202 



George Downes, Esq.,M. A. read a paper entitled" Some 

 Remarks on the Antiquitates AmericaruBy lately published in 

 Copenhagen." 



The author, after remarking that this volume, which had 

 appeared under the auspices of the Royal Society of Northern 

 Antiquaries, contained an account of the early discoveries of 

 the Northmen in America, stated the two-fold nature of his 

 object : — 



1st. To advert to some leading features of the past re- 

 searches of the Society in connexion with those discoveries. 



2nd. To hazard a conjecture respecting their future re- 

 searches. 



The author observed, in the first place, that the present 

 account, although not altogether new, was not only more cor- 

 rect than any other, but supported by evidence, drawn partly 

 from Icelandic MSS. nearly coeval with the principal events 

 recorded, which took place about the opening of the eleventh 

 century, partly from the modern researches of learned Ame- 

 ricans. He stated that, as Arctic discoverers of America 

 the Northmen attained as high a latitude as the most distin- 

 guished modern navigators ; and detailed the Icelandic geo- 

 graphy of the eastern part of North America, from Cumber- 

 land Island to the Chesapeak. He next adverted to the Irish 

 part of the same continent, supposed to extend from the 

 Chesapeak to the Gulf of Mexico, and inwards to the Missis- 

 sippi. This tract was called Whitemenslandf or Great Ire- 

 land, and was inhabited by an Irish colony prior even to the 

 Norse ante-Columbian discoverers of America. Evidence 

 of this fact was adduced from the Antiquitates Americance, 

 in the form of two traditions : — one held by the Shawanese 

 Indians who had emigrated from Florida to Ohio ; the other 

 by the Faroese islanders. To this evidence the author ad- 

 ded a conjecture of his own, founded on the similarity be- 

 tween the first part of the word Estotiland (a name of the 

 Icelandic Vineland, which does not occur in the work,) and 

 Scotia, an old name of Ireland. 



