NO. 12 THE WINELAND VOYAGES — S WANTON 5 



I have been attracted to this problem in part by my studies of the 

 Indian tribes of North America, and in part by my experience in 

 attempting to extract the truth out of a number of conflicting narra- 

 tives deahng with explorations in other parts of the New World. 

 An examination of the two sources leads me to think that we have 

 here a problem somewhat similar to one that I have faced twice 

 before — in French and in Spanish. Beside the well-documented, 

 historical narratives covering early colonial times in Louisiana we 

 have a pseudo-historical work by the engineer Penicaut, the chronol- 

 ogy of which is utterly misleading and the record of events seriously 

 disjointed and often garbled. The chronicles of the De Soto expedi- 

 tion present us with something similar. Here we have three narratives 

 which are very nearly factual in their statements and a fourth which 

 is highly elaborated, verbose, frequently inaccurate as to dates and 

 the sequence of events, and teeming with exaggerations. Yet Penicaut 

 and Garcilaso de la Vega have preserved certain matters of distinct 

 value to us overlooked by the other chroniclers. As an example I 

 might cite Garcilaso's elaborate accounts of two expeditions sent from 

 the Indian town of Cofitachequi to apprehend a chieftainess of that 

 place. As two of our most reliable authorities ignore these com- 

 pletely, it seemed at first as if the stories of them might be wholly 

 apochryphal. Until, that is, upon turning to the third and briefest 

 narrative, we read that the chieftainess in question left her town sud- 

 denly and that De Soto "caused her to be sought." Therefore, when 

 we have a narrative of this type, such as seems to be contained in the 

 Flat Island Book, it is fair to give it careful examination and not to 

 dismiss it cavalierly under a blanket indictment covering the docu- 

 ment in which it is contained. As a result of my own examination I 

 conclude that, while the strictures of Storm and his successors, aside 

 from those based on linguistic grounds which I am not equipped to 

 discuss, are in large measure justified, the condemnation has fre- 

 quently been too sweeping, and on the other hand the Saga of Eric 

 the Red will not stand up much better under the same sort of 

 criticism. 



As just intimated, the writer is not conversant with the language 

 in which the Sagas were written or the related tongues, but this side 

 of the question has been so carefully covered by others that it is 

 pretty safe to take one's information second-hand. These pre- 

 liminaries having been disposed of, let us proceed to a study of the 

 story which the narratives under discussion reveal. 



