COLONIZATION OF GREENLAND. 
55 
man of letters : whereas histories, memoirs, romances, 
biographies, poetry, statistics, novels, calendars, speci¬ 
mens of almost every kind of composition, are to be 
found even among the meagre relics which have sur¬ 
vived the literary decadence that supervened on the 
extinction of the republic. 
It is to these same spirited chroniclers that we are 
indebted for the preservation of two of the most re¬ 
markable facts in the history of the world. The colo¬ 
nization of Greenland by Europeans in the 10th century, 
and the discovery of America by the Icelanders at the 
commencement of the 11th. 
The story is rather curious. 
Shortly after the arrival of the first settlers in 
Iceland, a mariner of the name of Eric the Red discovers 
a country away to the west, which, in consequence of its 
fruitful appearance, he calls Greenland. In the course 
of a few years the new land has become so thickly 
inhabited that it is necessary to erect the district into 
an episcopal see; and at last, in 1448, we have a 
brief of Pope Nicolas “ granting to his beloved children 
of Greenland, in consideration of their having erected 
many sacred buildings and a splendid cathedral,”— 
