ANTE-COLUMBIAN VOYAGES. 11 



the natives by a powerful chief who happened to arrive just then for the purpose 

 of making a conquest of the island, was received into his favor, knighted, and 

 became the commander of his navy. Antonio having been sent for, the brothers 

 engaged in various enterprises together, and founded a monastery and church in 

 Greenland. Nicolo dies, but Antonio remains in the service of the chieftain, Earl 

 Zichmni, fourteen years. At some time during this period he obtained, from a 

 mariner who came to Friseland, the following statement : That twenty-six years 

 before, the mariner was one of a party which was cast upon an island called 

 Estotiland, a thousand miles distant, a populous and civilized country, there being 

 Latin books in the King's library ; that being sent by the King to visit a country 

 to the south called Drogeo, they narrowly escaped being devoured by the inhabit- 

 ants, who were cannibals ; but learned that far to the southwest was a more 

 civilized region and temperate climate, where the people had a knowledge of gold 

 and silver, erected splendid temples to idols, and sacrificed human victims ; and 

 that after a long time, having acquired wealth in Estotiland, the mariner fitted out 

 a bark of his owm and made his way back to Friseland. 



Stimulated by this story Earl Zichmni sent Antonio in search of the countries 

 described. The mariner died before Antonio sailed ; but some of his companions 

 from Estotiland were taken as guides. The voyage proved unsuccessful; and there 

 the matter appears to have ended. 



These particulars are said to be derived from the letters of the Zeni to their 

 friends in Venice. They were first published in 1558, by a descendant of the family 

 who represented that, when a child, he had mutilated the manuscript, not knowing- 

 its value, but afterwards collected the fragments and disposed them in the best 

 possible order. Some able writers and candid judges have considered the account 

 as authentic and credible. It was rather difficult to find a locality for Friseland, 

 which was described as larger than Ireland ; but the name was decided to be a 

 corruption of Ferrisland, or Faro Islands. Zichmni was supposed to be a Scottish 

 chieftain named Sinclair, known as the Earl of the Orkneys. In construing the 

 tale of the mariner, Estotiland is determined by Malte Brun, to be Newfoundland, 

 Drogeo the country intermediate between that and Florida; while Mexico is con- 

 sidered as the civilized region spoken of as lying far to the southwest. 1 



To this list of sources from whence the ante-Columbian population of America 

 may have been derived, should be added the supposition that the fleet of Kublai 

 Khan, first emperor of the Moguls, which, being sent to conquer Japan, disappeared 

 in a storm, about A. D. 1294, may have been driven to this continent. It has been 

 remarked that the two empires of Mexico and Peru, about that time, sprang up in 

 the midst of savage and rude nations ; a circumstance which has been thought to 

 favor the supposition that the founders of those empires came to their respective 

 localities by sea, and may have belonged to the missing ships. 2 



1 For a favorable view of the narrative of the Zeni, see an article in the North American Review, 

 for July, 1838, written by Hon. George Folsom. 



2 Foster's Hist, of Voyages and Discoveries in the North, p. 43. n. 



