of their deeds on several stones, hard and solitary like that of the Taunton River. It would not be an unnatural induction, therefore, to presume that the famous Writing-rock may have been selected as the faithful guardian of great memories by both barbarian and civilized nations. 66 The northern antiquaries, Laing, Magnussen, Rafn, and several others, who declare the Dighton inscription to be of Scandinavian origin, attach no great importance but to a small portion of it. The first among them says that the only resemblance to letters is found in the centre of the stone,-namely, Orfinz,"-to which some allow themselves to prefix the "p" or Icelandic "Th❞ found at the left extremity of the rock, thus forming the name of "Thorfinn" Karlsefne, who led the Greenland colony to Vinland in the year 1007. Above and to the left of these letters they see a Roman number, composed of a character like a Greek "gamma," which is said to have been used for "C" at the time, followed by three "Xs" and one "I," equivalent, consequently, to One Hundred and Fifty-one, the "r" standing for the "stort" or stout hundred.' This number, they judiciously remark, is exactly that of Thorfinn and the Scandinavians that followed him to the Taunton River, after Thorhall with his eight companions had separated from them. To the right of the number and slightly below is a character which is also assumed to be Roman and to stand for "Na" or "Ma," signifying respectively "Nam" or taking possession of the land, or "Madr,”i.e., original settler. The figure of a ship containing the above letters and characters is evident to their eyes, 1 Equal to ten dozen. 2 We must, however, remark that the late Samuel Harris, a very learned orientalist, thought he found the Hebrew word "melek," king, in the line of supposed Roman numerals. (North American Review, New Series, vol. xlvi. p. 189.) and goes to complete the plausible reading: "One hundred and fifty-one seamen first settle this land under the leadership of Thorfinn." More sanguine interpreters further recognize on the stone Thorfinn's wife, his son Snorre, the ox that scared away the Skraelings, the white shield hung out as the signal of peace, and the sudden attack of the natives; in fact, the entire history of the expedition of Karlsefne, whose very origin is declared by a rune signifying "Northman." i If this interpretation is correct, the Dighton Writingrock forms the oldest of all Scandinavian manuscripts, and is contemporary, demonstrative evidence of the colonies of the ancient Northmen in New England. But, says De Costa very well, we may readily forego any advantage that can be derived from its study. 3 2 The Dighton Writing-rock is not the only one of its puzzling character. Ten miles from it, at Swanzey, lies another, engraved by man's hand, and in Rhode Island there are two more,-namely, at Portsmouth Grove and Tiverton,-that are claimed both for the Northmen and for the natives, but are doubtless Indian inscriptions. Dr. Stiles, of anti-Canaan disposition, visited Cobble-Hill, in Kent County, Massachusetts, and copied there part of an old-looking inscription chiselled with iron or other metallic tools into a very hard and large solitary stone. He speaks of another such monument situated on the Connecticut River, at Brattleboro, Vermont. The city of Rutland, in Massachusetts, also, boasts of an ancient writing-rock that cannot be read.* 1 Rafn, Antiq. Amer., pp. 385391; Laing, Heimskringla; De Costa, Precolumbian Discovery of America, p. 65, n. 1; Moosmüller, S. 138, seq.; Gravier, p. 93, seq.; Rasmus Anderson, p. 82; Lelewel, Gaffarel, alii. 2 Moosmüller, S. 136; De Costa, Precolumbian Discovery of America, p. 67, n. De Costa, Precolumbian Discovery of America, p. 67, n. * Moosmüller, S. 134-136. Should these imperishable memorials in the New England States be as well proved to be of Scandinavian origin as they are likely the work of our aborigines either of long-past prehistoric or of historic times, we might feel inclined to think with others that the Greenland colonies have in the course of time extended all over our western hemisphere, because, not only in various States of North America, but also in some parts of our southern continent, do we meet with inscribed stones similar to those of New England, covered with straight, curved, and crooked lines, and other characters equally illegible. Such are the writing-rocks near Yarmouth in the southern part of Nova Scotia, of Monhegan on the island of Menana, and another in the Merrimac Valley. Of the same kind is the memorial stone in the southern neighborhood of Lake Erie spoken of by Ezra Stiles, as also the one by the side of the Alleghany River in the northwestern part of Pennsylvania. Those reported on the Cumberland, near Rock Castle River in Kentucky, and that by the side of the Altamaha in Georgia may be referred to the same class,' together with the puzzling stone of Grave Creek Mound. Father Ramon Bueno found and copied an inscribed stone, that no one can decipher, in the mountains which extend from the village of Uruana in South America to the west bank of the Caura, on the seventh degree of latitude; and a lapidary inscription of uncertain origin was discovered by one Joaquin de Costa on his estate in New Granada.* The Northmen lay no claim to all these interesting rocks any more than to similar monuments scattered all over the earth; but some of their strongest advocates, with the learned Charles C. Rafn as their leader, take 1 Winsor, vol. i. pp. 102-104. * Moosmüller, S. 135, 136. 'Bancroft, vol. v. p. 75. great pains to establish their original rights to a monument of a different nature, which we mentioned already, -namely, to the Old Stone Mill of Newport, in Rhode Island. The Old Stone Mill is built of rough granite of the neighborhood, of gravel and sandy mortar that has grown harder with age. It is circular in shape, and rests on eight half-round arches supported by solid columns about nine feet high; its diameter is twentythree feet, and its full height, which formerly was greater, is twenty-four feet. Located on the western portion of the hill-top upon which the higher part of the city is erected, it proudly looks over the wide bay, and fittingly extended at one time the broad arms of its sail to catch the sea-breezes, which were to grind the cereals. These were brought to the mill on carts, that were driven between the columns underneath for easier loading and unloading. Rafn declares that the vulgar opinion of the edifice having been constructed for a windmill is easily refuted from its very character and arrangement; yet, a few lines farther, he agrees that the ruin, in its character and location, was eminently well fitted for a windmill.2 The same learned author, with several others in his train, considers it as highly probable that the Old Stone Mill was built at the time of Bishop Gnupson for religious purposes, and likely did service as a baptistery attached to some church or some monastic establishment.3 To prove this pretended destination of the monument, it is alleged that in former times bap 1 Mémoire, p. 41. 2 Ibid., p. 45. Rafn, Mémoire, pp. 47-49; Kallenbach, ap. Mémoires des Antiq., 1845-49, p. 133; Gravier, p. 169; Moosmüller, who titles the nineteenth chapter of his "Europäer in Amerika vor Columbus" as "A Benedictine Monastery in America in the Twelfth Century." (S. 171.) tisteries were erected as buildings by themselves; and, indeed, we have seen such prioτńρia in Rome, Florence, and Pisa; but, in spite of Mr. Gravier, those beautiful edifices never were of supreme importance, and always stood in the shade of the more magnificent and costly cathedrals. De Costa makes a convincing remark when he asks, "Is it probable that the Northmen would have erected a baptistery like this, and, at the same time, left no other monument ?" 1 2 1 The improbability is further increased by another argument adduced by Rafn in favor of his theory. He says that several ruins of circular buildings are found in Greenland; but, in the vicinity of churches, he adds, namely, at Igalikko, Kakortok, Iglorsoit. Yet from the existence of these ruins to the assertion that the Old Stone Mill of Newport was a baptistery or a monastery, we fail to see the consequence; for it is not proved that all the ancient round buildings of Greenland had a sacred destination, much less, that the Greenland or any other baptisteries in the Christian world were raised on columns and windy hill-tops. Neither do we feel the necessity of assigning the monument to a period anterior to the twelfth century, although its main features are of the Roman and not of the subsequent Gothic order. What, indeed, should have prevented the English settlers of the seventeenth century from preferring the ancient half-round to the ogee arch, especially if it was their intention to drive carts between the columns? Is not, until this day, the Roman style in more common use than the Gothic?3 The weakness of Rafn's logic in this one exceptional case has caused several authors of the present day to either doubt or altogether reject the Old Stone Mill as 1 Precolumbian America, p. 68. Discovery of 2 Mémoire, p. 47. Cf. Rafn, Mémoire, pp. 44-50. |