The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1878-06-27

There arc some who try to believe that
the Fall River skeleton was nothing more
than the skeleton of regular New Eng
land Indian. They seek to explain the
armor and arrows by quoting certain
wonderful stories of Brereton, who wrote
an account of Gosnold's voyage to New
England in 1909. He wrote in the inter-
est of company that desired to secure
emigrants for settlement here. or course
he told big stories. One of them was
that the Indians in the neighborhood of
Buzzard's Bay had "great store of cop
per, flax and other rich commodities )"
also FLAX fields and copper mines
There were "none of them," he said, who
did not wear bandoliers" of copper, and
other copper ornaments 10 great album
dance. The Pilgrims who arrived in New
England few years later neither found
nor heard of anything to confirm or ex-
cuse Brereton's big emigration stories.
He had tried to initiate Munchausen !;
that was all. Those who recall what the
New England Indians were in the colony
times will find it impossible to assume,
or even imagine, that these savages we're
capable Of working metals and flax, and
producing "great store of rich com
modities." But "great store of "copper""
it it had existed, could do nothing to ex-
plain the Fall River skeleton ; for the
armor and arrows found with it were
made of brass, not copper, and OF brass
that "appears to have been cast The
fact that the armor unearthed at Fall
River was made Of brass has been settled
beyond the reach of doubt. A portion of
the breastplate was anali Fed by the emf
nent Swedish chemist, Berzelius, with the
following result: 70 parts of it were cop
per, 20 parts zinc, and Two parts tin, lead
and iron, the quantity of iron being very
small. At tine same time he analy zed
Danish brass article OF the tenth century,
and found the composition almost precise
ly the same. For the rest, the breastplate
and other brass articles, were like those
used by the Norsemen in the tenth and
eleventh centuries.
There are full narratives of the earlier
Morse voyages to Vinlaud. These mar
ratives give accurate descriptions of the
American coast from the Straits of Belle
Isle to Narragansett Bay. There are also
records showing that communication be-
tween Iceland, Greenland and Vinland
was continued from about 1000, A. D., to
1,347, A. D.. and ALEC, that the first
Morse discovery of Vinland was made in
the year oss, A. D, very soon after the
beginning of the first settlement in
Greenland. A record copied at the Vati
can states that Pope Paschal H., in the
year 1,112, made Erik Upsi Bishop OF
Iceland, Greenland and Vinlsnd :" An
other record mentions that this Bishop
Erik went personally to Vinland, in / ,12l;
and, finally, Adam of Bremen appended
to one of his books, published in 1913,
geographical trestise On the Position
of Denmark and Other Regions Beyond
Denmark" in which, after describing
Iceland and Greenland, he says: BE
sides these there is still another region
which has been visited by many, lying in
that ocean (the Atlan,ic) which is called
Vinland."
Adam, Of Bremen, described Vinland,
and closed the description thus: This
we know, not by fabulous conjecture,
but from positive statements of the
Danes Danes with whom lie conversed
had visited Vnland. The last voyage to
Vinland, mentioned in the Morse records,
took place in 1347, the year in which the
memorable "Black Plague" or Black
Death" began its terrible ravages in
Europe. This awful pestilence ragged
about four years, extended 20 all the ma
tons of Europe, and swept away more
than half the people Of the Scandinavian
countries. Piof. Anderson, 4 Scandina-
Wan, says: THE Black Plague reduced
the population Of Norway alone from
100000 to 5000 600" He adds that it
reached Iceland, Greenland and Vinland.
aud cut off communication between these
countries" The Greenland settlements
were nearly depopulaied. Vinland was
abandoned and, few years later, the
Greenland settlements disappeared.-
Worcester Spy.
A FRENCH gentleman lately journeyed
to Marsellies, taking with him the body
Of his mother-in-law, who had expressed