Ante- Columbian Discovery of America. 91 



but in one of his excursions he encountered and was slain by 

 a people, the Icelanders, in contempt denominated Skrelings, 

 evidently Esquimaux, who then appear to have possessed 

 the shores far to the south of their present location. 



The next and most remarkable voyage to Vinland, was 

 that of Thorfinn Karlsefne, which took place in A.D. 1006. 

 He carried with him his wife, and one hundred and thirty- 

 one followers, and domestic animals, with the intention of esta- 

 blishing a colony at the huts built by Leif in Rhode Island. 

 The soil and climate were suitable, and they remained 

 in that country till 1011, when they were attacked by a vast 

 number of Skrelings, whom they repulsed ; but the hostility 

 of the natives induced him to abandon his design, and he 

 finally settled in Iceland. Thorfinn, however, had a son, 

 Snorro, born in America, from whom some of the most dis- 

 tinguished families in Iceland are lineally descended. 



After this period, it appears that there were many voyages 

 to Vinland, and that Iceland sent colonies thither for more 

 than a century ; for it is stated in Icelandic MSS., that 

 Eirik, bishop of Greenland, went to Vinland in A.D. 1125, 

 to confirm the colonists in the Christian faith. 



The work of Torfceus also gives us a singular account 

 of Icelandic voyages to a country, either a continent, or a 

 vast island, lying far to the west of the British Islands, and 

 near Vinland. It seems to have been first visited by Are 

 Marson in A.D. 983, who was driven there by a great storm. 

 He named it Huitramannaland, or Land of White Men, from 

 the complexion of the natives, who were also Christians ; 

 and Are himself was then converted from the worship of Odin 

 to the religion of Christ. 



The same land was visited afterwards by Gudleif Gudlag- 

 son, an Icelandic trader with Ireland ; who, in a voyage from 

 Dublin to Iceland, was driven by a tempest to a far western 

 land, where he was taken prisoner by the natives, but de- 

 livered by their chief, who turned out to be an Icelander. 

 He was dismissed with presents, but forbidden to return. 

 The natives were white, and seemed of European extraction, 

 with a dialect like that of Ireland ; and the American archae- 

 ologists, with considerable reason, have considered that their 



