160 THE ISLAND OF NANTUCKET. 



idea, rocked his dizzy way across the trackless and 

 restless wilds of an unknown sea in a crazy fleet of 

 " three small caravels," Lief and Herjulfson, Norse- 

 men coasted down the whole North American conti- 

 nent, discovering and naming bays, rivers, inlets, and 

 islands, and among the latter Nantucket, which they 

 named u Nanticon '' (page 223). There is of course 

 nothing whatever to substantiate the belief, an ap- 

 parent mystery enshrouding this almost primitive 

 voyage of discovery. 



To Bartholomew Gosnold, a noted English navi- 

 gator, is now given the credit of discovering, in 1602, 

 the island of Nantucket. It is stated that in 1602 he 

 sailed from England with a number of passengers, who 

 were bound to Virginia for the purpose of settling 

 there; that on the voyage he discovered and named 

 Cape Cod and Nantucket. One would suppose, how- 

 ever, from reading Bancroft, that Nantucket was known 

 to Gosnold or others previous to this time; for he 

 (Bancroft) says, " Doubling Cape Cod, and passing 

 Nantucket, they again landed on a little island now 

 called ' No Man's Land.' " Now, if they passed Nan- 

 tucket without landing, how could they have known 

 that what they had " passed " was an island,, and that 

 its name was Nantucket? 



So far as the compiler has been able to ascertain, 

 there is little recorded in regard to the island of Nan- 

 tucket from the time of its discovery in 1602, until 

 1641, when it was deeded to Thomas Mayhew & Son. 

 Rev. Dr. F. C. Ewer gives credit on his historical map 

 of the island to the tradition that in 1630 there was a 

 war upon the island between the eastern and western 



