THE UNIVERSE. OCEANIC DISCOVERIES, 233 



and Portuguese, was then so great, that half a century suf- 

 ficed to determine the outline or the general direction of the 

 coasts of the Western Continent. 



Although the acquaintance of the nations of Europe with 

 the western hemisphere is the leading subject to which this 

 section is devoted, and around which are grouped the nu- 

 merous results which flow from it of juster and grander 

 views of the Universe, yet we must draw a strongly marked 

 line of distinction between the first discovery of America 

 in its more northern portions, which is certainly to be 

 ascribed to the Northmen, and the re-discovery of the same 

 Continent in its tropical portions. Whilst the Caliphate 

 of Bagdad still flourished under the Abassides, and while the 

 Samanides whose reign was so favourable to poetry bore sway in 

 Persia, America was discovered in the year 1000, by anorthern 

 route, as far south as 41 J- north latitude, by Leif, the son of 

 Eric the Eed. ( 362 ) The first but accidental step towards this 

 discovery was made from Norway. In the second half of the 

 ninth century, Naddod, having sailed for the Faroe Islands, 

 which had previously been visited from Ireland, was driven 

 by storms to Iceland, and the first Norman settlement was 

 established there by Ingolf, in 875. Greenland, the eastern 

 peninsula of a land which is everywhere separated by the 

 sea from America proper, was early seen, ( 363 ) but was first 

 peopled from Iceland a hundred years later, in 983. The 

 colonization of Iceland, which had been first called by Nad- 

 dod, Snowland (Snjoland), now conducted, in a south- westerly 

 direction, passing by Greenland, to the New Continent. 



The Faroe Islands and Iceland must be regarded as in- 

 termediate stations, and as points of departure for enter- 

 prises to Scandinavian America. In ft similar manner the 



