Evening star., 1925-05-16
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

California, down into Fusang, now
known as Mexico. This legend, too.
is questioned. None dares query the
reliability of the story Of the Irish.
Historian Fiske records: Irish an
chorites certainly went to Iceland in
the seventh century, and in the course
of this book we shall have frequent
occasion to observe that, first and la st,
there has been on all seas good deal
of blowing and drifting done' Blow
ing2 OF course. no Harvard professor
could mean to use slang
Prof. Fiske also refers to the stories
OF Japanese junks which were driven
across the Pacific and stranded on the
California and oregon coasts. He also
tells of one Jean Cousin of Dieppe.
France, who, while sailing down the
African coast, was driven across the
Atlantic and landed on the Brazilian
coast-four years ahead of Columbus.
IT, therefore, the Norwegians dis
covered" America before Columbus, SO
did the Orientals, and even our French
cousin. The Harvard professor fur
ther remarks: Moreover, the ques-
tions raised are often Of small impor-
tance, and belong not SO much to the
serious workshop of history as to its
limbo prepared for learned trifles,
whittier we will hereby relegate them"
The claim of the Norwegians to
priority of rights, based upon the Left
voyages of the tenth century, were
not thought of by Norway when, in
the fifteenth century. the Pope recog-
nized the controversy between Portu-
gal and Spain, and decreed that all
TERRITORY east of the meridian of the
Azores should belong to Portugal, and
all west of, that meridian to Spain.
That left none to Norway, yet that
country set up no claim. 1t is not dis
puted that Left and others did spend
two or three Winters in vinland, and
that he carried a cargo Of timber from
Vinland to Greenland. Where was
.'Vinland"? Later, Leif's brother.
Thorvald, borrowed Leif's ship and
voyaged to Vinland, where he and
companions spent two Winters, where
Thorvald was killed by the Indians.
Another brother, Thornstein, with his
wife, Gudrid, set out on the same ship
from Iceland, seeking Vinland, but
Throstein died before reaching port
and the widow returned to Iceland
Later she married Thorfinn Karlsefni,
and they, with a colony of 16O men,
several women and some cattle, are
said to have gone to Vinland, and
there, the next year, 1907 AID, a son
was born, and was named Snorri-
the first white child born in the West
ern world. The settlement later dis
appeared.
/ All of the above history of actual
settlement is based almost wholly
upon the Norwegian sagas, which are
Scandinavian myths or hero stories
not reliable as history, but probably
with some basis of truth. The sagas
were orally recited for more than two
centuries and were first written down
after the year 1140, hence it is recog-
nized that they are more or less hero
tales, exaggerated and idealized and
impregnated with imagination of
fairies and demons. There remain the
ruins upon Greenland, and Capt. Mac
MILAN may tell upon his return from
the Arctic next Fall whether similar
ruins really exist in Baffin Land or
Labrador.
Near the Falls of the Potomac, in
1857, there was found q tombstone
bearing runic characters ,ascribed to
Scandinavians of a century or more
previous; also in Minnesota. near
Kensington, in 1903, stone was dis.
covered purporting to bear runic in
scription telling of Scandinavian
exploration reaching that point in
1862. Both inscriptions are exposed as
fakes, according to scientists.
lcepyrisht. 1926, hy Paul v. CoIlins)