CLXIV 
NorWEGIANS» 
NOT PEOPLED FROM EUROPE. 
he faw many ftrange things: that he returned home, and, making a report 
of the fruitfulnefs of the new-difcovered country, prevaled on numbers of the 
IVelfh of each fex to accompany him on a fecond voyage, from which he never 
returned. The favorers of this opinion affert, that feveral elf) words, fuch 
as gwrando, to hearken or liften; the ifle of Croefa. or welcome; Cape Bre- 
ton, from the name of our own ifland ; gwynzdwr, or the white water; and 
pengwin, or the bird with a white head; are to be found in the American lan- 
guage *. I can Jay little ftrefs on this argument, becaufe likenefs of found in a few 
words will not be deemed fufficient to eftablifh the fact ; efpecially if the meaning 
has been evidently perverted : for example, the whole Pimguin. tribe have unfor- 
tunately not only black heads, but are not inhabitants of the northern hemifphere; 
the name was alfo beftowed on them by the Dutch, a Pinguedine, from their 
exceflive fatnefs +: but the inventor of this,,thinking to do honor to our country, 
inconfiderately caught at a word of European origin, and unheard of in the New~ 
World. It may be added, that the elf) were never a naval people; that the 
age in which Madoc lived was peculiarly ignorant in navigation; and the moft 
which they could have attempted muft have been a mere coalting voyage. 
The Norwegians put in for fhare of the glory, on grounds rather better than the 
Welfo. By their fettlements in Jceland and in Greenland, they had arrived within 
fo fmall a diftance of the New World, that there is at left a poffibility of its having 
been touched at by a people fo verfed in maritime affairs, and fo adventurous, as the 
antient Nortmans were. ‘The proofs are much more numerous than thofe produced 
by the Britifh hiftorians ;. for the difcovery is mentioned in feveral of the Icelandic 
manufcripts. The period-was about the year 1002, when it was vifited by one Biorn; 
and the difcovery purfued to greater effect by Lezf, the fon of Eric, the difcoverer of 
Greenland. It does not appear that they reached farther than Labrador; on which 
coaft they met with Efkimaux, on whom they. beftowed the name of Skrelingues, 
or dwarfith people, from their fmall ftature. They were armed with bows and 
arrows, and had leathern-canoes, fuch as they have at prefent. All this is pro- 
bable ; nor fhould the tale of the German, called Turkil, one of the crew, inva- 
lidate the account. He was one day miffing; but foon returned, leaping and 
finging with all the extravagant marks of joy a bon vivant could fhew, on difco- 
vering the inebriating fruit of his country, the grape {: Torfaus even fays, that 
he returned in a ftate of intoxication§. To convince his commander, he brought 
feveral bunches, who from that circumftance named the country Vinland. Ido 
* Powel’s Hifi. Wales, 228, 229- + Cluf. Exot. 101. t Mallet’s Northern Antiq. 
Fagl. ede i. 284. § Hif. Vinlandia antiq. per Thorm, Torfaum, p. &- 
not 
