4 DISCOVERIES OF 874. 



gular establishment upon it, till the year 874, 

 when one Ingolf, and his friend Leif, or Hiorleif, 

 dissatisfied with the arbitrary authority of Harold 

 Harfagre, king of the Norwegians, determined to 

 aliandon their countr}^, and, as voluntary exiles, 

 to seek an asylum in Iceland. On approaching 

 the island, Ingolf, conformably with an ancient 

 superstition of his country, threw overboard a 

 wooden door, determining to make his first land- 

 inp' on that part of the coast to which the S'ods 



't? 



pa 



should direct this floating guide ; but the current 

 having carried it away fi'om his sight, he landed 

 in a fiord or gulf on the southern part of the island, 

 which still bears his name.* 



The report of their arrival having reached Nor- 

 way, a number of families, with their followers 

 and connexions, taking with them their cattle and 

 furniture and implements of husbandry, embarked 

 for this new colony, with a view of establishing 

 their future residence there. It is mentioned as a 

 fact in the Iceland annals, whose authenticity has 

 rarely been called in question, that these early 

 Norwegian colonists were fully persuaded that 

 the island had been inhabited before their coming- 

 there ; as wooden crosses, bells, and even books, 

 were found near the shore, such as w^ere then in 

 use in Britain and Ireland. The distance is so short 

 from Ireland, that it is not improbable that some 



* Arngrim Jonas. Chri)moga:a. 



