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second year of his residence in Greenland his colonization schemes began to succeed, and having returned to Iceland to promote the movement, he returned to Greenland in 986, with no less than thirty-five Icelandic ships with colonists for the new country discovered by him. Of these only fourteen ships arrived in safety; the others were swallowed up in the waves and ice. Thus a new and independent state sprang up far beyond what had been considered the habitable globe. As Iceland was at this time a republic, so the community of Icelanders in Greenland modelled their political institutions after those of Iceland. By these events. the United States loses the prestige of having been the first republic established in the western hemisphere. The population of Greenland increased as rapidly as its harsh and repellant climate would permit. Indeed no other people than the Northmen, the hardiest of Europeans, could have succeeded in making a settlement on those inhospitable shores. Not only Icelanders, but Norsemen from Norway, emigrated in considerable numbers to Greenland, and a flourishing colony was established, and trade between the colony and Iceland and Norway became permanent. The town of Ericsfiôrd became a prosperous and somewhat populous place. Explorations were made along the coasts and new settlements established. It is not known how far to the north these explorations and settlements extended, but a pillar inscribed with Runic characters in 1135, on one of the Woman's Islands on the east shore of Baffin's Bay, and found there in 1824 by Sir Edward Parry, proves that one of their expeditions went as far up as Upernavik, in latitude 72° 50', and made a clearance there, if not a settlement. Eric and his companions found no previous human being or native races inhabiting the country, for no mention is made of the Esquimaux, or Skrælings, as the Northmen called them, in those extreme northern regions, in any of the ancient manuscripts until the fourteenth century. The towns or settlements extending from and around and beyond Ericsfiôrd were called Ostre Bygd (or east country or shore) and Westre Bygd (or west country or shore). Modern investigations and discoveries of the ruins of Norse structures have clearly proven that both settlements were on the west coast, the Ostre Bygd being the southern settlement, and the Westre Bygd being the northern settlement.

The Northmen had never failed in any of their undertakings, and the success of the Greenland colony was in keeping with their history. It is certain that at one tine there existed and flourished no less than three hundred farms and villages in Greenland, extending from Cape Farewell to Disco. In 1261 Greenland had been claimed as politically, as well as socially and by consanguinity, be

longing to Norway, and with regret became subject to the mother country. From that remote period to the present time, none of the land-pirating nations of Europe, which have extended their conquests into Africa and Asia as far as India, to say nothing of their American acquisitions, have ever coveted this crystal, icy gem, which still glitters in the crown of Norway. Not only did Greenland wax strong and prosperous as a Norwegian colony, but the Christian religion gained a firm foothold in the country. Churches and monasteries were erected and maintained for centuries, and Greenland became the seat of a Catholic bishopric, and had a succession of seventeen bishops. We propose to defer the consideration of the ecclesiastical history of Greenland and Vinland to a future time, when in a separate article we will trace the progress of this most interesting branch of our subject. For the present we conclude our notice of Greenland proper with a brief reference to the extinction of the colonies, the history of which is buried in mystery and darkness. Crantz, himself a Norwegian, in his "History of Greenland,” repels with indignation the thought that so miserable a race as the Esquimaux, whom the Northmen contemptuously called Skrælings, could have been "capable of overmatching the Norwegians, a nation of conquerors, invading their populous colonies, barricaded as they were by craggy rocks, and destroying them root and branch, so that not a living vestige of them is now to be found." Nor does he find in the annals of the race any accounts of war. He attributes the principal cause of the extermination of the Greenland colonies to pestilence. A plague, known as the Black Death, ravaged some of the fairest portions of Europe, destroying not only man and beast, and all living things, but even the very roots of trees, and shrubs and herbage withered away under its poisonous breath. Commerce between Greenland and Norway, and the constant passage of vessels between the two countries, must have easily brought the infection across the ocean. The severity of the climate and the absence of the finer comforts of wealth and civilization and of good medical treatment, gave easier spread to the plague, which decimated the population and greatly reduced their strength and numbers. The more northern settlements, becoming depleted by disease, were probably abandoned, and the entire colony became finally congregated in the southern, or Ostre Bygd. The savages increased in numbers and in territory as the Norwegians were reduced. Finally, the plague left but little for the savages to accomplish. Still there are shreds of history that lead us to the belief that their extinction was not sudden or entire. Remnants of the colony must have survived the Black Death, and these probably amalgamated with the natives, and gradually lost all individuality. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at

tempts were made to discover the lost colonies, and in 1721 the Danish missionary, Hans Egede, succeeded in establishing himself at Godthaab, but his congregations consisted only of Esquimaux. The Northmen were gone.

Soon afterwards the Moravian Mission was founded and continues to the present day; and the settlements have increased. The sites. of the colonies of the ancient Northmen have now been thoroughly identified; the ruins of the churches and other structures of the Catholic Northmen of the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries have been found and identified with certainty; and it is now demonstrated beyond a doubt that Igallikofiord or Ericsfiord was the site of the long-lost colony of Eric the Red. Learned societies in Europe and America are making daily progress in elucidating the history, the geography, and the antiquities of the Greenland of the Northmen. The historical societies of New England, the Royal Society of Northern Antiquarians at Copenhagen, and the Societé des Americanistes in France and other countries are among the foremost laborers in this interesting field. The Antiquitates Americana, by Professor Rafn, published at Copenhagen in the ancient Norse language, in modern Danish, and in Latin, in 1837, gives illustrations of the monuments and ruins now remaining to attest this history, and fac similes of the manuscripts that recount its details. Greenland was the base of operations for the Norse explorations and discoveries of unknown. shores. We will now proceed to give the results of the latter.

Bjarn Heriulfson was the Norse discoverer of the first land of our continent. A glance at the map of the world will show to the most casual observer how closely together in those northern regions the lands lie. Iceland is not far from Norway; Greenland is not far from Iceland; and from Greenland to Labrador, from Labrador to Nova Scotia, from Nova Scotia to New England, the transit by sea is short and easy. Considering the wonderful maritime genius of the Northmen, it is a matter of surprise that these discoveries were not sooner made. The discovery of Iceland by Naddod was in some respects an accident, for a tempest carried him off his course from the Ferroë islands to Iceland. The discovery of the rocky sea-borders of Greenland by Gunnbjorn was, in some respects, an accident, for he too was carried out to sea by a storm. So the discovery of the American coasts by Bjarn was, in some respects, an accident, for, in search of Greenland, he stumbled on New England. Yet there was method in all these accidents. Discovery, colonization and traffic were the ideas that, after all, guided the ships of the Northmen. They were so accustomed to visit lands and islands, living out at sea and out of the beaten track of navigation, such as Iceland, Shetland, Ferroë, and the Ork

neys, that Greenland, and the lands to the south, including our own shores, seemed to them but no distant parts of the same system or chain of islands. To them such events were commonplace. But to the philosophical and religious mind of Columbus the same events were a solution of the earth's geography, a continent given to civilization, a new world to Christendom.

Among the companions of Eric in his voyage of discovery from Iceland to Greenland was Heriulf, an old mariner, who had become a large land owner and settler in Iceland. He too, like Eric, made a home in Greenland. His son, Bjarn, continued his commercial voyages, and was trading at some distant mart when his father went to Greenland with Eric. His custom always had been to return from his voyages in time to spend the winter with his father. The ancient chronicles describe this youth as brave, generous, and promising beyond example. His devotion to his father was in keeping with his high and noble character. On returning to Iceland in 986, to spend the winter around the family hearth, he learned for the first time of his father's departure for distant lands to the west in company with Eric. He resolved at once not to unload his vessel, or even tarry for a short time, but to proceed at once over the unknown deep in search of his father, and in order to spend as usual the coming winter with him. No amount of expostulation could deter this young Viking from putting his daring purpose into execution. He had but the vaguest notion of the direction and situation of Greenland. He followed the guidance of the stars. His exploit is recounted in the Saga of Eric the Red, which states that he had good weather the first three days of his voyage. The polar currents must have carried him from the direct course, for he could have reached Greenland in three days. Tempests and thick mists now impeded his progress for several days and nights. When the sun appeared, he saw the outline of an unknown land, looming up like a blue cloud. Approaching and scanning the land, it was found to be covered with forests and furrowed with small hills. "This is not the land we seek," he said to his men, "for we are assured that the mountains of Greenland are high and covered with ice." Then heading to the north, he discovered, after a day and night's navigation, a level country covered with trees. Here his sailors desired to land in order to replenish their supplies of wood and water; but the young adventurer was in search of Greenland and his father. After three days' sailing they approached an island, all barren and intersected with glaciers, and passed it by. And again, after two days and nights of navigation in the open sea, they discovered another land, whose towering cliffs of eternal snow and ice broke in against a lowering sky. Here at once Bjarn recognized "Green

land's icy mountains." Here they landed, and saw a boat at the shore. It happened that the place was not far from the residence of Heriulf, for it was called Heriulfness; and soon the father and son were embraced in each other's arms.

The circumstances of this remarkable voyage, its western direction from Iceland, its diversion to the southward, the courses of the wind and water currents, and the corresponding distances measured by the time of a sailing vessel, all unite in determining with fair and just accuracy the parts of the American coast that Bjarn saw and along which he sailed. The learned geographers and skilful critics, who have reviewed all these circumstances, have decided that the first land discovered was Nantucket, one degree south of Boston; that the second land discovered was Nova Scotia; and the third land was Newfoundland. There are certainly no other lands on a voyage approaching and reaching Greenland from the south that can be identified as the lands discovered by Bjarn.

Bjarn Heriulfson now abandoned seafaring and resided with his father the remainder of his life, spending most of the time in Greenland, occasionally visiting Iceland and Norway. Some years after his sailing along the American coasts, he visited Norway, and recounted his adventures to some of the most intelligent and influential men of the country. Jarl Eric, who was present, and others, censured his indifference to the importance of his discovery, blamed him for not going ashore and exploring the country. His narratives, however, added to the enthusiasm already created in Norway and Iceland by the discovery and colonization of Greenland.

Now a new element entered into the wonderful forces which formed the startling character of the Northmen. Olaf Tryggvason, the king of Norway, became converted to Christianity towards the end of the tenth century. His zeal for the conversion of his subjects knew no bounds. He made vast tours through the country accompanied by Christian missionaries, for the diffusion of the new religion. Military escorts also accompanied this royal missionary, and it is said that the shrines and altars of Odin fared roughly at his hands. So great was the respect of the Northmen for power and strength and force, that the energy and power with which the king supplemented the milder arguments of the missionaries, resulted in the conversion of Norway to Christianity. An expedition to Iceland, accompanied with missionaries, had the same result. Now that Greenland was the object of so much attention, the convert-king desired to bestow also on his Greenland countrymen the blessings of Christianity. Eric, the founder of Greenland, had two sons, who were among the most intelligent and promising of the rising men of the time and country, Leif and Thon

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