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OUTLINE HISTORY

OF THE

UNITED STATES.

VOYAGES, DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS OF THE NORTHMEN. SOME evidence exists that the North-eastern Coast of the United States was visited by Europeans a few centuries before the discove

ries of Columbus. Although not generally acknowledged as authentic history, yet it is believed by some respectable historians, that a colony of Norwegians, or Northmen, visited the coast of New England about A.D. 1000.

The original Icelandic accounts of the voyages of discovery, performed by these men, are still in existence; and have been recently published by the Society of Antiquaries at Copenhagen.* The following summary of events and conclusions respecting the discov

ery and first settlement in this country, is drawn by the authors of that publication.

In the spring of 986 of the Christian Era, Eric the Red, emigrated from Iceland to Greenland, and there formed a settlement. In 994,

* ANTIQUITATES AMERICANA, etc. [Antiquities of America, or Northern writers of things in America before Columbus.] Hafniæ, 1837, 4to. pp. 486.

Biarne, the son of one of the settlers who accompanied Eric, returned to Norway, and gave an account of discoveries he had made southward from Greenland. On his return to Greenland, Lief, the son of Eric, bought Biarne's ship, and with a crew of thirty-five men, embarked on a voyage of discovery, A.D. 1000. "After sailing sometime to the south-west, they came to a country covered with a slaty rock, which, therefore, they called Helluland [Slate-land]. They then proceeded southerly, until they found a low flat coast, with white sand cliffs, and immediately back covered with woods, from which they called the country Markland [Wood-land]. From there they sailed south and west, until they arrived at a promontory which extended to the east and north, and sailing round it, turned to the west, and sailing westward passed between an island and the main land, and entering into a bay through which flowed a river, they concluded to winter at that place.'

Soon after they had built their winter houses, they discovered an abundance of vines, whence they named the country Vinland [Wineland]. It has been a matter of doubt where Vinland was located, but the Antiquarian Society, at Copenhagen, after an examination of all the evidence on the subject, place it at the head of Narraganset Bay in Rhode Island. Everything in the description of the voyage and country agrees with this location. The promontory described as extending east and north, corresponds with that of Barnstable and Cape Cod, and the islands they would pass after turning west would be Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.

In A.D. 1002 (two years afterward), Thorwold, the brother of Lief, visited Vinland where he spent two years, and was finally murdered by the natives. Before his death, he coasted round the promontory called the north end, now Cape Cod, Kjalarnes [Keel Cape]. He was killed and buried on a small promontory, reaching south from the main land, on the west side of the bay, inclosed by the promontory of Kjalarnes, which answers accurately to Gurnet's Point, a strip of land on the east side of Plymouth harbor. The Norwegians called it Krassanes [Cross-land], because the grave of Thorwold had a cross

erected at both ends.

In 1007, three ships sailed from Greenland for Vinland, one under the command of Thorfinn Karlsefne, a Norwegian of royal descent, and Snorre Thorbrandson, of distinguished lineage; one other commanded by Biarne Grimalfson and Thorhall Gamlason; and the third by Thorward and Thorhall. The three ships had one hundred and