The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-11-12

ne DassetSrt Of Assesses ~ tkS nsrthnGsn.
The present paper il communicates By CHAhLss
C. RAvS. aAd b founded on bis work "ANTiaui-
rArss AnsRIcAsR sive Scrptores SeptentrionAles
rerom Ante Coiumbianarum in America" pub
iisbcd BY him in 1887, through the RoyAL SociErx
or NosrbsaN AsrIauARies of Copenhagen: ~,
TIE DAHE GAsDAa, of Swedish origin, was the
first Northman who discovered ICELAND. In 1868.
Only few out places Of this country had been
visited previously, about 40 years before. by Irsh
the Norwegian isGoLr began thc coIonisatios Of
the country, which wac completed during q space
Of sixty years. The colonists, many of whom be-
lonsed to the most iiust'ipus and most civilized
families in the North, established In Iceland q
fourishng republic. Here, on this distant isle
rock, the Old Northern language was preserved
unchanged for centuries, and here in the k1das
were treasured those Folk -soags and Flo myths,
and in the Sagas those historical tales and egends
which the first settlers had brought with them from
their Scandinavian mother lands. Iceland was
therefore the cradle Of an historical literature OF
immense value. NE&8
The situation OF the island and the relation shin
VI the colony 10 foreign countries in ts earlier Pc
Rod, compelled iis inhabitants To exercise and de-.
yelop their hereditary maritime skill and thirst
for new discoveries across the great A. early
as the year 877 GUSHSIosN Jaw for the first time
the mountainous coast of GRsENLANp but this
land was first visited by EalK The RED in 9S3, who
e.
hhdic ;emgrants, established jhe fret colony on
lie south western Shore where after wagds in 1884
a Bishops See was founded, hicH subsisted fox
upwards of 300 years. Tho head 6r,hs OF bays
were named after the cbiefs OF the expedition.
Erik The Red settled in Eriks firth Einar Hafn.
and Ketil in the frths called after them and He
riulf on Heriulfsnes. On q voyage from Iceland
to Greenland this same year 1856 BlAnNE. the
Of the latter, driven far out to sea towards
the southwest, and for the frat time beheld tho
coasts Of the American lands, afterwards visited
and named by his countrymen. In order to ex-
FoRTUNArE, son Of Erik the Red, undertook vow
age Of discovery thther in the year 1000 He land.
cd on the shores described by Biarne. detailed the
them names accor ding to their appearance. hEL-
LULAND (NesUoundidndD .was 30 called from it,
flat stones. MARYLAND (lNtsc Scofiand) from lis
woods, and VISELAsD Ne,0 England) from it's
sructed large houses, called after him LEIrsBuDR,
(Lsif's Bookhs.) German named Tyrker, who
accompanied Left on his voyage, was the man who
found the wild vines, which he recognised from
having seen them in bis own land, and Left gave
the country its name from this circumstance. Two
years afterwards Leif's brother, THoRwALp, re-
paired thther, and In 1908 caused expedition 10
be undertaken to the south, along the shore; but
he wa. killed in the summer Of l064 on a voyage
northwards, in skirmish with the natives.
The most distinguished, however, OF all the first
American discoverers Is THoRFiN KAnLsEFsE, an
lcelandcr. whose genealogy 10 carried back in the
Old. Northern annals to Danish, Swedish, Norwe-
gian, Scottish. and Irish cestors, some of them
Of royal blood. In lOO6 this chief, merchant
voyage, visited Greenland and there married
Conan, the widow Of Thorsten, icon of Erik the
Red.) who had died the year before in an nnsuc-
cessfnl expedition TO vineland Accompanied by
his wife, who encouraged him 10 this voyage, and
by crew Of 160 men on board three vessels, he
repaired in the spring of 1907 to Vineland, where
he remained for three years, and had many COM
munications with the aborigines. Here his wife
Gudrid bore him son 6aoRRE who became the
nf arnt in lceia 9TH
gave that island several of its first bishops His
daugb,er's son was the celebrated Bishop ,rhorlak
Runoifson, who published the fret Christian Code
OF Iceland. In il2l Bishop ERIK sailed TO Vine
land from Greenland, doubtless for the purpose of
strengthening his countrymen in their Christian
faith.
chroniclers respecting the climate the soil and the
productions of this new country, are very charac-
teristic. Nay, we have even statement of this
kind as old as the eleventh century from writer
the authority of Svein Estridson, the king OF Dem
mark, q nephew Of Canute the Great, that the
country got it's name from the vine growing wild
there. II 10 remarkable coincidence in this re-
spect that its English re.discoverers for the
reason, name the large isand. which is close off
the coast, Mrth0's VinsyGrd Spontaneously
growing wheat (maize, Of Indian corn) was also
In the mean time il is the total result of the nau
tical, geographical, and astronomical evidenced in
the original documents, which places the situation
q the countries discoyered bsyend III doubs. The
found lands, the striking q the coasts,
especially thu ~hssv aaSds bafkS Or asw 6c6Rinnd,
and the long beaches and dovns o. : peculiar APP
pusraAsDlR Of the Nort6men,) are mot 10 heInis.
taken In addition hereto, We have the astro-
nomical remark that the shortest day was nine
hours long, which fixes the latitud OF 4lo "a l0D,
just that of the promontorcs which limit the en-
frances TO Mount Hope Bay. where Lef's booths
were built and in the district around which the old