234 EPOCHS IN THE HISTORY OF THE CONTEMPLATION OP 



settlement of the Tyrians at Carthage had aided them to 

 reach the Straits of Gadeira and the port of Tartessus, and 

 Tartessus itself conducted this enterprising race from station 

 to station to Cerne, the Gauleon (ship island) of the Car* 

 thaginians. ( 364 ) 



Notwithstanding the proximity of the opposite coast of 

 Labrador (Helluland it mikla or the great), 125 years elapsed 

 from the first settlement of Northmen in Iceland, to Leif s 

 great discovery. of America; so small were the means which, 

 in this remote and desolate part of the globe, a noble, ener- 

 getic, but not wealthy race, were able to devote to naval en- 

 terprises. The ; line of coast called Vinland, from wild 

 vines which were found there by the German Tyrker, 

 charmed its discoverers by the fertility of its soil and the 

 mildness of its climate, compared with Iceland and Green- 

 land. The tract which received from Leif the name bl 

 Vinland it goda (Vinland the good), comprised the coast 

 line between Boston and New York ; therefore parts of the 

 present States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connec- 

 ticut, between the parallels of Civita Vecchia and Terracina, 

 but which corresponded there to mean annual temperatures 

 of 51-8 and 57'2 of Eahr. f 65 ) This was the principal set- 

 tlement of the Northmen. The colonists had frequently to 

 contend with a very warlike tribe of Esquimaux, then ex- 

 tending much farther to the south, under the name of Skra- 

 linger. The first bishop of Greenland, Eric Upsi, an Icelan- 

 der, undertook, in 1121, a Christian mission to Vinland ; and 

 the name of the colonised country has even been met with in 

 old national songs of the natives of the Faroe Islands. ( 366 ) 



The activity, courage, and enterprising spirit of the ad- 

 venturers from Iceland and Greenland is manifested by the 



