DISCOVERY OF AML'UICA. 51 i 



bjorn's rock). He (Eirek) said he -would conn- back to his 

 friends if he found this laud. Eirek sailed from Snoefellsjokul. 

 He found the land, and came to it at a place which he called 

 Midjokul (Mid-glacier), and which is now 1 called Blaserk 

 (Blue shirt). He sailed thence southward along the coast to 

 see if the land could be settled on. He stayed the first winter 

 in Eireksey (Eirek's island), near the middle of what later was 

 called the eastern settlement. Next spring he went to *LMreks- 

 fjord, and there took up his abode. In the summer he went 

 to the western part of the country, and in many places gave 

 names to it. The following winter he stayed at 1161 mar, near 

 Hrafnsgnipa, and the third summer he went north to Sncefell 

 all the way to Hrafnsfjord. Then he said he had got into the 

 inmost part of Eireksfjord. He went home (in Greenland), 

 and stayed the third winter in Eireksey at the mouth of 

 Eireksfjord. The next summer he went to Iceland, and 

 landed with his ship in Breidifjord. He called the land which 

 he had found Greenland, for he said it would make men's minds 

 long to go there if it had a fine name. Eirek stayed in Iceland 

 that winter, and the next summer he went to settle on the land. 

 He lived at Brattahlid in Eireksfjord. Wise men say that 

 during the summer when Eirek the Eed went to settle in 

 Greenland, thirty-five ships from Breidifjord and Borgarfjord 

 went there, fourteen got there, while some were driven back 

 and others were lost. This was fifteen winters before Chris- 

 tianity was enacted as law in Iceland ' (Flateyjarbok, 

 i.429). 



" On this voyage Eirek discovered Greenland, and remained 

 there three winters, and then went to Iceland, where he re- 

 mained one winter before he returned to settle in Greenland, 

 (Greenland), and that was fourteen winters before Christianity 

 was established by law in Iceland " (Eyrbyggja Saga, c. 24) 



DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 



Between the years 985 and 1011 these enterprising mariners, 

 in the course of their expeditions from the remote and rough 

 c.oasts of the North, discovered the great continent of America, 

 with the inhabitants of which they seem to have had some 

 struggles ; but such was the transient nature of their expe- 

 ditions that the benefit of this discovery was for a time l"-t 



1 Fourteenth century. 



2 The laws were, according to LanJ- 



nama, enacted A.D. 1000. 



