HE CELANDIC DISCOVERERS 
 
 :-NRLF 
 
 FROM SHORES WHERE THORFINN SET THY BANNI 
 THEIR LATEST CHILDREN SEEK THEE NOW" 
 
/ 
 
 CHURCH HOOK AT VALTI1IOF STAD, ICELAND, KLEVENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Frontispiece. 
 
THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS 
 OF AMERICA; 
 
 OB, 
 
 HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE. 
 
 BYT 
 
 MARIE A. BROWN// 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE SUNN? NORTH, OR, SWEDE.V OF THE PAST AND OF THE PRESENT, 
 "NORWAY AS IT is;" AND TRANSLATOR OF "THE SURGEON S STORIES," 
 "NADESCHDA," THE "SCHWARTZ" NOVELS, ETC. 
 
 They called the country Vinland. 
 
 We know it, said I. I am a Vinlander. 
 
 BAYABD TAYLOR 
 
 LONDON : 
 TRUBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL. 
 
 1887. 
 [All riff his reserved. ,] 
 
MRS. JOHN MORGAN RICHARDS, 
 
 OF LONDON, 
 
 THE AMERICAN FRIEND WHOSE SYMPATHY 
 
 -WITH MY DESIRE TO HAVE JUSTICE DONE TO ICELAND, AND THK 
 GLORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA ASCRIBED TO 
 
 THE TRUE DISCOVERER, LEIF ERIKSON, 
 
 HAS LED HER TO AID ME SUBSTANTIALLY IN PLACING THIS WORK 
 ON THE SUBJECT BEFORE THE WORLD, 
 
 I DEDICATE IT 
 WITH SENTIMENTS OF THE MOST GRATEFUL REGARD. 
 
 MARIE A. BROWN. 
 
 LONDON, 
 
 June, 1837. 
 
 053 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE IMMEDIATE NECESSITY OF ESTABLISHING THE TRUTH 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE MANIFEST DUTY OF THE UNITED STATES IN THIS 
 
 QUESTION ... .35 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE EVIDENCE THAT THE ICELANDERS DISCOVERED AME 
 RICA IN THE TENTH CENTURY . 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC COGNIZANCE OF THE FACT AT THE TIME 
 
 OF THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERY . . . . .70 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ALL THE MOTIVES FOR THE CONCEALMENT AND ERAUD . 77 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 COLUMBUS VISIT TO ICELAND. . . . 100 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 THE SCANDINAVIAN NORTH AND SPAIN CONTRASTED . Ill 
 
vi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 THE NORSE DISCOVERERS AND COLUMBUS CONTRASTED . 147 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE BENEFICIAL RESULTS TO THE PRESENT AGE AND 
 
 POSTERITY OF ATTRIBUTING THIS MOMENTOUS DIS 
 COVERY TO THE TRUE PERSONS . . . .165 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE CELEBRATION OF IT IN 1985 ! .185 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Tin: RIGHTED POSITION OF THE SCANDINAVIAN NORTH 
 
 AFTER THIS JUSTICE HAS BEEN ACCORDED TO IT . 195 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE IMPORTANT BOOKS CONFIRMING 
 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERY OF AMERICA, FROM THE 
 YEARS 107G-1883 ... .209 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTBATIONS. 
 
 CHUECH DOOR AT VALTHIOF STAD, ICELAND. 
 
 ELEVENTH CENTURY .... Frontispiece 
 GULLFOSS, NEAR THE GEYSER . . to face page 58 
 
 HVALFJORDABOTN, HlSTOBIC SCENERY NEAR 
 
 REYKJAVIK 100 
 
 REYKJAVIK HARBOUR . . . . . 111 
 
 BRUARA RIVERA ON THE ROAD TO THE GEYSER 147 
 
 CHURCH AND PARLIAMENT HOUSE, REYKJAVIK 165 
 
 VIEW AT THINGVALLA . . . . . ,, 185 
 
 INTERIOR or THE ANTIQUARIAN MUSEUM, REY 
 KJAVIK . 195 
 
THE 
 
 ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 OR, 
 
 HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE IMMEDIATE NECESSITY OF ESTABLISHING THE TRUTH. 
 
 AND why the immediate necessity, it may be asked, of esta 
 blishing a truth that has been hidden for a thousand years ? 
 The Xorse discovery has been buried in antiquity for a mil 
 lenary ; admitting that it was an actual discovery, it was made 
 by men of an ancient race that are now extinct ; they turned it 
 to no practical account and it led to no practical results. More 
 over, the accounts of it are too vague and unauthentic to have 
 been made a matter of veritable history ; we have all been 
 taught that Columbus discovered America, and it is very hard 
 to disabuse our minds of that idea. 
 
 These are the current remarks and objections that greet the 
 unlooked-for assertion that the Norsemen discovered America. 
 They are also followed by the assumption that it is a matter of 
 no importance either way, and may be left to antiquarians, if 
 they choose to occupy themselves with this obscure question. 
 
 Following out this conclusion, if it is indeed a matter of no 
 importance whether the Norsemen discovered America or not, 
 it becomes equally unimportant whether Columbus discovered 
 
2 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 America or not, and the discovery of the western continent 
 ceases to be one of the greatest of events. That it has not been 
 considered a trifling incident, or a mere matter of accident that 
 posterity could not be expected to bear in mind, is proven by 
 the extreme attention history lias devoted to it, and the fame 
 that the world, at the bidding of the imperative mandate of 
 history, has accorded to Columbus, as a man who has accom 
 plished an unparalleled achievement. If this fame is rightfully 
 due to Columbus, on the assumption that he discovered America, 
 if the magnitude of the achievement is not exaggerated, if it 
 was an herculean undertaking to cross the ocean on such a 
 quest in those days, if Columbus should enjoy the homage of 
 centuries in the past and of centuries to come, then the same 
 fame is rightfully due to the Norsemen, on the assumption 
 that fhcy discovered America, the magnitude of the achievement 
 being greater in their case, inasmuch as it was accomplished 
 five hundred years before Columbus planned his enterprise, and 
 thus presupposes men fi ve hundred years in advance of him in in 
 telligence, courage, and nautical information and skill, and from 
 the additional fact that this was only one of many undertakings 
 on their part, for the settlement and colonization of new and 
 far-off lands, if not their discovery, was an every-day affair with 
 them. The lofty pride of the Norsemen, even more than 
 humility, would for ever have prevented them from boasting of 
 the discovery as did Columbus : " But our Redeemer hath 
 granted this victory to our illustrious king and queen and their 
 kingdoms, which have acquired great fame by an event of such 
 high importance in which all Christendom ought to rejoice, and 
 which it ought to celebrate with great festivals and the offering 
 of solemn thanks to the Holy Trinity with many solemn prayers, 
 both for the great exaltation which may accrue to them in 
 turning so many nations to our holy faith, and also for the 
 temporal benefits which will bring great refreshment and gain, 
 not only to Spain, but to all Christians." He wrote besides : 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 3 
 
 " I gave to the subject six or seven years of great anxiety, 
 explaining to the best of my ability, how great service might be 
 done to our Lord, by this undertaking} in promulgating His 
 sacred name and our holy faitU among so many nations ; an 
 enterprise so exalted in itself, and so calculated to enhance* the 
 glory and immortalize the renown of great sovereigns/ , And 
 one who edited an edition of Columbus letters, says in bis 
 introduction : " The entire history of civilization presents us 
 w ith no event, with the exception perhaps of the art of printing, 
 so momentous as the discovery of the western world." But to 
 a race who had founded the empire of Russia, the republics of 
 Switzerland and Iceland, who had conquered Normandy and 
 Great Britain, keeping a line of kings on the thrones of England 
 and France, as they kept their czars on the throne of .Russia, 
 who " revived Hannibal s exploits in Italy," and shaped the 
 confines of that land, to such a race the discovery even of 
 Ameiica was not an achievemtnt so touch more dazzling than 
 the rest of their mighty deeds, while to Columbus it was the 
 only thing he ever did. 
 
 The scope e>f the Norse undertakings can best be judged by a 
 perusal of the words of the Swedish historian, Strinnholrn, on 
 the subject : " It seems wonderful how the fleets and hosts of 
 the North could be sufficient to embrace the whole stretch of 
 coast from the Elbe clear to the Pyrem se peninsula, and for a 
 whole generation not only keep the lands lying along the whole 
 coast in a constant stte of siege, but also to extend their 
 expeditions to the Mediterranean, clear to the coast of Italv, 
 and yet during the same time the British Isles, England, 
 Ireland and Scotland, continued to be hard pressed by the 
 hosts from the Noith." 
 
 Columbus estimate, however, of the value of the discovery 
 of the " New World," was not extravagant ; none know so well 
 the value of a thing as the one who appropriates it wrongfully, 
 and the usurper is a good judge of the territory he invades. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 " A practised slave-dealer," as Arthur Helps styles him, the 
 commercial faculty was largely developed in him, much more 
 largely than respect for the rights of property ; he possessed 
 himself of the coveted acquisition of the Northmen, robbed 
 them of their discovery, with the same ease and with as 
 little compunction as he kidnapped slaves. Note a little sug 
 gestion of his to their " highnesses " in Spain, this likewise for 
 the enhancement of their greatness and the glory of the Lord : 
 " Considering what great need we have of cattle and of beasts 
 of burthen, l>oth for food and to assist the settlers on this and 
 all these islands, both for f eopling the land and for cultivating 
 the soil, their Highnesses might authorize a suitable number of 
 caravels to come here every year to bring over the aid cattle, 
 and provisions and other articles ; these cattle, &c., might be 
 sold at moderate prices for account of the bearers, and the latter 
 might be paid with slaves, taken from among the Carribees, 
 who are a wild people, fit for nnv work, well proportioned and 
 very intelligent, and who, when they have got rid of the cruel 
 habits to whi<:h they have become accustomed, will be better 
 than any other kind of slaves." Commenting upon this, Arthur 
 Helps says : " At the same time that we must do Columbus the 
 justice to believe that his motives were right in his own eyes, it 
 must be admitted that a more distinct suggestion for the esta 
 blishing of a slave-trade was never proposed." These slaves 
 which he stole were to be exchanged for cattle and other 
 necessaries ; the discovery that he stole was to be converted into 
 honours, wealth, distinction, an undying fame and saintship for 
 himself ! He wielded a lucid and persuasive, as well as pious. 
 pen, one that secured spiritual and temporal lends with equal 
 facility, and he represented adequately and explicitly the value 
 of this vast territorial acquisition, which he claimed as his dis 
 covery, to loth Church and Throne, His own words yield the 
 befit testimony. After reading this self-laudation, what an 
 unconscious satire appear the words of William a Robertson, in 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 5 
 
 his "History of America," when describing this man: "Co 
 lumbus, in whose character the modesty and diffidence of true 
 genius was united with the ardent enthusiasm of a projector." 
 But Columbus has a modern admirer and biographer who has 
 struck his own key and inflection, and who both revives and 
 perpetuates the fame of the long-suffering exile from pre 
 destined bliss, by building his "Life of Columbus" on the 
 eminently pious one of Roselly de Lorgues, from which it is 
 compiled; this Catholic author, J. J. Burry, extols, with the 
 rhapsody of the faithful, "the immortal discoverer of America, 
 who, it is to be hoped, will ere long be solemnly enrolled 
 on the glorious catalogue of the canonized saints." 
 
 That Columbus words were entirely convincing to the 
 Church, is proven by the fact that " Pope Alexander VI. 
 (Roderigo Borgia) deeded the continent of America to Spain, 
 solely on the statement of Columbus," as quoted by Aaron 
 Goodrich in his work " History of the Character and Achieve 
 ments of the so-called Christopher Columbus." This trenchant 
 author, who dissects Columbus character in the most unsparing 
 way, also cites Count Roselly de Lorgues on the above point : 
 " The pope has faith in Columbus. He yields full credence to 
 him and justifies his calculations. It is sjlely on Columbus 
 that lie depends ; it is relying on Columbus that he engages in 
 the vast partHion of the unexplored world, beticeen the crowns 
 of Spain and Portugal. Everything the messenger of the 
 cross proposes is granted in full, as a thing that is indicated by 
 Providence" " To attack the latter was, therefore," comments 
 Goodrich, " to attack the justice of the pope s bull, and an 
 indirect imputation on papal infallibility. ... In Spain it be 
 came necessary for all who would write a history of the Kew 
 World to extol Columbus and the Church." 
 
 In the " Memorials of Columbus," a collection of authentic 
 documents, whose value is glowingly slated by the one who 
 edited them and wrote the historical memoir, I), Gio, Batista 
 
6 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 Spotorno, as " a treasure which contains the diplomatic history 
 of the discovery of America, and of Christopher Columbus ; 
 that is, of the most memorable event which had occurred for 
 ages, and of a hero who reflects the highest honour on Genoa, 
 on Italy, and on Europe," in this book will be found the famous 
 Dull, of which the following is an extract : "And in order that 
 you may undertake more freely and boldly the charge of so 
 great an affair, given to you with the liberality of apostolic 
 grace, We of our own motion, and not at your solicitation, nor 
 upon petition presented to us upon this subject by other persons 
 in your name, but of our pure will and certain knowledge, and 
 with the plenitude of apostolic power, by the authority of God 
 omnipotent granted to Us through blessed Peter, and of the 
 virarship of Jesus Christ, which we exercise upon earth, by the 
 tenor of the presents, give, concede and assign for ever to you, 
 and to the kings of Castile and Leon, your successors, all the 
 islands and mainlands discovered and which may hereafter be 
 discovered, towards the west and south, with all their 
 dominions, cities, castles, places and towns, and with all their 
 rignts, jurisdictions, and appurtenances, whether the lands and 
 islands found, or that shall be found, be situated towards India, 
 or towards any other part whatsoever; and we make, constitute 
 and depute you, and your aforesaid heirs and successors, lords 
 of them, with full, free and absolute power and authority and 
 jurisdiction : drawing, however, and fixing a line from the 
 Arctic pole, viz., from the north, to the antarctic pole, viz., to 
 the south ; which line must be distant from nny one of the 
 islands whatsoever, vulgarly called the Azores and Cape de Verde 
 islands, a hundred leagues towards the west and south " 
 
 It will be gratifying to Americans to see the disposition that 
 was made of their country ; a disposition that the Roman Catholic 
 power evidently regards as final and irrevocable. The author 
 before quoted, Barry, may, I think, be said to interpret the views 
 of the Romish hierarchy, when ho reasons that " the question is 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 7 
 
 not concerning an international interest, or of an affair to 
 regulate for Castile, but about interests of vital importance to 
 Catholicity, to the salvation of souls, and to the extension of 
 the kingdom of Jesus Christ. . . . And here we see visibly," 
 he continues, the participation of the Church in the discovery, 
 and where we perceive her agency, in the benediction given by 
 Innocent III. to the enterprise of his countryman. . . . Rome 
 comprehended Columbus. Now to comprehend is, in a certain 
 sense, to become equal to. All the sympathies of the Holy Father 
 and of the Sacred College, were in favour of Columbus." That 
 these "sympathies " remain unchanged, is shown by his further 
 words, as well as by a mass of outside evidence : " When lately 
 in Rome we rendered homage to the moral and religious purity 
 of Columbus, and declared his grandeur, our voice received, in 
 the places of the pontificate, only friendliness and encourage 
 ment." Without substantial support from head-quarters, unless 
 he was acting with a warrant, he could scarcely proceed with so 
 much confidence and affirm : "Evidently God chose Columbus 
 as a messenger of salvation ; " and " The time for his historic 
 rehabilitation has come at last," removing all uncertainty and 
 suspense on this head by declaring at once : " The necessity of a 
 new, full and complete history of the New World has been 
 much felt ; this necessity, which so much resembles a duty, has 
 been deeply felt in the Eternal City ; and we proceed to respond 
 to it." Not content with saying that " it is too much forgotten 
 that the work effected by Columbus is unequaled in history," 
 he reaches a Roman Catholic climax by exclaiming : " We 
 declare before God, who knows it, and before men, who do not 
 know it, that CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS WAS A SAINT." 
 
 In the words that the late King Alfonso is reported to have 
 uttered in course of convocation with Clarence Winthrop 
 liowen, we see that the modern estimate of an occupant of the 
 Spanish throne coincides perfectly with the joint estimate of 
 Spain and Rome in the past, in regard to the immense value of 
 
8 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 this discovery. The two persons mentioned were speaking 
 about the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of 
 America by Columbus, and the king- thought that nine years 
 was a long time to spend in arranging for the celebration, but 
 perhaps not too long considering its importance. " It is an 
 event," he said, "in which all the world would be interested, 
 and in which the leading nations might unite. I would do all 
 in my power to make it a brilliant festival ; but, considering the 
 pre-eminent part that Spain took in the discovery of America, 
 I claim that she should certainly be allowed to have the 
 celebration within her own borders. Ifcily gave birth to 
 Columbus, it is true. Other countries considered his ideas only 
 visionary schemes. But it was Spain alone that furnished the 
 means for carrying into practical effect what would otherwise 
 have been only a dream. To Spain alone, therefore, belongs 
 the credit of the discovery." 
 
 A few panegyrics of Columbus by modern authors and 
 historians may appropriately be culled and laid before the 
 reader, as further evidence of the value ascribed to this 
 discovery, for it is obvious that Columbus is extolled solely for 
 that, and that his elevation from obscurity is due to that one 
 achievement alone. 
 
 In Bancroft s "History of the United States" stind the 
 -words: "The enterprise of Columbus, the most memorable 
 maritime enterprise in the history of the world, formed between 
 Europe and America the communication that will never cease." 
 Arthur Helps, in his " Life of Columbus," says that " perhaps 
 there are few of the great personages in history who have been 
 more talked about and written about than Christopher 
 Columbus, the discoverer of America." To quote another 
 passage of his : " Modern familiarity with navigation renders it 
 difficult for us to appreciate adequately the greatness of the 
 enterprise which WHS undertaken by the discoverers of the Xcw 
 World." But the writer obviously fails to see that the ancient 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 9 
 
 familiarity with navigation, as evinced by the Norsemen, rendered 
 it surprising and well-nigh incomprehensible that Columbus 
 i-ould have encountered so much difficulty in finding ships, 
 crews, the necessary outfit for a voyage, and in managing the 
 undertaking. The accounts read as if this might have been the 
 first voyage on record, from any port ; as risky, altogether, as 
 the first balloon ascension. 
 
 Washington Irving, in his "Life of Columbus," in describing 
 Columbus state, after land had been descried, on that first 
 voyage, remarks : * { He had secured himself a glory which 
 must be as durable as the world itself," but it is not quite plain 
 whether this is the author s reflection or Columbus , or a blending 
 of the two. 
 
 But for Christopher Columbus substitute the Norsemen ; for 
 Spain substitute the Scandinavian North ; for the date 1492 
 substitute the dates 982-85 ; for San Salvador and San Domingo 
 substitute Greenland, Labrador, Nova Scotia, Rhode Island, 
 and Massachusetts ; for a discoverer of two islands, who did not 
 explore the mainland to any extent, substitute the discoverers 
 who traversed the eastern coast of America from Labrador to 
 Florida, just as their forefathers had traversed the western 
 coast of Europe from the Hebrides to Africa ; for a discoverer 
 who stole his information, thus buying himself name and 
 repute at the Spanish court, and who went to America in search 
 of gold and slaves, also to appropriate new territory for the 
 preaching of the Gospel, substitute the genuine discoverers, 
 who were adepts in the art of navigation, who had already 
 established so many colonies and formed so many governments 
 that this had become an old story to them, and who being 
 above the incentives of lucre and Papal patronage, devoted 
 themselves to industry, commerce between the newly discovered 
 continent, Greenland, Iceland, and Scandinavia, and such a 
 thorough and intelligent exploration of it as to rouse the 
 cupidity of southern Europe, five hundred years after their 
 
io THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 discovery, when an opportunity offered in the person of 
 Columbus, for its states to avail themselves of it, and to confirm 
 the fact of their prior discovery, in documents so reliable and 
 authentic as to convince the modern world, after three hundred 
 years of systematic concealment, of garbled history and fraud 
 on the part of the Roman Catholic Church and its adherents 
 and when these substitutions are made, does the value of the 
 discovery become less ? Does it not rather become greater as 
 showing how deeply those wearing the mantle of holiness, as 
 well as the royal purple, have been willing to perjure themselves 
 for the gains? And these men have intoned for ages: 
 " Beware of covetousness ! " Is it the duty of all the leading 
 nations to unite," to use King Alfonso s words, to celebrate 
 this fraud of half a millenary s duration, and by publicly 
 recognizing the claim of Columbus discovery gratify the 
 covetousness of the Mother Church by turning "the American 
 Republic over to ir, as its spiritual and temporal property? 
 
 A moment s attention to another reuling of this fact in 
 history, from a northern instead of a southern standpoint, will 
 show that the discovery in itself loses nothing by a change of 
 characters. In the first part of the latest history of Sweden, 
 under the joint authorship of Drs. Montelius and Hildebrand 
 Professors Weibull, Alin, JWthius, and others, there occurs 
 tins passage, from the pen of Dr. Oscar Montelius : We have 
 seen how the Northerners during the Viking period, carried 
 their victorious arms to most of the countries of Europe. All 
 the intercourse between the North and the rest of the world 
 during this time, however, was not warlike, for peaceful com 
 merce was even then of an importance, which one has been 
 but too much inclined to under-estimate. Foremost amon- 
 peaceful voyages during the Viking period must we remember 
 the bold voyages of discovery which the Norsemen then made. 
 Already have we mentioned how they settled Iceland- froni 
 there they found first Greenland and afterwards Vinland or the 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 11 
 
 north-eastern part of what we now call the United States of 
 America. To the Northmen is due the great glory, so far as 
 history knows, of having first, among all the people of Europe, 
 discovered America, and it was half a millenary before the 
 inhabitants of southern Europe found their way to the new 
 world, possibly led there by the sagor of the Norsemen s 
 voyages ." 
 
 Another Swedish historian, A. E. Holmberg, in his " Norse 
 men dining the Pagan Period," ascribes the same glory to the 
 discovery : " The treatise on the naval operations of our fore 
 fathers we can scarcely end more suitably than with the 
 mention of their most daring naval exploit an event, which 
 not only in and of itself, but also through its results, shrewdly 
 concealed until our time, is of world-historic importance, I 
 mean the dis-overy of America by the Norsemen toward the close 
 of 900. The matter, it is true, was some years ago explained 
 and made known ; the details of it, however, may in general 
 be less known. From childhood we have all heard that the 
 discovery of the new world was exclusively Columbus exploit. 
 His glory in defying prejudices and overcoming the difficulties 
 and obstacles that rose against such an undertaking no people 
 and no age can diminish ; but nevertheless, the discovery of 
 this world was never his; the glory of this belongs to the 
 Norsemen alone." 
 
 Or if we turn to English authors, "VVheaton, Laing, Pigott, 
 Beamish, the Hewitts, Carlyle, all credit the fact of the Norse 
 discovery, and several of them, together with Scandinavian 
 writers and historians of note, give so much testimony with 
 regard to Columbus visit to Iceland, that I reserve the im 
 portant passages relating to this secret visit of the ambitious 
 and unscrupulous southerner, so pregnant with results, for the 
 chapter that is to treat of it exclusively. The third chapter 
 contains the evidence of the Norse discovery, taken from as 
 n:any authors as has been found practicable, and giving the 
 
\2 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 opinions tint are of the most value on this important subject. 
 For the sources of all the knowledge that has, as yet been 
 derived, the re.vder is referred to the bibliography at the end of 
 this bojk. 
 
 The American author, Aaron Goodrich, traces the sequence 
 between the greatness of the true discoverers and the greatness 
 of their discovery, showing that one was attributable to the 
 other : " While the greater part of Europe was plunged in the 
 intellectual darkness which pervaded the middle ages, while 
 the monk in his cloister toiled laboriously during a life-time to 
 perpetuate some one work of saintly or classic lore, and the 
 masses were ignorant, superstitious, the slaves of feudal lords 
 and barons scarcely less ignorant than themselves, a people 
 flourished in the extreme north, with whom enterprise and 
 freedom were neither dead nor stagnant, who possessed scien 
 tific knowledge and applied the same to practical purposes ; a 
 people simple, fearless and energetic, republicans in practice if 
 not in name, with whom chieftains were the fathers and pro 
 tectors of their followers, sharing their perils and respecting 
 their rights ; a pagan people indeed, worshippers of Odin and 
 Thor, believers in the joys of Walhalla, yet doers of deeds so 
 noble as to be worthy the most enlightened Christian : such were 
 the Xorlhmen ; such their simple records, which bear every im 
 press of truth, prove them to have been. Issuing from an Asiatic 
 hive, they early overran Norway and Sweden ; their language, 
 the old Danish or Dansk 1unga, is now preseived only in Ice- 
 hind, which they colonized in the year 875 ; in 985 they re 
 discovered and colonized Greenland ; the same year the 
 American continent proper was discovered by them, and, 
 during the first years of the eleventh century, they made 
 thither frequent voyages, residing, for periods of several years, 
 at different times, in what is no\v called New England." 
 
 The Norwegian-American writer, Professor R. R Anderson, 
 in his stirring book "America not Discovered by Columbus,"- 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 13 
 
 traces this sequence still further, namely, to the result that has 
 now become the modern point of issue, the Columbian or 
 bogus discovery, which was based upon the Norse one : " It 
 was the first settlement of Iceland by the Norsemen, and the 
 constant voyages between this island and Norway, that led to 
 the discovery, tirst of Greenland and then of America ; and it 
 is due to the high intellectual standing and fine historical tas e 
 of the Icelanders that records of these voyages were kept, first 
 to instruct Columbus how to find America, and afterward to 
 solve for us the mysteries concerning the discovery of this, 
 continent." 
 
 It is indisputably true that the value" of the discovery is 
 sufficient to command the attention of all ages ; the truth as to. 
 the discoverer remains to be demonstrated, and that is the 
 proud task of the present age, nay, of this coming year, for the 
 American people should not let 1887, the year of the National 
 Exhibition on English soil, draw to a close, without a national 
 declaration of the truth of the discovery of their country by the 
 Norsemen, a public acknowledgment of the debt of gratitude 
 in which they stand to the Scandinavian North, for which they 
 are indebted for the principles of liberty, " for the hardiest 
 elements of progress in the United States," according to Ben 
 jamin Lossing, and an equally public repudiation of the false 
 claim of Columbus, throwing off, with the same, indignant 
 scorn as once the Mother country, when it atteini ted oppres* 
 sion, the clutch of the Mother Church and its obedient vassal 
 Spain, to whom the Republic can charge the slavery that 
 blackened its annals as a nation for so many years, the terrible 
 war arising from that pernicious system introduced by Spain 
 and largely kept alive by the Roman Catholic democratic party, 
 North and South, all this evil in the past, and to whom, in the 
 future, it would inevitably owe its destruction as a nation, the 
 subversion of its free Constitution, and its transformation into a 
 huge benighted territory indistinguishable in its mental and 
 
i4 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 moral attributes from South America, the southern half of 
 what the Church of Rome fondly looks forward to ns the 
 Roman Catholic hemisphere, if the claim that Columbus dis 
 covered America should be admitted by it, as a nation. 
 
 This is the reason why it is necessary for the truth, as to the 
 discovery of America, to be established immediately. The 
 near approach of the four hundredth anniversary of the 
 landing and alleged discovery of Columbus, has revived the 
 subject in the public mind and the floating rumours, occasion 
 ally taking a concrete form in the American newspapers, of a 
 grand commemoration of the event, convert it into a subject 
 that must soon be decided one way or the other, and the 
 approaching date, October 12th, 1892, into the date of a most 
 momentous decision, one that will fairly shake the world with 
 its reverberation ! This approaching anniversary of a fraudu 
 lent discovery, the resolution of the United States with regard 
 to it, their celebration of it, or their refusal to celebrate if, 
 will test the sincerity and earnestness of the work of which 
 the year 1876 was the glorious centennial; it will decide 
 whether the date 1892 is to obliterate the date 1776, whether 
 the Government, claiming to be purely secular, which has from 
 the hour the Constitution was framed refused to admit the 
 word "God" into it, will then be willing to insert both God 
 and Pope in it ; whether the country that indignantly tlnew off 
 all allegiance in 1776 will then yield allegiance to the foulest 
 tyrant the world has ever had, the Roman Catholic power ! 
 
 As straws show which way the wind blows, it is worth while 
 to note these newspaper bits : " It is proposed to have a World s 
 Fair in Chicago in 1892, in commemoration of the four 
 hundredth anniversary of the landing of Columbus in 
 America." Another scrap indicated that the matter of a cele 
 bration, of some kind, of this event was under consideration, in 
 Washington. Another ran thus : " The Spaniards have not 
 yet made up their minds how to celebrate the four hundredth 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 15 
 
 anniversary of the sailing of Columbus ; " which was contro 
 verted by the following programme: " It is proposed in Spain 
 to start a fleet of ships, representing all maritime nations, from 
 the little port of Palos, in Spain, on August 3rd, 189?, the 
 four hundredth anniversary of the sailing of Columbus, and to 
 have the fleet sail to San Salvador over the route taken by the 
 great discoverer." Another significant scrap made its appearance 
 in an editorial column : "As an inducement to celebrate the fourth 
 centenary of Columbus landing, Americans are offered a 
 chance to gaze upon the identical chains with which Bobadella 
 loaded the wrists of Columbus when the great seaman was sent 
 back to Spain a prisoner in 1500. It is an Italian chevalier 
 who owns these dumb but eloquent articles, and to secure them 
 he made costly journeys to Spain and America. For twenty years 
 he has kept the matter a profound secret, having personal reasons 
 for this reticence. But now they will be shown, and managers 
 of dime museums who know their business will take the hint." 
 But here is something that intimates the absolute destruction 
 of the plans mentioned : " Just as we are talking about a cele- 
 b rat on of the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus 
 discovery of land on the western hemisphere, some Danish 
 ethnologists are trying to prove that the Genoese navigator 
 had borrowed all he knew from an old Iceland manuscript of 
 the seventh century, 1 in which this continent was fully described/ 
 The phrase "are trying to prove" hardly fits the case; the in 
 contestable fact is that the "old Iceland manuscript " referred 
 to is in the possession of the Danish Government, and that the 
 Royal Society of Xoithern Antiquaries, in Copenhagen, have 
 placed its contents before the modern world, in the splendid 
 work " Antiquitates Americana?," by Professor Kafn, in which 
 the narratives of the Norse voyages to America, besides being 
 reproduced in the old Icelandic, are rendered into the Latin 
 and Danish languages. An English translation having been 
 1 The wrong date. 
 
?6 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 made of these by North Ludlow Beamish, this in turn has been 
 reproduced by the Prince Society in Boston, under the title : 
 "Voyages of the Northmen, to America," published in 1877. 
 This is only one of several translations into English, so that 
 the contents of that portion of the u Codex Flatoiensis " relating 
 to the discovery of America is in reality accessible to all. In 
 Samuel Laing s preliminary dissertation to his translation of the 
 " Heimskringla," the famous chronicle of the kings of Norway 
 Written by Snorre Sturleson, which also contains, in the saga of 
 Olaf Tryggvason. historical testimony of the discovery of 
 America by the Northmen, is to be found an account of this 
 priceless volume : The Flateyar Annall, or Codex Flatoiensis, 
 by far the most important of Icelandic manuscripts, takes its 
 name from the island Flato, in Brederiord in Iceland, where it 
 had been long preserved, and where Bishop Swendson of 
 Skalholt purchased it, about 1650, from the owner Jonas 
 Torfeson, for King Frederick III., giving in exchange for it the 
 perpetual exemption from land-tax of a small estate of the 
 owner. The manuscript is in large folio, beautifully written on 
 parchment. On the first page stands : This book is owned 
 by Ion Hakonson. Here are first songs; then how Norway 
 was inhabited or settled ; then of Erie Vidforla (the far-traveled) ; 
 thereafter of Olaf Tryggvason, and all his deeds ; then next the 
 saga of King Olaf the Saint, with all his deeds and therewith 
 the sagas of the Orkney Earls ; then the saga of Swerrer and 
 thereafter the saga of Hakon the Old, with the sagas of King 
 Magnus his son ; then are deeds of Einer Sokkeson of Green 
 land, thereafter of Helge and Ulf the Bad ; then begin annals 
 from the time the world was made, showing all to the present 
 time that is come. The priest Ion Thordarson has written from 
 Eric Vidforla, and the two sagas of the Olafs ; and priest 
 Magnus Thorhallsson has written from thence, and also what is 
 written before, and has illuminated the whole. God Almighty 
 and the Holy Virgin bless those who wrote, and him who 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 17 
 
 dictated. . . . . The Codex Flatoiensis is not an original work 
 by one author, but a collection of sagas transcribed from older, 
 manuscripts, and arranged in so far chronologically that the 
 accounts are placed under the reign in which "tire events they 
 tell of happened, although not connected with it or with each 
 other. Under the saga of Olaf Tryggvason are comprehended 
 the sagas of the Feroe Islands ; of the Vikings of Jomslmrg ; of 
 Erik Red and Leif his son, the discoverers of Greenland and 
 Vinland ; and the voyages of Karlsefne to Vinland, and all the 
 circumstances, true or false, of their adventures." 
 
 As for Columbus having " borrowed all he knew " from this 
 old Icelandic manuscript, the same author, Laing, to whom the 
 world is deeply indebted for enlightenment on this hidden 
 history, has important testimony to give. " The discovery of 
 America or Vinland, in the llth century, by t,he same race of 
 enduring, enterprising seamen, is not less satisfactorily established 
 by documentary evidence than the discovery and colonization 
 of Greenland; but it rests entirely upon documentary evidence, 
 which cannot, as in the case of Greenland, be substantiated by 
 anything to be discovered in America. . . . All that can be 
 proved, or that is required to be proved. "for establishing the 
 priority of the discovery of America by the Northmen, is that 
 the saga or traditional account of the?e voyages in the llth 
 century was committed to writing at a known date, viz. between 
 1387 and 1395, in a manuscript of unquestioned authenticity, 
 of which these particular sagas or accounts relative to Vinland 
 form but a small portion ; and that this known date was eighty 
 years before Columbus visited Iceland to obtain nautical infor 
 mation, viz. in 1477, when he must have heard of this written 
 account of Vinland ; and it was not till 1492 that he discovered 
 America. This simple fact established on documents altogether 
 incontrovertible, is sufficient to prove all that is wanted to be 
 proved, or can be proved, and is much more clearly and ably 
 stated by Thormod Torfseus, the graat antiquary of the last 
 
 c 
 
1 8 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 century, than it has been since, in his very rare little tract, 
 Historia Vinlandiae Antiqme, 1707." 
 
 A credibility is thus given to this one manuscript from the 
 North, not only byLaing, but by Alexander von Humboldt and 
 hosts of others, that the collective testimony of the south lacks : 
 whole libraries of lives of Columbus and histories of the New 
 AVorld weigh as nothing against it. The intrinsic truth of its 
 written words g.iin an absolute authority from the integrity of 
 the race from which it issued. Iceland has been the island 
 refuge of this truth ; Iceland has preserved it sacredly, and 
 now transmits it to the Republic that she, in her own palmiest 
 days as a Republic, conduced to found. 
 
 American honour is at stake ! It is a national obligation 
 for the American Republic to proclaim this truth and to do it 
 quickly. The freest country cannot obey the behest of the 
 most slavish one ! America and Spain cannot be linked together 
 in eternal union ! the land that is the synonym of progress 
 bound to the land that is the synonym of decay ! The germ 
 of republicanism, of liberty, was planted in America by the 
 North, the germ of slavery by the South, by Spain and the 
 Church of Rome. Which germ shall be allowed to grow ( 
 Both cannot live on American soil ! The history of Europe is 
 the history of this conflict between the North and the South, 
 between free-minded Scandinavia and the arch-tyrant Rome. 
 In Europe Rome has virtually c< nquered, for it succeeded in 
 converting or Christianizing all the nations that comprise 
 Europe, including the Scandinavians, who offered the most 
 stubborn resistance, but were finally obliged to succumb, albeit 
 five hundred years after all the others had bowed under the yoke 
 of Rome. The struggle is now to be continued in the United 
 States. The double discovery of America is symbolical of this, 
 and is also the signal for contention. The true discovery was 
 by men from the North, and of that portion of the land lying 
 in the north ; the -alleged or false discovery was by men from 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 19 
 
 Spain, and of islands south even of the continent. In the one 
 case no appropriation, in the other an immediate deed of the 
 land, nay, of the whole hemisphere, by the Pope to the 
 Sovereigns of Spain. The Norsemen nannd the land after its 
 good qualities, Vinlaud ; the Spaniards, according to the base 
 use they meant to make of it : " The Land of the Holy Cross, 
 or New World" The Spmiards intended America to be the, 
 empire of the Pope in a sense in which Europe had failed to 
 be it, the perfection of the original design, matured in the 
 second and third centuries, having been impaired by the pagans 
 of the North. But the Norsemen were in their graves; the 
 wholesale Christianizing of Scandinavia had put their very 
 spirit, soul, in the grave. What a divine retribution it would 
 be upon this impious race, according to the Catholic way of 
 reasoning, to steal their discovery, appropriate the land that 
 they had found and convert it into what Europe should have 
 been, would have been, if Ferdinand and Isabella, Philip II., 
 Charlemagne and a few others could have completed the work 
 of exterminating heretics ! 
 
 The Eoman Catholic, J, J. Barry, unwraps the motive, the 
 forced tendency, from all disguise, and says plainly : " The first 
 object of the Discovery, disengaged from every human consider 
 ation, was, therefore, the glorification of the Redeemer and the 
 extension of His Church. Historians have hitherto left this 
 circumstance unnoticed, or in a state of vague confusion." The 
 Protestant, Arthur Oilman, in his " History of the American 
 People," poetizes on a well-worn theme, the expression of the 
 facts of the case having been given by the other, for no one 
 can know so well as a Roman Catholic what the intentions of 
 the Holy See are with regard to the United States. To quote 
 Oilman s words: "Among the great events that marked the 
 world s revival from the sleep of the Dark Ages, none was more 
 remarkable than the revelation of the American continent. 
 From the moment when the ship of Columbus was sighted orf 
 
 c 2 
 
20 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 the. coast of Spain, bearing the proofs of his discovery, the 
 name America became the synonym of wealth, of adventure, of 
 freedom." 
 
 There is not the slightest Avarrant for coupling the words 
 wealth, adventure (in the good sense) and freedom with the 
 name of Columbus. Sterility, poverty, slavery have invariably 
 followed in the wake of Home and of Sp..in. They would have 
 done so in this instance, the United States would have displayed 
 the features of Spanish civilization, had it not been for the 
 principles of freedom the Norsemen infused into English blood 
 and which found their fullest expression in the American 
 colonists, leading them to declare . independence. But the 
 American Republic has always been divided against itself: the 
 northern states respected freedom, defended it for themselves 
 and others ; the southern states advocated slavery and fought 
 for its preservation ; we have the freedom-loving North and 
 slavery- worshipping Spain again typified in Boston and New 
 Orleans. 
 
 Samuel Laing sees clearly that these are the only two forces 
 that have been at work in Europe, for spiritual and temporal 
 supremacy, and he embodies one, the enslaving force, in the 
 Romans, and the other, the freeing force, in the Scandinavians. 
 His words convey the whole truth of the situation as regards 
 the past : " Two nations only have left permanent impressions 
 of their laws, civil polity, social arrangements, spirit, and 
 character on the civilized communities of modem times the 
 Romans, and the handful of Northern people from the countries 
 beyond the Elbe, which had never submitted to the Roman 
 yoke, who, issuing in small, piratical bands from the 5th to the 
 10th century, under the names of Saxons, Danes, Noithmen, 
 plundered, conquered and settled on every European coast from 
 the White Sea to Sicily." What impression was left he describes 
 in a way that leaves no doubt : " Wheresoever these people from 
 beyond the pale and influence of the old Roman empire, and 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. i\ 
 
 of the later church empire of Rome, either settled, mingled or 
 marauded, they have left permanent traces in society of their 
 laws, institutions, character, and spirit. Pagan and barbarian 
 as they were, they seem to have carried with them something 
 more natural, something more suitable to the social wants of man, 
 than the laws and institutions formed under the Roman power. 
 What traces have we in Britain of the Romans ? A fe A P military 
 roads, and doubtful sites of camps, posts, and towns a few 
 traces of public works, and all indicating a despotic military 
 occupation of the country, and none a civilized condition of the 
 mass of the inhabitants alone remain in England to tell the 
 world that here the Roman power nourished during 400 yeais. 1 
 There was thus a despotic military occupation of the country ; 
 that there was a despotic spiritual occupation of the mind 
 follows as a matter of course : " The history of modern civi 
 lization resolves itself, in reality, into the history of the moral 
 influence of these two nations. All would have been Roman 
 in Europe at this day in principle and social arrangement- 
 Europe would have been, like Russia or Turkey, one vast den 
 of slaves, with a few rows in its amphitheatre of king? 1 , nobles, 
 and churchmen, raised above the dark mass of humanity beneath 
 them, if three boats from the north of the Elbe had not landed 
 in Ebbsfleet, in the Isle of Thanet, 1400 years ago, and been 
 followed by a succession of similar boat expeditions of the same 
 people, marauding, conquering, and settling, during 600 years, 
 viz. from 449 to 1066. All that men hope for of good govern 
 ment and future improvement in their physical and moral con 
 dition all that civilized men enjoy at this day of civil, religious, 
 and political liberty the British constitution, representative 
 legislature, the trial by jury, security of property, freedom of 
 inind and person, the influence of public opinion over the con 
 duct of public affairs, the Reformation, the liberty of the press, 
 the spirit of the age all that is or has been of value to man in 
 modern times as a member of society either in Europe or in 
 
22 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 America, may be traced to the spark left burning upon our 
 shores by these Northern barbarians." 
 
 A strong and eloquent statement this, which should be 
 written in letters of fire in every American heart, to inspire 
 them with deep gratitude to their true ancestors ancestors 
 which England, as a nation, has never honoured properly, 
 wherefore the duty has devolved upon Americans, who, being 
 mere nearly allied to the Norsemen in soul-qualities, can alone 
 understand tlum and appreciate them as they deserve. That 
 they were the first Europeans who landed on American shores 
 was pregnant with ood to us ; this made "the name America 
 the synonym of wealth, of adventure, of freedom," and not the 
 false tidings borne by Columbus to Spain of a discovery of 
 which he would have been incapable but for stolen infor 
 mation. 
 
 And the other force, which we can best recognize under the 
 name, Rome, what had it accomplished ? Let Dr. Felix Oswald 
 tell : " A thousand years interregnum of science, Faith usurping 
 the throne of Reason, every branch of human knowledge 
 withered by the poison of supernaturalism, literary activity 
 limited to the production of homilies and miracle-legends, 
 education devoted to the suppression of all natural instincts, 
 and the substitution of submissive belief for the love of truth 
 and free inquiry. Decadence of the fine arts, natural science 
 merged in a deluge of superstition." I doubt if in the whole 
 range of literature could be found a more accurate summing- 
 up of the work wrought by these two forces than that pre 
 sented by these authors. Dr. Oswald insists, and with 
 right, that "the misery of the Middle Ages was due, 
 not to the supernatural, but to the anti-natural, tendency 
 of the Christian religion," affirming, most truly, that "the 
 pagan gods were the deified powers of nature, the patrons of 
 mariners, shepherds, and husbandmen," while " the Christian 
 gods were tho deified enemies of nature." The evil, as he 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 23 
 
 shows, reached appalling proportions, for " on the altar of her 
 anti-natural idol, the Christian Church has sacrificed the lives 
 of eighteen millions of the noblest and bravest of our fellow- 
 nieu." His great work, " The Secret of the East," is a complete, 
 revelation of the hideous results of this rule of darkness falsely 
 called "the light of Christianity." "Has the rule of the 
 Church," he asks, " farthered the moral progress of the forty 
 generations whose wisest, manliest, noblest, and bravest men 
 were systematically weeded out, to enforce the survival of 
 idiots and hypocrites ? For thirteen centuries, the rack, the 
 stake, and the cross were leagued against nature and mankind." 
 Hallam more than confirms Oswald s assertions : " A cloud of 
 ignorance overspread the whole face of the Church, hardly 
 broken by a few glimmering lights, who owe almost the whole 
 of their distinction to the surrounding darkness. ... I cannot 
 conceive of any state of society more adverse to the intellectual 
 improvement of mankind than one which admitt -d no middle 
 line between dissoluteness and fanatical mortifications. . . . No 
 original writer of any merit arose ; and learning may be said .to 
 have languished in a region of twilight for the greater part of a 
 thousand years. ... In 992, it was asserted that scarcely a 
 single person was to be found, in Rome itself, who knew the 
 lirst elements of letters. Not one priest of a thousand in Spain, 
 about the age of Charlemagne, could address a common letter of 
 salutation to another." 
 
 Nor was this all ; not content with debasing and enfeebling 
 the mind, the Romish religionists changed the very face of 
 nature ; this was to be made as arid and barren as the soul 
 the Christian revision of the Creator s work, for, as Oswald 
 says, "the dogmas of the Christian Church have cost the world 
 three million square miles of lands, which once were the garden 
 spots of this earth, but which have been turned into deserts by 
 the neglect of rational agriculture and the influence of a creed 
 which laboured to withdraw the attention of mankind from 
 
THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 secular to post-mortem concernments." In support of this 
 statement he cites Professor Marsh : " The fairest and fruit- 
 fullest portions of the Roman Empire, precisely that portion of 
 terrestrial surface, in short, which about the commencement of 
 the Christian era, was endowed with the greatest superiority of 
 Soil, climate and position, which had "been carried to the highest 
 pitch of physical improvement is now completely exhausted 
 of its fertility. A territory larger than all Europe, the abun 
 dance of which sustained in bygone centuries a population 
 scarcely inferior to that of the whole Christian world at the 
 present day, has been entirely withdrawn from human use, or, 
 at best, is thinly inhabited. . . . There are regions where the 
 operation of causes, set in action by man, has brought the face of 
 the earth to a desolation almost as complete as that of the moon ; 
 and though within that brief space of time which we call the 
 historical period, they are known to have been covered with 
 luxuriant woods, verdant pastures and fertile meadows, they 
 are now too far deteriorated to be reclaimablc by man, nor can 
 they become again fitted for his use except through great geolo 
 gical changes, or other agencies, over which we have no control. 
 . . Another era of equal improvidence would reduce this 
 earth to such a condition of impoverished productiveness as to 
 threaten the depravation, barbarism, and, perhaps, even the 
 extinction of the human species." 
 
 But, reply many Americans, with "that sublime trust in the 
 grand destiny of the American people " for which they are 
 noted, this could never happen in the United States ; Roman 
 Catholics here arc not what they are in Italy or Spain ; the 
 Romish Church itself is becoming permeated with the spirit of 
 our American institutions, of freedom. This pleasant illusion, 
 which, carried one degree farther, would invite the contagion of 
 the spiritual Black Death that ravaged Europe for a thousand 
 years, and left the taint of the foul disease in the mental 
 organism of all descendants has blinded American eyes to the 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 25 
 
 fact that Roman Catholicism has already made terrible strides 
 in the Republic, that the freedom of American institutions has 
 incalculably favoured its advance, saving it the trouble of 
 forcing its way with the sword, as it was compelled to do in 
 ILurope ; it is securing a bloodless victory, and its exultation, 
 -although perhaps premature, is not altogether unfounded. This 
 insolent power has certainly met with no rebuke from the 
 people or Government of the United States, not the slightest 
 check ; its Jesuits have not been expelled, its monasteries and 
 ecclesiastical establishments have not been forbidden, nor its 
 parochial schools closed ; it enjoys the absolute freedom of the 
 press, and its editors can boast openly of their speedy appro 
 priation of the American Republic for the seat of Romish 
 despotism ; the ancient Greeks, the Moors, the Albigenses, the 
 Saxons, the Scandinavians, all made resistance, the citizens of 
 the United States make none. How shall the Roman Catholics 
 construe this, if not favourably to their plans ? Freedom to 
 them is valueless from the American point of view, as the 
 atmosphere that will alone admit of the growth of a great and 
 powerful nation, founded in the highest principles of human 
 right and justice, but inestimable as affording them the fullest 
 opportunity to undermine this nation, and bList not only its 
 hopes, but the hopes of the world. Seizing the United States, 
 the Church of Rome can mock and defy all the states of Europe 
 that have always prevented its complete temporal sovereignty. 
 The progress it has already made is by no means to be despised ; 
 as a writer in the " Boston Transcript " laments : " We look with 
 dismay upon the appearance in our streets of fat, heavy-eyed 
 priests and coifed nuns; 3 from having had, at the end of the 
 last century to quote some statistics given by an orthodox 
 Russian author in his book entitled " Roman Catholicism in 
 the United States "19 50 churches for 3,500,000 people, or 
 one church for every 1700 persons, in 1870 there were over 
 72,000 churches for 38,000,000, or one church for every 529 
 
26 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 persons ; "so while the population increased eleven times the 
 number of churches increased thirty-seven times ;" he says 
 with satisfaction, and Americans must admit, though with 
 horror, that the growth of Catholicism in the United States 
 for the last hundred years, lias been, indeed, bewildering ; in 
 1776 .there were in that country about 25,000 Catholics all 
 told, or 1-1 20th part of all tlia inhabitants, and now there are 
 over 7,000,000 of them, or one-seventh of the whole population. * 
 
 The words of Fronde should be read by those who are not 
 afraid to risk a further experiment: "The Xew World was 
 first offered to the holders of the old traditions. They were the 
 husbandmen first chosen for the new vineyard, and blood and 
 desolation were the only fruits which they reared upon it. In 
 their hands it was becoming a kingdom, not of God, but of the 
 devil, and a sentence of blight went out against them and 
 against their works. How fatally it has worked, let modern 
 Spain and Spanish America bear witness." 
 
 But Roman Catholicism undergoes a change on American 
 soil, still persist those who have unlimited faith in the passive 
 influence of American ideas; an Asiatic serpent, fostered in 
 Indian Buddhism, the source of religious or Christian pessimism, 
 as Oswald affirms, will have all his venom extracted, his pro 
 pensity to coil and crush, by simply basking in a well-cultivated 
 American garden or twining around its fruit-trees. But ; it 
 has long been the proud but most unholy boast of the Roman 
 Church that she never changes," writes H. F. Barnard in the 
 1 Index," and then goes to the case in point : " Papal indulgence 
 was the rock on which the Christian Church split three hundred 
 and fifty years ago ; yet on this same question of indulgence, 
 Rome has not altered one jut or tittle of her pretensions," which 
 he demonstrates by extracts from the "Messenger of St. 
 Joseph s Union," to all the members of which Papal indulgence 
 has been granted by Pope Leo XIII., and which advertises the 
 sale of masses at one dollar each, thereby doing a thriving 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 27 
 
 trade, A few extracts taken from the pastoral published at the 
 fourth Tiovincial Council at Cincinnati, March 19th, 1882, will 
 show in how far the Bomisli Church has changed its tenets 
 or adopted American habits of thought. "A systematic and 
 combined effort, both in Europe and America, is being made 
 to secularize religion, and to substitute for God and religion 
 science and material progress. It is claimed that all men are 
 free and equal, and under that cry religion and law are 
 assailed. . . . Xor are all men equal. . . . This is in the nature of 
 things and must be, as it is ordained by God that some shall 
 rule and some shall be ruled. Those who are appointed to rule 
 have certain rights that subjects have not. Hence kings and 
 magistrates, and bishops and priests, are appointed to rule ; if to 
 rule, then they are above those whom they rule. . . . With the 
 popular doctrine that all men are equal, there is steadily 
 growing the doctrine that all power is from the people, and 
 that they who exercise authority in the state do not exercise it 
 as iheir own, but as intrusted to them by the people, and upon 
 this condition that it may be recalled by the will of the same 
 people by whom it was confided to them. This is not Catholic 
 doctrine, nor is it the doctrine of the Scriptures, which teach : 
 1 By me kings reign ... by me princes rule, and the mighty 
 decree justice. Give ear, you that rule the people, . . . for 
 power is given to you by God, and strength by the Most High. 
 * Let every soul be subject to the higher, powers, for there is no 
 power but from God ; and those that are, are ordained o 
 God. . . . There is also a growing disposition among a class of 
 Catholics to teach that in some things the priest receives his 
 power from the people. There is also a disposition to draw lines 
 and to confine the priest within limits that neither God nor 
 religion can permit. The priest is not appointed by the people, 
 nor does he receive his power from the people. He receives his 
 power from God, and the people are commanded to seek the 
 law fioin his lips, for the priest s lips should keep knowledge. 
 
-28 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 * He that hears you hears HIP, says Christ, speaking of His 
 priests, and he that despises you despises m< j . * Go teach 
 are words that leave no doubt as to the right of priests to 
 teach, or the duty of the people to listen. . . . Governments and 
 States and peoples are alike subject to the law of God equally 
 as the humblest. Governments have no more right to do wrong 
 than individuals. * All power comes from God, and the Church 
 is the witness and guardian of revelation, as well as the inter 
 preter thereof. From her. the world must learn the law of God, 
 and the law of man must ever be subordinated to the law of 
 God. It is untrue to assert that. all power conies from the 
 people. * All power comes from God, by whom princes rule, 
 and the mighty decree justice." 
 
 It will not do to leave these tedious injunctions that have 
 been reiterated since the second century, unchanged and un- 
 . amended, without including those relative to the school-question, 
 the most serious annoyance the Roman Catholics have to con 
 tend with in the United States : " Religion must form a part ol 
 the education of the child. Education without religion may 
 have the glitter of science, but it will not have the essence of 
 virtue. Virtue must be the foundation of education, but 
 religion is the foundation of virtue ; hence we hold religion 
 must form a part of the daily education of the child, and must 
 be taught co-ordinately with science and the cognate branches. 
 Deeply impressed with the necessity of training Catholic 
 children in the faith of their fathers, whilst waiting a change 
 in the public-school system, in which our just rights as citizens 
 shall be recognized and conceded, there remains to us but to 
 appeal to the generosity of our ever faithful people to continue 
 to support our Catholic schools. \Ve know too well how heavy 
 the burden is, and how unjust it is that Catholics are forced to 
 support their own schools and at the same time be taxed to 
 support a public-school system from which, for conscience sake, 
 they can receive no benefit. Wherever, therefore, throughout 
 
ou, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 29 
 
 the province, Catholic schools are not yet established, pastors 
 will use all diligence that they be established, being ever 
 mindful of the instructions sent by the Holy See to the 
 American bishops to see that Catholic schools be everywhere 
 established, and that in them not only science and profane 
 knowledge be taught, but also religion, the queen of all sciences. 
 It is, therefore, our wish, that the church and school go hand 
 in hand ; that where the one is, there also shall the other be." 
 
 The tendency of all this is as plain as its meaning. There is 
 the denial that the principles embodied in the American Con 
 stitution are right ; the people are not free and equal ; power is 
 not from the people ; there should not be self rule, but " kings 
 a lid magistrates, and bishops and priests are appointed to rule ; " 
 secular government and secular education are utterly obnoxious 
 to the Romish Church, and it is bound by all the laws of its own 
 organization to eradicate them. The members of this Church 
 are consequently the only class of emigrants to the United States 
 who are not loyal to the institutions of the country they live in, 
 who do not in any sense assimilate with the principles of these 
 institutions; under the guise of American citizens they are actually 
 traitors, only waiting for the moment when they can deal a 
 death-blow to the government and rulers their mediaeval super 
 stition has taught them to abhor. Their arrogance inflated and 
 buoyed up by the remembrance of the historical fact that the 
 power to which alone they yield allegiance was able to destroy 
 the civilization of ancient Greece, that of the Moors, to sap the 
 strength of Scandinavia and cause its decline, to reduce all 
 Europe to a state of misery and barbarism that lasted for a 
 thousand yenrs. they regard the repetition of this atrocious work 
 in the United States as an easy task, and set about it years ago 
 with the confidence and precision that distinguished their 
 European efforts. Conscious as Americans are of their own 
 strength, the power of their own nation, they should not under- 
 estimate the strength of their insidious foe, nor forget that this 
 
30 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 foe vanquished the Greeks, the Saxons, the Moors, the Albi- 
 ijenses, the French Protestants, the Scandinavians, getting the 
 better through their craft and hellish devices never through 
 legitimate or honest means of whole communities and nations 
 who cherished advanced thoughts, republican principles, who were 
 free-minded, enlightened and cultivated. The history of Europe 
 does not show an even and harmonious dBvelopmerit, Christianity 
 or Romanism succeeding a state of greater barbarism and gradually 
 amelioratinghuman conditions, buta violent substitution of barbar 
 ism lor the civilization and enlightenment it ruthlessly quenched. 
 All of these highly civilized races struggled manfully for their 
 existence, and in the case of the Scandinavians, offered five 
 hundred years of determined opposition to the demoniac legions 
 of the Church ; but Americans make no resistance whatsoever ; 
 they even pr.iise the vampyre that has fastened upon them, as 
 manifest from an editorial in the <f Boston Transcript," headed 
 "A Boston Cardinal," in which these words appear : "Xone 
 the less should our fathers, brought up as they had been to 
 abominate the Scarlet Woman, be credited with tolerance in 
 aiding the little flock of Catholics to find shelter and comfort 
 and to wax strong. The history of the Church in this city is 
 one of the most interesting chapters in our annals. It is 
 interesting, not only as all religious experiences must be to all 
 thinking men, but as showing a great social change which has 
 been working on our people. The Roman Catholic Church to 
 day is great, powerful, flourishing, and perfectly organized in 
 our midst, and yet it is but little over eighty years since the old 
 cathedral was dedicated, and it is but seventy-five since the first 
 Bishop of Boston received his consecration." 
 
 In the nature of things the Romish power will work thus 
 quietly and peaceably only for a Iimit3d space of time. The 
 period of gentle and persuasive measures has obviously been 
 protracted in the United States by reason of the unprecedented 
 success that attended the immceuvris of the Mother Church, so 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 31 
 
 strangely facilitated by the unsuspecting attitude of Americans. 
 Were they really so republican-minded, when they thus permitted 
 the advance of the most monarchical of dominions 1 But Mr 
 Gladstone, in his " Rome and the Newest Fashions in Religion," 
 draws attention to the fact that another policy, the one that h;is 
 proved so efficacious heretofore, is contemplated, in Europe, if 
 not in America; "My propositions then, as they stood, are 
 these : 
 
 "1. That Rome has substituted for the proud boast of 
 semper eadem, a policy of violence and change in faith. 
 
 " 2. That she has refurbished and paraded anew every 
 rusty tool she was fondly thought to have disused. 
 
 " 3. That no one can now become her convert without 
 renouncing his moral and mental freedom, and placing his 
 civil loyalty and duty at the mercy of another. 
 
 " 4. That she (Rome) has equally repudiated modern 
 thought and ancient history." 
 
 Furthermore he says : " It leads many to the painful and 
 revolting conclusion that there is a fixed purpose among the 
 secret inspirers of Roman policy to pursue, by the road of force, 
 upon the arrival of any favourable opportunity, the favourite 
 project of re-erecting the terrestrial throne of the Popedom, even 
 if it can only be re-erected on the ashes of the city and amidst 
 the whitening bones of the people." In confirmation of this 
 horrible probability, the author cites the words of Cardinal 
 Manning, in which the intention stands plainly revealed, at the 
 League of St. Sebastian, on the 20th of January, 1874 : " Now, 
 when the nations of Europe have revolted, and when they have 
 dethroned, as far as men can dethrone, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, 
 and when they have made the usurpation of the Holy City a 
 part of international law when all this has been done, there is 
 only one solution of the difficulty a solution, I fear, impending 
 and that is the terrible scourge of continental war : a war, 
 -which Avill exceed the horrors of any of the wars of the first 
 
32 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 empire. I do not see how this can be averted. And it is my 
 tirm conviction, that, in spits of all obstacles, the Vicar of Jesus 
 Christ will be put again in his own rightful place." Nor is this 
 all. "The Catholic Church," he says, " c;mnot be silent, it 
 cannot hold its peace ; it cannot cease to preach the doctrines of 
 Revelation, not only of the Trinity and of the Incarnation, but 
 likewise of the Seven Sacraments, and of the Infallibility of 
 the Church of God, and of the necessity of Unity, and of the 
 Sovereignty, both spiritual and temporal, of the Holy See." 
 
 There is still another threat, couched in the following words : 
 " If Christian princes and their laws deviate from the law of 
 God, the Church has authority from God to judge of that devia 
 tion, and by all its powers to enforce the correction of that 
 departure from justice. 
 
 It is more, than apparent that the sins of the American Re 
 public must far outweigh those of any Christian prince in 
 Europe ; there is not a point in which the Republican and the 
 Roman Catholic code coincide; what then is the retribution 
 that the Holy See will mete out to Americans, when the time 
 ponies ? And why is the hour of retribution delayed 1 
 
 Coming events hinge on the stand taken by the United States 
 on the Columbus question. J. J. Barry may be considered to 
 interpret literally the views of his Church when he says that 
 " the first object of the Discovery, disengaged from every human 
 consideration, was, therefore, the glorification of the Redeemer 
 and the extension of His Church." I have quoted these words 
 before, but they cannot be too forcibly impressed upon the mind. 
 The object was not impeded by any uncertainty with regard to 
 the discovery, for it was not to be a discovery, it was simply to 
 be the claiming of lands before discovered and to which the 
 route had been marked out. The Church as usual had chosen 
 ;in infallible method. It leaves experimenting to scientists. 
 Washington Irving describes the precipitate haste with which 
 Pope and sovereigns tcok possession of the new territory, pre- 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 33 
 
 destined for Papal rule : " In the midst of their rejoicings, the 
 Spanish sovereigns lost no time in taking every measure neces 
 sary to secure their new acquisitions . . . took the immediate 
 precaution to secure the sanction of the Pope (Alexander VI.) 
 ... a pontiff whom some historians have stigmatized with every 
 vice and crime that could disgrace humanity." The records of 
 his crimes are too revolting to read ; debauchery, incest, murder, 
 robbery, and assassination for the end of robbery, distinguish this 
 monster s life, until by drinking, by mistake, some of the poisoned 
 wine intended for nine wealthy cardinals and some other opu 
 lent persons whom he had invited to a banquet, the career of 
 the infamous wretch was closed. "The present discovery," 
 continues Irving, " was a still greater achievement " (than the 
 conquest of Granada); "it was the fulfilment of one of the 
 sublime promises to the Church ; it was giving to it the heathen 
 for an inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for a 
 possession." A Bull was issued, dated May 2nd, 1493, " ceding 
 to the Spanish sovereigns the same rights, privileges, and in 
 dulgences in respect to the newly discovered region, as had been 
 accorded to the Portuguese, with regard to their African dis 
 coveries, under the same condition of planting and propagating 
 the Catholic faith." 
 
 Is the American Republic disposed to consider itself tributary 
 to Spain and to allow these Spanish plans to be carried out to 
 the letter 1 If so, it has but to accept the Spanish and Koman 
 Catholic version of the discovery and suffer these schemes to 
 blot out the Norse discovery of America. It must then endow 
 Columbus with all his prerogatives, saintsliip included, and 
 worship his memory. It would be such a glorious thing for the 
 United States to be under the charge of a tutelar saint, to have 
 its St. Christopher, as ^Norway had its St. Olaf and Sweden its 
 St. Birgitta, after they became Christianized or Romanized ! 
 
 But as this response to Spanish demands does not lie within 
 the range of human probability, what is the alternative 1 To 
 
 D 
 
34 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 proclaim the fact of the Xorse discovery and denounce the 
 Columbian one as a deliberate fraud of the Church, devised for 
 proselyting purposes. . The true tendency of America was given 
 when the Norsemen landed on its shores ; it was a good augury 
 for the future nation, for these were brave, free, high-minded 
 men, men of a race who had planted the seeds of liberty in 
 many a state of Europe, and who did it in this case unwittingly, 
 from the mere force of their splendid nationality. 
 
 Columbus, the bigoted Koman Catholic adventurer, who fed 
 his ambition and greed on the narratives of the Norse voyages 
 to America, read secretly in Iceland, strove to give the New 
 World the opposite tendency, the downward tendency. Which 
 shall pre\ ail 1 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE. 35 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MANIFEST DUTY OF THE UNITED STATES IN THIS QUESTION. 
 
 THAT deeply interesting work by William and Mary Howitt, 
 " The History and Romance of Northern Europe," opens with 
 an exclamation, an indignant one : " Amongst the many 
 wonders of this world, there is none greater than the blindness 
 of the writers of this and other countries to the transcendent 
 influence of the blood and spirit of ancient Scandinavia on the 
 English character." In reading up on this subject, Mallet s 
 " Northern Antiquities " is one of the first books likely to fall 
 into one s hands a pioneer work in itself and this paragraph 
 but increases the amazement : " History has not recorded the 
 annals of a people who have occasioned greater, more sudden, 
 or more numerous revolutions in Europe than the Scandinavians, 
 or whose antiquities, at the same time, are so little known." 
 
 So little knuicn ! How is that 1 The Scandinavians have 
 themselves formed the early history of nearly every nation in 
 Europe, of France, Switzerland, Russia, England, Scotland, 
 besides forming the entire history of their own countries, -how 
 can one study English history, without learning all about these 
 people, or French history, without the same result, or Scotch, 
 or Swiss, or Russian 1 Were their achievements really so 
 great, as the world takes so little note of them ? One reads a 
 little farther in this French work, which Bishop Percy was 
 enterprising enough to put into English in 1847, and strikes 
 upon the following passage : ; It is easy to see from this short 
 
 D 2 
 
36 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA;, 
 
 sketch, how greatly the nations of the North have influenced the 
 different fates of Europe ; and if it be worth while to trace its 
 revolutions to their causes, if the illustration of its institutions, 
 of its police, of its customs, of its manners, of its laws, be a 
 subject of useful and interesting inquiry ; it must be allowed, 
 that the antiquities of the Xcrth, that is to say, everything 
 which" tends to make us acquainted with its ancient inhabitants, 
 merits a share in the attention of thinking men. But to render 
 this obvious by a particular example ; is it not well known 
 that the most flourishing and celebrated states of Europe owe 
 originally to the Northern nations, whatever liberty they now 
 enjoy, either in their constitution, or in the spirit of their 
 goveinment 1 " 
 
 Such a race so little known ? There must be some mystery 
 under this ! What do English authors say about it 1 How do 
 they account for it 1 Grenville Pigott, in his " Scandinavian 
 Mythology," says this : "The omission of any serious research 
 into the religion of Odin, hymen of such profound learning, as was 
 possessed by many of our early antiquarians, may, not unnaturally, 
 raise a doubt in the minds of some of the degree of advantage or 
 interest likely to result from an inquiry of this nature ; but a 
 brief account of the circumstances which attended the overthrow 
 of heathenism and the introduction of Christianity in those 
 countries, where the Scandinavian deities were chiefly wor 
 shipped, may otherwise explain the cause of this silence on a 
 subject so likely to have invited earnest inquiry." 
 
 This gives one an inkling of the cause, to be sure, but yet it 
 remains an incomprehensible enigma how the history of the 
 most remarkable race that ever trod the earth could have 
 been thus buried in oblivion ! And that the English people 
 know, nothing about them, know nothing about their own 
 ancestors, that is the strangest part of it ! But perhaps it is a 
 rdstake, the neglect of this subject ascribed to Great Britain as 
 well as France, only a casual remark by one or two authors not 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 37 
 
 cognizant themselves of the extent of English or French 
 research. Let us look further ; Henry Wheaton, in his 
 " History of the Northmen, or Danes and Normans from the 
 Earliest Times to the Conquest of England by William of 
 Normandy," makes the same comment : " In the following 
 attempt to illustrate the early annals of the North, it has been 
 the writer s aim to seize the principal points in the progress of 
 society and manners in this remote period, which have been 
 either entirely pas?ed over, or barely glanced at by the national 
 historians of France and England, but which thro w a strong and 
 clear light upon the affairs of Europe during the middle ages, 
 and illustrate the formation of the great monarchies now 
 constituting some of its leading states." Samuel Laing says : 
 " The social condition, institutions, laws and literature of this 
 vigorous, influential branch of the race, have been too much 
 overlooked by our historians and political philosophers." In 
 the preface to his translation of the Heimskringla " he gravely 
 reveals his intention of stepping in and le pairing the serious 
 omission of these historians and philosophers, of averting the 
 consequences of their intentional neglect of certain phases and 
 racial characteristics, the concomitants of early English history, 
 without which there can be no intelligent reading of that 
 history, and to do this he imposes upon himself the double 
 work of clothing in English dress the noble work by Snorre 
 Sturleson, an historian, who, in his turn, has done for England 
 what England has failed to do for itself, by writing his 
 Chronicle of the Kings of Norway, kings, many of them, who 
 played an important role in England and Scotland, and of 
 composing the preliminary dissertation, a perusal of which 
 comprises a thorough course of instruction for the reader in this 
 almost unknown subject. The Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, 
 who edited Beamish s translation of " The Voyages of the 
 Northmen to America," pays this earnest and enthusiastic 
 author a just tribute when he says : ie Mr. Laing s dissertation is 
 
38 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 a thorough discussion of the whole subject of Northern literature 
 and history, and is rendered not the less interesting by the 
 frank and bold manner in which the author expresses his opinions 
 on some important questions." The words in the preface arc 
 these : " It is of importance to English history to have, in the 
 English language, the means of judging of the social and 
 intellectual state of the institutions and literature of a people 
 Avho during three hundred years bore an important, and for a 
 great portion of that time a predominant part, not merely in the 
 wars, but in the legislation of England ; who occupied a very 
 large portion of the country, and were settled in its best lands 
 in such numbers as to be governed by their own, not by Anglo- 
 Saxon laws ; and who undoubtedly must be the forefathers of 
 as large a proportion of the present English nation as the Anglo- 
 Saxons themselves, and of a much larger proportion than the 
 Normans. These Northmen have not merely been the fore 
 fathers of the people, but of the institutions and character of 
 the nation, to an extent not sufficiently considered by our 
 historians. . . . They occupied one-third of all England for 
 many generations, under their own Danish laAvs; and for half a 
 century nearly, immediately previous to the Norman Conquest, 
 they held the supreme government of the country." Was the 
 supremacy of these Northern people such a disgrace to England that 
 the proud nation has not yet recovered from the humiliation of it, 
 and cannot endure to be reminded of those times 1 Manifestly 
 not. Did these Scandinavians so retard the progress of the 
 nation that the people of modern England may justly hate them 
 for the injury and banish them, so far as may be, from 
 recollection 1 Every line of evidence refutes such an idea. 
 J>ut aside from the military prowess and warlike achievements 
 of this race, which all must admit, did they have any prestige 
 that entitles them to a place in English literature, in English 
 history, in the grateful memory of the nation 1 In his words 
 with regard to Snorrc. Sturleson and the subject- natter of his 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 39 
 
 remarkable book, Laing settles the question as to the right of 
 this race to a place in English literature and history : " He gives, 
 too, every now and then, very natural touches of character, and 
 scenes of human action,, and of the working of the human mind, 
 which are in truth highly dramatic. In rapid narrative of the 
 stirring events of the wild Viking life, of its vicissitudes, 
 adventures and exploits, in extraordinary, yet not improbable 
 incidents and changes in the career of individuals, in touches 
 true to nature, and in the admirable management of his story, 
 in which episodes apparently the most unconnected with his 
 subject, come in by and by at the right moment, as most 
 essential parts of it, Snorre Sturleson stands as far above Yillo 
 Hardouin, Joinville or Froissart, as they stand above the 
 monkish chroniclers who preceded them. His true seat in the 
 Valhalla of European literature is on the same bench however 
 great the distance between on the same bench with Shakspeare, 
 Carlyle, and Scott, as a dramatic historian; for his Harold 
 Haarfager, his Olaf Tryggvason, his Olaf the Saint, are 
 in reality great historical dramas, in which these wild, energetic 
 personages, their adherents and their opponents, are presented 
 working, acting and speaking before you. . . . English readers 
 ; . . who would never discover from the pages of Hume, or of 
 any other of our historical writers, that the Northern pagans who, 
 in the ninth and tenth centuries, ravaged the coasts of Europe, 
 sparing neither age, sex nor condition respecting neither 
 churches, monasteries nor their inmates conquering Xormandy, 
 Northumberland (then reckoned with East Anglia, equal to 
 one-third of all England), and, under Swein and Canute the 
 Great, conquering and ruling over the whole of England, were 
 a people possessing any literature at all, or any laws, institutions 
 arts, or manners connecting them with civilized life. Our 
 historians have confined themselves for information entirely to 
 the records and chronicles of the Anglo-Saxon monks . . . and 
 who naturally represent them as the most ferocious and 
 
40 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 ignorant of barbarians, and without any tincture of civi 
 lization." 
 
 There we have it ; the monks, the natural enemies of the 
 Scandinavians, have become their historians, and the testimony 
 of those whose whole office has been to propagate such versions 
 only of facts and events and personal action as pass Church censor 
 ship, has been universally accepted. Hume does indeed imitate 
 the tone of these monks, whose rage will never cool toward the 
 Northmen, for he uniformly speaks of them as "those swarms 
 of robbers, which the fertile North thus incessantly poured 
 forth against them," " the piratical Danes," " those ravagers," 
 &c., &c. ; and makes one representation as egregiously false as 
 if penned under monkish dictation : " When Alfred came to 
 the throne he found the nation sunk into the grossest ignorance 
 and barbarism, proceeding from the continued disorders in tie 
 government, and from the ravages of the Danes. The 
 monasteries were destroyed, the monks butchered or dispersed, 
 their libraries burnt; and thus the only seats of erudition in 
 those ages were totally subverted." 
 
 It will be seen further on that there was one "seat of erudi 
 tion " in the world even then, that preserved the true history 
 of those times so sacredly as to place it, intact, in the hands 
 of posterity, for effective use in the hour when the records so 
 skilfully manipulated by ecclesiastics and religious intriguers 
 would be discredited and proofs of the fraud required. This 
 true history was preserved in the heart and mind of the people 
 of the North, ages before it was reduced to writing, and handed 
 down in oral tradition. There was also an especial class of 
 men to whose keeping all annals were confided, and Laing s 
 description of them, here quoted, corresponds with that of many 
 other writers on the subject : * Before the introduction or 
 general diffusion of writing, it is evident that a class of men 
 " hose eole occupation was to commit to memory and preserve 
 the laws, usages, precedents and details of all those civil 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 41 
 
 affairs and rights, and to whose fidelity in relating former trans 
 actions implicit confidence could be given, must of necessity 
 have existed in society must have been in every locality ; and 
 from the vast number and variety of details in every district, 
 and the great interests of every community, must have be^n 
 esteemed and recompensed in proportion to their importance in 
 such a social state. This class were the Skalds." 
 
 This paragraph, in itself, contradicts the following one by 
 Hume: "He (Rolio) collected a body of troops, which like 
 that of all those ravages, was composed of Norwegians, 
 Swedes, Frisians, Danes, and adventurers of all nations, who 
 being accustomed to a roving, unsettled life, took delight in 
 nothing but war and plunder." As well could one say of the 
 French followers of Napoleon who accompanied him on his 
 wars of conquest, that "they were accustomed to a roving, 
 unsettled life." This same Rollo, or Rolf, achieved a conquest 
 in France, that Napoleon himself need not have been ashamed 
 of, and which perhaps conduced to make the French people 
 worthy followers of the great general, who may have been 
 inspired to heroic efforts by the accounts of his illustrious pre 
 decessor, William the Conqueror. Rolf left Norway for the 
 same reason as did "the nobility and people of the highest 
 civilization " who emigrated to Iceland, namely, to escape from 
 the despotic sway of Harald Harfager, and neither ho and his 
 followers nor they were men to " take delight in nothing but 
 war and plunder." 
 
 On the accuracy of the old Icelandic annals must the 
 thinkers and reformers of the present day rely, in their efforts 
 to disentangle history from the almost hopeless confusion in 
 which the aforesaid monkish chroniclers have involved it, con 
 sequently it is extremely gratifying to find such ample corrobo- 
 ration of the truthfulness of the Icelandic statements. It must 
 never be lost from sight that these werd a, free people, bound by 
 neither priest nor king, and consequently not forced to extol 
 
42 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 the representatives of either ecclesiasticism or royalty ; they 
 expressed their honest opinion in every instance. Five 
 hundred years of Roman Catholic rule had destroyed all manhood 
 and independence in the Anglo-Saxons ; as Laing says, " the 
 spirit, character and national vigour of the old Anglo-Saxon 
 branch of this people, had evidently become extinct under the 
 influence and pressure of the Church of Rome upon the 
 energies of the human mind." But the Scandinavians were 
 as yet exempt ; submission and all cringing to authority was 
 unknown to them ; there was no cowardice in their blood, and 
 hence no propensity to lie. In the introduction to his Heims- 
 krmgla, Snorre Sturleson, the celebrated man " to whom," as 
 Henry Wheaton declares, " his country s history and literature 
 are most indebted, and whose great historical work has justly 
 earned for him the title of the Northern Herodotus," affirms 
 with regard to the truthfulness of the Skalds : " For although 
 it be the fashion with Scalds to praise most those in whose 
 presence they are standing, yet no one would dare to relate to 
 a chief what he and all those who heaid it know to be false 
 and imaginary, not a true account of his deeds ; because that 
 would be mockery, not praise." 
 
 In the twelfth century Iceland possessed considerable collec 
 tions of books, and for a long time one common language was 
 spoken and written in England, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and 
 Denmark. At least one-third of England was occupied by men 
 from the North, the land was ruled by Northern laws, Northern 
 customs and usages had been introduced. Why then have 
 not modern English historians sought their own race, their 
 own nationality, their own language, as the right sources 
 of historical knowledge of England, instead of the old Latin 
 legends which are the nonsensical relics of Roman rule in 
 this country ? To which has their allegiance been due, to 
 which has it spontaneously been given, to the Roman rule, 
 which has left traces only of " a despotic military occupation 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 43. 
 
 of the country," even this soon obliterated, or to the Scandi 
 navian rule, which has made England the proud nation that it 
 is 1 There was no stint of historical records in Iceland, its 
 literature was as rich and varied as it was copious, the Latin 
 lore (?) of the monks could in no sense be compared with it, for, 
 to cite Laing, " during the five centuries in which the Northmen 
 were riding over the seas, and conquering wheresoever they 
 landed, the literature of the people they overcame was locked 
 up in a dead language, and within the walls of monasteries. 
 But the Northmen had a literature of their own, rude as it 
 was ; and the Anglo-Saxon race had none, none at least belong 
 ing to the people." 
 
 One Icelandic collection, the Arnse-Magnrean collection, 
 "alone contains two thousand volumes of Icelandic and eld 
 Northern manuscripts. This collection was made by Arnas 
 Magnussen, a distinguished antiquary, between 1702 and 1712, 
 and is named in honour of him." (Vide the Earl of Ellesmere s 
 " Guide to Old Northern Archaeology." London, 1848, p. 128.) 
 Did England seek to gain possession of these treasures 1 Evi 
 dently not, for the bulk of them found their way to Den 
 mark. The E-iri of Ellesmere remarks : " But it is not merely 
 for the Scandinavian North properly eo called, thht the lan 
 guage and literature possess a national significance, which, 
 throughout a certain period, extends to Russia, as also to Ger 
 many and to France, . . . but doubtless in a still greater 
 degree to the British Isles." True in theory, this is disproved, 
 in practice, for the English nation has not given the slightest 
 evidence that it considers this language, and literature to possess 
 a national significance ; its learned men and antiquarians have 
 disdained to pursue this line of research, the people, said to be 
 most proud of their ancestry, have buried all recollection of tha 
 only ancestors of theirs of whom they had reason to be proud ; 
 a land, said to be enlightened, has purposely thrown a veil of 
 obscurity over its own most brilliant epochs which little Den- 
 
44 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 mark is obliged, to lift, in order to give the world the informa 
 tion to which it is rightfully entitled and which it is hopeless 
 to expect from England ! English tourists go to Norway to fish 
 and to hunt, not to search fur historical links, nor to gain a 
 better knowledge of their Viking ancestry ; the museums and 
 fine antiquarian collections in Denmark possess as little at 
 tractions for the cultivated travelling public of England as the 
 historical relics and associations of Sweden. But sixty hours 
 by sea from that country, one that would naturally be sup 
 posed to possess an intinite charm for the English, what with 
 its lovely scenery, its castles and manors, its Viking mounds and 
 burial-places, its exhumed treasures, a priceless illuminated 
 scroll of English history as well as Swedish, the English 
 people have too little interest to go there ! In England Swedish 
 literature, together with Norwegian and Danish, is excluded ; 
 there is a deep-seated prejudice against translations, evrn from 
 the language derived from t/te one that wjs once their own 
 national tongue ; Swedish authors are scarcely known even by 
 name. Sweden itself is held in downright contempt ; an ex 
 pression of surprise covers the listener s face if one speaks of 
 any of the excellent features of this country, or its productions 
 in literature or art ; the same contempt would fall upon Norway 
 but for its salmon and bears and wild mountain haunts, which 
 afford to tired summer travellers a refuge from the over- 
 civilization of England. Denmark is not taken into the 
 account at all. With a narrow provincialism that is un 
 paralleled, England lops off its own past, the most glorious 
 epochs of its antiquity, forbids the mention of its Viking 
 ancestors, is deaf to all knowledge of them, and excludes the 
 three nations whose early history is identical wiih its own from 
 all fraternity or kinship ! 
 
 So the records and annals went to Denmark ! To an 
 American, the Ivev. E. F. Slafter, the public is indebted for a 
 graphic account of the use to which those valuable manuscripts 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 45 
 
 were put; this is contained in his introduction to "The 
 Voyages of the Northmen to America : " " The Royal Society 
 of Northern Antiquaries, at Copenhagen, entered upon the in 
 vestigation of the subject with enthusiasm, energy and compre 
 hensive views. Their scheme involved a much wider Held than 
 the visits of the Northmen to America. It comprehended a 
 thorough investigation of the whole subject of Scandinavian 
 history an 1 literature. The Society proposed to publish from 
 time to time such old Northern manuscripts as might be useful 
 in the elucidation of history, antiquities and language. The 
 field was divided into sections; and active workers were 
 appointed to each, selected with reference to their especial tastes 
 and learning. The fruits of these labours were prolific ; and in 
 the progress of a few years more than forty volumes were 
 issued, besides gazettes and annual reports, dealing with early 
 Scandinavian life, manners and customs, in their multiform 
 conditions and phases. In 1837, Professor Charles Christian 
 Rafn, who had been placed at the head of the section on the 
 voyages to America, published, under the auspices of the 
 Society, an elaborate report, in a volume entitled Antiquitates 
 American^, an imperial quarto of 526 pages, richly embel 
 lished with numerous illustrations and maps, comprising fac- 
 similies of the most important parchment codices, which had 
 been taken as the basis of the work. In this volume the 
 treatment of the whole subject is thorough and scholarly. 
 While it is never safe to assume that the treatment of any 
 historical question is absolutely complete and exhaustive, we 
 apprehend that little or nothing more will ever be added to our 
 knowledge of the voyages made to this country by the North 
 men in the tenth century." 
 
 Pigott also communicates some information on the subject : 
 " In 1594 appeared a Danish translation of Snorre Sturleson s 
 Chronicle of the Kings of Norway, written in the thirteenth 
 century in Icelandic, which threw an entiiely new light on this 
 
45 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 hitherto obscure subject, and excited the further researches of 
 the le;irned in the [North. One of the most ardent in this 
 pursuit was Arngrim Jolmsen, who died in 1648, and who by 
 his writings and industry in procuring and deciphering old 
 Icelandic manuscripts, obtained a great mass of information on 
 the subject. Contemporary with him, and his worthy co 
 adjutor, was Bryniulf Svendsen, Bishop of Iceland, who died in 
 1675. The former discovered and sent to Olaus Wormius, in 
 1628, a parchment copy of the Prose Edda, now in the 
 Library of the University at Copenhagen, and scarcely ten 
 years afterwards, Bryniulf discovered copies on parchment both 
 of the Prose and Poetic Eddas, and sent both to the Royal 
 Libiary at Copenhagen." 
 
 [Not content with assuming the whole tremendous task of 
 making this buried history known, with performing its own 
 duty and England s, too, with informing the American nation 
 of those facts in its own early history, long before it became a 
 nation, which have alone saved it from impending ruin, from 
 another " thousand years eclipse of common sense and reason " 
 (as Oswald describes the state in Europe incident upon the 
 Humanizing process), Denmark proposes to do still more, this 
 largely for the benefit of England. According to what the Earl 
 of Ellesmeie says : "It has been the wish of the Royal Society 
 of Northern Antiquaries, when its means should admit of it, to 
 publish a collection, as complete as possible, of the Scandinavian 
 sources of the early history of Great Britain and Ireland, in a 
 separate work, to lorm a companion to the two works already 
 undertaken by the Society, viz. * Antiquitates Americans and 
 * Antiquit^s Russes et Orientales. . . . The importance of a 
 similar collection of Antiquitates Britanmcse et Hibernicae 
 must be obvious. . . . When a greater degree of attention shall 
 be bestowed in the British Islands on the undertakings of the 
 Society and a greater degree of interest awakened for the matter 
 in question, it is to be expected that the Society will thereby 
 be enabled to realize such a plan." 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 47 
 
 ^ So little Denmark is even to undertake the publication of 
 English history, which England is too indifferent and inert to 
 publish for itself ! As another evidence of this wilful ignorance 
 and disregard of a subject of such vast importance, I quote a 
 significant little note in N. L. Beamish s book : " Illustrations 
 of Northern Antiquities, 4to, Edinburgh, 1814, a work of high 
 value and great promise, but which the want of public suppoit 
 compelled the distinguished compilers and antiquaries, Jamieson 
 and Weber, to discontinue." As it is necessary to heap up 
 e\idence on this point, so that no doubt miy be left of the 
 truth in the mind of any reader, J quote some more testimony 
 to this sad, almost inexplicable fact of England s remissness, 
 which might have cost the United States so dearly ; Mallet 
 .says: "The sources whence issued those torrents of people, 
 which from the North overwhelmed all Europe, the principles 
 which put them in motion, and gave them so much activity 
 and force, these objects, so grand and interesting, have been 
 but slightly and weakly treated of." Pigott says, and Pigott is 
 an English writer : " It is within a comparatively recent period 
 only, that the early history of the North of Europe has begun 
 to attract much attention in this country Previous to the 
 publication of Mallet s Northern Antiquities all that was 
 known on the subject rested chiefly on meagre notices gleaned 
 from Koman writers, whose authority on this subject, from 
 deficiency of sources of accurate information, was, to say the 
 least, doubtful ; and on the exaggerated account of the Monkish 
 Chroniclers, who had too good reason not to love the people 
 whom they describe I. Hence the history of the Scandinavians 
 or Northmen, as they were afterwards called, has been generally 
 looked upon as a mere sanguinary chronicle of piracies, murders 
 and gloomy superstitions, and but little inclination felt to 
 explore a field so uninviting. To those, however, whose 
 curiosity has led them to examine the copious sources of in 
 formation respecting the early religion and history of Northern 
 Europe, furnished by the Eddas and by the numerous Sagas 
 
48 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 which exist in the libraries of Copenh; gen and Stockholm ; it 
 cannot fail to appear a curious anomaly that, whilst the Grecian 
 Mythology in all its varied details is made familiar to us from 
 our childhood, we have been so long content to remain in great 
 measure ignorant of the religious superstitions of our immediate 
 ancestors ; superstitions inferior it may be to those of Greece in 
 refinement, but scarcely so in wildness or sublimity ; which 
 contributed so much to form the peculiar character that still 
 dUtinguishes the inhabitants of Northern Europe ; which even 
 yet linger in the traditions of our peasantry, and whose traces 
 are enduringly marked in the names of some of our festivals, 
 and especially of the days of our week." 
 
 He says yet more ; for once on this subject any thinking and 
 truth-loving person, who values what is best in the past, will 
 wax earnest and indignant : " The mythology of the ancient 
 Scandinavians,. respecting which so much curious information 
 has been brought to light, of late years, by the researches of 
 many distinguished writers, in Germany, Denmark, and Sweden, 
 lias hitherto excited but little attention in this country, although 
 the subject is well calculated to awaken our interest, not only 
 as the source of most of our popular superstitions, from whence 
 the favourite authors of our early childhood and of our maturer 
 age have drawn their witches, their dwarves, their giants, and 
 their ghosts, but in an historical point of view also, for a short 
 retrospect will suffice to show that the religion of Odin must 
 have exercised a great and lasting influence on the character 
 and institutions of the inhabitants of Great Britain." 
 
 Not from Eddas or Sagas, nor the " Heimskringla," nor the 
 rich stores of information put within easy reach by zealous 
 Danish antiquarians, has England drawn the scanty knowledge 
 that it was constrained to put into some kind of historical 
 shape. That English historians have been obliged to consult 
 nc/me authorities, icliable or unreliable, is self- evident. The 
 authors 1 have quoted are unanimous in asserting that they 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 49 
 
 consulted the monkish chroniclers by preference. Having had 
 a heroic age, this transmitted to them by the conquering hosts 
 who settled and governed England, having gained through these 
 people, a race combining the most superb trait*, a mythology, 
 equal if not superior to the Grecian, an ancient literature of 
 which any land could be proud, and which was virtually the 
 only literature in Europe at that time, having had a past to 
 which not only England, but other nations owe all the liberty 
 they possess, the English consult the records of a class of men 
 whose sole office during all the ages in question was to eradicate 
 Loin the Grecian and Scandinavian mythologies, to blast lite 
 rature, to get the better, by fair means or foul, of the race who 
 were sowing the seeds of liberty broad-cast over Europe, and 
 whose sole office since that period has been to blacken the past 
 in which the free-born Scandinavians figured and to so defame 
 them that posterity would regard them as monsters ! 
 
 Laing is able to say who and what some of these men were 
 personally : " Our early historians, from the venerable Bede 
 downwards, however accurate in the events and dates they 
 record, and however valuable for this accuracy, are undeniably 
 the dullest of chroniclers. They were monks, ignorant of the 
 world beyond their convent-walls, recording the death of their 
 abbots, the legends of their founders, and the miracles of their 
 sainted brethren, as the most important events in history ; the 
 facts being stated without exercise of judgment, or inquiry after 
 truth, the fictions with a dull credulity unenlivened by a single 
 gleam of genius. ... It is not to be denied that all this con 
 nected series of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman history, from 
 the dissolution of the Roman empire in Britain in the middle 
 of the fifth century down to the middle of the thirteenth century, 
 although composed by such writers of the Anglo-Saxon popula 
 tion as Bede and Matthew Paris, men the most eminent of 
 their times for learning and literary attainments amongst the 
 Anglo-Saxons and their descendants, is of the most unmitigated 
 
 E 
 
50 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 dullness, considered as literary or intellectual production ; and 
 that all the historical compositions of the old Anglo-Saxon 
 branch during those eight centuries, either in England or in 
 (lermany, are, with few if any exceptions, of the same leaden 
 character." 
 
 These in England and France, distorting the characteristics 
 of the Norsemen and Vikings, and concealing everything that 
 was to their credit, and the monkish writers in Spain and Italy 
 extolling Columbus a few centuries later, a man after their own 
 heart, loth sedulously hiding the fact of the Norse discovery of 
 America, which the Romish Church must of necessity have 
 known at the date of its accomplishment, all these conspired to 
 prepare a pitfall for the future American Republic, which it will 
 be barely able to escape. 
 
 English predilections were obviously with the monks, with 
 the Church ; not only did the English people accept and dis 
 seminate the garbled versions of these professional falsifiers 
 relative to the deeds of their own ancestors and kinsmen, but 
 they joined forces with them to subdue the nations of the North 
 through the only means available that is by converting them 
 to Christianity. This was their last resort, a stratagem of war of 
 those deficient in genuine military qualifications, and who could 
 not overcome their enemy by legitimate means. English mis 
 sionaries and priests went to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, 
 and laboured indefatigably to convert the inhabitants. "It 
 was from Enyhind" affirms the Earl of Ellesmere proudly, 
 " that Norway received the first germ of Christianity. It was 
 there that Hakon, the first Christian king of Norway, com 
 menced and finished his education, during the period from 937 
 to 963, though he failed in the effort to establish his own faith 
 among his subjects. ... It was reserved for the insignificant 
 islets of Scilly to kindle for Norway that light, which was 
 thence to bedill used over the remotest North. The expatriated 
 Norwegian prince and sea-king, Olaf Tryggvason, known in the 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 51 
 
 history of England by the name of Anlaf, received baptism in 
 these isles in 993." 
 
 It is well known what atrocities Olaf Tryggvason perpetrated in 
 forcing his subjects to adopt Christianity. English bishops also 
 converted Olaf Ericson, king of Sweden, in 1008. Wheaton has 
 something significant to relate about the Hakon referred to : 
 Harald Harf ager s son, Hakon, who had been educated in the 
 new religion at the court of King Athelstane, took with him 
 from England some Christian priests and missionaries. He 
 assembled a large conclave of people, where he tried to intror 
 duce this doctrine. A rich and popular landholder rose to 
 oppose it, and made a fervent protest, in which he said : " Eut 
 now we know not what to think, that thou who didst restore 
 to irs our lost freedom, shouldst desire to fasten upon us a ne\v 
 and more intolerable yoke of slavery." Wheaton gives us the 
 whole speech, and a remarkable oratorical effort it is ! The dis 
 tinguished Swedish novelist, Victor Rydberg, in " The East 
 Athenian," puts into the mouth of one of his anti Christian 
 characters a similar objection : " The Christians, Hermione, 
 hate the high expression of art, as much as the deep seriousness 
 of investigation. They talk of poverty and plunder our temples 
 of humility and trample upon our necks. . . . They are a 
 pack of malefactors, intriguers, hypocrites and asses. They tear 
 in pieces the world and each other in disputes on words without 
 meaning ; but that in which they all agree, is what I most 
 despise ; all banish the freedom* of reason, all teach that the 
 power of rulers and the slavery of the people is from God. 
 Freedom has departed from real life, but these people deny it 
 even in thought." 
 
 The only way of depriving the formidable Northern lion of 
 teeth and claws was to Christianize it. Freedom, freedom of 
 life and action, freedom of thought, freedom in a vigour and 
 exuberance of development never attained before, had made 
 the Northern race dangerous, nay, absolutely fatal to the priest- 
 
 E 2 
 
5 ?. THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 rUden, enslaved masses of southern and middle Europe. The 
 mere sight or knowledge of these grovelling, craven, black- 
 gowned, canting hordes, inflamed the Viking rage to frenzy, in 
 citing the utmost ferocity ; it was not honourable warfare be 
 tween equals, between men and men, but assault made by free, 
 high-spirited, valiant men upon slaves, upon those whom they 
 rouldnot but consider their inferiors, and whom they deemed it 
 meritorious to exterminate. The rage of the Northmen was the 
 unconscious fury of nature against the destroyers of nature, the 
 antipathy of health toward disease, the effort of nature to free 
 itself from that which is inimical to it. With the instinct of 
 pelf-preservation which evil has in common with good, and with 
 the burning desire for temporal supremacy over the whole world 
 which has ever been its animating motive, the Romish power 
 devised and used the only possible means of rendering the 
 Northern destroyer harmless. Subdue these hosts by force of 
 arms it could not. Strategy and priestly craft would avail 
 where manly courage was not at command. It was not the 
 good of their souls nor their eternal welfare, not the inculcation 
 of divine truth that was aimed at, but the eradication of that 
 principle and love of freedom that rendered all of Northern 
 blood dangerous to the Church, whose sole mission was to 
 compel subjection to its own baleful rule. This detestation of 
 all things Scandinavian the Romans and the Rorni&h Church 
 were able to instil into the English,. and the two worked in 
 conceit to enslave the people of the North. 
 
 And how did they accomplish it 1 In the words of Wheaton : 
 " Under the impulse of this blind zeal, Olaf Tryggvason joined 
 treachery to cruelty as one of the means of propagating the true 
 faith." In the " Heimskringla ." we are told that "Olaf Trygg- 
 vason s short reign was in fact entirely devoted to the propaga 
 tion of the new faith, by means the most revolting to humanity," 
 and the sagas abound in instances of the exercise of the blackest 
 deeds of darkness in spreading the light of Christianity. Many 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HON T OUR is DUE. 53 
 
 streams of noble Northern Mood went to swell the tide that 
 had been shed throughout Europe, to kill that pernicious germ 
 of freedom that could only be destroyed through wholesale 
 slaughter. In "The History of Rationalism," Lecky affirms : 
 " That the Church of Koine has shed more innocent blood than 
 any other institution that has ever existed among mankind, 
 will be questioned by no Protestant who has a complete know 
 ledge of history." 
 
 Among the measures used were also such as these : " Otho 
 III., of the Saxon line, concluded a peace with Harold Blaatand, 
 the principal condition of which was that the Danish people 
 should embrace Christianity, and their king should endeavour 
 to introduce the new religion in Norway." Wheaton quotes 
 Charles the Simple s words, which so well show the disgraceful 
 means employed : " My kingdom is laid waste," said the monarch 
 to the prelate, "my subjects are destroyed or driven into exile ; 
 the fields are no longer ploughed or sown. Tell the Norman 
 that I am well disposed to make a lasting peace with him, and 
 that if he will become a Christian, I will give him broad lands 
 and rich presents." Rolf readily consented to the proposal, as 
 did many other leaders and generals to similar ones. There 
 appeared to them no reason why they should not accept advan 
 tageous terms from a vanquished foe, and as for embracing 
 Christianity, that seemed the idlest and emptiest of ceremonies 
 to men whose religion sat so lightly upon them. To them 
 belief in the gods was more a matter of poetry and ideality 
 than of practical import ; it served to kindle their enthusiasm, 
 perhaps their valour, although this in the main was self-fed ; 
 and with a religion that had no rites or ceremonies to speak of, 
 no established priesthood, that exercised no tyranny over them, 
 it was a moral impossibility for them to conceive of such a 
 system as the Christian Church, or to imagine to what a horrible 
 thraldom they were consigning themselves and their descendants. 
 
 However, the mistake they made, and through no fault of 
 
54 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 theirs either they were too noble, too frank, too single-minded 
 to fathom the depth of perfidy in the Romish Church, in the 
 religious system called Christianity this mistake the people of 
 the United States can retrieve. The spirit of the Norsemen 
 has descended into Americans, They, and not the English, as 
 events have proven, are the true heirs of the glorious heritage 
 bequeathed by the ancient Scandinavians. The colonists, who 
 revolted against English oppression, and who threw off all alle 
 giance to the Crown, were totally Unaware that there was that 
 in the English past that had nourished and inspired their own 
 spirit of Independence, that they had ancestors who had 
 possessed their own distinguishing traits, and who had laboured 
 manfully to make these traits the prevailing ones in English 
 character, and so they cut all the links that had bound them to 
 
 England. 
 
 If England had revered its own free-minded ancestors, if it 
 had seconded the efforts of the North to spread liberty over all 
 the nations of the earth, instead of the efforts of Rome to stifle 
 liberty for ever by putting all nations, the Scandinavian included, 
 under the perpetual rule of the Church, the conduct of America 
 since the hour it became an independent Republic would have 
 been very different and the present peril would have been 
 averted. Precautions could then have been taken in time 
 against the continual encroachments of the Roman Catholic 
 power in the United States ; the full purpose and design of 
 that power would have been apparent ; Americans, in a body, 
 would have realized that while they were working, with one 
 heart and one soul, for the formation of an ideal Republic, in 
 which the principles of liberty, of right, of equity, of justice, 
 would be fully embodied, there was an insidious force in their 
 midst steadily using liberty to undermine liberty, a force that 
 was pledged to tyranny, evil, and the subversion of right ; whose 
 record was iniquity, and whose intent was iniquity ! No 
 warning came through the watchful care of the Mother country ; 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 55- 
 
 it only gave the precedent of the frequent conversion of high 
 persons from among the nobility to the Roman Catholic faith. 
 No admonition was uttered by England to the less experienced 
 sons and daughters of England across the water to the effect 
 that " eternal vigilance was the price of safety." They were 
 never told by England that they should honour their Norse 
 ancestors, be true to the principles these held so dear, and 
 perfect the Republic founded on a model that the Norsemen 
 themselves had originated and outvvrought in Iceland and 
 Switzerland. The knowledge of the Norse discovery of 
 America did not come to the people of the United States from 
 England, but from Denmark. England took no interest in the 
 matter, was indifferent as to whether it was true or false, felt 
 no pride in a discovery so momentous, made by its own ancestors, 
 saw no necessity of informing Americans of a fact of such vital 
 importance as to prove their greatest safeguard against a deadly 
 foe! 
 
 But Denmark came to the rescue ! Denmark performed the 
 whole duty that England had evaded. The tidings so fraught 
 with mighty consequences to the young Republic, were seized 
 with avidity by Americans, and responded to in the right spirit. 
 No sooner was that great work of Professor Rafn s printed, 
 than the Historical Society of Rhode Island opened corre 
 spondence with the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries in 
 Copenhagen, and several translations of the Norse voyages to 
 America were put within reach of American readers. The 
 Prince Society, in Boston, republished the translation of these 
 by N. L. Beamish, an English author, who, like Laing, Pigott, 
 the Howitts, and others, exerted himself to the utmost to 
 rouse the English public into some sort of action, and numerous 
 American works appeared on the subject. Gratitude was not 
 wanting either to our Norse ancestors; the appreciation so long 
 deferred, the tribute refused them by their English descendants, 
 was yielded -gladly by their American ones ! Benjamin Lossing 
 
56 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 wrote : " It is back to the Northern Vikings we must look for 
 the hardiest elements of progress in the United States." An- 1 
 1>. F. De Costa : " We fable in a great measure when we speak 
 of our Saxon inheritance ; it is rather from the Northmen that 
 we have derived our vital energy, our freedom of thought, and, 
 in a measure that we do riot yet suspect, our strength of speech." 
 The accounts of the Norse voyages to America also seem to 
 have met with full credence, Bancroft, the historian, forming 
 the signal exception to the rule. Remarking this, Mr. Slafter, 
 in his introduction to the "Voyages," says: "Mr. Bancroft, in 
 the earliest of his " History of the United States," treats the 
 alleged Icelandic voyages to this continent as a myth, and, in 
 his last, has not in any degree modified his sweeping statements 
 of distrust. We are not aware that any other distinguished 
 historian has reached the same conclusion." Mr. Slaftor him 
 self asserts : " Both of these documents are declared, by those 
 qualified to judge of the character of ancient writings, to be 
 authentic, and were clearly regarded by their writers as narratives 
 of historical truth." Edward Everett writes, quite as emphati 
 cally, in the North American Review; "These accounts are 
 either founded on truth, or they are wholly false ; and those 
 who hold to the latter opinion will, we think, find more diffi 
 culty in carrying out their hypothesis, than there is in admitting 
 the substantial truth of the tradition." Ben. Franklin, Baldwin, 
 (ioodrich, T. W. Higgenson, J. Abbott, W. C. Bryant, and 
 many other Americans have written in confirmation of the truth 
 of the Norse discovery of America, as founded on the Icelandic 
 narratives. 
 
 But the duty of Americans does not end with this acknow 
 ledgment of the truth. The Roman Catholics in their midst 
 and in Europe have been diligently spreading a statement in 
 direct refutation of all this, the consummation of their long- 
 continued policy of at once concealing the discovery of the 
 Norsemen and substituting that of Columbus for it. Their 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE. 57 
 
 gain, should this substitution be allowed, need not be described ; 
 it is already apparent enough. The wish expressed for a general 
 celebration of the discovery of America by Columbus, is the 
 first wary move of the Roman Catholic Church to uproot freedom 
 from American soil. ]t is the signal for the renewal of the old 
 conflict with the Norsemen in nearly every country of Europe. 
 Once the Norse discovery is thoroughly accredited, the United 
 States, as a nation acting upon it, the true discoverers honoured, 
 the false one execrated as he deserves, the Church that h-is 
 aided and abetted him execrated as it deserves, the kinship 
 and sympathy of Norsemen and Americans realized and ac 
 knowledged once this comes about, the Romish band of con 
 spirators from Pope to canting, whining priest, have their old 
 enemy bodily before them again, only refreshed by thoir long 
 sleep of a thousand years and eager to take up the old battle on 
 soil that will not betray them as did Europe ! 
 
 Americans are to put on the Norse armour and seal the 
 glorious work for universal liberty that their ancestors have 
 bequeathed to them ! 
 
53 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 CHAPTER irr. 
 
 THE EVIDENCE THAT THE NORSEMEN DISCOVERED AMERICA 
 IN THE TENTH CENTURY. 
 
 As has been seen by the statement of Samuel Laing quoted in 
 the first chapter, the proof that the Norsemen discovered 
 America, five hundred years before Columbus, rests entirely on 
 documentary evidence, and this evidence is to be found in the 
 two sagas contained in the " Codex Flatoiensis." Mr. Slafter s 
 statement is substantially the same, as far as the manuscripts 
 are concerned: "Among* the vast number of Scandinavian 
 manuscripts there are two historical sagas which describe western 
 voyages, undertaken during the twenty-five years that intervened 
 between 985 and 101 1. One of them is known as the Saga of 
 Erik the Red and the other as that of Thorfinn Karlsefne. On 
 these two documents rests all the essential evidence which we 
 have relating to the voyages of the Northmen to America. 
 Allusions are found in several other Scandinavian writings, 
 which may corroborate and confirm the narratives of the two 
 important sagas to which we have just referred, but add nothing 
 to them really essential or important. The S iga of Erik the 
 Red is taken from the Codex Flateyensis, containing a number 
 of sagas, which were collected and written out in their present 
 form at some time between the years 1387 and 1395, The 
 original saga, of which this is a copy, is not known to be now in 
 existence, but is conjectured, from internal evidence drawn from 
 its language and style, to have been originally composed in the 
 twelfth century. The saga of Thorfinn Karlsefne in its present 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 59 
 
 form is supposed to have been written, at least a part of it, by 
 Hauk Erlendson, for many years governor of Iceland, who died 
 in 1334. Whether it had been committed to writing at an 
 earlier period, and copied by him from a manuscript, or whether 
 he took the narrative from oral tradition and reduced it himself 
 to writing for the first time, is not known." In the translation 
 of the voyages, a little light is thrown upon this point, for it is 
 stated that "Karlsefne has accurately related to all men the 
 occurrences on all these voyages, of which somewhat is now 
 recited here." 
 
 But to give Mr. Slafter s full opinion concerning their relia 
 bility : " While there is no corroborating evidence outside of 
 Icelandic writings themselves, no monuments in this country 
 confirming the truthfulness of the narratives, they have never 
 theless all the elements of truth contained in other sagas, which 
 are clearly confirmed by monumental remains. Events occurring 
 in Greenland, recorded in Icelandic sagas of equal antiquity, 
 are established by the undoubted testimony of ancient monu 
 ments. This, together with the fact that there is no improba 
 bility that such voyages should have been made, render it easy 
 to believe that the narratives contained in the sagas are true in 
 their general outlines and important features." 
 
 The proof thus being in such a compact shape, and authentic, 
 it only remains for us to see how this has been regarded by minds 
 whose conclusions are of value. Among these Baron von 
 Humboldt must naturally take precedence. Before presenting 
 his testimony, which would have great weight, even if unsup 
 ported by that of scores of other writers, I cite Mr. Slafter s words 
 about this testimony : " In treating of the discovery of America 
 the author (Alex, von Humboldt) refers to the voyages of the 
 ^Northmen to this continent as a matter of settled history. He 
 does not even offer an apology, or suggest a doubt. The vast learn 
 ing, just discrimination, and sound sense of this distinguished 
 scholar, give great weight to his opinions on any subject." 
 
60 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 The following extract is taken from the second volume of the 
 * \Cosmos :" "Although the acquaintance of the nations of 
 Europe with the western part of the earth is the main subject 
 of our consideration in this section, arid that around which the 
 numerous relations of a more correct and a grander view of the 
 universe are grouped, we must yet draw a strong line of separa 
 tion between the undoubted first discovery of America, in its 
 northern portions, by the Northmen, and its subsequent re-dis 
 covery in its tropical regions. Whilst the Caliphate still 
 flourished under the Abassides at Bagdad, and Persia was under 
 the dominion of the Samanides, whose age was so favourable to 
 poetry, America was discovered in the year 1000 by Leif, the 
 son of Eric the Red, by the northern route, and as far as 
 41 30 north latitude." In a foot note, the author says : 
 " Parts of America were seen, although no landing was made 
 on them, fourteen years before Leif Eiracksson, in the voyage 
 which Bjarne Herjulfsson undertook from Greenland toward 
 the southward in 986. Leif first saw the land at the island 
 of Nantucket, 1 south of Boston; then in Nova Scotia; 
 and, lastly, in Newfoundland, which was subsequently called 
 Litla Helluland, but never Vinland. The gulf which 
 divides Newfoundland from the mouth of the great river St. 
 Lawrence, was called by the Northmen, who had settled in 
 Iceland and Greenland, Markland s Gulf." (See Caroli Christiani 
 Kafn Antiquitates Americans, 1845, pp. 4, 421, 423 and 4G3.) 
 Baron von Humboldt thus cites the same authority, the sole and 
 incontrovertible one. He continues : " The first, although acci 
 dental incitement towards this event emanated from Norway. 
 Towards the close of the ninth century Naddod was driven by 
 storms to Iceland whilst attempting to reach the Faroe 
 Islands, which had already been visited by the Irish. The first 
 settlement of the Northmen was made m^>75 by Ingolf. Green 
 land, the eastern peninsula of a land which appears to be every 
 where separated by the sea from America proper, was early 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 61 
 
 8eon " (quotes Rafn again), " although it was first peopled from 
 Iceland a hundred years later (983). . . Notwithstanding the 
 proximity of the opposite shores of Labrador (Helluland it 
 milda), 125 years elapsed from the first settlement of the North 
 men in Iceland to Leif s great discovery of America. So 
 small were the means possessed by a noble, enterprising, but not 
 wealthy race for furthering navigation in these remote and 
 dreary regions of the earth. The littoral tracts of Yinland, so 
 called by the German Tyrker from the wild grapes which were 
 found there, delighted its discoverers by the fruitfultiess of the 
 soil, and the mildness of its climate, when compared with Ice 
 land and Greenland. This tract, which was named by Leif the 
 Good Vinland (Yinland it goda), comprised the coast-line 
 between Boston and New York, and consequently parts of the 
 present States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, 
 between the parallels of latitude of Civita Vecchia and Terra- 
 eina, which, however, correspond there only to mean annual 
 temperatures of 47 8 and 52 1 . This was the prin 
 cipal settlement of the Northmen. The colonists had often 
 to contend with a very warlike race of Esquimaux, who then 
 extended further to the south under the name of the Skralinger. 
 The first Bishop of Greenland, Eric Upsi, an Icelander, under 
 took, in 1121, a Christian mission to Yinland; and the name of 
 the colonized country has even been discovered in old national 
 songs of the inhabitants of the Faroe Islands. 
 
 " The activity and bold spirit of enterprise manifested by the 
 Greenland and Icelandic adventurers are proved by the circum 
 stance that, after they had established settlements south of 
 41 30 north latitude, they erected three boundary pillars 
 on the eastern shores of Baffin s Bay, at the latitude of 72 55 , 
 on one of the Woman s Islands, north-west of the present 
 most northern Danish colony of Upernavik. The Runic 
 inscriptions, which were discovered in the autumn of the year 
 1824, contain, according to Rask and Finn Magnusen, the 
 
62 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 date 1135. From this eastern coast of Baffin s Bay, more than 
 six hundred years before the bold expeditions of Parry and Koss, 
 the colonists very regularly visited Lancaster Sound and a part 
 of Barrow s Straits for the purpose of fishing. The locality of 
 the fishing-ground is very definitely described, and Greenland 
 priests from the bishopric of Gardar conducted the first voyage 
 of discovery (1266). This north- western summer station was 
 called Kroksfjardar Heath. Mention is even made of the drift 
 wood (undoubtedly from Siberia) collected there, and of the 
 abundance of whales, seals, walruses, and sea-bears." 
 
 Baron von Humboldt has asserted that the merit of first 
 recognizing the discovery of America by the Northmen Icltmgs 
 indisputably to Ortelius. The work in which this credit is 
 given the Northmen, the " Theatrum Orbis Terrarum," is a 
 superb illuminated volume, of which the translation was printed 
 in London in 1606; the author s preface is dated Antwerp, 
 1570. Philip II. of Spain, as we are informed by the bio 
 grapher, graced Ortelius with the honour and title of the king s 
 cosmographer. A few words from this biography will convey 
 the scope of the author s ambition and ability : " There (at 
 Antwerp) he began to apply himself to benefit succedent ages, 
 to write of those countries by him viewed and seen, to set out 
 in charts and maps divers place s both of sea and land unknown 
 to former ages, to describe the tracts and coasts of the east and 
 west, south and north, never spoken of nor touched by Ptolemy, 
 Pliny, Strabo, Mela, or any other historiographer whatsoever." 
 The paragraph in question is this : " But to me it seems more 
 probable, out of the history of the two Zeni, gentlemen of 
 Venice (which I have put down before the table of the South 
 Sea, and before that of Scandia) that this new world many ages 
 past was entered upon by some islanders of Europe, as namely 
 of Greenland, Iceland, and Friesland ; being much nearer there 
 unto than the Indians, nor disjoined thence (as appears out of the 
 map) by an ocean so huge -and to the Indians so unnavigaUe." 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 63 
 
 An early printed allusion, some say the earliest, to the Norse 
 discovery of America, occurs in Adam of Bremen s " Historia 
 Ecclesiastica Hamburgensis et Bremensis," published at Copen 
 hagen, 1579. The passage referred to is the following, and Mr. 
 Slafter asserts that it was written long before the sagas were 
 reduced to writing : "The same king" (Swein Estrithson, of 
 Denmark, a nephew of Canute the Great) " has besides told us 
 of the discovery of still another island in the midst of the 
 ocean, which is called Vinland, because the grapes grow there 
 spontaneously and give the most glorious wine, also grain, with 
 out being sowed, grows there in abundance. This is no fabulous 
 representation, but is founded on the reliable communications 
 of the Danes." 
 
 Another early account, and a correct one, of the discoveries 
 of the Scandinavians in the west, was given by Thormod 
 Torfaeus, in his " Historia Vinlandise Antiquae." li. H. Major, 
 who has edited one edition of the letters of Columbus, gives a 
 list of several other ancient authors, Yitalis, Mylius, Grotins, 
 &c., who mention the Scandinavian voyages, and after giving 
 quite a detailed account of them himself, says in conclusion 
 that "no room is left for disputing the main fact of the dis 
 covery." 
 
 In the Swedish work "Nordbon under Hednatiden" (Xorse- 
 nien during the Pagan Period), by A. E. Holmb^rg, there is a 
 curious bit of information : "As late as the year 1347 history 
 can mention a voyage undertaken from Greenland to Vinland. . . . 
 This statement is to be found in the Skalholt annals, concluded 
 in the year 1356. Finally we will, as a further proof of our 
 forefathers knowledge of America long before Columbus time, 
 mention a world s-chart that was prepared in 1300, where this 
 land is to be found designated under the name Synribygd 
 (southern district). It is to be found in the manuscript of the 
 so-called Rymbegla, and is undoubtedly the oldest map of the 
 globe on which the new world is indicated." 
 
64 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 One of the older Swedish historians, Strinnholru, contributes 
 a valuable paragraph : " The whole power of the .Northern 
 Vikings was at that time chiefly directed to England, Ireland, 
 Scotland, and other known lands. This, besides the length of 
 the distance, diverted attention from the new discoveries, until 
 rinally with the ceasing of the Viking expeditions, all knowledge 
 of the strange unknown land died out, so that only saga has 
 preserved the recollection of it. I3ut a vague report of the 
 Norsemen s voyages of discovery penetrated to the Norsemen in 
 France, and through them and their connection with Italy pro- 
 bahly also came to the great Italian seaports, and accidentally 
 conduced to awaken and sustain a supposition of unknown lands 
 lying far in the west. So much is certain, however, that the 
 northerly portion of the new part of the world that some 
 centuries afterwards was found by Columbus, had already, 
 toward the close of the tenth century, been discovered by the 
 Scandinavian Vikings, and, as it appears, occupied by a lot of 
 Scandinavian settlers as late as the twelfth century." 
 
 The words of the celebrated Swedish historian, E. G. Geijer, 
 must not be omitted in this connection ; they are from the great 
 w<>rk"Svea rikes hiifder" (The Annals of the Kingdom of 
 Sweden) : "Viking expeditions, and, as these soon ceased, still 
 more commerce, desire of knowledge, war and court service led 
 them far around, and became to them the means of at once 
 acquiring wealth and glory ; although neither royal favour, gifts, 
 or any of the incentives and comforts other countries ottered, 
 could hinder them from finally returning to the rocky dales of 
 their native land. But about one hundred years after the 
 arrival of the first settlers on the island, others went over from 
 there to Greenland, and established settlements both on its east 
 and west coasts. They afterwards found, south of Greenland, 
 other coasts, at first full of bare, cliffs, farther down more flat 
 and low, finally a good land on a sound, with an island in the 
 north. There the streams were rich in salmon, a kmd of grain 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 65 
 
 grew wild, and fruit that resembled grapes, wherefore the first 
 discoverer called the laud Vinland det Goda. Those who after 
 him sought it, also encountered natives, who bartered furs from 
 them. IS T o permanent connection arose for the rest with this 
 land, which, however, was visited by a Greenland bishop in the 
 year 1121 ; but without doubt it is some part of the coast of 
 North America which appears in these old Icelandic narratives, 
 five hundred years before Columbus/ 
 
 All Scandinavian authors on this subject have naturally 
 availed themselves of " the rolls and masses of parchments in 
 the great public and private libraries of Copenhagen and 
 Stockholm." Sometime the modern Scandinavians and the 
 English-speaking race, on both sides of the Atlantic, will realize 
 what a detriment this lingual barrier, which has separated 
 nations essentially one and who once possessed a common 
 tongue, has been to them. 
 
 Thomas Carlyle does not say much about the discovery, but 
 it is to the point : " Towards the end of this Hakon s (Hakon 
 Jarl)- reign it was that the discovery of America took place 
 (985). Actual discovery, it appears, by Eric the Red, an Ice 
 lander ; concerning which there has been abundant investigation 
 and discussion in our time." 
 
 The next reigning king in Norway, it will be seen, took a 
 particular interest in the new colony in Greenland. " Some 
 years afterwards (after colonizing Greenland) Leif, the son of 
 Eric the Red, went to Norway, where he was favourably 
 received by the reigning king, Olaf Tryggveson, to whom he 
 described the country in such favourable terms that Olaf 
 determined to sustain the new colony. Having been himself 
 recently converted to Christianity, the king was filled with great 
 zeal for the propagation of the faith. He persuaded Leif to be 
 baptized, and sent him back to Greenland accompanied with a 
 missionary, by whose efforts his father Eric and the other 
 colonists were converted." This occurs in Wheaton s " History 
 
66 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 of the Northmen," and suffices to show how soon Loth royal 
 mid ecclesiastical recognition of the existence of a colony in 
 Greenland followed upon the establishing of the colony. The 
 same is true of Vinland. As many of the Greeks and Romans, 
 Pythias of Marseilles, Pliny the Elder, Tacitus, Procopius, knew 
 of Scandinavia, all Scandinavian events were likely to be carried 
 by lively rumour to the south of Europe, and as Tacitus, the 
 great Roman historian, had already represented the Svione 
 (Swedes) as "a rich and powerful maritime nation," the people 
 of Southern Europe were prepared to hear of any great naval 
 achievement on their part, whether of conquest or discovery, 
 and must have been constantly on the qui-mve. 
 
 Snorre Sturleson was another early writer who, soon after 
 Adam of Bremen, corroborated the testimony of the Sagas 
 relative to the Icelandic voyages to America. As the former 
 was a very prominent man and the latter a c.mon of Bremen, 
 both of these works must have been known in Rome. 
 
 As a matter of course, the Howitts confirm the discovery in 
 their "History and Romance of Northern Europe:" "But 
 Europe did not set bounds to their voyages and enterprises. In 
 <S61 they discovered Iceland, and soon after peopled it. Thence 
 they stretched still farther west, and discovered Greenland, to 
 which they originally gave the name of Gunbjb rnskar, from 
 Gunbjorn, the discoverer. Spite of its wretched climate they 
 colonized it, and proceeding still southward, they struck upon 
 the coast of North America, as it would appear, about the Stole 
 of Massachusetts. This was towards the end of the tenth 
 century, that is, five hundred years before Columbus reached 
 that country." 
 
 Grenville Pigott s testimony corresponds with the rest : " The 
 Norwegians and their descendants discovered and made settle 
 ments in Iceland, Greenland, the Orkneys, and, as has been 
 maintained with great semblance of truth, even in America 
 itself." 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 67 
 
 The American author, Aaron Goodrich, seems to be impatient 
 of any further discussion on the point, regarding it as altogether 
 superfluous, for lie says : " The general reader has been con 
 vinced of the fact, which is now no longer disputed, that the 
 Northmen were the first modern discoverers of this continent ;" 
 while Toulmin Smith is indignant that the claim of Columbus 
 should ever have been considered at all, declaring: " He was. 
 not the discoverer of America in any sense of the term ; he did 
 not explore the American continent." Referring to Torfceus, 
 this author says that he, .Torfoeus, derived his information 
 from the original authentic sources, and that " the parch 
 ment manuscripts that contain them are, at this moment, in a 
 state of high preservation." This fact is again made known by 
 Prof. Rasmus 15. Anderson, in his "America not discovered by 
 Columbus," whose very title is an indignant denial of the claim 
 of the Italian adventurer; he, too, says: "The manuscripts in 
 which we have the Sagas relating to America are found in the 
 celebrated * Codex Flatoiensis, a skin-book that was. finished 
 in the year 1387. This work, written with great care, and 
 executed in the highest style of art, is now preserved in its 
 integrity in the archives of Copenhagen, and a carefully printed 
 copy of it is to be found in Mimcr s Library at the University 
 of Wisconsin." This information is of the greatest importance, 
 for it may be necessary further on, should the advocates of 
 Columbia s claim attempt to force an acknowledgment of it from 
 the people of the United States, for this book to be produced, 
 as irrefragable testimony to the fact of the Xorse discovery of 
 America. All translations, reprints, abstracts, may be doubted 
 by the hypercritical, by the class, far too large, who are. 
 credulous where they should not believe, and sceptical where 
 they should there is always more faith than reason in the 
 Christian world lut the original document cannot le doubled. 
 
 Washington Irving, it appears, did not investigate the sub 
 ject; if he had done this before commencing his ".Life of 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 Columbus," this work would probably not have been written ; 
 to have investigated it afterwards would have exposed him to 
 very uncomfortable feelings, and he was far from foreseeing that 
 the admission of the Columbian discovery would be fraught 
 with unmixed evil for the American people. He is candid 
 enough, however, to confess that he did not look into the 
 matter: "There is no great improbability, however, that such 
 enterprising. and roving voyagers as the Scandinavians may have 
 wandered to the northern shores of America, &c., and if the 
 Icelandic manuscripts, said to be of the thirteenth century, can 
 be relied upon as genuine, free from modern interpolation and 
 correctly quoted, they would appear to prove the fact." 
 
 It is thought that the lands discovered by Ejarni Herjulfson, 
 the actual first discoverer, gathered from the details and minute 
 description of the voyages, were Connecticut, Long Island, 
 Khode Island, Massachusetts, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. 
 " It may, perhaps, be urged in disparagement of these dis 
 coveries,." writes Beamish, "that they were accidental, that 
 1 jarni Herjulfson set out in search of Greenland and fell in 
 with the eastern coast of North America, but so it was also with 
 Columbus. The sanguine and skilful Genoese navigator set 
 sail in quest of Asia and discovered the West Indies ; even 
 when in his last voyage he did reach the eastern shore of 
 Central America, he still believed it to be Asia, and continued 
 under that impression till the day of his death." Washington 
 Irving dwells much upon this curious misconception of Columbus, 
 and the bewilderment and confusion evinced in the "skilful 
 navigator s " own letters is amusing in the extreme. 
 
 Another American author, Arthur Oilman, gives expression 
 to a common objection urged by unthinking people against the 
 Norse discovery, namely, that it led to nothing, produced no 
 results. Unfortunately, he is not trying to combat this view ; 
 he only presents it as his own : " We have nothing to do here 
 with the expeditions of the Northmen, who are said to have 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 69 
 
 visited America in the eleventh century, for admitting that the 
 records found in the Sagas are true statements of historic facts, 
 their visits did not lead to settlements of lasting importance. To 
 Columbus belongs the undivided honour of first making real the 
 grand idea of the Western World. His discovery led to all that 
 has since been achieved on our continent. . . . The legends of 
 the Northmen, whom the Sagas tell us came lo these shores 
 h ve hundred years be-fore Columbus, belong rather to the domain 
 of the antiquary or the poet than to that of the historian." 
 
 To render this assertion true, that " their visits did not lead 
 to settlements of lasting importance," it is necessary to blot out 
 of the past the written statements of Adam of Bremen, of 
 Snorre Sturleson, and of Ion Thordarson, who wrote the Sagas 
 of Eric the Ked and of Thorfinn Karls -fiie, in the " Codex 
 Flatoiensis ;" the fact that the rumours of these vast discoveries 
 in the West reached every seaport in southern Europe, as well as 
 the Eternal City ; the fact that Gudrid, the wife of Karlsefne, 
 visited Rome after her three years sojourn in Vinland ; the fact 
 that she narrated these experiences at length to the holy fathers ; 
 the fact that Rome had appointed bishops to both Greenland 
 and Vinland ; the fact that Columbus, an Italian by birth, and 
 naturally aware of all these important events, went to Iceland, 
 in order to pursue the investigations to which all this had given 
 him the clue. After his visit to Iceland he made out to find 
 America, as any one else could have found it, after obtaining 
 definite directions. That there was an interval of five hundred 
 years between the first colonization and the subsequent one does 
 not alter the fact that the first one led to the last, was the 
 direct cause of it, and that this was brought about by a close 
 and unbroken sequence of events, every link of which is pre 
 served, that posterity may demonstrate just what grand results 
 have ensued from the discovery and intelligent explorations of 
 the Norsemen, and the full accounts that they recorded of these 
 achievements in Iceland. 
 
70 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC COGNIZANCE OF THE FACT AT THE TIME OF 
 THE NORSE DISCOVERY. 
 
 IT will not be difficult to prove that the wise-heads in the 
 Eternal City were aware, almost as soon as the Icelanders them 
 selves, that some of the adventurous sons of that race had 
 pushed their explorations clear to remote lands across the ocean, 
 and founded colonies there ; it would be far more difficult to 
 prove that they did not know it. Fear, envy, hatred, a deep- 
 seated animosity, made, them observant of every move of the 
 Norsemen ; these were the only obstacle to the sacerdotal plan 
 of universal sovereignty, of the subjection of all mankind to 
 the rule of the Cross, all Europe was Christianized with the 
 exception of the pagan North ; the circle was gradually narrow 
 ing around these, and escape from the Papal decree and 
 dominion was impossible. Any discovery made by the Norse 
 men of new lands, in whatever quarter of the globe, meant the 
 establishing of a new r stronghold of paganism, if this discovery 
 should be made unbeknown to Rome. It does not require any 
 knowledge of Jesuitical operations, or of the history of the 
 Inquisition, or of heretic hunts in general, to show one how 
 skilful the Roman Catholic mind is in ferreting out things, 
 what a meddlesome, prying, inquisitive, impertinent, well- 
 trained spy it is, and how quick it is to scent out possible 
 .mischief for the Church. 
 
 Olaf Tryggveson had already been drawn into the fold of 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. /r 
 
 this Church, thanks to English zeal, when Eric the Red dis 
 covered Greenland ; consequently when Leif went to Norway 
 with full reports of the new colony and its nourishing condition, 
 King Olaf promptly made up his mind, doubtless with the 
 entire concordance of the Pope, to sustain the colony and 
 establish Christianity there. An extract from the original 
 narrative in the " Heimskringla " best describes this : " The 
 same winter, 999 1000, was Leif, the son of Eric the Red, 
 with King Olaf, in good repute, and embraced Christianity. 
 But the summer that Gissur went to Iceland, King Olaf sent 
 Leif to Greenland, in order to make known Christianity there ; 
 lie sailed the same summer to Greenland. He found, in the 
 sea, some people on a wreck, and helped them ; the same time 
 discovered he Vinland the Good, and came in harvest to 
 Greenland. He had with him a priest, and other clerks, 
 and went to dwell at Brattahlid with Eric, his father. Men 
 called him afterwards Leif the Lucky ; but Eric, his father, 
 said that these two things went one against the other, inasmuch 
 as Leif had saved the crew of the ship, but brought evil men 
 to Greenland, nnmely the priests." In another version, from 
 the history of Olaf Tryggveson, is added : " But still after the 
 counsel and instigation of Leif, was Eric baptized, and all the 
 people in Greenland." The domestic economy of the Church 
 of Rome was not such that there could have been a new dis 
 covery, a colony formed, and a wholesale conversion of the 
 settlers without the Pope and his whole establishment knowing 
 of it, still less when the " Northern barbarians " had made the 
 discovery, foimed the colony, and been converted to the true 
 faith. This was occasion enough for a public thanksgiving 
 and when this successful proselyting had been due to a power 
 ful monarch, fired with a holy zeal, and who did not stick at 
 trifles nor call anything a crime that was done in the name of 
 religion, this felicitous conjunction of events was not a thing 
 io pass unnoticed. 
 
/z THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 - The reader will remember the little statement by Baron von 
 Humboldt that " the first Bishop of Greenland, Eric Upsi^ an 
 Icelander, undertook, in 1121, a Christian mission^ to Vinland." 
 Samuel Laing gives details of the spiritual supervision over 
 Greenland, a supervision scarcely compatible with complete 
 Papal ignorance of the existence of a colony there : u The 
 discovery of Greenland by the Icelanders about the year 981, 
 and the establishment of considerable colonies on one or on both 
 sides of that vast peninsula which terminates at Cape Fare 
 well, in which Christianity and Christian establishments, 
 parishes, churches, and even monasteries were flourishing, or nt- 
 at least existing to such an extent tint from 1124 to 1387 
 there was a regular succession of bishops, of whom seventeen 
 are named, for their superintendence, are facts which no 
 longer admit of any reasonable doubt. The documentary 
 evidence of the Sag is, which gave not merely va<jue accounts 
 of such a discovery and settlement, but statistical details, with 
 the names and the distances from each other of farms or town 
 ships, of which there were, according to accounts of the four 
 teenth century, ninety in what was called Yestribygd or the 
 western settlement, with four churches, and one hundred and 
 ninety in the Eystribygd or eastern settlement, with one 
 cathedral, eleven other churches, two towns, and three or four 
 monasteries, bears all the internal evidence of truth, in the 
 consistency and simplicity of the statements." 
 
 Strinnholin gives a full description of the settlements in 
 Greenland, of which the abstract is that an Iceland man, Eric 
 Bode, the father of the Leif Ericsson who discovered America, 
 discovered Greenland, and returned in 985 with five-and-twenty 
 ships. After that the emigration to this land increased every 
 year. Within a short time large tracts of the country, both 
 in the east and west, were peopled and settled by Icelandic 
 or Scandinavian settlers. The land s nature and situation 
 divided them into two main colonies, which were called Qster 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE. 73 
 
 and Tester byggtieri. Between them lay a desert, several days 
 journey long. The chief colony was in Osterbyggden, which 
 always remained the most populous and nourishing. In Yester- 
 byggden there/ were ninety villages or hamlets, with four or 
 five churches, and in Osterbyggden the number of settlement 
 went up to one hundred and ninety, and the churches to twelve, 
 and there were also several cloisters for nuns and monks. The 
 Greenland colony nourished for four hundred years. 
 
 Laing gives another important item: (f A brief of Pope 
 Nicholas Y. in 1448, to the Bishops of Skalholt and Holum in 
 Iceland, states that his beloved children dwelling in an island 
 called Greenland, on the utmost verge of the ocean north of 
 Norway, and who are under the Archbishop of DrontlKiim, 
 have raised his compassion by their complaint that after having 
 been Christians for six hundred years, and converted by the 
 holy Saint Olaf, and having erected many sacred buildings and 
 a splendid cathedral on said island, in which divine service was 
 diligently performed, they had thirty years ago been attacked 
 by the heathens of the neighbouring coast, who came with a 
 fleet against them, and killed and dispersed many, and made 
 slaves of those who were able-bodied ; but having now 
 gathered together again, they crave the services of priests and 
 a bishop." 
 
 There was, in short, a regular succession of bishops in 
 Greenland for two hundred and fifty years. AVe have already 
 seen that mention is made of a voyage from Greenland to Yin- 
 land as late as the year 1347. The next link in this most 
 remarkable chain of events is the voy.ige of Gudrid, Karl- 
 sefne s wife, from Yinland to Rome, via Iceland. Her visit to 
 the holy fathers is described by the French author, Gabriel 
 Gravier, in his work ( ( Decouverte de 1 Amcrique par les 
 Normands : " " Quand elle eut marie Snorre, Gudrida fit un 
 pclerinage a Rome. Elle fut bien re cue et raconta certaiue- 
 ment ses voyages dans les contrces ultra occaniques. Rome 
 
74 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 etait tres attentive aux decouvertesgeogrnphiques, collectionnait 
 avec soin les cartes et les recits qui lui parvenaient. Toute 
 decouverte semblait mi agrandissement du domaine papal, im 
 champ iiouveau pour la predication evangelique. I)e ce qu ils 
 n ont laisse dans 1 histoire ecrite aucune trace appreciable, les 
 1-ecits de Gtidrida n en exercerent pas moins sans doute une 
 certainu influence sur les decouvertes posterieures." 
 
 Thus the part that a woman plays in bringing about the 
 plagiarise discovery of America is a very important one, and 
 Gudrid, Karlsefne s high-born and intelligent wife, was only- 
 excusable in that she did not realize what she was doing, nor 
 the momentous consequences of her act, when she carried such 
 valuable tidings to Rome ! The S igas relate that she went 
 there, so there can be no doubt on that point. In the 
 "Voyages," as translated by Beamish, it is stated thus: "But 
 when SuoiTc was marrie 1, then went Gudrid abroad, and 
 travelled southwards, and came back again to the house of 
 Snorre, her son, and then had he caused a church to he built at 
 (ilaumbse;" and in the synopsis of the historical evidence, by 
 Profssor Rafn, it is stated still more explicitly: "His son, 
 Snorre, who had been born in America, was his successor on 
 t liis estate. When the latter married, his mother imde a 
 pilgrimage to Rome, and afterwards returned to her son s house 
 at Glaurabae, where he had in the meantime ordered a church to 
 be built. The mother lived long as a religious recluse." 
 Gudrid is spoken of in the narratives as " a grave and dignified 
 woman, and therewith sensible, and knew well how to carry 
 herself among strangers." As the widow of a highly-distin 
 guished man, for Thorfinn Karlsefne was "a wealthy and 
 powerful Icelandic merchant, descended from an illustrious lind 
 of Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Irish, and Scottish ancestors, 
 some of whom were kings, or of royal blood," Gudrid was one 
 to carry much influence and must have been listened to in Rome 
 with the. most profound attention. Her wealth also conduced to 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 75 
 
 increase the respect with winch she w;is treated by a set of 
 people who have always shown the nicest discrimination in this 
 regard, and when she afterwards became a nun, the Church 
 reaped a double advantage from her sojourn in Yinland. 
 Gudrid had encouraged her husband to colonize Yinland, having 
 always felt the deepest interest in the new country, of which so 
 much was said in Greenland, and with the full prerogative of a 
 Northern woman, a woman there being regarded as her hus 
 band s equal, took an active part in the management of affairs 
 and was consulted on every point, consequently she was well 
 versed in all pertaining to Vinland and able to give very accurate 
 information, embracing all possible topographical and geo 
 graphical details. Exploring expeditious were of frequent 
 occurrence during the three years the colonists stayed in Yinland. 
 By a singular coincidence Karlsefne himself, as stated in the 
 " Yoyages," narrated originally the events that occurred on 
 these voyages, this in Iceland, and his wife narrated her 
 experiences in Rome; his narrative, when committed to 
 writing, destined, eight hundred years afterwards, to save the 
 land he attempted to colonize from the disastrous effects of his 
 wife s indiscretion in leading the covetous gaze of the Church 
 to a land so rich in promise and which. might become its future 
 empire." 
 
 The famous geographer, Malte-Brun, states, in his " Histoire 
 de la Geographic," that Columbus, when in Italy, had heard of 
 the Xorse discoveries beyond Iceland, for Rome was then the 
 world s centre, and all information of importance was sent 
 there. It was this some ages befoie, nay, it was more than 
 this, it was a great whispering gallery, in which not a word or 
 sound, uttered in any part of the world, that was important for 
 the Church to know, was lost. 
 
 Beside* the religious means of communication there was the 
 commercial; the Scandinavians carried on an enormous com 
 merce and their peaceful trading-vessels as well as war-dragons 
 
;6 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 ranged the seas. All authors note this with wonder and 
 admiration. To cite Pigott : " It would not be difficult to show 
 that the Scandinavians, from the eighth to the eleventh 
 century, carried on a more active commerce, and could boast 
 a more constant and extensive communication with distant 
 countries, than any other nation of Europe. During the greater 
 part of this period, llussia, Sweden, and Denmark were the 
 only European nations which had any regular commerce with 
 the Eist." Despising secrecy, and having no motive for it, 
 whatever they did was known to the world ; loving fame and 
 glory, seeking these as the highest earthly good, they increased 
 their own celebrity by every means in their power, and each 
 man in his endeavour was aided by the rest of his compatriots, 
 the national pride among them being so great as to destroy 
 all envy, the besetting sin of Christian communities from that 
 day to this. The greatness of each individual conduced to 
 the greatness of his country, and no attempt was made to 
 suppress it. 
 
 The Church of Rome knew, knew all that they had accom 
 plished, and every detail concerning the discovery and coloni 
 zation of Iceland, Greenland, and Yinland ! What use did it 
 make of this knowledge 1 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE. 77 
 
 CHAPTER V, 
 
 ALL THE MOTIVES FOR THE CONCEALMENT AND FRAUD. 
 
 YES, what use did the Church of Rome make of this knowledge 
 of the discovery of Greenland and Vinland ? In the first place 
 it concealed it. As far as is known no writer of southern or 
 middle Europe seems to have made an historical record of the 
 $r;eat discovery by the Norsemen except Adam of Bremen, until 
 Snorre Slurleson s " Chronicle of the Kings of Norway " was? 
 written, in the thirteenth century, and the t\\o important Sagas 
 relating exclusively to this discovery, contained in the " Codex 
 Flatoiensis," in the fourteenth. Ortelius accorded to them the 
 merit of this discovery in 1570, Mylius in 1611, Grotius in 
 1642, Divcone in 1643, Montnnus in 1071, Torfoeus in 1705. 
 We know that Adam of Bremen received his information from 
 King Swein of Denmark, and had very strong Northern sym 
 pathies, writing very favourably of the institutions and charac 
 teristics of the people, especially of the inhabitants of Sweden ; 
 Torfoeus based his assertions -entirely on the authentic sources 
 in Iceland, and it is presumable that the other early authors 
 mentioned did the same. It is obvious that they wrote with a 
 certain boldness and proclaimed a theory with regard to the 
 discovery of the New World that was new as yet to their con 
 temporaries. It was thus essentially the historians of the North 
 who recorded, and proclaimed the great achievement, concerning 
 which the monkish chroniclers were ominously silent. 
 
 And who wrote on Scandinavian mythology or gave to the 
 
78 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 world any information concerning the religion of Odin, the 
 manners and customs of the people who had a heroic age while 
 the rest of Europe was stooped in slavery and cowardly sub 
 jection, and an antiquity as worthy of being called classic as 
 that of Greece itself ? l Sulmi, Nyerup, Schoning, Grundtvig, 
 Thorlacius, Rafn, Finn Magnusen, P. E. Miiller, Grater, 
 Abrahamsen, and others. Thorlacius and Finn Magnusen are 
 descendants of Thorium Karlsefne, as are also Snorre Sturleson 
 and -the famous sculptor, Thorwaldsen ; Rafn is a Dane, and 
 there are evidently no Spaniards or Italians in this list. 
 Southern writers, it is plain, held the KOI them mythology in as 
 little esteem as the Grecian ; both were pngan, and paganism 
 was to be obliterated from both literature and life. We are 
 told by all writers on this subject, with one voice, that " the 
 zealous promoters of Christianity omitted nothing to destroy 
 all relics of the ancient superstition." The resemblance of the 
 Northern mythology to the Grecian was sufficient in itself to 
 kindle Roman Catholic aversion to if, and when it produced a 
 similar type of man, the rage and malice of the monilly- 
 deformed race knew no bounds. Could not Kulf, the Norman 
 invader, have stood as the model of an old Greek hero ] It is 
 said that " he was mild and gentle toward the poor and 
 oppressed ; stern and terrible toward his enemies ; but toward 
 Ids friends faithful and so generous, that he for them spaied 
 
 1 According to Pigotfc : "Until the latter end of the sixteenth century, 
 sill knowledge of the religion of heathen Scandinavia, possessed by other 
 nations, was confined to what could be gleaned from the works of Paul us 
 Diacouus, Adam of Bremen, and Saxo Grammaticus. The first was a 
 Lombard of the latter end of the eighth century; the Second a Canon of 
 Bremen, who wrote in the eleventh ; and the last the secretary of Bishop 
 Absalom in the twelfth, more celebrated for the elegance of his Latin and* 
 for his classical attainments than for historical correctness, and whose 
 information respecting the Northern mythology is obscured and disfigured 
 by his practice of decorating its deities with the in appropriate names of 
 the go ds of Home." 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 79 
 
 i. either gold nor other valuables; wherefore there were 
 .assembled with him the most illustrious warriors of the whole 
 Noith, and all the neighbouring kings were subordinate to 
 him." And Orvar Odd also, of whom it is related that "he 
 believed, neither in Odin, Thor, or any other divinity, but only 
 in his own strength and good -fortune, which is said to have 
 been so great, that it he only hoisted sail, he had favourable 
 winds wherever he went." The learned Swede, Olaf Rudbeck, 
 in his famous work, the "Atlantic;)," published in 1702, could, 
 without charge of being fantastical or absurd, demonstrate 
 gravely that Sweden was Plato s lost Atlantis. According to 
 the modern Swedish author, August Strindberg, "in the year 
 1830 Geijer, in the perusal of Homer, comes upon the same 
 idea, or the striking resemblance between the customs of the 
 heioic age with the Greeks and Scandinavians. In his treatise 
 -of the same name he shows that which is common in the 
 people s thought and way of life, in laws, institutions, and 
 habits, so that the reader is astonished that he has not before 
 come to the thought himself ; but Geijer draws no conclusions 
 from it." We know, too, from history that the Norsemen were 
 great favourites in Greece, the only country in Europe that 
 welcomed them, with the exception of Russia, whose people 
 invited the Swedes to come and rule over them, and that they 
 were the choson body-guard of the Greek emperors. 
 
 In every respect the ancient Scandinavians were the moral 
 antitheses of the Romans or Roman Catholics ; and it is no 
 stretch of reason to say that they were the moral antidote of 
 the Southern poison, a fieice remedy used by Mature against the 
 spread of the evil, and yet, as events proved, ineffectual after all 
 against a malaria that had to run its time and can only le killed 
 in our own day by the aid of the very element, the Norse one, 
 iirst employed against it. The Scandinavians were brave ; fear 
 was as unknown to them as courage to the Roman Catholics : 
 accordingly we find on the one -hand .absolute fearlessness and 
 
8o THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 independence, on the other absolute servility. Mallet delineates 
 this striking trait of the Norse character most admirably: 
 " Thus strongly moulded by the hand of nature, and rendered 
 hardy by education, the opinion they entertained of their own 
 courage and strength must have given the peculiar turn to their 
 character. A man who thinks he has nothing to fear, cannot 
 endure any sort of constraint ; much less will he submit to any 
 arbitrary authority, which he sees only supported by human 
 power, or such as he can brave with, impunity. As he thinks 
 himself not obliged to court any one s favour or deprecate his 
 resentment, he scorns dissimulation, artifice, or falsehood. He 
 regu ds these faults, the effects of fear, as the most degrading 
 of all others. He is always ready to repel force by force ; hence 
 he is neither suspicious nor distrustful. A declared enemy to 
 his enemy, he attacks openly ; he confides in, and is true to 
 others ; generous, and sometimes in the highest degree magnani 
 mous, because he places his dearest interest in the idea ho 
 entertains and would excite of his courage." 
 
 Fear brings so many other vices in its train, that when it is 
 declared that .the Norsemen were utterly devoid of fear, one 
 can infer that they were not superstitious or idolatrous, not 
 false, not tolerant of evil, not sophistical in their way of rea 
 soning nor given to the suppression of their convictions, the 
 reverse of which is shockingly true of the Roman Catholics. 
 Not to dwell now on the numerous points of difference, each of 
 which h red their hostility toward each other, it is only necessary 
 to mention in this connection the Norsemen s belief in love 
 between the sexes and deep reverence for it, a belief that the 
 Christian religion immediately expunged from its ethics. Max 
 Nordau defines this in particularly keen language: "The 
 Christian morale does not acknowledge that love is legitimate ; 
 therefore there is not either, in the institutions that are pene 
 trated by the former, any place left for love. Marriage is now 
 fcuch an institution, its character has betrayed the influence of 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 8r 
 
 the Christian morale. According to the theological compre 
 hension, marriage has also nothing to do with man s love for 
 woman. If people marry, it is to perform a sacrament, not to 
 belong to each other in love. It would certainly be more 
 agreeable to God if one did not marry at all." Among the 
 Northern race, on the other hand, romance, constancy, devoted 
 love, and chivalrous attachment to the sex so highly honoured, 
 were the atmosphere of their lives. The power of the men was 
 doubled by the fact that the women were always with them in 
 love, sharing their ambition, stimulating them to fresh deeds of 
 glory ; while in the South, women were either shut up in the 
 convents, debauched, or turned into zeros by the thraldom of 
 the medieval marriage, in which women were only to bear 
 children and bless God. " In paganism/ to cite a noble parai- 
 graph from Striudberg s "Swedish People," "woman seems 
 almost to have been man s equal. . . . Woman was treated by 
 man with such respect and acted with such self-feeling and 
 freedom, that any such thing in our enlightened times would 
 be considered unheard of." To indicate another respect in 
 which the method of operation in the life of the Norsemen was 
 the opposite of that of his natural foe, these worked to bring 
 about material prosperity, not for a favoured class, but for all 
 the other race worked for pauperism. " In union with com 
 merce," writes A. E. Holmberg, " these celebrated sea-voyages 
 brought here a perfectly incredible wealth, of which it was not 
 possible for us to be deprived during the Christian middle 
 ages, through the plundering system directed against us in all 
 respects." 2 The great Swedish king, Gustaf Vasa, had a three 
 fold task : to free his land from the Danish yoke, to free it 
 
 3 " It may be fairly concluded," writes Pigott, " that a people possessing 
 so many sources of wealth, and with such continual communication with 
 the most civilized portions of the world, could not have been so darkly 
 barbarous as the well-grounded detestatiou of the monkish chroniclers has 
 represented them." 
 
 G 
 
82 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 from the jurisdiction of the Pope and from the deep poverty 
 into which five centuries of priest-rule and medievalism 
 had sunk it. The well-known traveller, Horace Marryat, in 
 liis " One Year in Sweden," affirms that poverty was unknown 
 in Sweden until the introduction of Christianity there. 3 
 
 But with all the difference in disposition, character, moral 
 status, the pagan Norsemen and the Roman Catholics had the 
 same visible aim the conquest of the world. This made them 
 rivals. One desired to obtain dominion to the end of freedom, 
 the other to the end of slavery. Where the former succeeded, 
 they established free institutions, good laws, physical and mental 
 well-being, changing by a rap : d metamorphosis, once the monkish 
 hordes were subdued, into benign and able statesmen ; where 
 the latter succeeded, they founded cathedrals and monasteries, 
 destroying all law but that of the Church. The scope of their 
 ambition was equal, the motives of it utterly dissimilar. 
 
 No wonder then that Hastings was one of the most detested 
 of the Northern .leaders ! Hated in France, perhaps, as is alleged, 
 " on account of the extent and cruelty of his ravages," but hated 
 still more because of the extent of his ambition, which had made 
 the conquest of Rome its cherished aim. In AVheaton s words : 
 "Hastings proposed to the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok and his 
 other followers an expedition against Rome, of whose wealth 
 and splendour they had heard much, without knowing precisely 
 in what part of Italy the capital of the Christian world was 
 situate." Holmberg s " Norsemen during the Pagan Period 
 
 3 As an illustration of the extent to which Christianity has developed 
 poverty I quote the following paragraph from Felix Oswald s " Secret of 
 the E-ist :" " We do not think it necessary to alleviate the distress of the 
 poor till it reaches a degiec that threatens to end it. We have countless 
 benevolent institutions for the prevention of outright death, not one bene 
 volent enough to make life worth living. Infanticide is now far more 
 rigorously punished than in old times. We enforce every child s right to 
 live and become a humble, tithe-paying Christian ; but as for its claim to 
 live happy, we refer it to the sweet by-and-by." 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE. 83 
 
 contains an interesting passage relative to this ; after citing one 
 of the ancient poets of France quoted by Cronholm in his 
 " Norsemen in Vester-viking," he says : " The remarkable part 
 of it is that these high thoughts are put in Hastings mouth by 
 a hostile writer, who lets the terrible Hastings, the most dreaded 
 leader of the Norse expeditions of the ninth century, chant of 
 glory as the highest aim for which he had striven, and that for 
 this hundreds of thousands had fallen under his sword. But 
 there: still remained a higher aim, for the winning of which he 
 encouraged his warriors namely, to let all the kingdoms of the 
 world, which lay open to them, behold their glory, and when 
 they placed the crown of Kome on I jorn Jernsida s head, their 
 praise with his should resound around the whole circumference 
 of the earth." When this man was converted it was indeed an 
 occasion for rejoicing among all Romanists ; as Wheaton says, 
 " this was an object of the highest interest to the people, who 
 had been so long terrified and distressed by his incursions." 
 This same author, who has a clear perception of the nature of 
 the animosity between the two opposing forces of Europe in 
 those ages, analyzes it still further by saying that after the 
 cruelties practised by Charlemagne, " the great struggle between 
 the North and the South assumed the character of a religious 
 as well as national war, and the enmity of the Scandinavian, 
 invaders to the nations they had plundered and vanquished 
 could only be appeased by their own conversion to Christianity, 
 which finally put a period to their predatory incursions." The 
 truth of this also appears in some words of William and Mary 
 Howitt s : " War and plunder, therefore, in their eyes, so far 
 from being in any degree criminal, were acts of glory and of merit. 
 When we read of the bloody Danes, who were, in fact, just as 
 often Swedes or Norwegians, we should remember this, and more 
 over that they cherished a particular hatred to Kome and to the 
 Christian religion, because it came to them from Rome with 
 all its monks and, what appeared to them, effeminate doctrines." 
 
 G 2 
 
84 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 The fact cannot be too strongly emphasized that the Chris 
 tianizing of this formidable race was a protective measure for the 
 safety of the Romanists, not in any sense a kind or philanthropic 
 work for the good of the Norsemen, for either their temporal or 
 spiritual welfare. The .authors just quoted say with great force : 
 " It is not, perhaps, so much an overwhelming number of these 
 Northmen, as the new spirit they brought with them, that mixed 
 with and changed the social elements of the countries they 
 settled in." This spirit could only be destroyed by transforming 
 it into the Christian spirit. The only country in which there 
 has been no admixture, to speak of, of the Norse spirit, is Spain, 
 and Buckle, as we well know, describes the state of things there 
 with absolute correctness in this passage: "These, then, were 
 the two great elements of which the Spanish character was com- 
 pounded loyalty and superstition; reverence for their kings 
 and reverence for their clergy were the leading principles which 
 influenced the Spanish mind, and governed the inarch of Spanish 
 history." It is obvious that the Church of Rome had a super 
 human work before it to reduce Scandinavia to such a condition 
 as that. The time it took to bring about consent to baptism, a 
 concession which did not mean as much as it seemed, was in 
 calculable ; Laing mentions the startling fact that "this last 
 remnant of paganism among the European people existed in 
 vigour almost live hundred years after Christianity and the 
 Komish Church establishment were diffused in every other 
 country." One reason of this was, as averred by Geijer, that 
 the Christian ethics were so unlike the pagan, and put bonds 
 upon the individual freedom to which the Northerner was not 
 willing to subject himself ; another was that the Scandinavians 
 had no respect for the people who professed Christianity, no 
 admiration for their institutions ; another, that there was so 
 very little superstition in their nature for the priests to work 
 upon. The following anecdotes illustrate this: " Wlien St. 
 Ulat proposed to Guuka Thor to be baptized, the chief answered 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 85 
 
 that he and his comrades were neither Christians nor heathens, 
 but trusted to their own courage, strength, and fortune, with which 
 until then they had had every reason to be satisfied ; but if the 
 king was very anxious they should believe on some god, they 
 were as well content to Lelieve in the white Christ as on any other. 
 Arnliot Gellina told the same king that he had always been 
 wont to put his trust in nothing but his own strength, which 
 had never failed him, and that he had now thought to trust in 
 the king; but since he (the king) was so desirous that he should 
 be baptized, although he was not aware of what the white Christ 
 was capable of performing, for the king s sake he would believe 
 on him." Pigott, who relates these highly characteristic stories, 
 continues : " It was also said of Hrolf Krake.and his warriors, 
 at a much earlier period, that they never offered to the gods, 
 but relied on their own strength. Some, although uninstructed 
 in the doctrines of Christianity, rejected the superstitions of 
 their countrymen from more exalted motives." So he justly 
 argues in this wise : " The difficulties, therefore, which the first 
 preachers of Christianity in Scandinavia had to encounter, may 
 be attributed rather to the contempt in which these lawless 
 Warriors held a creed which threatened them with a life of peace 
 and inactivity, than to birbarous ignorance, or even to any 
 bigoted adherence to their ancient religion." In short, the 
 ancient Scandinavians, like the ancient Greeks, left the worship 
 of the gods to the superstitious lower classes. It was reserved 
 for the Christian nations of modern times, and the free United 
 States, to elevate this idolatry into the devout practice of refined 
 arid cultivated people. 
 
 Laing, who has made a deep study of this subject, states that 
 "the churches or temples of Odin appear to have had no con 
 secrated order of men like a priesthood set apart for administer 
 ing in religious rites/ and that " public worship under any form, 
 or private or household devotion in the Odin religion, cannot 
 be distinctly traced in the Sagas." In commenting on this, he 
 
86 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 says : " We find in the North very few remains of temples ; no 
 statues, emblems, images, symbols ; was it actually more spiritual 
 than any other systems of paganism, and, therefore, less material 
 in its outward expression ?" 
 
 A comparison of the pagan festival Jul with the Christian 
 festival Yule (Christmas) after the Romanists had incorporated 
 it into their system and remodelled it, will illustrate the difference 
 in the mode of worship, as it is called, of these two races. The 
 Norse festival is thus described by Beamish : u Yule was a pagan 
 festival, celebrated in honour of Thor, at the beginning of Feb 
 ruary, when the Northmen s year commenced, and they offered 
 sacrifices for peace and fruitful seasons to this deity ; it lasted 
 fourteen days. . . . After the introduction of Christianity, the 
 anniversary of Yule was transferred to Christinas, which is still 
 called by that name throughout Scandinavia." And by Mallet 
 thus : " There were three great religious festivals in the year. 
 The first was celebrated at the winter solstice. They called the 
 night on which it was observed the Mother Night, as that which 
 produced all the rest ; and this epoch was rendered the more re 
 markable as they dated from thence the beginning of the year, 
 which among the Northern nations was computed from one winter 
 sjlstice to another, as the month was from one new moon to the 
 next. This feast, which was very considerable, was named Jul, 
 and was celebrated in honour of Frcj, or the sun, in order to 
 obtain a propitious year and fruitful seasons." 
 
 So little weight did the Northern people attach to baptism, 
 when the. proselyters, by dint of arduous efforts, had at last got 
 them that far, that a story is told of one man who was baptized 
 twenty times. As Laing observes: "Christianity in Scandi 
 navia seems, in the eleventh century, to have consisted merely 
 in the ceremony of baptism, without any instruction in its 
 doctrines." It seemed in many instances to have been merely 
 the deference that well-bred people, when travelling in foreign, 
 land*, p.iy to the natives of th.e country they happen to be in, 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 87 
 
 to judge from this remark of Wheaton s : " On their return to 
 their native country, they made no scruple to conform to the 
 ;external practices of heathenism, believing that Thor, and the 
 other deities of the Xorth, were to be adored as the local gods of 
 Xorway, in the same manner as Christ was worshipped in 
 rEngland as the national god of that country." 
 : However, converted they were, after a long struggle and a 
 sanguinary one. Expressing his satisfaction over this, as befitted 
 a canon, Adam of liremen says naively : " For the rest, the 
 opinion has already become prevalent with the people, that 
 the god of the Christians is the strongest, and that one 
 is often cheated by the other gods, but that this god is 
 always near as a sure and timely help." It is not clear whether 
 .by " god " he means Christ or the Supreme Being, but, at any 
 rate, it is plain that the new religion was an experiment, that it 
 was only taken on trial. The following paragraph of Oswald s 
 " The so-called Christian countries of Northern Europe were not 
 converted before the eleventh century of our era, and revolted in 
 time to prevent their utter ruin" shows that the experiment was 
 not altogether a satisfactory one, and that the old troubles hwl 
 IroTicn out afresh. To make a condensed statement of the first 
 protest of the Scandinavian Xorth against the supremacy of 
 Rome, Gustaf Yasa,in Sweden, again demonstrated the opposite 
 tendency of the Xorth from that of the South by eradicating 
 Roman Catho icism in Sweden simultaneously with Philip II s 
 eradication of Protestantism in Spain. In about ten years the 
 last vestige of the Reformation disappeared in Spain, but in less 
 time than that the spirit of Romanism was banished from 
 Sweden, and Xorway and Denmark were scarcely less vigorous 
 in expelling it. Philip II. declared that it was better 
 not to reign at all than to reign over heretics ; " Gustaf I. de 
 clared by his acts that he would only reign over free men, and 
 that neither he nor his subjects owed allegiance to Rome. 
 
 On tk<! presumption, however, that the conversion of the 
 
88 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 pagan North to Christianity was a genuine one, the Romish 
 Church proceeded to obliterate all traces of this abominable 
 paganism which had so long defied it ; its notorious acts in 
 Greece were repeated throughout the length and breadth of 
 Scandinavia ; submission to it had naturally not abated its 
 hatred, there was still retribution to wreak on the contumacious 
 race that had baffled it, scorned it ; all the descendants of this 
 race, for generations to come, should be made to feel the im 
 placable wrath of the outraged power that has its seat in the 
 Eternal City. Having control of literature, a ready means 
 offered itself. The Church could corrupt history, brand the 
 memory of the Norsemen eternally, by representing all their 
 deeds as those of ferocious, bloodthirsty barbarians, by accusing 
 them of such foul crimes as would pale the crimes of the Church, 
 and by systematically concealing all achievements of theirs, of 
 whatever nature, that would awaken the admiration or gratitude 
 of posterity. The discovery of the New World by the Norse 
 men iras the one event that must most sedulously be concealed ! 
 
 We can note Papish operations, step by step, through the 
 centuries ; the conversion or amalgamation of the Northern 
 pagans into Christian subjects, of free soil into Church territory, 
 of pagan festivals into religious holidays, of Norse deeds into 
 the means of gratifying the .Romanists inordinate desire for 
 power, this is the fell work that has been accomplished through 
 the ages. And the consummation of this iniquity was reserved 
 for the nineteenth century, to be out-worked on American soil ! 
 
 All authors and historians not party to the plot, those of 
 liberal ideas, and who advocate the truth, have openly regretted 
 that history has been made the means of concealing or perverting 
 the truth in regard to the great religious struggle of Europe, 
 and particularly of the Northern race who so valiantly defended 
 the liberty that the sane, natural, healthy man, in possession of 
 his full powers, holds so dear, against the combined assaults of 
 the anti-naturalists, the best name, all things considered, that 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS T)UE. 89 
 
 has been given to the Roman Catholic or Christian body. This 
 definition lias been applied by Felix Oswald, who in further 
 elucidation says, " Only .anti-natural religions have achieved 
 that deep abasement of the physical type of our race which wo 
 see in China and Southern Europe," and expresses an undeniable 
 truth in th assertion : " The night of the Middle Ages was not 
 the natural blindness of unenlightened barbarians, but an 
 unnatural darkness, maintained by an elaborate system of 
 spiritual despotism, and in spite of the fierce struggles of many 
 light-loving nations." But have the Romanists themselves ever 
 deplored this horrible condition of darkness and degradation 1 
 Has not Spain, the spot where the black darkness concentrated, 
 been held up as the model of Christian excellence, for other 
 nations to emulate 1 Has any effort ever been made by the 
 Church of Rome to abate this darkness, to infuse health into 
 its morally-diseased votaries 1 Has not this, in every instance, 
 been the work of heresy ! The Romanists did not even suspend 
 their efforts when the limit of human misery seemed to have been 
 reached ; there was still an unattained depth beyond, for which 
 they strove with a hellish frenzy ! In Oswald s words : " But 
 the efforts of the spoilers did not cease ; and it may be doubted 
 if the Caucasian race will ever wholly recover fiom the effects of 
 a thousand years attempt to lure their children from earth to 
 ghost-land, to poison their minds with the dogmas of pessimism, 
 to sacrifice the pagan Elysium to the Buddhistic Nirvana." 
 
 The caution cannot be repeated too often against placing 
 credence in monkish records of the acts of their Scandinavian 
 enemies ; several warnings are given by Beamish : " From the 
 eighth to the eleventh centuries the Northmen carried on a more 
 active commerce, and a more extensive maritime communication 
 with foreign countries than any other nation in Europe. Such 
 intercourse appears quite incompatible with that extreme 
 degree of ignorance and barbarity in which so many writers 
 would clothe all their actions and enterprises ; " and iu another 
 
90 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 place lie writes : " We should receive with caution all statements 
 upon a subject to which national or religious feeling is likely to 
 have given an exaggerated colouring. Our knowledge of the 
 excesses of the Northern invaders is chiefly derived from the 
 evidence of monkish chroniclers, whose Christian faith and 
 feelings were no less outraged by the deeds than the infidelity 
 of the pagan ravagers, and who, writing in many cases long 
 after the events, would naturally aid defective evidence with a 
 fervid zeal and fertile imagination." Buckle has been peculiarly 
 observant of this uniform vitiation of historical accounts, and 
 traces the operation of the same causes even up in the North : 
 ." But in the ninth and tenth centuries Christian missionaries 
 -found their way across the Baltic, and introduced a knowledge 
 of their religion among the inhabitants of Northern Europe. 
 Scarcely was this effected, when the sources of history began to 
 be poisoned." His " History of Civilization " is no more nor 
 less than the history of the conflict of science, invention, 
 .research, enlightenment, with the theological system that was 
 against everything but bigotry and idolatry, substituting the de 
 basing worship of the Cross for the true aim of human existence. 
 The concealment of the Norse discovery of America was the 
 negative part of the liornanists work; when Christopher 
 Columbus, a nameless Italian adventurer, appeared upon the 
 scene of action, their positive work began, namely, the sub 
 stitution of another discoverer for the original ones, and a 
 transfer of all the benefits of the Norse discovery to the Roman 
 Catholic power: the foundation had been laid ; they would now 
 raise the superstructure. Columbus was a particularly obscure 
 man ; no one knew where he was born, " the question of 
 Columbus birthplace has bjen almost as hotly contested as 
 that of Homer," remarks Arthur Helps ; no one knew what he 
 had been doing in Italy before he went to Spain, after the idea 
 of making a great discovery had taken full possession of him, and 
 uf course the Church .kept its own counsels. That august 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HOXOUR is DUE. 91 
 
 institution 1ms always been blessed with a long memory and 
 was not likely to have forgotten Gudrid s visit, nor the various 
 reports of the Norsemen s voyages that had reached Rome as the 
 world s centre, and been duly recorded, and the recollection of 
 the hated fact, which might after all be turned to account, had 
 been burned into tin; minds of Popes and prelates for those Jive 
 centuries by the anxious labour of preventing the remotest 
 allusion to it from getting into any annals. 
 
 Columbus made his -way to Spain, whether with or without 
 instructions from Rome may be left to conjecture. " Spain at 
 that time/ as the Roman Catholic author, Barry, proudly 
 boasts, "commanded the destinies of the whole Catholic world ; 
 her struggle against the Koran, the zeal of her crusade under 
 taken on the soil of Europe, excited the sympathies of the whole 
 Christian world." Columbus went to Spain, from Italy, after 
 lie had mule his visit to Iceland. It is altogether contrary to 
 reason to infer, because this trip to Iceland was kept a profound 
 secret to the world, that the heads of the Church were not privy 
 to it. This knowledge of theirs of his visit to the place where, 
 all the information concerning the Norse voyages was preserved, 
 his access to the archives of Iceland, his consultations witli 
 Christian prelates there, especially Bishop Magnus, who could 
 put him in the way of learning all he required, all this was the 
 cause of the absolute secrecy maintained. There is more than 
 sufficient evidence that the wily Ita ian obtained all that he 
 sought in Iceland; his discovery of America proves that; hence 
 to go to Spain was his next practical move, and entirely in 
 order. He found himself one day, whether by chance or not 
 can be imagined, at the gates of the monastery of La Rabida, 
 in Andalusia, the guardian of which, Juan Perez de Marchina, 
 had formerly been the confessor of Queen Isabella ; if this was 
 only a chance, it must be confessed that it was an exceedingly 
 lucky one ! Barry describes the meeting ; the mere thought 
 of it kindles his Roman Catholic ardour: " He. welcomed 
 
92 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 fraternally the stranger, towards whom he felt a sudden 
 attraction. A kind of intimacy immediately took place between- 
 them; for already before their meeting there pre-existed 
 letween them the strictest conformity of ideas that can unite 
 two intelligences. The Father Superior, after the first disclosures 
 of Columbus (what were those disclosures .?), "invited him to 
 remain with him, the present moment not being favourable to 
 present his project to the Court. 
 
 These are Very strong words: " tie strictest conformity of 
 ideas that can unite two intelliijenc.es ; " an invitation after the 
 frrst disclosures of Columbus to remain there. JS ow an exposition 
 of Columbus scientific theories (so-called) as to a probable land 
 in the Western ocean would have required hours, and after the 
 hours spent in this way, the strictest conformity of ideas would 
 not have been induced, for the strictest conformity of ideas was 
 not wont to ensue upon such a talk between a scientist and the 
 Superior of a monastery, assuming Columbus to have been a 
 scientist. After the first disclosures, had these been merely a 
 rough sketch of a profound scientific theory, there would not 
 have been an invitation which meant so much, that meant, in 
 fact, active co operation ; but assuming as an hypothesis, that 
 Columbus informed Juan Perez briefly of his visit to Iceland 
 and the satisfactory results from it, of t/te absolute certainty that 
 there was another world lying across the ocean, and of the great 
 good that would accrue to the Church if this land was taken 
 possession of through his (Columbus ) instrumentality, the 
 prompt interest and zeal of the priest will be fully accounted 
 for. This is only a surmise, to be sure, but a surmise that has 
 a startling resemblance to truth. 
 
 But to continue the narrative : " Between Columbus and his 
 host nobody intervened. The confidence of Father Juan. Perez 
 
 was complete, because the demonstration was peremptory, 
 
 because the grand mission of the stranger was manifest 
 to him. . . .He. heard, he comprehended, he believed* 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 93 
 
 , , , The Franciscan recognized in Columbus the mark of a 
 providential election." Doubtless, for Columbus exhibited 
 the craft and sc-cretiveness, the unscrupulous ambition of the 
 religious body to which he belonged ; he had proved himself 
 the proper man for the work, the most audacious fraud that was 
 ever perpetrated, and the Church accepted him unconditionally ! 
 Columbus was a man who did not let his left hand know what 
 his right hand did, and this was a prime qualification ! 
 
 He obtained substantial aid in his huge undertaking it was 
 n huge undertaking to push this scheme through on frail 
 scientific grounds, on account of the necessity of concealing the 
 true grounds from all but a few chosen confidants from the 
 Grand Cardinal of Spain, Pedro Gonzalez de Medona, through 
 whose intervention, according to Barry s allegation, he procured 
 an audience. Washington Irving, however, states that it was 
 Luis de St. Angel, receiver of the ecclesiastical revenues in 
 Aragon, who overcame the scruples of the queen, and gives his 
 eloquent appeal : " He reminded her of how much might be 
 done for the glory of God, the exaltation of the Church, and 
 the extension of her own power and dominion. What cause of 
 regret to her, of triumph to her enemies, of sorrow to her 
 friends, should this enterprise, thus rejected by her, be accom 
 plished by some other power ! He reminded her what fame 
 and dominion other princes had acquired for their discoveries ; 
 here was an opportunity to surpass them all. He entreated her 
 Majesty not to be misled by the assertion of learned men, that 
 the project was the dream of a visionary. He vindicated the 
 judgment of Columbus, and the soundness and practicability of 
 his plans." This he could safely do, for he had the strongest 
 material grounds for relying on Columbus judgment, or rather 
 the trustworthy evidence that Columbus had brought with him 
 from Iceland of the existence of the New World. 
 
 Then follows the affecting scene that has elicited so much 
 admiration for Queen Isabella : " With an cnthusir.sui worthy of 
 
94 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 herself and the cause, Isabella exclaimed, I undertake the 
 enterprise for my own crown of Ca&tile, and Avill pledge my 
 jewels to raise the necessary funds. " Irving, who is an 
 extremely romantic writer, exclaims: "This was the proudest 
 moment in the life of Isabella ; it stamped her lenown for ever 
 as the patroness of the discovery of the Xew World." But M. 
 Angel said that he was ready to advance the necessary funds, for 
 lie evidently knew a few things that had not been confided 
 to the queen,, and Koman Catholic (perhaps Jesuit) as he 
 was, he realized that knowledge was better ihan faith, at 
 least in this instance. On this basis of knowledge he pledged 
 the funds. 
 
 " Armed with these royal commissions," writes Arthur Helps, 
 who also describes the occurrences at the monastery in detail, 
 " Columbus left the Court for Palos and we may be sure that 
 the knot of friends at the monastery were sufficiently demon- 
 strati vein their delight at the scheme on which they had pinned 
 their faith being fairly launched." 
 
 Christopher Columbus discovered America, in the year 1492, 
 in the u ciy desi ribed. Then history, pliant, ductile history, had 
 a new office to perform : to extol Columbus and immortalize 
 him ! The monkish chroniclers did this with as little scruple as 
 they had consigned the true discoverers to oblivion. 
 
 Aaron Goodrich, who has made a very close study of the 
 Character of Columbus, arrives at conclusions in regard to him 
 that will clearly demonstrate to the mind of any candid and 
 unprejudiced reader the reason why Barry, the Roman Catholic, 
 should say of him : " This man had no defect of character, or 
 no worldly quality ; we have weighty reasons for considering 
 him a saint," But Goodrich gives a contrary analysis: "By 
 representing himself as the chosen of God, the champion of the 
 Christian religion, carrying the light of the Gospel to heatht ii 
 nations, by performing the smallest acts with affectation of 
 religious ceremony, by inserting Scriptural and religious sentences 
 
OP; HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE. 95 
 
 in his most trivial letters, by recounting miracles and interviews 
 with God, by giving, in fact, a religious colouring to all his acts, 
 he became the prottrjk of the Church, which has continued 
 through all alter centuries to regard him as one of her most 
 zealous votaries, and is now strenuously urged to place him 
 among her saints." 
 
 After citing the remark of Lord Klingsborough " The 
 writing of history, as far as regards the Xew World, was by the 
 law of Spain restricted to men in priestly orders " Goodrich 
 performs much-needed service by placing before the public, as 
 a specimen of the exactions, the list of licences that were 
 appended to a small work on Mexico, by Botiirini : 
 
 " 1. The declaration of his faith. 
 
 "2. The licence of an Inquisitor. 
 
 "3. The licence of the Judge of the Supreme Council of the 
 Indies. 
 
 " 4. The licence of the Jesuit father. 
 
 " 5. The licence of the Koyal Council of the Indies. 
 
 " 6. The approbation of the qualiticator of the Inquisition, 
 
 " 7. The licence of the Koyal Council of Castile. 
 
 " Beyond all this the person must be of sufficient influence t3 
 obtain the favourable notice of the bodies thus represented. 
 Nor was this the end of the difficulty ; the licence of any one of 
 these officials could be revoked at pleasure ; and, when repub- 
 lished, the work had to be re-examined. The penalty attached 
 to the possession of a book not thus licensed, was death. Such 
 was the tyranny," he adds, " which weighed upon historical 
 writers ; and it is not difficult to perceive how all these censors 
 would deal partially with Columbus." 
 
 An especial adaptation had to be made to the case ; the Xew 
 World was a dangerous subject altogether, which had to be 
 handled with extreme caution ; the difficulty was not only to 
 preserve the fame of Columbus from all heretical cavil, but to 
 rigorously exclude from the lages of history all hint that 
 
96 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 Columbus might have had predecessors who were more justly 
 entitled to the fame he reaped. 
 
 ** To ecclesiastical tyranny and popular prejudice," continues 
 Goodrich, "may be added the exaggerations and falsehoods of 
 the chief actor of the scene;" Columbus visit to Iceland is the 
 key that reveals all these exaggerations and falsehoods, and 
 many of these were born of the difficulty of keeping his own 
 secret. He quotes Aristotle, Ptolemy, St. Isadora, Bede, 
 Strabo, Petrus Comestor, St. Ambrose, Scotus, Pliny, Nicolas de 
 Lira, St. Augustine, Marinus, and the Holy Scriptures, but not 
 once the (l Codex Flatoiensis " the manuscript finished as late as 
 1395, which contained full information about the new land he 
 sought, and recent information at that. As a specimen of his 
 policy, I quote an extract from one of his letters : ( Much more 
 I would have done, if my vessels had leen in as good condition 
 as by rights they ought to have been. This is much, and 
 praised be the eternal God, our Lord, who gives to all those 
 who walk in His ways victory over things which seem impossi 
 ble ; of which this is signally one, for although others may have 
 spoken or written concerning these countries, it was all mere 
 conjecture, as no one could say that he had seen them it 
 amounting only to this, that those who heard listened the more, 
 and regarded the matter rather as a fable than anything else. 
 
 Only a few years after this well-attested (?) discovery of the 
 New World, Sweden s period of greatness began ; in 1527 
 King Gustaf I. proclaimed Lutheranism the Scate religion of 
 Sweden ; his son, Carl IX., defeated the attempt of the Catholic 
 reaction, of which Spain was the soul, to re-establish Romanism 
 in Sweden ; his grandson, Gustaf Adolf, was one of the leading 
 generals in the " Thirty Years War," which effected the victory 
 of the Reformation in Europe ; in 1776, the American colonies, 
 which had been growing apace in these three centuries, declared 
 independence of Great Britain, and the severest stroke in the 
 succession of hard strokes that had befallen the Church of Rome 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 97 
 
 established a purely secular government ! The old Norse 
 spirit, supposed to have been effectually quenched in the year 
 1000, had broken out again, proven itself indestructible. It 
 bad again given Sweden good warriors, good statesmen, good 
 kings and generals ; the country doomed to mediaeval obscurity 
 and penance, again stepped to the front and made itself felt as 
 a power in Europe, but, worse than all else, it made of the new 
 American Republic the most formidable power for good that 
 the powers of darkness, incarnate in the Church, had ever had 
 to contend with, and this occupied an immense territory, rich, 
 fertile, comprising enormous resources, and admirably calculated 
 to promote enlightenment and the well-being not only of its own 
 inhabitants, but of the down-trodden, oppressed, priest-ridden, 
 pining, inhabitants of Europe ! No nation, since the Scandina 
 vian North had devoted itself to glory, had ever been so proud 
 as the American Republic, so boastful of its liberty, its grandeur, 
 its advancement,, so impatient of the slightest touch upon its 
 freedom, its rights. No people were so little disposed to bow 
 to either Church or throne, indeed they made a national procla 
 mation of their determination not to bow to anything. Norse 
 defiance flamed up again in the person of free-born Americans-. 
 The greatest possible progress Avas threatened in republicanism 
 and free ideas ! 
 
 What did the Church of Rome do, what could it do but 
 claim the United States as its own, on the score of the discovery 
 of America by Columbus 1 If this claim could be pressed, it 
 the United States could be forced or cajoled into an acknow 
 ledgment of the discovery by Columbus, all mi^ht be retrieved. 
 But the Church must move with all prudence, the design must 
 not be suspected until fairly accomplished. There was no 
 reason to doubt that the United States would fall into the trap. 
 
 Barry remarks a revival of interest and of biographies of 
 Columbus at the beginning of this century, and names Luigi 
 Bossi, Navarrete, -"Wi Irving, and Denis as being instrumental in 
 
 H 
 
98 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 the favourable reaction. He boasts of his own book, "The 
 Cross in the Two Worlds," as having " come to reveal for the 
 first time the providential mission confided to Columbus, and 
 to affirm loudly the saintliness of his character." An ascending 
 series of publications, he declares, " show the progressive interest 
 that is attached to the memory of Columbus." In lamenting 
 the past injustice to Columbus, fur his keen perception seems to 
 have detected something resembling this even in Spain, he avers 
 devoutly that "the Koman Pontificate alone preserved the 
 thought of the apostolic grandeur of Columbus ; successively 
 three Popes had honoured with their confidence this herald of 
 the Cross ; the Holy See never failed in its regard for him." 
 We can well lelieve that ! " But in our days," he cries jubilantly ^ 
 there is manifested a movement of reparative justice and 
 friendliness for the lame of Columbus. Pains are taken to 
 honour him." 
 
 The plot once clearly discerned, these pains will be taken in 
 vain. It cannot but be apparent to one who gives the subject 
 a moment s serious consideration, that the Church that has fought 
 the Scandinavians for ages in Europe, is not likely to fraternize 
 or coalesce with American institutions that are the natural out 
 growth of the Scandinavian spirit. There is a new conflict 
 impending in the United States. The same people who were 
 compelled to abolish the physical slavery of which the seeds 
 were sowed by Spain, will now have to abolish the spiritual 
 slavery which Spain and Rome with combined force are en 
 deavouring to fasten upon it. 
 
 In finding fault with the four biographers of Columbus, 
 Spotorno, Irving, Navarrete, and Alex, von Humboldt, who, as 
 he declares, " denaturalize his person and his providential role," 
 Barry writes this pregnant sentence : " The biography of 
 Columbus has remained in the hands of his natural enemies . . . 
 whence it follows that the view taken of it by Protestantism is 
 the only one by which people have judged of the most vast, 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 
 
 99 
 
 and evidently the most superhuman achievement of Catholic 
 genius." 
 
 Yes, he is right, the whole plot is most assuredly the most 
 vast and the most superhuman achievement of Catholic genius ! 
 What tut Catholic genius, the genius for deceit, for trickerv, 
 for secrecy, for wicked and diabolical machinations, could have 
 pursued such a system of fraud for centuries as the one now- 
 being exposed ! What but Catholic genius, a proliiic genius for 
 evil, would have attempted to rob the Norsemen of their fame, 
 of the knowledge of their great discovery, and to foist a 
 miserable Italian adventurer and upstart upon Americans as the 
 true candidate for these posthumous honours, the man, or saint, 
 to whom they are to do homage, and through this homage allow 
 the Church of Kome to slip the yoke of spiritual subjection 
 over their necks ! 
 
 One of the most interesting pages in history, the history as 
 yet unwritten, will be the account of the manner in which the 
 American people, the descendants of the Vikings, treat this 
 attempt ! 
 
 H 2 
 
IOD THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 COLUMBUS VISIT TO ICELAND. 
 
 THK best proof that Columbus went to Iceland, before perfecting 
 his plans for the discovery of the land the other side of the 
 Western ocean, is that he said so himself. The pregnant passage 
 is quoted by Irving, in his " Life of Columbus : " " While the 
 design of attempting the discovery in the West was maturing 
 in the mind of Columbus, he made a voyage to the North of 
 Europe. Of this we have no other memorial than the following 
 passage, extracted by his son from one of his letters : In the 
 year 1477, in February, I navigated one hundred leagues beyond 
 Thule, the southern part of which is seventy-three degrees 
 distant from the equator, and not sixty-three, as some pretend ; 
 neither is it situated within the line which includes the west of 
 Ptolemy, but is much more westerly. The English, principally 
 those of Bristol, go with their merchandise to this island, which 
 is as large as England. When I was there, the sea was not 
 frozen, and the tides were so great as to rise and fall twenty-six 
 fathom. " 
 
 This statement, according to Professor K. P>. Anderson, is also 
 to be found in chapter four of the biography which the son 
 of Christopher Columbus wrote of his father, and which was 
 published in Venice in 1571. Its title is "Vita dell admiraglia 
 Christoforo Columbo." 
 
 Professor Anderson s book, America not discovered by 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 101 
 
 Columbus," aside from its bold negation of the proud pontifical 
 assertion that the saint in question did discover that country, 
 leads attention to a point that has been almost entirely over 
 looked, namely, the connection between the true and the alleged 
 discovery; he says : "While the various writers here alluded to" 
 (lie goes over the ground pretty thoroughly) " freely admit the, 
 fact that the Norsemen, as well as others, discovered and ex 
 plored parts of America long before Columbus, they are unwilling 
 to believe that there is any historical connection between the 
 discovery of the Norsemen and that of Columbus ; or, in other 
 words, that Columbus profited in any way by the Norsemen s 
 knowledge of America. This is all the more singular since 
 none of them even try to deny the statement made by Fernando 
 Columbo, his son, that he (Christopher Columbus) not only 
 spent some time in Iceland, in 1477, but sailed 300 miles 
 beyond, which mast have brought him nearly within sight of 
 Greenland. We are informed that he was an earnest student, 
 and the best geographer and map-maker of his day. He was a 
 diligent reader of Aristotle, Seneca, and Strabo. Why not also 
 of Adam of Bremen, who, in his volume published in the year 
 1076, gave an accurate and well-authenticated account of 
 Vinlaii l (New England) 1 " He goes on to say that he believes 
 that "Columbus was a scholar who industriously studied all 
 books and manuscripts that contained any information about 
 voyages and discoveries; that his searching mind sought out 
 the writings of Adam of Bremen, that well-known historian 
 who in the most unmistakable and emphatic language speaks of 
 the Norse discovery of Vinland ; that the information thus 
 gathered induced him to make his voyage to Iceland." 
 
 Aaron Goodrich, on the other hand, do ;s not believe that 
 Columbus went to Iceland, notwithstanding Columbus wrote 
 about his visit there to his son and his son quoted the passage 
 in his letter, and he doubts this for the very reason that 
 should have made him credit it implicitly, namely, because 
 
102 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 Columbus has so vert/ little to say about it. Goodrich 
 comments : " He does not give any reasons for such a voyage 
 (to Iceland) nor mention the ship he sailed in, or the port he 
 sailed from ; he gives nothing, in fact, but the most vague 
 assertions. All contemporary writers, State papers, &c., are 
 silent upon the subject, when less important matters are re- 
 cordevl." It is astonishing that so shrewd a writer as Good 
 rich, who seems to have fathomed Columbus motives in all 
 other regards, should have expected him to give his reasons for 
 the voyage, mention the ship he sailed in and the port he sailed 
 from, when he was going on a secret expedition, probably com 
 missioned by the Pope himself, for the purpose of stealing 
 knowledge that would put the Church in possession of a vast 
 new territory for the acquisition of gold, slaves, and souls ! 
 Tliia secrecy \aprima-facie evidence that he went to Iceland. 
 But it would have been better for the Church of Home if his son 
 had burned this letter as soon as he had read it ! On so slight a 
 thread, on this little indiscretion of his in keeping the letter 
 and mentioning it, rested the vindication of the fame of the 
 .Norsemen and the conviction of Columbus of a base fraud ! 
 
 Birry, however, does not seem to doubt that Columbus went 
 to Iceland. He writes in his usual ecstatic way : " We see 
 him crossing the German Ocean and advancing to the Polar 
 Seas. In February, 1474, he was a hundred leagues beyond 
 Iceland, and verified some phenomena interesting to hydro 
 graphy. From the sombre horizons of the North, from the 
 Ultima Tliulv of the ancients to the splendid skies of the 
 tropics" the writer does not hint at what Columbus verified 
 in Iceland besides phenomena " with his powerful faculty of 
 generalization, he united together in his memory the harmonies 
 of land and sea, seeking to penetrate beyond the poetry of 
 appearances the great laws of the globe." This is not very 
 lucid, but it is suggestive. There is nothing so good to hide 
 a little hard fact as a lot of rhapsodical vapour. Far from 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 103 
 
 seeking to penetrate the grent laws of the globe at that precise 
 period, the Italian mariner, who, failing of being a skilful one, 
 was bent on being a lucky one, was on the hunt for those 
 particular paragraphs, in some old manuscript or other, that 
 would serve him as a chart to the coveted land in the West. 
 This is only one evidence more of the elaborate disguise that 
 was thrown around all his movements while at Iceland. 
 
 . R. H. Major, in the introduction to " Columbus Letters," 
 mentions the fact of his having gone to Iceland, yet adds : 
 4< But upon the whole of this portion of his: history there rests 
 an impenetrable cloud of obscurity." It was indeed like a 
 secret of the confessional, divulged only to the holy fathers 
 themselves ! 
 
 Arthur Helps, in hi* " Life of Columbus,," asserts positively : 
 "We are sure that he traversed a large part of the known 
 world, that he visited England, that he made his way to Ice 
 land and Friesland (where he may possibly have heard vague 
 tales of the discoveries by the Northmen in Xorth America), 
 that he had been at El Mina, on the coast of Guinea, and that 
 he had seen the islands of the Grecian Archipelago." And 
 there can scarcely be anything more emphatic than the follow 
 ing words by Toulmin Smith: "There can be little doubt that he 
 (Columbus) had gained the chief confirmation of his idea of 
 the existence of terra firma in the Western ocean, during the 
 visit which he is known to have made, before his Western 
 voyage, to Iceland." 
 
 It was on the coast of Guinea, as Goodrich has ascertained, 
 that Columbus qualified himself in a branch of trade that he 
 evident y considered indispensable in the future founder of a 
 colony, for Goodrich states : " For some years, it is unknown 
 at what precise period, Columbus was engaged in the Guinea 
 slave-trade, in which he subsequently showed himself such an 
 adept with regard to the unfortunate Indians as well to de 
 serve the compliment paid him by Mr. Helps, who calls his 
 
104 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 proceedings and plans worthy of a practised slave-dealer." 
 Professor Anderson states, for the benefit of those who have 
 not read Goodrich s book, " History of the Character and 
 Achievements of the so-called Christopher Columbus," that 
 fi Aaron Goodrich pronounces Columbus a fraud, and denounces 
 him as mean, selfish, perfidious and cruel. He has evidently 
 made a very careful study of the life of Columbus, and we 
 have looked in vain for a satisfactory refutation of his state 
 ments." Still less can the following statement, by the same 
 author, be refuted: "Columbus owes most of his fame to the 
 Church, which, charmed with the devotion he professed, has 
 chanted his praises, and crushed any historian who would not 
 join in them, as long as her power was sufficient." 
 
 The next thing necessary for a full understanding of this 
 momentous visit of Columbus to Iceland is to know the full 
 extent of his opportunities there and the use he made of them. 
 Much light is thrown on this by Laing ; in his "Sea-kings of 
 Norway " he makes substantially the same statement as the 
 one quoted in the first chapter of this book ; it is this : " It is 
 evident that the main fact is that of a discovery of a Western land 
 being recorded in writing between 1387 and 1395 ; and whether 
 the minor circumstances, such as the personal adventures of the 
 discoverers, or the exact localities in America which they 
 visited, be or be not known, cannot affect this fact, nor the 
 very strong side-fact that eighty years after this fact was re 
 corded in writing, in no obscure manuscript, but in one of the 
 most beautiful works of penmanship in Europe, Columbus 
 came to Iceland, from Bristol, in 1477, on purpose to gain 
 nautical information, and must have heard of the written 
 accounts of discoveries recorded in it." The writer also 
 cites the paragraph in the memoir of Columbus by his 
 son. Professor Anderson says, very pertinently, that " there 
 were undoubtedly people still living whose grandfathers had 
 crossed the Atlantic, and it would be altogether unreasonable 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 105 
 
 to suppose that he (Columbus), who was constantly studying 
 and talking about geography and navigation, possibly could 
 visit Iceland and not hear anything of the land in the West." 
 He goes rather farther than other authors, but still does not 
 express himself as severely as the case deserves, when he says : 
 " The fault that we find with Columbus is, that he was not 
 honest and frank enough to tell where and how he had 
 obtained his previous information about the lands which he 
 pretended to discover; that he sometimes talked of himself as 
 chosen of Heaven to make this discovery, and that he made 
 the fruits of his labours subservient to the dominion of Inquisi 
 tion." This is undeniably a very grave charge, yet it far from 
 characterizes the religious felony of which Columbus was 
 guilty : he purloined the knowledge of a discovery of trans 
 cendent value made by men of a p;tgan race, but recently and 
 very reluctantly converted to Christianity, for the purpose of 
 securing princely honours and emolument for himself, the greatest 
 conceivable aggrandizement for the Church, such an oppor 
 tunity for universal dominion as could never, in the nature of 
 tilings, occur again in the life of the world ; and last and most 
 important of all, for the purpose of making the New World, 
 through its entire submission to the Holy See, the means of 
 crushing out all tendencies to rebellion against the Church that 
 might possibly manifest themselves again in Europe. The sway 
 of the Church of Koine could not be complete without the 
 acquisition of this new territory, of which the natives were to 
 be forced into allegiance and which was to be colonized only by 
 those firm in the faith. It is utterly impossible for this deed 
 to be understood in all its enormity by those who shrink from 
 regarding it as a religious crime, the most heinous one of the 
 long list that the Church of Rome has committed, and which 
 was to have been the glorious reward for all the others, 
 emblazoning the favourite maxim of this hierarchy, " The end 
 sanctifies the means," on the very skies ! Christians of every 
 
io6 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 sect, Protestants of all grades, treat Roman Catholicism very 
 tenderly, for they cannot strike it at any of its vulnerable 
 points, without striking that which is almost equally vulner 
 able in their own system of religion. Romanism creeps in 
 everywhere under the cover of Protestantism ; Protestantism, 
 whatever bears the name of Christianity, is its best shield 
 and defence in fact its sole one. It is only by regarding 
 Christianity as one, of which Romanism is the full expression, 
 and Protestantism the diluted, the component parts of this 
 being, when analyzed, Roman Catholicism and liberality, the 
 first not less evil, intrinsically, through the mixture, the 
 latter only rendered less effective, arid by realizing the 
 atrocious way in which Christianity was introduced in every 
 Lmd, and in every colony by noting its deadly effects upon 
 every race that were forced to succumb to it, that one can 
 understand the full nature of the crime under consideration. 
 Now, however, the issue can no longer be evaded ! 
 
 That Columbus had abundant opportunities, in Iceland, to 
 pursue his inquiries is shown clearly by Beamish, in his 
 " Discovery of America by the Northmen : " " Nor should it 
 be forgotten that Columbus visited Iceland in 1477, when, 
 having had access to the archives of the island and ample 
 opportunity of conversing with the learned there through the 
 medium of the Latin language, he might easily have obtained a 
 complete knowledge of the discoveries of the Northmen 
 sufficient at least to confirm his belief in the existence of a 
 Western continent. How much the discoveries of the dis 
 tinguished Genoese navigator were exceeded by those of the 
 Northmen, will appear from tho following narratives." (Then 
 follows the translation of the voyages so often referred to, the 
 same that was published by the Prince Society, in Boston.) 
 
 " According to living s larger work," the same author re 
 marks, " this visit (to Iceland) took place in February, 1477, 
 when Columbus appears to have observed with surprise that the 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE, 107 
 
 sea was not frozen. The learned Icelander, Finn Magimsen, 
 directs attention to the following remarkable coincidence : * In 
 the year 1477, Magnus Eiolfson was Bishop of Skalholt in Ice 
 land ; since 1470 he had been abbot of the Monastery of 
 Helgafell, the place where the oldest documents relating to 
 Greenland, Vinland, and the various parts of America discovered 
 by the Northmen had been written, and where they were 
 doubtless carefully preserved, as it was from this very district 
 that the most distinguished voyagers had gone forth. These 
 documents must have bee i well known to Bishop Magnus, as 
 were their general contents throughout the island, and it is, 
 therefore, in the highest degree improbable that Columbus, whose 
 mind had been filled with the idea of exploring a Western 
 continent since the year 1474, should have omitted to seek for 
 and receive information respecting these early voyages. He 
 arrived at Hvalfjord, or Hvalfjardarejri, on the south coast of 
 Iceland, at a time when that harbour was most frequented, and 
 it is well known that Bishop Magnus visited the neighbouring 
 churches in the spring or summer." 
 
 Laing gives still further information on this point, obtained 
 from the same source and one other, namely, Captain Zahrt- 
 mann on the voyage of Zeno, and Finn Magnusen on " The 
 English Trade to Iceland," second volume of " Nordisk Tid- 
 skrift," 1833. It is this : "Columbus came in spring to the 
 south end of Iceland, where Whalefjoid was the usual harbour, 
 and it is known that Bishop Magnus, exactly in the spring of 
 that year (1477), was on a visitation to that part of his see, and 
 it is to be presumed Columbus must have met and conversed 
 with him." 
 
 In a review of that great work by Professor Rafn, " Antiqui- 
 tates Americana?," which appeared in the Foreign Quarterly 
 Review, for May, 1838, it is asked very aptly : " But what 
 could be more to his purpose or better adapted to his views 
 than the fact that the Northmen, the boldest of navigators, 
 
loS THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 had knowledge of a land in the West which they supposed to 
 extend far southwards till it met Africa ? Or would not the 
 intelligent Genoese find some suggestion in the following more 
 accurate statement of an Icelandic geographer : On the west 
 of tie great sea of Spain, which some call Ginnungagap, and 
 leaning somewhat towards the north, the first land which occurs 
 is the good Vinland?" 
 
 If we turn to Swedish authors, we find the same belief with 
 them, that Columbus paid a visit to Iceland and obtained there" 
 all the information requisite to enable him to carry out his pre 
 sumptuous plan. Holmberg s words are conclusive : " With 
 certainty do we know that Columbus toward the end of the 
 fifteenth century, presumably in the year 1477, sojourned at 
 Iceland, where he was sent by Englishmen, whose industrial 
 mind had already fixed its attention upon Iceland s rich fisheries. 
 Here he without doubt met the descendants of those who had 
 first made paid discovery, got knowledge of the written sagor 
 thereof, and probably also obtained fresh intelligence concerning 
 the great land in the West, Vinland det tjfoda, as History is oble 
 to mention an American voyage only one hundred and thirty 
 years previous. He was, however, sufficiently prudent never to 
 reveal this, and such a trait perhaps diminishes his greatness. 
 The edge of the well-known story of Columbus is through this 
 turned against himself, and one cannot well avoid seeing a 
 Nemesis in the fact that the New World did not obtain his 
 name, but that of another who sailed in his wake." 
 
 And in Spain, when it became a matter of obtaining royal 
 sanction to his enterprise, the funds to carry it through, what 
 evidence so incontrovertible of the success that had attended his 
 inquiries in Iceland as his supreme confidence in himself? 
 no, in the certainty he had obtained up there in the North, 
 from records that did not lie, like the Southern ones, from a 
 people who did not lie, and who treasured the great deeds of 
 their illustrious ancestors, as his grand pretensions, and, for 1 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 109 
 
 that mutter, his patience and fortitude, which have been so 
 much lauded, in holding out during so long a struggle and wait-^ 
 ing ? This certainty, based on reliable Icelandic records, was 
 more stimulating than scientific knowledge, such scientific know 
 ledge as, he could command, more sustaining than faith, more 
 delicious than even his own vanity ! lie was not too proud, 
 this man, to enjoy a stolen inheritance. 
 
 As is well known, his plan stranded, in the first instance, on 
 account of his preposterously high demands. Irving, observing 
 the fact, but misconstruing the cause, says : "So fully imbued 
 was Columbus with the grandeur of his enterprise, that lie would 
 listen to none but princely conditions." Not with " the gran 
 deur of his enterprise," but with the money value of his stolen 
 knowledge, the three-fold advantage of it to the Church, the 
 throne of Spain and himself, was he imbued! " The courtiers 
 who treated with him," continued Irving, " were indignant at such 
 a demand. Their pride was shocked to see one whom they had 
 considered as a needy adventurer, aspiring to rank and dignities 
 superior to their own." 
 
 Needy adventurer he indeed was ! But the consciousness 
 that he had a genuine commodity for which he was sure to find 
 a customer in the long run, gave him the hardihood to make 
 large demands. Naturally insolent, this secret certainty inflate; I 
 his insolence to the extreme of audacity. It was not reckless 
 audacity, however, for he was sure of his ground, and could not 
 very well presume too much. 
 
 The reader will now be interested to know what share of the 
 spoils fell to Columbus these guaranteed beforehand as the re 
 sult of the knowledge he stole at Iceland, and which rendered 
 this trip the most successful voyage 011 record. 
 
 The following is quoted from Arthur Helps " Life of 
 Columbus : " 
 
 " The favours which Christopher Columbus has asked from 
 the King and Queen of Spain in recompense of the discoveries 
 
i io THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 which he has made in the ocean seas, and as recompense for the 
 voyage which he is about to undertake, are the following ; 
 
 "1. He wishes to be made admiral of the seas and countries 
 which he is about to discover. He desires to hold this dignity 
 during his life, and that it should descend to his heirs. 
 
 " This request is granted by the King and Queen. 
 
 " 2. Christopher Columbus wishes to be made viceroy of all 
 the continents and islands. 
 
 <e Grunted by the King and Queen. 
 
 " 3. He wishes to have a share, amounting to a tenth part, of 
 the profits of all merchandise, be it pearls, jewels, or any other 
 things, that may be found, gained, bought, or exported from the 
 countries which he is to discover. 
 
 " Granted by the King and Queen. 
 
 " 4. He wishes, in his quality of admiral, to be made sole judge 
 of all mercantile matters that may be the occasion of dispute in 
 the countries which he is to discover. 
 
 " Granted by the King and Queen on the ronditun that this 
 jurisdiction should belong to the office of admiral as held by Don 
 Enriques and otlier admirals. 
 
 5. Christopher Columbus wishes to have the right to contri 
 bute the eighth part of the expenses of all ships which traffic 
 with the new countries, and in return to earn the eighth part of 
 the profits. 
 
 (< Granted by the King and Queen. 
 
 i Santa Fe, in the Vega of Granada, 
 
 " April 17th, 1492." 
 
 What share the Pope gave the King and Queen we already 
 know ! 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. in 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE SCANDINAVIAN NORTH AND SPAIN CONTRASTED. 
 
 THE signal national act of Spain, which has given it a ghastly pre 
 eminence this act extended into a uniform line of conduct for 
 seveml centuries was that of crushingoutall the civilization with 
 in its borders, or in lands adjacent to it. That which distinguishes 
 ancient Scandinavia is its persistent resistance to the power that 
 enabled Spain to do the European race this almost irreparable 
 injury, the national traits of the Northern people alone pre 
 venting the injury from becoming universal destruction. To be 
 sure, Llorente and others assert that Spain resisted the intro 
 duction of the Inquisition, " It is an incontestable fact," he says, 
 " in the history of the Spanish Inquisition, that it was intro 
 duced entirely against the consent of the provinces, and only by 
 the influence of the Dominican monks ;" yet the resistance was 
 but feeble, the ruling traits of the Spanish people, rightly 
 denned by Buckle as loyalt} r and superstition, operating more 
 decisively to further its introduction than even the zeal of the 
 Dominicans. "These, then, were the two great elements of 
 which the Spanish character was compounded. Loyalty and 
 superstition ; reverence for their kings and reverence for their 
 clergy were the leading principles which influenced the Spanisli 
 mind, and governed the inarch of Spanish history," states Buckle 
 succinctly. The popes and bishops of the fourth century had 
 profited of the circumstance of the emperors having embraced 
 Christianity, and this gave the Church the reins of power, while 
 
ii2 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 the predominant traits of the Spaniards rendered them sub 
 missive tools for any infamy Church and Throne united might 
 devise. This nation were destitute of that instinct which was 
 the strongest in the Norsemen, the instinct of freedom. 
 
 The motives for establishing the Inquisition must of necessity 
 have actuated the Spaniards at large as well as the heads of the 
 Church and the reigning sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, 
 else the people, weak as they were, could have frustrated the 
 attempt of these to establish such a system of terrorism ; but 
 hatred of the Jews, a consuming envy of their superior pros 
 perity, as well as their learning and skill, prevailed everywhere, 
 and the ecclesiastical and imperial proposition to persecute this 
 race in a body, met with a hearty response. Llorente declares this 
 with absolute authority: "The Christians who could not rival 
 them in industry, had almost all become their debtors, and envy 
 soon made them the enemies of their creditors." The Spanish 
 Moors were still more obnoxious to them. How could a race 
 who were Christians in the full sense of the word, steeped in the 
 ignorance and superstition that this implies, tolerate the proxi 
 mity of a people whose "culture and prosperity rivalled the Golden 
 Age of the Grecian Republics " ? This glorious height had been 
 reached, affirms Felix Oswald, two centuries after the conversion 
 of Mecca, "and, six hundred years later, the Moors of Spain were 
 still the teachers of Europe in science and arts, as well as in in 
 dustry and in agriculture." True Christians are manifestly 
 of the same type everywhere, and the Spanish Christians could 
 not have differed essentially from the class in Greece and Rome 
 upon which Celsus visits such severe reprobation. " You shall 
 see weavers tailors, fullers, and the most illiterate and rustic 
 fellows, who dare not speak a word before wise men, when they 
 can get a company of children and silly women together, set up 
 to teach strange paradoxes among them. . . . This is one of their 
 rules Let no man that is learned, wise, or prudent come among 
 us ; but if any be unlearned, or a child, or an idiot, let him 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 113 
 
 freely conic. So they openly declare that none but fools and 
 sots, and such as want sense, slaves, women and children, are 
 tit disciples for the God they worship." St. Mark also, in the 
 second chapter, sixteenth verse, says that Jesus went surrounded 
 by men and women of ill-repute, and that the Pharisees and the 
 learned were astonished that He ate and drank in such company. 
 In a few terse words Felix Oswald draws the contrast between 
 the enlightened and unenlightened in Spain : " At the same 
 time when Moorish Spain rivalled the god-gardens of ancient 
 Italy, and every Moorish town had its schools of poetry and 
 philosophy, Christian Spain was cursed with a chronic plague of 
 mental and physical famines." Prescott also affirms that " the 
 Spanish Moors in the Peninsula reached a higher degree of 
 civilization than in any other part of the world," and, further 
 more, that " this period of brilliant illumination with the 
 Saracens corresponds precisely with that of the deepest barbarism 
 of Europe ; when a library of three or four hundred volumes 
 was a magnificent endowment for the richest monastery." 
 
 It was the same with the Albigenses, a refined, enlightened, 
 free minded people, opposed to the doctrines of ivome ; they 
 excited the same feelings of hatred, envy and malignity in the 
 Spaniards, and the command to exterminate all three of these 
 races, the Moors, Jews, and Albigenses, was more than welcome. 
 This ready acceptance of a fiendish policy in itself proves Spain 
 to have been brutally debased. In religious parlance this nation 
 abhorred heresy ; in the language of truth, it abhorred civiliza 
 tion. Nevertheless, it must be admitted candidly, that it is the 
 only nation that has ever pursued a thoroughly consistent policy, 
 for Christianity and civilization are utterly incompatible and 
 cannot exist on the same soil. If salvation has arty meaning, if 
 f.iith is necessary for salvation, if heresy is a crime, entailing 
 the most frightful consequences, here and hereafter, almost any 
 means are justifiable to prevent that crime, and no means less 
 rigorous than the Inquisition could have checked all the natural 
 
 I 
 
1 14 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 instincts of the human heart and mind, the impulse, craving, 
 determination, inseparable from human nature, for knowledge, 
 freedom, happiness, progress, a natural and unrestrained life. ]f 
 Christianity is better than all this, according to its own dogmatic 
 assertion, which Spain implicitly believed, it was right to impose 
 it there, through any means at command, which Spain did, and 
 it would nlfo be right to impose it, at this present d;iy, on all 
 the nations of the earth, and through the same means, the only 
 effectual means, the Inquisition. Christianity, in short, pro 
 nounces human nature wrong, all its attributi s wrong, and sets 
 about a reconstruction so violent, so contrary to the mental, 
 moral, and physical conformation of human brings, that nothing 
 less than the extinction of the species will effect it. The Spanish 
 Inquisition barely failed of this result within its own jurisdic 
 tion. Prescott sums up Llorente s figures thus: " Llorente 
 computes that during the eighteen years cf Torquemada s 
 ministry, there were no less than 10.220 burnt, G860 con 
 demned and burnt in effigy as absent or dead, and 97.321 
 reconciled by various other penances ; affording an average of 
 more than 6000 convicted persons annually." Jkit in his 
 preface, this brave and outspoken man, who with almost super 
 human courage dared to expose the full iniquity of the Inquisi 
 tion, describes the evil it wrought : " I have also shown that 
 these ministers of persecution have been the chief causes of the 
 decline of literature, and almost the annihilators of nearly all 
 that could enlighten the people, by their ignorance, their blind 
 submission to the monks who were qualifiers, and by persecuting 
 the magistrates and the learned who were anxious to disseminate 
 information. These monks were despicable scholastic theologians, 
 too ignorant and prejudiced to be able to ascertain the truth 
 between the doctrines of Luther and those of Roman Catholicism, 
 nnd so condemned as Lutheran, propositions incontestably true. 
 The horrid conduct of this IwUj office weakened the power and 
 diminished the population of Sp.iin by arresting the progress of 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 115 
 
 arts, sciences, industry,, and commerce, and by com pel] ing multi 
 tudes of families to abandon the kingdom, by instigating the 
 expulsion of the Jews and the Moors, and by immolating 
 on its flaming shambles more than three hundred thousand 
 victims ! ! " 
 
 Concerning this invaluable work, which will yet, I trust not 
 in the far future, serve the purpose of doing away with Chris 
 tianity as the prime cause, not only of this particular evil, but 
 of all evil, Prescott writes : " Llorente s work well deserves to 
 be studied as the record of the most humiliating triumph which 
 fanaticism has ever been able to obtain over human reason, and 
 that too during the most civilized periods and in the most civi 
 lized portion of the world." Llorente gives his own reasons for 
 undertaking a work fraught with such difficulty and danger. 
 "A firm conviction, from knowing the deep objects of this 
 tribunal, that it was vicious in principle, in its constitution, and 
 in its laws, notwithstanding all that has been said in its support, 
 induced me to avail myself of the advantage my situation 
 afforded me, and to collect every document I could procure 
 relative to its history." He was secretary of the Inquisition at 
 Madrid during the years 1789, 1790, and 1791. 
 
 The purpose was thus to exterminate heresy and heretics. 
 Heresy, as we have seen, is a very comprehensive word, and in 
 the effort to exterminate that, Spain was in reality exterminating 
 all that was of value to the human race. In corroboration of 
 this 1 quote several authors, for the testimony must be so 
 abundant as to leave no doubt on this point. " It is remarkable 
 that a scheme so monstrous as that of the Inquisition, presenting 
 the most effectual barrier, probably, that was ever opposed to 
 the progress of knowledge, should have been revived at the 
 close of the fifteenth century, when the light of civilization was 
 rapidly advancing over every part of Europe," writes Prescott, 
 also remarking : " It is painful, after having dwelt so long on 
 the important benefits resulting to Castile from the comprehen- 
 
 i 2 
 
n6 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 sive policy of Isabella, 1 to be compelled to turn to the darker 
 side of the picture, and to exhibit her as accommodating her 
 self to the illiberal spirit of the age in which she lived, so far 
 as to sanction one of the grossest abuses that ever disgraced 
 humanity." Buckle s verdict is this : " In such a state of society, 
 anything approaching to a secular or scientific spirit was, of 
 course, impossible. Every one believed ; no one inquired. 
 Among the better classes, all "were engaged in war or theologv, 
 and most were occupied with both. Those who made literature 
 a profession, ministered, as professional men too often do, to the 
 prevailing prejudice. . . . The quantity of Spanish works to 
 prove the necessity of religious persecution is incalculable ; and 
 this took place in a country where not one man in a thousand 
 doubted the propriety of burning heretics. . . . The greatest men, 
 with hardly an exception, became ecclesiastics, and all temporal 
 considerations, all views of earthly policy, were despised arid 
 set at naught. No one inquired ; no one doubted ; no one pre 
 sumed to ask if all this was right. The minds of men succumbed 
 and were prostrate. "While every other country was advancing, 
 Spain alone was receding. Every other country was making some 
 addition to knowledge, creating some art, or enlarging some 
 science. Spain, numbed into a deathlike torpor , spell-bound and 
 entranced by the accursed superstition which preyed on her 
 strength, presented to Europe a solitary instance of constant 
 decay." There wire other practical results to which he also 
 draws attention : " The Spanish Christians considered agricul 
 ture beneath their dignity. In their judgment war and religion 
 were the only two avocations worthy of being followed. Some 
 of the richest parts of Valencia and Granada were so neglected 
 that means were wanting to feed even the scanty population 
 remaining there. Whole districts were deserted, and down to 
 the present day have never been repeopled. All over Spain 
 
 1 " History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella," W. II. Prescott. 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 117 
 
 the same destitution prevailed. That once rich and prosperous 
 country was covered with a rabble of monks and clergy, whose 
 insatiate rapacity absorbed the little wealth yet to be found. 
 The fields were left uncultivated ; vast multitudes died from 
 want and exposure ; entire villages were deserted." 
 
 W. H. Lecky, iu his " History of Rationalism," describes 
 another phase of the evil : " The persecutor can never be certain 
 that he is not persecuting truth rather than error, but he may 
 be quite certain that he is suppressing the spirit of truth. And 
 indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that the doctrines I have 
 reviewed represent the most skilful and at the same time most 
 successful conspiracy against that spirit that has ever existed 
 among mankind. Until the seventeenth century, every mental 
 disposition which philosophy pronounces to be essential to 
 a legitimate research was almost uniformly branded as a sin ; 
 and a large proportion of the most deadly intellectual vices were 
 deliberately inculcated as virtues. ... In a word, there is 
 scarcely a disposition that marks the love of abstract truth, 
 and scarcely a rule which reason teaches as essential for its 
 attainment, that theologians did not for centuries stigmatize as 
 offensive to the Almighty." 
 
 Felix Oswald groups the evils thus : " Hence, inquisitions 
 and crusades, thirty years wars, heretic-hunts, massacres of 
 S~. Bartholomew, expulsions of the Moors, and exterminations .of 
 the Albigenses." He asks : " Has the happiness of the human 
 race been secured, or in any degree promoted, by the dogmas of 
 the Christain religion 1 " And then proceeds to say the words 
 which the continued presence of Roman Catholicism, or original 
 Christianity, in the midst of civilized modern communities, 
 renders so imperatively necessary: "Cowardice and stupidity 
 have too long connived at the crime of abetting the dissemina 
 tion of that earth-blighting superstition, and it is time to say 
 the truth in plain terms. The demonstrable truth then is that, if 
 all the countries of Europe that were destined, to pass under 
 
ii8 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS. OF AMERICA; 
 
 the yoke of the Cross had, instead, for a thousand years been 
 covered by tin ashes of the fire-storm that buried the cities of 
 Pompeii and Herculaneum, the world would to-day be benefited 
 by the result. Our earth would be more fertile and prosperous, 
 our fellow-men would be freer, wiser, and happier. The waste 
 of the volcnnic cinders would have proved less irreclaimable than 
 the desert of pessimism. The survivors of the catastrophe 
 would have saved their children from the alternative of death 
 or moral slavery that awaited the next forty generations of 
 their descendants. The nations of the Caucasian race would 
 have been spared the systematic extirpation of their wisest 
 and bravest men. The Saracens, whose Western empire was 
 destroyed by the insane fanaticism of the Christian priests, 
 would have cultivated the garden of civilization in a more 
 grateful soil." 
 
 Llorente states as a fact that " the war against the Albigenses 
 was the first cause of the establishment of the Inquisition, and 
 the pretended necessity of punishing the apostacy of the newly- 
 converted Spanish Jews was the reason for introducing it in a 
 reformed state." After a very thorough dissection of all the 
 motives and objects, he says: " It is to these projects "having 
 proved most of them to be mercenary" concealed under the 
 appearance of zeal for religion, that the Inquisition of Spain 
 owes its origin." Prescott also says that k some writers are 
 inclined to show the Spanish Inquisition, in its origin, as little 
 else than a political engine," and throws further light on the 
 motives of the Pope that instigated it: " Sixtus IV., who at 
 that time filled the pontifical chair, easily discerning the sources 
 of wealth and influence which this measure opened to the Court 
 of Rome, readily complied with the petition of the sovereigns 
 and expedited a bull bearing date November 1st, 1478, autho 
 rizing them to appoint two or three ecclesiastics inquisitors 
 for the detection and suppression of heresy throughout their 
 dominions," But it is reserved for Llorente to state this with 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 119 
 
 full authority and reveal the ferocious brigandage of the Church 
 .officials: "Facts prove beyond a doubt," he says, " that the 
 extirpation of Judaism was not the real came, but the mere 
 pretext, for the establishment of the Inquisition by Ferdinand V. 
 The true motive was to carry on a vigorous system of confis 
 cation against the Jews, and so bring their riches into the hands 
 of the Government. Sixtus IV. sanctioned the measure to 
 gain the point dearest to the Court of Home, an extent of 
 domination." In revealing the intricate mechanism of the 
 Inquisition, its invisible network, its secrecy, its diabolical 
 craft and artifice, he shows how impossible it was for a victim 
 to escape from its toils, except by a deeper cunning than the 
 inquisitors themselves were masters of, for " the Inquisition 
 employed every means and neglected nothing in the trials of the 
 prisoners to make them appear guilty of heresy, and all this 
 was done with an appearance of charity and compassion, and 
 in the name of Jesus Christ." Prescott, too, remarks; "The 
 sword of justice was observed, in particular, to strike at the 
 wealthy, the least pardonable offenders in time of proscription." 
 
 This strips away the last disguise ; whatever religious zeal, 
 bigotry, or fanaticism may have fired the uninitiated, the heads 
 of the Church at Rome were actuated by money-greed and love 
 of dominion ; this also removes the last excuse of those religious 
 persons everywhere, who are always ready to extenuate the 
 crimes of the Church and to find justification for all forms of 
 intolerance. The Inquisition was highway robbery and murder 
 on a stupendous scale. If missionary work of all kinds, con 
 version, and proselyting is less than that in our own day, it is 
 only because the moment is not propitious for the full operation 
 of the system, the Church not being in a position to employ all 
 its resources. No other nation than Spain has ever allowed it 
 to exercise its full prerogative. 
 
 This privilege extended over a considerable length of time, as 
 Llorente shows : " Charles V. protected it (the Inquisition) from 
 
120 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 motives of policy, being convinced it was the only means of 
 preventing the heresy of Luther from penetrating into Spain. 
 Philip II. was actuated by superstition and tyranny to uphold 
 it; and even extended its jurisdiction lo the excise, and made 
 the exporters of horses into France liable to seizure by the 
 officers of the tribunal, as persons suspected of heresy. 
 Pnilip IK., Philip IV., and Charles IE. pursued the same 
 course, stimulated by similar fanaticism and imbecility, when 
 the reunion of Portugal to Spain led to the discovery of many 
 Jews. Philip V. maintained the Inquisition from considerations 
 of mistaken policy, inherited from Louis XLV., who made him 
 believe that such rigour would ensure the tranquillity of the 
 kingdom, which was always in danger when many religions 
 were tolerated. Ferdinand VI. and Charles III. befriended 
 this holy office, because they would not deviate from the course 
 that their -father had traced, and because the latter hated the 
 freemasons. Lastly. Charles IV. supported the tribunal, be 
 cause the French Revolution seemed to justify a system of 
 surveillance, and he found a firm support in the zeal of the 
 inquisitors-general, always attentive to the preservation and 
 extension of their power, as if the sovereign authority could 
 find no surer means of strengthening the throne than the terror 
 inspired by an Inquisition." 
 
 The Inquisition has continued into the present century. The 
 Spaniards made an abortive attempt to abolish it in 1820, and 
 we learn that it was mitigated in 1834 ; it can almost be 
 regarded throughout as a modern institution, Spain s defence 
 against the encroachment of enlightenment through the Moors, 
 the Jews, the Albigenses, French infidelity, and Lutheranism ! . 
 It is not so very long since this paragraph appeared in a New 
 York paper: " What is the matter with Spain? She seems to 
 be utterly dull, lifeless, and inert. Germany, France, and 
 Italy are pressing on grandly towards liberal and representa 
 tive government, sloughing the gangrene of vicious political 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 121 
 
 practices, and breaking down the barriers reared by the enemies 
 of the people. Everywhere within their boundaries is life and 
 activity, mental and physical." 
 
 Spain s hope for the future has manifestly lain in the 
 characteristic effort to gain spiritual ascendency in the United 
 States through foisting upon the young and rich .Republic, 
 as discoverer, saint, paragon, claiinant-in-chief for American 
 gratitude, the Italian fanatic and charlatan, Christopher Co- 
 lumbus! In its folly and infatuation, Spain no doubt looks 
 forward to the re-establishment of the Inquisition on American 
 soil, where the opportunities for persecution and confiscation 
 would be more brilliant even than in Spain, when three races 
 were, extirpated ! 
 
 With what sickening disgust and loathing one turns from this 
 black picture, from the nation which, in alliance with Rome, 
 blighted the race ! But if Spain, past or present, is the most 
 horrible subject in Europe to survey, the North is the brightest ! 
 Spain blighted, the North saved ! Spain exhibits deformity, 
 the North the natural man ; one of the finest types the earth 
 lias produced, in some attributes excelling all others. Spain, 
 in devotion to its religion, laboured for the extinction of man 
 hood ; the Northern nations, whether inside or outside of their 
 religion, worshipped manhood, and cultivated it to a high 
 degree of perfection in themselves. In this they resembled the 
 Greeks, but were even more rigid in conforming to their own 
 standard of excellence, tolerating no defect or weakness in 
 themselves. Whatever they did was in obedience to the 
 requirements of their ideal. And this was not from any species 
 of fear; the hell of their religion, if anything of so slight 
 religious substance can be called a religion, was for those who 
 felt fear, for cowards ; there these most despicable of wretches 
 were consigned to a Palace of Anguish, had Famine for their 
 board, Slowness and Delay for their attendants, and slept on a 
 Bed of Care ; and this is so purely retributive justice that no 
 
122 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 thinking person can deplore it. Their hell would be filled with 
 the elect of the Christian world, and Spain, with its two dis 
 tinguishing national traits, " loyalty and superstition," would 
 go there en masse, together with the hordes of zealots it has 
 propagated in other lands, and in its possessions in South 
 America. If the Norsemen worshipped Odin and Thor, it was 
 because they considered them good, brave, intelligent fellows, 
 worthy of admiration, and not because servile adoration was 
 obligatory upon them ; if any doubted the virtues or superior 
 excellence of these gods, they did not hesitate to say so, and 
 did not profess to revere them unless this was their sincere 
 feeling. " The Inquisition," according to Llorente, " encouraged 
 hypocrisy, and punished those who either did not know how to, 
 or would not, assume the inask." Christianity in itself en 
 couraged hypocrisy; but hypocrisy was the vice that the Odin- 
 worshippers, so-called, considered most despicable ; they were 
 as free from that as the Spaniards were from sincerity. We are 
 all of us, at this present day, chiefly indebted to Spain and to 
 Rome for what Felix Oswald calls " that chief disgrace of our 
 ownage rtiie cowardly hypocrisy which, like an all-pervading 
 poison-vapour, taints the whole atmosphere of our social life." 
 
 A mythological religion did not satisfy the Northern mind, 
 however grand the mythology and exalted its personages, al 
 though the Southern mind could thrive for centuries on 
 " Buddhism and its daughter-creed," as Oswald rightly designates 
 the Christian myth, adding that these " can nourish only in a 
 sickly soil. Christianity developed its first germs in the carcass 
 of the decaying Roman Empire, and s.till retains its firmest hold 
 upon the degenerate nations of Southern Europe ; \vhile the 
 manlier races of the North resisted its propaganda to the last, 
 and were the first to free themselves from its despotism." 
 A. E. Holmberg notes this absence of the spirit of idolatry in 
 the Scandinavians : " Without doubt this lack (in the Asa- 
 doctrine) of a rational morality, conduced with more thoughtful 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 123 
 
 minds to bring it into contempt. We find, namely, as far as 
 that is concerned, very prevalent free-thinking, which directed 
 itself now to something better, now to something worse, as well 
 as a consequent tolerance toward those who thought differently, 
 which, however, declined toward the close of that doctrine s 
 life," 
 
 That the Norsemen took their divinities entirely on their 
 merits is proven by a multitude of anecdotes from those times, 
 and that they were not allowed to subject JL-SUS Christ to the 
 same criticism must have been a most surprising after-revel -ition 
 to them ! The following stories are narrated by Mallet, in his 
 "Northern Antiquities:" " In the history of Olaf Tryggvcson 
 a warrior fears not to say publicly that he relies much more on 
 his own strength and on his arms, than upon Thor or Odin. 
 Another, in the s ime book, speaks thus to his friend : I would 
 have thee know that I believe neither in idols nor spirits. I 
 have travelled in many places; I have met with giants and 
 monstrous men : they could never overcome me ; thus to this 
 present hour my own foice and courage are the sole objects of 
 my belief. ... In an Icelandic chronicle a vain-glorious man 
 makes his boast to a Christian missionary that he had never 
 yet acknowledged any religion, and that his own strength and 
 abilities were everything to him. For the same reason others 
 refused to sacrifice to the goda of whom they had no need. . . . 
 In the life of King Olaf Tryggveson, mention is made of a man 
 who was condemned to exile for having sung in a public place, 
 verses the sense of which was to this purpose, I will not insult 
 or affront the gods ; nevertheless the goddess Freja inspires me 
 with no respect : it must certainly be that either she or Odiii 
 are chimerical deities. " 
 
 Free to think" and act, to follow their impulses, the dearest aim 
 of the Norsemen was to cultivate character, to attain that 
 degree of excellence which would make their life a joy to them ; 
 their heaven was only valuable to them as following upon a 
 
124 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 valuable life here on earth, and they were never disposed to 
 resign this life for the sake of a future one; if they sought 
 death, or met it bravely, it was for other reasons, not savouring 
 of sickly renunciation. This aim of theirs to be great, developed 
 a heroic age ; the warriors and the bards emulated each other, 
 one to supply valorous deeds, worthy of being eulogized in in 
 spired improvisation, the other to praise these deeds as they 
 deserved, and transmit the memory of them to posterity. The 
 court was the scene of this laurel-crowning, and the king, the 
 comrade of the warriors, not an isolated despot enjoining homage 
 and plotting ruin for his subjects, was a fellow-aspirant for these 
 honours, gaining his glory on the same high path. So much 
 were the bards respected, that one of these, though a stranger, 
 needed no introduction at court. P. E. Miiller, who is one of 
 the most reliable of authors on this subject, asserts that " no 
 nation ever possessed a poetry more strictly national than the 
 Scandinavian." This was due to the fact that the individuals 
 of the nation possessed character, that their actions and thoughts 
 were spontaneous, allowing free play to their genius, which in 
 its turn, feeling no curb or restriction, engendered a boundless am 
 bition and love of fame. " Harold Harfager s reign," says Miiller, 
 " was the Augustan age of the Scalds. Ambitious and warlike, 
 he kept a splendid court, to which he sought to draw all the 
 distinguished men of his country." The advent of Christianity 
 changed things in this respect. The same author continues: 
 " Olaf Tryggveson s zeal for Christianity caused him rather to 
 discourage than to favour the Scalds ; but one of them, indig 
 nant at seeing his art slighted, forced the king to listen to his 
 song, by declaring that if he did not, he would immediately 
 abjure Christianity, which Olaf, with much trouble, had induced 
 him to embrace." Some other words of Miiller s bear upon the 
 point I have drawn attention to, the cultivation of character 
 among the Norsemen, an object which the Christians have 
 uniformly neglected out of contempt for their own nature, and 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 125 
 
 human nature in general, and the other members of the com 
 munity, in modern times, passive Christians for the most part, 
 wearing the badge, but evading the observances, have set aside, 
 for the reason that the pursuit of knowledge or wealth was 
 more agreeable to them, requiring one or other of these to 
 stimulate pride in themselves or even self-respect. The modern 
 man, as a rule, has no very great respect for character in the 
 abstract, does not believe in it, in fact ; he believes that men 
 are made by their circumstances, not that truth, courage, sin 
 cerity, goodness, have the slightest power in and of themselves, 
 or that these mould circumstances. Here we see the blessed 
 fruits of the Spanish Inquisition. The stigma still attached to 
 heresy, heterodox views or freethought, is another. 
 
 The words of M filler referred to are these: "The importance 
 attached by the Scandinavians to the delineation of character is 
 evident from the language itself, which is much richer than any 
 other of Europe in all terms expressive of characteristic qualities, 
 whether of mind or body, so as to be able to convey the strength, 
 weakness, obstiiincy, quarrelsome or peaceable disposition of 
 every individual in its tinest shades." The vocation of Scald, 
 therefore, was one that required the nicest discrimination and 
 power of analysis, as well as rhetorical skill, and as absolute 
 truthfulness was demanded both by the subject of the epic, if 
 he happened to be present, and the assembled hearers, this 
 could only be gained by accuracy of perception, the same exact 
 ness in delineating traits of character, all that pertains to one 
 individuality as distinct from another; as an artist must use in 
 portraying features that are to be a true likeness of the sitter. 
 As knowledge of character could only be attained through 
 knowledge of the world, and as the characters to be drawn, far 
 from being simple, provincial ones, of a settled type, were com 
 plex, finely- organized ones, developed through the largest inter 
 course with foreign nations, none but the most accomplished 
 men of the world were competent to undertake the task of 
 
126 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 making that first oral record of their attributes, personality, and 
 deeds that was to be preserved and transmitted as history. 
 That the narratives from these times which claim to be historical, 
 as distinct from fabulous, romantic, or mythological, are uniformly 
 vouched for, by the best authorities of the present dny, as 
 authentic and reliable, is due to the correctness of the first 
 analysis and description of the Scalds, the eye-witnesses, and 
 keen, incorruptible judges of the events and persons they 
 described. One could almost venture to say that this in itself ren 
 ders ancient Scandinavian history more valuable and trustworthy 
 than any other. After the introduction of Christianity not even 
 a Scald of the North could dare to " speak the truth, the whole 
 truth, and nothing but the truth ! " That which a Spanish 
 \vriter says of the Moors: "Their trustworthiness was such, 
 that their bare word was more relied on than a written contract 
 is now among us," and the rules of life laid down in Havamal: 
 " A man ought to be self-reliant, wise, prudent, mild, hospitable, 
 temperate, firm in friendship, magnanimous toward the weak 
 and those seeking protection, inflexible in his promises and 
 faithful in his obligations," were only possible among those who 
 were un-Christianized. 
 
 Consequently the Scalds travelled abroad, going from court 
 to court, not only for fame and profit, but to perfect themselves 
 in their high calling, to learn to see with their own eyes and to 
 judge with their own understanding; such was their ability to 
 form an opinion of their own and to rely on it, that it is doubtful 
 whether they would have read columns upon columns in the 
 newspapers to know 7 what was generally thought of such and 
 such a hero, general, king, or leader, even if newspapers had 
 been at their command, and no instance is recorded of a Scald 
 going to a secret group of other Scalds to get their opinion of 
 some high person before he committed himself to an open 
 avowal. Much as they worshipped fame, theirs was not the 
 name-worship and label-worship of the present day, an utter 
 
OR, HONOUR TO \VHOM HONOUR is DUE. 127 
 
 inability to value the work, or the production, or the deed, until 
 they knew the name of the well-established celebrity who 
 could claim the honour of it. Fame was of that summer s 
 growth, was plucked ripe from the branch, fresh fruit for fresh 
 young lips, and no aspirant was kept waiting. ]f the hero was 
 a boy, a mere stripling, he enjoyed the same honour as if a grey- 
 haired man, in fact more; the Norsemen were not over fond of 
 senility, and for a man to outlive his usefulness was a great 
 reproach. Whatever fame a man was deserving of he received, 
 and received quickly ; the Scald apparently was such a personi 
 fication of just criticism as modern civilization has not been 
 blessed with. 
 
 In Laing s preliminary disseitation to the " Heimskringla," 
 there is lunch said in their praise: "From their opportunities 
 of visiting various countries, the Icelandic Scalds were un 
 doubtedly the educated men of the times when books did not 
 in any way contribute to intelligence, or to forming the mind; 
 but only extensive intercourse with men, and the information 
 gathered from it. ... Tiiey had also the advantage of speaking 
 in its greatest purity what was the court language in Norway, 
 Sweden, Denmark, England, and at Roiu-n." GrenvilJe Pigott 
 aids another fact in regard to them: "It was not therefore 
 until some time after the race of Scalds was extinct in the 
 three great Scandinavian kingdoms, that those of Iceland 
 attained their highe>t perfection. Their fame spread abroad, 
 and the successful examples of Figil Skalagrimson and of some 
 others, encouraged them to perfect themselves, and to travel 
 from court to court in search of fame and profit. We accordingly 
 hear of them in the courts of England, Ireland, Scotland, 
 Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the courts of the Orkneys, and in 
 various other places." 
 
 But if the Scald was a good critic, he was also in presence of 
 a good critic in the person of the king he extolled, the practical 
 hero, as a rule, being possessed of what we .consider, in this 
 
128 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 age, the impractical p irt of a man s equipment for the world, 
 intellectual gifts. The kings and heroes were not infrequently 
 Scalds themselves, just as the Scalds were very often tried 
 warriors. " The famous king Kagnar Lodbrok, his queen Aslog 
 or Aslauga, and his adventurous sons, who distinguished them 
 selves by their maritime incursions into England and France in 
 the ninth century, were all Scalds," as Wheaton informs us, and 
 Mallet says: " In a word, the poetic art was held in such high 
 estimation, that great lords and even kings did not disdain to 
 cultivate it with the utmost pains themselves." As for the 
 kings, two of them at least, Thomas Carlyle has a h ghly 
 characteristic word to say about them: "Remarkable old men, 
 these two first kings" (Harold Harfager and Goriii the Old); 
 " and possessed of gifts for bringing Chaos a little nearer to the 
 form of Cosmos ; possessed, in fact, of loyalties to Cosmos, that 
 is to say, of authentic virtues in the savage state, such as have 
 been needed in all societies at their incipience in this world ; a 
 kind of virtues hugely in discredit at present, but not un 
 likely to be needed again, to the astonishment of careless 
 persons, before all is done ! " 
 
 And the courts 1 It would seem that these were not un 
 worthy of the Scalds. Pigott says : " The courts of the first 
 Dukes of Normandy, composed exclusively of the descendants of 
 the Scandinavian conquerors of Neustria, and continually 
 recruited from their kinsmen in the North, were the most 
 polished and. chivalrous of the time; and it is notorious that 
 the chiefs who accompanied William to the Conquest of Eng 
 land, looked upon the uncouth manners of the Anglo-Saxon 
 nobles with undisguised contempt." He also recalls the fact 
 that " the great traveller, Pythias, who lived about the time of 
 Alexander the Great, and later, Tacitus, described the Scandi 
 navians as superior in civilization to the Celts and Germans." 
 " Their royal house," says Adam of Bremen, speaking of the 
 Swedes, " is very ancient ; but the king s power depends on the 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 129 
 
 voice of the people." Miiller, as we have seen, compares 
 Harold Harf.iger s reign to the Augustan age. 
 
 The courts, then, were the hotbeds of Scandinavian literature 
 and history, and the Scalds were the gardeners. It now-bc- 
 lioves us to consider the quality of this literature. That it is 
 reliable, historically, is its highest excellence, particularly now 
 when history has been proven such treacherous ground ; " Prof. 
 Miiller shows," says Pigott, " that the greater portion of the early 
 Sagas may be depended upon as faithful historical narratives/ 
 Wilhelmi, in his " Discovery of America by the Northmen, 
 500 years before Columbus/ goes still further, and declares 
 that the Eddas and the old Norse sagor, and not Caesar, Tacitus, 
 Procopius, Jornandes, Paulus Diaconus, Adam of Bremen, and 
 the rest, were the especial sources of knowledge of the religious 
 doctrines of the Germans. In the " Heimskringla, " he says, 
 " we obtain from the narratives of the Icelanders extensive 
 journeys through all Europe to Rome, Constantinople, and 
 Jerusalem, also the knowledge of the history, geography and 
 antiquity of eastern, western and southern Europe." So these 
 were no local annals of a single obscure race ! In regard to the 
 extent of this literature, Laing contributes some valuable inform 
 ation: "The following list will sho-.v the reader" one taken 
 from that given by Thormod Torfaeus, in his "Series Dynastarum 
 et Eegum Danise," from that given by Miiller, in his " Saga- 
 bibliothek," and from that of Biorn Haldorson "that in the 
 live centuries between the days of the venerable Bede and those 
 of Matthew Paris, that is from the ninth to the end of the thir 
 teenth century, the northern branch of the common race was not 
 destitute of intellectuality, notwithstanding all their paganism and 
 barbarism, and had a literature adapted to their national spirit, 
 and wonderfully extensive." In this list of 169 works, forty- 
 eight are historical, and forty-six works of fiction, while the 
 remainder are mixed fable and history, poetical or mythological 
 works. Besides these, there are other works cited by the 
 
 K 
 
130 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 ancient historians. { Scarcely any of it," observes Laing, " con 
 sists of the legends of saints, or homilies, or theological treatises, 
 which constitute the greater proportion of the literature of 
 oilier countries during the same ages, and which were evidently 
 composed only for the public of the cloisters." An eminent 
 American author, Hubert Howe Bancroft, expresses an opinion 
 concerning European literature, during this and a later period, 
 that coincides perfectly with the statement here given: 
 " Learning, such as it was, had hitherto been almost the 
 exclusive property of the Church, which vehemently repudiated 
 science as absolutely incompatible with its pretensions; now 
 and then gleams of important truths would flash up in the 
 writings of some heretical philosopher, illuminating for a 
 moment the path of intellectual progress ; but such dangerous 
 fires were speedily quenched, and that they might not spring 
 forth again to endanger the religious equilibrium of Christendom, 
 their authors were generally destroyed. The literature of the 
 age consisted for the most part of musty manuscripts, emanating 
 from musty minds, utterly devoid of thought and destitute of 
 reason." 
 
 After dwelling on the peculiar quality of mind, and the 
 prowess of the Scandinavians, Laing continues: "It will not at 
 least surprise the philosophic reader that some of this mental 
 power was applied at home in attempts, however rude, at history 
 and poetry ; but he will be surprised to find that those attempts 
 surpass, both in quality and quantity, all that can be produced 
 in Anglo Saxon literature during the same ages, either in the 
 Anglo-Saxon language or in the Latin." In regard to Snorre 
 Sturleson s " Chronicles of the Kings of Norway," he says: " His 
 work stands unrivalled in the Middle Ages. In that class of 
 literary production the lively representation of historical events 
 by incidents, anecdotes, speeches, touches true to nature, bring- 
 ino- out strongly the character and individuality of each eminent 
 actor in historical events \i may be doubted if, e\en since the 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 131 
 
 Middle Ages, any, excepting Shakespeare and Sir Walter 
 Scott iii their historical representations, have surpassed Snorre 
 Sturleson." 
 
 Wheaton offers further evidence of the concurrence of authors 
 in respect to the merits of ancient Scandinavian literature: "In 
 Iceland an independent literature grew up, flourished, and was 
 brought to a certain degree of perfection, before the revival of 
 learning in the south of Europe. This island was not converted 
 to Christianity until the end of the tenth century, when the 
 national literature, which still remained in oral tradition, was 
 full-blown and ready to be committed to a written form. With 
 the Romish religion, Latin letters were introduced ; but instead 
 of being used, as elsewhere, to write a dead language, they were 
 adapted by the learned men of Iceland to mark the sounds 
 which had been before expressed by the Runic characters." 
 His words u the revival of learning in fhe south of Europe," 
 bring to one s mind the extinction of learning there, incident 
 upon the introduction of "the blessed light of Christianity," as 
 it is rapturously styled. It is hard to believe that the following 
 was ever true of the country where Christianity was allowed to 
 shed its full effulgence and germinate its peculiar products: 
 " Spain, a provincial part of Arabian dominion, was especially 
 the seat of Arabian learning. Cordova, Granada, Seville, and all 
 the cities of the peninsula, rivalled each other in the mag 
 nificence of tlieir schools, academies, colleges, and libraries." 
 And what were the effects of that enlightened and beneficent 
 faith upon literature and learning? Llorente slates: " Since the 
 establishment of the holy office, there has scarcely been any 
 man celebrated for his learning, who has not been prosecuted as 
 a heretic ;" and he gives a most appalling list of the victims 
 among savants and literati, besides describing many of the trials 
 and autos-da-fe. " The theological censures," he says, " like- 
 wise attack works on philosophy, on civil and natural law, and 
 on the people. Those books which have been published on 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 mathematics, astronomy, physic and other suljects which 
 depend upon these, have not been more highly favoured. The 
 Spaniards have, consequently, been deprived of the advantages 
 which other nations have derived from all the recent dis 
 coveries.* 1 
 
 No wonder then, knowing the " holy office " as he did, that 
 he was amazed at what he experienced in England ! I quote his 
 own words: " During the time I remained in London, I heard 
 some Catholics affirm that tlw Inquisition was useful in Spain, 
 to preserve the Catholic faith, and that a similar institution 
 would hare been useful in France." 
 
 How extraordinary, in the face of these execrable facts, of 
 the chronology of horrors designated as the Middle Ages it is 
 a strange coincidence that the black death was brought from 
 Palestine to Apulia and raged from 1347 to 1351 of the woe 
 and desolation, the brutal ignorance and diabolism that reigned 
 supreme, and were the immediite results of the establishment of 
 Christianity (the edict of the Emperor Theodius against the Ma- 
 nicheans, in 382, being the virtual origin of the Inquisition, for, 
 as Llorente states, " it is here that inquisition and accusation 
 are first mentioned in relation to heresy ") how extraordinary, 
 I repeat, that any authors, outside of the priesthood, can at 
 tribute all the good that has befallen the race to this accursed 
 idolatry ! Even so intelligent an author as Mallet, after 
 expressing the highest admiration of the Scandinavians, and 
 mentioning especially those traits of character which were the 
 direct antitheses of Christian traits, as impossible in a Christian 
 convert as a lighted torch in a ditch, writes such sickening 
 twaddle as this: " Such was the immediate effect of Christianity 
 in the north, an event which, considered only in a philosophical 
 light, should be ever regarded as the dawn of those happy days 
 which were afterwards to shine out with superior splendour. 
 In effect, this religion, which tended to correct the abuse of 
 licentious liberty, to banish bloody dissensions from among 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 133 
 
 individuals, to restrain robberies and piracy, softening the 
 ferocity of manners, requiring a certain knowledge of letters and 
 history, re-establishing a part of mankind, who groaned under 
 a miserable slavery, in their natural rights, introducing a relish 
 for a life of peace, and an idea of happiness independent of 
 sensual gratifications, sowed the seeds, if I may so speak, of 
 that new spirit which grew to maturity in the succeeding ages, 
 and to which the arts and sciences, springing up along with it, 
 added still more strength and vigour. Could a greater satire 
 be found than this upon the actual conditions result ing from 
 Christianity 1 ? It is a work of supererogation to single out 
 particular phrases, such as " the dawn of those happy days," 
 " to correct the abuse of licentious liberty," " to banish bloody 
 dissensions," " to restrain robberies and piracy," " requiring a 
 certain knowledge of letters and history," &c , as specimens of 
 exquisite, although unconscious, irony ; it will suffice to blot 
 out this pernicious nonsense with one sharp sentence of Felix 
 Oswald s: " The warriors of the old pagan Northland, with all 
 their martial truculence, would have shuddered at the mention 
 of the inhumanities which their children perpetrated at the 
 instigation of their priests." No, " the dawn of those happy 
 days" actually culminated in this: " At the end of the thir 
 teenth century, the enemies of nature had reached the zenith of 
 their power ; and, at that time, it may be said that icithout a 
 single exception, the countries of Christian Europe were worse 
 governed, more ignorant, more superstitious, poorer, and un- 
 happier than the worse governed province of pagan Rome." 
 This is Oswald s assertion again, and is absolutely true. 
 
 This anti-naturalism, alas ! also fastened itself upon the Noith. 
 The Norse nature, fortunately, was not as receptive to the 
 poison as the Spanish, in fact, was not receptive to it at all ; 
 the Scandinavians did not accept Christianity voluntarily, but 
 they were deceived and forced into the acceptance of it, not 
 Imowiiuj what it icas. Although intellectual beings, shrewd and 
 
134 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 sagacious, they had nothing in their mental endowment that 
 could imagine or fathom the hellish craft and ingenuity of the 
 Roman Catholics ; neither their moral nor spiritual experience 
 could enable them to anticipate what this new religion really 
 was, or would do to them. In Spain, on the other hand, it 
 was almost indigenous. Once there, however, in the North, it 
 could not fail to have its customary effect, differing only in 
 intensity, inasmuch as the innate freedom of the Northern mind 
 could never cease to battle with the insidious oppressor. Thanks 
 to this resistance, " the churchmen were not a numerous or 
 powerful class until after the first half of the twelfth century ; 
 they were at first strangers, and many of them English." And 
 thanks to this same resistance, Bishop Brask, who tried to 
 introduce the Inquisition in Sweden, early in the sixteenth 
 century, failed in the attempt. The writings of the very first 
 Icelander who began to transcribe the history of the North, or 
 to reproduce the Sagor, betrayed the Christian touch. This 
 man was Are hinn Erode, whose work dates from about 1120. 
 He was a priest. Concerning his production, Wheaton says: 
 (c His work, the f Landnarnma-Bok, is therefore to be considered 
 rather as a chronicle of the Christian Middle Ages than a child of 
 the Northern muse. But his talents as an historian are in 
 comparably superior to his monkish contemporaries on the 
 Continent. He always writes with the good sense and the 
 manly freedom of a citizen and a patriot, unaffected with that 
 grovelling spirit of superstition which then darkened the face 
 of Europe." His annals extend from the latter part of the 
 ninth century to the beginning of the twelfth. 
 
 Fortunately the Sigor had been, composed before ; to collect 
 and transcribe these was the principal duty of the early writeis, 
 and their patriotism, conscientiousness, and habitual truthful 
 ness^ led them to do this faithfully. The old material was 
 sedulously collected and put into permanent shape, but the 
 Christian religion soon deprived them of new, by changing the. 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE. I$$ 
 
 spirit of the age. This is shown inferentially by the following 
 paragraph from Pigott s " Scandinavian Mythology : " " In the 
 year 1262 Iceland was united to the crown of Norway. By this 
 revolution it was indeed freed from the miseries brought upon 
 it by its turbulent chiefs ; but all interest in public affairs thence 
 forth died away, and no Sagas were written, because there wr.s 
 nothing to write about. They were replaced by dry chronicles, 
 which also ceased with the great plague in 1350, and were not 
 resumed until so late as the seventeenth century." 
 
 Still "the darkness did not settle down upon the North as upon 
 the rest of Europe, and but a few years ago Wilhelmi could ex 
 claim : " Iceland s old glory has not yet disappeared, but reminds 
 one, on the contrary, of the scientific life, which still develops 
 itself there, of the brilliant antiquity, when this remote island, 
 in the neighbourhood of the North Pole, was, in a scientific 
 respect, one of the brightest points on earth" 
 
 And, indeed, how could it fail to be ; how could all Scandi 
 navia fail to be one of the brightest points on earth, with such 
 people as are described in the following paragraph ? And by a^ 
 foreigner, too, quoted in the first part of " Sveriges Historia : " 
 " A stranger, who in an unusually high degree made himself 
 familiar with the condition in the North during the time that 
 is now in question, says of the Norsemen and their life during 
 the last century of paganism : The stress that was laid upon 
 intercourse with other persons, and the love for joyous festivals, 
 woman s free and respected position, as well as the profound 
 understanding of her relation to man, which is not seldom ex 
 pressed in the Sagor, the high value that was assigned to the 
 poetic art and all attainments, the zeal with which one, through 
 travel in foreign countries, sought to acquire knowledge, to 
 gether with many other traits in the ancient Northern folk-life, 
 show, that one did not only take life from the dismal and rude 
 side, and that we must not by any means imagine the Scandi 
 navian pagans to be such savage and insensible barbarians, as 
 
136 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 they are usually described by their English and French enemies. " 
 In physical attributes these Northerners were also conspicuous 
 and compelled the admiration of their foes. A. E. Holmberg 
 states that " the foreign annalists, who have had an opportunity 
 to take closer cognizance of the Northmen who overran Europe 
 during the Viking expeditions, coincide therein, that they have 
 never seen handsomer or taller men than these, robbers, at the 
 same time that they praise their strength and bravery and also 
 such traits of character as keeping their word and the like." 
 
 It was no ferocious and bloodthirsty impulse that led them 
 into warfare ; they made war because this was to them the path 
 of glory. Their religion, so to speak, enforced bravery, just as 
 the Christian doctrine enforced cowardice. Thomas Carlyle 
 describes it well, when he says : " That Norse religion, a rude 
 but earnest, sternly impressive Consecration of Valour (so we may 
 define it) sufficed for these old valiant Norsemen." And did 
 the Christians then never fight, never wage war, never shed 
 blood, that they denounce all this so fiercely in the Norsemen 1 
 And which were the nobler, wars, or crusades, for the extermi 
 nation of heretics, or wars of conquest over depraved and 
 enfeebled Catholic nations for the purpose of founding better 
 nations on the ruins of the old, of establishing free institu 
 tions and manly customs ? \A"as an instance ever known of 
 the Scandinavians making a nation worse than they found it ? 
 Their incursions were a severe remedy, to be sure, but has the 
 thinking world ever considered how things would have been if 
 the Vikings had never made any expeditions, but had remained 
 quietly at home, allowing the swarms of black-gowned priests 
 to rule the whole of Europe with tho crucifix and to settle its 
 fate for all time ? And when we Americans owe what we value 
 most in life to tho grand Norse conquests, why should we be 
 loth to ascribe the same g ory to these ancient conquerors as to 
 Napoleon or any other modem general 1 
 
 To be sure, they did not parade their intentions in the way .of 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 137 
 
 national reform and republican organizations, but after their 
 conquests the result was invariably the same, the work of recon 
 struction was begun at once, and all Europe was, in fact, re 
 modelled by them. Mallet does them full justice in the 
 following description : " In effect, we everywhere see in those 
 swarms of Germans and Scandinavians, a troop of savage 
 warriors, who seem only bom for ravage and destruction, 
 changed into a sensible and free people as soon as ever they had 
 confirmed their conquests ; impregnating (if I may so say) their 
 institutions with a spirit of order and equality ; electing for 
 their kings such of their princes of the blood royal as they 
 judged most worthy to wear the crown ; dividing between those 
 kings and the whole nation the exercise of the sovereign power ; 
 reserving to the general assemblies the right of making laws and 
 deciding important matters ; and lastly, to give a solid support 
 to the powers immediately essential to monarchy, distributing 
 fiefs to the principal warriors, and assigning certain privileges 
 proper to the several orders of the state." 
 
 Warfare, too, aside from its martial or political bearing, was 
 their chosen method for the perfecting of character, absolute 
 courage being the finishing touch. They fought joyously, 
 jubilantly, and met death with a laugh. "Accordingly," says 
 Mallet, "we never find any among these people guilty of 
 cowardice, and the bare suspicion of that vice was always 
 attended with universal contempt. . . . Lastly, like the heroes of 
 Homer, those of ancient Scandinavia, in the excess of their 
 over-boiling courage, dared to defy the gods themselves. 
 Though they should be stronger than the gods, says a boastful 
 warrior, speaking of his enemies, I would absolutely fight 
 them. " 
 
 But these people were much else besides warriors, were as 
 remarkable for their versatility as for their surpassing ability in 
 certain directions. Thus Laing observes : " In the characters of 
 great men given in the sagas we always find eloquence, ready,. 
 
138 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 agreeable speaking, a good voice, a quick apprehension, a ready 
 delivery, and winning manners, reckoned the highest qualities 
 of a popular king or eminent chief. His talent as a public 
 speaker is never omitted." And Prof. K. B. Anderson, too, 
 exclaims : " Yes ; the Norsemen were truly a great people ! 
 Their spirit found its way into the Magna Charta of England 
 arid into the Declaration of Independence in America: The 
 spirit of the Vikings still survives in the bosoms of Englishmen, 
 Americans, and Norsemen, extending their commerce, taking 
 bold positions against tyranny, and producing wonderful internal 
 impiovements in these countries." 
 
 In the Norsemen one continually has the gratifying surprise 
 of hearing of a race who, in all the main political and social 
 questions, were right in themselves, without the need of reform 
 or agitation. That the people, in Scandinavia, had a voice in 
 public affairs, is best proven by the fact that the people of 
 America and England are free, at least comparatively so, in a 
 political respect. Laing says of -this : " Our civil, religious, and 
 political rights, the principles, spirit, and forms of legislation 
 through which they work in our social union, are the legitimate 
 offspring of the Things of the Northmen, not of the Wittenage- 
 moth of the Anglo-Saxons of the independent Norse Viking, 
 not of the abject Saxon monk." 
 
 But nothing gives such conclusive evidence that our present 
 state of civilization is not the outgrowth of a steady progressive 
 development from the earliest ages, but is the feeble revival of 
 a civilization, ripe, far advanced, brilliant, that was destroyed at 
 the beginning of the Middle Ages, as the position that woman 
 held in the North. " In pagandom," writes August Strindberg, 
 "woman seems almost to have been man s equal. . . . Woman 
 was treated by man with such respect and acted with such self- 
 feeling and freedom, that any such thing in our enlightened 
 times would be considered unheard-of." Ample corroboration 
 of this is found in whatever author one turns to. Mallet 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE: 139 
 
 affirms :, We find the reverse of all this " (the general condn 
 tion) "among the Northern nations, who did not so much con 
 sider the other sex as made for their pleasure, as to be their 
 equals and companions, whose esteem, as valuable as their other 
 favours, could only be obtained by constant attentions, by 
 generous services, and by a proper exertion of virtue and 
 courage. I conceive that this will at first sight be deemed a 
 paradox, and that it will not be an easy matter to reconcile a 
 manner of thinking which supposes so much delicacy, with the 
 rough, unpolished character of this people. Yet I believe the 
 observation is so well grounded that one may venture to assert 
 that it is this same people who have contributed to diffuse 
 through all Europe that spirit of equity, of moderation and 
 generosity shown by the stronger to the weaker sex, which is at 
 this day the distinguishing characteristic of European manners ; 
 nay, that we even owe to them that spirit of gallantry which was 
 so little known to the Greeks and Romans, how polite soever 
 in other respects." 
 
 Two things the Norsemen seemed to have understood by 
 instinct namely, that woman was naturally man s equal, and 
 that the other life was, equally in conformity with nature, a 
 continuation of this, under the same general conditions, aside 
 from a change of physique. Complete sanity, on these two fun 
 damental points, enabled them to lead the sensible life that has 
 never been led since by any nation of Europe, and never wi 1 
 be, until some remedy is found for Christian hallucinations, 
 which see in the other life unspeakable terrors, the most 
 monstrous unrealities, and in the other sex (the true half of the 
 nation as well as the man) a creature little less than an idiot 
 and imbecile. But again it maybe asked, how was this " spirit 
 of equity," the political freedom, good laws, and all the other 
 beneficial things in the Norsemen s possession, to be diffused 
 through all Europe, save by the Viking expeditions that have 
 been so much execrated, 1 Were the monkish, or monk-ridden, 
 
140 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 inhabitants everywhere so docile, so eager for Northern know 
 ledge and enlightenment, that the Norse leaders, splendid 
 orators that they were, could have instilled it all into them 
 through public speaking 1 Was it their moral duty to go into 
 the land of the enemy as lecturers on reform topics, and to be 
 slaughtered piecemeal by those fiends who knew nothing well 
 but the action of fire on human flesh, or the use of the .dagger ? 
 Was it possible in those days, and with such a population as the 
 Church had reared, to effect the conquest of thought and repub 
 licanism otherwise than through the conquest of the sword 1 
 And it this had not been effected, what would the consequences 
 have been to posterity ? 
 
 But whatever brave leaders and statesmen did, the women of 
 the North were with them, to encourage and stimulate. One 
 gets a new idea of the sex by reading about them. One realizes 
 clearly, by these words of Holmberg s, that no feeble or silly 
 woman could share the thoughts of such men : " We ought 
 above all to draw attention to the fact that there was with these 
 an unquenchable desire for knowledge, a striving for wisdom 
 and a respect for knowledge, \vhich perhaps does not stand 
 forth so plainly in our enlightened time." And this is what he 
 says about their treatment of woman : " With no ancient people 
 has respect for woman been higher, her true value more appre 
 ciated, and her rights more extended than with our forefathers. 
 She was, it is true, not the idol, for which one during the age of 
 chivalry kindled incense and brought home the sacrifice of even 
 his human worth a position which is always unworthy of 
 woman, as founded only on outer charms, and as the step from 
 idol to doll is only a hair s breadth. Still less was she, as with 
 many other races of antiquity, man s passive slave, only existing 
 for his pleasure, or doomed for his comfort to drag forth a joy-, 
 less and arduous life. The Noithern woman s place was right 
 between these two extremes, and such as ought to accrue to her 
 as an important pait of the community. She was, as woman 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 141 
 
 always ought to be, m-in s equal, neither more nor less, and this 
 especially when she became a wife. Indeed we do not say loo 
 much, if we to woman in pagan times, grant almost the same 
 rights as those she now enjoys, with the only difference that the 
 general respect for her sex was really greater than that paid to 
 it in our time." It must be remembered that these noble words 
 are from the pen of a modern Swede, one of a race who have 
 always accorded woman her due rank. He continues : " Of 
 such respect, such freedom, the Northern woman of antiquity 
 was well deserving for her innate Jiigh-mindtdness. Constantly 
 we find her animated by the same idea as man, by that of free 
 dom, glory, and love of country." 
 
 Pigott cites the Sagor for confirmation of the many points of 
 excellence with the Norsemen, this included : "If we consult 
 the Icelandic sagas, many of which are faithful and unpretend 
 ing pictures of the times in which they were written, we shall 
 find that the Scandinavians were by no means unacquainted 
 with the comforts and even the luxuiies of life ; that they 
 were skilful mechanics ; held music and poetry in the highest 
 esteem ; have some claim to the invention of oil-painting, and, 
 above all, in their relations with the weaker sex, showed a 
 degree of refinement and generosity which we may look for in 
 vain amongst the Greeks and Romans in their highest civiliza 
 tion." 
 
 There is still another point, not a reform brought about by 
 desperate efforts, through socialism, philanthropy, new financial 
 theories, or the like, but the natural result of wise and good 
 legislation, that has not been mentioned as yet, and that is, the 
 absence of poverty in the North ! Mallet speaks of it as a 
 very remarkable feature of Norse government, and indeed it 
 is ! He says : fi That the leading men of this republic (Ice 
 land) should have framed a code of laws, which, whatever may 
 be their defects, secured at least an ample provision for the 
 poorest members of the community, and suffered no oiie to 
 
142 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 perish from starvation, are facts which will always render Ice 
 land peculiarly interesting to all who make human nature or 
 the development of humanity on earth, in its multifarious and 
 ever- varying aspects the object of their special attention." 
 
 But now we must turn abruptly from this too fascinating 
 contemplation of Norse antiquity, and trace the contrast in 
 religious action, during the Reformation, between the Northern 
 nations and Spain. Bishop Percy, in. his preface to Mallet s 
 work, calls attention to the absence of secrecy in the religious 
 ceremonies or teachings of the ancient Scandinavians: "But 
 what particularly distinguishes the Celtic institutions from 
 those of the Teutonic nations, is that remarkable air of secrecy, 
 and mystery with which the Druids concealed their doctrines 
 from the laity; forbidding that they should ever be com 
 mitted to writing, and, upon that account, not having so 
 much as an alphabet of their own. In this the institutions of 
 Odin and the Scalds were the very reverse. No barbarous 
 people were so addicted to writing, as appears from the innumer 
 able quantity of Runic inscriptions scattered all over the 
 north ; no barbarous people ever held letters in higher reve 
 rence, ascribing the invention of them to their chief deity, 
 and attributing to the letters themselves supernatural virtues. 
 Nor is there the least room to believe that any of their doc 
 trines were locked up or concealed from any part of the com 
 munity. On the contrary, their mythology is for ever displayed 
 in all the songs of their Scalds, just as that of the Greeks and. 
 Romans is in the odes of Pindar and Horace. There never 
 existed any institution in which there appears less of reserve 
 and mystery than in that of the Scandinavian people." 
 
 It is superfluous to more than allude to the systematic 
 mystery and secrecy of the Christian Church, its Bible, creed, 
 ministration, and all connected with it ; I will merely quote 
 what Llorcnte says about the working of its characteristic 
 institution, the Inquisition: "Secrecy, the foe of truth and 
 
OR ? HONOUR TO \\HOM HONOUR is DUE. 143 
 
 justice, was the soul of the tribunal of the Inquisition ; it gave 
 to it new life and vigour, sustained and strengthened its arbitrary 
 power, and so emboldened it, that it had the hardihood to 
 arrest the highest and noblest in the land, and enabled it to 
 deceive, by concealing facts, popes, kings, viceroys, and all in 
 vested with authority by their sovereign." The holy office" 
 was in full operation when Columbus went to Spain, and the 
 notorious Torquemada was inquisitor-general ; it continued, 
 under imperial support, through several dynasties, but it is our. 
 purpose now to consider its work at the time the Reformation 
 was taking firm root in Sweden. The Spaniards would have 
 been less than human if Luther s doctrines had not crept into 
 their minds, too; but the Pope was prepared for this contingency ; 
 according to Llorente, " in 1521, the Pope wrote to the governors 
 of the provinces in Castile, during the absence of Charles V., re 
 commending them to prevent the introduction of the works of 
 Luther into the kingdom ; and Cardinal Adrian, in the same 
 year, ordered the inquisitors to seize all books of that nature : 
 this order was repeated in 1523." The emperor showed him 
 self no less zealous, for "he commissioned the University of 
 Lou vain to form a list of dangerous books, and in 1539 he 
 obtained a bull of approbation from the Pope. The index \vas 
 published in 1546 by the University in all the states of 
 Flanders, six years after a decree had been issued to prohibit the 
 writings of Luther from being read or bought on pain of death. 7 
 
 In 1529, King Gustaf I. proclaimed Lutheranism the State- 
 religion of Sweden, and soon after deprived the bishops of 
 their name and dignity, prohibited the invoking of saints, the 
 use of holy water, pilgrimages, in short cleared all the Romish 
 mummery out of the kingdom ! The Pope and his successors, 
 lost their power for ever in the North ! 
 
 From Spain, however, they extended it to America, under 
 royal protection as usual. "The Spanish possessions in the 
 New World/ to quote Arthur Helps, u occupied an immense 
 
144 TlIE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 extent of territory, namely from 40 43 , south latitude, to 
 37 48 north latitude, the distances from the Equator, on each 
 side, being nearly the same. Humboldt has observed that tin; 
 Spanish territory in the New World was not only equal in 
 length to the whole of Africa, but was also of much greater 
 width than the empire of Russia." Accordingly, in this vast 
 dominion Spanish rigour was exercised. The following state 
 ments are Llorente s : "Charles V. and Philip II. had regu 
 lated the circulation of books in their American states. In 
 1543 the viceroys and other authorities were commanded to 
 prevent the introduction or printing of tales or romances. In 
 1550, a new decree obliged the tribunal of the commerce of 
 Seville, to register all the books destined for the colonies, to 
 ceitify that they were not prohibited. In 1556, the Govern-, 
 inent commanded that no work relating to the affairs of 
 America should be published without a permission from the 
 Council of the Indies, and that those already printed should 
 not be sold unless they were examined and approved, which 
 obliged all those who possessed any to submit them to the 
 council. The officers of the customs in America were also 
 obliged to seize all the prohibited books which might be im 
 ported, and remit them to the archbishops and bishops, who, 
 in this case, possessed the same powers as the inquisitors of 
 Spain. Lastly, Philip II., in 1560, decreed new measures, 
 and the surveillance was afterwards as strictly observed in the 
 colonies of the New Woild as in the peninsula. In the year 
 1558 the terrible law of Philip II. was published, which 
 decreed the punishm nts of death and confiscation for all those 
 who should sell, buy, keep, or read the books prohibited by the 
 holy office ; and to insure the execution of this sanguinary 
 Jaw, the index was printed, that the people might not allege 
 ignorance in their defence." 
 
 Thus, simultaneous with the deliverance of Sweden from the 
 power of Rome and the consequent infliction of the Inquisi- 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 145 
 
 tion there, too, had the ruling monarch shown any weakness or 
 irresolution, this fatal sway was extended over a territory 
 " equal in length to the whole of Africa, and of much greater 
 width than the empire of Russia," in fact, over all that was 
 then known as the New World. Freedom was born again in 
 the North, tyranny forged new fetters in the South ! 
 
 Yes, Americans, in considering this most frightful of all 
 subjects, must be brought to the harrowing conviction, fraught 
 with the deepest humiliation, that the worst atrocities of the 
 Spanish Inquisition have been perpetrated on American soil, 
 and that these were the results of the discovery by Columbus, 
 these the scenes enacted in the Spanish colonies ! Voltaire 
 has remarked that "an Asiatic, arriving at Madrid on the day 
 of an auto-da-fe, would doubt whether it were a festival, re 
 ligious celebration, sacrifice, or massacre ; it is all of them." 
 The writer of the preface, or advertisement, to Llorente s book, 
 says : l( All the records of the fantastic cruelties of the 
 heal hen world do not afford so appalling a picture of human 
 weakness and depravity as the authentic and genuine documents 
 of the laws and proceedings of this Holy Office, which pro- 
 fessed to act under the influence of the doctrines of the Re 
 deemer of the World!" And the jurisdiction of this Holy 
 Office comprised America ! 
 
 To revert again to the same authority. Llorente : "In 1570 
 Philip II. appointed an Inquisition in Mexico, and in 1571 
 established three tribunals for all America ; one at Lima, one 
 in Mexico, and the other at Carthagena, assigning to each the 
 extent of territory which they were to possess, and subjecting 
 them to the authority of the inquisitor-general and the Supreme 
 Council. The first auto-da-fe, in Mexico took place in 1574 ; 
 it was celebrated with so much pomp and splendour, that eye- 
 witnesses have declared that it could only be compared with 
 that of Yalladolid in 1559, at which Philip II. and the royal 
 family attended. A Frenchman and an Englishman were 
 
 L 
 
146 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 "burnt as impenitent Lutherans." In Spain there were two 
 autos-da-fe, in 1559, against the Lutherans. At the second of 
 these thirteen persons were burnt ! 
 
 . Can doubt any longer remain in the mind of any American, 
 man or woman, as to whether we owe respect and gratitude to 
 Spain, or to the Scandinavian North 1 Is it not entirely due 
 to the three great Swedish kings, Gustaf Yasa, Carl IX., and 
 Uustaf Adolf, that Spain, " the leader of the Catholic re 
 action," "the soul and support of the Catholic religion/ was 
 frustrated in its intent! jn of bringing the whole world under 
 Catholic dominion 1 It had made repeated attempts to re 
 establish Catholicism in Sweden, during the reigns of Joliau 
 III , Carl IX., and during the Swedish-Polish war ; " it was to 
 restore the Catholic Church that Philip II. desired to obtain 
 the empire of Europe," declares Buckle. This author has very 
 clear ideas about Spain and its religious history, and Avould 
 educate the world well on this subject, did it but heed ; a few 
 brief words of his sum up the record of Philip II. s work : 
 " Directly that he heard that the Protestants were making con 
 verts in Spain, he strained every nerve to stifle the heresy ; and 
 so admirably was he seconded by the general temper of the 
 people, that he was able without risk to suppress opinions 
 which convulsed every other part of Europe. In Spain, the 
 Reformation, after a short struggle, died completely away, and 
 in about ten years the last vestige of it disappeared." 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 147 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE NORSE DISCOVERERS AND COLUMBUS CONTRASTED. 
 
 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, " the immortal discoverer of America," 
 as D. Gio. Batista Spotorno calls him, and " that great man to 
 whom we are indebted for the New World," was the true son 
 of his age and his double nationality, Italian-Spanish. His 
 over-mastering desire to discover a new world was not to get 
 away himself from the fetid air of Spain and to secure a 
 refuge, at a safe distance from Spain, for hundreds of thousands 
 of victims of religious persecution, but to gain new territory for 
 the extension of the Gospel and that indispensable appendage 
 of the faith, the Inquisition. We never see in any book 
 treating of him, or that period, that he was shocked at any of 
 the public doings in Spain, or that he was filled with horror at 
 the cruelties that were perpetrated there under his very eyes. 
 A man of a different mould would rather have been burnt at 
 the stake than have been the means of carrying this foul system 
 across the ocean, of running the remotest risk of transplanting 
 it, but Columbus dearest wish was to become the humble 
 instrument, in the hands of the Lord, of bringing this added 
 glory to the Church and to his sovereigns ! Barry, the Roman 
 Catholic author referred to in former chapters of this book, 
 laments that " prejudice, enmity, hostility against the Catholic 
 Church, have the incredible privilege of teaching the Catholic 
 world the life of a man who is one of its most shining glories." 
 Yes, he is safe there, that statement will not be contradicted ; 
 
 L 2 
 
148 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 Columbus is indeed one of the most shining glories of the 
 Catholic world ; it only remains to be seen how he is estimated 
 outside of this world. " They cannot bring themselves to see" 
 (those prejudiced, hostile biographers he alludes to) " in the dis 
 covery of the New World, a providential intervention." No, 
 probably not, with the light that uncorrupted history is now 
 throwing upon the transaction ! " They have rejected the 
 superior character of Columbus," he adds, " the man chosen by 
 heaven." 
 
 In the prospectus of Prof. Rafn s great work, " Antiquitates 
 Americans," there is a declaration to the effect that ff it was the 
 knowledge of the Scandinavian voyages, in all probability, 
 which prompted the expedition of Columbus." J. H. Schroeder, 
 a writer in the Swedish periodical Svea, believed that news 
 of the Norse discovery had reached Columbus ears in Italy ; 
 Malte-Brun thought the same, and a number of others. 
 Prescott, in his " Ferdinand and Isabella," seems very much 
 puzzled about all this, and says in a foot-note: " It is singular 
 that Columbus, in his visit to Iceland in 1477, should have 
 learned nothing of the Scandinavian voyages to the northern 
 shores of America in the tenth and following centuries ; yet, if 
 he was acquainted with them, it appears equally surprising that 
 he should not have adduced the fact in support of his own 
 hypothesis of the existence of land in the west ; and that he 
 should have taken a route so different from that of his pre 
 decessors in the path of discovery. It may be, however, as 
 M. de Humboldt has well remarked, that the information he 
 obtained in Iceland was too vague to suggest the idea that the 
 lands thus discovered by the Northmen had any connection 
 with the Indies, of which he was in pursuit. In Columbus 
 day, indeed, so little was understood of the true position of 
 these countries, that Greenland is laid down on the maps in the 
 European seas, and as a peninsular prolongation of Scandinavia." 
 
 The author does not take into sufficient consideration the 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 149 
 
 Roman Catholic talent and propensity for secrecy, especially 
 when the secret is likely to pay well. There were a thousand 
 reasons to one, to prevent this astute southerner from divulging 
 ths knowledge he had obtained in Iceland. The princely terms 
 he at last made with their majesties of Spain proves that, what 
 ever other lacks there may have been in his character, there 
 was none of business shrewdness. Besides the blissful certainty 
 he concealed so carefully in his own breast, helped him to bear 
 the long period of waiting. He may have had some objection 
 to the war with Granada on this score, but that it was carried 
 on for the extermination of the Moors did not trouble him. 
 Neither would he have scrupled to take the funds for his equip 
 ment on the voyage of discovery, if he had known that they 
 were derived directly from confiscated property, as not unlikely 
 they had been, as they were furnished by Luis de St. Angel, 
 the receiver of the ecclesiastical revenues in Aragon. Columbus 
 had his own ideas of right and wrong, and if Queen Isabella 
 had happened to complain to him, as it is stated she did to 
 others, that " many persons accused her of being influenced in. 
 all that she did for the tribunal by a desire to seize the wealth 
 of the condemned/ he would have found a way to console her. 
 Columbus, on the whole, was very fortunately placed ; he was 
 not one of those pitiable persons who are in advance of their 
 age; he would have been safe even under the dread eyes of 
 Torquemada; at a period when " there was scarcely a man 
 celebrated for his learning, who had not been prosecuted as a 
 heretic," he was far from likely to reveal a priceless secret for 
 the sake of supporting a scientific hypothesis ! No, Columbus 
 was not a scientist in a dangerous sense, else the inquisitor 
 general would have put a little obstacle in the way of his voyage 
 of discovery. Neither can he be suspected of having read any 
 prohibited Lutheran literature ; no heresy crops out in him. He 
 may have beguiled the tedium of his enforced waiting by 
 attending autos-da-fe , as any public-spirited citizen naturally 
 
ISO THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 would, and he probably saw his share of Lutherans burned, 
 ladies included. 
 
 Under all the circumstances, it is a mistake to think that 
 Columbus had any very serious obstacles to contend with, aside 
 from the prevailing stupidity of the age. To .be sure, Prescott 
 says that " it cannot be denied that Spain at this period sur 
 passed most of the nations of Christendom in religious en 
 thusiasm, or, to speak more correctly, in bigotry," but Columbus 
 was thoroughly in unison with this spirit, and his experience 
 should not in the slightest degree be confounded with that of 
 thinkers, reformers, scientists, and Lutherans. He had Jesuits 
 and high Church officials for friends and counsellors, one of 
 them Deza himself, the favour and patronage of the Catholic 
 sovereigns, which should be sufficient to save him from ever 
 being classed in that condemned category ! 
 
 It was a serious i/iconvenience, certainly, not to have a ship 
 of his own. In the North a gentleman, in those days, had his 
 private vessel, as gentlemen*, in our times, have their private 
 carriage, and could go where he liked ; but in Spain, the in 
 quisitors, who, in a way, represented the Government, could 
 only seize and confiscate other people s vessels, like the one 
 owned by Burton, an Englishman, whom they burnt as a 
 Lutheran. 
 
 The Norse discoverers, on the other hand, were not serious- 
 minded like Columbus, were not burdened with scientific 
 theories, nor a heavy secret, regarded the ocean as little more 
 than a babbling brook, and had more vessels and crews than 
 they knew what to do with. Like our fashionable Americans 
 at the present day, the Norse travellers had been everywhere 
 almost and pined for a new coast. So one day they found 
 Greenland, and soon after chanced upon America. They came 
 home and told the news, and then others went. But I will let 
 the {Saga relate this, in its own inimitable way; " Bjarni, a very 
 iiopeful man. He conceived, when yet young, a desire to travel 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 151 
 
 abroad, and soon earned for himself both riches and respect ; 
 and he was every second winter abroad, every other at home 
 with his father. Soon possessed Bjarni his own ship \ and the 
 last winter he was in Norway, Herjulf prepared for a voyage 
 to Greenland with Eric. . . . Bjarni came to Eyrar with his 
 ship the summer of the same year in which his father had 
 sailed away in spring. These tidings appeared serious to Bjarni, 
 and he was unwilling to unload his ship. Then his seamen 
 asked him what he would do ; he answered that he intended 
 to continue his custom, and pass the winter with his father." 
 In all this we see the cultivated, travelled gentleman, fond also 
 of home-life and home-ties. In the rest of his reply, however, 
 he quite transcends any gentleman, or any mariner, we have 
 heard of: " And I will, said he, bear for Greenland, if ye 
 will give me your company. " The crew proved quite as re 
 markable as he, it seemed to be a holiday-trip for the whole of 
 them ; far from demurring, they answered, that "they would 
 follow his counsel." Then sa d Bjarni: " Imprudent will appear 
 our voyage, since no one of us has been in the Greenland 
 ocean. However, they put to sea as soon as they were ready." 
 
 And this was all there was to it. Money, men, vessel, pro 
 visions, everything needful they had ; the only thing they did 
 not have was knowledge of the route, but that was not serious. 
 They made about as quick a voyage as if they had known the 
 way, and besides their destination (which had been discovered 
 before) it is thought that the lands discovered by Bjarni 
 "Herjulf son on that impromptu trip, gathered from the details 
 and minute description of the voyages, were Connecticut, Long 
 Island, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Nova Scotia, and New- 
 foundland. 
 
 When poor Columbus, provided with royal promises and 
 patronage, large funds, and all that his southern heart could 
 wish, returned to Palos, to make immediate preparations for 
 his voyage, he found that his difficulties had just begun. 
 
152 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 Washington Irving did not mean the description of this to be 
 ludicrous, and perhaps it would not be to one who had not 
 read of Bjarni s start-o(f beforehand: "The inhabitants con 
 sidered the ships and crews demanded of them in the light of 
 sacrifices devoted to destruction. The owners of vessels re 
 fused to furnish them for so desperate a service, and the boldest 
 seamen shrunk from such a wild and chimerical cruise into the 
 wilderness of the ocean. . . . Nothing can be a stronger evidence 
 of the bold nature of this undertaking, than the extreme dread 
 with which it was regarded by a maritime community, composed 
 of some of the most adventurous navigators of the age." 
 
 This was in 1492, and the Norse party sailed on their little 
 pleasure-trip in 982. Does it not seem as if retrogression, and 
 not progress, marked the stages of history] As if the Dar 
 winian theory was sadly true in a reverse sense, from man to 
 ape 1 The Norse voyagers started off merrily, anticipating 
 enjoyment ; the Spaniards in a state of abject terror ; they 
 evidently stood in greater dread of a long voyage than of the 
 Inquisition, but, to be sure, fire was their favourite element. 
 By going on the ocean, also, they were leaving all the peaceful 
 and congenial scenes of their native land. When at last, after 
 months of delay, they set sail from Palos, a lot of sorry, 
 whimpering mourners, they confessed themselves to Juan Perez, 
 as a matter of course, partook of the communion, and went 
 through a lot of devout and affecting ceremonials, committing 
 themselves to the especial guidance and protection of Heaven. 
 It is well known that the men behaved as badly as an undis 
 ciplined and mutinous crew could behave, all the way over ; 
 and when at last one of the seamen saw land, not the grand 
 seignor, Christopher Columbus, who was not born to be in the 
 advance-guard, the incipient admiral coolly swooped off the 
 promised reward, and let the poor sailor die of despair. 
 
 They landed with great pomp, as could be supposed. They 
 did everything with pomp those Spaniards, performed all their. 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 153 
 
 ante-mortem cremations with pomp, slaughtered with pomp,, and 
 confiscated and robbed with pomp, in fact, kept up such a 
 blaze that the heavenly kingdom could never have been quite 
 free from the smoke so continually ascending. Smoke was the 
 daily bulletin of their political and religious operations. 
 Columbus clad himself as behoved his mixed character of 
 admiral, viceroy, devotee, priest, pro tern., discoverer, and 
 crusader ; scarlet, the fire-colour, being conspicuous amid his 
 armour; and bearing aloft those symbols that would make 
 manifest his allegiance to the twin powers of evil, Church and 
 Throne, " his first act, after prayers and thanksgiving, was to 
 call upon all present to take the oath of obedience to him as 
 admiral and viceroy, representing the persons of the sovereigns." 
 
 If the Norsemen had done anything of this kind they would 
 certainly have thought that they had taken leave of their senses. 
 This was the superior civilization, the Christian civilization,, 
 attained by Spain five hundred years afterwards ! 
 
 Bjarni went back to Norway, evidently making the return 
 trip with as little difficulty as the one to the new shores, and 
 told Erik Jarl about his voyages the Jarl receiving him well 
 and that he had seen unknown lands, But to resume the 
 racy narrative from the " Codex Flatoiensis " : " People 
 thought that he had shown no curiosity, when he had nothing 
 to relate about those countries, and this became somewhat of a 
 matter of reproach to him. . . . There was now much talk 
 about voyages of discovery. Leif, the son of Eric the Red, of 
 Brattahlid, went to Bjarni Herjulfson and bought the ship of 
 him, and engaged men for it, so that there were thirty-five 
 men in all." 
 
 He went to Bjarni Herjulfson and bought the ship of him and 
 engaged men for it ! But Columbus Was that Norseman, 
 Leif, in the year 984 or 985, in such a savage state as not to 
 know that the way to proceed in such a vast undertaking as that 
 of crossing the ocean to unknown lands, was to present a petition 
 
154 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 at court, seeking first the mediation of some high dignitary of 
 the Church, he could have found a stray bishop or two, if lie 
 had tried, among the early converts, to make extortionate de 
 mands for himself, in the way of money, commissions, and 
 perquisites, and appointments, after having thrown Bjarni over 
 board in the first place 1 But this arrogant and lawless bar 
 barian had money enough of his own, bought a ship off-hand, 
 with less concern than a Spaniard, five hundred years afterwards; 
 would have bought a plaster image of a saint, did not even 
 make known his intentions to the ruling sovereign nor consult 
 a priest, but was in all things quite sufficient unto himself. To 
 continue the narrative : " Now prepared they their ship, and 
 sailed out into the sea when they were ready " without con 
 fessing themselves, or partaking of the comm union, or going 
 through devout arid affecting ceremonials, or committing them 
 selves to the especial guidance and protection of Heaven, the 
 godless pagans ! " and then found that land first which Bjarni 
 had found last." They went ashore and explored. Alter that 
 they sailed out to sea and found another land, and went ashore 
 there, too, touching in turn Newfoundland, Labrador, arid Nan- 
 tucket. Then they shaped their course through Nantucket Bay, 
 beyond the south-western extremity of Cape Cod ; thence across 
 the mouth of Buzzard s Bay to Seaconnet Passage, and up the 
 Pocasset River to Mount Hope Bay. " After this took they 
 counsel, and formed the resolution of remaining there for the 
 winter, and built three large houses. . . . But when they had 
 done with the house-building, Leif said to his comrades "- 
 (comrades ? Columbus had no comrades ; lie took the oath of 
 allegiance from a servile crew !) " Now will I divide our men 
 into two parts and have the land explored. . . . Leif was a 
 great and strong man, grave and well-favoured, therewith 
 sensible and moderate in all things. . . . And Leif gave the land 
 a name after its qualities and called it Vinland" (Hence also 
 the modem name of Martha s Vineyard.) 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 155 
 
 As one of their experiences, they happened to come to some 
 men on a rock out at sea ; as it turned out they were the ship 
 wrecked Icelanders, Thorer and his wife Gudrid, who had been 
 in quest of the same new shores. Not knowing who they were, 
 however, Leif showed his customary good sense and kindness of 
 heart. " Now let us, said Leif, * hold our wind, so that we come 
 up to them, if they should want our assistance, and the necessity 
 demands that we should help them ; and if they should not he 
 kindly disposed, the power is in our hands and not in theirs. " 
 
 How different would have been the Spanish mode of pro 
 cedure had one of Columbus vessels stumbled upon a lot of 
 strange men on a rock ! We can see, in imagination, the frantic 
 ejaculations, hear the pious cry, " Holy Virgin, protect us ! " and 
 gathering courage from seeing the defenceless condition of the 
 poor ship-wrecked wretches, the Spaniards would probably have 
 rushed upon them and massacred them in a body, and found 
 out afterwards that they were countrymen of theirs ! However, 
 a few deaths, more or less, do not count. 
 
 "Now there was much talk about Leif s voyage to Vinland, 
 and Thorvald, his brother, thought that the land had been 
 much too little explored. Then said Leif to Thorvald : Thou 
 canst go with my ship, brother ! if thou wilt, to Vinland. . . . 
 Now Tliorvald made ready for this voyage, with thirty men, 
 and took counsel thereon with Leif, his brother. Then made 
 they their ship ready and put to sea, and nothing is told of their 
 voyage until they came to Leif s booths in Vinland. There they 
 laid up their ship and spent a pleasant winter, and caught fish 
 for their support." 
 
 In the summer they explored the land, the western part of 
 it, and the following summer they went eastward. Comparing 
 Columbus with, the Norse voyagers, Aaron Goodrich cites an 
 incident in Thorvald s experience, to illustrate the different 
 characteristics of the two : <( Attacked by hostile Indians, Tlior- 
 -vald s.ays : * We shall defend ourselves as well as we can, but nqjb 
 
156 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 use our weapons much against them. Greeted by peaceable 
 Indians, Columbus orders the ship s gun fired in the midst, in 
 order to abate their pride and make them not contemn the 
 Christians. " He says also, as the narrative has already told 
 us, that "all the Norse leaders, Bjarne Herjulfson, Leif and 
 Thorvald Ericson, Karlsefne, Bjarne Grimolfson, worked for the 
 common good, and were as much loved and respected by their 
 followers as Columbus was hated and despised by his." 
 
 Goodrich also draws a just comparison in regard to the extent 
 of exploration of each party, and says : " If the discovery by 
 Columbus in 1492 of the islands of San Salvador and San 
 Domingo was the discovery of the continent of America, then 
 the discovery and permanent colonization of Iceland and Green 
 land, six hundred years before by the Scandinavians, was also 
 the discovery of that continent ; the portion of mainland 
 coasted by Columbus was avowedly but small, and he professed 
 to be in Asia. The Northmen, on the contrary, visited all the 
 eastern coast of America, from the extreme north to Florida, 
 formed settlements, and for centuries carried on commerce with 
 the products of what are now the most civilized, populous and 
 enlightened portions of America ; and the American might well 
 feel relief and pride at the knowledge that the first of his race 
 to touch upon his native shores were the heroic Norsemen 
 
 Kings of the main, their leaders brave, 
 Their barks the dragons of the wave. " 
 
 Toulmin Smith, in his " Discovery of America by the North 
 men," argues each point, and seems to have chosen the dialogue 
 form for his book in order to debate every inch of ground with 
 the defenders of Columbus. He dissects Bancroft s entire state 
 ment relative to both in the most scathing way. His summing 
 up is this : " Columbus was not the discoverer of America ; he 
 was not the first visitant to her shores ; his act was not so 
 perilous, or complete, or adventurous a one as the oft-repeated 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 157 
 
 acts of the Northmen ; nor was his actual knowledge of the 
 country in any degree so exact, while all his ideas concerning it 
 were purely erroneous. . . . Shall the Northmen be deprived, 
 then, of the well-deserved meed of honour and glory which is 
 so justly due to them, for their bold and enterprising achieve 
 ments, for their often-repeated explorations, and for their early 
 but accurate knowledge of these distant regions 1 " 
 
 Happy for Columbus if he could be let off with a comparison 
 with the discoverers and colonists, Bjarni, Leif, and Thorvald, 
 but there is still another distinguished Norseman, whose bio 
 graphy and character belittle the inglorious Italian fortune- 
 hunter still more, and this man is Thorfinn Karlsefne. Illus 
 trious, influential, possessing immense wealth and a lineage so 
 splendid as only to be equalled by his celebrated line of 
 descendants, Karlsefne was a truly remarkable man, and him 
 must the American people honour as their first worthy colonist. 
 " Snorre, his son, was born in Vinland, A.D. 1007. From him, 
 according to a genealogical table" (affirms E. F. Slafter) 
 " introduced into Antiquitates Americanse by Prof. Rafn, are 
 lineally descended a large number of distinguished Scandinavians. 
 Among them we note the following : Snorre Sturleson, the 
 celebrated historian, born 1178; Bertel Thorvaldson, the 
 eminent sculptor, born 1770; Finn Magnusen, born 1781; 
 Birgin Thorlacius, professor in Copenhagen, born 1775 ; Grim 
 Thorkelin, professor in Copenhagen and many others earlier 
 in the line." In a note, in this edition of the Norse voyages, 
 published by the Prince Society, it is stated that " it would 
 appear that Kailsefne himself narrated originally the events that 
 occurred on these voyages,, and that only the more important 
 portions were written out by the sagauian; thiit it was not 
 written till a numerous race of distinguished men had descended 
 from Karlsefne." 
 
 " Thorfinn took to trading voyages/ says the narrative, " and 
 was thought an able seaman and merchant. . . . One summer 
 
158 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 Kurlsefne fitted out his ship, and purposed a voyage to Vin land." 
 And how follows an example of the lavish hospitality of the 
 Norsemen, showing the grand scale, upon which they exercised 
 it: " Leif, on his side, showed them hospitality, and bade the 
 crews of these two ships home, for the winter, to his own house 
 at Brattahlid, This the merchants accepted and thanked him. 
 Then were their goods removed to Brattahlid ; there was no 
 want of large out-houses to keep the goods in, neither plenty of 
 everything that was required, wherefore they were well satisfied 
 in the winter. But towards Yule " the Norse Jul which the 
 Church appropriated and converted into the Christian Christ 
 mas, a season of extreme festivity in the North, devoid of 
 tedious religious ceremonies " Leif began to be silent, and was 
 less cheerful than he used to be. One time Karlsefne turned, 
 towards Leif and said : Hast tliou any sorrow, Leif, my friend ? 
 People think to see that thou art less cheerful than thou wert 
 wont to be ; thou hast entertained us with the greatest splendour, 
 a.nd we are bound to return it to thee with such services as we 
 can command ; say now, what troubles thee 1 Leif answered : 
 Ye are friendly and thankful, and I have no fear as concerns 
 our intercourse, that ye will feel the want of attention ; but, on 
 the other hand, I fear that when ye come elsewhere it will be. 
 said that ye have never passed a worse Yule than that which 
 now approaches. " With the aid of the resources on Thoi film s 
 two vessels, freely offered for his host s use, the joyful holidays 
 could be duly kept, and Thorer having died, some time since, 
 the occasion was rendered yet more festive by the wedding of 
 Thorfinn and Gudrkl, Thorer s widow. 
 
 And notwithstanding the extensive explorations that had been 
 made, "in Brattahlid," says the narrative, " began people to 
 talk much about, that Yinland the Good should be explored." 
 
 Columbus could not give up his time to exploration, in the 
 strict sense of the word, for he was engaged in gold-hunting and 
 pondering how .to turn his discovery to speedy account. The 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 159 
 
 Norsemen, as Goodrich clearly demonstrates, " were actuated 
 by motives far different from those of Columbus ; they did not 
 come in search of gold or slaves, but to gather by industry the 
 natural products of the laud, carrying on therewith a flourishing 
 trade between the continent, Greenland, Iceland, and Norway." 
 He adds his testimony also to the fact of the prevailing 
 ignorance in Europe, by stating that "letters and learning 
 flourished in Iceland when the rest of Europe was intellectually 
 stagnant; histories and annals are therefore copious." 
 
 The Norsemen manifestly had a gift for navigating, exploring, 
 and colonizing, while Columbus, better fitted for an ecclesiastical 
 calling or for a crusader, and with mind distraught by visions of 
 the holy sepulchre, which he was some time to recover, after he 
 had found his gold-mine, proceeded laboriously and with infinite 
 difficulty. What made the Norsemen such skilful arid daring 
 navigators it is superfluous to state, but as Laing very wittily 
 observes : " Ferocity, ignorance, and courage will not bring men 
 across" the ocean." History does not relate to us for our malicious 
 gratification what were Columbus reflections, in Iceland, Avhen 
 reading of these Norse voyages, or rather he did not commit his 
 bitter and envious thoughts to writing, but the anecdote Laing 
 repeats about Charlemagne will serve very well to indicate what 
 he must have felt at the bare mention of their bold doings, no 
 doubt recounted to him with Icelandic enthusiasm and national 
 pride. This is the story of the French proselyter : u Historians 
 tell us that when Charlemagne, in the ninth century, saw some 
 piratical vessels of the Northmen cruising at a distance in the 
 Mediterranean, to which they had for the first time found their 
 way, that he turned away from the window and burst into tears. 
 Was it the barbarism of these pirates, or their civilization, their 
 comparative superiority in the art of navigation, and of all be 
 longing to it that moved him 1 None of the countries under his 
 sway, none of the Christian populations of Europe in the seventh; 
 eighth, or ninth centuries, had ships and men capable of such a 
 
160 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 voyage. The comparative state of shipbuilding and navigation, 
 in two countries with sea-coasts, is a better test of their com- 
 parative civilization and advance in all the useful arts than that 
 of their church-building." 
 
 But this was the superiority of contemporaries ! What if 
 Charlemagne with his over-sensitive self-love, had been trans 
 ferred to Columbus age and been compelled to acknowledge, 
 if even in his secret soul, the superior civilization, and the 
 superiority in the art of navigation of a race of ferocious, bar 
 barous, Christian-hating pagans, who had lived half a millenary 
 before ? This would have been the refinement of suffering to 
 Columbus, if he had been intelligent enough to perceive it ; 
 but he was not. A wise man, with some little knowledge of his 
 own incapacity, would have forsworn navigation, after studying 
 those documents in Iceland ; but Columbus persisted, missed the 
 route and still persisted, and knew nothing of geography till 
 the day of his death. 
 
 It must also have annoyed Charlemagne excessively to know 
 that democracy was carried to such an extent in the North, that 
 every ambitious leader could have his own vessel ! Laing calls 
 attention to this, with the rest : " It is to be observed also that 
 the ships of the Northmen in those ages did not belong to the 
 kin"", or to the State, but to private adventurers and peasants, 
 and were fitted out by them." If Columbus had read in the 
 Sagor that " Bjarni possessed his own ship," and that Leif, when 
 he made up his mind to start on a voyage of discovery, " bought 
 the ship of him and engaged men for it," without any pother or 
 delay, the recollection of these two little facts could not have 
 sweetened his own fourteen years of waiting for funds, vessels, 
 and royal patronage. 
 
 It is no exaggeration for Wheaton to say of the men of the 
 North: " Their familiarity with the perils of the ocean, and with 
 the diversified manners and customs of foreign lands, stamped 
 their national character with bold and original features, which 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE." 161 
 
 distinguished them from every other people." Jkit little did 
 these men dream, with all their proud ambition, that the classic 
 antiquity they created in the North would yet stand forth, 
 one thousand years afterwards, as the scene of extinct virtues 
 and traits, of acts so bold and original,, that no subsequent race 
 has ever attempted to repeat them,, and that have always been 
 regarded as little short of fabulous ! 
 
 Still, Columbus made a sufficiently good use of his time and 
 opportunities to be able to return to Spain in the guise of a 
 great discoverer and magnate, and in Las Casas description of 
 his reception at Barcelona, we are. told that "a modest smile 
 lighted up his features, showing that he enjoyed the state and 
 glory in which he came." His situation, for all that, was 
 precarious ; he had excited rather too much sordid expectation 
 in a court and a land whose insatiate cry was ever gold, souls ! 
 gold, souls ! So one day, after his return to the New World, 
 he wrote a letter to their majesties in Spain, from which a 
 paragraph has already been quoted in this book ; even Irving 
 disapproves of this letter and the suggestions it contains,, and 
 comments thus : " Among the many sound and salutary sugges 
 tions in this letter, there is one of a most pernicious tendency, 
 written in that mistaken view of natural rights prevalent at the 
 day, but fruitful of so much wrong and misery in the world. 
 Considering that the greater the n\imber of these . cannibal 
 pagans transferred to the Catholic soil of Spain, the greater 
 would be the number of souls put in the way of salvation, he 
 proposed to establish an exchange of them as slaves, against 
 live stock, to be furnished by merchants to the colony. The 
 ships to bring such stock were to be landed nowhere but at the 
 island of Isabella, where the Carib captives would be ready for 
 delivery. A duty was to be levied on each slave for the benefit 
 of the royal revenue. In this way the colony would be furnished 
 with all kinds of live stock free of expense ; the peaceful islands 
 would be freed from .warlike and inhuman neighbours; the 
 
 II 
 
162 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 royal treasury would he greatly enriched, and a vast number of 
 souls would be snatched from perdition, and carried, as it were, 
 hy main force to heaven." 
 
 So much for the suggestion, the details of the plan ; but it 
 did not stop at that; Irving goes on to say: "In his eagerness 
 to produce immediate profit, and to indemnify the sovereigns 
 for those expenses which bore hard upon the royal treasury, he 
 sent, likewise, about five hundred Indian prisoners, who, he 
 suggested, might be sold as slaves at Seville. It is painful to 
 find the brilliant renown of Columbus sullied by so foul a stain, 
 and the glory of his enterprises degraded by such flagrant 
 violations of humanity." 
 
 If Irving had taken the pains to read the narratives of the 
 Norse voyages, and to ascertain the merits of the case, he would 
 have turned his sympathies into a nobler channel, and spared 
 himself the pain of being shocked at anything that Columbus 
 said or did. With such a key to the character of the man as 
 that yielded by the Iceland episode, in 1477, this based upon 
 Columbus anticipation of what he would obtain at Iceland, 
 Irving would have realized that nothing could sully a character 
 so uniformly bad and unprincipled as the one he m:ide the 
 subject of his biography. His wicked work was continued, 
 for in 1496 Don Bartholomew Columbus sent three hundred 
 slaves to Spain, from Hisp;iniola; in course of time Indian 
 slavery was varied with African, and " in 1552," as stated in 
 Arthur Helps " Spanish Conquest in America," " Philip the 
 Second concluded a bargain for the grant of a monopoly to 
 import 23,000 negroes into the Indies ; and so this traffic went 
 on until the great assiento of 1713, between the English and 
 the Spanish Governments was concluded, respecting the 
 importation of negroes into Spanish America. The number 
 of negroes imported into America from the year 1517, 
 when the trade was first permitted by Charles V., to 1807, the 
 year in which the British Parliament passed the act abolish- 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 163 
 
 ing the slave-trade, cannot be estimated at less than five or six 
 millions." 
 
 The present age, as little as the past, owes gratitude to 
 Columbus; praise is not due to him for anything that he did, 
 while the blame is too heavy to be dealt adequately. Better 
 than to waste valuable time in contemplating this deeply cul 
 pable and bigoted man, would be to consign both him and the 
 n>i>-erable country that fostered his dishonest purposes, to a 
 swift forgetfulness. We have that with which we can profitably 
 occupy our thoughts : the deeds of our own indomitable 
 ancestors ! 
 
 Daniel Wilson, in his " Prehistoric Man," before adding the 
 weight of his testimony also to the truth of the Norse discovery 
 of America, aptly cites these words of the great Niebuhr: " He 
 who calls what has vanished back into being enjoys a bliss like 
 that of creating." This is the glad duty of the American Republic, 
 to call the grand Scandinavian antiquity back into being, and to 
 continue the progress started so nobly in the pagan North, as 
 if there had been no intermission, caused by the "anti- 
 naturalists" of Southern Europe, for one thousand years ! Let 
 us continue where they left off; we shall not find much of value 
 in the intervening ages ; we shall only see Spain s foul autograph 
 scrawled on every fair nation in Europe, except the Northern 
 ones, and on half the American continent ! 
 
 The paragraph of Daniel Wilson s referred to is this: "From 
 the appearance of the Antiquitates Americana?, accordingly, 
 may be dated the systematic resolve of American antiquaries 
 and historians to find evidence of intercourse with the ancient 
 world prior to that recent year of the fifteenth century in which 
 the ocean revealed its great secret to Columbus. From the 
 literary memorials of the Norsemen, thus brought to light, we 
 glean sufficient evidence to place beyond doubt not only the 
 discovery and colonization of Greenland, by Eric the Red 
 apparently in the year 985 but also the exploration of more 
 
1 64 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 southern lands, some of which, we can scarcely doubt, must 
 have formed part of the American continent. Of the authenticity 
 of the manuscripts from whence these narratives are derived 
 there is not the slightest room for question," 
 
 This chapter would not be complete without the words of 
 Hubert Howe Bancroft on this all-important question: "Mr. 
 P>. F. de Costa, in a carefully studied monograph on the subject, 
 assures us that there can be no doubt as to their authenticity, 
 and I am strongly inclined to agree with linn. It is true that 
 no less eminent authors than George Bancroft and Washington 
 Irving have expressed opinions in opposition to De Costa s 
 views, but it must be remembered that neither of these dis 
 tinguished gentlemen made a very profound study of the Ice 
 landic Sagas, indeed Irving directly states that he has not had 
 the means of tracing this story to its original sources ; nor must 
 we forget that neither the author of the Life of Columbus/ 
 nor he of the History of the Colonization of the United States, 
 could be expected to willingly strip the laurels from the brow 
 of his. familiar hero, Christopher Columbus^ and concede the 
 honour of the first discovery to the Northern sea-kings, whose 
 exploits are so vaguely recorded." 
 
 It is the office of the American people, as a nation, to strip 
 these laurels from the brow of a man made great by a glory 
 he stole ! 
 
. 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is" DUE. 165 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE BENEFICIAL RESULTS TO THE PRESENT AGE AND POSTERITY 
 OF ATTRIBUTING THIS MOMENTOUS DISCOVERY TO THE TRUE 
 PERSONS. 
 
 HAD the vast literature of Iceland preserved in the retentive 
 and faithful memories of its scalds and sagamen, the annals of 
 what was in many respects an ideal civilization, describing the 
 life of a race mentally and physically sound, whose thoughts, 
 words and acts were strong and vigorous had this literature 
 existed in a written or printed form, in any tangible form, at 
 the introduction of Christianity in the Xorth, it would un 
 doubtedly have shared the fate of the pagan literature of other 
 countries. The destruction of immense quantities of the works 
 of Grecian and Roman anti-Christian writers signalized the impo 
 sition of this faith in the Roman empire, and the destruction of 
 temples and images, of all relics of the Odin and Thor worship 
 in Scandinavia, is a sufficient indication of the fate that woulil 
 have befallen books and manuscripts, had there been any for 
 the priests and bishops to lay hands on. But, to the supreme 
 good fortune of future generations, this was preserved where 
 the Christian desecrators could not enter, it was safely guarded 
 behind spiritual bolts and bars, in the faithful and reverent 
 minds of the people, and long after, not much before the seven 
 teenth century, when the nations of Europe, after the first 
 decisive revolt represented in the Reformation, had begun to 
 recover from the asphyxia into which the unnatural and pro- 
 
1 66 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 posterous doctrines of the Christian religion had thrown them, 
 Icelandic history was made known to them, the revelation of a 
 system of ethics, of a moral code, of political and social regu 
 lations and customs so unlike those which Christian Europe 
 had adopted and lived after, that it could not at first produce 
 anything but astonishment and very partial understanding. 
 Had any one realized then that this history of an enlightened 
 past threatened the existence of the unenlightened condition in 
 which the modem world was sunk, there would have been an 
 effort made to suppress these writings as soon as they appeared. 
 As it was, the public, and the guardians of the public weal, 
 were too enervated to realize the moral force contained in the 
 Sagas, and too secure in the belief that the Christian religion 
 would endure for all time, and was really impervious to assault, 
 to take any precautions. 
 
 Although the reader has again and again been asked to con 
 sider the great value and importance of this ancient literature, 
 there are still some opinions in regard to it that must not be 
 overlooked. Beamish, referring to Iceland, has said: "There 
 the unerring memories of the scalds and sagamen were the 
 depositories of past events, which, handed down from age to 
 age, in one unbroken line of historical tradition, were committed 
 to writing on the introduction of Christianity (A.D. 1000), and 
 now come before us with an internal evidence of their truth 
 which places them among the highest order of historic records." 
 In an address before the Historical Society of Rhode Island on 
 the visits of the Northmen to that state, Alexander Farnum 
 uttered words that will have much weight with Americans: 
 "At first sight it seems a remarkable circumstance that nine 
 centuries ago, when the literature of continental Europe presents 
 so little of value or intere:4, we should find on the remote, in 
 hospitable shores of Iceland a body of men who carefully 
 studied the past and closely observed the present, and wi.ose 
 recollections when committed to record on the introduction of 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 167 
 
 Christianity and the art of writing became at once an historical 
 literature such as hardly any contemporary nation of Europe 
 could rival." William Cullen Bryant says: " These sagas were 
 reduced to writing by diligent and studious men ; inestimable 
 treasures laid up for the use of future historians." 
 
 But the noblest tribute of all is that from Professor W. Fiske, 
 called by Samuel Kneeland " the most learned cultivator of 
 these Northern languages in this country:" " It (the old Icelandic 
 literature) deserves the careful study of every student of letters. 
 For the English-speaking races, especially, there is nowhere, so 
 near home, a field promising to the scholar so rich a harvest. 
 Tiic few translations, or attempted translations, which are to be 
 found in English, give merely a faint idea of the treasures of 
 antique wisdom and sublime poetry which exist in the Eddio 
 lays, or of the quaint simplicity, dramatic action, and striking 
 realism which characterize the historical sagas." To strengthen 
 the testimony still more, I cite B. F. De Costa: " Yet while 
 other nations were without a literature, the intellect of Iceland 
 was in active exercise, and works were produced like the Eddas 
 and Heimskringla, works, which, being inspired by a lofty 
 genius, will rank with the writings of Homer and Herodotus." 
 The Howitts even assert that " the Icelandic poems have no 
 parallel in all the treasures of ancient literature; they are the 
 expressions of the souls of poets existing in the primeval and 
 uneffeminated earth. The Edda is a structure of that grandeur 
 and importance, that it deserves to be far better known to us 
 than it is. The spirit in it is sublime and colossal." 
 
 In the sentence, " they are the expressions of the souls of 
 poets existing in the primeval and uneffeminated earth" the 
 pith of the whole matter is reached. The sagas, whether 
 poetical or prose, do indeed relate of a life diametrically opposite 
 from that of which we are now cognisant; of an earth which 
 some cause has essentially changed. These poets, and all who 
 formed the chief characters in the Northern epics, had a different 
 
1 68 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 ideal from that of the rest of Europe ; their standard was not 
 the idcaliz ition of suffering, but the conquest of suffering, that 
 is, of all the weakness, sickliness, depravity, moral feebleness 
 and evil of all .kinds that produce it ; all this the pagans of the 
 North crushed out as pertinaciously as it was engendered by 
 the Christian communities in which suffering was the only ideal. 
 The Norsemen believed that human nature was good, capable 
 o; whatever the individual in his highest pride might will ; the 
 Romanists believed that human nature \vas evil, and that the 
 will was the worst snare ; to one class the earth was a perfectly 
 s itisfactory field of activity, which could be rendered all that 
 man could wish, to the other a den of misery, hopeless from the 
 beginning. 
 
 The value of this literature, this history of the North, which 
 from all accounts seems to be the only reliable history we have, 
 is that it describes, with that graphic force yielded by truth 
 alone, a state of society founded on natural principles. At this 
 late hour the people of the nineteenth century are beginning to 
 yield some slight reverence to nature, and depute science to to 11 
 thein what nature is. What little has been learned regarding 
 the physical laws has scarcely extended as yet to the domain of 
 moral and spiritual laws ; an entrance has been forced to the 
 one, but the Church, as of old, forbids access to the other. 
 The race moulded and fashioned by the Bible, who are aching 
 in every limb from the cramp it has caused, have the inestf- 
 mable privilege of reading of a race who had no Bible to warp 
 them out of all human shape, and who were as they were 
 created to be. The conclusion is unavoidable that the people 
 of the North were so totally unlike any other nation because 
 they were Avholly untinctured with Christianity ; thence their 
 strength of character, their intrepidity, their marked indi 
 viduality, the large results eonsequent upon their every act. 
 Mr. Bryant remarks, half humorously: "The Northmen had 
 a genius for discovering new countries by accident," and they. 
 
-OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE. 
 
 really did accomplish more, even in other directions, by mere 
 chance, than others accomplished by the most painful efforts, 
 proving Emerson s words that "it is as easy for the strong rnan 
 to be strong, as for the w.eak to be weak." The nature that 
 they had never defied or insulted was their constant ally. 
 
 But the two elements could not live conjoined in Europe ; 
 one or the other bad to go under. Christianity, the prostitu 
 tion of nature, won the victory over the natural life, and the 
 North, too, finally accepted the teachings that pronounce man 
 vile. From that hour the darkness settled swiftly over all 
 Europe and the Middle Ages chronicled the complete sway of 
 the Church. The Scandinavian nations had at last been re 
 deemed from barbarism. To this triumph of the Church we 
 are told that we are to ascribe the blessings of modem civiliza* 
 tion ; indeed this is the prevailing theory. It is this crazy 
 theory which the Icelandic history, treasured up for this pre 
 sent age, is to dispel, its province being to rectify an error in 
 which the European race have lived for eighteen hundred years 
 and to which they still stubbornly cling. The extinction of 
 Northern paganism, so-called, but more properly of Northern 
 irreligion, ought to have demonstrated clearly that under the 
 shadow of Christianity nothing else could live; it affiliates 
 with nothing else, and never can. 
 
 - Eelix Oswald shows very forcibly this lack of homogeneity 
 between Christianity and that which is alleged to be insepar 
 able from it ;: " But in examining the claims of these theorists," 
 he says, "the impartial inquirer cannot overlook the following 
 abjections: 1. That the rise of the Christian faith coincides 
 with the sunset of the great South-European civilization; 
 2, That the zenith of its power coincides with the midnight of 
 mediaeval barbarism ; 3. That the decline of its influence 
 coincides with the sunrise of a North-European civilization ; 
 4, That all the principal victories of Freedom and Science 
 have been achieved in spite of the Church, in spite of her utmost 
 
i;o THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 efforts to thwart or diminish their triumph, that only in conse 
 quence of the futility of these efforts the heresies of one age have 
 become the truisms of the next, so that Christianity has always 
 marched in the rear of civilization ; 5. That the exponents of the 
 Christian dogmas persist in their hostility to the progress of a 
 reform which they recognize only by condescending to share 
 the fruits of its former victories ; 6. That the worst enemies of 
 political arid intellectual liberty were firm believers in the 
 dogmas of the New Testament, while the direct or indirect re- 
 pudiation of those dogmas has been the fundamental tenet of 
 nearly every great thinker, scholar or statesmen, till the degree 
 of Profextanfism has become the chief test of intellectual 
 sanity; 7. That among the contemporary nations of the Chris- 
 ti;in world, the most sceptical are the most civilized, while the 
 most orthodox are the most backward in freedom, industry 
 and general intelligence." 
 
 These are objections which Christian believers do not 
 attempt to explain away ; their only strength lies in ignoring 
 facts and in maintaining their assertions in the face of truth. 
 If we look back across the black chasm of the Middle Ages, 
 we see an uncontaminated soil, up there in the North, on which 
 were no prisons, brothels, houses of correction, churches, 
 charitable institutions or court-houses ; and in Iceland, where 
 the brightness concentrated, a state of society in which free- 
 dom, happiness and prosperity were not postponed till the 
 millennium. How was it possible for Iceland to preserve the 
 proudest national position on record for four hundred years, to 
 become the model of a republic, and almost the sole intellec 
 tual repository in Europe 1 How was it possible for this remote 
 and desolate island to conserve so much moral force, so much of 
 the essence of its own transcendent power and genius, as to 
 revive the flagging energies of the modern world and reveal to 
 it the long road of its stupid and imbecile retrogression, every 
 sfep of which must be retraced, until the stragglers get back to. 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 171 
 
 first principles ? And why cannot the American Republic;, 
 with its brilliant opportunities, reach the same moral and in 
 tellectual height that the Republic of Iceland attained one 
 thousand years ago 1 The fault does not lie with Americans, 
 with their Government or their Constitution, but in the in 
 sidious evil wrought by the Christian emissaries in their midst, 
 Jf they had made the whole structure of society secular, as 
 well as their Constitution, reduced Sunday to the level of 
 other days, the Bible to the level of other books, churches and 
 cathedrals to the level of other buildings, unconsecrated, and 
 allowed to be used only for useful purposes, priests and clergy 
 men to the level of other men, nay, below that, to the level of 
 idlers and beneficiaries, who, pursuing no useful calling, live on 
 the community and impoverish it, the nation would have made 
 enormous progress, and history could again have recorded the 
 fJmobt fabulous deeds of indomitable and grandly ambitious 
 men ! As it is, all the vices and abominations of Europe have 
 been transplanted there ; in American cities are to be seen the 
 pomp and mummery of cathedral service, the squalor of the 
 worst poverty, the brazen infamy of the lowest crime and de 
 pravity, just as in Europe. Is it because the Constitution 
 of the United States has germinated the same evils as Russian, 
 or Spanish, or Geriran, or English monarchy 1 Is it because 
 " human nature is the same, all over the world," as those who 
 despise it are fond of saying 1 ? Or is it because the Church 
 germinates the same evils everywhere, under a republic or 
 under a monarchy, because the Church produces a certain species 
 of human nature, which chokes out all others, and thus gives a 
 certain show of truth to the trite saying that human nature is 
 the same, all over the world, for the people of the United 
 States have given the Christian idolaters full freedom to carry 
 on their work. The Christian nature is undoubtedly the same 
 all over the world : hypocritical, canting, secretive, avaricious, 
 deeply designing and Machiavellian ; each leader makes a tool 
 
THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 and dupe of his followers ; congregations do their priest s or 
 minister s bidding, and the whole society is permeated with their 
 spirit and purpose. We do not know what human nature 
 is ; we have not seen it ; we have only seen the regeneration 
 effected by the Church. We can read about it, however, in 
 the old Norse sagas, and in some blessed hour this will rouse 
 the desire in all who read to become human and natural again, 
 to shake off this palsying superstition that has benumbed heart 
 and mind for so many ages. Listening to the twaddle of the 
 priests and Bible interpreters, we had almost forgotten that wo 
 possessed any capabilities akin to those of the Icelandic re 
 publicans of the olden time. 
 
 When will it become possible for Americans to do away with 
 church-taxation, with religious holidays and fasts, with penal 
 servitude, with poverty, with prostitution, with unhappy 
 marriages, with the life-long misery of nine-tenths of those 
 born to the earth ? Hospitality, but one of the many virtues of 
 the Norsemen, in and of itself did much to prevent poverty 
 and at all events prevented any one from dying of starvation. 
 But hospitality, in the broad sense understood by the Norse 
 men, is despised by their English and American descendants, 
 in fact by all civilized nations. In speaking of the hospitality 
 everywhere shown by the natives of the islands he visited to 
 Columbus, Irving observes : * The untutored savage, in almost 
 every part of the world, scorns to make a traffic of hospitality. 
 This traffic, together with the slave-traffic, the woman- 
 traffic, the soul-traffic, was introduced by Christianity ; every, 
 thing must be bought and paid for, from bread to absolution. 
 Human beings had no rights ; whatever blessings they enjoyed 
 were by grace ; food and shelter were costly luxuries, to be 
 earned, never to be given. If a little hungry boy steals a 
 loaf of bread, Christian England sends him to gaol and con 
 demns him to a month of hard labour. Famishing adults, in 
 Europe or America, can only get food on credit if .their 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 173 
 
 promise to pay is good. In Iceland, even at the present day, 
 there is said to be only one prison, a good, strong one, but 
 with no one in it. There are no inns, and hospitality is the 
 custom. But the other nations allow the Icelanders to starve, 
 in case of famine. 
 
 Samuel Kneeland, in his exceedingly interesting book, "An 
 American in Iceland," describing the visit of a party of 
 Americans to this famous island at the time of the Millennial 
 celebration, says that there .is a remarkable revival of the old 
 Icelandic literary spirit in the present century, as exhibited by 
 their poets, historians, linguists and journalists. " The present 
 mental cultivation of the people," he affirms, " is very high, 
 . . . The common people are well acquainted with their own 
 and other national histories, ancient and modern ; they know 
 all about the early discovery of America by the Northmen, 
 live centuries before Columbus, while very few of us, until 
 recently, knew any more of Iceland than we did of the South 
 ^ole, or the wilds of Africa." 
 
 After bestowing many encomiums upon these proud, in 
 dependent people, who he declares are " born republicans," 
 he says : " And now I trust that tfye reader will admit that 
 Iceland was justified in proclaiming to the nations the celebra 
 tion of her one thousandth anniversary ; that she deserves the 
 admiration of the civilized world for what she has done for 
 liberty, the advance of knowledge, and the preservation of 
 historic records, at a time when the rest of Europe was in 
 darkness; and especially that she has. proved that man is 
 superior to his surroundings, and that hardship, oppression and 
 poverty can neither stifle the aspirations for liberty, nor degrade 
 a poetic and heroic race." 
 
 " Hardship, oppression and poverty " have been the more 
 modern experience of Iceland, coming with the Christian dis 
 pensation. It was not poor emigrants that first sought her 
 shores, nor those belonging to. the. common people. A bleak 
 
174 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 and sterile land could never induce what Christianity and sub 
 jection to the throne of Norway induced almost immediately. 
 In Pigott s mention of this -fact that in 1262 Iceland was 
 united to the crown of Norway, the pregnant sentence follows, 
 already quoted : " But all interest in public affairs thence- 
 forth died away, and no Sagas were written, because there was 
 nothing to write about." This was the case all over Europe ; 
 there was really nothing to write about until the " revival of 
 l"tters " in the seventeenth century. " In Europe generally," as 
 Buckle states, " the seventeenth century was distinguished by the 
 rise of a secular literature in which ecclesiastical theories were 
 disregarded." By a ludicrous coincidence, remarked upon by 
 several Swedish authors, St. Birgitta was the first person to make 
 Sweden known, in modern time?, and Gustaf Vasa, the second. 
 The worthy woman mercifully freed Sweden from her presence 
 and went to Rome, to seek a broader field of activity ; while 
 Gustaf Yasa obliterated her work, in Yadstena, and in Sweden 
 generally, and cleared the land thenceforth of all saints. But 
 previous to this, all three of the Scandinavian nations, as well 
 as Iceland, had sunk into a decline ; there had been five 
 hundred years of Komaji delirium ; pageants, pilgrimages, 
 baptismal rites, miracles, saint-worship, throughout the North, 
 but in a somewhat modified form : religious zeal and fanaticism 
 could never run quite to the same excess there as in Southern 
 Europe, but yet Gustaf Vasa rose in opposition none too soon. 
 As it was, silly, superstitious legends superseded the Sagas, and 
 slinking, black-gowned monks trod Norse soil. The splendid 
 realities which only began to pale toward the year 1000, had 
 become fabulous things of the past, bearing so little resem 
 blance to existing conditions, that they were even more dis 
 credited then than now. Only in this present decade is there 
 sufficient understanding, in a few chosen minds, to appreciate 
 properly the ancient life of the North, and sufficient courage to 
 dare to state to the world the cause of the long blight and 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 175 
 
 the remedy provided in the knowledge Iceland so generously 
 yields. 
 
 Were it not for the recuperative power of nature, always 
 savouring of the miraculous, there would bo little hope of the 
 recovery of the human race from eighteen hundred years of 
 Christianity. As Dr. Oswald says, and his words cannot be too 
 often repeated : "The night of the Middle Ages was not the 
 natural blindness of unenlightened barbarians, but an unnatural 
 darkness, maintained by an elaborate system of spiritual des 
 potism, and in spite of the fierce struggles of many light-loving 
 nations." To this is due our mixed ideas of right and wrong, 
 our confusion when we are forced to any moral step, our de 
 pendence on authorities, our vacillation, our utter lack of self- 
 reliance. Pride is not in a man s own conscious S3nse of worth, 
 of honour,- of bravery, but in externals ; money is his glory and 
 defence. He cannot trust himself, nor, from his knowledge of 
 himself, is he inclined to trust or love others. What reason has 
 he to. suppose them any better than himself ? Policy rules him, 
 why should it not rule them I He has his master, and he knows 
 it ; the Church owns him ; with the little remaining intelli 
 gence he possesses he knows that the Church owns all, except 
 the unbelievers, and theso are dangerous company. Even if 
 the truth is with these persons, which he is not quite clear 
 headed enough to decide and after all is there any such thing 
 as truth ? he is not willing to relinquish the benefits the Church 
 doles out to him for the sake of any fanatical notions of 
 following one s convictions. 
 
 Max Nordau, in his " Conventional Modern Lies," describes 
 this mental state well : " The conflict between the new view of 
 life and the old institutions rages in the soul of every cultured 
 person, and each and all long to flee from this inner tumult. It 
 is now believed in many quarters, that there are two methods 
 of regaining the lost soul s-peace and that one has a free choice 
 between availing one s self of one or the other. Resolute retro- 
 
176 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 gression one is called, resolu e advance the other. Either one 
 gives the forms that have lost their substance this substance; 
 back again, or one tears them down completely and gets them 
 out of the way." He elaborates this idea very skilfully, de 
 monstrating that there is really no middle course : one must 
 either revive medievalism, or sweep all mediaeval . institutions 
 from the earth. " These are the two methods, : he concludes, 
 ; and the adherents of the first combat those of the other, and 
 their desperate conflicts constitute the only contents of the> 
 political and mental life of the age." There is even more under, 
 tliis conflict than he indicates : it is the unceasing effort of the 
 Romish Church, even through the channels of Protestantism, to 
 regain its lost dominion, to bring back the Middle Ages upon 
 the earth. Whatever the dissatisfaction of the victims during 
 those deplorable ages, the Church had no complaint to make, 
 and paganism, the Reformation, s , -fence, rationalism, republi 
 canism, are all forms of one and the same apostasy, which it 
 is the business of the Church to stop, once and for ever. It 
 is plain that this apostasy has reached its worst stage in America, 
 and that in the United States, which, in the framing of their. 
 Constitution, have given such a mortal affront to the Church, 
 the battle must be fought out. It is not to be supposed for an 
 instant that Americans will repudiate science, rationalism, and 
 republicanism ; they are already more liberal than they know ; 
 the only mistake has been that they have not yet realized the 
 discrepancy between loyalty to the Constitution and loyalty to 
 the Christian religion, and that only a monarchist of Europe, 
 devoted to all the old institutions, can be a true Christian. 
 The hour is approaching that will reveal: to Americans the un 
 tenable position they have attempted to hold, and the immediate 
 occasion for discussion upon the subject is the question of the 
 relative claims of Columbus and the Norse discoverers to. 
 American recognition. 
 
 The decision of the people of this Republic will thus turn 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE. 177 
 
 the scale, one way or the other. The recognition of Columbus^ 
 claims, and homage paid to him as the discoverer, signifies ap 
 proval of the Christian motives and policy since their incipiency ; 
 it is to accept as genuine garbled and mutilated history, to 
 exalt a pretender to the highest honour. The recognition of the 
 claims of the Norse discoverers is to show forcibly and conclu 
 sively that national integrity, at this present day, consists in 
 paying the highest respect to historical truth, and in honouring 
 those who have transmitted it to posterity, pure and complete ; 
 it consists in attributing the greatest blessings enjoyed by 
 civilized nations, liberty, general intelligence, personal rights, 
 just and equitable laws, to the true sources of these. To follow 
 the bidding of the Church and celebrate Columbus deed were 
 to commit a ridiculous and irretrievable blunder, while to cele 
 brate the Norse achievement would retrieve at a single stroke all 
 the blunders of the past and inaugurate a new era. 
 
 However firmly the foundations of the Church are laid upon 
 a future life, all its creeds and dogmas being based on salvation 
 
 or the reverse, its doctrine and theory one of postponement, 
 
 the action of the Church has ever been materialistic, bent on im 
 mediate results of the most tangible and advantageous kind ; in 
 other words, the benefits to be derived from the Christian 
 religion were, to the votaries, relinquishment of actual advan 
 tages for long-deferred ones ; to Church dignitaries and officials 
 the appropriation of present advantages without reference to 
 the future heaven. The poor devotees and zealots needed 
 heaven ; or were made to believe that they did ; the Church 
 needed landed estates, money, temporal power, followers sub 
 jugated nations, and to secure these has been its only object. 
 Preaching heaven, it prized earth ! But for the idea of heaven, 
 it could not have spoliated and plundered all the people of the 
 earth. This has been the practical use of Bible, creed, and 
 Christ ! If this has be. en the ecclesiastical policy all through 
 the Middle Agos, it is equally the policy pursued still in Europe 
 
 N 
 
i/8 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 and the United States, and will be until religious brigandage 
 is suppressed by the law of nations. 
 
 As far as the Scandinavian North was concerned, the Romish 
 purpose is again indicated in the following paragraph from 
 Fryxell s "Narratives from Swedish History:" "At this 
 period Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish Vikings swarmed 
 throughout the whole of Southern Europe, and caused universal 
 dismay by their plundering and marauding. It was therefore 
 determined at several Church Councils to attempt the conver 
 sion of these heathen people to Christianity, and by softening 
 their manners and feelings, put an end to their murder and 
 bloodshed." Thus conversion, forced conversion of these people, 
 was purely a prudential measure on the part of the Church ; 
 the only way, moreover, in which the plundered property could 
 be made to change hands. As for " softening their manners 
 and feelings,, and putting an end to their murder and blood 
 shed," we can take the two Christianized kings, Olof Trygg- 
 vason and Olof the Saint, not to- speak of the Swedish king, 
 Olof Skotkonung, and their Christianizing processes, as shining 
 examples of this ! Olof Tryggva-on declared that " he would 
 either bring it to this, that all Norway should be Christian, or 
 die." It is said of him that "he was distinguished for cruelty 
 when he was enraged, and tortured many of his enemies " of 
 course all pagans were his enemies ; " some he burnt in fire ; 
 some he had torn in pieces by mad dogs ; some he had muti 
 lated, or cast down from high precipices." Olof the Saint pro 
 pagated "the doctrine of mildness and peace," in the same 
 way : "He also made the laws to be read there as elsewhere, 
 by which the people are commanded to observe Christianity; 
 and he threatened every man with loss of life, and limbs, and 
 property, who would not subject himself to Christian law. He 
 inflicted severe punishments on many men, great as well as 
 small, and left no district liritil the people had consented to 
 udopt the holy faith." 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 179 
 
 Prescott remarks that " many a bloody page of history attests 
 the fact, that fanaticism, armed with power, is the sorest evil 
 which can bef.ill a nation." If we substitute Christianity for 
 fanaticism, the words will have precisely the same force, and, 
 indeed, the proselyting work throughout has been much more 
 characterized by cold-blooded calculation than by burning zeal. 
 The same author also says : " Acts of intolerance are to be dis 
 cerned from the earliest period in which Christianity became 
 the established religion of the Koman Empire." Llorente, in 
 tracing the origin of the Inquisition, leads directly to the fact 
 that cruelty, torture, and murder were the earliest means used 
 for the subduing of heretics or heathen : " This first step, which 
 the popes and bishops had taken contrary to the doctrine of St. 
 Paul, was the principle and origin of the Inquisition ; for when 
 the custom of punishing a heretic by corporeal pain, although 
 he was a good subject, was once established, it became necessary 
 to vary the punishments, to augment their number, to render 
 them more or less severe, according to the character of each 
 sovereign, and to regulate the manner of prosecuting the culprit." 
 A strange institution, this, for softening manners and feelings, 
 and putting an end to murder and bloodshed ! It is estimated 
 by Llorente that Ferdinand and Isabella, through their cruel 
 measures, lost two millions of subjects. " If any sect," says 
 Ludvig Borne, " should ever take it into their heads to worship 
 the devil in his distinctive qualities, and devote themselves to 
 the promotion of human misery in all its forms, the catechism 
 of such a religion could be found ready-made in the code of 
 several monastic colleges." Lecky affirms that in almost every 
 country the abolition of torture was at last effected by a move 
 ment which the Church opposed, and by men whom she had 
 cursed. 
 
 Hence it appears that torture, extreme bodily suffering and 
 death, were methods inseparable from the constitution of Chris 
 tianity ; its theory was sal vation obtained under extreme dim- 
 is 2 
 
i So THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 culty beyond ; its practice exemption from torture, bodily 
 suffering or death, only secured by entire concession to the 
 demands of the Church. These demand?, invariably, were for 
 (jain ; the Church gave spiritual nothings, the most vague and 
 false of promises, in return for substantial property: it grew 
 rich in exact proportion as its converts were impoverished ; pre 
 tending to have the monopoly of heaven, it actually gained the 
 monopoly of earth and has kept it in every land called Chris 
 tian. A little further light will be thrown upon the theological 
 method by these words of Lecky s : " Now, of all systems the 
 world has ever seen, the philosophies of ancient Greece and 
 Rome appealed most strongly to the sense of virtue, and Chris 
 tianity to the sense of sin." The Church was well aware at the 
 start that unless men and women could be forced to confess 
 themselves sinners, could be overcome with a sense of their own 
 abasement, they would not tamely yield up the goods and pos 
 sessions that the Church coveted. He adds : " The ideal of the 
 first was the majesty of self-relying humanity ; the ideal of the 
 other was the absorption of the manhood into God." The ideal 
 of the ancient Scandinavians was the same as that of the ancient 
 Greeks and Romans: the majesty of self -relying humanity, and 
 it was chiefly this that stood in the way of Christian purposes. 
 Enough has been seen and known of the deeds of the Church ; 
 it only remains to connect these deeds with their motive and to 
 judge the Church accordingly. No enlightened nation has ever 
 denied that the deeds were evil, but all have maintained strenu 
 ously that the motives for the deeds were pure and high, and 
 that the Church, on the whole, has been justified in pursuing 
 the course it has. Therein lies the fatal error. The action of 
 the Romish Church and of the entire Christian Church, prior to 
 the Reformation, is epitomized in the use it has made of the two 
 discoveries of America, and its treatment of the discoverers. 
 This apparent episode is the pivot upon which all history has 
 turned, and the bulk of past events resolve into this single long, 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 181 
 
 intense drama ! In the Columbus claim the whole motive of 
 the Church stands revealed, its boundless cupidity and avarice ! 
 Its crimes are all of the nature of those that the laws of civi 
 lized countries punish most severely, inasmuch as all infringe 
 ments of the rights of property are considered the grossest 
 offences : under the head of dishonesty, come robbery, spolia 
 tion, plunder, marauding, and depredations of every kind ; of 
 all of these the Church is guilty, for it uses violent means, uses 
 threats, to obtain momy. Every sending-out of missionaries to 
 the heathen is a marauding expedition, all of the intimida 
 tions of the priests and clergymen are to the end of robbery, 
 every threat of hell is ruffianism, to secure plunder These 
 organized robbers, of whom the whole civilized world stand 
 in awe, who enjoy complete immunity, could not gain a stiver 
 from those they oppress, except through inspiring fear. 
 
 It is this system of intimidation that the United States, to 
 gether with the nations of Europe, is tacitly sanctioning, but 
 the Roman Catholic Church is not content with this. All these 
 crimes have been perpetrated before by the Church and perpe 
 trated with impunity, but in insisting on the recognition of 
 Columbus claims, the Church demands from the United States^ 
 and from the world, public sanction of these crimes and permis 
 sion to continue them. It demands, furthermore, the ratifica 
 tion of the Act of Pope Alexander VI., in deeding the continent, 
 of which the American Republic now forms a part, to Spain, by 
 means of a voluntary surrender of that coveted land, in the 
 excess of its gratitude to the man and the power to whom it is 
 said to owe all its greatness, its voluntary surrender to the 
 Holy See in Rome ! 
 
 But there is a double movement to effect the end desired : 
 simultaneously with the persuasions used in the Columbus 
 matter, is the, coercion of a set of men, under the control of the 
 Catholic Church and in complete harmony with its purposes, 
 known as the Home Rule party. The leaders of this party 
 
1 82 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 employ threats that revive the recollection of the early clays of 
 Christianity, so violent and brutal are they. They have, dis 
 tinctly proclaimed that there is no extreme that they will not 
 resort to, to force England and the United States to accede to 
 their demands. And what are these demands 1 The wholesale 
 adoption of the Roman Catholic faith 1 Not thus expressed ; 
 the demands are for Home Rule in Ireland, and the so-called 
 Liberal portion of an unthinking and heedless public do not dis 
 cern that inasmuch as Ireland is mainly Roman Catholic, Home 
 Rule for a large Roman Catholic majority means no more nor 
 less than Roman Catholic rule in Ireland, the wielding of almost 
 unrestricted political power by the most unscrupulous of Jesuitical 
 demagogues; it means the establishment of a Roman Citholic 
 seat and stronghold, west of England and north of France, that 
 can harass both, drawing its chief sustenance from the great 
 nation across the Atlantic, which hordes of Irish-American 
 allies are using all their infernal arts to subvert to their foal 
 purposes and which they confidently believe will yield to these 
 arts and become the future empire of the Pope ; it means the 
 elevation of Papal power to a high northern latitude, for the first 
 time since the Reformation ; it means converting the Irish race, 
 hitherto the scum of the earth, into the scourge of the earth, to 
 harass and torment all the other nations. 
 
 These are the full dimensions of the plot, the double plot, 
 connected by a subterranean passage of chicanery. If either 
 succeeds, the Columbus attempt, or the Home Rule attempt, it 
 is equivalent to having both succeed, for the Irish Catholic 
 party will win the day. And success, as they confidently boast, 
 depends only on the amount of coercion they vise. As of old, 
 they have no scruple about the moans ; the slaughter of thou 
 sands of innocent persons, butchery, rapine, the fifing or blowing- 
 up of cities, savagery in every form, it is the old programme 
 re-enacted, and goes to show how utterly impervious Roman 
 Catholics, the most devout and faithful of all Christians, are to 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 183 
 
 all civilizing and humanizing influence?. After a life of several 
 years in the United States, amid American institutions, they 
 come out as perfect types of medievalism as if born and bred 
 in Spain or Italy, and are ready to lay their sacrilegious hands 
 on the fairest and noblest productions of civilization. In their 
 thought, England and the United States are already doomed. 
 To such a height has the avarice of the Romish Church 
 reached ! 
 
 Like a prophecy of succour from the impending evil come 
 these words : " From the depths of the North from a remote 
 and unknown island a dawning light appeared, the harbinger 
 of a bright day that was to enlighten the Scandinavian North 
 for a century to come, and to extend its rays through other 
 lands and down to later ages." From this North we know that 
 reason has once reigned ; we know how the reign ceased, and 
 we discern dimly how we can cause its renewal. 
 
 ]t would now become a work of supererogation to specify the 
 beneficial results of according to Iceland its full due, of emu- 
 lating its freedom and enlightenment during the days when it 
 was a flourishing republic, and before it became Christianized, 
 of attributing the discovery of America to the dauntless men 
 who sailed from those Northern shores. The North failed and 
 tank into a decline through accepting Christianity ; the treasured 
 records of its experience are revealed to the two nations at 
 present so grievously threatened by the rallying power of Rome, 
 England and the American Republic, just in time to save them 
 from its grasp. But for the history handed down to us from 
 Iceland, we could not have known the extent of the evil the 
 Church has wrought,, for we would have had no uncontaminated 
 race, morally sound and healthy, to compare with the diseased 
 and enfeebled one the Church has produced. The actual life 
 in Iceland, the intellectual stature of its people, reveal to us 
 undreamed-of possibilities. In casting off" the incubus of the 
 Church we do not enter unguardedly into vague and pvoble- 
 
1 84 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 matical conditions, but we resume conditions once found all- 
 sufficient for human welfare, \ve will again lead the life of 
 rational beings, and defamed reason will be our one sure guide. 
 After the defeat of its present plans the Church of Rome will 
 hardly be in a position to repeat its efforts for the ruin of man 
 kind. Thanks to Iceland, and the chronicles of the Scandi 
 navian North, the Church now suffers exposure as well as defeat, 
 and its true nature will for the first time become known. 
 Henceforth, however repulsive, it will cease to be a dangerous 
 power. 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 185 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE CELEBRATION OF IT IN 1985! 
 
 ICELAND and the United States have several points in common 
 and their fate is interwoven : they were first settled by men of 
 the same ra ce ; both have been republics, and it will stand re 
 corded in history that both have had a Millennial Celebration. 
 " And an American," says Samuel Kneeland, "could not fail to 
 admire the courage of these old Norsemen, and to feel pity for 
 their subsequent loss of liberty ; and the more, as Iceland and 
 New England are, as far as I know, the only two great republics 
 founded on a Jove of civil ami religious liberty, free from the 
 sordid motives of love of gain and power." He asserts that 
 Iceland was justified in proclaiming to the nations the celebra 
 tion of her one thousandth anniversary, and the parallel between 
 the two will be maintained in this respect also, for the American 
 Republic will not only be justified in proclaiming to the world 
 the celebration of the one thousandth anniversary of its dis 
 covery by the Norsemen, but impelled by every high motive to 
 pay this tribute to them and to Iceland ! 
 
 In this celebration, one hundred years hence, Iceland will re 
 new its youth ; in this it will reap the reward of its long labours, 
 for the American Republic, urged to this public act by the force 
 of truth, by a deep sense of all that it owes to the mother re 
 public, will then be Iceland s handiwork, the flowering- out of 
 the ancient wisdom so richly stored there ! Ere Americans can 
 Iiave this celebration, they must take the step that will for the 
 
i85 THS ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 iirst time make them a free nation, they must abolish spiritual 
 slavery as effectually as they have abolished the physical ; there 
 must be another declaration of independence, this time against 
 the Church of Koine and its tributary ; there must be another 
 declaration of emancipation, the temples and their sacraments 
 regarded as so many slave-marts, where souls are bought and 
 sold ; the property of the slave-owners must be confiscated. 
 And one hundred years after this has been done, one hundred 
 years of development and progress, under the most favourable 
 conditions a nation has ever enjoyed, with the sense of having 
 achieved the grandest triumph in the world s history, the utter 
 extinction of idolatry, the United States will be prepared to 
 have a celebration of unequalled grandeur ! 
 
 To attempt to describe now, while we are yet in spiritual 
 bondage, while the United States yet bears the spiritual linea 
 ments of the Old World, and knows of liberty only in the rudi 
 mentary sense, what such a celebration could be would lead one 
 to be accused of the most wildly Utopian views ; any description 
 would partake of the fabulous ! Such a thing as a state of 
 society based on the positive knowledge that will is miylit and 
 that a rightly directed will is the omnipotent factor for good, is 
 absolutely inconceivable for the people of this generation, in their 
 impotency and flaccidity. Now they will not exert themselves, 
 because they believe exertion useless, and this has palsied them ; 
 then they will not need to exert themselves, for their natural 
 strength, of body and mind, will be so great that everything 
 they do will seem easy to them. They will wonder in those 
 happy days, not so far distant, how there could ever have been 
 poverty in the United States, when the Church has been made 
 to disgorge and the wealth locked up in ecclesiastical establish 
 ments has been evenly distributed ; how there could ever have 
 been starvation, wten the rich soil yields so bountifully; ho\v 
 there could ever have been mental famine, a paucity of ideas, 
 when the mind yields thoughts as abundantly as -the soil yields 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 187 
 
 fruits and grains, and one is no longer baffled with social prob 
 lems. Then human beings will realize that the earth was made 
 to live in, that it is adapted to their highest needs, and that, 
 whatever the next world may have to offer, satisfaction is not to 
 be postponed until reaching it. If we have made the progress 
 we have under a totally mistaken idea of existence, what will 
 be our advancement when a happy and reliable theory takes the 
 place of the present absurdly dismal one 1 What will be the 
 Fensations of those permanently released from the Church cell ? 
 How will the world seem to them when there is -no more regula 
 tion-diet, no more seventh-day rites, no more Bible prescriptions 
 and monotonous reading from a gloomy book that has become 
 the chief infliction of civilized life 1 How will the heavens look, 
 when the Church canopy that has hidden the heavens from 
 human gaze is removed 1 How will the earth look, when the 
 Church curse is taken off of it 1 How will men and women 
 appear, when they for the first time look each other in the face 
 and see no brand there 1 Yes, the time will come when people 
 will have no sorrow save the stinging recollection that they 
 could ever have been such perverse, sickly fools in the past ! 
 
 New-found health and joy, the recovered use of human powers, 
 will in themselves be a celebration, but good inward conditions 
 never fail of producing brilliant outward results and supply 
 materials for that which will dazzle the eye and intoxicate the 
 senses. It will be a duty, moreover, on that transcendent occa 
 sion, to show that a great nation, like the United States, does 
 not depend upon the Church to produce splendid effects or to 
 arrange a festival on a scale of princely magnificence ! 
 
 Part of the celebration at Iceland was held at Thingvalla, on 
 the Mount of Laws, the very spot where the ancient Thit/ys 
 were held, " during the palmy days of the young and flourishing 
 Iceland Republic, during the four centuries of its independence 
 and remarkable intellectual vigour." These Things were esta 
 blished there in 928 and in 1800- removed to Eeikiavik. Our 
 
i8S THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 celebration might take place along the whole Atlantic coast 
 discovered and explored by the Xorthmen, from Labrador to 
 Florida, and in the next one hundred years the free institutions 
 of which the ancient Things were the germ, will render those 
 shores glorious in the extreme ! The progress of the last two 
 hundred years has been retarded by Puritanism, witch-hunts, 
 the persecution of the Quakers, and Quaker conservatism, slave- 
 hunts, the war for independence and the war for emancipation, 
 the clamour for rights and justice from slaves, women, the 
 working-classes and authors. Somehow with the emigrants to 
 America, all the old evils had emigrated too, and sought free-* 
 dom to exercise themselves. They were tenacious, these evils; 
 and hard to eradicate. Puritanism still remains ; if that could 
 have been eradicated first, the whole train of evils would have 
 been removed with it. As it was, Americans left that unmolested, 
 and have had to grapple with each of the social problems in 
 turn : the slavery question, the woman question, the temper- 
 ance question, the labour question, the finance question, settling 
 but one of them in these two centuries the slavery question. 
 Social economists and reformers are tugging away at each of 
 the social evils, honestly deploring them, but really nourishing 
 them through this allegiance to the Church. What is needed 
 is manhood : too much manhood to oppress, too much manhood 
 to endure oppression ; too much manhood to offer liquor, too 
 much manhood to drink it ; too much manhood to treat women 
 badly, or as inferiors, too much womanhood, which is the samo 
 in essence, to put up with ill-treatment or to accept an inferior 
 position. The Church has destroyed self-respect ; hence these, 
 evils. They are the direct result .of Christian preaching. 
 Poverty is hot caused by lack of money, but its appropriation 
 in large quantities by those authorized by the Church- to be 
 rulers and masters, ecclesiastics of all grades, of which the Pope 
 is head, sovereigns, state officials, capitalists, employers ; the 
 rust may fare as, best they can. 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 189 
 
 In the Iceland Republic none of these reforms were needed, 
 unless, perhaps, the vice of intemperance could have been abated. 
 We have been told repeatedly by Christian writers that the in 
 troduction of Christianity in the Xorth did away with slavery. 
 If this is true, why did the northern states of the American 
 Union have to wage a fierce war with the southern states for 
 the suppression of an institution which the Church, calling it 
 divine, fully supported ; nay, which the Church, through its 
 good servants, the Spanish monarchs and Columbus, had intro 
 duced and promoted 1 Mallet gives Christianity the credit of 
 having " re-established a part of mankind, who groaned under a 
 miserable slavery, in their natural rights," but there is no evi 
 dence of this in the sagas ; on the contrary, there is a vehement 
 protest from many a fearless and outspoken pagan against the 
 slavery that the priests and kings were attempting to put upon 
 thorn, the bondage of the new faith, and Laing asserts that 
 " in Norway this class (the slaves) appear to have been better 
 treated than on the south side of the Baltic and to have had 
 some rights. Lodin had to ask his slave Astrid to accept of him 
 in marriage. . . . One owner, Erling Skialgsson, gave them land 
 to sow, and gave them the benefit of their own crops ; and he 
 put upon them a certain value, so that they could redeem them 
 selves from slavery, which some could do the first or second 
 year, and l all who had any luck could do it in the third year. " 
 From this it appears that slavery already existed in the Christian 
 countries on the south side of the Baltic, and consequently could 
 not have offended the religious sense of the missionaries and 
 priests when they travelled northward. Oswald expresses the 
 plain truth by saying : " The Church that abolished slavery 
 in name promoted it in fact ; for her doctrine implied a divine 
 sanction of despotism, and an entire disregard for man s natural 
 rights. The slave-barracks of ancient Koine were temples of 
 liberty compared with the dungeons of the hierarchical torture- 
 dens, where thousands of nature s noblemen vainly invoked- 
 
190 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 death and madness as a refuge from the power of a more cruel 
 foe." 
 
 A continuation of the slave-system is the poverty-curse. The 
 poor have no rights, and they are considered to be bound for 
 life. A hireling is a slave to all intents and purposes ; labour 
 and the labourer are equally despised ; the favoured upper classes 
 all over Europe and the United States hold the belief that the 
 working-class are born solely to toil for them and to minister to 
 their comfort ; this servitude is to be their permanent state, and 
 they have no right to resist it or to aspire beyond it. Their wages 
 are the least amount that they can possibly subsist on ; educa 
 tion, leisure, enjoyment, opportunity, the use of their higher 
 faculties, are denied, them ; they are regarded as a species of 
 domestic animal, whose muscles are of the only value to the 
 community. Artisans and mechanics are a grade higher, but 
 are likewise condemned to routine work, have closely stipulated 
 exactions laid upon them, and are debarred from privileges. 
 
 The sum-total of the wrongs and injustice suffered by women, 
 including that monster evil prostitution, is to be traced directly 
 to the Bible, to the gross impurity of all the ideas .contained in 
 that book regarding marriage, the conjugal relation, procreation, 
 woman s nature. Pretending to worship the Creator, to revere 
 his revealed work, creation, the Bible pronounces the highest 
 function delegated to the human species, procreation, vile, an 
 act instigated by the lowest, most bestial carnal desire, and the 
 human race are invariably spoken of as "conceived in sin." 
 This is the reason why Jesus Christ was an ascetic and celibate, 
 and why this unnatural way of life was alone deemed holy and 
 exemplary. Marriage could only be hallowed by making it a 
 sacrament, and was respectable arul decent only because it was. 
 a bond for life. The Church recognizes in marriage nothing but 
 a sexual relation ; it is the legalizing of passion ; hence it is 
 opposed to divorce, which at once places man and woman on a 
 higher footing with each other, inferring intellectual companions 
 
OR. HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 191 
 
 ship, reciprocity of thought and feeling,, and liberty of 
 choice. It is conceded to he the duty of moral beings, 
 in every other respect, to retract a wrong course, and to 
 repair any blunder they may have committed ; in the matter 
 of marriage the Church forbids this. But in the Scandi 
 navian Noitb, before Bible or creed were accepted, or the 
 Galilean god set up for worship, marringe was contracted 
 without any religious ceremony and could be dissolved for any 
 just an 1 sufficient cause. 
 
 Oswald observes : "We have been taught to treat the 
 body as an enemy of the soul; and, if bodily health is an 
 obstacle to true saintliness, we have evidently progressed in the 
 path of salvation." But the Norsemen honoured the body, 
 developed it to the highest possible perfection, and in the sagor 
 and " Heimskringla " one frequently reads of some king or 
 warrior, that he was extremely handsome, large and well formed, 
 while great praise is given to the beauty of the Northern women. 
 Sickliness and weakness were despised among them, and no 
 death was more ignominious for a man than that on a sick-bed. 
 Their theories were the reverse of those held in these modern 
 times in every respect. " Sublunary life," says Oswald, 
 " according to a still prevalent theory, is a state of probation 
 for testing a man s power of self-denial." Where the Christians 
 relinquished, the Norsemen grasped ; and in their grand self- 
 expansion, acknowledging no limits, no prohibitions, they fairly 
 imbibed greatness from their surroundings, visible and in 
 visible, and absorbed the power of the elements into themselves ; 
 essentially spiritual in their mentality they paid all deference 
 to qualities, analyzed these, and arriving at accurate conclusions 
 as to what was worthy of high-minded men, they accorded to 
 themselves the true place in the scale of being and took their 
 place, proudly and defiantly, as the lords of creation, in a literal 
 sense. The modern, or Christian -world, has been divided in 
 opinion as to whether mankind were bom to rule, or to be 
 
192 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 ruled, but this ancient race did not even debate the question, 
 they knew instinctively that men were born to rule, and they 
 did rule. 
 
 It is necessary for Americans to come back to this know, 
 ledge, and having acted upon it for a hundred years, they will 
 be qualified to celebrate the anniversary in question in a spirit 
 worthy of their Norse progenitors ! The evils that the American 
 people are vainly striving to reform, disabled as they are by the 
 palsying conviction that all human effort is well-nigh unavailing, 
 are manifestly not derived from any Norse ethics. These, on 
 the contrary, have been the source of infinite good, as demon 
 strated by scores of authors, and destined to be demonstrated 
 with overwhelming force when all the philosophy and wisdom 
 stored up in the historic records of the Korth shall have been 
 published to the world ; but let us look on the reverse side of 
 the picture and note, with Oswald, what the effect has been 
 of the Christian doctrines. " Have they ever added one millet- 
 seed to the sum of human happiness ? " he asks. " Did the 
 apostle of Nazareth ever speak one word in favour of industry, 
 of rational education, the cause of health, the love and study 
 of nature, of physical and intellectual culture ? Not one. Has 
 he promoted our progress in the paths of science and freedom 1 
 Not one step." 
 
 It will be difficult, therefore, to assign any good reason for 
 further adherence to these doctrines. To tear down Christianity, 
 mider present conditions, is in no wise iconoclasm ; neither will 
 it leave a moral vacuum ; the necessity is not even upon us of 
 building up something else in its stead, for a structure has 
 stood for ages, testified to by reliable history, which the Church 
 and Christianity have obscured and hidden from the gaze ; we 
 need engage in no useless or doubtful experimenting, for a 
 republic, carried on under rationalistic principles, has once 
 existed, and will serve as a model for the reconstruction of 
 hiodern commonwealths. A republic is but half a republic, if 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 193 
 
 with a free constitution, the inhabitants of the land submit to 
 the Christian despotism, being subjects of the Church, and in 
 reality are governed through fear, the fear of future punish 
 ment. Through the Church, monarchy, in its worst form, is 
 maintained in the United States. Through the Church, 
 medievalism, with all its vices and corruption, is maintained ; 
 and so long as this is the case, nothing approaching to a modern 
 state of society can be obtained. 
 
 Lest the enthusiasm roused by the anticipation of the 
 grandest celebration on record, in 1985, be chilled by the 
 thought that it is one hundred years off, and that the present 
 generation, and even the next, will not live to see it, it should 
 be borne in mind that such a celebration cannot be accom 
 plished in a day or a generation. If we would have it in any 
 degree a worthy one, we must begin now. Seeds must be 
 sown for such a haivest as that 1 Iceland, in celebrating her 
 millennial, had a thousand years life to show, in which she had 
 done more than any other commonwealth "for liberty, the 
 advance of knowledge, and the preservation of historic records, 
 at a time when the rest of Europe was in darkness," but the 
 American Republic has done nothing as yet to earn the dis 
 tinction that fate has reserved for it in this millennial, which at 
 once invests the young nation, lacking ancestral dignity, with 
 an antiquity dating a thousand years back, and one that has 
 heretofore been the mere spoils of an Italian adventurer and an 
 avaricious ecclesiastical hierarchy with the honour of having 
 been discovered by worthy and independent men, led to its 
 shores by no sordid motives. The glory of this fact wipes out 
 the ignominy of the other. But as yet the people of the United 
 States have not even acknowledged this fact ; several of the 
 leading American historians deny it. The adherents of one 
 historic party are pressing Columbus claims ; the adherents of 
 the other have not effectually set these aside. There has been 
 no proclamation of the truth, and the public at large are so 
 
 o 
 
194 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 utterly unaware of it that the} still hold to the pious tradition 
 that Columbus discovered America, in 1492. 
 
 The fiist duty is obviously to confirm the fact of the Xorse 
 discovery ; the second, to make all the history so miraculously 
 preserved in Iceland accessible, through translation and publi 
 cation, to the entire English- speaking public; the third, is for 
 this same public to endeavour to emulate the glorious example 
 of their ancestors. It were not wise to predict that more than 
 this can be done in a hundred years. But if less is done, 
 the American Republic will not be prepared to celebrate the 
 millennial anniversary of its discovery as it should be celebrated ! 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 195 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE RIGHTED POSITION OF THE SCANDINAVIAN NORTH AFTER THIS 
 JUSTICE HAS BEEN ACCORDED TO IT. 
 
 IN the single statement that the discovery of America by the 
 Norsemen has never been conceded by the world to be a fact, 
 is comprised the universal injustice that has been done the. 
 Scandinavian North. By the Scandinavian North is meant 
 definitely : Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland ; thus 
 four nations that have individually and collectively sustained 
 the most brilliant national rale that has ever been acted in 
 Europe, or in the world, have been wilfully consigned to 
 obscurity, their history concealed or distorted. Should it be 
 asked, How has this been possible, and why have they allowed 
 it 1 the answer is, that their strength was sapped by the 
 introduction of Christianity, planned and carried out solely for 
 this purpose ; that the whole of Catholic Europe has been in 
 combination against them, first as pagans, then as Protestants ; 
 and that the assumption of Christian humility and weakness s > 
 completely destroyed their ancient pride that they were not 
 capable of reasserting themselves and gaining their former rank. 
 The world has rung with the exploits of great generals and 
 conquerors, with the names of Alexander the Great, Hannibal, 
 Napoleon, Wellington ; but Hastings, Rolf, Ragnar Lodbrok s 
 sons, Harold Harfager, William the Conqueror, Canute, are 
 scarcely heard of ; nevertheless, England was twice conquered 
 by Norse kings , and even the great King Alfred was compelled 
 
 o 2 
 
196 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 to divide the land with the followers of Odin. When other 
 rulers have engaged in wars of conquest, this has redounded to 
 their glory, and superior statesmanship, -valour, ambition, general 
 ship, have been accorded to them ; when the Norsemen have 
 engaged in wars of conquest, achieving unparalleled victories, 
 these results have been described as the ravages of lawless 
 depredators, the incursions of the Northern sea-robbeis, of the 
 piratical Danes, &c., &c. Military life, adjudged honourable 
 nnd justifial.le, to this day, by all civilized nations, was, when 
 pursued by them, alleged to be an evidence of their ferocity 
 and barbarism. With bolder and more far-reaching plans for 
 attaining the supremacy of Europe than even Russia has ever in 
 dulged in, the Scandinavians were represented as men of limited 
 intelligence only equal to pillaging expeditions against un 
 protected coasts. The Spaniards, too, have been quite willing 
 to forget this little episode which occurred in the ninth century : 
 " From Gaul the Northmen crossed to Spain (A.D. 827), where 
 they came in contact with the Arab conquerors, and penetrated 
 as far as Seville, the fortifications of which they demolished. 
 The votaries of -Odin prevailed over those of Mohammed ; and 
 proceeding southward, they passed the outlet of the Medi 
 terranean, which from its resemblance to their own Baltic Strait, 
 they called the Nirerva Sund, or the Narrow Sound." This is 
 contained in " Scandinavia, Ancient and Modern," by Andrew 
 Oichton and Henry Wheaton. They also penetrated to 
 Jerusalem, literally scouring the earth, and concerning such 
 cosmopolites such a statement as that in Cooley s " History of 
 Maritime and Inland Discovery," namely, that " the geographical 
 knowledge possessed by the Northern nations was never circum 
 scribed within such narrow limits as those which confined the 
 views of the early inhabitants of Greece and Italy," finds ready 
 credence with those who have begun the study of this remark 
 able race. Among the cultured inhabitants of all modern 
 nations are very many very expert travellers, who have produced 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 197 
 
 a voluminous literature respecting the foreign countries they have 
 visited, and yet these would be simply dazed and bewildered 
 in reading of the way in which the Norsemen travelled, the 
 distance traversed, time and space both annihilated, the ease 
 with which they transported fleets, armies, from one part of the 
 world to another. In the " Heimskringla " one may read, hit 
 or miss, of almost any one of the Norwegian kings, Harold 
 H&rfager, Hakon, Olaf Tryggvason, or Olaf the Saint, and find 
 that he goes over to Sweden to have a consultation with the 
 Swedish king, looks into Denmark to see how things are getting 
 on there, travels back and forth from Nidaros, the Throndhjem 
 of the high North, to the Romsdal or southern Norway, or 
 Ringerike, sails around the dreaded promontory Stad, the terror 
 of all modern mariners, without the slightest difficulty, finds 
 time to entertain Icelandic or English visitors, that is, Norse 
 men from England, to gather the freshest foreign intelligence, 
 and with all this holds survey over the entire Norwegian 
 coast. To one who has travelled over Norway in the nineteenth 
 century, knowing full well the nature of the country and what 
 has to be encountered there, such accounts are simply incredible ! 
 It is a slight incident, to be sure, but suggestive, that the 
 ascent of Hornclen, a high and apparently inaccessible mountain, 
 barren of verdure, near Stad, on the west coast, was made by 
 Olaf Tryggvason, who " fixed his shield upon the very peak." 
 One of his followers had also attempted to climb this height, but 
 after awhile could neither get up nor down, so that the king 
 had to go to his rescue and carry him down in his arms. As I 
 have myself twice sailed around Hornelen, I can appreciate all 
 the merits of this exploit ! What is still more surprising, there 
 seems to have been no scarcity of food or entertainment in 
 Norway in those days ! 
 
 There is therefore no exaggeration in the following state 
 ment, also by Wheaton : {; In perusing the relation of their 
 extraordinary achievements, we are impressed with the familiar 
 
198 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 recollection, that it is the history of a race not only sprung 
 from the same lineage, but, in former times, our superiors 
 in the arts both of war and peace." More than the conquest 
 of nations, the Norsemen completed the conquest over 
 themselves; their heroism has never been surpassed; it is 
 related that Rngnar Lodbrok died singing, and Saxo records, as 
 the greatest praise of a celebrated champion, that "he fell, 
 laughed, and died." 
 
 And yet it is the history of this race that has been suppressed ! 
 Could the envy and malice of their Christian inf< riors have 
 been carried farther 1 And what is the result ? The people of 
 Europe and the United States are very nearly as ignorant of the 
 Scandinavian North and its inhabitants, of its degree of culture, 
 its customs, as if Sweden, Norway and Denmark were situated 
 at the base of the Himalayas ! Indeed, the two first, especially, 
 are supposed to be encompassed in Siberian darkness and snow. 
 They are ostracized from other nations almost as roving tribes are 
 debarred from intercourse Avith settled inhabitants ; there is a 
 lingering echo.of "roving freebooters " in the refined mind, and to 
 make the acquaintance of a cultivated Scandinavian is deemed a 
 very piquant and unusual experience for a lady or gentleman of 
 society. The language that was once l< the court language in 
 Norway, Sweden, Denmark, England, and at Rouen, became 
 confined to Iceland, and its two offshoots, the Danish and 
 Swedish tongues Avere, together with the parent-tongue, soon 
 forgotten in England, and in later centuries have seldom been 
 learned by any foreigner." The early history of Europe is thus 
 locked up in an unknown language, or to speak definitely, the 
 history of Russia, Switzerland; Italy, Normandy, Great Britain, 
 the Orkney and Shetland Isles, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and 
 Denmark ! Catholic Germany and France, Italy, and Spain 
 have been able consequently to suppress all knoAvledge of the 
 ancient life and culture of the greater part of Europe ! It is 
 permissible here to again cite Wilhelmi s statement that " in the 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 199 
 
 Ileimskringla we obtain from the narratives of the Icelanders 
 extensive voyages through all Europe to Rome, Constantinople 
 and Jerusalem, also the knowledge of the history, geography 
 and antiquity of eastern, western and southern Europe." 
 Fortunately, the " Heimskringla " is translated and accessible 
 to the entire English-reading public, but there are tomes upon 
 tomes of history that are not translated ; the extent of this can 
 be judged of somewhat from the fact that there is a catalogue 
 in existence, containing the names of two hundred and thirty of 
 the most distinguished scalds, from the ninth century until 
 the reign of Waldemar II., and the scalds and sagamen, 
 be it remembered, were the historians of the North. It is 
 affirmed by Cooley that " the Scandinavians and the Arabians, 
 are perhaps the only people among whom the reading or recital 
 of histories ever became the ordinary amusement ; " this was 
 the superb fruit of the Norsemen s cultivation of the art of 
 peace. 
 
 The first era of discovery was that inaugurated by the 
 Norse voyagers, who found coast after coast ; the second was 
 the quest for Icelandic manuscripts, in which discoveries, 
 conquests, all manner of achievements were recorded ; it was 
 the discovery of historical records; this, too, was Norse, or 
 Scandinavian ; the vague knowledge that there were such 
 records in existence did not stimulate England or France to 
 search for the annals of their own ancestors ; this was left to 
 Denmark, with the active assistance of the Icelanders. Among 
 the latter, Arngrim Jonsson is mentioned as the man " who 
 stands at the head of the restorers of learning in Iceland." It 
 was he who discovered the prose Edda, in 1628. Another 
 Icelander, Brynjulf Sveinsson, found fragments of both the 
 prose and poetic Edda, and, in the year 1640, found the poetic 
 Edda complete. This information is contained in the intro 
 duction to " The Eeligion of the Northmen," by Professor 
 Rudolph Keyser. From the same source we learn that " the 
 
200 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 government also took an active interest in these antiquarian 
 researches. In. 1662, Frederick III. sent Torfa3us to Iceland 
 to collect manuscripts, and in 1685 Christain V. forbade the 
 sale of them to any foreigner." Sweden was also very active 
 in these researches, and the names of many distinguished 
 antiquaries do the country honour. The antiquarian archives 
 were established at Upsala, according to the same authority, as 
 -early as 1669, and in 1692 removed to Stockholm; their object 
 was the preservation of Runic monuments and Icelandic 
 manuscripts. 
 
 The knowledge contained in these Icelandic manuscripts is 
 as indispensable to the English and Americans as to the people 
 of the North, yet they do not have it and they scarcely know 
 the writers on Scandinavian mythology and ancient history, 
 Suhm, Schoning, P. E. Miiller, Lgaerbring, Peringskiold, 
 Nyerup, Grundtvig, Montelius, Hildebrand, Thorlacius, Finn 
 Magnussen, even by name. Of modern Scandinavian history 
 they know very nearly as little. The characters of Gustaf 
 Adolf and Carl XII., to be sure, loom up out of the mist 
 t .iat enshrouds Scandinavia, and among artists and authors, 
 Frederika Bremer, Jenny Lind, Thorwaldsen, Hans Christian 
 Andersen, Tegner, are regarded as phenomena as rare as they 
 a -e wonderful. The presence of such men in Paris as August 
 Hagborg, Hugo Salmson, Normann, Smith-Hald, Heyerdahl, 
 Wahlberg, is just beginning to be acknowledged in art ; Walter 
 Runeberg. is becoming celebrated as a sculptor, but the works 
 of his father, the greatest poet who ever wrote in the Swedish 
 tongue, have with two exceptions, a volume of his lyrics and 
 " Nadeschda," J never been translated into English. It- is quite 
 sufficient to concede that Swed3ii has produced one poet, 
 Tegner ; Runeberg, Geijer, Nicander, Wallin, von Braun, 
 Bellman, Malmstrom, Boltiger, Snoilsky, can remain in ob- 
 
 1 The first by Eirikr Magnusson and E. H Palmer, the second by Mario 
 A Brown. 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 201 
 
 scurity. In the library of the Goteborg Museum, the works 
 on Swedish history fill seventy-one pages of the catalogue, and 
 doubtless a proportionate number of the shelves ; one can find 
 there about everything, from the early writings of Ericus Olai> 
 and of Johannes Messenius, in Latin, to those of Mellin, Geijer, 
 Fryxell, Starback, Afzelius, and the rest ; their name is legion ; 
 Lut so long as Sweden s history is not admitted to be a con 
 stituent part of the world s history, it matters but little who its 
 historians are. 
 
 At the present practical juncture the lack of all this know 
 ledge is a very serious drawback to right action ; it will be 
 found that instead of slighting insignificant countries, un 
 worthy the attention of cultured English and Americans, these 
 have been debarring themselves from that which is most 
 essential to their national development, really cutting them 
 selves off from their best intellectual supplies. They have 
 sought historical knowledge from the wrong sources, and have 
 thus been led away from the truth ; this has caused misunder 
 standing and estrangement between the very nations that ought 
 to have been most closely united and to have felt the deepest 
 pride in their common origin. But this alienation was just 
 what the enemy, the southern Romish enemy, intended ; with 
 Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, England, Scotland, and 
 the United States banded together in the closest fraternity and 
 harmony, as they should be, and as they will l>e, once the hidden 
 historical truth becomes known, Roman Catholic plots and 
 intrigues will stand but a poor chance of success. 
 
 There are great numbers of Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish 
 works that ought to be incorporated at once into English lite 
 rature ; among these none would be of more immediate use than 
 the latest history of Sweden, " Sveriges Historia," in six 
 volumes, written by a combination of the most able historians 
 and antiquaries of Sweden, Drs. Montelius and Hildebrand, 
 Professors Alin, WeiLull, and others; the style is a highly 
 
202 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 attractive and popular one, and the work is lavishly illustrated, 
 so richly and intelligently, with scenes and places, historical 
 buildings and relics, antiquities, portraits, the ancient aspects of 
 cities, &c., &c., that the careless and superficial could read the 
 hook pictorially, and even in this way gain a better knowledge 
 of Sweden than any persons have possessed before. A para 
 graph from it will do good service just here, to show the "state 
 of barbarism (?) among the ancient inhabitants of the North." 
 " A visit to the National Museum, and a glance at the gold 
 ornaments there preserved from the middle of the Iron Age, are 
 sufficient to show what an astonishing wealth of gold must have 
 existed here in Sweden 1300 or 1400 years ago. Gold bracelets 
 of a couple of pounds weight are several times found, and not 
 seldom, when one is working in the soil, a large number of gold 
 ornaments are met with from this period, sometimes going up 
 to a considerable weight and a value significant even in our 
 circumstances." The same author, Dr. Oscar Montelius. goes on 
 to say: " Commerce and Viking expeditions, during the period 
 now in question, brought an almost incredible quantity of 
 precious metals, mostly silver, to Sweden. How great the stock 
 of silver at that time was in the land, is best realized by the 
 considerable masses which are stid, after the space of about one 
 thousand years, annually dug up from the earth. Only during 
 the last twelve years the National Museum has received more 
 than 72 kilograms (170 pounds !) of silver found in Swedish 
 soil from Viking times. It is remarkable that the silver now 
 appears in such quantity ; this metal, it is true, had been known 
 in our land since shortly after the birth of Christ, but for many 
 centuries, clear to the beginning of the Viking period, silver 
 seems to have been more rare here than gold." Describing the 
 large commerce that was sustained, by way of Russia, with the 
 East, he adds: "The certainty is, that Sweden, by way of 
 Russia, obtained from Constantinople costly fabrics and other 
 coveted. commodities, which the refined Byzantines had to offer 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 203 
 
 the pomp-loving Northerners in exchange for their valuable furs 
 and other wares." Horace Marryatt states that " in the inventory 
 of Gripsholm, during the reign of King Gustaf, every object 
 noted down is of foreign manufacture." Among the importa 
 tions during this reign are mentioned dye-stuffs, fruits, gai den- 
 produefs, glass, gold, gems, horses, confectionery, linen wares, 
 silk and velvet, silver, tapestries, all giving evidence of refine 
 ment, love of luxury, and an extremely cultivated taste, and yet 
 the statement that Sweden at the present day has two univer 
 sities, and upwards of 130 public high and normal schools of 
 various grades, besides the special schools, and 9639 elementary 
 schools ; that it has over 4000 miles of railway ; a commercial 
 navy of 4411 vessels; a Sevres" of its own, the porcelain 
 factory at Rorstrand, which has been the recipient of no less 
 than ten medals, from Paris, Moscow, Berlin, Malimo, Boras, 
 Stockholm, Bogota, Copenhagen, Philadelphia, and Vienna ; an 
 opera-house, built by the art-loving Gustaf III., which in 1882 
 celebrated its centennial, and in which all the operatic require 
 ments, singers, orchestra, ballet, scenic decorations (invariably 
 line), even to the translation of the text into Swedish, all the 
 Italian librettos, are filled by native artists; this statement will 
 excite incredulous surprise in all who read it. 
 
 The world has been so deeply impressed with the supposed 
 fact of the wretched barbarism and ignorance of the ancient 
 Scandinavians that it stubbornly refuses to believe that the 
 modern Scandinavians have ever made any perceptible progress 
 in letters or art. In England this scepticism is particularly 
 marked ; but either there or in the United States the assertion 
 that the contrary is the case, is almost resented. Nevertheless, 
 the Salon every year borrows much of its lustre from the 
 works of Scandinavian artists, and such men as Normann, 
 Cederstrom, Salmson, Hagborg, Smith-Hold, are in no danger 
 of being eclipsed. In Johannes Jaeger s illustrated catalogue of 
 the celebrated art-works of Sweden, Norway and Denmark, 
 
204 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA; 
 
 there are no less than 618 works, paintings and sculpture 
 included, yet this by no means represents all. These three 
 countries have given their full quota of geniuses to the world, 
 and the general enlightenment would have been immeasurably 
 increased had the fruits of their united labours been accepted. 
 As it is, there has been little or no affiliation between the 
 Scandinavian mind and the European or American mind ; the 
 finest literary and art productions of the North have been 
 scorned or ignored altogether ; an overwhelming amount of 
 evidence has been required to convince the outside public that 
 the North could produce anything of any value, and these 
 nations, the oldest in civilization and culture, the intellectual 
 parents and teachers of nearly every nation in Europe, have 
 been regarded as tyros, as extremely young and unskilled 
 aspirants for fame, whose mediocrity was only equalled by their 
 presumption in daring to enter the lists at all. 
 
 Several centuries of this treatment could not fail to have its 
 effect upon those who suffered it ; it has greatly reduced the 
 national sense of greatness in the Scandinavian lands and dimmed 
 the ambition that once burned with so bright a flame. The 
 Swedes of the present day have almost come to believe the 
 world s contemptuous verdict of them ; in their wounded feeling 
 their pride now is to be as exclusive as possible and not to seek 
 intercourse with other nations at all ; they argue, and with a 
 show of right, " if foreigners are so ignorant as not to estimate us 
 properly, we will make no effort to undeceive them ; it is really 
 of no consequence to us what they think." Consequently, although 
 Sweden has acquired a permanent bearing upon the universal 
 mind, a permanent place in the ranks of those who have done 
 most for the advancement of the human race, nay, in respect to 
 securing the fundamental conditions for spiritual enlightenment, 
 even having led, it is suffered to sink into a decline, the records 
 of its past greatness are buried, one cannot say forgotten, for 
 they have never been known, the wojks of.SwQd.ish authors stand* 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 205. 
 
 comparatively unread, on the shelves of Swedish libraries, and the. 
 country languishes in its isolation, deprived of the prosperity that 
 commerce, large financial relations and extensive intercourse with 
 other lands would yield it. The hulk of the people in Norway, 
 are content if a crowd of tourists visit the country every summer 
 simply to view its grand and beautiful scenery. In inateiiaL 
 development it is not nearly so far advanced as Sweden, is much 
 more thinly populated, and the resources are less in every way. 
 Norway passed into a decline at the expiration of the Viking 
 period, and has nothing in its history to correspond with 
 Sweden s " period of greatness." Still, in its literature and art 
 Norway stands very high, and a few leading spirits among the 
 Norwegians, both at home and abioad, manifest much patriotism 
 and national pride, and in this instance the few will exalt the 
 many. Denmark, however, has steadily held its own, and being 
 greatly favoured by its proximity to the continent, has never 
 been ignored so completely as Norway and Sweden. The Danes 
 have shown more energy and strength of character than the 
 Norwegians and the Swedes, and the steps they have long since 
 taken to demonstrate historic truth in the great matter under 
 consideration, make them the leaders in this new movement. 
 
 But whatever remissness the nations of the North may be 
 charged with, the cause of this remissness lies with the other 
 countries, who hare almost denied that they existed ; and the 
 instigators of this widespread injustice are the Kornan Catholics 
 and the Church whence they emanated. The blame for the 
 whole of this disastrous state of things, which must now, in all 
 haste, be changed, to avert a dire calamity, rests upon the people 
 of every land who have acted under Koman Catholic influence 
 and believed Roman Catholic lies, against their better judgment.- 
 It is not for these, therefore, to consider the duty of the Nor 
 wegians, Danes, and Swedes in the present exigency, but to 
 perform their own. Let them read and ponder well all that has 
 been translated into their respective languages upon Scandinavian 
 
2o5 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA ; 
 
 history and mythology, and upon the Norse discovery ; let them 
 demonstrate and proclaim what they will speedily ascertain to 
 be facts ; let them, in a word, turn the tide of error and remove 
 the false landmarks that lead all astray. 
 
 One practical step that should be taken at once, is clearly in 
 dicated by Professor Howard Crosby in his introductory letter 
 to Binding s " History of Scandinavia : " " We oddly mingle 
 the old and the new, the dim and the bright, when we turn to 
 Scandinavia, as we do with no other land. This double charac 
 ter naturally lends peculiar attraction to its history. Yet, with 
 all this attraction, the history of no part of Europe is less familiar 
 to the general mind ; probably because the Scandinavian coun 
 tries lie somewhat off from the world s great highways, and par 
 ticipate but moderately in the world s chief commerce. This 
 should not be. The ignorance is a fault, especially among us of 
 English descent, whose ancestral history is so intimately and 
 variously associated with that of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. 
 The Norsemen have left the memorials of (heir habitation on 
 the coast of Scotland, where Runic inscriptions tell the story of 
 their prowess, while through much of England the familiar 
 names of towns and hamlets are purely Norse. ... It is there 
 fore full time that our universities should have their chairs of 
 Scandinavian literature, as a needful part of the apparatus for a 
 thorough English education, to render more complete the exa 
 mination of the roots of our speech and race. While this want 
 is felt, we may gladly hail any contribution to American litera 
 ture which tends to open this interesting field of research." 
 
 Yes, that is precisely what is needed, chairs of Scandinavian 
 literature in the American and English universities, skilful 
 teachers of the Swedish and Danish languages, and a good corps 
 of translators set to -work at once to put the most valuable Scan 
 dinavian books into English. There should indeed be a society 
 formed to fulfil an office parallel to that of the Royal Society of 
 Northern Antiquaries, in Copenhagen ; this society renders the 
 
OR, HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR is DUE. 207 
 
 more important of the Icelandic manuscripts accessible to the 
 Danish public, the other should render all valuable Scandinavian 
 histories and records accessible to the entire English-speaking 
 public. This highly necessary work has already been deferred 
 much too long. With every hour that is delayed will the after 
 compunction and humiliation be increased, the painful sense of 
 having defrauded the Scandinavian North of its rightful position, 
 of having been guilty of the basest ingratitude. In the near 
 future it will be realized, too, how deeply we of English descent 
 have defrauded ourselves in defrauding them, how seriously we 
 have lowered our own rank in lowering theirs ! 
 
 Still, after all remissness and shortcomings, the destiny of the 
 united nations of the Scandinavian stock is a bright one. In a 
 joint act we will both acknowledge our ancestors and be acknow 
 ledged as their true heirs and descendants ; to give will be to 
 receive in a s^nse never realized before ; once hospitable to 
 Northern thought, Northern history, Northern memories, 
 Northern poetry, to the beauty that Northern genius has evoked 
 from marble and canvas, to the noble legends and traditions 
 that, having done so much to inspire genius in their native 
 realm, will also lead the commercial and materialistic mind of 
 the Continent and the United Spates to lofty ideals, once 
 hospitable to these, we will entertain many an angel un 
 awares ! 
 
 What we are called upon to do, and what we will soon do with 
 glad eagerness, is to attribute to our honoured Norse progenitors 
 the grandest discovery that was ever made, the discovery of the 
 American continent ; the conquest and remodelling of nearly 
 the whole of Europe ; the founding of several great empires and 
 republics ; the manly and determined resistance, for five hundred 
 years, to the system of idolatry known as the Roman Catholic 
 or Christian religion ; the renewed opposition to this during the 
 Reformation ; the permanent rescue of the three Scandinavian 
 nations, including Iceland, and the American R public, from the 
 
208 THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA. 
 
 insatiate grasp of the Romith power ; the consequent liberty of 
 thought and person. 
 
 This done, the Scandinavian Xoith will at once resume its 
 true rank, and stand forth as the acknowledged intellectual and 
 moral leader of the civilized world, as attested by every page of 
 its history ! 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE IMPORTANT BOOKS COX- 
 FIRMING THE ICELANDIC DISCOVERY OF 
 AMERICA FROM THE YEARS 10761883. 
 
 1076. Adam von Bremen. "Historia Ecclesiastica Ecclesiarum 
 
 Hambnrgensis et Bremensis." Published in Copenhagen 
 
 in 1579. 
 1570. Abraham Ortelius. " Theatrum Orbis Terrarum." English 
 
 translation published in London in 1606. 
 1594. A Danish translation published of Suorre Sturleson s 
 
 " Heimskringla." Copenhagen. 
 1611. Abraham Mylius. " Treatise de Antiquitate Linguae 
 
 Belgicae." Leyden. 
 1642. Hugo Grotius. " Dissertatio de Origine Gentium Ameri- 
 
 cauarum." Paris. 
 1705. Thormodus Torfseus. " Historia Vinlandiae Antique." 
 
 Havnise. 
 1755. Paul Henri Mallet. "Introduction a 1 Histoire de Daniie- 
 
 marc." Copenhagen. Bishop Percy s English trans 
 lation published in London in 1770. Title : " Northern 
 
 Antiquities." 
 
 1767. David Cranz. "History of Greenland." London. 
 1773. Benjamin Franklin. Letter to Mr. Mather, in " Memoirs of 
 
 the Life of, &c." London. 
 
 1777. Uno von Troil. " Letters on Iceland." Upsala. 
 1786. John Reinhold Forster. " History of the Voyages and 
 
 Discoveries made in the North." London. 
 1808. John Pinkerton. "A general Collection of the best and 
 
 most interesting Voyages and Travels in all parts of the 
 
 World." London. 
 
 1810. " Annales des Voyages." Paris. 
 
 1811. Sir G.Steuart Mackenzie. " Travels in Iceland." Edinburgh. 
 
 1812. Hugh Williamson. "The History of North Carolina." 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 
210 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 1817. Conrad Malte-Brun. " Histoire de la Geographic." Paris. 
 
 1818. John Barrow. "A Chronological History of Voyages into 
 
 the Arctic Kegions." London. 
 
 1818. J. H. Shroeder. " Svea. Tidskrift for Vctenskap och Konst." 
 Upsala. 
 
 1818. Ebon. Henderson. "Iceland; or, the Journal of a Resi 
 dence in that Island during the year 1814-15." Edin 
 burgh. 
 
 1821. John V. N. Yates. " History of the State of New York." 
 New York. 
 
 1825. Erik Gustaf Geijer. " Svea rikes hafder." Upsala. 
 
 1828. Washington Irving. " A History of the Life and Voyages 
 of Christopher Columbus." London and New York. 
 
 1830. Henry Wheaton and Andrew Crichton. " Scandinavia, 
 Ancient and Modern/" Edinburgh. 
 
 1830. W. Cooley. "The History of Maritime and Inland Dis 
 
 covery." London. 
 
 1831. Henry Wheaton. " History of the Northmen, or Danes and 
 
 Normans, from the earliest times to the Conquest of 
 England by William of Normandy." London. 
 1831. W. Joseph SneUing. " The Polar Regions of the Western 
 Continent Explored." Boston. 
 
 1833, Finn Magnusen. " Nordisk Tidsskrift for Oldkyndighet." 
 
 Vol.11. Copenhagen. 
 
 1834. Josiah Priest. " American Antiquities and Discoveries in 
 
 the West " Albany. 
 1834. T. Campauius. Description of the Province of New 
 
 Sweden." Philadelphia. 
 1836. Constantin Samuel Rafinesqne. " The American Nations ; 
 
 or, Outlines of their General History, Ancient and Modern." 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 1836. "Report addressed by the Royal Society of Northern 
 
 Antiquaries to its British and American members." 
 Copenhagen. 
 
 1837. Charles Christian Rafn. " Antiquitates Americana). 
 
 Copenhagen. 
 
 1837. Wilhelrn August Graah. " Narrative of an Expedition to 
 
 the East Coast of Greenland ... in search of the lost 
 Colonies." London and Copenhagen. 
 
 1838. W". H. Prescott " History of the reign of Ferdinand and 
 
 Is tbella." London and New York. 
 1838. Foreign Quarterly Review. London. 
 J 838. Edward Everett. North American Review. Boston. 
 1838. The Democratic Review. Washington. 
 1838! The New York Review. New York. 
 1838. " The Royal Geographical Society." London. 
 1839. J. Toulmin Smith. " The Discovery of America by the 
 
 Northmen." London. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 211 
 
 1839. Grenville Pigott. " Scandinavian Mythology." London. 
 
 1841. N. L. Beamish. "The Discovery of America by the North 
 
 men." London. 
 
 1842. K. Wilhelmi. " Island, Hvitramannaland, Gronland und 
 
 Vinlaud, oder, der Normanner Leben aaf Island und 
 Gronland und deren Fain-ten nach America schon iiber 
 500 Jahre vor Columbus." 
 
 1843. Th. H. Erslew. " Almindeligt Forf after-Lexicon for 
 
 Kongeriget Danmark." Vol. II., pp. 597603. 
 
 1844. Samuel Laiug. "Translation of the Heimskringla, with a 
 
 preliminary Dissertation." London. 
 1844. Carl Hcinrich Hermes. " Die Entdeckuug von America 
 
 durch die Islander im zehiiten und elf ten Jahrhunderte." 
 
 Braunschweig. 
 
 1847. Alexander von Humboldt " Cosmos." London. 
 1847. Gustaf Klemm. "Algemeine Cultur-Geschichte der 
 
 Menschheit." Leipsig. 
 1850. "Ancient Scandinavia." In Chambers Papers for the 
 
 People. Vol. VI. Edinburgh. 
 1850. John T. Shillinglaw. " A Narrative of Arctic Discovery from 
 
 the earliest period to the present time." London. 
 1852. Jens Jacob AsmussenWorsaae. "An account of the Danes and 
 
 Norwegians in England, Scotland and Ireland." London. 
 1852. William and Mary Howitt. " The Literature and Romance 
 
 of Northern Europe." London. 
 
 1852-54. A. E. Holmberg. " Nordbon under Hednatiden." Stock 
 holm. 
 1854. Jacob Rudolph Keyser. "The Religion of the Northmen." 
 
 London. 
 1854. Pliny Miles. " Nordurf ari ; or, Rambles in Iceland." New 
 
 York. 
 
 1856. S. F. Haven. Smithsonian Institute. Washington. 
 
 1857. Charles Wyllys Elliott. "The New England History." 
 
 New York. 
 
 185. Oscar Ferdinand Peschel. " Geschichte des Zeitalters der 
 Entdeckungen." Stuttgart. 
 
 1860. Georg Michael Asher. <k Henry Hudson, the Navigator." 
 London. 
 
 1860. Em. Domenech (L abbe). " Seven Years Residence in the 
 Great Deserts of North America." London. 
 
 1860. Sir Charles Forbes. " Iceland ; its Volcanoes, Geysers and 
 Glaciers." London. 
 
 1862. Adamus Bremensis. " Menigheten i Norden, &c." Copen 
 hagen. 
 
 1862. Andrew James Symington. " Pen and Pencil Sketches of 
 
 Faroe and Iceland." London. 
 
 1863. Sabine Baring-Gould. "Iceland; its Scenes and Sagas. 
 
 London. 
 
 P 2 
 
212 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 1863. Desire Charney and Yiollet-Le-Duc. " Ruines Americaines." 
 
 Paris. 
 
 1864. L. S. Borring. " Notices on the Life and Writings of Carl 
 
 Christian Rafn." Copenhagen. 
 
 1865. Daniel Wilson. " Pre-Historic Man : Researches into the 
 
 Origin of Civilization in the Old and the New World." 
 London and Edinburgh. 
 
 1866. Paul C. Binding. "History of Scandinavia, from the early 
 
 times of the Northmen, the Sea-Kings and Vikings, to 
 the present day." London. 
 
 1867. Hans Hildebrand. " Lifvet pa Island i Sagotiden " Stock 
 
 holm. 
 
 1868. Jacob Rudolph Keyser. "The Private Life of the Old 
 
 Northmen." London. 
 1868. Carl Wilhelm von Paiiknll. "A Summer in Iceland." 
 
 London. 
 1868. B. F. De Costa. "The pre-Columbian Discovery of America 
 
 by the Northmen." Albany. 
 
 1870. B. F. De Costa. " The Northmen in Maine." Albany. 
 1872. Cristoforo Colombo. "Select Letters." Translated and 
 
 edited by R. H. Major. London. 
 
 1872. Cornhill Magazine. London. 
 
 1873. National Quarterly Revietv. New York. 
 
 1873. R. H. Major. " Voyages of the Zeni." London. 
 
 1874. Gabriel Gravier. " Decouverte de 1 Amerique par les 
 
 Normands au X e Siecle." Rouen and Paris. 
 
 1874. Aaron Goodrich. " A History of the Character and Achieve 
 ments of the so-called Christopher Columbus." New 
 York. 
 
 1874. Rasmus B.Anderson. "America not Discovered by Co 
 
 lumbus." Chicago. 
 
 1875. Thomas Carlyle. " The Early Kings of Norway." London. 
 1875. Bayard Taylor. " Egypt and Iceland in the year 1874." 
 
 London and New York. 
 1875. Hubert Howe Bancroft. _ " The Native Races of the Pacific 
 
 States of North America." New York. 
 1875. Phineas Camp Headley. " The Island of Fire (Iceland) ; or, 
 
 A Thousand Years of the Old Northmen s Home. 874- 
 
 1874." Boston. 
 1875. J. T. Short. " The Galaxy." New York. 
 
 1875. Gilderoy Wells Griffen. "My Danish Days." Philadel 
 
 phia. 
 
 1876. Marie A. Brown. " The Galaxy." New York. 
 
 1876-81. William Cnllen Bryant and Sidney Howard Gay. " A 
 Popular History of the United States, from the First 
 Discovery of the Western Hemisphere." New York. 
 
 1876. Samuel Kneeland. " An American in Iceland." Boston. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 213 
 
 1877. Alexander Farnurn. " Visits of the Northmen to Rhode 
 
 Island." Providence. 
 1877. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, "A Book of American 
 
 Explorers." Boston. 
 1877. N. L. Beamish. "Voyages of the Northmen to America. 
 
 Edited by E. F. Slafter. Boston. 
 1880. J. T. Short. " The North Americans of Antiquity." New 
 
 1880. Rev. F. Metcalfe. " The Englishman and the Scandinavian." 
 London. 
 
 1880. G. H. Preble. " History of the Flag of the U.S.A., and Flags 
 
 of Ancient and Modern Nations." Boston. 
 
 1881. Frank Vincent, Jr. " Norsk, Lapp and Finn, &c." London 
 
 and New York. 
 1881. P. B. Du Chaillu. "The Land of the Midnight Sun. 
 
 London and New York. 
 
 1882 S. S. Cox. " Arctic Sunbeams." New York 
 1883. Jules Leclercq. " La Terre de Glace." Paris. 
 
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