The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1891-06-11
ally came, We find them laying the foun.
6akiOn Of khA Rnaaian ErnnirA

lily came, We find them laying the foun.
istion OF the Russian Empire.
But Europe did not set bounds 10 the
,oyaees and enterprises Of the Norsemen.
About the middle Of the ninth century.
hey discovered Iceland, and soon after
Yards established upon this island re-
public, which hourished four hundred
years. As time went on the people OF
Iceland felt q new impulse for colonizing
new and strange lands, and the tide OF
began to tend toward Green
land, IN the west, which country also be-
came settled in spite OF its wretched
climate.
A short time after this Americs was
An IcelaDder, named Bjarne
Herjulfsson. during . voyage to Green.
land, was blown out OF his course, and
saw, while sailing northward, an I'M
known land on his LETT. He concluded
that it could not be Greenland, . there
were no glaciers, but only low, wooded
heights sloping gently toward the ocean.
On his arrival in Greenland, Bjsrne told
OF the new country he had seem, but was
much ridiculed because he had mot gone
ashore and explored it.
His story, however, made great i'm.
preston upon the adventurous Lett, son
OF Erik the Red, who determined 10 solve
the problem and find ont what kind OF
lands these were that were talked 90
much about. He bought Bjarne's ship
from him, set sail with . good crew Of
thirty-five men, and reached the wished
for land,
..Where now the western sun
Ger fields and floods.
Ger every living soul
Diffuseth glad repOse.
They landed in Newfoundland and IN
Nova Scotia, explored them somewhat,
gave them names, and proceeded from
the latter into the open sea with north
east wind, ard were two days at sea be-
fore they saw land again. The place
where they now landed is near the Mount
Hope Bay Of the present time. Here
they raised their tents, and after resOlv-
ing to remain during the winter, they
built large house. Lett named the
country Vinland.
In the spring when the winds were IA
vorable, Left and his party started for
Greenland. The expedition TO Vinland
was much talked Of, and Thornald,
Leifs brother, thought the country had
been too little explored. Lett said, "You
may 90 with my ships, brother, to Vim
land, il you like" So another expedi-
tion was fitted out, two years later, by
Thcrnald who went to Vinland and re-
NAMED there three years; but it cost him
his life, for he was pierced by an arrow
while fighting the Indians.
Still later, in the year 1907, another ex-
petition was made to America, Vinland
as it was then called, under Thorfinn
Karlsefne and wife, Gudrid. They staid
here three years, when hostilities between
them and the Indians compelled them to
give up their colony.
We have many reasons for believing
that Left actually discovered the coast OF
the country now known as America.
Take an atlas and look at the map OF the
Atlantic ocean. Observe the distance be-
tween Norway and Iceland, and the dis
taDces between Iceland and Greenland,
and Greenland and Newfoundland. II
can be distinctly made ont that il is more
than twice the distance between Norway
and Iceland that it is between Iceland
and Greenland, and not far from twice
the distance that it is between Greenland
and Labrador, and thence on to New
foundland.
Taking it for granted that the Morse
colonies existed in Greenland for at least
three hundred years, it would be alto.
Gether unreasonable to suppose that q
|seafaring people like the Norsemen, who
sailed across the broad ocean to reach
Iceland and Greenland, could live FOL
centuries within short voyage OF this
vast continent and never become aware
OF its existence.
i Fortunately, we are not left in doubt
on this point. We have complete rec
ord of the discovery. Intelligent men
must first seek to blot ont numberlees
pages of we'll authenticated history, be-
fore they undertake to deny or dispute
the facts of this discovery. The whole
continent OF Europe for many centuries
following the tenth was overspread by ,
literary darkness: not 40 III Iceland, al
in this very country and at this time, thu
Sagas containing q record of the discov
lery Of America originated. Alexande
Won Humboldt, in his Cosmos, says: 9TH,
discovery OF the northern part of Ameri
,ca by the Norsemen cannot be disputed
The length of the voyages, the direction
in which they sailed, the time OF the sum-
rising and setting, are accurately given
While the challfat OF Bagdad was still
iourishing under the Abbasides, an,
while the rule Of the Lamanides, SO ia
vorable to poetry, still Aeurished in Per
STA, America vas discovered about tn,
year one thousand by Left, son of ErlI
the Red, at about Al degrees north lat
; itude."
Moreover, Columbus, while the though
; of attempting the discovery in the ives
! was maturil g in his mind, made o yoy
age to the north of Europe and visited
Iceland. Here he would naturally hea
,, OF the country their cOuntrymen had dis
covered. Later Investigations prove tina
he also saw map OF Vlnland. In fact
the whole history OF his discovery prove
that he either must have possessed pre-
vious knowledge OF America, or, as som
were weak enough to believe, been inspir
ed.
It makes Columbus a greater man il
our estimation, that he made study an,
research to form his opinion. It is Il
his credit that he studied and investigat
ed the nature of these discoveries. Tn
fault that is found with Columbus is
that he was not frank enough to tel
; where he obtained his knowledge OF thes
lands, but let people believe that he was
as he himself sometimes said, chosen b
Heaven to make this discovery.
In the next place, rock with an in
scription on it was found on the RICH
bank of the Trenton river in Bristo
county, Massachusetts. 1t was given th
name Of Dighton Writing Rock Inscrip
ton. 1t stands in the very region tina
Left and his followers frequented. 1t il
written in characters which the native
have never used nor sculptured. Tn
rock was seen and talked Of by the frs
settlers in New England, long before any
thing was said about the discovery Q
America by Left and his followers. Ate
much deciphering, it has been interpret
ed as follows: "Thorfinn, with one hun
dred and fifty-one Morse seafaring men
took possession of this land"
In 1881, there was found in the vicini
ty Of Fall River, Massachusetts, skele
ton in armor, and many of the circum
stances connected with it are SO wonder
full that it might indeed seem almost al
though it were the skeleton of this very
Thornald, Leifs brother. This skeleton
in armor attracted much attention at thu