CHAPTER XII.

LATER VOYAGES TO NORTHEASTERN AMERICA.

THE Voyage of Freydisa, Eric's daughter, is the last of the Vinland expeditions of which the ancient northern records have left us a detailed narrative. The sagamen, as historians generally, have given their careful attention only to deeds of princely and powerful men; and since, probably, no other prominent members of Eric the Red's family have undertaken further excursions to the American continent, the sagas simply take note of, or allude to, other similar undertakings of less distinguished traders and colonists, without giving any details of them. The circumstances accompanying the southwestern voyages, the features, climate, and products of the American discoveries, and the intercourse, both dangerous and profitable, with the Skraelings were now so well known in all the Scandinavian States, that the Icelandic chroniclers did not deem it any longer worth while to write down over again what they heard sung and rehearsed all around them. When, therefore, they occasionally took notice at all of any of these American excursions, either from Greenland or from Iceland, they contented themselves with the mere mention of the province or district to which the sailing had been effected. Nor did they pay any more attention to the business relations between Greenland and Vinland than to those between their own country and its peninsular colonies, mentioning only such few voyages as were quite extraordinary, either on account of their object or of their unusual particulars.

Thus do we find it recorded that the Greenland bishop, Eric Gnupson, set out for Vinland in the year 1121. Of this event we shall speak more at large farther on.

Towards the end of the thirteenth century great disturbance was caused by the tyrannical measures of the king of Norway, Eric, surnamed "Prestahatare" or the Priest-hater. The rights of the Church were violated by Rafn Oddson, civil governor of Iceland, and vindicated by Arner Thorlakson, bishop of Skalholt, who was strongly supported by two of his priests, Adalbrand and Thorvald, sons of Helga. The sword prevailed for a time, and the priests found it advisable to seek their safety in flight. In the year 1285 they set out-as all other Icelandic exiles had done since three hundred years already for the western countries, and arrived at the island which the Greenlanders called Litla Helluland and to which the saga here gives the name of New Land, Newfoundland; in French, "Terre-Neuve" of to-day.

Eric the Priest-hater resolved to pursue them. In the year 1288 he despatched Rolf to Iceland, with orders to levy money and mariners and to sail to the western regions. Another voyage was made the following year, and a third in 1290. Of these expeditions little is known, but it is recorded that, while Adalbrand soon died, Thorvald was arrested and deported to Norway.3

The expeditions of Rolf to the distant shores, which procured him the title of "Landa-Rolf" or Rolf of the

1 Rafn, Antiq. Amer., p. 261. 2 "Fundu nyja land:" they found New Land; or, perhaps more correctly, they reached the new land.

Amer., pp. 259, seq., 451, and Mémoire, p. 34, seq.; Moosmüller, S. 202; Codex regius Annalium; Flateyarbók; Herbermann, p. 16; Gaffarel, t. i. p. 339; Peschel, GeGravier, p. 160; Rafn, Antiq. schichte der Erdkunde, S. 87, n. 1.

Lands, are probably the origin of one of the Atlantic fantastical islands, of "Royllo," placed in the Northwest of "Antilia."1

Other Icelandic manuscripts also mention the discovery of the "Duneyar" or Feather Islands about the year 1285. These were likely the smaller islets off the American coast which, on account of the numerous eider-ducks there nesting, are called the Egg Islands until this day.2

3

It may not be out of place to remark here that, according to Lescarbot and others, these islands, and especially the "Nyja Land" of the Icelandic priests, were never lost to the fishermen of French Normandy and Brittany, who frequented all the fisheries of Iceland and Norway; and, having once experienced the riches of the shores of Newfoundland or Terre-Neuve, left of them an imperishable knowledge to their posterity.* When Giovanni Cabotto landed on it in the year 1497 he preserved its ancient name, which, we may readily presume, he had learned at the time of his negotiations with the government of Denmark two years previous, when he obtained for the merchants of Bristol the privilege of trading with Iceland and other Danish provinces. Later on we may glean more evidence of a continuous knowledge in European countries of the abundant fisheries of America's northeastern coasts and islands.

We have no certain historic information regarding the intercourse of northern Europe, of Iceland, or of Greenland with the American continent after the middle of the fourteenth century. The last ship recorded

1 Moosmüller, S. 202; supra, p. 5. 2 Rafn, Mémoire, p. 36; Moosmüller, S. 202; Kunstmann, S. 30. 3 P. 247.

42.

Payne, p. 87; Kunstmann, S.

5

Rafn, Mémoire, p. 35.

1

by the Icelandic sagas as having sailed between our continental shores and the Scandinavian colonies of the northern Atlantic was a Greenland craft, which had made a voyage to Nova Scotia, probably for the purpose of getting building-timber and other commodities; and, on its return, had suffered considerably and was driven by a storm to the coast of Iceland. "At the time of Arner Vade, archbishop of Drontheim, in the year 1347," says Torfæus, "landed on the coast of Straumfjord in Iceland a Greenland ship that had formerly sailed to Markland." The record of the Gotskalk Annals is short, as follows: "In 1347 a ship from Greenland came into the mouth of Streamfirth." The Flatey saga likewise states: "In 1347 a ship came from Greenland, which had sailed to Markland, and therein eighteen men." In the elder Skalholt Annals, believed to be written about the year 1360, we find against the date of 1347 the following entry: "There came a ship from Greenland, less in size than the small Icelandic trading-vessels. It came into the outer Streamfirth. It was without an anchor. There were seventeen men on board, and they had sailed to Markland, but had afterwards been driven hither by storms

Any fact or event posterior to the middle of the fourteenth century which might throw light upon the ancient history of our western hemisphere is looked for in vain in the venerable manuscripts of Iceland. It is quite possible, however, that other voyages have taken place between Greenland and Vinland in subsequent years, although the sagamen have not spoken of them

1 Gronl. Ant., cap. xxx. p. 252. 2 Von Humboldt, Kosmos, S. 271; Reeves, p. 82; Beamish, Discovery, p. 150; Rafn, Mémoire, p. 36;

Antiq. Amer., p. 264; Gravier, p. 115; Moosmüller, S. 203; Amer Cath. Quar. Rev., vol. xiii. p. 232.

any more than of many others that were made in earlier times.

Thus, Adam of Bremen relates1 a naval excursion, the circumstances of which he heard from the great Archbishop Adalbert, and which Moosmüller, with others, believes to have reached the coast of Newfoundland. "It was," says the Bremen historian, " at the time of Primate Aldebrand Bezelin, Adalbert's immediate predecessor, between the years 1033 and 1043. Some prominent Frisons had undertaken to make a cruise on the northern seas, to find out whether it was true that, as it was the general opinion in their country, when one would sail directly north from the mouth of the 'Wirraha' or Weser River he would not meet with any land, but run into the waters that were called 'Libersee' or Ocean. The daring mariners fitted out a fleet and sailed, leaving Denmark to the right and Britain to the left; and continued their course between the Orkneys and Norway, until they came to icy Iceland in a westerly direction. From thence they went on to search the northernmost After they had left behind them all the countries and islands mentioned, they placed their undertaking under the protection of Almighty God and of his confessor, St. Willehad, praying for further good fortune. One day they got into the darkness of the clammy ocean almost impenetrable to the eye; and behold! the rising and falling billows were drawing the almost despairing sailors with irresistible force into that deep chaos, which, considered to be the mouth of the abyss, swallowed up the waves and vomited them forth again. The refluent swell drove away some ships of the Frison's fleet, and the crews plied their oars with all their strength to second the saving impulsion, whilst

seas.