230 
CAPE COD. 
ing winter, like all the preceding ones, with his father,”—* 
being driven far to the southwest bj a storm, when it 
cleared up saw the low land of Cape Cod looming faintly 
in the distance ; but this not answering to the description 
of Greenland, he put his vessel about, and, sailing north¬ 
ward along the coast, at length reached Greenland and 
his father. At any rate, he may put forth a strong claim 
to be regarded as the discoverer of the American con¬ 
tinent. 
These Northmen were a hardy race, whose younger 
sons inherited the ocean, and traversed it without chart 
or compass, and they are said to have been “ the first 
who learned the art of sailing on a wind.” Moreover, 
they had a habit of casting their door-posts overboard 
and settling wherever they went ashore. But as Biarne, 
and Thorwald, and Thorfinn have not mentioned the 
latitude and longitude distinctly enough, though we have 
great respect for them as skilful and adventurous navi¬ 
gators, we must for the present remain in doubt as to 
what capes they did see. We think that they were con¬ 
siderably further north. 
If time and space permitted, I could present the 
claims of several other worthy persons. Lescarbot, 
in 1609, asserts that the French sailors had been accus¬ 
tomed to frequent the Newfoundland Banks from time 
immemorial, “ for the codfish with which they feed al¬ 
most all Europe and supply all sea-going vessels,” and 
accordingly “ the language of the nearest lands is half 
Basque ” ; and he quotes Postel, a learned but extrava¬ 
gant French author, born in 1510, only six years after 
the Basques, Bretons, and Normans are said to have 
discovered the Grand Bank and adjacent islands, as 
saying, in his Gharte GeograpMque, which we have not 
