XVllt 
INTRODUCTION. 
To the arctic navigator, therefore, the re¬ 
searches detailed in this volume may be useful, 
and possibly important. But there is another 
view in which these researches, as far as they have 
a bearing on the subject, obtain a higher public 
interest. This is, the reference they in some de¬ 
gree have to the ancient Colonies of Norwegians, 
planted on a coast continuous with that investi¬ 
gated on this voyage. 
Though the general history of these colonies is 
well known, a sketch of the leading facts relating 
to them, with the various attempts that have 
been made for their recovery, appears to me to be 
called for here, as an introduction to the Journal 
occupying the following sheets. 
As far as the colonies planted on the coast of 
Greenland have a reference to Iceland, it may be 
proper to premise, that this island was the acci¬ 
dental discovery of a Scandinavian depredator of 
the name of Naddodd, who was driven upon its 
eoast by a storm, about the year 861,—that it 
was visited soon afterwards by different adven¬ 
turers of Sweden and Norway, and first coloni¬ 
zed by Ingolf and Lief, two Norwegians, with 
