The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1923-08-03
CAPTAINS OF
ADVENTURE
By ROGER POCOCK
By ROGER POCOCK
Copyright b. MrrilCo

Strand, the long and wonderful
beaches of Massachusetts, and beyond
was Narragansett bay, where they
built winter houses, pastured their
cattle, and found wild grapes. 1t
was here that Tyrkir, the little old
man man slave who was Leif's nurse,
made wine and got most gorgeOusly
drunk. On the homeward passage
Left brought timber and raisins to
Greenland.
Left went to Norway, where, as a
guest Of King Olaf, he became a Chris
tian, and in his absence his brother
Thorwald made the second voyage to
what is now New England. After wins
tering at Leif's house in Wineland the
Good, he went southwark and, some
where near the site of New York, met
with savages. Nine of them lay under
three upturned canoes on the beach, so
the vikings killed eight just for fun,
but were fools, letting the ninth escape
to raise the tribes for war. SO there
was a battle, and Th0rwald the Help
him right One of his brothers came
afterward in search of the body, which
may have been that same seated Skele-
ton in bronze armor that nine hundred
years later was dug up at Cross Point.
Two or three years after Thorwald's
death his widow married a visitor from
Norway, Eric's guest at Brattelid, the
rich Thorfin KarlSefne. He also set
out for Einland, taking Mrs. Karlsefne
and four other women, also Scottish
lad and lass Every savage) and an
IriShman, besides a crew of sixty and
some cattle. They built a fort where
the natives came trading skins for
strips of red cloth, or to fight battle,
or TO be chased, Shrieking with fright,
by Thorfin's big red bull. There Mrs.
Karlsefne gave birth to Snorri the
Firstborn, whose sons Thorlak and
Brand became priests and were the
first two bishops of Greenland.
After Karlsefne's return to Green
land the next voyage was made by one
of Eric's daughters; and presently Lett
the Fortunate came home from Nor
way to his fathers house, bringing
priest. Then Mrs. Left built church
at Brattelid, old Eric the Red being
thoroughly disguised, and Greenland
and Vinland became Christian, but
Eric never.
AS long as Norway traded with her
American colonies Vinland exported
timber and dried fruit, while Greenland
sent sheepskins, OK hides, sealskins,
walrus-skin rope and tuSks to Iceland
and Europe. In return they got iron
and settlers. But then began series
of disasters, for when the Black Death
swept Europe the colonies were left to
their fate, and some of the colonists, in
despair, renounced their faith to turn
Eskimo. In 1349 the last timber ship
| from Nova Scotia was lately returned
| TO Europe when the plague struck
| Norway.
There is gap of fifty-two years in
! the record, and all we know Of Green
land is that the western villages were
destroyed by EskimOs, who killed
eighteen NOrsemen and carried off the
boys. Then the plague destroyed two
thirds Of the people in Iceland, bad
winter killed nine-tenths of their cat
tie, and what remained of the hapless
colony was ravaged by English fisher.
men, No longer could Iceland send
any help to Greenland, but still there
was visiting, because we know that
seven years later the vicar of Garde
married girl in the east villages to a
young Icelander.
Meanwhile, in plague stricken Eng
land, Bristol, her biggest seaport, had
not enough men living even to bury the
dead, and labor was so scarce that the
| crops rOtted for lack of harveSters.
That is why an English squadron raid
ed Iceland, Greenland, perhaps even
Vinland, for slaves, and the people
were carried away into captivity. At
terward England paid compensation to
Denmark and returned the folk to their
homes, but in 144S the pope wrote to
a Morse bishop concerning their
piteOus condition. And there the story
ends, for in that year the German mer-
chants at Bergen in Norway squabbled
| with the forty master mariners Of the
American trade. The sailors had boy.
cotted their Hanseatic League, so the
Germans asked them to dinner and
murdered them. From that time nc
man knew the way to lost America.