134 Magnus Andersen — Norway and the Vikings. 



but history tells us that these men were also able to found 

 dominions and rule countries. We are all acquainted with 

 their voyages around North sea through English channel and , 

 to the Mediterranean, as well as with their discoveries of the 

 Faroe islands and Greenland; but the most interesting expe- 

 ditions for us to study while we are at the World's Fair are 

 undoubtedly those made to this country in the tenth, eleventh 

 and twelfth centuries. Leif Ericsson sailed in 999 from Green- 

 land to Norway, where he entered into the service of King Olaf 

 Tryggvesson. There he was christened and started for home 

 the following spring in company with a priest, steering what 

 was afterward looked upon as the regular course from Nor- 

 way to Greenland, between the Faroe Islands and Shetland ; 

 but he must have been overtaken by storms and carried out of 

 his course, for after having drifted about some time he reached 

 an unknoAvn land in the far west, where he found wild grapes 

 and uncultivated corn-fields. He returned to Greenland the 

 same year, bringing news of the new land, which he called Vine- 

 land, and this resulted in two attempts to colonize Vineland. 



It will thus be seen that the first discovery of this continent 

 was by chance, as all discoveries generally are, and was the 

 result of the good seamanship of our ancestors and their love for 

 a seafaring life. Their voyages back and forth afterward show 

 us also that they were great navigators and daring enough to ven- 

 ture out on the open sea, guided only by the sun, moon and stars. 

 The first attempt which was made to colonize the newly found 

 land was made in the year 1,000, under the command of Eric 

 the Red and Thorstein Ericsson, and failed, as the sailors steered 

 too far south and found no land. They returned home in the 

 autumn, thoroughly exhausted. The second time they were 

 more fortunate, as Thorfinn Karlsefni, early in the spring of 

 1003, took command of another expedition, consisting of three 

 ships and 140 men, and set out for Vineland, which they must 

 have reached safely, as we afterward have accounts of Helle- 

 land, Markland and Vineland. By reason of the hostility of the 

 natives they gave up their possessions and returned to Green- 

 land in the summer of 1006. The inhabitants of Greenland 

 were too few to enable them to keep up any colonization outside 

 of their own land. Thus the expeditions must have terminated, 

 for we only hear of another attempt made in the twelfth century 

 by a bishop named Eric, who started off on missionary work, 



