THE 
 
 ENGLISH REDISCOVERY 
 
 AND 
 
 COLONIZATION OF AMERICA. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN B. AND MARIE A. SHIPLEY. 
 
 LONDON : 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62. PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G. 
 
S5" 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER > AGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION - V 
 
 I. THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY AND COLONIZATION 
 
 OF AMERICA - 7 I 
 
 II. LEIF ER1KSON : A PLEA BEFORE CONGRESS - 30 
 
 III. SUPPRESSED HISTORICAL FACTS - - 62 
 
 IV. THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF 1492 - 86 
 V. A FITTING CELEBRATION- - Il8 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER II. - 14! 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IV. - - - 144 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IT is becoming more and more the requirement of 
 the age, that history should be subjected to the 
 same scientific treatment as is applied to other 
 branches of study ; that it should be stripped of 
 every particle of myth and romance, and investi 
 gated by exact methods. In dealing with the story, 
 as ordinarily told, of the discovery of America by 
 Columbus, we find it involved from first to last in 
 a cloud of myths, which the most careful research 
 fails to clear away ; while with regard to the rival 
 discoveries dealt with in this book, we have at 
 hand data which though scanty are reliable. 
 These expeditions were sent out and conducted in 
 a business-like way, without any of the fantastic 
 fanfaronade that attended the operations of 
 Columbus ; and although many invaluable docu 
 ments containing more precise details are lost, yet 
 we have accounts which, imperfect as they are, 
 
vi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 place the discoveries of Cabot on at least as firm a 
 footing of fact as those of Columbus, without any 
 of the fabulous and superstitious representations 
 with which the descriptions by Columbus of his 
 own operations are surcharged. Even the accounts 
 of the Scandinavian voyages, 500 years before 
 Columbus, are of a much higher quality as regards 
 reliability, and afford a strong contrast between the 
 matter-of-fact statements of the North and the 
 exaggerated fables of the South. 
 
 We are approaching a moment at which a 
 definite course of action becomes imperative. The 
 nineteenth century should not be looked upon by 
 succeeding ages as the one which gave its seal and 
 sanction to historic fable, as would certainly be the 
 case if the United States were allowed, not only to 
 act upon blundering conclusions, but to obtain the 
 acquiescence of other nations in the same misreading 
 of history. The vital question is not so much who 
 discovered America, as which part of Europe, the 
 North or the South, gave the impetus to American 
 civilization. The common assertion is, that the 
 Columbus discovery was the only one that pro 
 duced definite, permanent, and beneficial results, 
 in contradistinction to all previous expeditions ; 
 whereas the exact contrary is the case. The 
 American civilization of the present day is the 
 direct consequence of the Cabot voyages, and of 
 the English colonization which arose out of the 
 
INTRODUCTION. vii 
 
 claims of England to the possession of the country, 
 which were based upon these voyages. 
 
 These latter, again, were directly inspired by the 
 knowledge, derived through the English trade with 
 Iceland in the fifteenth century, of the earlier 
 Scandinavian voyages and explorations. England 
 can point to the United States of America as her 
 greatest and proudest work, as much her own 
 creation as Canada, Australia, or South Africa; 
 and this would of itself give her a valid claim to 
 regard the United States as a portion of Greater 
 Britain. 
 
 The two countries, which were severed more 
 than a hundred years ago by the exactions, inter 
 ference, and greed of an English monarch, ought 
 to be reunited by the enlightened minds of the 
 future. With a common language, common ideas, 
 common aims, and their forces united to secure 
 the peace and progress of mankind, the two great 
 powers would form a governing force for the world, 
 leading it on to higher progress, and repressing acts 
 of injustice, wherever perpetrated. 
 
 This is a grand and noble ideal, which fills many 
 an advanced and enlightened English mind ; but at 
 present the political ambition of the United States 
 is turned in precisely the opposite direction, being 
 devoted to the task of dominating the entire New 
 World, and shutting out for ever European influence 
 of every description, whether commercial or political. 
 
viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The celebration of the Columbian discovery of 
 America on the lines proposed by the United 
 States is chosen as involving no close connection 
 with Europe ; while it was fondly hoped that it 
 would form a bond of sympathy with the South 
 American Republics. The recognition of the 
 discoveries of the Scandinavians and Cabot, on 
 the other hand, would logically involve a close and 
 friendly union with England, if not with Scandinavia, 
 and therefore a complete severance from their 
 Spanish-American allies, a programme which does 
 not in any way suit the present political aims of 
 the United States. 
 
 These peculiar designs on the part of Americans, 
 so different from what would have been imagined 
 or expected in England, were openly and plainly 
 stated to Mrs. Shipley, then Miss Marie A. Brown, 
 when she went to Washington in 1888 to present 
 to Congress her plea for the recognition of the Leif 
 Erikson discovery, which is printed in this volume. 
 When she arrived in Washington the scheme for a 
 Columbus celebration was already cut and dried. 
 The first part of this was the invitation to all the 
 governments of North and South America, except 
 Canada, to send delegates to a Pan-American 
 Conference to be held at Washington. What was 
 expected from this conference will be seen from 
 the following paragraph from a leading article in 
 the Washington Post of April 19, 1888: "It is 
 
INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 believed that the interchange of opinions at that 
 meeting will result in a closer bond of union 
 between the governments named and the United 
 States, and that our own commercial interests will 
 be greatly benefited. There is no reason why this 
 country should not obtain the bulk of the trade 
 with Central and South America, and there is no 
 doubt that the commissioners appointed to repre 
 sent our own government will fully appreciate this 
 fact, and present to the foreign commissioners 
 the mutual advantages that might accrue from a 
 closer commercial union." 
 
 The significance of these words lies in the fact 
 that the arrangements for the conference were made 
 by the same Senate and House Committees who 
 had charge of the project for the Columbus 
 celebration of 1892-93, and that the two matters, 
 though nominally distinct, were regarded as forming 
 parts of one and the same scheme for drawing 
 South American trade away from Europe, to the 
 advantage of the United States. This may be 
 further illustrated by the following quotation from 
 the address of Mr. Alex. S. Anderson, at a hearing 
 given by the House Committee on foreign affairs 
 to the Board of Promotion for the Columbus 
 celebration, of which Mr. Anderson was the 
 secretary and organizer : " The immediate object 
 of the proposed celebration and exposition is, of 
 course, a tribute to the memory of Columbus ; but 
 
x INTRODUCTION. 
 
 s~ 
 
 outside of this idea, the leading purpose is to 
 stimulate more intimate commercial and social 
 relations between the United States and the 
 several sister nations of the three Americas." 
 
 Such, in brief, is the scheme of the proposed 
 Columbus celebration in the United States, a 
 scheme which, as Professor Brown-Goode, assistant 
 secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in Wash 
 ington, said to Miss Brown, in the course of a 
 long conversation on the subject, originated in the 
 Gulf States at the time of the New Orleans Ex 
 hibition. " Regard for historical truth," he con 
 tinued, " has nothing in the world to do with it. 
 Columbus is taken as the figure-head for a large 
 financial scheme or speculation, and such a 
 mixture, to my mind, is a disgrace to the nation. 
 The two things ought to be kept widely apart. 
 Historical research is one thing, and a purely 
 business undertaking quite another." The same 
 gentleman had previously written to Miss Brown 
 in London : " I am impressed with the plan which 
 you have so enthusiastically worked up, and am 
 sensible of the justice of the cause which you are 
 promoting." Several other professors at the Smith 
 sonian admitted the fact of Leif Erikson s dis 
 covery of America, and his just claim to recog 
 nition. Professor Ward even went so far as to 
 agree with Rev. Minot J. Savage, an eminent 
 Unitarian minister of Boston, that the way to 
 
INTRODUCTION. xi 
 
 arrive at all the facts in the Leif Erikson matter 
 was to have a government commission appointed 
 to examine the records at the Vatican. But who 
 was there to urge such a measure upon Congress ? 
 The learned staff at the Smithsonian Institution 
 ought to have done it ; their united voice would 
 have carried great weight both with Congress and 
 with the nation at large. But the Smithsonian 
 Institution had also heavy stakes in the Columbus 
 celebration. The scheme included an expansion 
 of the National Museum, and a permanent ex 
 hibition of American antiquities ; this collection, 
 gathered from the " three Americas," to be the 
 property of the Smithsonian Institution. A gentle 
 man connected with the geological survey, Major 
 Powell, also in high standing at the Smithsonian 
 Institution, was the ardent advocate of this branch 
 of the Columbus celebration scheme, and, of 
 course, a warm admirer of Columbus. The pro 
 fessors of that august institution disavowed any 
 collusion with Major Powell, and denied that he 
 was authorized to work in its behalf ; nevertheless, 
 the learned body were very careful not to manifest 
 such undue interest in historic truth as to frustrate 
 the zealous Major s endeavours. So careful were 
 they not to endanger the success of these plans, that 
 Professor Goode, who had charge of the lecture 
 arrangements, absolutely refused to allow Miss 
 Brown to lecture on the subject in the National 
 
xii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Museum, on the ground that the matter was " con 
 troversial," although the institution presumably 
 existed for the investigation of controversia 
 matter, and Miss Brown had been assured by 
 other professors, and by Colonel Dawson, the 
 Commissioner of Education, that she was entitled 
 to a hearing before any learned institution what 
 ever, as she had " thrown entirely new light on the 
 subject." 
 
 With these conflicting interests to contend with, 
 the office devolving upon Senator Hoar and ex- 
 Governor Long, of Massachusetts, of presenting to 
 Congress the memorial which accompanies the 
 plea, urging the recognition of Leif Erikson as the 
 first discoverer of America, was one of which they 
 were by no means proud, although the memorial 
 bore more than a thousand signatures, among them 
 those of the presidents and officers of the historical 
 societies of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Wis 
 consin, and Virginia. The Rev. Minot J. Savage, 
 of Boston, in a letter introducing Miss Brown to 
 ex-Governor Long, and asking him to present her 
 memorial to Congress, wrote : "If Miss Brown is 
 right, and it seems to me she is, you may some 
 time be glad that I wrote you this letter." The 
 Norwegian and Swedish Congressmen, Knute 
 Nelson and John Lind, promised the strongest 
 possible support from the Scandinavians of the 
 north-west. But all this influence was of no avail. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xiii 
 
 The memorial was presented, and a hearing was 
 accorded to Miss Brown by the Senate Committee 
 in charge of the Columbus celebration, when Miss 
 Brown read the plea for Leif Erikson contained in 
 this book. This was listened to with profound 
 attention ; there was no discussion, but the plea 
 was ordered to be printed for the use of the 
 Committee. Nothing, however, came of this ; the 
 business pressure was too strong the other way, 
 and no appropriation was made. Senator Hoar 
 had twice over assured Miss Brown, in the presence 
 of Mr. Long, that should Congress refuse to grant 
 the money for researches in the Vatican, this could 
 easily be raised among scholars. " The Anti 
 quarian Society of Worcester, Massachusetts, 
 would do it in an instant, or the people of 
 Boston." These words were never made good. 
 
 The president of the Senate, Mr. John J. 
 Ingalls, besides many personal assurances of sup 
 port and consideration, wrote Miss Brown privately : 
 " I agree with you, however, in thinking that the 
 truth of history ought to be established, and if 
 Columbus is a dishonest pretender to the position 
 in the annals of this country which he has so long 
 occupied, he should be displaced, and the rightful 
 discoverer of the continent should receive the long- 
 delayed honours to which he is entitled. My sym 
 pathies continue with you in the project which you 
 have in hand, and as I said to Senator Hoar after 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I left you, I shall feel disposed to lend whatever 
 influence I may possess to the full presentation 
 of your views to the American people." This 
 meant as little as the rest. 
 
 In this matter Congress represented the national 
 state of mind. All that Miss Brown accomplished 
 was to lay the matter thoroughly before the public 
 in lectures, and obtain the widest possible circula 
 tion of her views through the newspaper press, thus 
 getting the subject discussed from Maine to Cali 
 fornia. A very extensive lecture tour took her up 
 to Winnipeg in Manitoba, where she received a far 
 more hearty welcome than anywhere in the States. 
 She lectured there under the auspices of the His 
 torical and Scientific Society, the Mayor taking the 
 chair ; and leading members of the society testified 
 that the Canadians felt pride and joy in believing 
 that a part of Canada, certainly Labrador and 
 Nova Scotia, were in the Vinland that Leif Erikson 
 discovered. They recognised the value of Miss 
 Brown s researches, the correctness of her deduc 
 tions, and the necessity of her continuing these 
 researches as planned, i.e., in the Vatican and 
 other monastic libraries in Europe, for, as they 
 said, the sagas could never definitely settle the 
 question. 
 
 This review of the action of Congress on these 
 important historical questions, in which America 
 professes so keen an interest, is put forward solely 
 
INTRODUCTION. xv 
 
 with the purpose of showing how little genuine 
 concern for historic truth can be expected from 
 that nation when the truth happens to conflict with 
 their political or commercial interests, and how 
 hopeless it is to expect an impartial examination 
 of matters upon which they have long since made 
 up their minds in accordance with the promptings 
 of other and less scientific considerations. 
 
 The following pages treat of the chief events 
 designated as discoveries of America. The three 
 principal chapters were written at different times, as 
 occasion demanded. Collectively they afford the 
 reader a complete survey of the present historical 
 campaign, showing more definitely than has pre 
 viously been attempted the connection between the 
 three discoveries, and the influence of each on the 
 present civilization of America. 
 
 This involves a readjustment of the honours of 
 the discovery. The people of the United States 
 are about to celebrate this event as an honour first 
 to themselves, and secondly to Columbus and 
 to Spain ; but as their own role in the matter was 
 merely passive, it becomes necessary to call atten 
 tion to the paramount claim of England, the country 
 that did the most of all for them, to the honour of 
 having bestowed upon them language, laws, and 
 free institutions, all of which are largely founded 
 on the same Scandinavian civilization under which 
 their country was originally discovered. 
 
xv * INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In the closing chapter a suggestion is made for a 
 more fitting and comprehensive celebration of the 
 whole discovery than has ever been proposed from 
 any single point of view, and one by which the 
 subject in all its length and breadth could be laid 
 plainly before the world, doing away with many 
 mistaken notions, and forming the starting-point 
 for a new political and commercial era in the 
 relations between the Old World and the New. 
 
 THE AUTHORS. 
 
 EALING, LONDON, 
 December, 1890. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY AND COLONIZATION 
 OF AMERICA. 
 
 THERE is one question that has many times been 
 asked, but probably not so often satisfactorily 
 answered, since the idea of a great World s Fair in 
 honour of Columbus first took root in the public 
 mind. It has been asked in public and asked in 
 private ; asked in the columns of newspapers and 
 asked " Over the Teacups," and perhaps even at the 
 immortal Breakfast Table itself. It is a question 
 that, from a national point of view, lies at the root 
 of the whole matter, and one that every patriotic 
 American will wish to have answered definitely and 
 decisively. The question is, " Did Christopher 
 Columbus ever touch the mainland of North 
 America, and, if so, when and where ?" 
 
 The only answer that can possibly be given to 
 this inquiry is, that Columbus never saw, much less 
 stood upon, the shores of the continent of North 
 
 i 
 
2 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 America. In no sense was he the discoverer of 
 that great country which is now known by the name 
 of the United States of America. His marauding 
 and slave-hunting expeditions were confined to the 
 islands, and the adjacent coasts of South and 
 Central America. The very situation of the first 
 land he saw is doubtful : it is known that it was one 
 of the islands of the Bahamas, but which one it 
 was is still a question. Governor Blake, of the 
 Bahamas, " after a great deal of minute and well- 
 reasoned observation on the spot, has come to the 
 conclusion that the real place where Columbus 
 landed was what is now called Watling s Island, 
 and not Cat Island, as has hitherto been usually 
 believed." It was from this spot that he " wrote 
 home to their Catholic majesties that he should be 
 able to supply them with all the gold they needed, 
 with spices, cotton, mastic, aloes, rhubarb, cinna 
 mon, and slaves. Slaves as many of these idola 
 ters as their highnesses shall command to be 
 shipped. Thus ended the visions of those simple 
 natives who, on the arrival of the Europeans, had 
 run from hut to hut, crying out, Come, come and 
 see the people from heaven ! Some of them lived 
 to suspect the bearded strangers had quite a dif 
 ferent origin." (Sir Augustus J. Adderley, in a 
 description of the Bahamas written for the Com 
 missioners of the Colonial Exhibition, London, 
 1886.) 
 
THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 3 
 
 In connection with this subject, it may be 
 remarked that Columbus came very near discover 
 ing the mainland of Florida, for he was heading 
 directly for the southern part of the peninsula when 
 he was induced to turn and take a more southerly 
 course some say by a flight of sea-birds, while 
 others affirm that he was guided by the more prac 
 tical counsels of Martin Alonzo Pinzon, his second 
 in command, who is shrewdly suspected of having 
 been in those waters before, and of knowing better 
 where he was than Columbus himself. This point 
 is ably brought forward by Professor Paul Gaffarel, 
 in his important work, " Les Decouvreurs Fran^ais 
 du XIV me au XVI me Siecle," published at Paris in 
 1888, and his account may be briefly summarized 
 as follows : 
 
 Jean Cousin in 1488 sailed from Dieppe, then 
 the great commercial and naval port of France, and 
 bore out to sea to avoid the storms so prevalent in 
 the Bay of Biscay. Arrived at the latitude of the 
 Azores, he was carried westward by a current, and 
 came to an unknown country, near the mouth of an 
 immense river. He took possession of the conti 
 nent, but, as he had not a sufficient crew nor 
 material resources adequate for founding a settle 
 ment, he re-embarked. Instead of returning 
 directly to Dieppe, he took a south-easterly direc 
 tion that is, toward South Africa discovered 
 Cape Agulhas, the southern point of Africa went 
 
 I 2 
 
4 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 north by the Congo and Guinea, and returned to 
 Dieppe in 1489. Cousin s lieutenant was a 
 Castilian, Pinzon by name, who was jealous of 
 his captain, and caused him considerable trouble 
 on the Gold Coast. On Cousin s complaint, the 
 Admiralty declared him unfit to serve in the marine 
 of Dieppe. Pinzon then retired to Genoa, and 
 afterward to Castile. Every circumstance tends 
 toward the belief that this is the same Pinzon to 
 whom Columbus afterward intrusted the command 
 of the Pinta. . . . We must recollect that Columbus 
 had lost all hope, when he was suddenly accosted 
 by three mariners of Palos, skilled, prudent, and 
 renowned, who became his friends. Were these 
 men inspired by the enthusiasm of Columbus ? 
 Nothing is less likely. Reflection, not passion ; 
 the knowledge of an earlier voyage, not blind con 
 fidence in a single man, decided these cool and 
 cautious navigators. These men were three rela 
 tives, of the name of Pinzon : one of them was 
 Alonzo, doubtless the old lieutenant of Cousin. . . . 
 The conduct of Pinzon throughout seems to indi 
 cate previous acquaintance with the continent. 
 Columbus s son confesses that his father always 
 consulted Alonzo Pinzon in circumstances of diffi 
 culty. He held frequent and long consultations 
 with the latter, both on board his own ship and on 
 the Pinta, and decided nothing without having 
 consulted him. At the trial of the suit between 
 
THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 5 
 
 Diego Columbus and the Spanish crown, ten 
 witnesses deposed that the admiral asked Pinzon 
 if they were on the right course, and that Pinzon 
 had always answered in the negative until the south 
 westerly direction was taken. Columbus proceeded 
 like a man who only dreamed what he was execut 
 ing, and Pinzon as though he sought a road for 
 merly traversed by him. He was so convinced, so 
 sure of himself, that Columbus ended by listening 
 to him. Soon after they touched at San Sal 
 vador. 
 
 The Journal of Columbus makes full admission 
 of the part played by Pinzon : " Martin Alonzo 
 Pinzon expressed the opinion that we should do 
 better to sail in a south-westerly direction ; before 
 all else, it was necessary, he said, to reach the terra 
 firma of Asia ; we saw the islands soon after." 
 
 Pinzon also took a leading part at the discussion 
 with the seamen, and strongly urged the con 
 tinuance of the voyage. It was Pinzon who first 
 announced the sight of land ; and, indeed, Pinzon 
 seems to have been both the good and the evil 
 genius of the voyage, for he delayed, deserted, and 
 endeavoured to anticipate Columbus at every pos 
 sible opportunity. In fact, he behaved to Columbus 
 much as he had behaved to Cousin ; and Colum- 
 bus s son, while he praises his qualities as a seaman, 
 complains bitterly of his malignity and contumacy. 
 
 Much confusion has been caused in the history 
 
6 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 of the discovery of America by a duplication on 
 the old maps of the eastern portion of Cuba, and 
 the amplifying of the western or false Cuba into 
 a continent, just as the island of Tierra del Fuego, 
 forming the southern side of the Strait of Magellan, 
 was supposed to form part of an immense antarctic 
 continent. The false Cuba has been supposed to 
 be a real representation of a portion of the North 
 American continent namely, Florida and the parts 
 adjacent ; but the name Cuba written upon it gives 
 the key to the error, the real Cuba being known 
 on these maps as Isabella, which name was given 
 to it by the Spaniards, in honour of their queen. 
 The earliest attested discovery of Florida is that 
 by Juan Ponce de Leon, in 1513, although there 
 is a probability that it had been previously found 
 by Sebastian d Ocampo, in 1508. 
 
 The question of the discovery of North America 
 by Columbus must, then, be answered in the nega 
 tive, and in order to find the true discoverers 
 search must be made among the records of voyages 
 undertaken prior to 1508. The earliest voyages 
 of which any substantial or definite proof can be 
 adduced are those of the Northmen from Iceland 
 and Greenland, resulting in a colonization which 
 lasted from its beginnings in A.D. 1005 until, at all 
 events, A.D. 1347, the year in which we have the 
 last actual intelligence of any voyage between 
 Greenland and Markland, as the nearest of the 
 
THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 7 
 
 Norse-American colonies was called. This was 
 probably the present Nova Scotia, being, as its 
 name implies, a wooded country. Farther south 
 was Vinland, corresponding to Rhode Island and 
 Massachusetts ; how much more to the southward 
 the Northmen penetrated is not known, but traces 
 of their long-continued presence in the country 
 have been found in the Indian legends collected 
 by the well-known author, Mr. Charles G. Leland, 
 and in other more palpable and tangible remains 
 that have been found in various parts of the New 
 England States. For further details concerning 
 these early voyages, see " The Icelandic Discoverers 
 of America," by Miss Marie A. Brown, now Mrs. 
 Shipley. 
 
 Between 1274 and 1325 these colonies are 
 spoken of by M. Paul Riant, in his " Expeditions 
 et Pelerinages Scandinaviens," as being affected by 
 the crusading movement in Europe. In 1312 
 Bishop Arne, of Gardar, preached the Crusades in 
 Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland, and had charge 
 of the appropriation of a tithe of the church 
 revenues for six years, which had been voted by 
 the Church councils at Lyons, Vienna, and Trond- 
 hjem, for the purpose of the Crusades. A ship 
 arriving from Greenland, in 1325, brought the 
 tithes from the American colonies, consisting of 
 127 pounds of walrus-teeth, which were sold to 
 Jean du Pre, a Flemish merchant, who paid for 
 
8 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 them twelve livres and fourteen sous (Tours 
 standard). 
 
 These colonies were then well known in Europe, 
 and the place where more especially the records 
 relating to these voyages and events were pre 
 served was Iceland. Here the names of Erik the 
 Red, the colonizer of Greenland, and his valiant 
 sons, Leif the Lucky and Thorvald, his daughter- 
 in-law, Gudrid, and her famous third husband, 
 Thorfmn Karlsefne, were household words, espe 
 cially as some of the most distinguished men in 
 Iceland were descended from the last-named 
 couple. There is little doubt that the accounts 
 of these voyages spread, in a more or less vague 
 form, among the countries which traded with Ice 
 land, and, as Finn Magnusen has shown, English 
 merchants, and more especially those of Bristol, 
 carried on a considerable trade with that island. 
 It is well known that Columbus, in 1477, sailed 
 from Bristol and visited Iceland, and it would be 
 little short of a miracle if the bishop and other 
 learned men with whom he conversed did not 
 relate to him all they knew on this subject, in 
 cluding the fact that, as their records expressed it, 
 " Westward from Spain, over the great sea, which 
 some call Ginnungagap (yawning abyss), there lie 
 lands in the midst which are called, the first one, 
 northward, Vinland the good, the next Markland ; 
 still to the north there are deserts, where the 
 
THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 9 
 
 Skrselings (Esquimaux) live ; then there are deserts 
 still on to Greenland " (Codex Legati Arnae Mag- 
 nusen, 770) ; and again, " From Greenland to the 
 south lies Helluland, then Markland ; thence it is 
 not far to Vinland, which some think goes on to 
 Africa" (Cod. Leg. A. M., 736). 
 
 Similar intelligence had probably come to the 
 ears of many merchants and frequenters of the 
 town and port of Bristol, which was then to Eng 
 land what Liverpool is now ; and especially was it 
 known to a certain John Cabot, who had arrived 
 there from Venice, with his family, somewhere 
 about the year 1490. Of him more will be said 
 later, but it must now be remarked that Cabot s 
 voyage was not the first that had been undertaken 
 by the English with the express object of discover 
 ing lands, of which they had heard more or less 
 definitely, across the western sea. Pedro de Ayala 
 writes to the King and Queen of Spain, on the 
 25th of July, 1498: "The people of Bristol have 
 for seven years since sent every year two, three, 
 or four caravels in search of the isle of Brasil and 
 the seven cities, according to the notions of this 
 Genoese. " William of Worcester mentions a voyage 
 of Thomas Lloyd, to whom a patent was granted 
 in 1480, and who commanded a ship equipped by 
 John Jay of Bristol, but returned after seven months 
 without having landed. 
 
 The first of these mariners from Bristol to find 
 
io THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the long-sought western lands was John Cabot, 
 with his sons Louis, Sebastian, and Sancho. The 
 nationality of these important personages is un 
 certain, but the probability is that John, the father, 
 was a Genoese by birth ; that is, that he was born 
 at the village of Castiglione, within the confines of 
 the republic of Genoa. It is certain, from entries 
 found by the late Rawdon Brown in the archives 
 of Venice, that the privilege of Venetian citizenship 
 was conferred on him on the 28th of March, 1476, 
 in consequence of his having resided there for 
 fifteen years, which was the legal qualification of 
 an alien for citizenship. It is practically certain, 
 also, that Sebastian was born before this period ; 
 and that when the latter was " almost a child," yet 
 having some knowledge of "humanities and the 
 sphere," his father brought him to England. The 
 probability is that he was born about 1473 or 1474, 
 and came to England about 1490. 
 
 The patent under which their first voyage was 
 made was dated the 5th of March, in the eleventh 
 year of Henry VII. (1496). The patentees (John 
 Cabot and his sons Louis, Sebastian, and Sancho) 
 were authorized to sail under the English flag, with 
 five ships, at their own charges, to discover islands, 
 countries, etc., hitherto unknown to Christians ; to 
 set up the royal banners, occupy and possess the 
 countries ; to pay one-fifth part of the profits to the 
 king, and always to return to the port of Bristol ; 
 
THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA, u 
 
 to bring their goods and merchandise into the 
 country free of customs, and to have the exclusive 
 right of trading with the countries they might dis 
 cover ; and all the king s subjects are charged to 
 render them help and assistance. 
 
 The first expedition sailed from Bristol in the 
 beginning of May, 1497, in a ship called the 
 Matthew. On the 24th of June, in the morning, 
 they discovered land, and on the same day they 
 found an island, which they named S. Juan, be 
 cause it was discovered on St. John s Day. The 
 map preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale at 
 Paris, the only direct record we have which pur 
 ports to come from the hand of Sebastian Cabot, 
 affords the above information, and calls the land 
 first seen Prima terra vista. It marks this land at 
 the northern extremity of Nova Scotia, or of Cape 
 Breton Island, which is not separated from the 
 mainland; S. Juan is marked in a position cor 
 responding to that of Prince Edward Island. But 
 as this is hardly likely to have been the first land 
 fall after a voyage from England, and as the next 
 record we have is that they coasted north or north 
 west, until they were stopped by the ice, it is very 
 much more likely that the northern point of New 
 foundland was the locality of the landfall, and that 
 the island called S. Juan was Belle Isle, which 
 could easily have been discovered on the same 
 day as Cape Bauld, even by a vessel which had 
 
12 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 made the voyage out from Bristol at the rate of 
 about forty-five miles a day. The further direction 
 of the voyage is reported with a variety of detail by 
 those who profess to have had it from Cabot. They 
 agree, however, that he went north-west along the 
 coast : " But after some days," says Ramusio, speak 
 ing as though quoting Cabot, " I found that the land 
 prolonged itself toward the tramontane (north), 
 which displeased me infinitely. I coasted, never 
 theless, in the hope of finding a gulf into which I 
 could turn. I found none ; but I remarked that 
 the land continued as far as 56 under our pole. 
 Seeing that in this place the coast inclined toward 
 the east, and despairing of finding a passage, I re 
 turned on my route in order to reconnoitre anew 
 the said coast in the direction of the equator, 
 always with the intention of finding a passage to 
 go to the Indies, and I arrived at the part to-day 
 called Florida." Other accounts speak of vast 
 heaps of ice, which caused him to turn southward 
 until he came nearly to the latitude of the Straits 
 of Gibraltar, and " circling to the west until the Isle 
 of Cuba was on his left, and nearly in the same 
 longitude " (account by Peter Martyr). 
 
 These accounts allowing for errors, and re 
 membering that latitude could be determined with 
 approximate certainty, while longitude could only 
 be imperfectly stated may be taken to mean that 
 the Cabots, having discovered Newfoundland, Belle 
 
THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 13 
 
 Isle, and Labrador, coasted along the latter until 
 they came to the place, in about 56 north latitude, 
 where the coast turns, not eastward, but in that 
 direction relatively to its former course. From a 
 general north-westerly direction, Cabot would here 
 find himself obliged to steer almost due north in 
 order to follow the coast of Labrador. This turn 
 to the right, or east, of his former course, " dis 
 pleased him infinitely," and, taken in conjunction 
 with the " vast heaps of ice," determined him to 
 return and seek a more southerly passage to Cathay 
 (China), which, according to Ramusio, was the 
 object of his search. Either on this voyage, or on 
 a subsequent one, he coasted southward to the lati 
 tude of the Straits of Gibraltar, which would bring 
 him nearly to Cape Hatteras, and therefore into 
 that part of America which, at the time Ramusio 
 wrote, was vaguely and loosely known as Florida. 
 He would then be in the longitude of the eastern 
 portion of Cuba, which extends eastward of west 
 longitude 75, while Cape Hatteras and Chesapeake 
 Bay are to the west of that meridian. 
 
 From the short time that Cabot had for these 
 extensions of his voyage, it seems more likely that 
 this southward exploration was not undertaken 
 during his first voyage. He was back in London 
 the last week in August, and if his progress during 
 the other portions of his voyage was not more rapid 
 than while crossing the Atlantic outward-bound, he 
 
14 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 must have had little more than time for his coasting 
 voyage to latitude 56 north, and his return by way 
 of Newfoundland. 
 
 His reception in England was highly flattering. 
 To sum it up in the words of Pasqualigo, a Vene 
 tian merchant : " The news of his discoveries of the 
 Isle of Brazil, the seven cities, and the kingdom of 
 the Grand Khan, produced a remarkable impres 
 sion. Calbot bore the title of Admiral. They 
 rendered him great honours : he was clothed in 
 silk, and the English ran after him like madmen." 
 Perhaps this title of admiral supplies the missing 
 clue as to why, in the ambiguous inscription on 
 Sebastian Cabot s portrait, either he or his father 
 is described as miles. 
 
 Another contemporary, Raymondo de Soncino, 
 writing to the Duke of Milan, December 18, 1497, 
 says : " This Master John (Cabotto) hath the de 
 scription of the world in a chart, and also in a solid 
 globe which he made, and he shows where he 
 landed. . . . And they affirm that the sea is covered 
 with fishes, which are caught not only with the net, 
 but with baskets, a stone being tied to them in 
 order that the baskets may sink in the water, and 
 this I heard the said Master John relate, and the 
 aforesaid Englishmen, his comrades, say they will 
 bring so many fishes that this kingdom will no 
 longer have need of Iceland, from which country 
 there comes a very great store of fish which are 
 
THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 15 
 
 called stock-fish." Here we have incidental confir 
 mation of the English trade with Iceland. If more 
 were needed, we have it in an old map of Iceland, 
 dated 1539, in which ships labelled Bremen, Angli, 
 Scoti, and Hamburg, are seen in the ocean off the 
 coast of the island. The map is printed in the 
 first volume of Justin Winsor s " Narrative and 
 Critical History of America," along with an im 
 mense mass of undigested information, out of 
 which the reader is left to pick his own conclusions 
 as best he can. 
 
 After Cabot s return from this voyage, he received 
 from Henry VII. a gift of ten pounds and an 
 annuity of twenty pounds sterling, payable half- 
 yearly out of the customs of the port of Bristol. 
 (Order dated December 13, 1497, sealed January 28, 
 1498). On the 3rd of February, 1498, a second 
 patent was granted to John Cabot only, allowing him 
 to take six English ships, of 200 tons burden or 
 under, to convey and lead them " to the land and 
 isles of late found by the said John in our name 
 and by our commandment." This patent was found 
 in the Rolls Chapel by Mr. Biddle (" Memoir of 
 Sebastian Cabot," 1831). 
 
 The result of this voyage is not fully known. 
 Cabot s papers are, it is feared, irrecoverably lost, 
 having been last heard of as being in the hands of 
 a certain William Worthington, who in 1557, under 
 Philip and Mary, was associated with Sebastian 
 
16 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Cabot in the pension previously held by the latter 
 alone. In Hakluyt s earlier work (1582) he says 
 that Worthington was willing to have them pub 
 lished ; but in his more complete " Principal Navi 
 gations " (1598-1600) he complains that he is 
 unable to get a sight of them. The inference is 
 that they were no longer in Worthington s pos 
 session, and to this we shall return later. The 
 evidences we have as to the second voyage are 
 reports of Sebastian Cabot s conversations with his 
 friends, and a letter quoted by Ramusio, in which 
 he speaks of " having sailed a long time west and 
 by north, beyond those islands, unto the latitude 
 of 67 degrees and a half under the North Pole, 
 and at the eleventh day of June, finding still the 
 open sea without any manner of impediment, he 
 thought verily by that way to have passed on still 
 the way to Cathaia, which is in the East, and 
 would have done it if the mutiny of the shipmaster 
 and mariners had not hindered him and caused 
 him to return homewards from that place " (Hak- 
 luyt, vol. Hi.). Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Lord Bacon, 
 and Hakluyt in his " Discourse on Western Plant 
 ing," all name 67 or 67 J as the northern limit of 
 Cabot s voyages. This would bring him to what is 
 now called Cumberland Island, and in making this 
 voyage he must have passed Hudson Strait. This 
 strait is not shown in the Paris Cabot map of 1544, 
 but it is mentioned by R. Willes, in a tract reprinted 
 
THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 17 
 
 in Hakluyt, as being shown on the copy then pre 
 served at Chenies, the property of the Earl of 
 Bedford, which places the strait between 61 and 
 64 north latitude, the true position being about 
 61 north latitude. It seems probable that Sebas 
 tian Cabot found this opening, and was unable at 
 that time to explore it further, but reserved the 
 knowledge for future use. 
 
 After this voyage he appears to have gone to 
 Spain, giving as his reason the great tumults in 
 England, " and preparations for wars in Scotland, 
 by reason whereof there was no more consideration 
 had to this voyage " (Ramusio, quoted by Hakluyt). 
 Here he probably met with Juan de la Cosa, who, 
 on a map dated 1500, has placed the words Mar 
 descubierta por Inglesi (sea discovered by the 
 English) and several names along the coast, among 
 which are Cape Ynglaterra and Cape S. Johan. 
 This information must have been derived either 
 directly or indirectly from Cabot himself. 
 
 In 1512 Sebastian Cabot took service with 
 Ferdinand of Spain, and in 1518 he was made 
 Piloto Mayor by Charles V., with the duty of 
 examining all pilots leaving Spain for the Indies, 
 as to their fitness for the work. In 1524 he at 
 tended the conference at Badajoz for determining 
 the longitude of the Moluccas, and gave evidence 
 as an expert along with Estevan Gomez, Nunez 
 Garcia, and Diego Ribero, all of whom were 
 
 2 
 
1 8 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ordered to produce their maps, globes, and instru 
 ments for deciding the matter in question, which 
 was, whether the Moluccas were east or west of the 
 line drawn by Pope Alexander VI., and subse 
 quently altered by the Treaty of Tordesillas in 
 1494, by virtue of which the discoveries in one- 
 half of the globe were to belong to Spain and 
 those in the other to Portugal." The appointment 
 of Cabot to attend this conference places him 
 among the four most learned geographers of the 
 day, and emphasizes the high regard in which he 
 was held in Spain. Previous to this, in 1522, he 
 had made overtures to the Venetians for the trans 
 fer of his services to the republic, which he claimed 
 as his native land, saying that he could show them 
 a way of great profit which he had discovered. 
 But these negotiations came to nothing, although 
 the correspondence seems to have been kept up for 
 many years. In 1547 he was sent for "to serve 
 and inhabit in England," and a pension was granted 
 him by Edward VI., together with the rank of 
 Grand Pilot of England. In 1549, the emperor 
 sent for him to return to Spain, but he refused to 
 do so; and a similar answer was returned to a 
 further demand after the accession of Mary. In 
 1553. and again in 1555, companies were chartered 
 to open up, if possible, a north-east passage to 
 
 * See note on the early maps of America, appended to 
 Chap. IV. 
 
THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 19 
 
 China, and Cabot was made governor for life of 
 those companies. He did not, however, sail in 
 these expeditions, but made his last appearance in 
 public, being now over eighty years of age, at an 
 inspection and farewell banquet held on the 
 occasion of the departure of the Searchthrift on 
 the second of these expeditions in 1556. He is 
 said to have died in 1557, in which year an event 
 occurred that has been already alluded to, and that 
 is not without a certain significance in regard to 
 the almost entire absence of direct memorials of 
 his voyages. 
 
 As has been remarked, a pension of ;i66 135. 
 4d. was granted him by Edward VI., to date from 
 Michaelmas, 1548. In 1550 the pension granted 
 by Henry VII. was renewed, and a further renewal 
 or confirmation was granted by Mary. In 1557 
 Cabot was induced, we do not know under what 
 pretext, to resign his pension, and two days later 
 (May 29) a new grant was made to him and 
 William Worthington jointly. This was during 
 the reign of a Roman Catholic queen, who was 
 married to a Spanish king ; and when we remember 
 that Sebastian Cabot had been in great request 
 in Spain, and had been twice sent for by the 
 emperor, Charles V., and had refused to return ; 
 also, that he was supposed to be in possession 
 of information as to a passage to China, which he 
 considered of great value : considering all this, we 
 
 2 2 
 
20 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 cannot wonder if Philip of Spain used all his in 
 fluence to get hold of his maps and papers. After 
 Cabot s death they certainly came into the hands 
 of Worthington, as related by Hakluyt ; and as 
 certainly Worthington never produced them, 
 though repeatedly urged to do so, and though he 
 had in the first instance declared himself "very 
 willing to suffer them to be overseen, and pub 
 lished in as good order as may be, to the en 
 couragement and benefit of our countrymen " 
 (Hakluyt, 1582). This suppression of "all his 
 (Cabot s) own maps and discourses, drawn and 
 written by himself," looks, on the face of it, very 
 much as if the King of Spain had used his 
 position as husband of the Queen of England to 
 obtain Cabot s papers, which must have fallen into 
 Worthington s hands immediately on the death of 
 the Grand Pilot. Spain had from the first worked 
 against the English discovery, and tried to turn 
 Henry VII. off from the matter. In the tran 
 scripts from the Spanish archives relating to Eng 
 land, there is a letter from Ferdinand and Isabella 
 to Dr. de Puebla, their representative in England, 
 dated March 28, 1496, which contains the following 
 significant passage : " You write that a person like 
 Columbus has come to England for the purpose of 
 persuading the king to enter into an undertaking 
 similar to that of the Indies, without prejudice to 
 Spain and Portugal. He is quite at liberty. But 
 
THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 21 
 
 we believe that this undertaking was thrown in the 
 way of the King of England by the King of 
 France, with the premeditated intention of distract 
 ing him from his other business. Take care that 
 the King of England be not deceived in this or in 
 any other matter. The French will try as hard as 
 they can to lead him into such undertakings, but 
 they are very uncertain enterprises, and must not 
 be gone into at present. Besides, they cannot be 
 executed without prejudice to us and to the King 
 of Portugal." 
 
 This last remark no doubt refers to the cele 
 brated line of demarcation drawn by the pope, 
 and finally settled by the Treaty of Tordesillas, by 
 which all lands discovered west of a line drawn 
 370 leagues west of the Azores were to belong 
 to Spain, and those east of that line to Portugal. 
 The prolongation of this line on the other side 
 of the globe was also to form a boundary between 
 the possessions of the two countries, and in the 
 then uncertain state of all calculations of longitude, 
 it was not easy to say what lands lay on the Spanish 
 side of this line and what on the Portuguese side. 
 The Portuguese, for instance, who claimed Brazil, 
 as being on their own side of this line, made the 
 same claim with regard to the lands discovered 
 by Cabot. They accordingly sent Cortereal to 
 take possession of them in the name of Portugal ; 
 but his expedition came to an unfortunate end, and 
 
22 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 little was accomplished. The Portuguese kept up 
 their claim by marking on their maps the name 
 Terra Corterealis or Terra de Cortereal, above 
 which they placed Terra de Lavorador de Rey de 
 Portugal^ and above that again, far away to the 
 northward, Terra de los Ing res (English). The 
 emphatic marking twice over on the Cabot map of 
 1544 of Prima terra vista, and claiming it as a 
 portion of the mainland, together with the note 
 describing the discovery, seem to have been in 
 tended by way of counter-claim to the Portuguese 
 claims on behalf of Cortereal. Another voyager 
 whose alleged discoveries are marked on these 
 early maps was Estevan Gomez, whom we have 
 mentioned as one of the Spanish experts at the 
 conference at Badajoz, and who in 1525 made a 
 voyage along the coast of the United States, but 
 does not appear to have got farther north than 
 42 J, or near Cape Ann, to the north of Boston. 
 The only important disputant of the claims of 
 Cabot appears then to be Cortereal, and his name 
 is regularly placed against the coasts of Labrador 
 and Newfoundland on the Portuguese maps, while 
 the Spanish and English maps name the English 
 as the discoverers of those lands. A Latin note 
 on a Portuguese map summarizes the voyages of 
 Cortereal : " This land Caspar Cortereal, a Portu 
 guese, first discovered, and took away with him 
 savage men and white bears. In it is a very great 
 
THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 23 
 
 multitude of animals and birds, also fishes. The 
 next year he suffered shipwreck, and never re 
 turned. The same thing happened in the following 
 year to his brother Michael." The name Labrador 
 is said to have been derived from this circumstance 
 of slaves (labourers) having been taken there. 
 Others say that it was a "labourer," or slave, 
 taken on board at the Azores, who first saw the 
 land, which was therefore called " Labourer s land." 
 These voyages of Cortereal in 1500 and 1501, 
 however, cannot be regarded as serious rivals to 
 that of Cabot, since they were evidently only under 
 taken in order to claim these lands, already dis 
 covered, on behalf of Portugal. The English 
 claim was recognised in Spain even as early as 
 1500, since Cosa in that year inscribed on his 
 celebrated map the words " Sea discovered by the 
 English." The Spaniards were able to take an un 
 prejudiced view of the matter, because these lands 
 were at that time believed to be within the Portu 
 guese hemisphere as defined at Tordesillas. And 
 here it must be remarked that the claims of Spain 
 and Portugal to all new discoveries, each country 
 having a hemisphere to itself, left no room for other 
 nations to make discoveries for their own advantage, 
 or even to make voyages to the lands already dis 
 covered. Whatever was done, had to be done in a 
 furtive way, and at great risk. Speaking of the 
 French voyages in these waters, Professor Gaffarel 
 
24 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 says: "As none of them were ignorant of the 
 dangers to which they exposed themselves in thus 
 braving the power of Spain, they prudently kept 
 the secret of their operations, and the silence of 
 contemporaries on the subject of these voyages to 
 Central America may thus be explained " (Gaffarel, 
 " Jean Ango "). From another part of the same 
 book we take the following passage : " Spanish and 
 Portuguese exercised a jealous and careful surveil 
 lance over all ships, of whatever country, and woe 
 to the imprudent stranger who allowed himself to 
 be surprised by them ! He was considered as a 
 pirate, and treated without pity." 
 
 The French, and especially the Bretons, were in 
 reality the only rivals of the English in the region 
 of the Baccalaos, as the Gulf of St. Lawrence and 
 the adjacent lands were called, from the abundance 
 of codfish that were taken there. The first voyages 
 of the Cabots were followed in 1501 and 1502 by 
 expeditions, probably abortive, or, at any rate, with 
 out striking results, undertaken by Englishmen, in 
 conjunction with Portuguese from the Azores. In 
 1503 Sebastian Cabot is believed to have under 
 taken a third voyage, when he brought home three 
 savages ; and a record has been found of the pay 
 ment of one pound to a man that brought hawks 
 from the new isle. In 1504 two pounds were paid 
 "to a preste that goeth to the new llande," and in 
 1504-6 we find the first authenticated voyages of 
 
THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 25 
 
 the Bretons and Normans. From 1506 we find a 
 tolerably regular series of voyages, until, in 1527, 
 John Rut, an Englishman, found in St. John s Bay 
 nearly fifty ships, English, French, and Portuguese ; 
 while in 1543-45, during the months of January 
 and February, at least two ships every day left the 
 ports of Normandy alone for these regions. Into 
 the later history of these rich fisheries, and the 
 quarrels they have occasioned, it is not our province 
 to enter. 
 
 In 1534, and again in 1535, 1541, and 1543, 
 Jacques Cartier made voyages of exploration and 
 partial settlement along the St. Lawrence, which 
 may be said to have been the precursors, although 
 not the real commencement, of the French occupa 
 tion of those regions. 
 
 What especially strikes us in reading the history 
 of all these voyages, and in studying the maps to 
 which they gave rise, is, that with the exception of 
 one or two instances, about which opinion is much 
 divided, such as the explorations of Verrazano in 
 1523-24, and the alleged voyage of Thevet in 
 1555-56, the communication with North and 
 Central America seems to have followed with 
 almost invariable persistency one or other of two 
 well-marked routes, viz., the Spanish route to the 
 West Indies and the English route to Newfound 
 land. Between New York and Florida the coast 
 seems hardly to have been known. The earliest 
 
26 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 maps, up to about 1520, leave its very existence 
 in uncertainty, and for many years after the voyages 
 of Verrazano in 1523-24, and Gomez in 1525, who 
 were the first to traverse and describe the coast, 
 the maps made no indication of the long stretch of 
 coast-line between New York and Florida. 
 
 The state of European knowledge regarding the 
 American continent was still very unsatisfactory, 
 when in 1584 Richard Hakluyt wrote his famous 
 " Discourse on Western Planting," which has been 
 published by the Maine Historical Society. In 
 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed on his ill-fated 
 voyage, as recorded in Hakluyt. The accounts of 
 this voyage are interesting for the descriptions they 
 give of Newfoundland at that period ; but although, 
 as one of the accounts tells us, the voyage was 
 taken partly in order to search for the northern El 
 Dorado, Norumbega, yet, owing to its disastrous 
 ending, the expedition got no farther than the 
 coasts of Newfoundland. The first real attempt at 
 a colonization of United States territory was that of 
 Sir Walter Raleigh in Virginia. So little was known 
 of the character of this part of the coast that the 
 report of the two captains, Amadas and Barlow, 
 sent out by him, came like the discovery of a new 
 country, although this was in 1584, nearly a century 
 after the first voyages along the two main routes 
 above indicated. The first colonists, in 1585, had 
 to be taken off again in 1586, and, other private 
 
THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 27 
 
 attempts being also failures, the Plymouth and 
 London (North and South) Virginia Companies 
 were formed. The former extended from Long 
 Island Sound to Maine, and on the dissolution of 
 the company, in 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers made 
 their well-known settlement in New England, having, 
 curiously enough, taken their leave of the Old World 
 at the very port which had given its name to the 
 company on whose abandoned territories they now 
 landed. 
 
 It is not our purpose to trace out the history of 
 colonization in America. Enough has been said 
 to show that it is to the northern line of route first 
 discovered by the Northmen of Iceland and Green 
 land, and recovered in the fifteenth century by 
 John and Sebastian Cabot (who on their first 
 voyage may probably have taken the old route 
 by way of Iceland, as Hudson did at a later date) 
 it is to this route and to those who followed it 
 that we must refer the settlement of the United 
 States of to-day. French, Dutch, and Swedes, as 
 well as English, all used this route ; but the English 
 became at last the dominant race in the country, 
 and it was men of English birth, or English de 
 scent, who, in 1776, took into their own hands the 
 government of their own country. 
 
 Quite different has been the part played by 
 Spain in the New World. Without entering into 
 the history of the atrocities committed in other 
 
28 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 parts of America, we here confine ourselves to 
 denying that Spain took any considerable or use 
 ful share in the founding of the United States. A 
 settlement in Florida, which was ceded to Eng 
 land, in exchange for Havana, in 1753, the latter 
 place having been captured during the war, and a 
 line of missions and other settlements along the 
 Pacific coast these were the chief claims that 
 could be made by Spain to anything like a share 
 in the honour of having helped to found or form 
 the present nation. And these amount to virtually 
 nothing. The honour is due, not to the proud 
 and selfish Spanish grandees so ably drawn by 
 Kingsley in his immortal " Westward Ho !" but 
 rather to the Cabots, to the Drakes, Grenvilles, 
 and Raleighs, who braved the power of Spain and 
 defeated her hugest armadas, thereby arresting, in 
 its full career and in the height of its power, a 
 double tyranny of Church and State, which, had 
 it been allowed to hold its course unchecked, 
 would infallibly have strangled, in its earliest 
 infancy, the civilization and freedom of which 
 America now so loudly boasts. When the mines 
 and treasure-houses of Aztecs and Incas had been 
 exhausted, when the last Indian had succumbed 
 to the white man s fetters or the white man s faith, 
 what would have been the condition of the country, 
 under a purely Spanish rule ? The national condi 
 tions and resources at present realized in the 
 
THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 29 
 
 United States would not have been in existence. 
 So far from being due to the triumph of Columbus 
 and of Spain, they signalize the defeat of both. 
 The degree of civilization at present existing in 
 Central and Southern America is due, almost 
 entirely, to the same progressive forces working 
 indirectly through the medium of the United 
 States and other advanced Powers, not to any 
 virtue of their mother country. It is through the 
 northern route across the Atlantic that the North 
 American continent has received the means and 
 the power to show such evidences of culture and 
 civilization as will be set forth at Chicago in 1^93, 
 and their collection and exhibition may well serve 
 as a fitting reminder to all mankind that Spain, at 
 all events, did not either find or found the nation. 
 
 JOHN B. SHIPLEY. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 LEIF ERIKSON. 
 
 Miss Marie A. Brown s Plea before the Select Committee of 
 the United States Senate on the Centennial of the Consti 
 tution and the Discovery of America, for recognition of 
 the Discovery of America by Leif Erikson, A.D. 1000. 
 
 IN the commemoration of what is strictly a his 
 torical event, the strictest conformity to historical 
 truth is of imperative necessity ; a nation cannot 
 be justified in having any other motive for such 
 an act. Patriotism, sentiment, hero worship, the 
 idealizing of any person connected with the event 
 to be commemorated, are also only justified when 
 in the strictest conformity to historical truth. 
 
 This American Republic is contemplating an 
 act of the gravest import, the celebration of the 
 greatest achievement in its history, the discovery 
 of this continent. Just at the very moment the 
 achievement is ascribed to a certain man, and fixed 
 at a certain date, historical facts declare that the 
 man in question was not the discoverer of this 
 country, that the date is five hundred years too 
 
LEIF ERIKSON. 31 
 
 late, and that the honour must if the nation values 
 its integrity or acknowledges fealty to the truth 
 the honour must be given to the predecessor, to the 
 discoverer, and not to his follower or imitator, the 
 man who profited by his discovery. 
 
 I stand before you, gentlemen, as the spokes 
 man of this historical fact, knowing that this fact 
 cannot but be respected by this nation, and duly 
 observed in its every act. When I enunciate this 
 historical fact, it is not my voice alone that does 
 it ; it is the united voice of the nations of the 
 Scandinavian North ; it is the united voice of the 
 Scandinavians of the United States, who, were 
 this fact recognised by the nation they have 
 adopted, would at once be transformed from 
 aliens into compatriots, sharing our pride in a 
 common ancestry ; it is the united voice of Great 
 Britain, Germany, France ; it is the voice of all 
 the learned societies of Europe ; it is the voice of 
 Iceland, uttered through her archives, through the 
 proud consciousness of every man and woman 
 born to that island for nearly a thousand years, 
 through the many volumes of ancient Icelandic 
 manuscripts preserved in the libraries of Copen 
 hagen, Stockholm, and Christiania ; through the 
 tomes upon tomes of ecclesiastical records, the 
 annals of the administrations of the Church of 
 Rome in Greenland for six centuries, and in 
 Vinland for probably a correspondingly long 
 
32 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 period, that lie buried in the libraries of the 
 Eternal City. 
 
 A brief of Pope Nicholas V., dated September 
 20, 1448, stating that the Icelandic inhabitants 
 of Greenland had been Christians for six hundred 
 years, and had erected many sacred buildings and 
 a splendid cathedral there, was found some years 
 ago in the Vatican by Professor Mallet, of Geneva. 
 Other Pope s bulls have been discovered relating 
 to ecclesiastical affairs in Greenland. The Pilot, at 
 the time of the unveiling of the Leif Erikson statue 
 in Boston, contained an editorial in which it was 
 said that : 
 
 " From the Catholic Church s eighteen centuries 
 of unbroken records the advocates of the Norse 
 man s right to priority among American discoverers 
 have drawn the strongest evidence in proof of their 
 claim ; for here are noted the names and deeds of 
 the missionaries who followed the sea-kings to the 
 New World." 
 
 Father Bodfish, of the cathedral in Boston, in 
 his paper read a year ago before the Bostonian 
 Society, on the discovery of America by the North 
 men, is reported to have quoted " as corrobora 
 tive authority the account given in standard history 
 of the Catholic Church of the establishment of a 
 bishopric in Greenland in 1112 A.D., and he added 
 the interesting suggestion that, as it is the duty of 
 a bishop so placed at a distance to report from time 
 
LEIF ERIKSON. 33 
 
 to time to the Pope, not only on ecclesiastical 
 matters, but of the geography of the country and 
 character of the people, it is probable that 
 Columbus had the benefit of the knowledge 
 possessed at Rome thus derived. It is [he said] 
 stated in different biographies of Columbus that, 
 when the voyage was first proposed by him, he 
 found difficulty in getting Spanish sailors to go with 
 him in so doubtful an undertaking. After Colum 
 bus returned from a visit to Rome with information 
 there obtained, these sailors, or enough of them, 
 appear to have had their doubts or fears removed, 
 and no difficulty in enlistment was experienced." 
 
 The reverend superior of St. Benedict s Indus 
 trial School at Skidaway Island, Savannah, Father 
 Oswald Moosmiiller, has informed me, in two 
 private letters, dated September i and 3 of last 
 year, that he has written a book entitled " Euro 
 peans in America before Columbus," and that he 
 collected materials for this book in Rome about 
 twenty years ago. To quote his own words : 
 
 " Although the best libraries of the past, i.e., the 
 Bibliotheca Angelica, in charge of the Augustinians, 
 and the Bibliotheca Cassanathense, at the Minerva, 
 in charge of the Dominicans, have since been 
 broken up and dispersed, yet other sources of the 
 greatest value for a historian have been made 
 accessible of late, viz., the archives of the Vatican, 
 which at my time were in charge of the aged ora- 
 
 3 
 
34 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 torian Dr. Theiner, as custodian. There is the 
 place where you can procure authentic data and 
 the most interesting documents concerning the 
 bishops of Ireland and Greenland." 
 
 In this book there is an especial chapter relating 
 to Columbus, headed : " Christopher Columbus 
 confers with Bishop Magnus, of Skalholt, the former 
 Abbot of Helgafell, in the year 1477." This is so 
 important that I must quote it. He says : 
 
 " In the archives of Iceland are found authentic 
 records which testify that Columbus arrived from 
 England in a Bristol merchant-ship, and landed in 
 the harbour of Hvalfjardareyri, in the southern part 
 of Iceland, in February of the year 1477. This 
 harbour used at that time to be frequently visited 
 by foreign traders, especially from England and 
 Ireland. Columbus himself says that in the before- 
 named year, the sea that washes round the island 
 (which nearly approaches England in size) was 
 quite free from ice. Voyages to Iceland at this 
 time of the year are not altogether unusual, but the 
 entire absence of snow is very rare. But it is cor 
 roborated by the public records of Iceland that this 
 actually occurred in the months of February and 
 March in the year 1477. In this way a remarkable 
 coincidence occurred. 
 
 " At that time one of the most prominent per 
 sonages among the clergy of Iceland was the Bene 
 dictine Magnus, son of Egolf, who in the year 1470 
 
LEIF ERIKSON. 35 
 
 was nominated abbot of the monastery of Helga- 
 fell. Helgafell might, in respect to the earliest 
 voyages of discovery of the Icelanders to America, 
 be called classic ground, for out of this very 
 neighbourhood had set forth the first discoverers 
 and colonists of Greenland and other parts of 
 America. . . . 
 
 " In the year 1475 Magnus, abbot of the Bene 
 dictine monastery of Helgafell, was consecrated 
 Bishop of Skalholt by Archbishop Gauto, of Dron- 
 theim. In the winter of the year 1477 it now hap 
 pened that Bishop Magnus visited the churches of 
 his diocese on the peninsula of Hvalfjardareyri at 
 the very time when Christopher Columbus landed 
 in the haven of the same name. The bishop met 
 with Columbus, and they conversed in the Latin 
 language. Columbus inquired concerning the wes 
 tern lands " (as Rafn, in the preface to the " Anti- 
 quitates Americans, " p. xxiv., note i, says " . . .to 
 him, inquiring concerning western lands . . ."). 
 
 " But what information thereupon and, generally, 
 what answer Bishop Magnus gave Columbus, 
 remains still a matter of hypothesis, upon which 
 nothing has yet been found in authentic writings. 
 To be sure, there are several grounds that permit 
 us to accept the theory that Bishop Magnus related 
 to Columbus all about the well-known discoveries 
 of the western lands by the Icelanders, since there 
 can be no doubt that the bishop himself had ade- 
 
 32 
 
36 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 quate knowledge of these discoveries ; for they not 
 only formed a part of the history of his fatherland, 
 but also belonged to the oral traditions of the 
 inhabitants of Helgafell, and, moreover, were pre 
 served in the written chronicles of the monastery of 
 which he had been abbot. . . . 
 
 " It would be superfluous again to point out 
 that the knowledge of the existence of western 
 lands, and consequently of America, was in no 
 wise confined to Iceland." 
 
 This author makes another statement of direct 
 practical value to us. He says : 
 
 " For the elucidation of these voyages to un 
 known lands in these remote times, there is placed 
 at the disposal of the historian a proportionately 
 rich source of material. A series of parchment 
 manuscripts remains extant in which more or less 
 mention of America occurs, evidently under the 
 names used by the Icelanders. Also a quantity 
 of paper manuscripts, which, however, mostly con 
 tain only accounts from old parchment documents 
 at present lost, should not remain unregarded." 
 
 It is to search these buried records in Rome, 
 the annals of six hundred years of American 
 history, that I ask the support and aid of the 
 Government of the United States. It is not to 
 authorize or aid the researches of a private in 
 dividual in an abstruse subject of little or no prac 
 tical importance ; it is not to substantiate a vague 
 
LEIF ERlKSON. 37 
 
 theory or tradition or discovery ; it is not to prove 
 the fact that America was discovered by Leif Erik- 
 son, the Icelander, in the year 1000, for that is 
 already proved ; but to collect and put into the 
 possession of the United States, for preservation 
 in its archives, all the evidence of this discovery, 
 accumulated for centuries in Rome through the 
 ecclesiastical interests, that made such annals and 
 reports of the first importance to the Church. 
 These annals comprise the parish life of the Vin- 
 land colonies, founded in the year 1000, the re 
 ports of the several bishops, which, as Father 
 Bodfish has asserted, not only treated of ecclesi 
 astical matters, but "of the geography of the 
 country and character of the people." It is not 
 right that this nation should lack the evidence, 
 the full accounts, of the events in its own early 
 history, especially when these are in possession 
 of the different countries of Europe, giving the 
 people of the Old World a knowledge of the 
 Icelandic discovery and settlement of America 
 not as yet attained by Americans themselves. 
 
 I therefore petition Congress to grant me an 
 appropriation adequate to the accomplishment of 
 this grand object, which I pledge myself to under 
 take and carry through, with the able assistance 
 of an English friend of mine, Mr. John B. Shipley, 
 of London, a gentleman admirably qualified for 
 the work, and as well versed in the subject as I 
 
38 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 am myself. The labour of the search, of decipher 
 ing and transcribing manuscripts, and of preparing 
 documents for publication by the Government, is 
 obviously too great for me to perform entirely 
 alone and unaided ; and as Mr. Shipley has been 
 associated with me in my entire work this season 
 to effect recognition of the Icelandic discovery, he 
 is the proper person to assist me in the investiga 
 tion in Rome, and in the preparations for the 
 proposed Viking exhibition the erection of the 
 Viking hall, the collecting of relics and antiquities 
 for exhibition from the various museums of Europe, 
 etc. But for the co-operation of such a friend 
 as Mr. Shipley, who holds the same views as 
 myself on the subject, and understands the con 
 ditions and requirements abroad, thus being able 
 to facilitate my negotiations in foreign countries, 
 I could not carry out my plan. Mr. Shipley is 
 now in London, and will join me at an early date. 
 
 It has been sufficiently demonstrated that the 
 heads of the Church in Rome knew of the Ice 
 landic discovery of America at the time, the date 
 of the discovery, the year 1000, having been the 
 exact date of the conversion of the entire Scandi 
 navian North to Christianity ; and that the Catholic 
 Church, the only Church then, was quick to profit 
 by this discovery, and establish its own institutions 
 in the new colonies across the ocean. Rome being 
 possessed of these facts, Columbus, a devoted son 
 
LEIF ERIKSON. 39 
 
 of the Church, could not have failed to be. The 
 knowledge he obtained in Rome he verified in 
 Iceland, during his visit there in 1477. The 
 famous French geographer, Malte-Brun, states 
 in his " History of Geography " that " Columbus, 
 when in Italy, had heard of the Norse discoveries 
 beyond Iceland, for Rome was the world s 
 centre, and all information of importance was sent 
 there." It is known also that Gudrid, the wife 
 of Thorfinn Karlsefne, the principal colonist of 
 Vinland (the present Massachusetts and Rhode 
 Island "), made a pilgrimage to Rome, in about 
 1028 or 1030, and told the holy fathers all about 
 her three years stay in Vinland. Gabriel Gravier, 
 in his able work, " The Discovery of America by 
 the Northmen," says of this visit of Gudrid s : 
 
 "It is related that she was well received, and 
 she certainly must have talked there of her ever- 
 memorable transoceanic voyage to Vinland and 
 her three years residence there. Rome paid much 
 attention to geographical discoveries, and took 
 pains to collect all new charts and reports that 
 were brought there. Every new discovery was an 
 aggrandizement of the papal dominion a new 
 field for the preaching of the Gospel." 
 
 " Every new discovery was an aggrandizement of 
 the papal dominion" In these words we have the 
 
 * These localities are fixed by Humboldt in the second 
 volume of the " Cosmos," also by Rafn. 
 
40 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 secret of Columbus s operations. The Church 
 having full knowledge of the existence of the 
 western continent, discovered by men of a race 
 that the Church had no intention of glorifying, and 
 Columbus being an obedient tool of that Church, 
 the means were at command for effecting a re 
 discovery of that continent, and for obtaining for 
 the Church and its minion all the glory of a vast 
 original achievement ! 
 
 So Columbus was despatched to Iceland and put 
 into communication with a bishop belonging to the 
 Order of Benedictines, the same order who, accord 
 ing to Father Moosmiiller, had effected the conver 
 sion of the entire Scandinavian North to Christianity, 
 Ansgarius, the first Apostle to the North, having 
 been a Benedictine, as were also several of the 
 bishops of Iceland. This Bishop Magnus, with 
 whom Columbus conversed in the Latin language, 
 had, as we have seen, the records of the Icelandic 
 discovery of America in his own monastery. The 
 learned Icelander, Finn Magnusen, who according 
 to the testimony of Chambers s " Encyclopaedia," 
 and other authorities, " has conclusively established 
 the fact that Columbus did visit Iceland in 1477, 
 fifteen years before he undertook his great expedi 
 tion across the Atlantic," calls attention to a remark 
 able coincidence, which is this : 
 
 " Magnus Eiolfson was Bishop of Skalholt, in 
 Iceland ; since 1470 he had been abbot of the 
 
LEIF ERIKSON. 41 
 
 monastery of Helgafell, the place where the oldest 
 documents relating to Greenland, Vinland, and the 
 various parts of America discovered by the North 
 men had been written, and where they were doubt 
 less carefully preserved, as it was from this very 
 district that the most distinguished voyagers had 
 gone forth. These documents must have been 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 ex 
 ploring a western continent since the year 1474, 
 should have omitted to seek for and receive infor 
 mation respecting these early voyages." 
 
 This same author, Finn Magnusen, in his article 
 in the " Nordisk Tidskrift," which established the 
 fact of Columbus s visit to Iceland, writes further 
 more : 
 
 " The English trade with Iceland certainly merits 
 the consideration of historians, if it furnished Colum 
 bus with the opportunity of visiting that island, 
 there to be informed of the historical evidence re 
 specting the existence of important lands and a 
 large continent in the west. If Columbus should 
 have acquired a knowledge of the accounts trans 
 mitted to us of the discoveries of the Northmen in 
 conversations held in Latin with the Bishop of 
 Skalholt and the learned men of Iceland, we may 
 the more readily conceive his firm belief in the 
 
42 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 possibility of rediscovering a western continent, 
 and his unwearied zeal in putting his plans in 
 execution. The discovery of America, so momen 
 tous in its results, may therefore be regarded as the 
 mediate consequence of its previous discovery by 
 the Scandinavians, which may be thus placed 
 among the most important events of former ages." 
 
 The testimony of Bayard Taylor, in his descrip 
 tion of Iceland, is also important. His words are : 
 
 " It is impossible that the knowledge of these 
 voyages should not have been current in Iceland 
 in 1477, when Columbus, sailing in a ship from 
 Bristol, England, visited the island. As he was 
 able to converse with the priests and learned men 
 in Latin, he undoubtedly learned of the existence 
 of another continent to the west and south ; and 
 this knowledge not the mere fanaticism of a vague 
 belief supported him during many years of dis 
 appointment." 
 
 A writer in the Foreign Quarterly Review asks 
 very pertinently : 
 
 " But what could be more to his purpose, or 
 better adapted to his views, than the fact that the 
 Northmen, the boldest of navigators, had know 
 ledge of a land in the west which they supposed to 
 extend far southwards till it met Africa ? Or could 
 not the intelligent Genoese find some suggestion in 
 the following more accurate statement of an Ice 
 landic geographer : On the west of the great sea 
 
LEIF ERIKSON. 43 
 
 of Spain, which some call Ginnungagap, and lean 
 ing somewhat towards the north, the first land that 
 occurs is the good Vinland ? " 
 
 That Columbus fully expected to find a conti 
 nent, and knew with absolute certainty that such 
 existed from the evidence of the Icelandic discovery 
 that he had seen both in Rome and Iceland, is 
 proved by the terms of his compact with the King 
 and Queen of Spain : 
 
 (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. 
 
 (2) " Christopher Columbus wishes to be made 
 viceroy of all the continents and islands. 
 
 (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," and other clauses of 
 similar import. 
 
 In the various petitions to the Spanish sovereigns 
 made by Columbus and his patrons his patrons 
 being men high in the Catholic Church, not 
 scientists the inducements held out were never 
 those of accomplishing a great discovery, of ex 
 ploring and opening up new territory for civilization 
 and development ; but, on the contrary, the only 
 incentive that was used to kindle the royal zeal was 
 
44 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 expressed in the words of Luis de St. Angel in his 
 well-known appeal to Queen Isabella : "He re 
 minded 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." 
 If we turn to Columbus s own views on the subject, 
 and motives, as expressed in his letters, we find the 
 same thing : 
 
 " I gave to the subject [he writes] 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 faith among so many nations ; 
 an enterprise so exalted in itself, and so calculated 
 to enhance the glory and immortalize the renown 
 of great sovereigns." 
 
 J. J. Barry, one of Columbus s Roman Catholic 
 biographers, states distinctly 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." 
 He adds naively : " Historians have hitherto left 
 this circumstance unnoticed, or in a state of vague 
 confusion." But I will endeavour to repair this 
 omission, though from a very different motive than 
 actuated Barry, by calling the attention of this 
 whole nation to the fact that Columbus s enterprise 
 was simply and solely a missionary undertaking on a 
 %rand scale, under the patronage of the Spanish 
 
LEIF ERIKSON. 45 
 
 sovereigns and the Church of Rome. Barry gives 
 repeated confirmation to this, for in alluding to the 
 famous bull of Pope Alexander VI., he says : "And 
 here we see visibly the participation of the Church 
 in the discovery." He adds : " All the sympathies 
 of the Holy Father and of the Sacred College were 
 in favour of Columbus." 
 
 Rossely de Lorgues, another Catholic biographer 
 of Columbus, affirms that " Columbus did not owe 
 his great celebrity to his genius or science, but 
 only to his vocation, to his faith, and to the Divine 
 grace." This author shows that the real aim of 
 Christopher Columbus was a ransom of the Holy 
 Sepulchre by means of the riches to be found in 
 the new region. 
 
 All the evidence, accordingly, goes to show 
 that the motive of Columbus, of all his ecclesi 
 astical patrons, Juan Perez, Deza (who was the 
 successor of the infamous inquisitor-general, Tor- 
 quemada), the Grand Cardinal Mendoza, Luis de 
 St. Angel, Ferdinand and Isabella, was simply 
 and solely papal aggrandizement, the gaining of 
 vast new territory for proselyting purposes ; in 
 other words, the establishing of the future empire 
 of the Pope on the western continent in the event 
 of its finally being supplanted in Europe by the 
 new heresy, Lutheranism and the Reformation. 
 This has been aptly stated recently by Mr. 
 Addison Child, in a letter to the Boston Tran- 
 
46 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 script. Alluding to the Icelandic discoveries, he 
 wrote : 
 
 " But the reason that these and probably earlier 
 discoveries were not more noticed and utilized, 
 was that the need of another continent to conquer 
 and colonize had not arisen, and did not rise until 
 nearly the end of the fifteenth century." 
 
 The advent of Luther and the incipient heresy 
 that preceded him led to the restoring of the 
 inquisition in Spain for the suppression of heresy, 
 and also led to the discovery, so called, of America 
 by Christopher Columbus, the land that was to be 
 made the future and permanent stronghold of the 
 Church of Rome. 
 
 x The vital and all-absorbing question now is, 
 whether this American Republic, founded on 
 purely secular principles, wishes to pay posthu 
 mous honours, on a scale of unprecedented mag 
 nificence, and at the bidding of the Pope, and 
 the countries under his dominion, Spain, Italy, 
 and the Spanish- American republics, to the 
 Roman Catholic missionary and devotee, Chris 
 topher Columbus, who was sent out by the Church 
 of Rome to convert the natives of a land whose 
 locality he knew, having ascertained it definitely 
 in Iceland before he started forth on his voyage to 
 the western continent ? 
 
 As there are, therefore, no grounds whatsoever 
 upon which the Government of the United States 
 
LEIF ERIKSON. 47 
 
 can rightfully, or in accordance with facts, cele 
 brate Columbus s first voyage to this country as a 
 discovery, a scientific achievement, or a triumph of 
 maritime skill in any sense, to ascribe the credit 
 of such a discovery to Columbus, without his 
 torical warrant, and by a national act, would be 
 to publicly sanction the claims of the Church of 
 Rome to this land, and virtually to invite the Pope 
 to come and take possession of it. 
 
 This is the significance and value of the pro 
 posed Columbus celebration, in 1892, to the Roman 
 Catholic countries that are so strongly urging it. 
 
 It is this that I protest against, in the name of 
 historical truth and republican principles. I do 
 it as an American, prizing and revering the Con 
 stitution under which I live, and wishing it pre 
 served inviolate. I know that the Church of 
 Rome destroyed the Republic of Iceland in the 
 year 1262, and I know that the Church of Rome 
 is steadily undermining this republic of ours. 
 
 Instead of the contemplated Romish triumph, 
 the Columbus celebration in 1892, I appeal most 
 earnestly to the Government of the United States 
 to give its full official recognition to the discovery 
 of America by Leif Erikson, in A.D. 1000, and to 
 commemorate this first great event in American 
 history by a national celebration of the most 
 magnificent description, to be in conjunction with 
 the celebration of the framing of our Constitution, 
 
48 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 and held at the same date, 1889, inasmuch as Ice 
 land was a proud and powerful republic at the 
 period of the discovery of America, and should, 
 by virtue of this, hold the highest place in our 
 national regard. 
 
 As a fitting way to commemorate the Icelandic 
 discovery, perhaps the most fitting and appropriate, 
 I beg to lay before Congress my plan for a Viking 
 exhibition, which is intended to be a revelation of 
 the brilliant Viking age in the Scandinavian North. 
 Such a historical exhibition, contained within the 
 walls of an ancient Icelandic Viking hall, of superb 
 dimensions, would recall in the most vivid and 
 objective manner the Viking period, the mode of 
 life and attainments of that age, justly styled the 
 Augustan age of the North. The ancient Republic 
 of Iceland and our modern one would thus be 
 placed side by side, the republic of the year 1000 
 and that of the year 1889, the United States 
 honouring Iceland for the discovery of this land ! 
 
 All of the essentials for such a historical ex 
 hibition are to be found in the museums and 
 splendid collections of Europe, especially in the 
 Scandinavian lands. The walls of the Viking hall 
 could be decorated, as of old, with the swords and 
 shields of the Norse warriors ; on the table set 
 apart for these could stand the horns and beakers 
 from which these warriors drank their toasts to 
 victorious leaders ; specimens of their art in wood- 
 
LEIF ERIKSON. 49 
 
 carving, tapestry, etc., could adorn the panels and 
 wainscot of the hall, and the sculptured form of 
 one of these warriors in armour, and of a Norse 
 lady, one of the brave ancient type that felt such 
 deep pride in the valiant deeds of the Vikings, and 
 who were such worthy companions of these, could 
 stand there, the massive gold armlets and clasps, 
 the ornate belt, worn by both, gleaming in the light 
 of the central fires, which would also illumine the 
 harp of the Icelandic skald, narrating to them some 
 grand and heroic exploit of their renowned country 
 men. Outside the hall could be a full-size repro 
 duction of the famous Viking ship, exhumed at 
 Gokstad, in Norway, in 1880. 
 
 In the works of Sir George Dasent, of the late Pro 
 fessor Rudolph Keyser, of the University of Christ- 
 iania, and of many other Scandinavian authors and 
 historians, are detailed descriptions of the con 
 struction and interior appointments of these Viking 
 halls, so that there would be no difficulty in repro 
 ducing them with a great degree of historic accuracy. 
 It is from a work of Sir George Dasent, his transla 
 tion of the " Saga of Burnt Njal," that I have taken 
 the facade and ground-plan of a Viking hall printed 
 on my circular describing the plan of such an 
 exhibition. This was designed by the Icelandic 
 artist and antiquary, Sigurd Gudmundson, and is 
 said to be correct. 
 
 But more important than all else would be the 
 
 4 
 
50 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY QF AMERICA. 
 
 Icelandic manuscripts, the identical ones preserved 
 in the Royal Library and the Arno-Magnaean 
 collection, in Copenhagen, containing the accounts 
 of the Icelandic voyages of discovery to Greenland 
 and Vinland, and the long occupancy of those 
 lands. The president of the Icelandic Antiquarian 
 Society, Herra Ami Thorsteinson, in a long cordial 
 letter written to me from Reykjavik, and in English, 
 kindly gives me his opinion in regard to the import 
 ance of having these manuscripts in such an 
 exhibition as the one proposed. He writes : 
 
 "The historical event of the discovery of America 
 is built on written documents, or manuscripts from 
 Iceland, which do not exist here now, but are in 
 the several collections of manuscripts, in the collec 
 tion of Arni Magnusson, in Copenhagen, the Royal 
 Library in Copenhagen, and so on. The exhibition 
 of those manuscripts would in the most brilliant 
 manner show the civilized world to whom we owe 
 the discovery of America." 
 
 All these objects, the visible relics of ripe 
 civilization and culture, collected under the roof 
 of an Icelandic Viking hall, and viewed amid 
 their own proper surroundings, would be of supreme 
 interest to the scholars and historians, to the think 
 ing public of all the nations of Europe, as well as 
 of our own land, while the beauty and novelty of 
 the display would interest even the most superficial 
 observers. It is needless for me to state that there 
 
LEIF ERIKSON. 51 
 
 has never been a historical exhibition of this 
 kind ; that is to say, the relics and antiquities of 
 the Viking period have never been gathered 
 together in a general exhibition, but the separate 
 articles have remained in their respective museums, 
 for the most part in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. 
 While we have had " Old London " and " Old Edin 
 burgh," we have never had " Old Iceland," and there 
 are brilliant possibilities in that direction. In 
 justice to myself I beg to say that the exhibition I 
 propose is an entirely original plan of my own, not 
 derived from any other source, and I have a very 
 deep desire that it may be carried out. 
 
 This Viking exhibition could be the basis of a 
 permanent Icelandic or Scandinavian addition to 
 the National Museum. An expansion of the 
 National Museum has been proposed by the 
 directors, so as to comprise a vast collection of 
 American antiquities, records and relics. Now, 
 inasmuch as the Icelanders discovered this country 
 and established settlements in New England that 
 endured for several hundred years, any Icelandic 
 or Norse relics of antiquity can properly be styled 
 American ones, and should be assigned their due 
 place in such a collection as that in the National 
 Museum. The ship Leif Erikson crossed the 
 ocean in must have closely resembled the Viking 
 ship unearthed in Norway, and the buildings he 
 and Thorfinn Karlsefne erected in Vinland could 
 
 4 2 
 
52 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 not have been unlike my proposed Viking hall, 
 although, of course, smaller and simpler in style. 
 It would be no small enjoyment to Americans to 
 see just how the Icelanders, the ancient Norsemen, 
 lived on our shores, the habits and customs that 
 they brought with them here, as well as their 
 sumptuous mode of life at home in Iceland. 
 
 A detailed description of my proposed Viking 
 exhibition, to be held in 1889, was printed in the 
 Independent of February 16. I had the pleasure 
 of mailing a copy to each member of this com 
 mittee. 
 
 To you, and to the Government, I now confide 
 my cause, which is also, be it remembered, the 
 cause of this country and of Iceland, as well as 
 of the entire Scandinavian North. The world 
 awaits your decision, the decision of this nation. 
 Washington, D. C., March 26, 1888. 
 
 THE VIKING EXHIBITION.* 
 
 Celebration of the Discovery of America by Leif 
 Erikson, A.D. 1000. 
 
 If Mallet s words are true that " history has not 
 recorded the annals of a people who have oc 
 casioned greater, more sudden, or more numerous 
 revolutions in Europe than the Scandinavians, or 
 
 * The Independent, New York, February 16, 1888. 
 
LEIF ERIKSON. 53 
 
 whose antiquities, at the same time, are so little 
 known," and if Wilhelmi was also correct in stating 
 that " in the Heimskringla 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," the modern world cannot but 
 conclude that the ancient Scandinavians, and par 
 ticularly the Icelanders, were a people of un 
 equalled prowess, the ripest attainments, capable 
 of the intellectual and physical mastery of any race 
 they chose to subdue, capable alike of discovery 
 and conquest. The discovery of America, pro 
 nounced the greatest achievement in modern 
 times, was the least of their achievements, for 
 they had already done so much more than that 
 in Europe. 
 
 The Viking Exhibition, which I have proposed 
 should be held in Washington in 1889, in con 
 nection with the celebration of the forming of our 
 Constitution, would be a revelation, a resurrection, 
 so to speak, of the brilliant Viking Age, presenting 
 vividly and objectively the surroundings amid which 
 those proudest and most indomitable of men lived; 
 the old Icelandic Vikinga-skaH^ or banqueting- 
 hall, their shields and weapons, ornaments of gold, 
 silver, and bronze, their beakers, and specimens 
 of decorative art in carved panels, tapestry, etc., 
 
54 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 together with the edifice, which could be repro 
 duced with perfect historical accuracy, thanks to the 
 minute details of habitations, manners, and cus 
 toms given by the Northern writers, and also a 
 full-size model of the famous Viking ship exhumed 
 at Gokstad, in Norway, in the year 1880. Such a 
 revelation of Viking life, of the precise period of 
 the discovery of America by Leif Erikson, would 
 be a marvel of beauty, and a priceless treasure 
 to the historian and antiquary. It would bring 
 to our shores all the cultured people and scholars 
 of Europe, and it would give to the United States 
 the unprecedented distinction of having conceived 
 of and brought to perfection the most magnificent 
 and unique historical exhibition ever arranged by 
 any nation. 
 
 The design for the Viking hall I found in that 
 very valuable work by Sir George W. Dasent, the 
 " Saga of Burnt Njal," the introduction to which 
 contains excellent descriptions of the dwellings 
 and mode of life in Iceland at that period. The 
 facade and ground -plan were sketched by the 
 noted Icelandic artist and antiquary, Sigurdur 
 Gudmundson. The author states that " in the 
 abodes of chiefs and great men this building had 
 great dimensions, and was then called a skdli, or 
 hall." Rudolph Keyser, the late professor in 
 history at the Royal University in Christiania, 
 Norway, mentions, in " The Private Life of the Old 
 
LEIF ERIKSON. 55 
 
 Northmen," that they sometimes had as many as 
 1,200 guests at a banquet, and had to borrow 
 silver and table linen from their neighbours on 
 these great occasions. He also gives minute de 
 scriptions of the Vikinga- skdli. He says : 
 
 " The skdli was erected in the form of an oblong, 
 generally in a direction lying east and west, with 
 the main entrance probably in the eastern gable- 
 end. Before this entrance was a kind of vestibule, 
 which was called by various names. ... It 
 appears to have been open in the front, and so 
 broad that several persons could stand abreast in 
 it. ... The skdli was open to the roof, and one 
 could see above the rafters up to the ridge. . . . 
 The walls of the skdli were commonly panelled on 
 the inside, and sometimes the inside of the roof 
 was ornamented with carved work and paintings, 
 representing mythical or historical events, or sub 
 jects taken from nature. It was, moreover, the 
 custom to hang up weapons, especially shields, on 
 the walls. . . . Sometimes, on great occasions, the 
 walls were decked with tapestry (tj 6ld\ which pro 
 bably was composed of home-wrought embroidery, 
 or of embroidered woollen cloths, and occasionally 
 with costly stuffs of foreign manufacture. . . . The 
 beds were often furnished with costly coverings and 
 curtains, and were stuffed with down and covered 
 with ticking ; and sheets of foreign linen were not 
 wanting. . . . There can hardly be any doubt that 
 
56 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 wealthy people, especially in Norway, where there 
 was a superabundance of timber, used to have 
 special skdli intended only for festive occasions, in 
 which cases they were not furnished with beds. 
 Different circumstances tend to the belief that the 
 skdli were in general very spacious ; for it required 
 a great deal of room to accommodate so many 
 guests as might often be found assembled at the 
 banquets of the old Northmen." 
 
 Sir George Dasent s description coincides with 
 the above. I quote some interesting details he 
 gives : 
 
 " Internally the hall consisted of three divisions, 
 a nave and two low side -aisles. The walls of 
 these aisles were of stone, and low enough to allow 
 of their being mounted with ease. . . . The centre 
 division, or nave, on the other hand, rose high 
 above the others on two rows of pillars. It was of 
 timber, and had an open-work timber roof. The 
 roofs of the side-aisles were supported by posts 
 as well as by rafters and cross-beams leaning 
 against the pillars of the nave. . . . There were 
 fittings of wainscot along the walls of the side- 
 aisles, and all around between the pillars of the 
 inner row, supporting the roof of the nave, ran 
 a wainscot panel. In places the wainscot was 
 pierced by doors opening into sleeping places phut 
 off from the rest of the hall on all sides, for the 
 needs of the family. . . . The whole of the nave 
 
LEIF ERIKSON. 57 
 
 within the wainscot, between the inner round 
 pillars, was filled by the hall, properly so called. 
 It had long hearths for fires in the middle, with 
 louvres to let out the smoke. On either side, 
 nearest to the wainscot, and in some cases touch 
 ing it, was a row of benches (bekK) ; in each of 
 these was a high seat (pnduegi) if the hall was 
 that of a great man, that on the south side being 
 the owner s seat. Before these seats were tables 
 boards which, however, do not seem, any more 
 than our early Middle Age tables, to have been 
 always kept standing, but were brought in with and 
 cleared away after each meal." 
 
 We have in these two works, and others at com 
 mand, all the details necessary for the construction 
 of one of these sumptuous festive halls, while the 
 museums of the Scandinavian lands, and to some 
 extent of Great Britain and France also, would 
 supply all the appointments, the swords and shields 
 of the Vikings, the massive belts and gold armlets 
 and necklaces, ornate and beautiful, that both men 
 and women wore, their gold and silver beakers, 
 wood-carving, tapestry, etc. There also should be 
 displayed the proofs of their great maritime achieve 
 ment the discovery of America the identical 
 Icelandic manuscripts in which, in exquisite pen 
 manship, the accounts of their voyages and settle 
 ments in Greenland and Vinland are recorded. A 
 Roman Catholic author, the rev. superior of an 
 
58 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 industrial school at Skidaway Island, Savannah, 
 Father Oswald Moosmiiller, who has made an 
 exhaustive study of this subject, and gives the 
 fruits of it to the world in his book, " Europaer in 
 Amerika vor Columbus," includes a list of the 
 sources in the Royal Library at Copenhagen an 
 astonishingly large one : two manuscripts, the 
 " Codex Legati Arno-Magnaeani," No. 544, and the 
 " Codex A. M.," No. 557, contain the life of Thor- 
 finn Karlsefne ; two, besides the well-known 
 " Codex Flatoiensis ;" containing the Saga of Erik 
 the Red, and of Thorfinn Karlsefne; the "Codex 
 Frisianus A. M.," No. 45, and the " Codex A. M.," 
 No. 6 1, include the discovery of Vinland, by Leif 
 Erikson ; two, the " Codex Regius Annalium," and 
 the " Codex A. M.," No. 420, contain the account of 
 Bishop Erik s voyage to Vinland. But, irrespec 
 tive of all these, the reverend author informs me in 
 a private letter that he " collected his material in 
 Rome about twenty years ago," and refers me to 
 the Vatican for authentic data, and the most 
 interesting documents concerning the bishops of 
 Iceland and Greenland. In regard to Christopher 
 Columbus, the writer states, unequivocally, that the 
 fact of Columbus s visit to Iceland in 1477 is 
 proved by the archives of the island, and he affirms 
 that Columbus conferred in the Latin language 
 with the Benedictine Bishop Magnus, the former 
 abbot of the monastery of Helgafell, and that 
 
LEIF ERIKSON. 59 
 
 Bishop Magnus had the records of the discovery in 
 his own monastery. In "Chambers Encyclopaedia," 
 in the paragraph devoted to " Vinland," the state 
 ment is to be found that " Finn Magnusen has con 
 clusively established the fact that Columbus did 
 visit Iceland in 1477, fifteen years before he under 
 took his great expedition across the Atlantic." All 
 the Scandinavian historians corroborate this, and 
 a large number of authors of other nationalities : 
 Von Humboldt, Malte-Brun, Beamish, Laing, Toul- 
 min Smith, Arthur Helps, Bayard Taylor, and many 
 others. A very important admission was made a 
 year ago, by Fr. Bodfish, of Boston, in the paper he 
 read on the " Discovery of America by the North 
 men," before the Bostonian Society, thus quoted by 
 the Boston Journal : " The Catholic evidence from 
 Church history was cited, which said that mis 
 sionaries accompanied Leif on his expeditions. 
 Erik was the first Catholic bishop of America, a 
 fact worthy of historical belief, and he sent word to 
 Rome. Afterward Columbus obtained this know 
 ledge at Rome, and inspired his sailors with 
 accounts of maps of the places in the New World 
 visited by the Northmen." 
 
 In view of the mass of records, of authentic his 
 tory, contained in all the great libraries of Europe, 
 including those of Rome, that fully establish the 
 fact of the prior discovery of America by the Ice 
 landers, and also the fact that Columbus obtained 
 
60 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 full knowledge of this discovery in Iceland, during 
 the visit he made there, for this distinct purpose, in 
 February, 1477, it does not lie at all in my plan 
 to have the honour of the discovery of America 
 shared between Leif Erikson and Columbus, or to 
 have a joint celebration, in any sense of the word. 
 The man who simply followed Leif Erikson and 
 imitated his achievement, 500 years afterwards, is 
 in no wise to be regarded as the equal of the 
 original discoverer, as little as Spain, the country 
 that was his patron, monarchical, benighted, priest- 
 ridden land that it was then, and is still, was the 
 equal of the republican Iceland of the tenth cen 
 tury. A man who wrote in one of his letters that 
 " in the name of the sacred Trinity, there may be 
 sent as many slaves as sale could be found for in 
 Spain," was not the man who, at this late day, is 
 entitled to the homage of the free people of the 
 United States. " In the course of these letters," 
 affirms Sir Arthur Helps, " through which Colum 
 bus speaks after the fashion of a practised slave- 
 dealer, he alludes to the intended adoption, on 
 behalf of private individuals, of a -system of 
 exchange of slaves for goods wanted from the 
 mother country." 
 
 No ; let the homage of the American Republic be 
 given to Iceland, the grand and noble republic of 
 the past, and let this nation acknowledge as the 
 discoverer of the land the free-minded, brave Ice- 
 
LEIF ERIK SON. 61 
 
 lander who sailed hither in his own ship, accom 
 panied by an intelligent, manly crew, for the sole 
 object of discovery and exploration, who traversed 
 the West to a great distance, and who gave to the 
 country the name of the Good Vinland ! 
 
 MARIE A. BROWN 
 (now MARIE A. SHIPLEY). 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 SUPPRESSED HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 SINCE the presentation to Congress of the foregoing plea and 
 petition, I have obtained a mass of corroborative testimony 
 from Roman Catholic sources, proving every point made in 
 my plea, as well as the statement contained in my book 
 " The Icelandic Discoverers of America," that in the Vatican 
 and other monastic libraries of Europe are the records and 
 documents that will fully establish the fact that America was 
 discovered by Leif Erikson in the year 1000, and that Norse 
 colonies existed there for several centuries. 
 
 It is this testimony, contained in the following extracts, 
 that I beg to lay before the public. MARIE A. SHIPLEY. 
 
 Extracts from Centennial Discourse delivered by 
 Rev. Wm. F. Clark, SJ., at St. Joseph s Church, 
 Philadelphia, July 4, 1876. 
 
 As Catholics we have special cause for rejoicing : 
 for the light of our faith was the first to gild with 
 its glory the land that we love ; our missionaries 
 the first to preach here the name of Christ ; our 
 martyrs the first to fertilize with their blood the 
 soil out of which has sprung the thousands of 
 
SUPPRESSED HISTORICAL FACTS. 63 
 
 Christian temples, whose lofty spires we now 
 behold lift heavenward the glittering emblem of 
 salvation, in every State and Territory of the 
 Union. Centuries before the great Christopher 
 Columbus had opened a way through mid-ocean 
 from Europe to America, our priests, by the au 
 thority of the Roman Pontiff yes, and our bishops 
 too had landed on the shores of more than one 
 of the thirteen original States, had preached our 
 faith, offered our sacrifice, administered our sacra 
 ments, and died martyrs to their zeal for our religion. 
 These are facts little known even to the learned 
 until comparatively of late years, when the re 
 searches of American antiquarian societies, both 
 here and in Europe, placed within reach of the 
 student the many precious documents relating to 
 the pre-Columbian period of our history, which 
 had long and carefully been preserved in the royal 
 library in Copenhagen and the papal library of the 
 Vatican at Rome. 
 
 That long before the ninth century Catholicity 
 was transplanted from the shores of Europe, Asia, 
 or Africa to those of America, by bold navigators 
 and hardy adventurers, is highly probable. But 
 interesting as the examination of such a question 
 might prove, we cannot attempt it now, but must 
 be satisfied with the statement that, according to 
 the records that have thus far come to light, the 
 first Christians who visited this country came from 
 
64 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Greenland and Iceland, known to geographers as 
 Danish America. 
 
 Catholic missionaries visited Danish America in 
 827 (Moosmiiller, a Benedictine monk. In his work 
 he has a list of sixty-eight authors who have treated 
 of the pre-Columbian history of America), more than 
 a thousand years ago. In 834, Pope Gregory IV. 
 placed Iceland and Greenland under the jurisdic 
 tion of Ansgar, Archbishop of Hamburg, whom 
 he appointed his apostolic legate for the north 
 (Papal Bull, Diploma of the Emperor Louis le 
 Debonnaire). Iceland and Greenland being entirely 
 Catholic as early as 1004, the interest of religion 
 in those countries required the erection of epis 
 copal sees, and in the year 1055 Adalbert, Arch 
 bishop of Bremen-Hamburg these two cities then 
 formed one archiepiscopal see consecrated Jon 
 Bishop of Skalholt, in Iceland, and Albert Bishop 
 of Gardar, in Greenland (Adam of Bremen, " Historia 
 Ecclesiastica "). Bishop Jon, who was a Scot, after 
 a four years residence in Iceland, came to this 
 country in the year 1059, to convert the natives 
 and administer to the spiritual wants of the Catholic 
 Scandinavian population colonists from Denmark, 
 Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and Greenland who 
 from time to time had formed settlements in what 
 they called Vinland, a tract of country described 
 in old maps as extending over the entire eastern 
 portion of Massachusetts and part of Rhode 
 
SUPPRESSED HISTORICAL FACTS. 65 
 
 Island, commencing at Cape Ann and terminating 
 with Narragansett Bay. More, then, than eight 
 hundred years ago, and consequently nearly six 
 hundred years before the Puritan Pilgrims set foot 
 on Plymouth Rock, the Catholic Church had a 
 bishop there yes, and martyr too (Mallet, " Intro 
 duction a 1 Histoire du Dannemarc," t. i., p. 254; 
 " Island s Landnarnabok," p. 396 ; Th. Torfeus, 
 "Historia Vinlandiae Antiq.,"p. 71; Gravier, p. 166) 
 for the saintly prelate fell a victim to zeal and 
 charity beneath the deadly arrows of those for 
 whom he was endeavouring to open the gates of 
 heaven. 
 
 More than fifty years before his time, in the 
 year 1003, one of the headlands of Massachusetts, 
 near the present city of Boston, was called the 
 Promontory of the Cross, from the grave of Thor- 
 wald, a Catholic explorer, whose dying request, 
 when he was mortally wounded by the Esquimaux, 
 was that his companions should bury him there 
 and place a cross at his head and another at his 
 feet (Rafn, "Antiquitates Americanae," pp. 40, etc., 
 426, etc. ; Snorre Sturleson, c. 108, p. 312 ; Th. 
 Torfaeus, "Hist. Vinl. Antiq.,"p. 10; Gravier, p. 63; 
 Gravier, p. 106; Beauvois, p. 31 ; Torfaeus, p. 28). 
 The first birth from Catholic parents, and there 
 fore the first baptism in America, was that of 
 Snorre, who was bom in 1009, of Thorfinn and 
 Gudrida, on the western shore of Mount Hope 
 
 5 
 
66 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Bay, in Bristol County, Rhode Island. His family 
 returned to Iceland, and thence, after the death 
 of her husband and the marriage of her son, 
 Gudrida went on a pilgrimage to Rome, and glad 
 dened the heart of the Holy Father with news 
 from his children in the New World. Thus you 
 perceive that the first Catholic mother of America 
 was the first pilgrim from the western shore to the 
 shrine of St. Peter and the Court of the Vatican 
 and this more than eight hundred years ago ! 
 A historian, who records the fact, writes : " Rome 
 lent a ready ear to accounts of geographical dis 
 coveries, and collected facts and narratives. Every 
 discovery seemed an extension of papal dominion, 
 and a new field for the preaching of the Gospel." 
 I might disappoint your laudable curiosity were I 
 not to add that this pious woman returned to Ice 
 land and ended her days as a nun in a Benedictine 
 convent built by her son, and that son had among 
 his grandchildren three who were bishops of Ice 
 land. 
 
 The martyr Jon was not the only bishop who 
 visited what is now Rhode Island. In the year 
 1 12 1, Erik, Bishop of Gardar, Greenland, went to 
 Vinland, and, like Bishop Jon, ended his life in 
 this country (Rembegla, p. 320 ; Rafn, "Ant. Am.," 
 p. 261 ; " Dec. de 1 Am.," p. 50; Beauvois, p. 66; 
 Th. Torfaeus, " Vin. An.," p. 71). What, more than 
 two centuries ago, people called the old stone mill 
 
SUPPRESSED HISTORICAL FACTS. 67 
 
 at Newport, admitted by all to be a work of Norse- / , 
 men, antiquaries say was erected about the time 
 of Bishop Erik, and was a baptistery, built after / 
 the style of many of the baptisteries of the Middle 
 Ages. (Similar baptisteries have been discovered in 
 Greenland at Igalikko, Kakortok, and Iglorsoit.) 
 As the Catholic colonies were for centuries depen 
 dent on the bishops of Greenland and Iceland, it 
 may be well to remark that these bishops were, by 
 order of Pope Gregory IV., in 834, suffragans of 
 the Archbishop of Hamburg; that in 1099 they 
 became suffragans of the Archbishop of Lund, by 
 order of Pope Urban II. ; and finally in 1154 they 
 became suffragans of the Archbishop of Drontheim 
 in Norway, by order of Pope Anastasius IV. ; and 
 history testifies that from time to time they crossed 
 the ocean to attend the provincial councils held in 
 those metropolitan cities (Moosmiiller). In 1276 
 the crusades were preached in America (Paul 
 Riant, "Exped. et peler. Scandin.," p. 364), and 
 Peter-pence were collected here and sent to Rome 
 by order of Pope John XXL, and subsequently 
 by order of his successors, Nicholas III. and 
 Martin V. (Riant, p. 365 ; Th. Torfaeus, " Hist. 
 Gronl.," p. 25 ; Kohl, p. 94; Malte-Brun, liv. 18, 
 t. i., p. 289). Catholicity, in a word, was in a 
 flourishing condition in Iceland and Greenland, 
 and we may infer in Vinland, till the middle of 
 the sixteenth century, when the northern nations, 
 
68 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 having to a great degree apostatized from the 
 faith, King Christian of Denmark, in 1540, sent 
 preachers to Danish America to substitute Lu- 
 theranism for the old faith, a substitution which 
 was inaugurated by dragging off one of the bishops 
 of Iceland, Augmond of Skalholt, to a prison in 
 Denmark, and beheading the other, Jon Arleson 
 of Holum, in 1551 ; the people meanwhile pro 
 testing against the change of religion with the 
 declaration that it belonged not to the King of 
 Denmark, but to the Roman Pontiff, to teach them 
 what they should believe. 
 
 This adhesion to the teaching of the Roman 
 see characterized the Greenlanders also, as Pope 
 Nicholas V. testifies in a letter written in 1448, in 
 which he states that they had then been Catholics 
 for nearly six hundred years. The last Bishop 
 of Gardar was Vincent, who was consecrated in 
 1537 forty-five years, as you perceive, after the 
 discovery of America by Columbus, and nearly 
 five hundred years after the erection of the see. 
 We may reasonably conclude that for several 
 years the Divine sacrifice of the Mass, with its in 
 separable thanksgiving, was simultaneously offered 
 in Vinland by the descendants of the Norsemen, 
 and on the shores of Florida and in the islands 
 off the southern coast by the missionaries who 
 followed in the track of Columbus. Finally, 
 deprived of their pastors, the scattered flock 
 
SUPPRESSED HISTORICAL FACTS. 69 
 
 gradually lost their faith, and now nothing remains 
 to tell of the Christianity of Vinland but the 
 ancient documents from which I have quoted, 
 and the remains of the stone baptistery at New 
 port, Rhode Island, which some of you, no doubt, 
 have seen. 
 
 If I have dwelt long upon the Catholic history 
 of the Norsemen in what are now the New Eng 
 land States, it was because I supposed the subject 
 would be equally novel and interesting. Nor can 
 I leave it without stating that the form of govern 
 ment in Iceland, Greenland and Vinland was 
 republican (Gravier, pp. 27, 37) from the founda 
 tion of the respective colonies till the year 1261, 
 when they became dependencies of the crown of 
 Norway. There was, therefore, a little Catholic 
 republic on this continent seven hundred, perhaps 
 eight hundred, years ago. 
 
 The American Catholic Quarterly Review, April, 
 1888. America Discovered and Christianized by 
 the Northmen, by Richard H. Clarke. 
 
 The Northmen, wandering fragments of Asiatic 
 tribes, after traversing Europe, found a home and 
 founded a nation in Norway, only when the sea 
 arrested their progress. Here they achieved a per 
 manent conquest and founded the mother country, 
 from whose sea-indented shores proceeded so many 
 expeditions pregnant with the fate of nations. . . . 
 
70 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 In 860, Naddod, a Norwegian pirate, on his voyage 
 to the Feroes, was carried far out of his course by 
 a tempest, and this accident led to his discovery 
 of Iceland, the " Ultima Thule " of the ancients. 
 This ice-clad island became a colony of the mother 
 country. About the year 900 Rollo made the con 
 quest of Normandy. In 1060 we find a Norman 
 prince established in Apulia. In 1066 William 
 the Conqueror becomes the master and King of 
 England, and founds the present dynasty of Great 
 Britain. It will thus be seen that the Northmen 
 were at the height of their power and activity 
 when they discovered and colonized portions of 
 the western continent in the tenth century. . . . 
 The learned geographers and skilful critics, who 
 have reviewed all these circumstances, have decided 
 that the first land discovered was Nantucket, one 
 degree south of Boston, the second Nova Scotia, 
 the third Newfoundland. . . . The observations 
 made of the country and climate accord with 
 wonderful accuracy in locating Vinland the Good, 
 of the Northmen, in the region near Newport, 
 Rhode Island. . . . This expedition of Leif Erik- 
 son was regarded as the most fortunate of all, for 
 he had discovered Vinland the Good, had rescued 
 five of his countrymen from death at sea, and had 
 introduced Christianity into Greenland. The eccle 
 siastics who accompanied the expedition were the 
 first Christian priests in that early age that visited 
 
SUPPRESSED HISTORICAL FACTS. 71 
 
 America. They afterwards became the founders 
 of the Church of Greenland, which flourished for 
 several centuries. The remains of the temples 
 are now visited by adventurous tourists, and are 
 familiar to the Moravian missionaries of Green 
 land. Leif Erikson was thus the first discoverer 
 of our country. ... It would certainly be an 
 interesting field of inquiry to investigate the ques 
 tion of whether Columbus had any knowledge of 
 the Norse discoveries in the western hemisphere, 
 and to what extent. There are a number of cir 
 cumstances strongly tending to show that Columbus 
 knew something of these events. His long and 
 thorough study of the subject in all its aspects 
 must have guided his mind to this information. 
 The absolute certainty he professed to have that 
 he could discover land in the West could not 
 have rested upon theory alone ; it must have been 
 based upon information of facts also. He himself 
 says that he based his certainty upon the authority 
 of learned writers. . . . The visit of Columbus to 
 Iceland, in February, 1477, brought him in more 
 immediate contact with the traditions and written 
 accounts in relation to the Norse discoveries in the 
 western continent. He is believed to have con 
 versed with the bishop and other learned men of 
 Iceland, and as his visit there was fifteen years 
 before he discovered America, and only one 
 hundred and thirty years after the last Norse 
 
72 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 expedition to the lands in the western ocean, he 
 must have met Icelanders whose grandfathers lived 
 in the time of that expedition, and perhaps were 
 members of it. 
 
 It is unlikely that Columbus could have been 
 so active in his researches for geographical and 
 nautical information as all his biographers repre 
 sent, and yet have been in the midst of so much 
 information on these subjects without coming in 
 contact with it. ... Rome was then, as she has 
 been ever since, alive to geographical discoveries, 
 as affording the channel for conveying the faith 
 to heathen peoples. Rome was represented in 
 the western hemisphere by a succession of seven 
 teen bishops, and one of them, Bishop Eric Upsi, 
 became the apostle of Vinland in the twelfth 
 century, a fact which indicates a permanent settle 
 ment of Northmen in Rhode Island. ... It is 
 believed that the traditions of these expeditions 
 of the Northmen to distant lands beyond the 
 ocean reached the eager ears of Columbus ; that 
 he not only saw and read accounts of them at 
 Rome, but, on the occasion of his voyage to 
 Iceland in the spring of 1477, heard the legends 
 of Vinland from Norse tongues, and learned them 
 more minutely from the monastic manuscripts pre 
 served in the ancient convents. Columbus never 
 divulged to the public the extent of his knowledge 
 of facts pointing to lands in the western ocean. 
 
SUPPRESSED HISTORICAL FACTS. 73 
 
 At Rome, also, Columbus must have heard of the 
 Norse expeditions to Greenland and Vinland. . . . 
 It is also argued that, as Pope Paschal II., in the 
 year 1121, appointed Eric Upsi Bishop of Garda in 
 Greenland, and the bishop visited Vinland as part 
 of his spiritual domain, Columbus, in search of 
 such knowledge, must have found it where it was 
 most accessible. There is also some ground for 
 believing, though the fact is not established, that 
 a map of Vinland was preserved in the Vatican, 
 and that a copy of it was furnished to the Pinzons. 
 Facts such as these must have formed a consider 
 able part of the knowledge acquired by Columbus 
 in his many years of study. . . . Leo XIII. has 
 now opened to historical students the treasures of 
 the Vatican ; may we not now hope to solve this 
 interesting question ? May we not hope to recover 
 the history of the Church of Greenland and Vin 
 land, and of the seventeen bishops, and of the 
 numerous missionaries who first carried the cross 
 to the West ? 
 
 The American Catholic Quarterly Review, July, 
 1889. The Conversion of the Northmen, by 
 Richard H. Clarke. 
 
 In the American Catholic Quarterly Review for 
 April, 1888, we gave an account of the discoveries 
 and colonies of the Northmen in the western 
 
74 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 hemisphere, commencing with the close of the 
 tenth century ; and we hinted at the influence these 
 events had exerted upon the subsequent discovery 
 of America by Columbus. As a fitting sequel we 
 now propose to give the early religious and ecclesi 
 astical history of these Northmen, and, in the near 
 future, of the Norse Church on our continent 
 during the same period. Our data are chiefly 
 derived from the ancient Icelandic literature ; but 
 as much of the account is deduced from papal 
 bulls, briefs, letters, and other Roman sources, 
 may we not express the hope that this interesting 
 subject, treated herein now for the first time as 
 a separate and distinct study, may lead to a more 
 thorough and complete elucidation of so attractive 
 and important a branch of ecclesiastical history ? 
 We feel the more encouraged to express this hope 
 here, since that illustrious Pope, scholar, and 
 author, who so gloriously and so ably fills the papal 
 chair, Leo XIII., has opened the treasures of the 
 Vatican to the researches of the students, his 
 torians, scholars, and antiquaries of the world. 
 There were two spots on the earth that held inter 
 course for five centuries with the distant and 
 struggling colonies and Church of Greenland and 
 Vinland. One of these was the frozen island, 
 whose intrepid sons, the Vikings of Iceland, 
 reached our shores in the tenth century, and 
 planted there a commonwealth and a Christian 
 
SUPPRESSED HISTORICAL FACTS. 75 
 
 Church : the other was Rome, mother of nations 
 and of churches, whose pontiffs provided that 
 most distant and forlorn portion of the Universal 
 Church with a succession of seventeen bishops, 
 and when overwhelmed with disaster struggled to 
 revive the Church and episcopate of Greenland. 
 It is to the former that we are indebted for that 
 rich and beautiful Icelandic literature which first 
 gave the modern world the earliest and authentic 
 accounts of the voyages, the discoveries, the 
 colonies, and the heroic deeds of the Northmen 
 in America. Thus, from the traditional histories 
 and epics of the saga-men and scalds of Iceland, 
 subsequently reduced to writing by the monks of the 
 frozen island, the " Ultima Thule " of the ancients, 
 collected together, carefully compiled, and hand 
 somely published by the Royal Society of Northern 
 Antiquaries, by the labours of the European societies 
 of Americanists, and other learned bodies, aided 
 by the Governments of Norway, Sweden, and 
 Denmark, we have received accessions to the 
 history of our race of the rarest, most instructive, 
 reliable, and authentic character. So, too, we 
 must also turn to the Roman archives, to the 
 treasures of the Vatican, now so generously made 
 accessible to the world by Pope Leo XIII., for 
 the details of the ecclesiastical history of the 
 Northmen in America, so far as the same may be 
 contained in papal bulls, briefs, and letters, and 
 
76 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 in the reports and relations of the bishops and 
 missionaries who took part in the conversion of 
 the barbarians of the north of Europe, and in 
 forming their missions, churches, and episcopal 
 sees. There is one subject more especially, now 
 most imperfectly explored, and involved in doubt 
 and confusion, which is, the episcopate of the 
 western hemisphere, involving the exact names 
 of the seventeen or eighteen bishops, the dates of 
 their appointments, the exact order of succession, 
 their history and services to the cause of Chris 
 tianity, what reports they made to Rome, when 
 and where and by whom consecrated, their deaths 
 and burials, and the churches which they founded. 
 Of Bishop Eric, the first bishop, the one who 
 is said to have come to America and preached 
 the Gospel, and sealed his preaching with his 
 blood among the aborigines of our country, the 
 least is known. Of the others, we can approximate 
 to the order of succession and other particulars ; 
 but we possess no detailed or complete history in 
 respect to most of them. It is not improbable 
 that Eric, the first, may not have been the only 
 Greenland bishop to visit our country, and 
 announce the glad tidings to the Scr&lings of 
 his day. The Roman archives would certainly 
 go far to clear up our doubts, and to supply the 
 deficiencies in our earliest ecclesiastical history. 
 
SUPPRESSED HISTORICAL FACTS. 77 
 
 Father BodfisWs Paper, read before the Bostonian 
 Society, on the Discovery of America by the North 
 men. From the report in the Boston Journal, 
 February 9, 1887. 
 
 The Catholic evidence from Church history was 
 cited, which said that missionaries accompanied 
 Leif on his expedition. Erik was the first Catholic 
 bishop of America, a fact worthy of historical 
 belief, and he sent word to Rome. Afterward 
 Columbus obtained this knowledge at Rome, and 
 inspired his sailors with accounts of maps of the 
 places in the New World visited by the Northmen. 
 
 From the report of the same in the Daily Advertiser, 
 Boston, February 9, 1887. 
 
 The essayist quoted, as corroborative authority, 
 the account given in standard history of the 
 Catholic Church, of the establishment of a 
 bishopric in Greenland in 1121 A.D., and he 
 added the interesting suggestion that, as it is the 
 duty of a bishop so placed at a distance to report 
 from time to time to the Pope, not only on 
 ecclesiastical matters, but of the geography of the 
 country and character of the people, it is probable 
 that Columbus had the benefit of the knowledge 
 possessed at Rome thus derived. It is, he said, 
 stated in different biographies of Columbus that, 
 when the voyage was first proposed by him, he 
 
78 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 found difficulty in getting Spanish sailors to agree 
 to go with him in so doubtful an undertaking. 
 After Columbus returned from a visit to Rome, 
 with information there obtained, these sailors, or 
 enough of them, appear to have had their doubts 
 or fears removed, and no difficulty in enlistment 
 was experienced. 
 
 History of the Catholic Missions among the Indian 
 Tribes of the United States, by John Gilmary 
 Shea. 
 
 The discovery of America, like every other 
 event in the history of the world, had, in the 
 designs of God, the great object of the salvation 
 of mankind. Iceland was first discovered by 
 Christian missionaries from Ireland, and though 
 the pagan Northmen soon colonized the island and 
 the shores of Greenland, it was only at the moment 
 when they were about to renounce Woden for 
 Christ. Greenland was scarcely planted when 
 missionaries arrived to win the Scandinavian to 
 the faith. From the time of their conversion 
 these colonies became centres of Christianity, and 
 hardy missionaries ventured down to the coast of 
 our republic to convert the pagan colonists and 
 the surrounding natives. Soon after the settle 
 ment of Greenland by Eric the Red, his son Leif 
 visited Norway, and was induced by St. Olaus, 
 
SUPPRESSED HISTORICAL FACTS. 79 
 
 then king of that country, to embrace the true 
 faith. Returning to Greenland in 1000, Leif bore 
 with him priests to convert the colonists, and in a 
 short time most of the Northmen in America em 
 braced Christianity. Churches and convents arose 
 in different parts, rivalling those of Iceland in piety 
 and learning. Thorwald, Thorstein, and subse 
 quently Thorfinn, of Irish origin, visited this 
 place, and a settlement was gradually formed. 
 As yet all were not Christians ; some still adored 
 Thor and Woden, and missionaries left Greenland 
 to establish religion in Vinland. Of these mission 
 aries the most celebrated was Erik, who arrived 
 in Greenland, and, after labouring a few years, 
 proceeded to Vinland. Spending some years here, 
 he returned to Iceland in 1120, and sailed to 
 Europe to induce the establishment of a bishopric, 
 and a proper organization of the Church. Deem 
 ing Erik the most suitable person, the Scandinavian 
 bishops selected him to found the first American 
 see, and the missionary was consecrated at Lund, 
 in Denmark, by Archbishop Adzar, in 1121. . . . 
 After his consecration Erik returned to America, 
 but, still attached to his mission, led a body of 
 clergy and colonists to Vinland. Here he found 
 so ample a field for his labour that he resigned his 
 bishopric, and never returned to Greenland. As 
 to the position of Vinland there can be little doubt. 
 A careful study of the narratives of the early 
 
8o THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 voyagers narratives stamped with the imprint of 
 truth leaves no doubt that they turned Cape 
 Cod, and entered the waters of Narragansett Bay. 
 
 Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church 
 in the United States, by Richard H. Clarke, A.M. 
 
 The Church of America is said even now to be 
 in its infancy. So much is to be done. So vast is 
 the field. So rapid her present growth. Yet she 
 possesses an antiquity of her own, traces her 
 history back eight hundred years, and links her 
 origin and traditions with the Ages of Faith. In 
 the tenth century Christianity was planted on our 
 continent by Northmen, and in the twelfth a 
 devoted Catholic bishop and zealous missionaries 
 blessed the soil of our own country by their 
 ministry and by their lives. Preface. 
 
 Erik, Bishop of Gar da, First American Bishop, 
 A.D. 1 121. From the same work. 
 
 Our soil was blessed by Christianity, by its 
 missions, prayers, and sacrifices, as early as the 
 tenth century a flash of light and glory most 
 effulgent, but transient a ray of hope for a future 
 Christendom. . . . Leif returned to Greenland in 
 the year 1000, accompanied by Catholic mission 
 aries, who must have been imbued with the true 
 apostolic spirit, for it was not long before most 
 
SUPPRESSED HISTORICAL FACTS. 81 
 
 of the Northmen in America were Christians. 
 The churches and convents in Greenland began 
 to compare in piety and learning with those of 
 the mother country. . . . Thus created Bishop of 
 Garda, in Greenland, the whole of the Norse 
 colonies in America were within his jurisdiction, 
 including the Vinland of our own country. Ever 
 intent on the spread of religion and the organiza 
 tion of the Church of Vinland, as well as the 
 conversion of the savages of the South, he lost no 
 time in visiting the new colony on the shores of 
 Narragansett Bay, accompanied by a band of 
 zealous missionaries, who had volunteered for that 
 service, and by a colony of settlers. 
 
 History of the Roman Catholic Church in the 
 United States, by Henry de Courcy and John 
 Gilmary Shea. 
 
 The missionary spirit is inherent in the Catholic 
 Church, and it dates from the moment when our 
 Lord said to His Apostles, "Go and teach all 
 nations." Before St. Paul had left Asia Minor, 
 missionaries had already penetrated to Italy and 
 Spain, and from their day to our own, each suc 
 ceeding age has produced her heroes, devoting 
 their lives to the greatest of human enterprises 
 the conversion of souls. When the still pagan 
 Northmen discovered Iceland, in the eighth 
 century of our present era, they found on the 
 
 6 
 
82 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 shore crosses, bells, and sacred vessels of Irish 
 workmanship. The island had therefore been 
 visited by Catholic missionaries, and the Irish 
 clergy may with justice lay claim to the discovery 
 of the New World. 
 
 The Northmen, after founding a colony in Ice 
 land, pushed their discovery westward, and soon 
 discovered a part of the western continent, to 
 which, from the agreeable verdure with which it 
 was covered, they gave the name of Greenland. 
 When these hardy explorers returned to Norway, 
 they found the idols of Scandinavia hurled to the 
 dust. The king had embraced the true faith, and 
 the whole people had renounced paganism. A 
 missionary set sail in the first vessel that steered 
 towards the new-found land, and erelong the little 
 colony was Catholic. Iceland and Greenland soon 
 had their churches, their convents, their bishops, 
 their colleges, their libraries, their apostolic men. 
 The explorers Beorn and Leif having coasted 
 southerly along the Atlantic shore, towards the 
 bays where the countless spires of Boston and 
 New York now tower, missionaries immediately 
 offered to go and preach the Gospel to the savage 
 nations of the South ; and it is certain that in 1120 
 Bishop Eric visited in person Vinland, or the land 
 of vines. The colonies of the Northmen on the 
 west coast of Greenland continued to flourish until 
 1406, when the seventeenth and last bishop of 
 
SUPPRESSED HISTORICAL FACTS. 83 
 
 Garda was sent from Norway ; those on the eastern 
 coast subsisted till 1540, when they were destroyed 
 by a physical revolution which accumulated the ice 
 in that zone from the 6oth degree of latitude. 
 Thus a focus of Christianity not only existed in 
 Greenland, but from it rays of faith momentarily 
 illumined part of the territory now embraced in 
 the United States, to leave it sunk in darkness for 
 some centuries more. 
 
 The Dublin Review, November, 1841. 
 
 But there were other races or tribes of the 
 Gomerites, Cimbrians, or Atlantians still more 
 successful, in subsequent periods, in their dis 
 coveries of the Atlantic islands and America. We 
 allude to the Northmen, as they were called, scat 
 tered along the north-western coast of Europe. 
 These hardy, resolute, and unflinching adventurers, 
 who relied on the traditions of their ancestors 
 respecting the Atlantic territories, boldly put to 
 sea in quest of the terra incognita. Several of 
 their most heroic chiefs would seem to have made 
 these desperate voyages of discovery, and indu 
 bitable records exist of their successful result. 
 Ortelius stated these facts in the year 1570, and 
 early in the seventeenth century Myl and Hugo 
 Grotius illustrated this theory. After showing that 
 successive races had found their way to America 
 from several countries of the Old World, they 
 
 62 
 
84 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 proceeded to prove that the Northmen were entitled 
 to especial credit for their Atlantic discoveries. 
 The opinion of Grotius (as his biographer Burigni 
 remarks) is that North America was peopled by 
 persons from Norway, from whence they passed 
 into Iceland, afterwards into Greenland, from 
 thence to Friesland, then to Estoteland, a part of 
 the American continent to which the fishers of 
 Friesland had penetrated two centuries before the 
 Spaniards had discovered the New World. He 
 pretends that the names of those countries end 
 with the same syllables as those of the Norwegians; 
 that the Mexicans and their neighbours assured 
 the Spaniards that they came from the North ; that 
 there are many words in the American languages 
 which have a relation to the German and Nor 
 wegian, and that the Americans still preserve the 
 customs of the country from which they originally 
 sprang. . . . This theory respecting the American 
 discoveries of the Northmen, or Norsemen, was 
 confirmed and verified by many subsequent 
 writers, and was pretty well established during 
 the eighteenth century. . . . We hope we have 
 now made our point namely, the high probability 
 of those successive discoveries of America reported 
 in the pages of history. We have not attempted 
 to evince this point by any original arguments, 
 which might appear as dreams of imagination, but 
 by the concentration, accumulation, and orderly 
 
SUPPRESSED HISTORICAL FACTS. 85 
 
 arrangement of the whole existing evidence bearing 
 on the topic. The strength of the reasoning is 
 essentially cumulative : it results from the incor 
 poration of the disjecta membra veritatis. Many 
 ancient testimonies which, taken separately, might 
 want weight and impressiveness, thus joined to 
 gether in a consistent mass become almost in 
 vincible. The whole result of probability redounds 
 to the confirmation of each particular count of the 
 plea, and moral conviction is enhanced by a law of 
 increments similar to that of geometrical pro 
 gressions. . . . Now the main part of this evidence, 
 so consistent, yet so diversified, was extant in the 
 age of Columbus, a most keen and scrutinizing 
 inquirer into geographical questions. Indeed, we 
 have reason to believe that some evidences of 
 American discoveries existed in that day among 
 his fellow-countrymen, which are now lost. What 
 would be the natural result on such a mind but a 
 fixed conviction, not merely derived a priori from 
 the physical principles of our planet, but likewise 
 a posteriori from the consent of historical evi 
 dences, of the existence of America ? 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF 1492. 
 
 FOR some considerable time past, a great deal of 
 interest has been excited by the deliberations, in 
 various responsible quarters, as to what should 
 be done to celebrate the approaching 4ooth anni 
 versary of the voyage of Columbus, in 1492. Spain, 
 anxious for a chance of once more holding up her 
 head proudly among the nations, proposes to take 
 the initiative in celebrating an event which carries 
 her memory back to the time when she ruled also 
 Germany and the Netherlands, and was the greatest 
 Power in Europe, save only her spiritual superior, 
 the Pope. 
 
 But what have the other countries of Europe 
 to say in the matter ? This chapter will attempt 
 to present the events which led to and followed 
 the voyage ot 1492, in all their vast significance 
 and weighty import, as seen by English eyes, as 
 they trace with respect and pride the growth of 
 
THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF 1492. 87 
 
 free institutions such as can alone make mighty 
 nations ; remembering also that the American 
 nation has recently celebrated the Centenary of 
 its Constitution, of which it is the highest possible 
 praise to say that it has been able to celebrate a 
 century of unshaken existence, and that it never 
 had a greater prospect of celebrating, in after ages, 
 a long series of such festivals than it has to-day. 
 
 It is a happy coincidence that such a festival 
 should precede the fourth centenary of the voyage 
 of 1492. This voyage is often quoted as marking 
 an epoch in the world s history ; and is usually 
 spoken of as the Discovery of America. Whether 
 this latter term is correct or not, we leave to the 
 judgment of readers after hearing both sides of the 
 question. 
 
 We should consider it as prima facie a rather 
 suspicious circumstance, if a man should visit the 
 only two places where exact information as to the 
 whereabouts of a certain thing could be obtained 
 the more important of these visits being kept 
 a profound secret and should after that go straight 
 on the road to find that very thing, and thereby 
 obtain for himself all the glory of a new discovery, 
 to the exclusion of the rights of daring men who, 
 500 years before, had acquired the knowledge he 
 strove to obtain the reputation of having been the 
 first to give to the world ; while at the same time 
 this man tells all manner of untruths as to the 
 
88 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 considerations and reasonings that led him to go 
 straight to find what he sought. 
 
 Yet these, in plain language", are the charges 
 we bring against Columbus. He was instructed 
 in Rome how to go about the work that was 
 required of him. He was sent to Iceland for 
 further detailed information in 1477. He made 
 up a lame tale as to his objects in going to find 
 a western world ; and he justified the most 
 wanton acts of cruelty by the plea of necessity 
 or of profit, and by the consoling platitudes of 
 religion. 
 
 The visit to Iceland was most carefully con 
 cealed, and we hear nothing of it, except in 
 directly in letters which his son has quoted in his 
 biography. In these letters, he casually mentions 
 (as quoted in Washington Irving s " Life of Colum 
 bus ") as follows : " In the year 1477, in February, I 
 navigated 100 leagues beyond Thule, the southern 
 part of which is 73 degrees distant from the 
 equator, and not 63, 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 26 fathoms." 
 
 The importance and bearing of some of these 
 
THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF 1492. 89 
 
 statements will be seen later. But here we have 
 full proof that Columbus visited Iceland. 
 
 According to the story usually told, and which 
 entirely ignores the visit to Iceland, we are given 
 to understand that Columbus had made up his 
 mind that since the earth was round (or globular) 
 in form, and certain places (the East Indies) could 
 be reached by a long and intricate voyage to the 
 East, the same places could therefore be reached 
 by a corresponding voyage to the West and which 
 he would imagine to be longer or shorter, accord 
 ing as he had formed a greater or less estimate of 
 the size of the terrestrial globe. 
 
 This is a definite argument, and a perfectly 
 reasonable one, as it stands. Our present astro 
 nomical and geographical knowledge allows us 
 to accept it without question, and without neces 
 sarily impeaching the motives with which it was 
 put forth. In approaching these subjects we are 
 apt to make too great allowance for the inexact 
 state of science in those days, and to charitably 
 imagine that Columbus regarded the world as 
 being about half the circumference it really is ; 
 which assumption would, if correct, allow only 
 one quarter the land and sea area our globe is 
 now known to possess. 
 
 For the working hypothesis promulgated by 
 Columbus to the world was that by a certain 
 number of days sailing to the West he would 
 
90 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 come again to the lands already known to exist 
 in the far East ; while in his contracts with his 
 sailors, he proposed to sail only such a distance 
 as we now know would bring him to a point as 
 nearly as possible half-way round the globe from 
 where he professed to be expecting to arrive. 
 
 Was Columbus really so ignorant as all this? 
 Or was it a false plan set forth to hide his real 
 knowledge, secretly and clandestinely obtained? 
 And was his real ultimate destination not the East 
 Indies, but the shores to the South of that " Good 
 Vinland," which has been described in books he 
 would have certain access to when in Iceland and 
 in Rome ? 
 
 To answer these questions, it is necessary to 
 consider how far the present popular notion of 
 Columbus s " learned ignorance " is a correct one. 
 That Columbus did not shrink from propounding 
 false arguments when they served his turn, we shall 
 have occasion presently to show. But as a matter 
 of fact, Columbus had two theories before him, 
 from which to take his choice, as to the shape of 
 the earth and the possibility of extended naviga 
 tion. He might, in the first place, adopt the ortho 
 dox monkish notion the product of a thousand 
 years of blindly following imaginary " authorities " 
 on religion, and all other subjects whatever ; whose 
 word was law, and to doubt whom was to be cursed 
 with all the anathemas so humorously set forth in 
 
THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF 1492. 91 
 
 the "Ingoldsby Legend" of the "Jackdaw of 
 Rheims," and lately launched afresh on the devoted 
 head of Dr. McGlynn. 
 
 This monkish notion was that the earth must 
 needs be flat, because there was not a word in the 
 Scriptures to show that it was round ! 
 
 To such an extent was this notion carried, that a 
 map of the world drawn about 1320, by a monk of 
 Hereford, England, and preserved in the cathedral 
 of that place, actually represents a flat, circular 
 earth, with Jerusalem in the centre, Eden at the 
 top (the east), the Pillars of Hercules at the west, 
 and the rest of the map diversified by fancy sketches 
 of monkeys, bears, mermaids, hippogryphs, cen 
 taurs, and other more or less mythical monsters. 
 So strongly rooted was this view of cosmography, 
 that even in the life-time of Columbus an ardent 
 Spanish religionist spoke of the globular-earth 
 theories as "dangerous doctrines." 
 
 To escape from these trammels of conventional 
 ideas, Columbus must have gone back to the days 
 of the old Greek philosophers, when the Alexandrian- 
 Greek culture was at its height, and engaged in ap 
 plying the logical and mathematical principles 
 arranged and codified by Euclid and others, to all 
 problems upon which mathematical science in its 
 then state could be brought to bear; and in re 
 ducing to exact mathematical formulae the practical 
 mechanical conclusions of Archimedes in an earlier 
 
92 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 age. Here he would find records of measurements 
 of meridians from Syene to Alexandria, and in other 
 places, from which were deduced earth measure 
 ments slightly in excess, rather than otherwise, of 
 those we accept to-day.* 
 
 With these approximate measurements before 
 him, based on strictly correct scientific principles, 
 Columbus never can have believed that the number 
 of leagues sailing he stipulated for when arguing 
 with his mutinous crews, whom he had all along 
 deceived by false entries in his logbook, could have 
 brought him to the East Indies, seeing that at that 
 most critical juncture of his voyage he had the 
 whole world between himself and the Indies he 
 pretended to be in search of! 
 
 But he fortifies his assumption by the mistaken 
 notion of early mariners, as expressed in the cele 
 brated letter of Toscanelli, that the countries 
 
 * Eratosthenes held the known world to span one-third of 
 the circumference of the globe, as Strabo did at a latter 
 day, leaving an unknown two-thirds of sea ; and "if it were 
 not that the vast extent of the Atlantic sea rendered it im 
 possible, one might even sail from the coast of Spain to that 
 of India along 4he same parallel." 
 
 The spherical state of the earth was so generally accepted 
 by the learned after the times of Aristotle and Euclid, that 
 when Eratosthenes in the third century B.C. went to some 
 length to prove it, Strabo, who criticised him two centuries 
 later, thought he had needlessly exerted himself to make 
 plain what nobody disputed. Eratosthenes was so nearly 
 accurate in his supposed size of the globe that his excess over 
 the actual size was less than one-seventh of its great circle. 
 (From Justin Winsor s " Narrative and Critical History of 
 America.") 
 
THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF 1492. 93 
 
 already known comprised not less than two-thirds 
 of the circumference of the earth, and that conse 
 quently the voyage from Cape Verde to the Indies, 
 westward, could not be more than half the length 
 of the voyage eastward to the same places. Yet, 
 knowing that observations of latitude are the most 
 correct and obvious means of ascertaining the 
 earth s diameter, he was not above inventing facts 
 .that might lend colour to his false assumption, for 
 personal and interested purposes, of the smaller 
 size of the earth. Travel at that time was not so 
 restricted, but that long meridians could be pretty 
 accurately measured ; and in his letter to his son 
 about his journey to Iceland he actually places 
 that country ten degrees farther north than had 
 already been correctly stated by more trustworthy 
 authorities. 
 
 That is to say, he represents that in passing over 
 a certain number of miles he had traversed a greater 
 arc that is, a larger proportion of the earth s cir 
 cumference than was really the case ; thus giving 
 a notion of the earth s size more in accordance 
 with the theories he promulgated. 
 
 Unfortunately for the pretensions of this man to 
 be regarded as a shining light of either science, 
 religion, or even of ordinary morality, it may be 
 noted that it is quite impossible for any sailor used 
 to astronomical observations to make so flagrant an 
 error in even a single unaided eye-estimate of the 
 
94 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 height of the polar star, or of the sun at noon. 
 The rudest scale would give him his latitude to 
 about one degree, and hence a whole ten degrees 
 error cannot be other than totally inexcusable in a 
 man of the profound scientific attainments usually 
 claimed for Columbus. Had he been in any doubt, 
 or had any wish to publish the literal bare truth, his 
 journey from Spain to England, and thence to Ice 
 land, would have given him a sufficiently accurate 
 measure of the size of the earth. 
 
 Another consideration showing that Columbus 
 knew that the earth was much larger than he repre 
 sented to be the case presents itself on an examina 
 tion of the early maps of the world made after the 
 discovery of America, more especially in connection 
 with the line of demarcation traced by Pope Alex 
 ander VI., when he divided the newly-discovered 
 territories in all parts of the globe between Spain 
 and Portugal. A good example of these early 
 maps was placed prominently before the public at 
 the Indian and Colonial Exhibition in London, 
 1886 ; and a photo-lithographed copy of the same 
 map was on view at the Norse exhibit in the Ameri 
 can Exhibition in London, during the summer of 
 1887, under the care of Miss Marie A. Brown, to 
 whom the English-speaking race is eternally in 
 debted for the light she has thrown on the doings 
 and discoveries of their Viking sires. 
 
 The map referred to is that known as the Diego 
 
THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF 1492. 95 
 
 Ribero map of 1529, and belongs to the collection 
 bequeathed by Cardinal Borgia in 1830 to the 
 College of the Propaganda in Rome. The descrip 
 tion appended to it at these exhibitions was incor 
 rect in several particulars, as will be pointed out in 
 Appendix to Chapter IV., on the early maps of 
 America. 
 
 The map shows the line of demarcation between 
 the respective " spheres of influence," as we should 
 say nowadays, of Spain and Portugal. This line 
 passes from pole to pole completely round the 
 earth, and is therefore indicated at two meridians 
 1 80 apart, one passing through Brazil, the other 
 through the East Indies. 
 
 On the score of accuracy, this map might not 
 perhaps satisfy the geographical requirements of 
 the modern scholar, for it only shows the east 
 coast of America, with a portion of the west coast 
 in the immediate neighbourhood of the Isthmus of 
 Panama. But, what is more to our purpose, it 
 shows almost correctly the proper amount of space 
 (left, of course, blank), in which we can now, by 
 superior knowledge, fill in the western portions of 
 America, and the Pacific Ocean with its thousands 
 of islets. 
 
 The longitudes on this map run in some cases 
 a few degrees out of strict correctness. But then 
 it must be remembered that these mariners of old 
 had no fine chronometers, recording logs, sub- 
 
96 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 marine telegraphs, or any of the countless refine 
 ments of later civilization, by which the longitude 
 of any place can now be accurately determined. 
 
 Now, it is quite evident that if in 1493, when 
 the line was first drawn by Pope Alexander VI., or 
 in 1494, when it was finally settled by the Treaty of 
 Tordesillas (see Appendix on early maps), if at that 
 time it was thought that Columbus had nearly 
 reached the Moluccas, or some place not very 
 far from the already known East Indies, it could 
 not at the same time have been thought that the 
 prolongation of that line on the other side of the 
 globe would have left to Portugal those portions of 
 the far East over which she claimed to exercise 
 influence. And yet the dispute which began at 
 this period, and was not settled until after the 
 voyage of Magellan, was neither more nor less 
 than what portions of the East Indies were given 
 to Spain, and which to Portugal, by the prolonga 
 tion into the Eastern Hemisphere of a line drawn, 
 roughly speaking, through the mouth of the 
 Amazon, in the Western Hemisphere. This line 
 of argument shows clearly that almost immediately 
 after the first voyage of Columbus it was already 
 assumed that the rich spice islands of the East 
 Indies were distant 180 of longitude, or one-half 
 the circumference of the earth, from the islands 
 newly discovered by Columbus. 
 
 Now, it is impossible for anyone to affirm that 
 
THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF 1492. 97 
 
 during the very short time between the first 
 voyage of Columbus and the drawing of the line 
 of demarcation ideas had so enlarged with regard 
 to the earth s size as to assign it twice its pre 
 viously assumed diameter, especially as it had not 
 yet been circumnavigated. Had the theories 
 originally propounded by Columbus to those who 
 had not the necessary knowledge to answer them 
 been recognised by the science of the day as 
 correct, the American coast must have been placed 
 near to the longitude of Japan ! Those in the 
 council of Salamanca who had the most capable 
 knowledge seem to have seen that there was 
 nothing in his arguments as propounded, and to 
 have suspected that he was in reality building on 
 information of which he would not confess the 
 sources. Yet, as good servants of the Church, 
 they could not expose the man who had the 
 countenance of Rome, and whose schemes worked 
 so well on the cupidity of the court. 
 
 America and its islands once discovered, all 
 need for fraud or concealment ceases, and the 
 earth in two short years resumes its original 
 dimensions, as found by the Greek philosophers, 
 and now again shown on Diego Ribero s map. 
 No doubt the silent philosophers of the council 
 of Salamanca, who heard what Columbus had to 
 say, and decided that there was no force in his 
 falsified and perverted arguments, were learned 
 
 7 
 
98 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 (far more so than their fear of the Inquisition 
 would allow them to confess) in the science of 
 the Arabians, who had kept the ancient lore from 
 destruction, though under the ban of Rome. To 
 such mathematically-trained intellects the confused 
 ideas of Columbus would appear but a Quixotic 
 jumble of facts and fancies. They probably knew, 
 but did not dare to urge, that if Columbus was 
 to reach the Indies by a western route he would 
 have twice as long a voyage as that which seemed 
 already so long and terrible. 
 
 Long after the one portion of the line of de 
 marcation was fixed by the Treaty of Tordesillas, 
 the other continued to be a cause of contention 
 between Spain and Portugal. Each country main 
 tained that the Moluccas were on its own side 
 of the line, and tried to prove the correctness of 
 its views. In 1494 Columbus, knowing that he 
 was well within the Spanish sphere of influence, 
 "made it a serious matter for anyone to doubt that 
 Cuba was the continent, the beginning and end of 
 the Indies, which it was possible to reach by land 
 from Spain, which he compelled his crew and 
 officers to declare on oath, with the prospect of 
 having to pay a fine of 10,000 maravedis, or have 
 their tongue cut off, in case of a denial. . . . 
 The document is quoted in full in Navarrete " 
 (Harrisse, " Notes on Columbus "). 
 
 No doubt the reason which prompted this 
 
THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF 1492. 99 
 
 arbitrary conduct was the desire to bring the 
 whole East Indies within the Spanish hemisphere. 
 It was to settle all such disputes that Magellan 
 made his celebrated voyage round the world (1519- 
 22). Columbus during his life strove for the 
 reputation of having discovered a new way to the 
 Indies ; since his death he has obtained that ot 
 having been the inspired discoverer of a new 
 world these two ideas being about equally fal 
 lacious. He set out with a preconceived idea of 
 rediscovering territories which had formerly been 
 well known, and used the notion of a short way to 
 the Indies as a cover for these designs. 
 
 That Columbus expected to find continents and 
 islands before arriving at the Indies is amply and 
 conclusively shown by the terms of his agreement 
 with Ferdinand and Isabella. This document is 
 interesting as bearing upon the adventurer s ideas 
 of the nature and importance of the discoveries he 
 expected to make, and also as a criterion of his 
 inordinate and insatiable ambition. 
 
 The agreement is here quoted from Sir Arthur 
 Helps " Life of Columbus " : 
 
 " The favours which Christopher Columbus has 
 asked from the King and Queen of Spain in 
 recompense of the discoveries which he has made 
 in the ocean seas, and as recompense for the 
 voyage which he is about to undertake, are the 
 following : 
 
 72 
 
ioo THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 " i. 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. 
 
 " Granted 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 thing, 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 condition that 
 this jurisdiction should belong to the office of admiral, 
 as held by Don Enriques and other admirals. 
 
 11 5. Christopher Columbus wishes to have the 
 right to contribute 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. 
 
 " SANTA FE, IN THE VEGA OF GRANADA, 
 " April 17, 1492." 
 
 From the terms of these grants we again arrive 
 
THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF 1492. 101 
 
 at the conclusion that Columbus had in his mind 
 something very different from what he allowed 
 to appear on the surface. His mention of seas, 
 continents, and islands is, to say the least of it, 
 rather remarkable for an adventurer who was 
 merely attempting to reach by another route 
 waters already visited and islands already known. 
 His reference to continents is strange, and will be 
 claimed by his admirers as an inspired piece of 
 prophecy. But Columbus is not one of those 
 characters to whom such inspirations easily come. 
 The " practised slave-dealer," as Sir Arthur Helps 
 characterizes him, was not the man to go on such 
 a voyage for pure science s sake, any more than he 
 visited Iceland, as one of his apologists makes out, 
 to solve problems in hydrography ! What he did 
 go to Iceland for will presently be seen. What 
 opinion, then, after clearing away all these clouds 
 of mist and deception, are we to form as to the 
 real state of Columbus s mind when setting out 
 upon his voyage across the Western seas ? That he 
 really thought a few days or weeks sailing would 
 bring him to the East Indies, we have shown that 
 we cannot for a moment imagine. His voyage to 
 Iceland, had it taught him nothing else, would 
 have taught him different to this so much so, 
 that he had to falsify his observations of latitude a 
 whole ten degrees, as he had falsified his magnetic 
 observations at the Azores, and as he afterward 
 
102 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 falsified his log, and duped the islanders into going 
 on board his ship to be sold as slaves. 
 
 The real state of the case can easily be explained. 
 Rome, always on the look-out for new lands to 
 proselytize, became aware at the end of the tenth 
 century that new shores lying to the southward of 
 Greenland, and stretching far down into warmer 
 latitudes, had been discovered by Icelandic navi 
 gators. Gudrid, the wife of one of the early 
 colonists of the new country (Thorfinn Karlsefne), 
 who had heard of it from the first explorer, Leif, 
 son of Erik the Red, had herself made a pilgrimage 
 to Rome, and there received great attention while 
 describing the new countries. Priests and bishops 
 from the large and flourishing settlements of Green 
 land, which contained a cathedral, three or four 
 monasteries, and fifteen churches, had visited the 
 new country of Vinland from the time of its dis 
 covery until 1347. 
 
 For some reason, probably the passing of Iceland 
 and its colonies from a republican to a monarchical 
 form of government, on their annexation to Norway 
 (1262), and later to Denmark, together with the 
 soporific influences of Romanism, these countries 
 became neglected, and we are left in doubt as to 
 the ultimate fate of their colonists. 
 
 But traces of the Icelandic influences still remain 
 in New England, the site of the ancient Vinland. 
 There the descendants of one of the great Indian 
 
THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF 1492. 103 
 
 tribes still retain, handed down with scrupulous 
 fidelity and wonderful correctness, a mass of the 
 old legends of the Eddas, the mythology of 
 northern Europe. There, though under other 
 names, are Odin and Thor in all their grandeur ; 
 there are the apish tricks of the mischief-loving 
 Loki. 
 
 That these are not distinctively Indian legends 
 is proved by their local survival only. They are 
 completely different, too, in form and character 
 from the Hiawatha-legends of the Ojibways ; while 
 the personal attributes of the dramatis persona are 
 Norse, not Indian. (See "The Algonquin Legends 
 of New England," by Chas. G. Leland.) 
 
 This complete correspondence of a vast mass of 
 Indian legends with the Eddas leads one to infer 
 at the very least a long-continued friendly inter 
 course, if not actual fusion of race, between the 
 Icelandic settlers and the Indian natives. 
 
 These early discoveries being well known at 
 Rome, the time had now arrived for making use of 
 them. The power of the Church was, in the latter 
 half of the fifteenth century, on the wane in the Old 
 World. The northern countries had never been very 
 steadfast in their allegiance to Rome, and successive 
 sects of heretics, rising at various times and in 
 various parts of Europe, foreshadowed the final 
 great blow struck at the prestige of Rome by 
 Luther and his contemporaries. The forces of 
 
104 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Islam, which had so long occupied the fairest 
 provinces of Spain, were becoming a serious menace 
 to Christendom from the East. Already was 
 beginning to be felt that need of strenuous effort 
 for self-defence which resulted in the next century 
 in the founding of the Society of Jesus, whose 
 ramifications soon penetrated every land, and still 
 embrace the whole known globe within the subtle 
 yet powerful arms of missionaries, teachers, and 
 diplomatists, making the power of Rome more felt 
 and feared to-day than ever in history. 
 
 Yet in the Middle Ages the power of the Church 
 was paramount within the limited area of Christen 
 dom. The proudest moment for the pontifical 
 sovereignty was when Pope Hildebrand placed his 
 foot upon the neck of the prostrate Barbarossa in 
 front of St. Mark s at Venice. Through a series 
 of centuries, the armies of Europe had been 
 launched against the infidels of Palestine as though 
 under the personal command of the Vicar of 
 Christ. 
 
 But times were changing. The nations were 
 already beginning to arouse themselves from the 
 sleep of ages. The waning prestige of the Church 
 must be kept up, if not in the Old World, in another 
 which it should be her everlasting glory to 
 discover. 
 
 The path to new lands must be found, and once 
 discovered, they must be held for Mother Church 
 
THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF 1492. 105 
 
 and for the advancement of her prestige, by the 
 care of her most subservient vassal. 
 
 Among the records of former ecclesiastical 
 dominion preserved in the Vatican, where they 
 still exist, were found those relating to the lost 
 colony of Vinland. Its formation had been duly 
 recorded by Adam of Bremen (1002), who had the 
 story from the lips of a nephew of King Sweyn ; 
 and more recently in the saga of Thorfinn Karl- 
 sefne, preserved in writing in a very beautiful 
 manuscript, the Book of Flatoe, which at the time 
 of Columbus s visit was still in Iceland, and is now 
 preserved in the royal library at Copenhagen. 
 
 There was no doubt as to where the country lay ; 
 the route to it from Iceland was well known, and 
 its situation was indicated on a chart in one of the 
 sagas and further described as follows : 
 
 " On the west of the great sea of Spain, which 
 some call Ginnungagap, and leaning somewhat 
 toward the north, the first land which occurs is the 
 Good Vinland." 
 
 The name of Ginnungagap is significant. It 
 means the yawning gulf, or abyss, or chaos the 
 primeval entity from which all nature was evolved. 
 It gives us a point of touch with the ancient notion, 
 current among the sailors of Columbus, that there 
 was nothing beyond that sea that it was the 
 boundary of the earth. 
 
 The discovery of Vinland had superseded that 
 
io6 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 idea, though " some " still called the ocean by that 
 name. Still, it had no such terrors for the Viking 
 as it had for the poor frightened sailors of 500 
 years later, who were in hourly dread of tumbling 
 off the edge of the earth into a bottomless abyss ! 
 This was not the Norseman s way of thinking. As 
 long as he could see the sea before him, wave after 
 wave in endless succession, he knew he was in no 
 greater danger than he had already passed through ; 
 indeed, he was safer in the open sea than near a 
 rock-bound coast ; while the more danger the 
 greater the glory, and the more sagas to be made 
 by skalds in his honour. 
 
 No such feelings inspired the Christian sailor. 
 True, poets and philosophers had imagined a land 
 beyond that sea. The idea was tempting to the 
 poetic and philosophic mind. But it was not 
 Plato s Atlantis, it was not Aristotle s Antilla, that 
 Columbus was setting forth to discover, but a more 
 material prey for the cupidity of the Church and the 
 avarice of princes. 
 
 The existence of such a former colony on the 
 other side of this terrible ocean being thus known 
 to the Church by existing records, it became neces 
 sary, for the furtherance of their plans, to find a 
 man of determination and perseverance, ambitious 
 and not too scrupulous, but with a certain amount 
 of intelligence, and able to put on a show of reli 
 gious enthusiasm, who should get together money 
 
THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF 1492. 107 
 
 and ships and men, and force them, in spite of their 
 fears, to cross the trackless ocean. The man who 
 could carry out this scheme should be helped as far 
 as the religious power could safely assert itself. He 
 should be told where to go for advice, knowledge, 
 and assistance of all kinds. He should be provided 
 with admittance to the closets of priests and 
 bishops, and to the audience-chambers of royalty. 
 
 The State that should furnish what was wanted 
 should be master of the new lands of half the globe, 
 and free to enslave and torture and kill, under pre 
 tence of Christianizing, the native inhabitants and 
 rightful owners of the new countries. 
 
 Such a man was found in Christopher Columbus, 
 the former pirate and slave-trader a sort of Zebehr 
 Pasha of his time and such a State was found in 
 Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella. 
 
 But an excuse was needed for crossing that great 
 sea ; and the difficulty of reaching the Indies by 
 the circuitous and hazardous voyage round the 
 Cape was made the stalking-horse of the new pro 
 ject. The doctrine of the rotundity of the earth 
 had only a few years before been pronounced by a 
 learned Spanish divine to be dangerous and per 
 nicious. But this dangerous doctrine suddenly 
 finds favour at court, and all men are required to 
 believe in a globular earth, with that charming ver 
 satility of faith required by the Church, but only to 
 be attained by those to whom the immutable first 
 
loS THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 principles of science are unknown. These prin 
 ciples had been proscribed, and their teaching 
 punished with death at the stake, by which means 
 experimental and inductive science had been buried 
 for a thousand years under the night of so-called 
 religion. 
 
 The Arabs and Moors, it is true, had kept alight 
 the torch of learning in Spain and Africa ; and the 
 Greeks of the Eastern Empire still retained the 
 memories of their past achievements, which, after 
 the fall of Constantinople, were spread over Europe 
 by wandering Estradiots. But Moors and Greeks 
 alike were under the ban of the Church. The 
 ancient learning was persecuted under the name of 
 magic and superstition, and the flame of science 
 was flickering, all but extinguished. Now^ by an 
 irony of fate, the torch of science burns nowhere 
 brighter than in those lands that were intended to 
 be brought under the fetters of ignorant and corrupt 
 superstition, masquerading in the sacred name of 
 Truth ! 
 
 The depth and power of such ignorance can best 
 be seen when it is remembered that a few years after 
 wards, in Germany, a student who had discovered 
 a Greek Testament in the library of his university 
 had to dig and delve for the meaning of the lan 
 guage, just as modern explorers have to puzzle out 
 cuneiform inscriptions or the still imperfectly de 
 ciphered hieroglyphics of Hamath. And the word 
 
THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF 1492. 109 
 
 went round that the Protestants had " invented a 
 new language, which they call Greek !" So low 
 had sunk the study of antique lore ! 
 
 But before Columbus could proceed with the 
 preparations for his voyage, he must first be 
 coached in his part. The Book of Flatoe must be 
 examined, and all further local information obtained 
 that was possible, on the spot. 
 
 The only mention of this visit to Iceland by 
 Columbus himself has been already given at the 
 beginning of this chapter. What he really saw and 
 did there may be guessed from the following 
 quotation from the learned Icelander, Finn Mag- 
 nusen : 
 
 " In the year 1477 Magnus Eiolfson was Bishop 
 of Skalholt in Iceland; 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 dis 
 covered by the Northmen had been written, and 
 where they were doubtless carefully preserved, as 
 it was from this very district that the most dis 
 tinguished voyagers had gone forth. These docu 
 ments must have been well known to Bishop 
 Magnus, as were their general contents through 
 out 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 
 
no THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 have omitted to seek for and receive information 
 respecting these early voyages. He arrived at 
 Hvalfiord, 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." 
 
 Even had he come to Iceland for any other 
 purpose, Columbus was so ardent an inquirer after 
 other people s writings and opinions that he is not 
 likely to have neglected these chances ; for he was 
 much more apt at quoting the ideas of others than 
 at taking accurate observations himself and de 
 ducing correct conclusions therefrom, as witness 
 his false magnetic observations at the Azores, lead 
 ing him to propound the remarkable theory of a 
 pear-shaped earth, the protuberance being west 
 ward i.e., towards the parts not yet explored. 
 
 From the above-quoted records he would learn 
 how the Vinland, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland 
 coasts were sighted by Bjarni Herjulfson in 983, 
 after which Leif and Thorwald, sons of Erik 
 the Red, the colonizer of Greenland, made an 
 exploration of the coasts and country near the 
 present site of Boston, Mass., and wintered there. 
 Later still, Thorfinn Karlsefne, with his wife Gudrid, 
 founded a permanent colony there, and their son 
 Snorre was born in Vinland. After Thorfinn s 
 death and Snorre s marriage, Gudrid went to Rome, 
 where she was well received, and her accounts ot 
 
THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF 1492. m 
 
 the new countries beyond seas were listened to 
 with attention by the holy fathers, since every dis 
 covery offered an enlargement of the papal domain, 
 and furnished a new field for the preaching of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 Gudrid afterwards returned to her son s house 
 at Glaumbce, and there she had a church built, 
 and passed the rest of her life as a religious 
 recluse. 
 
 Of course, to a system that could change the 
 form of the earth from flat to globular at will, 
 and then treat as mere matter of detail any dis 
 crepancies as to its size, it was easy to suppress 
 the records of Icelandic discovery. Hence im 
 posture reigned everywhere supreme and un 
 challenged. 
 
 Armed with all necessary information and au 
 thority, Columbus rapidly made his way to the 
 confidences, first of Juan Perez, late confessor to 
 Queen Isabella, then to the grand cardinal, who 
 procured him an audience with the queen ; then 
 he enlisted the services of Luis de St. Angel, who 
 finally prevailed with the queen by an eloquent 
 appeal to her ambition for the extension of her 
 own power and dominion, and to her jealousy of 
 other nations who might seize the chance and 
 profit by it ; while affecting, at the same time, a 
 solicitude for the glory of God and the exaltation 
 of the Church. 
 
112 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 These preliminary difficulties overcome, Colum 
 bus at last set sail for the New World, hoping to 
 strike some part of the coast that was known to 
 stretch southward, and had even been explored as 
 far as Florida, while some conjectured that it came 
 near the coast of Africa. The exact island at 
 which he first touched is uncertain, but it was one 
 of the Bahamas, probably either the present San 
 Salvador, or the one now called Cat Island. 
 
 The sequel to the voyage of this ambassador 
 of ignorance, greed, and fraud is well known. 
 Great conquests were made ; confiding natives 
 were massacred or entrapped on board ship to be 
 deported to distant lands as slaves, while their 
 countries were rifled of everything of value they 
 contained. Ancient civilizations were ruthlessly 
 destroyed, and the greatest barbarities committed 
 in the name of religion. Let Mexico and Peru 
 tell the story ! 
 
 But far to northward a little cloud was rising 
 and growing that was eventually, in a few short 
 years, to obscure the fair horizon of Spain. 
 
 A nation of mariners, descendants of the Vikings, 
 and inheriting all their intense love of freedom 
 and adventure, both by land, and more especially 
 on the sea, swooped down in their tiny barks on 
 the huge Spanish galleons bearing the treasures 
 of Montezuma and the Incas. They burnt the 
 Spaniards treasure-ships in their own finest harbour, 
 
THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF 1492. 113 
 
 and laughed as they told how they had " singed 
 the King of Spain s beard." These daring sea- 
 rovers had early thrown off their allegiance to 
 Rome, although one of their kings had received 
 the title of defender of its faith, and their late 
 queen had been the wife of a Spanish king, who 
 had hoped to succeed to her throne. But her 
 sister and successor now reigned over them, under 
 whom there was not the slightest chance of Spanish 
 or papal influence being tolerated in their country, 
 which was consequently to be regarded as lost to 
 Spain and the Church. But such a loss was not 
 to be borne without a struggle, and an immense 
 Armada was despatched to coerce this country into 
 obedience. But the forces of nature and the pluck 
 of the English seamen were too much for the un 
 wieldy strength of the Spanish Armada, and the 
 huge fleet was driven round the isles, scattered and 
 wrecked upon the rocky shores. Had that Armada 
 succeeded in its object, the clock of progress, that 
 had just struck the hours of dawn, would have 
 been rudely put back to darkest midnight. 
 
 And what would then have been the fate of the 
 infant America? Already brave and honest men 
 had begun to cross the seas, not to harry and 
 destroy, but to colonize and create, and soon a 
 New England arose on the site of the Good 
 Vinland of old, and destined to leave a more per 
 manent and powerful mark on the world s history. 
 
 8 
 
114 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Had the Armada succeeded, all this would have 
 been lost. The brute force of Spain would have 
 grasped the whole of the New World, and held it 
 under the domination of the Pope. For nothing 
 .less than this was the true end and aim of 
 Columbus s voyage in 1492, which America is to 
 celebrate with rejoicing some two years hence. 
 
 The effect on Spain herself of all these conquests, 
 as seen by the light of after-ages, is deeply in 
 structive, and may form a terrible warning to all 
 futurity. 
 
 The teeming wealth poured in by fleets of 
 galleons filtered down from high to low, from rich 
 to poor, and turned men s minds away from the 
 cultivation of a fertile country to fancied El 
 Dorados beyond seas. Slow but sure sources of 
 competency or of wealth were given up for the 
 possibilities of sudden riches, and the whole nation 
 exemplified the proverb, "Lightly come, lightly 
 go." A false pride raised the people above all 
 honest work, while the gold and silver continued 
 to pour in from the American mines; and lands 
 once eminently fertile fell out of cultivation. An 
 intolerant religion drove away honest and hard 
 working artisans who dared to live according to 
 their own convictions, while gilded idleness in 
 high places completed the ruin by the most de 
 plorable misgovernment. The busy hive of workers 
 in Holland soon threw off the Spanish yoke ; one 
 
THE FULL*SIGNIFICANCE OF 1492. 115 
 
 by one other dependencies followed suit, until, at 
 this hour, two large islands and a few very small 
 ones are all that Spain has to show in the West 
 Indies as the remnants of an empire upon which it 
 could at one time be said that the sun never set. 
 
 Fifteen republics on the mainland, and two more 
 on an island, have arisen out of the ruins of that 
 empire ; besides which, many islands, especially 
 the very ones most associated with Columbus him 
 self, have passed into the possession of other 
 powers. The island first sighted by Columbus is 
 now British territory. His principal early discovery, 
 San Domingo is hopelessly divided by the strife of 
 factions. " Sic transit gloria mundi" 
 
 Other portions of the Spanish dominions have 
 joined themselves to a greater republic than any 
 of those before alluded to, and are now enjoying a 
 wonderful prosperity they could never have attained, 
 .or would have been many decades in reaching, 
 under less happy auspices. 
 
 And what do we see now ? After four centuries 
 of struggle, truth and freedom are still threatened. 
 Yet in the end they are bound to be triumphant. 
 America boasts that she can brook no master, be 
 he king or priest. Yet insidious enemies are con 
 stantly on the watch to steal in under cover of a 
 simulated patriotism. Let America wake in time. 
 Let her become alive to the nobility and dignity of 
 her Viking ancestors, and prepare to assert that 
 
 82 
 
n6 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 dignity before all the world. But the example 
 must be set her by England, a land that has never 
 forgotten how greatly her own earlier history was 
 influenced by Scandinavia, and how large a portion 
 of the best blood of her people is derived from the 
 Vikings of old, whose achievements have left their 
 mark on every part of her coasts, and over by far 
 the greater portion of the country. 
 
 The Scandinavian past has become part of 
 England s national being, and the influence of the 
 Viking spirit was never so plainly seen as when it 
 impelled her to defy the Spanish power and gain a 
 foothold in the New World, which had been be 
 stowed for ever upon Spain by the Pope. 
 
 America, on the contrary, would rather cut loose 
 from her past than bear it in constant remembrance. 
 She rejoices in having separated herself from 
 Europe, and would prefer to remember only the 
 War of Independence, forgetting the ties of coi - 
 sanguinity, some dating from before, and others 
 since that war, which should bind the two con 
 tinents in close and friendly relations. 
 
 The vision of a Greater Britain, of a reunion of 
 the English-speaking race, is a superb ideal, and 
 one which ought to be carried into realization. 
 But this cannot be accomplished until Americans 
 shall have completely given up their pan-American 
 delusions. The whole commercial diplomacy of 
 the United States, resulting in the McKinley Bill 
 
THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF 1492. 117 
 
 and the Columbus celebration, has been employed 
 to raise, stone by stone, an insurmountable barrier 
 against England, contrary to all natural and rightful 
 instincts. Such a course is founded on no natural 
 elements of right or justice, and must inevitably 
 fail. 
 
 JOHN B. SHIPLEY. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 A FITTING CELEBRATION. 
 
 IT has many times been remarked that we live in 
 an age of exhibitions, and it may be added with 
 equal truth that the present era is marked by an 
 especial fondness for celebrations. Nearly every 
 year some important event in the history of one or 
 other of the great family of nations receives due 
 commemoration as a landmark of domestic or inter 
 national progress. A few years ago Europe rejoiced 
 with Austria over the rolling back of the tide of 
 advancing Islam from the very gates of Vienna 
 two centuries before. Last year France celebrated 
 the centenary of her first republic, while the 
 monarchies of Europe looked on askance. Eng 
 land has celebrated the defeat of the Armada, 
 though not with the grandeur and national unity 
 befitting so imposing an event in the history of our 
 country. The United States have celebrated 76 
 with an exhibition, and the centennial of the Con- 
 
A FITTING CELEBRATION. 119 
 
 stitution with a Pan-American Conference, which 
 was apparently intended as the beginning of an 
 attempt to bring the whole of the New World 
 within the dominion of that Constitution. 
 
 The same aim is apparent in the preparations for 
 the exhibition by which the voyage of Columbus 
 in 1492 is to be celebrated at Chicago in 1893. 
 The real reason for wishing to hold a Columbian 
 Exposition, as it is officially styled, is to place be 
 fore the eyes of Spanish America that is, of the 
 Central and South American nations a manifesta 
 tion of the greatness and glory of the United 
 States, and the benefits that these republics would 
 gain by ceasing to trade with the Old World, and 
 giving their custom to the industries of the New. 
 
 In making these calculations for the future, how 
 ever, American politicians forget that the effect of 
 protection by high tariffs is to raise the prices of 
 American-made goods to such an extent that these 
 latter are thereby shut out of all foreign markets 
 where they have to contend with goods made by 
 nations who do not artificially enhance the prices 
 of their own produce, and where stern competition 
 forces manufacturers to sell their wares at the lowest 
 possible figure. The high tariff is in itself an ad 
 mission that American manufacturers are unable 
 to compete with their European rivals, even when 
 these latter have the disadvantage of living 3,000 
 miles from their American customers. 
 
120 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Taking this view of the matter, the chances of 
 the World s Fair, as the inauguration of a new 
 commercial era of trade with South America, do 
 not appear very favourable ; while if it be imagined 
 that the world in general, including the great manu 
 facturing nations of Europe, will send goods for 
 exhibition, it must be remembered, on the other 
 hand, that Congress has recently passed a measure 
 having for its avowed object the raising of the 
 already high tariff to such a preposterous pitch as 
 totally to exclude certain classes of European 
 goods, and to greatly check the importation of 
 nearly every conceivable article of commerce. The 
 threat has even been made that, if these alterations 
 are not sufficient to achieve the desired object, the 
 tariff will be raised again and again, until foreign, 
 i.e., European, goods are completely excluded from 
 the markets of the United States. In the face of 
 such treatment, it is not likely that English and 
 other European merchants will incur vast expendi 
 ture in sending goods to a country that is deter 
 mined not to buy from them, especially as these 
 same tariffs act against the United States in com 
 petition with England in the markets of South 
 America. English firms could therefore spend 
 their money to much greater advantage in opening 
 markets elsewhere ; and if they know their own 
 interests they will be conspicuously absent from 
 Chicago in 1893. 
 
A FITTING CELEBRATION. 121 
 
 The prolonged negotiations as to the location of 
 the exhibition furnish many examples of methods 
 foreign to English notions. The fair was given to 
 Chicago, lest it should work in favour of the 
 Democrats if it went to New York and was held 
 simultaneously with the Presidential election in 
 1892. The site of the fair at Chicago has been 
 virtually determined by the overwhelming influence 
 of railway companies and land speculators. The 
 greatest uncertainty prevails even at the present 
 moment as to where the fair is to be placed ; for 
 although the site has been provisionally fixed after 
 interminable discussion, no one knows how long it 
 will "stay fixed," or how soon serious difficulties 
 will crop up to prevent the use of the public parks 
 for the purposes of an exhibition, or misunder 
 standings may arise with the railway companies, on 
 whom depends the conveyance of visitors between 
 the two portions into which the exhibition will 
 probably be divided. Every unbiased spectator 
 seems to consider it a fight between rival "boodlers" 
 and more or less interested corporations, and no 
 one thinks it safe to commence any active pre 
 parations. One State only California has any 
 adequate organization formed for framing an ex 
 hibit, and everyone seems to look on with apathy 
 except the few insiders who count on making 
 money by the enterprise. 
 
 For the plan of the fair preposterous ideas of 
 
122 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 big tents and impossible towers have been put 
 forward by those who expect to make fortunes out 
 of architectural or constructive work. One great 
 feature of the scheme involves the reclamation of a 
 portion of Lake Michigan, and the filling up of 
 part of the city s fine outer harbour, constructed at 
 great expense, in order to make room for a section 
 of the fair, which is to serve as a sort of vestibule, 
 from which visitors are to be conveyed free of 
 charge to the larger area at Jackson Park. But 
 how the necessary filling-in is to be accomplished is 
 what no two authorities can altogether agree upon. 
 Some are all for driving rows of piles and building 
 their exhibition over the water, like the ancient 
 lake-dwellers and modern Malays. Others advise 
 filling it up solid with rubbish. Neither side can 
 satisfy the engineers of the fair that the lake will 
 not swallow up all the money raised for the fair 
 itself, and perhaps the buildings as well, if they 
 should ever get erected on such a treacherous 
 foundation, together with the exhibitors, their 
 wares, the historical relics, and the "countless 
 millions " of visitors that the fair is confidently 
 expected to attract. 
 
 Such a celebration, conducted on these prin 
 ciples, used for petty personal advantages, and 
 being in its conception and execution a virtual 
 denial of all obligations or ancient ties to the Old 
 World, may be indeed a fitting celebration of a 
 
A FITTING CELEBRATION. 123 
 
 discovery conducted on eminently false principles, 
 and leading to results that were absolutely dis 
 cordant with all the elements which have combined 
 to form the United States of to-day. But it is out 
 of all character, considering the antecedents of the 
 nation by which it is held, and the part taken 
 by nearly every country in Europe, but above all 
 by England, in laying the firm and sure foundations 
 of all that is best and greatest in that nation s 
 present condition. Nothing that can now be ob 
 served in the general aspect of the country suggests 
 a Spanish discovery ; the last remaining institution 
 distinctively Spanish in its origin or introduction 
 was destroyed by the proclamation of emancipation 
 issued by Abraham Lincoln, at the close of one of 
 the most sanguinary civil wars on record. This 
 event formed the final victory in the long conflict 
 that had been waged for centuries between the 
 representatives and descendants of the Northern 
 discoverers and the ideas and traditions which had 
 been transmitted from the Spanish conquistadors 
 through generations of settlers who had adopted 
 the habits and usages of those to whom a Southern 
 climate was more familiar, and who found in 
 slavery, for example, a means of easily enriching 
 themselves in spite of the enervating effects of the 
 climate. And yet, after all the sacrifices entailed 
 by this heroic yet deplorable conflict, we find an 
 attempt made, within thirty years of its close, to 
 
124 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 celebrate in a Northern city the beginnings of the 
 Spanish influence in America, in order to enter 
 into closer relations with countries of Spanish 
 origin and settlement, to the exclusion of all in 
 fluence on the part of those nationalities to which 
 the Republic owed its origin and importance. 
 
 It would manifestly be impossible to assign to 
 each European nation its exact and rightful share 
 in the founding and building up of the great nation 
 now known under the name of the United States 
 of America ; but it may be mentioned that long 
 before the advent of the vast tide of immigration 
 from every country in Europe that has set in since 
 the development of steam navigation brought the 
 journey within the reach even of persons of the 
 most limited means the chief nations of Europe 
 had sent colonists to the New World, planting 
 on it the first germs of communal existence, 
 which have since grown and blossomed into full 
 nationality. England had fringed the Atlantic sea 
 board with groups of colonies formed by men of 
 strength of body and will, who trained up their 
 children in hardiness and independence. Some 
 came as religious refugees persecuted Puritans, 
 Quakers, and Catholics. Some were attracted by 
 the anticipation of wealth, and settled under the 
 auspices of trading companies or under the pro 
 tection of nobles and princes, to whom vast terri 
 tories had been granted by the crown. The hard- 
 
A FITTING CELEBRATION. 125 
 
 ships endured by the early settlers can scarcely be 
 imagined by those who read the story at their ease, 
 but even these contributed to the building up of 
 the stout and fearless manhood of the early 
 colonial times. 
 
 The Dutch, always early in the field of new and 
 profitable enterprise, soon formed a settlement at 
 the mouth of the Hudson, and laid the first foun 
 dations of the future commercial capital. Nearly 
 at the same time the Swedes, in pursuance of a plan 
 initiated by the great Gustaf Adolf, and carried out 
 under the guidance of his wise and trusted chan 
 cellor, Axel Oxenstjerna, founded on the Delaware 
 a free State, which was designed to be a refuge for 
 the oppressed of all lands who were persecuted for 
 their adherence to the reformed religion. This was 
 in actual existence for several years before Penn 
 received a grant of the same territory in 1681, and 
 the Swedes, who are a very numerous body in the 
 States, now celebrate the landing of their ancestors 
 on the Delaware on a special date (September i4th), 
 which they style " Forefathers Day." 
 
 The French were scarcely behind the English in 
 perceiving the advantages offered by the new con 
 tinent. One of the first names applied to this part 
 of the New World, not yet called North America, 
 was Nova Francia, or New France, and the French 
 strove hard to make it deserve the name. The 
 voyages of Jacques Cartier along the St. Lawrence, 
 
126 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 between 1534 and 1544, though not immediately 
 productive of important results, were followed up 
 at a later period by French activity along the coast 
 between Nova Scotia and the Kennebec, and along 
 the great waterway which stretches far into the 
 interior of the continent, and terminates in the 
 great lake system. From their advanced points on 
 the lakes they soon crossed to the tributaries of the 
 Mississippi, and followed that river to its mouth, 
 where attempts were made to establish a colony. 
 These were ultimately successful, and ere long 
 English extension was menaced by a chain of 
 settlements stretching from Louisiana to Canada. 
 In the war which -became inevitable, George Wash 
 ington, then a young man, was honourably and 
 creditably engaged ; the result of it was that all the 
 country east of the Mississippi was secured to the 
 English. The country to the west passed into the 
 nominal possession of the Spaniards, but traces of 
 Spanish civilization are as hard to find here as in 
 other parts of the country, save for a few words 
 that have slipped into the language by the back 
 door of frontier slang, and such results as have been 
 accomplished by the labours of Spanish padres 
 among the Indians of the pueblos. 
 
 The English were now virtually the rulers of 
 America. The War of Independence was between 
 members of the same race, sometimes even between 
 members of the same family, each party in its own 
 
A FITTING CELEBRATION. 127 
 
 way being animated by patriotic sentiments. The 
 English troops fought for their own country at home, 
 the colonists for their new country, which they had 
 made their home. The memory of this war has 
 left a smouldering rancour in the minds of the 
 victorious Americans, which a century of intercourse 
 on equal terms has not completely removed, and 
 this unfortunate bitterness of feeling gives an added 
 friction to all commercial and political relations be 
 tween the two nations. Part of this may be due to 
 the oft-quoted conduct of England during the Civil 
 War, but Americans who urge this forget that the 
 feeling of the nation, outside of political and com 
 mercial circles, was strongly with the North and in 
 favour of the abolition of slavery. It is as untrue 
 and unjust to say that Englishmen were all sym 
 pathizers with the South, as it would be for a 
 foreigner to assert that, before the war, Americans 
 were a nation of slaveholders and traders in human 
 flesh. There are always two parties in a nation, 
 diametrically opposed and manifesting totally dif 
 ferent tendencies ; neither of these can be taken as 
 representing the other, and still less the whole 
 nation. 
 
 The result of this exaggerated dislike of England 
 has left its mark on the present character of the 
 nation, for one of the first things to strike a stranger 
 is the extremely composite character of the popula 
 tion, which is partly due to this very cause. Im- 
 
128 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 migrants from continental Europe have been made 
 welcome, and those from Ireland, in particular, are 
 received with open arms, and regarded as meriting 
 the special confidence of the whole nation, because 
 they too had cause to complain of English inter 
 ference and exactions. The Irish now form the 
 visible government of many large cities ; the police 
 force, the city councils, and the mayoralties are 
 filled with Irishmen, who also, through the School 
 Boards, control the education of the young. This 
 heterogeneous character of the population of the 
 United States does not, however, materially weaken 
 the truth of the assertion that the nation as a whole 
 is of English origin, and that it ought to acknow 
 ledge this in preference to all contending or con 
 flicting claims. The one fact that the language 
 most widely spoken in the States, and retained as 
 the official language of the country, is not only 
 English, but is always known by that name, and 
 admitted to be English, even in a country that 
 objects to all else that bears the English name is 
 in itself a daily reminder and an ever-present proof 
 that it is to English energy and enterprise that 
 America owes all that it holds dear, and even its 
 very existence as a nation. 
 
 Next to the English come the closely-allied 
 races of the Germans and Scandinavians. These 
 three great elements, forming the main bulk of 
 the whole population, reduce the influence which 
 
A FITTING CELEBRATION. 129 
 
 can in any way be attributed to the South European 
 nations to a very insignificant fraction. All these 
 great constituent elements of the States came in 
 consequence of the opening up of the great trade 
 route by Cabot and his English followers, not in 
 consequence of the discoveries of South America 
 and the islands by Columbus and the Spaniards. 
 By the great northern route was brought to America 
 all that was needed to transform a wilderness into 
 a civilized country. This transformation has been 
 no light or easy matter. It has taken all the 
 energies of the most enterprising race the world 
 has ever produced full three hundred years to 
 accomplish. And it is still in process of comple 
 tion. The aborigines, confined within their fast- 
 diminishing reservations, are treated with as much 
 contempt as they once excited awe in the minds 
 of the original settlers. Soon they will be a 
 vanished race, and no section of the country will 
 be found into which the Pullman car and the 
 palace hotel are unable to penetrate. 
 
 The celebration of the discovery of the route 
 to America should be also the celebration of the 
 labours by which the present state of the continent 
 has been slowly and painfully evolved from that 
 which existed four hundred years ago. It should 
 demonstrate clearly, for all the world to see, how 
 the work was commenced, how carried on, and 
 how far the present condition of the country 
 
 9 
 
130 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 repays the arduous toil that has been expended 
 upon it. To compare the results achieved in a 
 new country with those of ancient civilizations 
 deep-rooted in the long-settled lands of the Old 
 World might seem scarcely fair, were it not that 
 the New World itself challenges the comparison, 
 and even asserts loudly its own superiority to any 
 and all of the " effete " nations to whom it is in 
 debted for its start in life. 
 
 The conditions here set forth are in no respect 
 fulfilled by the exhibition, or "World s Fair," as 
 it is commonly called, which is to be held at 
 Chicago in 1893. Its only basis is a shameful 
 and audacious compromise : " We ll honour your 
 hero if you ll purchase our goods," is in effect the 
 message of the United States to the South American 
 Republics. " No foreign barbarians need apply, 
 except as admiring spectators of American great 
 ness," is the Chinese welcome extended by 
 America to all the rest of the world, especially 
 Europe. 
 
 With everything in her favour, and all competi 
 tion sedulously excluded, it would indeed be an 
 ignominious collapse for America if she failed 
 to make a creditable exhibition of her vast and 
 varied natural economic resources. Yet such a 
 collapse is freely and openly predicted by many 
 who have witnessed the flagrant mismanagement 
 and apparent incapacity of those who are entrusted 
 
A FITTING CELEBRATION. 131 
 
 by the nation with the carrying out of this great 
 undertaking. 
 
 Since the United States is not willing to pay 
 due respect to those who undertook the labours 
 of which Americans now enjoy the fruits, let us 
 see in what other way the great events outlined in 
 these pages can fittingly be celebrated. If Eng 
 land desires that her brave sons should be duly 
 honoured, she must herself take the initiative. 
 The challenge thrown out by America must be 
 met and accepted, as it is right and fitting that it 
 should, on some spot which is intimately con 
 nected with the events designed to be commemo 
 rated. For this purpose no locality is more suit 
 able than Bristol, and no date more appropriate 
 than 1897 ; for it was from that port, in the 
 beginning of May, 1497, that John and Sebastian 
 Cabot sailed on that memorable voyage, during 
 which, on Midsummer Day, they discovered New 
 foundland, and shortly after the inhospitable coast 
 of North America. Bristol is a large and flourish 
 ing seaport, although not now ranking next to 
 London in importance, as it did in the early days 
 of England s commercial greatness. Since then 
 it has declined into a " somewhat sleepy but 
 venerable old port," as the Athenceum called it in 
 1838, and has again risen through the enterprise 
 at last shown in the formation of new docks at 
 the mouth of the^ Avon, and is making creditable 
 
 92 
 
132 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 attempts to regain its ancient prestige. During the 
 French wars of Edward III., Bristol was called 
 upon to furnish 24 ships and 600 men, which was 
 only one ship and 62 men less than the quota 
 furnished by London itself. In the fifteenth 
 century the great merchant Canynge sent his ships 
 to every part of the known world, and one of 
 these, the Mary and John, was of 900 tons 
 burden. He was the second founder of the 
 Church of St. Mary Redcliffe, in which he was 
 buried, and which also contains the bone of a 
 large whale, about which some absurd stories are 
 told, but which has been more probably identified 
 with the one which Sebastian Cabot presented to 
 the city on his return from his voyage of dis 
 covery. 
 
 The appearance of Bristol to a stranger is very 
 peculiar and striking. Many English towns seem 
 to take one back into bygone centuries, whilst 
 others appear as obtrusively modern as an American 
 city. But Bristol gives the impression of living 
 in two centuries at once; the bustle of business 
 contrasts oddly with the Elizabethan houses and 
 yet more ancient churches that are visible from 
 almost every point. Some of the houses and 
 many of the churches were no doubt familiar to 
 Cabot four hundred years ago. The winding 
 streets, circling and crossing within the line of 
 the ancient walls, of which they indicate the 
 
A FITTING CELEBRATION. 133 
 
 course, are evidently the modern representatives 
 of the very thoroughfares which Cabot must have 
 trodden. Modern Bristol is well adapted for the 
 holding of a large and important celebration. It 
 has wealthy citizens, excellent public institutions, 
 and is both highly interesting in itself and situated 
 in the midst of most attractive surroundings. It 
 has also a traditional connection with America, 
 independent of the discoveries, for in 1838 it sent 
 off the first steamship, the Great Western, that 
 ever made the voyage to New York. It still main 
 tains a considerable trade with the United States, 
 the West Indies, and other parts of the New 
 World, especially in the importation of articles 
 of food. Bristol has always been mindful of her 
 ancient glory, and it can scarcely be doubted that 
 she will equal the high expectations that will in 
 evitably be raised by the holding in 1897 of a 
 worthy celebration of the achievements of a man 
 who has been claimed as one of her own sons, 
 and who was certainly accompanied and followed 
 to the new lands by hardy mariners of Bristol. 
 
 Other Bristol men should at the same time 
 receive due honour John Jay, who in 1480 fitted 
 out the earliest English expedition to search for 
 Western lands of which we have any record ; 
 Thomas Lloyd, who commanded this expedition ; 
 and Martin Pring, who sailed from Bristol in 1603, 
 and was " the first European who cultivated, and 
 
134 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 for a time resided in and hallowed, the spot 
 (Plymouth) which the English pilgrims from 
 Leyden, seven years afterwards, under Robinson, 
 landed upon and made classic ground " (Nicholls 
 and Taylor, " Bristol, Past and Present "). 
 
 The exhibition to be held in commemoration of 
 this long connection of Bristol with the Western 
 trade should be so arranged as to present a com 
 plete view of the various stages in the discovery of 
 America. It is not an event that would have to be 
 celebrated so much as an effort, sustained in spite 
 of every obstacle during four hundred years, to 
 found on the Western continent a new civilization 
 which should have all the advantages and none 
 of the faults of the older ones upon which it was 
 based. To make it complete, it must begin at the 
 beginning. A Viking hall, such as is described in 
 a former page, should be erected for the display of 
 a large and attractive exhibit illustrating the earliest 
 discoveries of America by the Northmen. Collec 
 tions of arms and armour, household utensils, and 
 models of the ships that have been unearthed in 
 Scandinavia, should be obtained from the great 
 museums in Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Chris- 
 tiania, as well as from Iceland and from smaller 
 collections in the various places where the North 
 men established themselves. Specially interesting 
 would be a department devoted to the graphic 
 elucidation of their activity upon our own shores ; 
 
A FITTING CELEBRATION. 135 
 
 for there are abundant evidences of their repeated 
 visits or continued presence on almost every portion 
 of the coastline of Great Britain and Ireland, and 
 more especially on the islands with which those 
 shores are fringed. Such a collection would also 
 illustrate the long period of the colonization of 
 Greenland by the Norsemen, as well as their settle 
 ments on the shores of New England and other 
 parts of America. 
 
 Still more extended would be the scope of an 
 exhibit illustrating the voyages of the Cabots and 
 their followers. It would include the state of the 
 English marine at the close of the fifteenth century ; 
 the character of the ships then used, and in which 
 the discovery was made ; the amount of Bristol 
 commerce at that period, and a comparison with 
 that carried on by other British and foreign ports ; 
 the world-wide sphere of activity of her great 
 merchant, William Canynge, and generally a review 
 of all the attendant circumstances. A collection 
 should be made of books, records, and maps 
 bearing upon these and other early voyages, and of 
 all documentary evidence illustrative of the early 
 period of England s commercial and maritime 
 greatness. 
 
 If elaborate historical displays were desired, 
 there might be pageants representing the court of 
 Queen Elizabeth at the time of the Armada, this 
 event being taken as marking the fall of the 
 
136 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 supremacy of Spain, and the establishment of that 
 of England in the waters of the New World; the way 
 being thus opened for the colonizing expeditions 
 which had already been attempted by the more 
 adventurous, and in one of which Sir Humphrey 
 Gilbert had already lost his life. The determined 
 resistance offered by Queen Elizabeth to the 
 arrogant pretensions of the Spaniards had thus a 
 most important bearing on the whole subsequent 
 history of America. 
 
 Next in logical sequence come the exhibits illus 
 trative of the early voyages to America during the 
 colonizing period, which began with the seventeenth 
 century, showing the part taken, as outlined above, 
 by the different nations of Europe, with maps show 
 ing the various settlements formed, and the gradual 
 extension of knowledge as to the geography and 
 natural resources of North America, and its conse 
 quent capabilities as the home of a new and 
 advanced civilization. 
 
 The later history and present condition of our 
 own colonies on the North American continent 
 might well claim due attention. Much useful and 
 valuable instruction might thus be imparted as to 
 the capabilities of these portions of our empire. 
 The lessons taught by the Colonial Exhibition in 
 1886 will not soon be forgotten ; but between that 
 and the celebration of 1897 eleven years will have 
 elapsed, and it may fairly be anticipated that great 
 
A FITTING CELEBRATION. 137 
 
 strides will have been taken during that period. 
 The hostile attitude of the United States with 
 regard to the tariff question ought to give an 
 impulse to English trade with the colonies, 
 especially when they can make so splendid a 
 showing for themselves as Canada and the rest 
 did at the exhibition of 1886. 
 
 Nor should the United States be in any way 
 neglected or left out. One great result of the 
 exhibition would be to teach the inhabitants of 
 that portion of America the history of their own 
 country ; to remind them that they have to thank 
 England and Queen Elizabeth for the destruction 
 of the Spanish power they now extol so highly, 
 before genuine civilization could be established on 
 free and enlightened principles. They have to 
 thank Englishmen for the settling of the colonies 
 which in 1776 proved themselves strong enough to 
 declare their independence of the mother country, 
 and for the growth and prosperity of the principal 
 centres of commerce on their eastern coast. The 
 men of 76 owed their spirit of independence to 
 their English blood, no less than to their nurture 
 in the newly -settled colonies of America, and 
 the free vigorous life to which they were accus 
 tomed. 
 
 In return, an opportunity would be afforded to 
 the United States to show in a far more compre 
 hensive way than at the fiasco of 1887, whether 
 
138 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 really has such transcendent merits as would place 
 it not only in the front line of nations, but, as it 
 boasts, far ahead of all others, beyond even the 
 most advanced nations of Europe. We have 
 shown that there will be no chance for this to be 
 satisfactorily done at Chicago, for all advantage 
 or inducement that might lead European nations 
 to exhibit there in 1893 is cut off by the new 
 Tariff Bill. The more intelligent Americans are 
 beginning to see this now, when the mischief has 
 been done. " Why," cries Kate Field s Washing 
 ton, brightest and best of American journals, 
 " should foreign manufacturers exhibit in the 
 United States goods which will not be imported 
 on account of increased duties ? Why should the 
 great artists of Europe combine to make our fair 
 of 1893 a wonderful artistic Kindergarten for the 
 benefit of this continent, when Congress has not 
 had the decency to heed the prayer of every artist 
 and artisan in the United States ?" 
 
 The one-sidedness of the action of the United 
 States is especially evident when it is considered 
 that that country does not by any means desire 
 to be excluded from the markets of the Old World, 
 where her produce is every year finding a larger 
 and readier sale. It would not be surprising if 
 European consumers were to make efforts to 
 supply themselves with produce that has hitherto 
 come from the United States, either by finding 
 
A FITTING CELEBRATION. 139 
 
 localities nearer at hand where certain kinds of 
 that produce can be grown, or by fostering trade 
 with South America by purchasing largely from 
 that continent. We must all sincerely hope, how 
 ever, that such measures may prove unnecessary. 
 Just as a large proportion of the best English 
 opinion was utterly against the Southern slave 
 holders, so there is in America a strong tide of 
 public feeling that is entirely opposed to the high 
 tariff, knowing as they do, or as they will soon 
 realize, that the tariff is in its effects a virtual tax 
 upon the home consumer, rather than upon the 
 foreign manufacturer. The secret of America s 
 growth, and the basis of its present position, lies 
 in its fertile soil ; all classes in the State are depen 
 dent upon the agriculturist. This is not so 
 plainly visible in England, where the manufac 
 turing interests have assumed immense proportions 
 as compared with the farming interests ; but this 
 has only been possible because the farmers had a 
 fertile land across the seas where they could be 
 free from obnoxious land-laws, and have unre 
 stricted development for their industry, and full 
 reward for their exertions. If by a short-sighted 
 and mistaken policy of self-interest the manu 
 facturers think to grasp everything for themselves 
 in the United States, they will soon find that they 
 have struck a fatal blow at the very source and 
 fountain-head of their own prosperity. 
 
140 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Another department of the exhibition might be 
 devoted to showing how the discovery of America 
 has reacted on the Old World, and how natural 
 products of either hemisphere have been trans 
 planted to the other, and given rise to large and 
 widely-spread industries. The grand lesson to be 
 learnt from this would be, that although the Old 
 World did for a long period get on well enough 
 without the New, and might learn to do so again, 
 yet neither would gain by the separation, or would 
 willingly attempt the experiment. The determi 
 nation to live apart would soon work its own cure ; 
 each would find how necessary the other was to its 
 comfort and well-being. 
 
 The discovery of America has a wider meaning 
 and a deeper significance for the world at large 
 than is implied by the mere words themselves ; 
 and the more Americans show that they are alive 
 to the common interests between themselves and 
 the rest of mankind, the more it will redound to 
 their own advantage, and to the honour and glory 
 of the great nation of whose history they are the 
 makers, and of whose future they are the cus- 
 odians. 
 
 JOHN B. SHIPLEY. 
 
APPENDICES. 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE following is the memorial to Congress in 
 support of Miss Marie A. Browne s plea, signed by 
 over 1,000 influential persons, including presidents 
 of various historical societies, as mentioned in the 
 introduction to this book. 
 
 " To the Honourable the Senate and House of Repre 
 sentatives of the United States, in Congress 
 assembled : 
 
 " The undersigned respectfully represent : That 
 in the approaching celebration at Washington, in 
 1889, in honour of the Centennial of the Constitu 
 tion of the United States, it would be fitting to 
 include a commemoration of the discovery of 
 America by Leif Erikson, the Icelander, in 
 A.D. 1000, and to allow Iceland, a proud and 
 flourishing republic at the time of the discovery 
 
142 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 of America, to take an honoured place in the 
 Jubilee of Republics in 1889. 
 
 " That, although the fact of this discovery is based 
 on the authentic documentary evidence of the Ice 
 landic sagas, there is a vast amount of evidence in 
 the shape of documents, records, and manuscripts 
 of all descriptions that has been buried for centuries 
 in the libraries at Rome in fact, the Church annals 
 of six centuries, containing the minute details of 
 the ecclesiastical work and establishments, the suc 
 cession of bishops for 263 years, etc., etc., in the 
 colonies of Greenland and Vinland. These facts, 
 relating to the discovery of America, and comprising 
 the entire early history of this country, it is the 
 right of the American nation to possess and to in 
 corporate in its archives. 
 
 " That the work Mr. B. F. Stevens has been com 
 missioned by Congress to perform, namely, * the 
 preparation of an Index of all the documents of 
 American concern in private or public archives of 
 Great Britain, Holland, France, and Spain, that 
 accumulated between the years 1763 and 1783, be 
 rendered complete and perfect by the preparation 
 of a like Index of all the records and documents 
 bearing upon the discovery of America in the 
 year 1000, and the colonies that existed in Vinland 
 and Greenland until the year 1540, the date of 
 their extinction. 
 
 " That the claim of Spain and Italy, in favour of 
 
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER II. 143 
 
 Christopher Columbus, extolled by these nations 
 as the discoverer of America, be suspended unti 
 all the facts in the case are put in the possession 
 of the American Government, in order that it may 
 be fairly and justly proved how great were the 
 discoveries, explorations, and settlements of the 
 Icelanders, how far they made their discoveries 
 known to the world, and to what extent these dis 
 coveries and settlements had been known and 
 recorded in Rome, thus providing Columbus with 
 the knowledge that made his expedition a suc 
 cessful one, confirmed as this was by the corrobora- 
 tion he found in the archives of Iceland, during his 
 visit there in February, 1477. 
 
 "Wherefore the undersigned respectfully beg 
 that Congress will authorize a thorough investiga 
 tion of these records in the Vatican and other 
 Roman libraries, and appropriate a sum suitable 
 for the carrying out of that work and for a worthy 
 Icelandic celebration, in 1889, in commemoration 
 of the discovery, this to be according to the plan 
 for a Viking Exhibition submitted by Miss Marie 
 A. Brown, and which would comprise the erection 
 of a Viking hall, in which would be displayed the 
 relics from the Viking period, the only way to re 
 surrect this brilliant past (the precise period of the 
 discovery of America) being by means of an 
 historical exhibition, for which, fortunately, all the 
 essentials are to be found in the museums and 
 
144 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 splendid collections of Europe, the swords and 
 shields of the Vikings, the beakers in which they 
 drank their toasts, the massive gold armlets and 
 necklaces and ornate belts, specimens of their art 
 in wood-carving, tapestry, etc., and of their maritime 
 skill in the very craft in which these masters of the 
 world ranged the seas." 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IV. 
 Note on the Early Maps of America. 
 
 References have been made in the foregoing 
 pages to the numerous maps which illustrate (or in 
 some cases obscure) the early voyages to America. 
 Without attempting to give a catalogue of these 
 ancient and most interesting documents, we may 
 here mention a few of the more important ones 
 bearing upon our subject. 
 
 In spite of the doubtful attitude of the Church, 
 which is ably described in Whewell s " History of 
 the Inductive Sciences," vol. i., book iv., it was 
 not unusual to represent the earth as a globe, and 
 we have therefore to mention some interesting 
 specimens of terrestrial globes, two of which, the 
 Behaim (Nuremberg) and the Laon globes, embody 
 the state of knowledge immediately preceding the 
 voyage of Columbus. The earliest post-Columbian 
 globe is that preserved in the Lenox Library, New 
 York. Descriptions of this and of the other globes 
 
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IV. 145 
 
 here referred to will be found in the article " Globe " 
 in the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." A series of 
 globes, or rather of segments or gores for forming 
 globes, were made by Johann Schoner of Carlstadt, 
 the first of which, made in 1515, disputes with one 
 by another maker (1514-17) the honour of being 
 the first representation of the New World on which 
 the name America is inscribed. This name is 
 applied to South America only, the north coast and 
 a short stretch of the east coast being all that is 
 indicated as known. Just north of the western 
 extremity of the South American continent is a 
 country marked Nova on the one globe and Farias 
 on the other, and Zipangri( Japan) is shown a short 
 distance to the westward. Japan was then only 
 known to Europeans by the descriptions of Marco 
 Polo, who places it at a distance of 1,500 miles 
 eastward from Zaiton, a large seaport, identified by 
 Yule with Chin-cheu, ninety miles south-west of 
 Fu-chau. A note on the map of Ruysch, 1508, 
 indicates this position for Japan, and implies that 
 it was confused with Hispaniola. 
 
 In the second of Schoner s globes (1520) Cuba 
 is marked as a land separate from Isabella, which 
 was another name applied by the Spaniards to the 
 same island. Of this error more will be said pre 
 sently. In the third globe (1523) the name 
 Isabella disappears, and that of Florida appears for 
 the first time, commemorating the discovery of this 
 
 10 
 
146 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 portion of the American continent by Juan Ponce 
 de Leon in 1513. This globe traces the route of 
 Magellan s expedition (1519-22), which was under 
 taken in order to solve the difficulties then felt in 
 determining how far the Spanish and Portuguese 
 sovereignties extended respectively in the direction 
 of the Moluccas. From the contemporary descrip 
 tion of this voyage it appears that, even at that early 
 period, before the world had been circumnavigated, 
 it was generally believed that the line of demarca 
 tion passed east of the Moluccas, thus showing a 
 very correct idea of the earth s real size, as opposed 
 to the unscientific hypotheses put forth by 
 Columbus. Magellan, however, claimed that the 
 Moluccas were in the Spanish half of the globe, 
 and made his voyage in order to attempt to prove 
 his view of the case. (See " Johann Schoner von 
 Karlstadt," by H. Stevens and C. H. Coote.) 
 
 Turning now to the consideration of maps, 
 we come first to the celebrated chart of Juan de la 
 Cosa, made in 1500, after his second visit to the 
 New World. He traces carefully the discoveries of 
 Columbus to the north-west, of which he draws a 
 coastline, probably intended for that of Asia, and 
 against the northern portion of this coast he places 
 five British flags with several names, such as Cabo 
 de Ynglaterra, and the words " Mar descubierta por 
 Inglesi " (sea discovered by the English). This is an 
 undoubted reference to the discoveries of Cabot, 
 
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IV. 147 
 
 and it may be noted that he is more careful to 
 show these than to credit the Portuguese with the 
 discovery of any part of South America, for he 
 places Spanish flags very near to Cape St. Roque, 
 and indicates the land reached by Portuguese 
 mariners as a large island of an irregular square 
 shape, some distance to the eastward of the South 
 American coast. 
 
 The next map gives us the Portuguese side of 
 the question. It is ascribed to Alberto Cantino 
 (1502), and bears the title "Carta da Navigar per 
 le isole novam te tr(ovate) en le parte del India." 
 On this map the line of demarcation between 
 Castile and Portugal is conspicuously drawn, 
 giving to Portugal the whole of Brazil from the 
 mouth of the Amazon, as well as the Newfoundland 
 discoveries of Cabot, which are here shown as 
 " Terra del Rey de Portuguall." 
 
 This map and others of Portuguese origin 
 exhibit a peculiar error with regard to Cuba, which 
 is drawn twice over, once as an island, and once 
 with its coastlines prolonged north and south-west 
 respectively, in accordance with their direction 
 at the furthest points reached by Columbus on his 
 second voyage. The eastern portion of the island 
 thus assumes a shape slightly resembling that of 
 Florida, which caused Harrisse in his book on the 
 Cortereals to imagine a discovery of Florida, by 
 unknown navigators, between 1500 and 1502. The 
 
 10 2 
 
I 4 8 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 names on the imaginary continent are those properly 
 belonging to Cuba, and thus the error becomes 
 visible. (See Stevens and Coote.) 
 
 Passing over numerous maps of Spanish and 
 Portuguese origin, the former being usually the 
 more accurate, we come to the celebrated series of 
 Diego Ribero maps. The earliest of these is pre 
 served at Weimar, and was made at Seville in 1527, 
 by a person calling himself " Cosmographer to his 
 Majesty." This map has been attributed to 
 Fernando Colombo, to Sebastian Cabot, and Nuno 
 Garcia de Toreno. But the claims of all these 
 give way in face of the evident similarity between 
 this map and another dated two years later, also 
 preserved at Weimar, in which the author describes 
 himself and his map in the same terms as before, 
 this time adding his name, Diego Ribero, who was 
 cosmographer to the Spanish sovereign from 1523 
 to 1533. A copy of this map is in the Museum of 
 the Propaganda at Rome, and was exhibited at the 
 Indian and Colonial Exhibition of 1886, where it 
 was accompanied by an explanation containing 
 several grave errors. The map was spoken of as 
 " a contemporary copy of the first Borgian map, so 
 celebrated in history on account of the line traced 
 across it by Pope Alexander VI." This Pope 
 issued a bull, dated May 4, 1493, by which the 
 Spaniards were to have all lands found west of a 
 line drawn 100 leagues westward of the Cape de 
 
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IV. 149 
 
 Verde Islands ; but he did not trace any line on 
 any map now known to exist. The " first Borgian 
 map " probably means the map of Verrazano, pre 
 served in the same museum, and of contemporary 
 date; but neither of these maps is a copy of 
 the other. The line fixed by the Pope s bull was 
 disputed by the Portuguese, who would have been 
 excluded from Brazil, and they demanded a line 
 400 leagues west of the Azores or Cape de Verde 
 Islands, which appear to have been then regarded 
 as in the same meridian. To settle the dispute, a 
 conference was held at Tordesillas in 1494, the 
 result of which was a treaty fixing the line of 
 demarcation between the Spanish and Portuguese 
 territories in the New World at a distance of 370 
 leagues west of the islands before named, or 270 
 leagues west of the line fixed by the Pope s bull. 
 This new line may have been first laid down on a 
 map made by Jaume Ferrer, now lost ; the earliest 
 map known which shows this line is the Cantino 
 "Carta da Navigar " of 1502, already mentioned. 
 
 In the Diego Ribero maps, this line is shown as 
 well as its continuation in the Eastern Hemisphere, 
 and is made use of as the prime meridian, from 
 which longitudes are reckoned east and west. The 
 eastern line, 180" from the original one, passes 
 through the East Indies about io c too far west, or 
 what comes to the same thing, certain parts of the 
 Indies are placed jo too far east on the map. 
 
150 THE ENGLISH REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 This is in itself a small error, but the question at 
 issue was whether a lucrative trade should be con 
 trolled by Spain or by Portugal, and every degree 
 of longitude was contested by the two nations. 
 The line is guarded at each side by the flags of 
 Castile and Portugal, and it is noticeable that on 
 the eastern side of the map they are placed more 
 widely apart than on the western, as though to 
 indicate a possible margin of error. 
 
 This important political boundary is drawn on 
 most maps as passing near the mouth of the Amazon, 
 usually slightly to the west, and through the northern 
 cape at the mouth of the La Plata. Even a rough 
 calculation of its position is difficult, as no allow 
 ance appears to have been made for the difference 
 both in latitude and longitude between the Azores 
 and the Cape de Verde Islands ; a line drawn 370 
 leagues west of the former would be in about 554o 
 west longitude, and in the latter case about 45 
 west longitude. From the maps it would seem 
 that from 50 to 52 west longitude may be taken 
 as representing the general idea of the position of 
 the line. 
 
 One other map claims attention here, as being 
 connected with the name of Sebastian Cabot. Of 
 this there is but one copy known, which is pre 
 served in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, and 
 dated 1544. Three other copies are believed to 
 have existed, one of them being dated 1549. One 
 
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IV. 151 
 
 copy was formerly at Whitehall, and one at Chenies. 
 The peculiarity of these various copies is that they 
 differ as to the date of the discovery, some giving 
 1494, which is considered to be a mistake for 1497, 
 as given by the others. The question as to what 
 part of America was first seen by Cabot has been 
 discussed in a former chapter ; but we may add 
 here that the map itself, in a side-note, gives 
 evidence that the voyage of discovery was made 
 by John Cabot, in company with his sons, and not, 
 as some have insisted, under the sole command of 
 Sebastian. This inscription ends with the words, 
 " And also from the experience and practice of long 
 sea service of the most excellent John Cabot, a 
 Venetian by nation, and of my author, Sebastian, 
 his son, the most learned of all men in knowledge 
 of the stars and the art of navigation, who have 
 discovered a certain part of the globe for a long 
 time hidden from our people." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Elliot Stock, Paternoster Row, London 
 
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