DESCllIPTION OF GREENLAND. 187 



Ravensfiord answers on the north side to Ericsfiordcn on the 

 south. And one may cross from one to the other by an arm 

 of the sea which connects them. Eric returned again to his 

 ishmd at the end of autumn, and there passed the third 

 winter. On the return of spring he determined to go him- 

 self to Iceland, and in order to induce the Icelanders, with 

 whom he had made peace, to follow him to Greenland, he 

 proclaimed the wonders of the land he had discovered. He 

 reported that it abounded in oxen and sheep, in excellent 

 pasturage, and in all kinds of hunting and fishing ; and so 

 effectual were his persuasions, that he returned to his con- 

 quered country with a great number of vessels and a large 

 retinue of Icelanders. The son of Eric, named Leiffe, hav- 

 ing passed over from Greenland to Iceland with his father, 

 proceeded thence to Norway, where, according to my Ice- 

 landic Chronicle, he found the king Olaus Truggerus, and 

 told him of the excellencies of the country which his father 

 had discovered. This king of Norway, who a short time 

 before had become a Christian, caused LeiiFe to be instructed 

 in Christianity, and after having him baptised, persuaded 

 him to remain the ensuing winter at his court. He sent him 

 back the next summer to his father in Greenland, and gave 

 him a priest to instruct Eric and the people who were with 

 him in the Christian religion. Upon Leiffe's return to his 

 father, he received from the inhabitants of Greenland the 

 name of Leiffdenhepne, which means LeiiFe the happy, be- 

 cause he had escaped great dangers in his voyage. He met 

 with a cold reception from his father for having brought some 

 strangers with him. These were some poor sailors whom he 

 had found on the keel of their own vessel, which had been 

 struck by a storm and completely overturned upon some rocks 

 of ice out in the open sea. Leiffe, moved with compassion 

 for these poor wretches, having himself suffered from the 

 same tempest, received them into his ship and took them to 

 Greenland. Eric was angry because, as he said, Leiffe had 



