34 LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. [VI. 



discovery of a vast continent by their forefathers away in 

 the south-west, seems never entirely to have died out of the 

 memory of the Icelanders ; and in the month of February, 

 1477, there arrives at Reykjavik, in a barque belonging 

 to the port of Bristol, a certain long-visaged, grey-eyed 

 Genoese mariner, who was observed to take an amazing- 

 interest in hunting up whatever was known on the subject. 

 Whether Columbus — for it was no less a personage than he 

 — really learned anything to confirm him in his noble reso- 

 lutions, is uncertain ; but we have still extant an historical 

 manuscript, written at all events before the year 1395, that 

 is to say, one hundred years prior to Columbus' voyage, 

 which contains a minute account of how a certain person 

 named Lief, while sailing over to Greenland, was driven out 

 of his course by contrary winds, until he found himself off 

 an extensive and unknown coast, which increased in beauty 

 and fertility as he descended south, and how, in consequence 

 of the representation Lief made, on his return, successive 

 expeditions were undertaken in the same direction. On 

 two occasions their wives seem to have accompanied the 

 adventurers ; of one ship's company the skipper was a lady: 

 while two parties even wintered in the new land, built houses, 

 and prepared to colonize. For some reason, however, the 

 intention was abandoned ; and in process of time these 

 early voyages came to be considered as aprocryphal as the 

 Phoenician circumnavigation of Africa in the time of 

 Pharaoh Necho. 



It is quite uncertain how low a latitude in America the 

 Northmen ever reached ; but from the description given of 

 the scenery, products, and inhabitants, — from the mildness 

 of the weather, — and from the length of the day on the 

 21st of December, — it is conjectured they could not have 

 descended much farther than Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, 

 or, at most, the coast of Massachusetts. 1 



1 There is a certain piece of rock on the Taunton river, in Massa- 

 chusetts, called the Deighton Stone, on which are to be seen rude con- 

 figurations, for a long time supposed to be a Runic inscription executed 



