The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1884-01-24


American history. has made several i'm
portant changes in his revised edition
Just issued from the publishing house
OF Appleton & Co., New York. In his
late edition Mr.. Bancroft asserts that
the claim of the Mortimer to the dis
covery of America 500 years before Co
iumbus planted the cross on the island
OF San Salvador, rests on "narrations
NEUROLOGICAL in form and obscure in
meaning"
In the year 1887 the claims of the
Norwegians to the discovery of America
In the tenth century were thoroughly
and searchingly Investigated by the So
ciety Of Northern Antiquarians at Co
penhagen, and splendid work, An
taquttdtes AmericanR, published,
which reduced tradition and "mytho-
logical variations" to authentic history,
showing to the world that not only were
the Norwegians the discoveries of
Greenland, but that they landed on
the shores of New England and as far
south as the coast of New Jersey, and
even Carolina. Those bold mariners
passed from Norway to Iceland, from
ASNhohu w SiCcHiuuu, w ibab
rador and farther south along the At
lantic coast. The researches of
the Copenhagen society have pro-
duced facts and documents showing
that the Mortimer, in the tenth cen
tury, were the greatest navigators and
explorers in the world, that they were
the terror of Europe even as far south
as Sicily md Greece, whose coasts they
invaded, and that it was those sturdy
pioneers who gave the name OF Vinland
to the southeast cost of New England,
having landed in the vicinity of Boston
harbor and other points.
Since the publication of this great
work the intelligent and learned world
have accepted the proofs and facts
therein contained and collated to be the
truth of history. Prof. Anderson, a
celebrated scholar and professor of the
Scandinavian languages in the Univer-
sity of Wiscon in, cites 1877 works treat
ing on this subject, and of these lib
give their Judgment in favor of the
Mortimer being the first discoveries of
America, and that as early as the tenth
century. Nine, including Washington
Irving, are in doubt, and only five, in
Guiding Bancroft, the United States
historian, cast their judgment in the
negative. Prof. Anderson cites in the
affirmative such illustrious names as
Adam of Bremen, Grotius, Torfpus,
Mallet, Grant,, Benjaman Franklin,
Malte-Brun, Wheaton, Alexander Won
Humboldt, Edward Everett, Rafu,
Cullen Bryant, and many others.
The Mortimer earned the name Of
sea kings. The women partook of the
fierce character of the men. Intrepid
ity in the midst of the clash of arms
and obiiviousness to danger could
alone win their hearts. They even
overran England, wrested Normandy
from France, captured Belgium, and
made incursions into Spain. They were
foremost among the Crusaders, leading
In the van of Peter the Hermit and
the chivalry of Europe, in rescuing the
tomb of our Lord, and they laid with
their battle-axes, on the streets of Con-
stantinople, the foundations of great
empire. THE old Morse Vikings, :"
rivers Rhine, Scheldt, the Seine and
Loire, conquering Cologne and Achen,
where they turned the Emperor's pal
ace into o stable. filing the heart of
even the great Charlemagne with dis
may. They carved their mystic runes
upon the marble lion in the harbor of
Athens in commentator of their con-
quest of that city, just as they left their
runic inscriptions upon the rocks of
America in commemoration of their
visits to its shores"
The tenth century was the period of
their greatest enterprise, when they
turned their direction westward, dis
covering Iceland, Greenland, and the
countries now known as the United
States and Canada.
A youths history of the United
States, by T. Wentworth Higginson,
Boston, though an ordinary school
book, gives as an opinion that the Vim
land of the Mortimer was on the
American continent; and the American
Cyclopadia says that the discovery of
Greenland led to the discovery of the
main land of America by Bjarni, son
of Herjulf, in the year $50.
In the face of the universal and ever
whelming proofs that have been OBJ
tanned through SO many sources, it is
difficult to see why Mr.. Bancroft should
fail to give them credence in his history
of the Uni ed States.
The fact that America was discovered
by the Norwegians 500 years before
Columbus does not in the least
detract from the achievements and
fame of the latter. 1t is certain that
there was no knowledge in Europe al
the time that there was any such
country as America in existence, hence
Christopher Columbus was an original
discoverer of this continent, and to
him, above all others, is the world in
debted for the greatest event in the
whole history of civilization. In the
words of Edward Everett, Columbus
has 30 near approached the work OF
his Creator as to bring an unknown
world to the knowledge of his fellow
men. "-To,Dn Of Lake Vindicdtor.