New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-02-24
PREHISTORIC AMERICA.
THE STORY OF THE NORTHMEN.
WHO WE'RE TILE FIRST DISCOVERIES OF THE con-
TNENTi-CANoN KINGsLEY's SECOND LECTURE
UOsTON

BOSTON, Feb. 23.-At "a this afternoon HOrucul-
tural Hall filled with singulariy distinguished
audience, comprising the best blood and the best
brains Of Boston, to listen to Canon Kingsleys
second lecture The Canon came on the platform
accompanied by the Hon. Marshall ?. Wilder, who
introduced him to the audience. Mr. Kingsley
alluded briefly to " The day we celebrate" and paid
a graceful and glowing tribute to Washington and
ten proceeded to the subject proper of his lecture,
which treated of the discovery of America By the
Mortimer.
THE LECTURE ... ....
And what lecture it was-inll OF feryor and feeling
romantic with the OF the old DAYS OF song anu
legend. eloquent brilliant, and above all human and
genial He opened II with story, OF which the scene
was the North Atlantic, 1853 years ago.
Rjarne Cirimolsen blown with his ship into the
Irish Ocean and there aud the snip began
10 sink under them. They had boat which they had
paved with seals bubber, for that the sea-wOrs VIII
not hurt But when they got into the boat they saw
that II would not hold them all Then said Barne As
the boat will only hold the half o. US my advice Is lhat
we should draw lots who shall 20 her; for that WIN
not be unworthy OF manhood" This advice seemed
SO good that none gansaid IT. and they drew lots Ana
the lot fen to Barne that he should In the boat with
half his crew But he went into the bOat there sphke
an Icalapder who was in the ship, and had followed
Barne from Iceland, Art thou going to leave me mere.
Barnet" Quoth Bjarne, 80 II must be- Iben saiu
when sailed with thee from Iceland than TO desert me
tins For thou saidst that we should both share the
same lot" Bjarne said "And that we will not do Get
thou down the boat, and VIII get up INTO the s"iP
now that see thou art greedy after life so hafhe
went up into the ship and the down into the boat;
and the boat went OH its voyage, till they came 10 Duo
in LELAND But most say that Barne and his com
rades persisted among worms for they were never
heard OF after
ia sta sal Kingsley.
my whole lecture Not only does il smack Of the sea
and the salt water like all the hnest OLD Morse
sagas but 1t gives glimpse at least Oh the hooeuess
that underad the grim and often cruel nature vi tue
NOrsemen. Ii belongs too TO the beginning OF tat cur
muating era when the old erceness OF the worshpers
Of Thor and Odn was tempered by the falth OF the
"Whte Christ" till the very men who had been the
destroyers of Western Europe became its civzers. IL
should have moreover, special interest for Americans
For as American antiquares are well aware BJarne
was on his voyage home from the coast OF NewEnsdhd
possibly from that very Mount Hope Bay when seems
10 have borne the name III the Time OF those ola
Norsemen as afterward in the days of King Philip He
was going back to Greenland'Or reGnforcemens, per
haps as he and his fellow-captan had found the Es-
uuimaux too strong for them Just then the Norsemen
were on the very edge a discovery which. had they
quite attained IT, might have changed tne history hot
only of this continent but OF Europe. They had found
cplonzed Iceland and Greenland. They had found
Labrador and Nova Scotia, and they had found New
England and called 1t vnlsnd the Good. And more.
Beyond VDland the Good there said To be another
land, wheman's Land, Ireland the Mickle, as some
called it-a land where the Esquimaux children had
told the white folks wore white clothes
and carried flags poles. Was this some part OF that
great civzaton-the relics whereof antiquares nave
found in so many parts OF the United states-st in
existence some 90, wears ago. and old Morse
cousins OF ours upon the very verge OF i'll Had they
but gone further on foreign dynasty might have sat
upon the throne Of Mexico.
The stories OF these times well known to anti
ouaries and may most OF them be found in Rains
antiquities Americana. They clear and so dra-
matte that internal evidence Of their truth Is IRE
sistible. We read OF Thorvald. who was shot by an
Esqumaux arrow; and Gudrida, the magnificent
widow. who at last, worn and sad, goes OF on PHI
grmage 10 Rome OF Helgi aud Trmbogi, and Frigdsa
the Terrible and all these real folk, II one can
Judge from internal evidence Beyond these tales aud
towering on the verge of faryanj there is a ballad
called Trim the Far" which lfn has inserted This
ballad is Of perfect beauty that Mr. Kingsley would
fain have it translated by our own Longellow since
none but he could translate 1t y. IL IS so sad that no
tenderness less exquisite than his could prevent Its
being painful, and naif in its denouement that no
purity less exquisite than his could prevent It's being
dreadful.
1t is Mr. Kingseys firm opinion that there can be no
reasonable doubt that landed on and tried
to settle the shore of NewElgand 600 years before
their knsmen, descendants. the Pilgrim Fathers Of
the seventeenth century. And how was the chance
LOST Partly through the length and danger OF the coast
ing voyage and partly because those years, the
Norsemen we're busy iu cOnquering and settling nearer
home. no other people-uness perhaps the Old
Ioniau Greeks-conquered aud settled They held
Greenland long enough TO build there many convent.
and church. and cathedral with farms and homeseads
round they had richer fields for enterprise than
Greenland Iceland and the Faroes Their boldest out
f,an Auya1an nnn RI
Britain-were forming the imperial lifeguard OF the
Byzantine Emperor. the famous Varangers Of
COnstantinople Sir Edmund Head speaks Of the Morse
men as tho men who have left their mark in every
ner OF Europe and whose language and laws at this
moment portant elements n the speech and insttu
tions Of England, America, and Australia.
DO you remember that tremendous week IN which the
fate OF Britain aud therefore OF North America.
decided-that week OF October 1906 Poor old Edward
the ConfessorhOy, weak, and sad-ay. az last ia his
new choir OF Westminster where tho wicked cease from
troubling and the weary are at rest He had left no
heir and England seemed like a corpse about which all
the eagles might gather together and the South English
had chosen In their need, Earl Harold Godwinsson to
be their kiug He the abest, and perhaps the
iustest man in Britain; and he was himself Of the
all-dominant Scandinavian blood. for his mother was
Danish princess Then out OF Norway, with "a mighty
bost came Harold Hardraade taller than oil men, the
ideal Viking OF his time. A mighty battle was fought
at Assingdune, and he and his half-barbarons
host were defeated. England was indeed 10 be con-
ouered by the Norman but by the civilized and not
the barbaric-by the Norse who had settled In the
northeast OF France, and called 1t Normandy. They
we're the most truly civilized people IN Europe and the
most faithful allies and servants OF the Pope OF Rome
And the same daySept a. lO6-on which tall Harold
the Norseman won Assingdune, what English Harold
had promised him, namely, seven. feet Of English
ground william, Duke Of Normandy, with all his
French speaking Norsemeu, sailing across the lit
ish channel under the protection Of a banner conse
Grated by Pope conquer that England winch the
Norse-spea king Mortimer could not conquer