344 EBEN NORTON HORSFORD. 



the other heirs. After this he usually spent his summers on Shelter 

 Island, and these were the parts of the year which he eiajoyed most ; 

 the scenery of the island is beautiful and restful, the climate delicious, 

 and the old manor-house, with the estate, which has been in the fam- 

 ily from the time of the Indians, full of most interesting associations. 

 He soon became interested in studying the antiquities of the place 

 and the family, and erected monuments to the Quakers who were 

 sheltered here from Puritan persecution. Afterward these antiqua- 

 rian studies took a broader field from a chance reference let fall by 

 one of his guests to the legendary Norumbega, and furnished him 

 with an engrossing and congenial occupation for the later years of his 

 life. The results of his researches were published in a series of 

 costly monographs, illustrated with heliotypes and reproductions of 

 ancient maps, of which he accumulated an almost unrivalled collec- 

 tion. 



The following are the most important of his discoveries in this 

 field : the identification of Salem as the place of the landfall of 

 John Cabot ; the discovery of the fort of Norumbega on the Charles 

 River, and of the city of the same name in Watertown, Massachu- 

 setts, including the finding of many curious remains ; the Norsemen 

 in America, and the identification of the site of the house of Leif 

 Erikson in Cambridge by the determination of the approximate lati- 

 tude, and the recognition of the topographic features described in the 

 saga, confirmed later by the discovery of hearths and other portions 

 of an ancient house ; finally, the origin of the name America, which, 

 as well as many other names in this country, he derived from Eric, 

 the father of Leif These conclusions of his met with much opposi- 

 tion, as was to be expected, but they brought him an invitation to 

 take part in the scientific proceedings of the Society of Americanisti 

 in Spain in commemoration of the discovery of America by Columbus, 

 to which he responded by the paper on the name of America men- 

 tioned above, and also led to his creation by the King of Denmark a 

 Knight Commander of the third sfrade of the Order of Dannebrog in 

 October, 1892, an honor which has found few parallels in America. 

 Among his services to archaeological and philological science should 

 not be forgotten his publication of the Dictionary of the Iroquois and 

 Algonquin Languages, written by Zeisberger, and for many years pre- 

 served in manuscript in the Library of Harvard College. . 



In 1873 he revisited Europe as United States Commissioner to the 

 Vienna Exhibition, where he occupied a commanding position on the 

 jury for food products. He afterward published the results of some 



