IN NORTHERN MISTS 



skippers having been sent out by Christiern I. shows that in 

 any case there was in his day a tradition of the voyage of 

 Pining and Pothorst. We must therefore assume that they 

 were dispatched on a voyage of discovery by Christiern I. 

 (some time before 1481, when he died), probably at the 

 request of the well-known King Alfonso V. of Portugal 

 (1438-1481). As Hvitserk must be on the coast of Green- 

 land, they seem, in agreement with the other positive statement 

 in Purchas, to have really reached Greenland, perhaps more 

 than once, and, to have traded by barter with the natives, 

 which may have ended, as it frequently did later, in skirmishes 

 brought about by the encroachments of the Europeans. This 

 last possibility would explain Grip's statement about the 

 Greenland pirates attacking in many small ships without 

 keels, as also the mythical statements of Ziegler and Olaus 

 Magnus. Nor is it impossible that Pining may have set up 

 some sea-mark or other there. All this sounds more probable 

 than Olaus Magnus's wonderful story. But nevertheless it 

 does not appear to me that the authorities now known justify 

 us in altogether rejecting the latter and the date 1494. As 

 there is mention in 1491 of a new " hirdstjore " in Iceland, 

 we must suppose that Pining was either dead or had left 

 the island; if we compare with this the fact that Pining was 

 excluded from the peace that King Hans concluded in 1490 

 with the Dutch, and thus in a way became an outlaw to the 

 latter, and that in the same year a provisional peace was 

 made with the king of England, by which, of course, all 

 privateering against English subjects on the part of Norwe- 

 gians and Danes was strictly forbidden, we may possibly 

 perceive a connection. Pining and Pothorst were not able 

 to break themselves of old habits, and thus had both the 

 English king and their own, besides the Dutchmen, against 

 them, and were compelled to fly the country as outlaws. This 

 would also agree with Olaus Magnus's words, that they were 

 outlawed by the strict edict of the northern kings (" aqui- 

 lonarium regum severissimo edicto"). It may be supposed 

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