IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 ill 1.1 Li|28 |25 itt ^ |2j2 111 L25 HI 1.4 11.6 «" ^^ Photographic Sciences Corporaiion 13 WIST MAIN STMIT WIBSTIi,N.Y. M5M (71«)S72-4S03 r CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHIVI/ICIVIH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historicai IMicroraproductions / Institut Canadian da microraproductions historiquas C^ Tachnical and Bibliographic Notas/Notas tachniquaa at bibiiographiquas Tha Inatituta haa attamptad to obtain tha baat original copy avaiiabia for filming. Faaturaa of thia copy which may ba bibliographically uniqua, which may altar any of tha imagiaa in tha raproduction. or which may aignificantly changa tha uaual mathod of filming, ara chackaid balow. D D □ D D Colourad covara/ Couvartura da coulaur I I Covara damagad/ Couvartura andommagte □ Covara raatorad and/or laminatad/ Couvartura reataurte at/ou palliculia □ Covar titia miasing/ La titra da couvartura manqua Colourad mapa/ Cartaa gAographiquaa an coulaur Colourad ink (i.a. othar than blua or black)/ Encra da coulaur (i.a. autra qua blaua ou noira) I I Colourad plataa and/or iiluatrationa/ Planchaa at/ou iiluatrationa an coulaur Bound with othar matarial/ Rail* avac d'autraa documanta Tight binding may cauaa ahadowa or diatortion along intarior margin/ La TB liura aarria paut cauaar da i'ombra ou da la diatortion le long da la marga intAriaura Blank iaavas addad during raatoration may appaar within tha taxt. Whanavar poaaibia, thaaa hava baan omittad from filming/ II aa paut qua cartainaa pagaa blanchaa ajouttea iora d'una raatauration apparaiaaant dana la taxta, mala, loraqua cala Atait poaaibia, caa pagaa n'ont paa titk filmtea. 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Thia itam la filmad at tha raduction ratio chackad balow/ Ca documant aat film* au taux da reduction indiqu* ci-daaaoua. 10X 14X 18X 22X 26X 30X 1 \ 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X Th« copy filmml hora has b«en r«pro (moaning "CON- TINUED"), or tha symbol V (moaning "END"), whichavar appllas. Las imagas sulvantas ont «t4 raproduitas avac la plus grand roin. compta tanu da la condition at da la nattat* da I'axamriaira film*, at an conformity avac las conditions du contrat da fllmaga. Las axamplairas originaux dont la couvartura an papiar ast imprimte sont f ilmte mn commandant par la pramiar plat at an tarminant soit par la darnlAra paga qui comporta una amprainta d'impraasion ou d'illustration, soit par la sacond plat, salon la cas. Tous las autras axamplairas originaux sont filmte an commanpant per la pramiAra paga qui comporta una amprainta d'impraasion ou d'illustration at an tarminant par la darnlAra paga qui comporta una talla amprainte. 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LIBRARY OF WINIMROP IMCKARU BliLL 151616 !l'\ : » J v?i |&i5^|''|ffii'ii^t "1 m mm smm ""liil iii Wi\ mm m ill E . Section II, 1890. / ' [ 109 ] TBANa. Roy. Soc. Canada. III. — The VinMnd of the Northmen. By Sib Daniel "Wilson, LL.D., F.R.S.E., President of the University of Toronto. (Read May 27, 1890.) The idea that this western hemisphere was known to the old world long prior to that ever nieraorablo voyag*; of Columbus, the quadri-centennial of which is now at hand, has reproduced itself in varying phases : in the venerable Greek legend of the Lost Atlantis ; in the mediaeval fancies and mythical epics of the Island of St. Braudcn^ the retreat of an Irish hermit of the sixth century ; the " Seven Islands " whither the Christians of Gothic Spain iled under the guidance of their seven bishops, when the peninsula passed into the hands of the victorious Saracens in the eighth century ; and in the imaginary Island of Brazil which flitted about the charts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in ever-varying site and proportions, till it vanished in the light of modern exploration. Southey selected from among such legends of Atlantic voyages that of Madoc, the son of Owen Gwyneth, king of North Wales, who circa A. D. 1170, sailed into the unknown west in search of a resting-place beyond reach of his brother Yorwerth, then ridding himself of all rivals to the throne. He found a home in the New World, returned to Wales for additional colonists to join the pioneer-band ; and setting sail with them, vanished beyond the western horizon, and was heard of no more. The poet was not indeed, without faith in the genuineness of the legend amplified into his epic ; and notes in the preface appended to it : " strong evidence has been adduced that he (Prince Madoc) reached America ; and that his posterity exist there to this day on the southern branch of the Missouri, retaining their complexion, their language, and in some degree, their arts." But later explorations have failed to discover any " Welsh Indians " on the Missouri or its tributaries. When exploring the great earthworks of the Ohio valley, in 1814, I found myself on one occasion in a large Welsh settlement, a few miles from Newark, where a generation of native born Americans still perpetuate the language of their Cymric forefathers, and con- duct their religious services in the Welsh tongue. My attention was first called to this by the farmer who had invited me to an early dinner, after a morning's digging in a mound on " The Evans farm," preceding our repast with a long Welsh grace. From him I learned that the district had been settled in 1802 by a Welsh colony ; and that in two chur(5hes in neighbouring valleys , one Calvinistic Congregational ; and another Methodist : the entire services are still conducted in their mother tongue. Such a perpetuation of the language and traditions of the race, in a quiet rural district, only required time and the confusion of dates and genealogies by younger generations, to have engrafted the story of Prince Madoc on the substantial basis of a genuine Welah settlement. Southey's epic was publishd in 1805, within three years after this Welsh immigration to the Ohio valley. /^ no SIR DANIEL WILSON ON THK The subject of the poem naturally gave it a special attraction for American readers ; and it was speedily reprinted in the United States ; doubtless with the same indifference to the author's claim of copyright as still characterizes the ideas of literary ethics on this side of the Atlantic. But the idea of a Welsh Columbus of the twelfth century was by no means received with universal favour. Southey quoted at a long subseqiient date a cri- tical pamphleteer who denounced the author of Madoc as having " meditated a most serious injury against the reputation of the New World by attributing its discovery and colonization to a vagabond Welsh prince ; this being a most insidioiis attempt against the honour of America, and the reputation of Columbus." It is inevitable that America should look back to the Old World when in search of some elements of civilization, and for the diversities of race and language tvaceable throughout the western hemisphere. The early students of the sculptured monuments and hieroglyphic records of Mexico, Central America, and Peru, naturally turned to Egypt as their .probable source ; though mature reflection has dissipated much of the reasoning based on superficial analogies. The gradations from the most primitive picture-writing of the Indian savage to ideography and abbreviated symbolism, are so clearly traceable in the various stages of progress, from the rude forest tribes, to the native centres of civiliza- tion in Central and Southern America, that no necessity remains for assuming any foreign source for their origin. That the world beyond the Atlantic had remained through unnumbered centuries apart from Europe and the old East, until that memorable year 1402, is indisputable ; and there was at one time a disposition to resent any rivalry with the grand triumph of Columbus ; as though patriotic spirit and national pride demanded an unquestioning faith in that as the sole link that bound America to the Old World. But the same spirit stimulated other nations to claim precedence of Spain, and the great Genoese ; and for this ihe Scandinavian colonists of Iceland had every probability in their favour. They had navigated the Arctic Ocean with no other compass than the stars ; and the pub- lication in 1845, by the Danish Antiquaries of the ' Grenlands Hislomke Mindesmcerker ' recalled minute details of their settlements in the inhospitable region of the western hemisphere, to which they gave the strange misnomer of Greenland. But the year 1837 may be regarded as marking an epoch in the history of ante-Columbian research. The issue in that year of the Antiquitates Americana:, sive scriptores septentrionaJes rerum ante- Columbiarum in America, by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, under the editor- ship of Professor Charles Christian Rafn, produced a revolution, alike in the form and the reception of illustrations of ante-Columbian American history. The publication of that work gave a fresh interest to the vaguest intimations of a dubious past, while it super- seded them by tangible disclosures, which, though modern in comparison with such mythic antiquities as the Atlantis of Plato's Dialogues, nevertheless added some five v^enturies to the history of the New World. P rom its appearance, accordingly, may be lated the systematic aim of American antiquaries and historians to find evidence of inter- course with the ancient world prior to the fifteenth century. The indomitable race that emerged from the Scandinavian peninsula, and the islands and shores of the Baltic ; and overran and conquered the deserted Roman world : sup- plied the maritime energy of Europe from the fifth to the tenth century : and colonized northern Italy with the element to which we must assign the rise of its great maritime 151616 Mount Adison Memorial I i I i i VINLANI) OF THE NOKTHMI'^N. Ill republics, includiug the one that was to furnish the discoverer of Amerita in tho litteeuth ccntr ■/. Genoese and Spaniards could not have made for themselves a home either in Greenland or Iceland. Had the Northmen of the tenth century been less hardy, they would probably have prosecuted their discoveries, and found more genial settlements, such as have since then proved the centres of colonization for the Anglo-American race. But of their actual discovery of some portion of the mainland of North America, prior to the eleventh century there can be no reasonable doubt. The wonder rather is that after estab- lishing permanent settlements both in Iceland and Greenland, their southern explorations were prosecuted with such partial and transient results. The indomitable Vikings were conquering fresh territories on the coasts and islands of the North 8ea ; and giving a new name to the fairest region of northern Gaul wrested by the Northmen from its Frank conquerors. The same hardy supplanters were following up such acquisitions by expe- ditions to the Mediterranean that resulted in the establishment of their supremacy over ancient historic races there, and training leaders for later crusading adventure. The voyage from Greenland, or even from Iceland to the New England shores wa.s not more difficult than from the native fiords of the Northmen to the Atlantic seaboard, or to the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean. Everywhere they left their record in graven runes. At Macshow in the Orkneys, on Holy Island in the Frith of Clyde, and at Kirk Michael, Kirk Andreas, and Kirk Braddon, on the Isle of Man ; or amid the ruins of an ancient past, on the marble lion of the Piroeus, now at the arsenal of Venice : their runic records are to be seen graven in the same characters as those which have been recovered during the present century from their early settlements beyond the Atlantic. Numerous similar inscriptions from the homes of the Northmen are furnished in professor George Stephen's "Old Northern Ilunic Monuments," which perpetuate memorials of the love of adventure of those daring rovers, and the pride they took in their expeditious to remote and strange lands. Intensified at a later stage by religious fervour, the same spirit emboldened them as leaders in the Crusades ; and sorae of their runic inscriptions tell of adventurous pilgrimages to the Holy Land. An Icelandic rover is designated on his rune-stone Rafn Hlmrckfari as a successful voyager to Ireland, Nor- wegian and Danish bautastein frequently preserve the epithet of Englandx/ari for the leaders of expeditions to the British Isles, or more vaguely refer to their adventures in " the western parts." King Sigurd of Norway proudly blazoned the title of Jdrsolafari as one who had achieved the pilgrimage to Jerusalem ; and the literate memorials of the Northmen of Orkney, recovered in 1861, on the opening of the famous Maeshow tumu- his, include those of a band of Crusaders, or Jerusalem-farers, who, in 1153, followed Earl RaguA'ald to the Holy Land. The inscribed rune-stones brought from the sites of the ancient Norse colonies in Greenland, and now deposited in the Royal Museum of Northern Antiquities, at Copen- hagen, are simple persona? or sepulchral inscriptions. But they are graven in the northern runes ; and as such constitute monuments of j^ eat historical value ; furnishing indisputa- ble evidence of the presence of European colonists beyond the Atlantic centuries before that memorable 12th of October, 1492, on which the eyes of the wistful gazers from the deck of the Santa Maria were gladdened wuth their first glimpse of what they believed to be the India of the far east : the Cipango in search of whi';h they had entered on their adventurous voyage. 112 SIR DANIEL WILSON ON THE The colonies of Greenland, after being occupied, according to Norwegian and Danish tradition, from the tenth to the fifteenth century, were entirely iorgottcn. The colonists are believed to have been exterminated by the native Eskimo. The very locality chosen for their settlements was so completely lost sight of that, when an interest in their history revived, and expeditions were sent out to revisit the scene of early Norse colouiziition beyond the Atlantic, much time was lost in a fruitless search on the coast lying directly west from Iceland. Towards the middle of the seventeenth century, an oar drifted to the Iceland coast, a relic, as was believed, of the long-lost colony of Greenland, bearing this inscription in runiij characters : OFT VAR ek DASA dur ek dbo THICK ; Oft urns I weary when I drew thee ; but it was not till the close of last century that the traditions of the old Greenlanders, began to excite attention. Many a Norse legend pictured the enviable delights of the fabled Hesperian region discovered within the Arctic Circle, yet meriting by the luxuriance of its fertile valleys its name of Greenland ; and the fancies and legend- ary traditions that gradually displaced the history of the old colony, had been interwoven by the poet Montgomery with the tale of self-sacrificing labours of Moravian Missiona- ries, in the cantos of his Greenland epic, long before the " Antiquitates AmericanoD " issued from the Copenhagen press. The narrations of ancient voyagers, and their explorations in the New World, as brought to light in 1835, by the Copenhagen volume on pre-Columbian America, were too truthful in their aspect to be slighted ; and too fascinating in their revelations of a long forgotten intercourse between the Old World and the New, to be willingly subjected to incredulous analysis. From the genuine literary mrmorials of older centuries, sufficient evidence could be gleaned to place beyond question, not only the discovery and colonization of Greenland, by Eric the Ked.. — apparently in the year 985, — but also the exploration of southern lands, some of which must have formed part of the American continent. The manuscripts whence those narratives are derived are of various dates, and differ widelj' in value ; but of the genuineness and historical significance of the oldest of them, no doubt can be enter- tained. The accounts which some of them furnish are so simple, and devoid of anything extravagant or improbable, that the internal evidence of truthfulness is worthy of great consideration. The exuberant fancy of the Northmen, which revels in their mythology and songs, would have constructed a very different tale had it been employed in the in- vention of a southern continent, or earthly Paradise, for the dreams of Icelandic and Green- land rovers. The narrative attaches itself to genuine Icelandic history ; and fuinishes a coherent, and seemingly unexaggerated account of a voyage characterized by nothing that is super- natural ; and little that is even romantic. Erikr Rauthi, or Eric the Red, a banished Ice- landic jarl, made his way to the Greenland coast and eff'^cted a settlement at Igalikko, or Brattelid, as it was at first called, from whence one of the runic inscriptions now in the Copenhagen museum was taken. Before the close of the century, if not in the very year A.D. 1000, in which St. Olaf was introducing Christianity into Norway, Leif, or Leiv Eriksson, a son of the first colon zer of Greenland, appears to have accidentally discovered the American mainland. T.ie story, current in Norwegian and Icelandic tra- dition, and repeated with additions and variations, in successive sagas, most frequently ascribes to Leif an actual exploratory voyage in quest of southern lands already reported to have been seen by Bjarni Herjulfson. Voyaging southward from Greenland, Leif VINLAND OF THE NORTHMKN. 113 landed on a barren const where a great plain rovercd with flat stones stretched from the sea to a lofty rani^e of ice-dad mountains. To this he gave the name of Helluland, from helln, a Hat stone. The earlier editor, having the requirements of his main theo'y in view, found in its characteristics evidence sufficient to identify it with Newfoundland ; but Professor (liistav Storm assigns reasons for preferring Labrador as more probable. ' The next point touched presented a low shore of white sand, and beyond it a level country covered with forest, to which the name of Markland, or wood-land, was given. This, which, so far as the description can guide us, might be anywhere on the American coast, was assumed by the editor of the " Antiquitates Americana; " to be Nova Scotia : but according to Professor Storm, can have been no other country than Newfoundland. The voyagers, after two more days at sea, again saw land ; and of this the characteristic that tht! dew upon the grass tasted sweet, was accepted as sufTicient evidence that Nantucket, where honey-dew abounds, is the place referred to. Their further course shoreward, and up a river into the lake from v hich it flowed, has been assumed to have been up the Pacasset River to Mount Hoi)e 13ay. There the voyagers passed the winter. After erecting tem- porary booths, Leif divided them into two parties, which alternately proceeded on explor- ing excursions. One of his followers, a southerner, — sudrmadr, or German, as he is assumed to have been, — having wandered, he reported on his return the discovery of wine-trees and grapes ; and hence th(> name of Vinland, given to the locality. This land of the vine, discovered by ancient voyagers on the shores of the New World, naturally awakened the liveliest interest in the minds of American antiquaries and histor- ical students ; nor is that interest even now wholly a thing of the past. Is this " Vine- land the flood " a reality ? Can it be located on any definite site ? Montgomery's " Grreen- land " epic was published in 1819 ; and the poet, with no American or Canadian pride of locality to beguile him in his interpretation of the evidence, observes in one of the notes to his poem : " Leif and his party wintered there, and observed that on the shortest day the sun rose about eight o'clock, which may correspond with the forty-ninth degree of latitude, and denotes the situation of Newfoundland, or the River St. Lawrence." The reference here is to the sole data on which all subsequent attempts to determine the geo- graphical location of Vinland have been based ; and after upwards of sixty years of spec- ulation and conjecture, the opinions of the most careful students appear to revert to a nearly similar conclusion. Professor Rafn, however arrived at very different results ; and found abundant confirm- ation in the sympathetic; responses of the Rhode Island antiquaries. The famous Dighton Rot^k was produced, with its assumed runic inscription. The Newport Round Tower was a still more satisfactory indication of permanent settlement by its supposed Norse builders ; and " The Skeleton in Armour," on which Longfellow founded his Ballad romance, was accepted without hesitation as a glimpse of one of the actual colonists of Vinland in the eleventh century. Professor Rafn accordingly summed up the enquiry, and set forth the conclusions arrived at, in this definite fashion. " It is the total result of the nautical, geographical, and astronomical evidence in the original documents, which places the situations of the countries discovered beyond all doubt. The number of days' sail between the several newly found lands, the striking description of the coasts, espe- ' ' Mem. do8 Antiq. du Noid, N.S.' 1888, p. 341. Sec. II, 1890. 15. e:'«:w* 114 SIR DANIEL WILSON ON THE cially tho Hand-banks of Nova Scotia ; and the long beaches and downs of a poculiar appear- ance on Cape Cod (the Kiafarnes and Fvrtlmiramlir of the Northmen) are not to be mis- taken, lu addition hereto we have tho astronomical remark that the shortest day in Vinland was nine hours long, which fixes tho latitude of 41" 24' 10", or just that of the promontories which limit the entrance to Mount Hope Buy, where Leif 's booths were built, and in the district around which the old Northmen had their head establishment, which was namei' by them //d/>, or the Creek." The Dighton Rock runes erelong fell into woeful discredit ; and as for the Newport Round Tower, it has been ideutilied as " The Old Stone Mill " built there by Governor Benedict Arnold, who removed from Providence to Newport in IBrj-S. Though there- fore no longer to be accredited to the Northmen, it is of very respectable architeetural anti- quity, according to New World reckoning. Nevertheless, in spite of such failure of all conlirmatory evidence, the general summary of results was presented by Proi'essor liafn in such ab;:»olute terms : and the geographical details of the assumed localities were so confidently accredited by the members of the Rhode Island Historical Society, that his (jonclusions were accepted as a whole without cavil. In rea ity, however, when we revert to the evidence from which such definite results were derived, if proves vague, if not illusory. The voyagers crossed over from Greenland to Helluland, which we may assume without hesitation to have been the inhospitable coast of Labrador. They then pursued a south-western course, in a voyage in all of four days ; subdivided into two nearly equal parts, until they landed on a coast where wild-grapes grew, and which accordingly they named the Land of the Vine. To Icelandic or Greenland voyagers, the vine, witii its clusters of grapes, however unpalatable, could not fail to prove an object of special note. But there is no need to prolong the four days' run, and land the explorers beyond Cape Cod, in order to find the wild grape. It grows in sheltered localities in Nova Scotia ; tmd later deductions based on the same astronomical evidence of the length of the shortest day, have induced subsequent investigators to adopt conclusions much more nearly approximating to those suggested by the poet Montgomery fully sixteen years before the issue of Professor Rafn's learned quarto from the Copen; gen press. But of the Northern antiquaries a new generation have taken the work in hand. The ' Memoires do la Societe Royale des Autiquaires du Nord ' for 1888 contain an elabor- ate critical analysis of the evidence relating to the Vinland voyagers. This has to be recov- ered from two independent series of narratives ; the one the Icelandic sagas and other em- bodiments c f the Vinland tradition, the other the more amplified, but less reliable narra- tives of Norwegian chroniclers. The earliest Icelandic accounts are derived direcily or indi- rectly from Are frode, whose date is given as about 1120 ; thereby marking the transmis- sion of the narrative to a younger generation before it was committed to writing. Are frode learned the story from his paternal uncle Thorkell Gellesson of Helgnfell, who lived in the latter half of the eleventh century ; and so was a con temp jrary of Adam of Bremen, who when resident at the Danish Court, about the year 1070, obtained the information relat- ing to the Northern regions which he embodied in his " Descriptio insularum aquilonis." Are frode's uncle, Thorkell, is said to have spoken, when in Greenland, with a man who, in the year 985, had accompanied Erick t'ae Red on his expedition from Iceland ; so that tho authority is good, if the narrative were sufficiently ample ; bvit unfortunately, though Are frode's notes of what he learned from his uncle are still extant in the " Libillus Piisij®»!ii*sS5^: tsi'*-!' VINLAND OP TIIK NORTHMEN. 118 l8lnn«lorum," tht'y are oxcfodingly moagro. Thu Viiilaud oxploratious had no sm h ini- portancc for the men of that age as they possess for us ; and ar" aetordingly dealt with as a very seeondary matter. ProteHsor Gustav Storm, who contributes to the ' Menioires de hi Soeiete Koyale des Antiquaires du Nord ' lor 1888, his " Studies oi' Vinehind voyages," notes that Thorkell seems to have told his nephew most about the eolonizatiou of G-recn- land. In I'rol'essor Storm's communication the entire bearings of the evidence, and the relative value ol' the various antiient authorities, are discussed with minute care; and he arrives at the conclusion that any assignment of a site for the lost Vinland, either on llhod*' Island, or on any part of the New England coast, is untenable. The deductions of Professor Kafn I'rom the same evidence were accepted as a final verdict, until the too eager conlirmalion of his Rhode Island correspondents brought them into discredit. Now when we undertake an unbiassed review of them, it is manifest that too much weight has been attached to his estimate of distan(;e8 measured by the vague standard of a day's sail of a rude galley dependent on wind and tide. This Professor Rufn assumed as ecjuivalent to twenty-four geographical miles. But very slight consideration suHices to show that any such arbitrary deduction of a definite measurement from the unknown log of the old Northmen is not bnly valueless, but misleading. A reconsideration of the evidence furnished by the references to the fauna and flora of the different points touched at, shows that others of Professor Rain's deductions are equally open to correction. Hellulaud, a barren region, of large stone slabs, with no other trace of life than the Arctic fox, presented the same aspect as Labrador still offers to the eye of the voyager. But there is no need to traverse the entire Canadian and New England coasts before a region can be found answering to the descriptions of a forest-clad country, of numerous deer, or even of the vine, as noted by the old explorers from Grreenland. To the eye of the (Ireenlander, the Markland, or forest-clad land, lay within sight no farther south than Newfoundland or Cape Breton. To those who are accustomed to associate the vine with the Rhine land, or the plains of Champagne, it sounds equally extravagant to speak of the Maritime Provinces, or of the New England States, as " Vineland the Good." But numerous allusions of voyagers and travellers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries refer with commendation to the wild grapes of North America. Jacques Cartier on making his way up ti;e St. Lawrence, in his second voyage, gave to the Isle of Orleans the name of the Isle de Ba'ichus, because of the many WMld vines found there ; though he notes that) " not being cultivated nor pruned, the grapes are neither so large nor so sweet as ours ; " that is those of France. Lescarbot, in like manner, in 1606, records the grape vine as growing at Chuakouet, or Saco, in Maine, and in the following year they are noted as abundant along the banks of the river St. John in New Brunswick. To voyagers from Iceland or Greenland many portions of the coast of Nova Scotia would present the aspect of a region clothed with forest, and, as such, " extremely beautiful. " Deer are still abundant both there and in Newfoundland ; and as for the grapes gathered by Leif Erikson ; or those brought back to Thorvald by Hake and Hekia, the swift runners, at their more northern place of lauding: the wild vine is well known at the present time in sheltered localities of Nova Scotia. Having therefore carefully studied the earliest maps and charts, of which reduced copies are furnished in the ' Memoires ; ' and reviewed the whole evidence with minute care, Professor Storm thus unhesitatingly states the results : " Kjalarnes, the northern extremity of Vinland, 116 HIR DANIKT. WILSON ON TlIK becoinos C'lipo Breton iHland, spi"iiilly dt'Ntril>«'»l as low lyinj? mid sandy, Tlif liord into which the Northnion sttHTod, on thi» country \n>rninu\g f/or/hskon/ i.e. " liord-indi'nt»'d," may hav« been on" of the bays of (hiysborough, thu county of Nova Scotia lyinp; farthost to the north-onst ; possibly indt'cd C'linso Bay, orsonio ono of th»' Imivs south of it. There- fore much further to the south in Nova Scotia must wc seek the mouth of the river where Karlsoven made his abortive attempt at colonization The west coast of northern Vin- land is characterized as a region of uninhabited forest tracks, with few open spots; a statement admirably agreein<^ with the topographical conditions distinguishing the west coast of Capo Breton Island, which in a modern book of travels is spoken of as ' an unexplored and trackless land of forests and mountains.' Ilenco to the south of this region search has to be made for the mouth of the streamlet where Thorvald Eriksson was killed." Various points, ac(!Ovdi:igly, such as Salmon liiver, or one of the rivers llowing into Pictou harbour, are suggested as furnishing features of resemblance and inviting to further research. Here, then, is the same problem submitted to the historical antiquaries of Nova Scotia which those of Rhode Island took up upwards of half a century ago, with unbounded zeal, and very surprising results. Nor is there a "Dighton Hock" wanting; for Nova Scotia has its inscribed stone, already interpreted as graphi ; runes, replete with equally suggestive traces of the Northmen of the tenth century. The inscribed rock at Yarmouth has long been an object of curious interest. So far back as 1857 I received Irom Dr. G. J- Parish, a full-sized copy of the inscription, with the following account of it : " The inscription, of which the accompanying sketch is an exact copy, was discovered forty-five years ago, at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. The rock on which the characters are engraved is about two feet in diameter, of an irregular hemispherical shape with one naturally smooth surface. It lies on the shore of a small inlet, at high water mark, and close to the bank, on which it may formerly have rested. The stone has been split where a very thin vein of quartz once traversed it, but the corresponding half could never be found. The tracing has been done with a sharp pointed instrument carried onward, by successive blows of a hammer or mallet, the eflfect of which is plainly visible. The point of the instrument barely penetrated the layer of quartz, which is almost as thin as thi- black marks of the sketch. The inscription has been shown to several learned gentlemen, — one intimately acquainted with the characters of the Micmac and Millicet Indians who once inhabited this country ; another, familiar with the Icelandic and other Scandinavian languages : but no person has yet been able to decipher it." Again, in 1880, I received from Mr. J. Y. Bulmer, secretary of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, a photograph of the Yarmouth rock, with an accompanying letter in which he remarks : " I am directed by the council of the Nova Scotia Historical Society to forward to you a photographic view of a stone found near the ocean, in Yarmouth county, N. S., and having an inscription which, if not runic or Phcenician, is supposed by many to be the work of man. As ancient remains are most likely to be preserved by calling attention to all such works and inscriptions, we thought it best to forward it to you, where it could be examined by yourself and others likely to detect a fraud, or translate an inscription. The stone is now — or was one hundred years ago, — near, or in fact on the edge of the sea. It has since been removed to Yarmouth for preservation. It was found near Cape Sable, a cape that must have been visited by nearly every navigator whether ancient or modern." I 5a3i5Bi»»ffi!J*Bi»rt E: 't- m VINLAND OK TIIH NORTIIMKN. 117 Th<' t'urlior ilcHiTiptioii ol" Dr. Knriwh in vnluablt' ; a« it prcNorvt's im lUTonut ol' the rotk vvliilo it utill oicupied its original sito. lit* spoaks, moreover, deliiiit«'ly as to (lu» period when it llrst attrat^ted attention : and whi«h, though more recent than the "one hundred yoarH " ol my later correspondent : or a nearly equivalejit statement in the ' Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society"; that "it has been known for nearly an hundred years;" is sulfieiently remote to remove all idea of I'rautl, at least by any person ol the present generation, ''^he deaeriplion given by Dr. Karish of the apparent execution ol' the inscripiiun by means ol'a sharp pointed instrument — meaning thereby no doubt a metallif tool, — and a hammer or mallet, rlearly points to other than native Indian workmanship, wliatever may have been the date ol' its execution As will be seen from the accompanying plate, it is in arbitrary linear characters beaiing no resemblance to the abbreviated symbols familiar to us in Indian epigraphy ; and at the same time it may be described as unique in character Having been known to people resident in its vicinity for many years before the attention of students of the early monuments of this continent was invited to it, it appears to bo beyond suspicion of purposed fraud. I did not attempt any solution of the enigma thus repeatedly .submitted to my consideration ; but it was this graven stom? that was referred to when, in the inaugural address to this section of the Koyal Society of Canada, in I881', the remark was made : " I know of but one inscription in Canada which seems to suggest the possibility of a genuine native record." On nearly every recurrence of an inscription in any linear form of alphabetic character brought to light in the western hemisphere, the lirst idea has been to suggest a Phoenician origin : and this is, no doubt, implied in the statement of its ri"iic decipherer, in the • Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society,' that " the glyphs have been at various times copied and sent abroad to men of learning who have made more or less attempts at deciphering them, more than one savant seeing traces of Semitic origin." But latterly with the reported discovery of any linear inscription on the eastern seaboard, the temptation has been to refer it to the Northmen of the eleventh century. To this accord- ingly the allusions of both of my Nova Sc. ian correspondents po'nted But the characters of the Scandinavian futhork are sufficiently definite to sa'' any one familiar with Scottish and Manx runic inscriptions ; or with professor (leorge c'tephens' ample illustra- tions of them as they are found in the native home of the Northmen : that it is vain to look to either for a key to the graven legend on the Yarmouth rock. The presence of the Northmen, not only in Iceland and Grreenland, but as transient visitors on some portion of the North American mainland, now rests on satisfactory historical evidence. In Greenland they left indisputable literate records of their colonization of the region to which they gave the inapt name it still retains. The runic inscriptions brought to Copenhagen in 1831 not only determine the sites of settlements effected by the companions and successors of Eric ; but they serve U' show the kind of evidence to be looked for, alike to the north and the south f the St. Lawrence, if any traces yet survive of their having attempted to colon /e the oi Marklaiid ml Vinland, whether the latter is sought for in Nova Scotia or New England, '"''.eir genuine memorials are not less definite than those left by the Roiuans in Oaul . . Britain ; and corresponding traces of them in the assumed Vinland and elsewhere in t.>ie United States, have been perseveringly, but vainly, sought for. One unmistakably dt Inite Scandinavian inscription, that of the "Huidcerk," professedly found on the river Potomac, I have already referred to in a former paper. But it does tfev K:t: 118 SIR DANIEL WILSON ON THK not lay claim to serious criticism. It was affirmed to have been disco\ t^red in 186*7 graven on a rock on the banks of the Potomac ; but to any student familial with Ihe genuine examples figured in the ' Antiquitates Americana^,' it will be readily recognized as a clever hoax, fabricated by the correspondent of the " Washington Union " out of genuine Greenland inscriptions. It reads thus : hir huilir syasy fagrharrdr avstfirthingr IKI A KILDI 8YSTR TIIORO SAMFETHRA HALFTIIRITOR OLEDA GVD HAL HENAR. To this are added certain symbols, siiggested it may be presumed by the Kingiktorsoak inscription, from which the translator professes to derive the date A. D. 1051. In the interval between the dates of the two communications previously referred to, a rubbing of the inscription on the Yarmouth rock was forwarded to Mr. Henry Phillips, jr., of Philadelphia. It appears to have been under consideration by him at intervals for nine years, when at length it was made the subject of a paper read before the American Philosophical Society, and printed in its Proceedings in 1884. After a description of the locality, and the discovery of the inscribed stone on its original site, " about the end of the last century, by a man named Fletcher," Mr. Phillips states the reasons which sufRied to satisfy him that the inscription is a genuine one. He then proceeds thus : " Having become iml)ued with a belief that no deception was intended, or practised, I entered upon the study of the markings with a mind totally and entirely free from prejudice. So far from believing that tln^ inscription was a relic of the pre-Columbian discovery of America, I had never given any credence to that theory." Thus, not only entirely unbiassed, but, as he says, " somewhat prejudiced against the authenticity of any inscription on this continent purporting to emanate from the hardy and intrepid Novsemen," he proceeded to grapple with the strange characters. " As in a kaleidoscope, word after word appeared in disjointed form, and each was in turn rejected, until at la^t an intelligible word came forth, followed by another and another, until a real sentence with a meaning stood forth to ray astonished gaze : Harkusarn men vani : Hako's son addressed the men." On revert- ing to the old Vinland narrative this seemed all unexpectedly to tally with it, for Mr. Phillips found that in the expedition of Thorfinn Karlsefne, in 1007, one named Haki occurs among those who accompanied him. Still more noteworthy, as it appears, though overlooked by him, this oldest record of a European visitor to the Nova Scotiau shores, if actually referable to Hake, the fellow-voyager of Thorfinn, was no Northman, but a Scot ! For Thorfinn himself, the old saga, as reproduced in the ' Antiquitates Americance,' claims a comprehensive genealogy in which his own Scottish ancestry is not overlooked. In the summer of 1006, according to the narrative of the " settlement effected in Vineland by Thorfinn," '' there arrived in Greenland two ships from Iceland ; the one was commanded by Thorfinn, having the very significant surname of Karlsefne (i. e. who i^romises, or is destined to be an able or great man), a wealthy and powerful man, of illustrious lineage, and sprung from Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Irish and Scottish ancestors, some of whom were kings or of royal descent. He was accompanied by Snorre Thorbrandson, w^ho was also a man of distinguished lineage. The other ship was commanded by Bjarne Grimolfson, of Breidefiord, and Thorhall Gamlasou, of Austfiord. They kept the festival of Yule at Brattalid. Thorfinn became enamoured of Gudrida, and obtained the consent of her brother-in-law, Leif, and their marriage was celebrated during the winter. On this, as on former occasions, the voyage to Vineland formed a favourite theme of conversation, and Thorfinn was urged both by his wife and others to undertake such a voyage. It was JiSBHiStiilSHftftWIlWii-i W * I !:»>*' VINLAND OF THK NORTHMAN. 119 acooruino-ly resolved on in the spring of lOOt." This later narrative distinctly sets forth an organized scheme of permanent settlement in the tempting land of the vine. Thorvald, who was in command of one of the three ships fitted out for the expedition was married to Frcydisa, a natural daughter of Eric the Red. " On board this ship was also a man of the name of Thorhall, who had long served Eric as a huntsman in summer, and as house- steward in winter, and who had much acquaintance with the uncoloni/ed parts of Greenland. They had in all 160 men. They took with them all kinds of live stock, it being their intention to establish a colony, if possible." Then follows the notice of their observations of the characteristic features, and of the fauna and llora of Helluland, Mark- land and subsequent points ; to the last of which, characterized by " trackless deserts and long beaches with sands," they gave the name of Furdustrandir. After pa.ssing this, the characteristic feature is noted that the land began to be indented l)y inlets. Then foUowos Ihe notice of Hake, the Scot, to whom Mr. Phillips conceives the Yarmouth inscription may be due. The reference, accordingly, with its accompanying description of the country, has a special claim to notice here. "They had," says the saga, " two Scots with them. Hake and Ilekia, whom Leif had formerly received from the Norwegian King, Olaf Tryggvason," it may be assumed is slaves carried off' in some marauding expedition tot'io British Islands. The two Scots, ii is added, " were very swilt of foot. They put them on shore recommending them to proceed in a south-west direction, and explore the country. After the lapse of three days they returned bringing wMth them some grapes and some ears of wheat, which grew wild in that region. They continued their course until they came to a place where the firth penetrated far into the country. Oft" the mouth of it was an island past which there ran strong currents, which was also the case further up the firth. On the island there was an immense number of eiderducks, so that it was scan^ely possible to walk without treading on their eggs. Tkey called the island Straumey (Stream Isle), and the firth Straumfiordr (Stream Firth.) They landed on the shore of this firth, and made preparations for their winter residence. The country was extremely beautiful," as we may readily imagine a sheltered nook of Nova Scotia to have appeared to voyagers fresh from Iceland and the Oreeuland shores. It may be well to note here that the incident of the discovery of the vine and the gatheringof grapes re-appears in different narratives under varying forms. It was a feature to be specially looked for by all later voyagers in search of the Vinland of the first expedition that set out in search for the southern lands of which Bjarni Herjulfsou is reported to have brought back an account to Grreeulaud. Nor is the discovery of the vine by successive explorers along the American seaboard in any degree improbable, though it can scarcely be doubted that some of the later accounts are mere amplifications of the original narrative. It is, at any rate, to be noted that the scene of Haka the Scot's discovery, was not the Hop, identified by the Rhode Island Historical Society with their own Mount Hope Bay. As for Thorhall and his shipmates, they turned back, northward, in search of Vinland, and so deserted their fellow-voyagers before the scene of attempted colonization was reached, and were ultimately reported to have been wrecked on the Irish coast. Such is the episode in the narrative of ancient explorations of the North American shores by voyagers from Greenland, in which Mr. Phillips was gratified by the startling conformity as it seemed to him, of the name of Hake, with the Harkussen of his runes ; though, it must be admitted the identity is far from complete. If, however, there were 120 SIR DANIEL WILSON ON THE no doubt as to the inscription being a genuine example of Northern runes, the failure to refer them to Hake, or any other specific member of an exploring party, would be of little moment. Here, at any rate, was evidence which, if rightly interpreted, was calculated to suggest a reconsideration of the old localization of Vinland in the stpte of Rhode Island ; and to this other evidence pointed even more clearly. Reassured, accordingly, by a study of the map, which shows the comparatively trilling distance traversed by the assumed voyagers from Greenland, when compared with that from their remote European father land, Mr. Phillips submitted his interpretation to the American Philosophical Society " as worthy of consideration, if not absolutely convincing. ' To the members of the Royal Society of Canada, a genuine runic inscription which proved that Norse voyagers from Greenland did actually land on the shores of Nova Scotia, in A. D. lOOl, and leave there a literate record of their visit, would be peculiarly acceptable. But whatever be the signi- ficance of the Yarmouth inscription, it fails to satisfy such requirements It neither accords with the style, or usual formula of runic inscriptions ; nor, as will be seen from the accompanying facsimile, is it graven in any variation of the familiar characters of the Scandinavian futhork. The fas(!inatiug temptation has to be set aside ; and the Hake or Harkussen, of its modern interpreter must take rank with the illusory Thorfinn discovered by the Rhode Island antiquaries on their lamed Dighton Rock, which still stands by the banks of the Taunton River. It is indeed vain for us to hope for evidence of the same definite kind as that which establishes beyond question the presence of the Northmen on the sites of their long- settled colonies in Greenland Their visits to our Canadian seaboard were tre.isitory ; and the attempt at settlement there failed. Yet without the definite memorials of the old Norse colonists recovered in the present century on the sites of their Greenland settle- ments it would probably have proved vain to identify them now. The coast of Nova Scotia is indented with inlets, and estuaries of creeks and rivers, suggesting some vague resemblance to the Hop, or creek of the old sagas. Whether any one of them presents adequate features for identification with the descriptions furnif'hed in their accoiints has yet to be ascertained. But there is every motive to stimulate us to a careful survey of the coast in search of any probable site of the Vinland of the old Northmen. Slight as are the details available for such a purpose, they are not without some specific definiteness, which the RLode Island antiquaries turned to account, not witliuut a warning to us in their too confident assumption of results. Dr. E. B. Tylor, in his address to the section of anthropology at the Montreal meeting of the British Association, after referring to the Icelandic records of the explorations of the hardy sea-rovers from Greenland, as too con- sistent to be refused belief as to the main facts, thus proceeded : "They sailed some way down the American coast. But where are we to look for the most southerly points which the sagas mention as reached in Vineland ? Where was Keel-ness, where Thorvald's ship ran aground, and Cross-ness, where he was buried, when he died by the Skriiling's arrow ? Rafn. in the ' Antiquitates Americana*,' confidently maps out these places about the pro- montory of Cape Cod, in Massachusetts, and this has been repeated since from book to book. I must plead guilty to having cited Rafn's map before now, but when with reference to the present meeting I consulted our learned editor of Scandinavian records at Oxford, Mr. Gudbrand Vigfusson, and afterwards went through the original passages in the sagas with Mr, York Powell, I am bound to say that the voyages of the Northmen ia#5te6S«»ll!ie««*k' U'' « ■!■!■.««»■ VlNLANiJ OF TUB N0ET11M.KN. 121 n to I t n n ouj?lit to be reduced to more moderate limits. It appears that they crossed l'roiri( Jret'iihuid to Labrador (Helluiand), and Iheuee sailing more or less south and west, in two stretches of two days each, they came to a place near where wild grapes grew, whence they called the country Vine-land. This would, therefore, seem to have been somewhere about tlie Gulf of St, Lawrence, and it would be an interesting object for a yachting cruise to try down from the east coast of Labrador a fair four days' sail of a viking ship, and identify, if possible, the sound between the island and the ness, the river running out of the lake, into the sea, the long stretches of sand, and the other local features mentioned in the sagas." A fresh stimulus is thus furnished to our Canadian yachtsmen to combine his- torical exploration with a summer's coasting trip, and go in search of the lost Vinland. The description of the locality, to which Dr. Tylor thus refers ; and that which furnished the data from which the members of the Rhode Island Historical Society satisliiKl them- selves as to the identity of their more southern site on the I'acasset liiver, have to be kt^pt in view in any renewed enquiry. At the same time it must not be overlooked that the oldest and most trustworthy narrative, in the saga ot Eric the lied, with the crc^dited, and probably genuine story of the voyage of Karlsefnc : are expanded, in the Grocn- lendingathattr, into five voyages with their incidents recast, with modifications and additions. The expedition of Leif Eriksson, and his act.-idental discovery of Vinland ; and the subsequent attempt at colonization of Karlsefnc, in company with Thorvald and Freydisa, are the only adventures aciredited by the oldest tradition. In the former, Leif is represt'uted as running his vessel into a creek, or small river, and following up the stream to a lake from which it flowed. Subsequent descriptions are obviously based on this account. But to whatever extent the description of the locality where Thorvald I'^riksson was killed by a Skraeling may have been suggested by that of the older narrative, the localities are different. It was not till the spring of A. D. 1004 that Karlsefnc set otit on his colonizing expedition. The voyagers sailed along Furdustrandir, a long, low sandy coast, till they came to where the land was indent'^d with creeks and inlets. There they steered into the Straumsfjord, to a spot where Karlsefnc and his comjianions spent the winter of A. D. 1005 ; and where, therefore, we may assume the ol)servations to have been made that determined the length of the day in Vinland at the winter solstice. The narrative of noteworthy inetween the old native and tlie Scandinavian or Icelandic blood. Of the Greenland colonies the ICskimo had perpetuated many traditions, referring to the colonists under tht^ native uamt! oH Kab/unet. Hut of the language that had been spoken among them lor centuries, the fact is highly significant that the word Kona, used by them as a synonym for woman, is the only clearly recognized trace. This is worthy of note, in considering the distinctive diaracter of the Eskimo language, and its comparison with the Indian languages of the North American lontiner-t. It has the feature common to nearly all the native languages of the continent north of the Mexican Gulf in the composite character of its words ; so that an Eskimo verb may furnish the equivalent to a whole sentence in other tongues. But what is specially note- worthy is that, while the Huron-Iroquois, the Algonkin, and other Indian families of languages have multiplied widely dissimilar dialects, Dr. Henry Rink has shown that the Eskimo dialects of Greenland or Labrador differ slightly from those of Behring Strait ; and the congeners of the American Eskimo, who have overflowed into the Aleutian Island.s, and taken possessitn of the north-eastern region of Asia, perpetuate there nearly allied dialects of the parent tongue. The Tschuktchi, on the Asiatic side of Behring Strait, speak dialects of this Arctic American language. The Alaskan and the Tshugazzi peninsulas are in part peopled by Eskimo ; the Kont^gan of Kudjak Island belong to the same stock; and all the dialects spoken in the Aleutian Islands, the supposed highway from Asia to America, betray in like manner the closes*^ affinities to the Arctic Mongolidte of the New World. They thus appear not only to be contribiitions from the New World to the Old, but to be of recent introduction there. ]f the cave-dwellers of Europe's palffiolithic era found their way as has been suggested, in some vastly remote age, either by an eastern or a western route to the later home of the Arctic Eskimo, it is in compara- tively modern centuries that the tide of migration has set westward across the Behring Strait, and by the Aleutian Islands, into Asia. The reference to the Skra^lings in the fi/st friendly intercourse of Thorfinu Karlsefne and his companions with the natives, and their subsequent hostile attitude, ending inthf death of Thorvald Eriksson, has given occasion to this digression. But the question thus suggested is one of no secondary interest. If we could certainly determine their t^thnical character the fa.;t would be of great significance ; and coupled with any wellgrounded determination of the locality where the fatal incident occurred, would have important bearings on American ethnology. The description of the sallow, or more correctly, swar- thy coloured, natives with large eyes, broad cheek bones, shaggy hair, and forbidding countenances is furnished in the saga, and then the narrative thus proceeds : " After the Skraelings had gazed at them for a while, they rowed away again to the south-west past the cape. Karlsefne and his company had erected their dwelling houses a little above the bay ; and there they spent the winter. No snow fell, aud the cattle found their food in the open field. One morning early, in the beginning of 1008, they descried a number of canoes 124 SIR DANIEL WILSON ON THE ra ; I I coining from the south-wost past the capo. Karlsolho having held up the white shield as ii IViendly signal, they drew nigh and immediate'y (;ommon<^ed bartering. These peoph>! chose in pref'erenie red cloth, and gave furs and squirrel skins in exchange. They would fain also have bought swords and spears, but these Karlsefne and Snorre prohibited their people from selling to them. In (Exchange for a skin entirely gray the SkrjKlings took a piece of cloth of a span in l)readth, and bound it round their heads. Their barter was carried on in this way for some time. The Northmen then found that their cloth was beginning to grow scarce, whereupon they cut it up in smaller pieces, not broader than a finger's breadth, yet the Skrrolings gave as much for these smaller pieces as they had formerly given for the larger ones, or even more. Karlsefne also caused the women to bear out milk soup, and the Skrtelings relishing the taste of it, they desired to buy it in prefer- ence to everything else, so they wound up their traffic by carrying away their bargains in their bellies. Whilst this traffic was going on, it happened that a bull, which Karlsefne had brought along with him, came out of the wood and bellowed loudly. At this the tSkroelings got terrified and rushed to their canoes, and rowed away southwards About this time Gudrida, Karlsefne's wife, gave birth to a sou, who received the name of Snorre. In the beginning of the following winter the Skra?lings came again in much greater numbers ; they showed symptoms of hostility, setting up loud yells. Karlsefne caused the red shield to be borne against them; whereupon they advanced against each other, and a battle commenced. There was a galling discharge of missiles. The Skni'lings had a sort of war sling. The/ elevated on a pole a tremendously large ball, almost the size of a sheep's stomach, and of a bluish colour ; this they swiing from the pole over Karlsefno's people, and it descended with a fearful crash. This struck terror into the Northmen, and they fled along the river." It was thus apparent that in spite of the attractions of the forest-clad land, with its tempting vines, there was little prospect of peaceful possession. The experience of these first colonizers differed in no degree from that of the later pioneers of Nova Scotia or New England. Freydisa, the natural daughter of Eric, whom Thorvald had wedded, is described as taunting the men for their cowardice in giving way before such miserable caitiffs as the Skrrclings or savage natives ; and vowing, if she had only a weapon, she would show better fight. " She, accordingly, followed them into the wood. There she encountered a dead body. It was Thorbrand Snorrason : a flat stone was sticking fast in his head. His naked sword lay by his side. This she took up, and prepared to defend herself She uncovered her breasts and dashed them against the naked sword. At this sight the Skraelings became terrified, and ran off to their canoes. Karlsefne and the rest now came up to her and praised her courage. But Karlsefne and his people became 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 with the resolution of returning to their own country." To us the attractions of a Nova Scotian settlement might seem worth encountering a good many such assaults rather than retreat to the ice-bound shores of G-reenland. But it was " their own country " ; their relatives were there. Nor to the hardy Northmen did its climate, or that of Iceland, present the forbidding aspect which it would to us. So they returned to Brattalid, carrying back with them an evil report of the land ; and, as it seems, also bringing with them specimens of its natives. For, on their home- VINLAND OF THR NORTHMK?^. 12S wnrlings, and its coasts open to assault from their canoes. To the race that wrested Normandy from the Carlovingian Frank, and established its jarldoras in Orkney, Caithness, and Northumbria, tuch a foe laight well be deemed contemptible. 13ut the degenerate Franks, and the Angels of Northumbria, tempted the Norse marauder with costly spoils; and only after repeated successful expeditions, awakened the desire to settle in the land and make there new homes. Alike to explorers seeking for themselves a home, and to adventurers coveting the victors' spoils, the Vin- land of the Northmen offered no adequate temptation, and so its traditions faded out of memory, or were recalled only as the legend of a fabulous age. At the meeting of the British Association at Montreal in 1884, Mr. R. G. Halliburton read a paper entitled "A search in British North America for lost colonies of Northmen and Portuguese." Docu- ments were quoted by him showing that from A 1). 1500 to 1 oTO commissions were regularly issued to the Corte Reals and their successors. Cape Breton was colonized by them in 1621 ; and when Portugal became annexed to Spain in 1680, and Terra Nova passed with it to her rule, she sent colonists to settle there. The site which they occupied, Mr. Halliburton traced to Spanish Harbour (Sydney), Cape Breton, and this he claimed to be the earliest European settlement in North America. For, as for the Northmen's reputed explorations and attempt at settlement, his verdict is thus briefly summed up : " "When we can discover Greenland's verdant mountains we can also hope to find the vineclad hills of Vineland the Oood." That, however, is too summary a dismissal of evidence which, if vague, is to every appearance based on authorities as seemingly authentic and trustworthy as those on which many details of the history of early centuries rest. It would manifestly be unwise to discountenance further enquiry by any such sweeping scepticism ; or to dis- courage the hope that local research may yel be rewarded by evidence confirmatory of the reputed visit of Thorfinn and his fellow explorers to some recognisable point on the Nova Scotian coast. Id; le- iviounl Allison Memorial 10^ D-J Trails. It. S. C, 18'.)0. Stc. II. IMuto I, a e o c C o C. c r! C/3 O