Among those whose curiosity had been excited by the discovery of the un known lands, was Leif, one of the sons of Eric the Red. This enterprising navigator purchased Biarne's ship, and, having manned it with a crew of thirtyfive men, set sail in quest of strange lands, in the year 1000. The first land they made was that which Biarne had seen last. Here they went on shore; not a blade of grass was to be seen, but everywhere mountains of ice, and between these and the shore one barren plain of slate (hella). This country not appearing to possess any good qualities, they called it Helluland, and put to sea again. This was the land which Biarne had discovered to be an island, and was doubtless Newfoundland, which in modern descriptions is said partly to consist of naked rocky flats where not even a shrub can grow, and therefore called Barrens; thus corresponding to the island of Helluland first discovered by Biarne. The next land they came to, and where they went on shore, was level, covered with woods, and characterized by cliffs of white sand and a low coast; they called it Markland (Woodland). This country, southwest of Helluland, and distant from it about three days' sail, is Nova Scotia, of which the descriptions given by later writers answers completely to that given by the ancient Northmen of Markland. Leif left this country, and, after two days' sailing with a northeast wind, came to an island eastward of the mainland. They sailed westward, and went on shore at a place where a river issued from a lake and flowed into the Here they first raised some log-huts, but when they had determined upon passing the winter there, they built commodious houses, which were afterward called Leifsbudir (Leif's booths). Leif then divided his people into two companies, which were alternately to be employed in guarding the houses and in making short excursions. He gave them special instructions not to go farther than would admit of their return on the same evening. It happened one day that one of his followers, a German named Tyrker, was missing. Leif, with a small party, went out to seek him, but they soon met him returning. He informed them that he had not been far, but had discovered vines and grapes, with which he was well acquainted, having been born in a country where vines grew. They had now two employments-hewing of timber for loading the ship, and collecting grapes, with which they filled the long boat. Leif named the country Vinland (Vineland), and in the spring departed thence for Greenland.

sea.

The country thus named Vineland, and which is proved to be identical with Massachusetts and Rhode Island, naturally became the theme of much conversation in Greenland; and Leif's brother, Thorwald, thinking it had not been sufficiently explored, was desirous of making a voyage thither, with a view to more extensive researches. In pursuance of this object he borrowed Leif's ship, and having received his instructions and advice, set sail in the year 1002. They reached Vineland at Leifsbooths, and spent the winter there. In the spring of 1003 Thorwald equipped the ship's long-boat with a party of his followers for the purpose of making a voyage of discovery southward. They found the country extremely beautiful, but without any appearance of men having been there before them, except on an island to the westward, where they discovered a wooden shed. They did not return to their companions at Leifsbooths until

autumn.

In the summer of 1004 Thorwald left a party at Leifsbooths, and steering his course first eastward and then northward, passed a remarkable headland enclosing a bay. They called it Kialarnes (Keelcape), from its resemblance to the keel of their ship. This promontory, which modern geographers have sometimes likened to a horn and sometimes to a sickle, is Cape Cod. They sailed along the eastern coast into one of the nearest firths, until they arrived at a promontory entirely overgrown with wood, where they all landed. Thorwald was so much pleased with this spot, that he exclaimed to his companions, "Here it is beau

tiful, and here I should like well to fix my dwelling." He little thought that, instead of being his dwelling, it was so soon to be his burial-place. As they were preparing to go on board, they descried on the sandy beach three hillocks, which, on a near approach, were found to be three canoes, and under each three Skrellings (Esquimaux). A fight ensued: eight of the Skrellings were killed; the ninth escaped with his canoe. Afterward a numerous party rushed upon them from the interior of the bay, and discharged arrows at them. Thorwald and his party endeavored to shield themselves by raising little screens on the ship's side, and the Skrellings at length retired, but not till Thorwald had re ceived a wound under the arm from an arrow. Finding the wound to be mortal, he said to his followers, "I now advise you to prepare for your departure as soon as possible, but me ye shall bring to the promontory where I thought it good to dwell; it may be that it was a prophetic word which fell from my mouth about my abiding there for a season; there shall ye bury me, and plant a cross at my head and also at my feet, and call the place Krossanes (Crossness) in all time coming." He died, and they buried him as he had directed. (Krossanes is, in all probability, Gurnet Point.) After this they rejoined their companions at Leifsbooths, where they spent the winter; but in the spring of 1005 set sail for Greenland to communicate to Leif the fate of his brother.

When the circumstance of the death and burial of Thorwald was made known in Greenland, Thorstein, Eric's third son, determined on making a voyage to Vineland to fetch his brother's body. He equipped the same ship, and was accompanied by his wife Gudrida: but his design was frustrated; for, after having been tossed about and driven they knew not. whither during the whole summer, they landed in the western settlements of Greenland, where Thorstein shortly after died. In the spring Gudrida returned to Ericsford.

This unsuccessful expedition was soon after followed by another, on a larger scale than any of the preceding ones; for it happened that, in the summer of 1006, two ships arrived from Iceland, the one commanded by Thorfinn Karlsefne, a wealthy and powerful man, of illustrious birth; the other by Biarne Grimolfson. Thorfinn was accompanied by Snorre Thorbradson, and Biarne by Thorhall Gamlason. At this time a festival was held at Brattalid, on which occasion the Vineland voyage was the leading topic of conversation, and Thorfinn, being cap tivated by Gudrida, asked and obtained the consent of her brother-in-law, Leif, to their union, which took place in the course of the winter. On the celebration of these nuptials the Vineland voyage was again the subject of discussion, and Karlsefne was prevailed on, by his wife Gudrida and others, to prosecute a voyage thither and plant a colony. Accordingly three ships were fitted out, and all kinds of live stock taken on board. The first ship was commanded by Thorfinn Karlsefne and Snorre Thorbradson, the second by Biarne Grimolfson and Thorhall Gamlason, and the third by Thorward, who had married Freydisa, the natural daughter of Eric the Red. They mustered one hundred and sixty men, and, being furnished with what was necessary for the occasion, departed in the spring of 1007. After touching at Helluland and Markland, they came to Kialarnes (the Nauset of the Indians), where the trackless deserts, long beaches, and sands, so much excited their wonder, that they called them Furdustrandir (Wonder strands). They passed these, and came to a firth which ran far into the country, and which they called Straumfiördr (Stream firth). On the shore of this firth they landed the country was beautiful, and they made preparations for a winter residence; but Thorhall wished to go in quest of Vineland in a north direction. Karlsefne, however, decided on going to the southwest. Thorhall, therefore, with eight men, quitted them, and was driven by westerly gales to the coast of Ireland, where, according to some accounts, they were taken and made slaves. Karlsefne and those that remained with him, in all one hundred

and fifty-one men, sailed in a southerly direction till they entered a river which fell into the sea from a lake. They steered into this lake, and called the place Hóp, which, in Icelandic, signifies a bay, or the land bordering on such a bay Here they landed, and found wheat growing wild on the low grounds, and on the rising lands grape-vines. To this place Mount Hope's bay corresponds; and it was at this Hóp that Leifsbooths were situated. Above this, and most probably on the beautifully-situated elevation afterward called by the Indians Mont Haup, Karlsefne and his companions erected their dwellings and passed the winter. They had no snow, and the cattle fed in the open fields. One morning, in the beginning of 1008, they perceived a number of canoes coming from the southwest past the cape. Karlsefne exhibited friendly signals by holding up a white shield, and the natives, a sallow-colored and ill-looking race, drew nigh, and commenced bartering furs and squirrel-skins for pieces of red cloth, and afterward for milk-soup.

While this traffic was proceeding, a bull, which Thorfinn had brought with him, came out of the wood and bellowed loudly. This terrified the Skrellings; they rushed to their canoes, and rowed away. About this time Gudrida gave birth to a son, who received the name of Snorre. At the commencement of the following winter the Skrellings appeared again in much greater numbers, and menaced hostility by loud yellings. They advanced-a battle took place; the Skrellings had war-slings, and a galling discharge of missiles fell upon the land; one, enormously large, fell with a crash that filled the Northmen with dismay, and they fled into the woods. Freydisa, the wife of Thorward, a bold and artful woman, upon perceiving the retreat of her countrymen, called to them, and reproached them with their cowardice, saying, if she had a weapon she would defend herself better than any of them. She followed them into the wood, where she saw the dead body of Snorre Thorbradson; a flat stone was sticking in his head, and his drawn sword was lying by his side. This she seized, and by her frantic gestures so terrified the Skrellings, that they in turn fled to their canoes and rowed away. Thorfinn and his people now rallied; they came up to her and praised her courage; but they became convinced that they could not continue in the country without being in constant alarm from the powerful hostility of the natives, and therefore determined upon returning to their own country. They freighted their ships, sailed eastward, and came to Straumfiord, where they passed the third winter; Karlsefne's son Snorre being then three years old. At Markland they met with five Skrellings, two of which (boys) they caught and carried away with them. These children, after they had been taught the Norse language, informed them that the Skrellings were ruled by chieftains (kings), that there were no houses in the country, but that the people dwelled in holes and caves. Karlsefne, after having gone in quest of Thorhall, pursued his voyage to Greenland, and arrived at Ericsfiord in 1011.

The next voyage was undertaken at the instigation of Freydisa, who prevailed on two brothers, commanders of a ship from Iceland, to make a voyage to Vineland, and share equally with her in all the profits. To this the brothers, Helge and Finnboge, assented, and a mutual agreement was entered into that each party should have thirty-five able-bodied men on board their ship; but Freydisa concealed five additional men, whom she took with her. They reached Leifsbooths in 1012, where they remained during the winter. But the deceitful conduct of Freydisa caused an estrangement between the parties, and she at length succeeded, by subtlety and artifice, in persuading her husband to effect the murder of the two brothers and their followers. After this atrocious act they returned to Greenland in the spring of 1013.

At this time Thorfinn Karlsefne was waiting for a fair wind to sail for Norway. His ship was laden with a more valuable cargo than was ever befor

known to leave Greenland. When the wind was favorable, he sailed to Norway, and sold his goods. The next year he proceeded to Iceland, and in the year following, 1015, purchased the Glaumboe estate, where he resided during the remainder of his life. Snorre, his American-born son, also dwelled and ended his days there.

Among the numerous and illustrious descendants of Karlsefne was the learned bishop Thorlak Runolfson, born in 1085, of Snorre's daughter Halfrida, who was probably the original compiler of the account of the foregoing voyages. After these, many voyages were undertaken, and the last piece of information preserved in the ancient MSS. relates to a voyage, in the year 1347, from Greenland to Markland, undertaken for the purpose of bringing home timber and other supplies. On her voyage homeward the ship was driven out of her course, and arrived, with loss of anchors, at Straumfiord, in the west of Iceland. From the accounts of this voyage, written by a contemporary nine years after the event, it appears that the intercourse between Greenland and America Proper had been maintained to so late a date as 1347; for it is expressly stated that the ship went to Markland, which must have been thus mentioned as a country still known and visited in those days.

Thus it appears that, during the tenth and eleventh centuries, the ancient Northmen discovered a great extent of the eastern coasts of North America, and made frequent visits to Massachusetts and Rhode Island; and that, during the centuries immediately following, the intercourse was never entirely broken off. As confirmatory of these statements, Dr. J V. C. Smith, of Boston, has written an account of a remarkable rough stone cemetery, discovered about fifty years ago in Rainsford island, in the bay of Boston, which contained a skeleton and a sword-hilt of iron. Dr. Smith argues that, as the body could not have been that of a native Indian nor of a settler posterior to the re-discovery, it was most probably that of one of the early Scandinavians. Dr. Webb, of Providence, has also furnished an account of a skeleton found at Fall river Massachusetts, on or near which were a bronze breast-plate, bronze tubes belonging to a belt, &c., none of which appear to be of Indian or of a comparatively modern European manufacture.

A Runic inscription is also still to be seen on Dighton rock, on the east side of Taunton river, which is exposed and covered at every ebb and flow of the tideAt Newport, Rhode Island there is a stone tower built of rough pieces of