look to the territories of the same nations for the Vinland of the Northmen, and believe that its Christian apostles, of whom the earlier French historians had no idea, were none other than Bishop Eric, his companions, and successors. "All those vestiges and reminiscences of Christian doctrine and practice were echoes," says Gravier," of an early evangelization of America, and footprints of the passage of Eric Upsi and of the Northmen, who, according to von Humboldt, had their principal settlements about the mouth of the St. Lawrence River."

We have noticed a voyage of Faroese fisherman to an island far away in the West, which the learned consider as Newfoundland; where, at their arrival, they could be understood but by one interpreter, who spoke Latin also; and where, in the king's library, they found Latin books, which the natives did not understand. Maltebrun thinks that these books had been brought there by Eric, the Greenland bishop. They may, however, have been imported by later Scandinavian clergymen following Bishop Gnupson to Vinland; and we would venture to ask, Whether, even at this time, namely, at the end of the fourteenth century,— the learned interpreter was not, perhaps, a priest come from Greenland to minister to the spiritual wants of his almost forgotten countrymen? It is easily presumed, indeed, that not many persons, besides the clerics, spoke Latin at the time in the islands of the northern Atlantic.2

1 P. 175.

* See Document LIV., m.; Maltebrun, t. i. p. 372.

CHAPTER XIV.

TRACKS OF THE NORTHMEN ON OUR CONTINENT.

THE Vestiges of Christianity and of ancient civilization in the northwestern parts of our continent, explained by various records almost contemporary with their first origin and cause, together with all the information, both of a general and of a special character, which we have brought forward already, would not, it seems, allow any question to be raised in regard to the fundamental and simple fact of America's discovery and partial settlement by the Scandinavians of Greenland. And yet Leslie, Jameson, and Murray, in their "Discovery and Adventures in the Polar Seas," absolutely reject the idea of a visit to any part of our coast by the Norwegians; and we learn from Herbermann 2 that our leading historians-George Bancroft, Hildreth, Winsor, Elliott, and Palfrey-regard voyages by the Norsemen southward from Greenland as highly probable, but treat the Scandinavian sagas as being of no historical value. The first of them writes, indeed,* that no clearly historical evidence establishes the natural probability that the Greenlanders accomplished the passage to the American continent. A few more, among whom

1 North Amer. Rev., new series, xlvi. p. 166.

2 Torfason's Ancient Vinland, p. i. 3 Winsor, vol. ii. p. 33. says, "The extremely probable and almost necessary pre-Columbian knowledge of the northeastern parts of America follows from the venturesome spirit of the mariners of those seas for fish and traffic, and from the

easy transitions from coast to coast, by which they would have been lured to meet the more southern climes. The chances from such natural causes are quite as strong an argument in favor of the early Northmen venturings as the somewhat questionable representation of the sagas."

4 Vol. i. ch. i.

is also Hubert Howe Bancroft, are inclined to the same opinion.

2

In a note, however, H. H. Bancroft says, in regard to the objections set forth by George Bancroft and by Washington Irving, that "all of which [to wit, of their reasoning] would be true enough of most theories, but that it is erroneous so far as the Northmen's visits are concerned; as it has, I think," says he, "been conclusively shown in later years." To do justice to Palfrey, we must also give his final conclusion respecting the sagas, namely, that "their antiquity and genuineness appear to be well established, nor is there anything to bring their credibility into question beyond the general doubt which always attaches to what is new or strange.' Justin Winsor himself makes a remark which seems to correct his former doubts, when he states: "The researches of Graah, Nordenskjöld, and other explorers, and the studious habits of Major, Rink, and the rest among the investigators, have enabled us to read the old sagas of the colonization of Greenland [the same that relate the colonization of Vinland] with renewed interest and with the light of corroborating evidence." 4

993

Through such statements they rather join the ranks of our other best historians,-Toulmin Smith, Beamish, Reeves, De Costa, Horsford, and Baxter,-who advocate the credibility of the Scandinavian records." Other American writers of no less authority on this subject have no doubt regarding the truthfulness of the northern manuscripts and the early occupation of our coasts by the Scandinavian people. Thus Payne says,

1 Vol. v. p. 102.

2 Ibid., p. 104, n.

3 History of New England, vol. ii. p. 53, ap. De Costa, Precolumbian Discovery of America, p. 57.

• Vol. i. p. 70.

6 " Of

5 Herbermann, Torfason's Ancient Vinland, p. i. 6 P. 83.

the authenticity of the voyages of the Northmen to America no doubt remains. They are mentioned in no less than seventeen ancient Icelandic documents.1 In no instance are the statements thus chronicled improbable or repugnant to known facts; on the contrary, most striking facts in the natural history of the New Continent were placed on record by the Northmen." Farnum2 and Short, with many more, are quite as positive; and Prescott gives new proof of his sagacity and foresight when he writes that, "whatever scepticism may have been entertained as to the visit of the Northmen in the eleventh century to the coasts of the great continent, it is probably set at rest in the minds of most scholars since the publication of the original documents by the Royal Society of Copenhagen."

4

5

The greatest writers of Europe were convinced already before this of the fact that the Scandinavians had discovered and colonized our western hemisphere, and among them were prominent Pontanus, Hugo Grotius,

1 Rafn adduces eighteen manuscripts of Icelandic sagas in which Vinland and voyages to it are recorded. (Antiq. Amer., p. xxvii.) P. 14, passim. P. 153.

Following are some of the works admitting the truthfulness of the Icelandic sagas in regard to the settlements of the Northmen on our coasts, published in the space of two years, between 1874 and 1876:

Aaron Goodrich, A History of the Character and Achievements of the so-called Christopher Columbus.

P. C. Headly, The Island of Fire. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Young Folks' History of the United States.

School History of the United
States.

Charles Kingsley, Lectures delivered in America.

Charles G. Leland, Fusang; or, The Discovery of America by Chinese Buddhist Priests in the Fifth Century.

Reports of Congresses of the European Americanistes.

Samuel Kneeland, An American in Iceland.

Benjamin F. Bowen, America discovered by the Welsh.

John Clark Ridpath, A History of the United States.

William Cullen Bryant, A Popular History of the United States. ( (Rasmus B. Anderson, pp. 7–10.)

5 Conquest of Mexico, vol. iii. p.

John J. Anderson, A Grammar 359, n. 8.

who argued that all North America except Yucatan was peopled by the Northmen;1 Torfæus, the great historian of the Vinland colonies; and the learned Maltebrun. But the vast and deep researches of Finn Magnussen, and especially of Charles C. Rafn,' have resulted in evident proofs of these important events, and left to later students only the task of further confirming their conclusions. "We stand now on historical ground," says Alexander von Humboldt. "By the critical and highly praiseworthy efforts of Professor Rafn and the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, the sagas and documents in regard to the expeditions of the Northmen to Helluland (Newfoundland), to Markland (the mouth of the St. Lawrence and Nova Scotia), and to Vinland (Massachusetts) have been satisfactorily commented upon. The discovery of the northern part of America by the Northmen cannot be disputed. The length of the voyage, the direction in which they sailed, the time of the sun's rising and setting are accurately given. America was discovered about the year 1000 by Leif, son of Eric the Red, at about forty-one and one-half degrees north latitude." 3 Other scholars of the greatest authority, as Crantz, in his "History of Greenland;" Major, in the Hakluyt edition of the Zeno narrative; Mallet, in his Introduction to the "History of Denmark;" Sophus Ruge, Cronau, Max Müller, and, we might say, every other writer who touches upon the subject at the present time, all agree as to the reliableness of the Icelandic ancient records. Peschel stands alone in challenging their historical evidence.

We could afford no space

n. 1: "Die Sagen sind wegen ihres Alters höchst achtbar, allein historisch lassen sie sich nicht benützen;" an assertion which sounds somewhat like a contradictio in

Geschichte des Zeitalters, S. 82, terminis.