24 DISCOVERIES OF 1384 to 



into the northern seas. At any rate, that the most 

 prejudiced, on castmg a glance on the map, must be 

 convinced that nature herself had designed New- 

 foundland to be the first for receiving the visits of 

 Europeans.* 



With reo-ard to Columbus, too little remains on 

 record, concerning his voyage to the north, even 

 for hazarding any conjecture to what part, (beyond 

 Iceland,) or for what purpose, it was undertaken. 

 The discovery, however, which has just been made 

 on Newfoundland would seem to corroborate the 

 conjecture, that this island is the Estotiland of 

 Zeno. A party of English settlers, in proceeding 

 up the river which falls into Conception Bay, a 

 little to the northward of St. John's, observed, at 

 the distance of about six or seven miles above the 

 bay, the appearance of stone walls, rising just 

 above the surface. On removing the sand and 

 alluvial earth, thev discovered the remains of an- 

 cient buildings, oak-beams, and mill stones sunk 

 in oaken beds. Enclosures resembling gardens 

 were traced out, and plants of various kinds grow- 

 ing about the place not indigenous to the island. 

 But the most decisive proof of these ruins being 

 the remains of an ancient European colony was 

 in the different kinds of coins that were found, 

 som.e of ductile gold, which the inhabitants con- 



* Precis de la Geog. Univer. torn. i. 



