﻿NO. 19 NORSE VISITS TO NORTH AMERICA BABCOCK J I 



crossing the very much greater interval to America, whereas the 

 full width of the ocean would leave many chances of strange happen- 

 ings and miscalculations in times before the mariners' compass and 

 accurate means of observation. It is not known that any ship out 

 of Iceland for Greenland ever made America first, but long after 

 Thorfinn's time, Cabot with far better equipment, and a century 

 later Hudson, sailing from northwestern Europe for Greenland or 

 the extreme northeast of Labrador, were directed to a more southern 

 shore ; the former by a discouraging southward drift of ice, the 

 latter by the bodily force of storms. Prof. Horsford 1 has compiled 

 and printed an instructive chart, showing the recorded drift of many 

 derelicts and storm-driven vessels to New England under the domin- 

 ance of the currents from the north and the prevailing winds. But 

 to fall within their power one must sail low enough. 



Leif's alleged Wineland house, too, is a monument of improba- 

 bility — being found by each one of the later parties, with years 

 between them, and always incredibly ready for occupancy, even 

 after the neighboring savages had gone to war with the temporary 

 white intruders and would have liked nothing better than to loot and 

 burn. It is hardly necessary to cite the angry Indians who " pulled 

 out the cross " 2 from the grave of " Champlain's " follower and 

 " digged up the body " to make their savage sport with it. Why 

 should they spare an enemy's home ? We need not pick out and dwell 

 upon all such untenable items. Mr. Reeves has afforded every 

 facility in The Finding of Wineland for a word by word comparison, 

 either in the original handwritten Icelandic, or the same in print, 

 or the printed English translation. It is disappointing to find Dr. 

 Fiske declaring of the additional voyages, " it seems to me likely 

 that the Flateybook here preserves the details of an older tradition 

 too summarily epitomized in the Hauksbook," for surely the law of 

 literary development is from the simple to the complex. There are 

 ' some exceptions, perhaps ; but the internal evidence is strongly 

 adverse to the supposition that we have one before us. Dr. Fiske's 

 notes clearly show that he had not seen the above work of Reeves 

 and the English translation of Storm's paper until after his own text 

 was prepared ; and he can hardly have given them adequate considera- 

 tion. The Flateybook Wineland saga bears the familiar marks of 

 derivation and development. This does not necessarily mean that 

 the composer of it had " Eric the Red " or " Thorfinn Karlsefni " 



1 Horsford: The Landfall of Leif, p. 42. 



2 M. Lescarbot: Nova Francia. Erondelle's transl., p. 105. 



