﻿NO. 19 NORSE VISITS TO NORTH AMERICA BABCOCK 1 75 



knew both route and goal, but swayed out into the unknown ocean on 

 their loose-flung way, with altogether unsuspected opportunity for 

 great discovery ; and all the time the long-waiting double continent 

 barred every path and was by no means to be missed. It was a mere 

 question of miles and degrees and of first overcoming them. The man 

 of the middle line won and is rightly praised for his persistence and 

 successful endeavor, as well as for his wide views of the problems 

 then confronting mankind. 



But in Leif's time there was no European pressure westward except 

 that of the sparsely populated adventurous Scandinavian North, and 

 this did not wholly suffice. The wave touched Wineland but soon 

 receded ; even falling back several centuries later from Greenland 

 also, after a wonderfully tenacious occupancy, while the rest of the 

 world hardly perceived the loss. But a discoverer is not in fault 

 for the lack of wit of his generation. He should not be deprived of 

 his honors by any overstraining of language. Leif Ericsson, or 

 Thorfinn Karlsefni, if we follow Dr. Nansen in doubting Leif, 

 remains the first authentically recorded discoverer of America. 

 Gudrid, his wife, holds her place as the first white American mother, 

 and their son, Snorri, is sufficiently well attested as the first-born white 

 American. 



