236 EPOCHS IN THE HISTORY OF THE CONTEMPLATION OP 



critical and liighly praiseworthy labours of Christian Rafn, 

 and of the Royal Society established at Copenhagen for the 

 study of northern antiquities, the Sagas and original 

 sources of information respecting the voyages of the North- 

 men to Helluland (Newfoundland), to Markland, the mouth 

 of the St. Lawrence and Nova Scotia, and to Yinland 

 (Massachusetts), have been severally printed, and satisfac- 

 torily commented on. ( 37 ) The duration of the voyage, 

 the course, and the times of sunrise and sunset, are all 

 expressly given. 



There is Jess certainty respecting the traces which have 

 been supposed to be found of a discovery of America from 

 Ireland previous to the year 1000. The Skralinger related 

 to the Northmen settled in Yinland, that farther to the 

 south, beyond Chesapeake Bay, there were ""white men, 

 wearing long white garments, who carried before them poles 

 with pieces of cloth fastened to them, and who called with 

 a loud voice." This account was interpreted by the Christian 

 Northmen to indicate processions, with banners and singing. 

 In the oldest Sagas, in the historical narratives of Thorfinn 

 Karlsefue, and the Icelandic Landnama-books, these sou- 

 thern coasts between Virginia and Florida are designated by 

 the name of White Men's Land. They are also called 

 Great Ireland (Hand it mikla), and it is asserted that they 

 were peopled from Ireland. According to testimonies 

 which go back as far as 1064, before Leif discovered Yin- 

 land, probably about the year 982, Ari Marsson, of the 

 powerful Icelandic family of Ulf the squint-eyed, on a 

 voyage from Iceland to the southward, was driven by 

 storms to the coast of White Men's Land, and was there 

 baptized a Christian ; and not being permitted to go away, 



