THE EARLY EXPLORERS 



he determined to call it Greenland for, as he naively remarked, " Men 

 will be the more easily persuaded to come here if I give it a fair name." 

 In spite of what he knew he told such a wonderful story of promise when 

 he got back to Iceland that twenty-five shiploads of men and women 

 followed him. Some were sunk and some put back, but finally fourteen 

 ships struggled to port and Greenland was colonised. 



The Norse Discovery of America. 



All through the sagas there is abundant evidence that the Vikings 

 discovered America, and indeed at the end of the nineteenth century a 

 Viking ship was built as nearly as possible to the lines of the Gokstad 

 boat and had not the least difficulty in crossing the Atlantic. Accord- 

 ing to one Icelandic account the first discovery was by one Biarni 

 Heriulfsson, who in the year 985 was blown out of his course, as so many 

 of the Viking ships were, and sighted land which was named Helluland 

 and which is generally identified with Labrador. He did not, however, 

 allow his people to land but he talked about his discovery and Leif 

 Ericsson followed him, sailing from Norway in the year 1000 with the 

 King's Commission to proclaim Christianity in Greenland. But he in 

 turn was blown out of his course and was quite willing to take advantage 

 of this to complete his predecessor's discoveries. He explored Hellu- 

 land and then worked South to a country that he called Vinland or 

 Wine Land, which is identified with either Nova Scotia or Maine. If 

 the latter it is rather curious considering that this State was the first to 

 introduce prohibition. He was followed by Thorfinn Karlsefin, the 

 greatest of them all, who was a wealthy trader in Iceland before he took 

 to exploring. In the year 1002 he went to Greenland and soon after 

 collected an expedition which included a hundred and sixtv men and a 

 number of women and set out for the lands that Ericsson had 

 discovered. They first appear to have made their landfall on the coast 

 of Labrador and then went on to Markland, which is almost certainly 

 Newfoundland. Further on they found the remains of a wrecked 

 Viking ship, probably near Cape Breton, and then went on to Vinland. 

 The winter of 1003 and 1004 was spent ashore, where they suffered con- 

 siderable privations and where Thorfinn's son Snorri was born. The 

 winter of 1004-1005 was spent in Vinland, where the natives were quite 

 willing to trade peacefully until they took fright at a bull which the 

 Vikings had brought with them and returned in a very different frame 

 of mind. Their attack was beaten ofT with great difficulty and the next 

 winter was spent further North, where the explorers considered them- 

 selves to be safe from the natives. Unfortunately internal dissensions 

 broke out among the settlers, principally about the women of the colony, 

 and in the summer of 1006 Vinland was abandoned and the expedition 

 returned to Markland and then home. Thorfinn, in his ship, reached 

 Greenland with safetv but his consort was wrecked in the Irish Sea and 

 a large proportion of her people were drowned. 



202 



