FIRST DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA. 163 



" One day will come, after many centuries, when the 

 Ocean, breaking its bonds, Typhis will show to men a new 

 universe, then Thule will be no more the last land found in 

 the West. . . ." m 



What a singularity that the name Thule, cited by Seneca, 

 should coincide so well with the celebrated Tullan, or Tula, 

 founded by the great Quetzacoatl of the Mexicans, and 

 adored by them as a god after his death. If Seneca meant 

 Iceland, by Thule, which is always the traduction given of it, 

 it is not less singular that the Islanders have also been con- 

 sidered as the first European discoverers and settlers of North 

 America, and what is more natural that they should have been 

 the builders of that celebrated city of Tullan, or Tula. Now 

 the Chinese also claim to be the discoverers of America. One 

 of their historians, Vossius, mentions the fact in his writings. 

 Nothing more easy, when we consider that they knew the 

 compass 150 years before our Era. 



Then, if we come to epochs nearer to us, we have positive 

 dates about the voyages made to several parts of North 

 America by Leif, son of Erick the Red. This was at the 

 beginning of the eleventh century. He and his brothers dis- 

 covered several countries, which they named Helluland, 

 Markland, and V inland. 



The widow of Thornstein, the third son of Erick the Red, 

 married a rich Iceland merchant, and went with him to 

 V inland in 1007. 



In 1 1 12, Erick Upsi, was nominated Bishop of Iceland, 

 Greenland, and Vinland. 



Up to 1347, constant communications existed between 

 these countries, but in consequence of the cholera, which 

 reduced the population of Norway from two millions to three 

 hundred thousand inhabitants, the emmigration to the new 

 countries ceased entirely, and the communications between 

 them stopped ; but the tradition of these lands was faithfully 

 kept by the Norvegians, as mentioned in the Saga OF 

 King Olaus. 



In 1570, Madok, Prince of Wales, son of the King Owen 

 Guyneth, after the death of his father, threw up his share of 

 succession, made several voyages of discovery, and landed 

 in America. He established a colony at ACAZUMIL, supposed 

 to be situated somewhere in the north of America. 



In 1390, according to Matthias Quadius and Antonio 

 Maginus, two historians of the epoch, Antonio Zeno, a 

 patrician of Venetia, is said to have landed in that part of 



