wont to come before. They landed and set down their packages, before receiving the price. Thorfinn, who suspected hostile intentions, was on his guard, yet ordered milk-soup, but nothing else, to be offered to them. They understood his words, and, all together,

threw their furs over the palisade, thus causing some confusion, of which, it seems, they wanted to profit; for one of them, assailing a Scandinavian, tried to rob him of his arms. The Skraeling, however, was no match for the Northman, and soon lay dying on the ground. Seeing their companion slain, the natives took to flight, not even minding the milk that was being set out before them.

They will come back three times more numerous to take revenge," Thorfinn said. He did not mistake. Soon after a multitude of them made once more their appearance, showing evident signs of hostility and setting up loud yells. Karlsefne ordered the red shield to be borne against them; but they came nearer, nothing daunted, and the battle commenced. There was a galling discharge of missiles from the Skraelings' warslings. They raised on a pole a tremendously large ball, almost of the size of a sheep's paunch and of a bluish color, which, swung from the pole among the Northmen, came down with a fearful crash. This engine struck terror into the colonists, and they fled up the river.

One of the natives in their pursuit found an axe next to a dead man, and stood wondering as he tried it upon wood; but when he found that it would not cut stone, he cast it aside with contempt.

Freydisa, seeing her countrymen flee, exclaimed, "How can you, stout men, run before these miserable caitiffs, whom you might kill like cattle? Had I but a weapon I would fight better than any of you!" They heeded not her words. She tried to keep pace with them, but the advanced state of her pregnancy retarded She followed them, however, into the woods. There she found a dead body with a flat stone sticking fast in the head. It was the corpse of Thorbrand

her.

Snorreson, whose naked sword lay by his side. Freydisa picked up the sword, turned around, and brandished it in a menacing manner. There she stood, a

large woman with bared breast, dishevelled hair, and eyes blazing, like a goddess of war protecting her people. The Skraelings were awe-struck at the threatening spectacle, and returned to their canoes.

Thorfinn and his companions came down to Freydisa and praised her courage, but we can easily imagine how she received the encomiums.

The colonists were now well aware that, although the country held out many advantages, still the life that they would have to lead here would be one of constant alarm from the hostile attacks of the natives. They, therefore, made preparations for departure during the spring of the year 1010, with the intention of returning to their native countries. They sailed eastward and came to Streamfirth, where they met eleven more of their men, who, it seems, had attempted to establish another colony there.1

Thorfinn had become sufficiently acquainted with this part of the continent during the first winter of his voyage. He, therefore, left a hundred men with his wife, Gudrida, and Bjarne, his friend; and chose forty of the mariners to make with him an excursion farther to the South. For two full months he explored every bay and every promontory, and likely ascended the Potomac River, on whose banks the Northmen, it is said, founded a settlement in subsequent years. At his return to Streamfirth or Buzzards Bay, Thorfinn hardly set foot on land, but proceeded on his northward course in search of the stubborn straggler Thorhall. After rounding Kialarnes or Cape Cod, he was

1 Gravier, p. 99.

carried to the Northwest, having the land to larboard. Here he noticed thick forests in all directions, as far as he could see, with scarcely any open space; and it was his opinion that the hills of Mont Haup and those which he now saw were parts of one continuous range. He dropped anchor at the mouth of a stream, probably of the Charles River in Boston Bay.

All these voyages gave the Northmen a fair knowledge of the length of the North American continent.

The last winter of the expedition was passed at Streamfirth, in hardly better circumstances than the first, although the troubles were now of a quite different nature. Christianity had had no time yet to soften the fierce instincts and to bridle the brutal passions of the Northmen. Some of the crew attempted to insult the few women that were among them, and to this their husbands objected no less strongly than justly.

But for the prudent measures of Thorfinn and the firmness of his better friends, disgrace and blood would have stained and fatal blows would have stretched down many of the fiery sailors. To put an end to these discords and dangers, their leader resolved to profit by the first favorable wind and to sail to Greenland. Snorre, Thorfinn's son, was then three years old, the saga remarks.

Passing by Markland, they met five Skraelings,— one bearded, two women, and two boys. The man and the women escaped, but the Northmen caught the children. They took them along, taught them the Norse language, and had them baptized. The boys said that their mother was called Vethildi and their father Uvaege; that the Skraelings were ruled by chieftains, one of whom was called Avaldamon and the other Valdidida, that there was not a house in the country, but that the people dwelt in holes and caverns. They fur

ther said that beyond their land there was a country inhabited by people dressed in white, who spoke very loud and bore poles afore themselves to which were attached pieces of cloth. "It is thought," the ancient chronicler observes, "that this country was Whiteman's Land or Ireland the Great."

Bjarne Grimolfson was the last to set sail for home; but, although following Thorfinn at no great distance, he had not the same good luck on his voyage. He was driven into the Irish Sea, where his large ship was perforated by teredos, and only one-half of his crew found refuge in the long-boat, which, being smeared with tar of seal-oil, escaped the ship-worm and succeeded in making land, first in Dublin and afterwards in Iceland. Thorfinn, after a happy voyage, disembarked at Brattalidha early in the summer of the year 1011.1

He made to Leif Ericsson and to the people of Greenland a full report of the thrilling incidents of his four years' absence, which the bards recorded at once and the sagamen learned by heart. After two years' sojourn in Greenland he stretched the sails of his brave ship and set out for Norway, there to sell the merchandise he had gathered on the American continent. It was a popular belief that no vessel ever left a Greenland port laden with richer cargo. He was received with the greatest curiosity and the highest honors in the mother-country, where he stimulated the enterprise and ambition of the mariners of the three Scandinavian kingdoms, and easily disposed of his goods at most satisfactory prices. When, in the year 1015, he was on the point of returning to Iceland, he was offered by a merchant of Bremen half a pound of gold for a piece of "mausur" or curly maple, which at that time was

1 Authors referred to above; Rafn, Antiq. Amer., p. 55, seq. and passim.