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 AMERICANE, 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

sixty men, and carried all sorts of domestic animals for planting and sustaining a colony. An account of this voyage, and a history of the country is still extant, and forms one of the documents in the Antiquitates Americanæ.

These voyagers sailed from Greenland to Helluland, and passing Markland arrived at Kjalarnes; whence sailing south by the shore of the promontory, which they found to consist of trackless beaches and long wastes of sand, they called it Furthustandir [Wonder-strand or Beach]; whether on account of the extensive sandy shore, or from the mirage and optical illusion so common at Cape Cod it can not be determined. Passing southerly they sailed by the island discovered by Lief (probably Martha's Vineyard), and passed thence to Vinland, where they spent the winter.

The bay into which they sailed, they called Hopsvatn, and their residence received the name of Hop (English, Hope, Indian Haup), the identical Mount Hope, Rhode Island, so much celebrated, later, as the residence of King Philip. After various successes, Thorfinn returned to Greenland, and finally went to Iceland and settled.

"From a comparison of all the remaining accounts of these voyages," says a recent able writer, "the geographical, nautical, and astronomical facts contained in them, with the natural history and geography of this country when first settled by the whites, there can be but little doubt that Vinland has been correctly located by the learned Society." Markland is supposed to be what is now Nova Scotia, and Helluland, Newfoundland and the Coast of Labrador.

Of the climate of Vinland the Northmen say, when they were there it was so mild that cattle would live out-doors during the year, that the snow fell but lightly, and that the grass continued to be green in some places, nearly all winter. Among the productions were a kind of wild wheat (maize), a great variety of forest animals, eider ducks in plenty, and the river they described as having been filled with fish, among which were salmon, halibut, etc. It is said by the same historians, that the sun rose at half past seven o'clock in the shortest days, which is the exact time it rises at Mount Hope.

The annexed cut is a view of the celebrated "Dighton Rock," as seen from the west side of Taunton River, in the limits of the present town of Berkeley about eighteen miles east from Providence, and thirty-seven south from Boston. This "Writing Rock," as it is sometimes called, which has caused so much speculation among antiquarians, is of fine grained gray granite; it stands a few feet above

low water mark, and is partially covered at every tide. This rockdesignated in the engraving by two figures near it

is on its face

Some

about eleven feet long, and rises from the ground about five feet; the inscriptions are apparently pecked in: the channels of the letters, or marks, are from one half to three fourths of an inch in width. suppose they were made by the native Indians, but the hard nature of the rock is such that it would seem difficult to have been cut by any tools which they were known to have had in use.

The annexed cut shows the shape of the rock with the inscriptions upon it, being a reduced copy from that taken under the direction of the Rhode Island Historical Society in 1830, and published in the An

tiquitates Americana. It is supposed by some, that these inscriptions were made by the Northmen, and signify, in Icelandic characters, that Thorfinn Karlsefne arrived here in A.D. 1007, and took possession of the country: others assign to them a much earlier origin, and even ascribe them to the Phoenicians. At Newport, Rhode Island, is a cir

cular stone tower, the origin of which is unknown. By some it is supposed to have been erected by the Northmen: by others as having been the work of the first English settlers.

THE DISCOVERIES OF COLUMBUS.

The fame which Columbus had acquired by his first discoveries on the western hemisphere, spread through Europe and inspired many with the spirit of enterprise. The first discovery of Columbus was made in 1492, and on his fourth voyage in 1498, he discovered the continent at the mouth of the Oronoco, in South America.

THE DISCOVERIES OF CABOT.

In 1497, John Cabot, a Venetian, under the patronage of Henry VII, of England, commenced a voyage of discovery. He was accompanied by his son Sebastian, and three hundred men, with two caravals freighted by the merchants of London and Bristol. On the 24th of June they discovered land. Cabot called it Prima Vista, which, in Italian, his native tongue, signifies, first sight. This is supposed to have been some part of the island of Newfoundland. A few days afterward they discovered a smaller island, which they named St. Johns, on account of the discovery being made on the day of John the Baptist. They continued westerly till they reached the Continent, and then sailed along northerly to the latitude of sixty-seven and a half degrees. Despairing of finding "a passage to India" in that quarter, they turned back and sailed along the coast southward to Florida, and then from thence returned to England. Upon the discoveries made in this voyage, the English founded their claim to the eastern portion of North America.

THE VOYAGES OF VERRAZZANO AND OTHERS.

In 1524, John Verrazzano, a Florentine in the service of France, sailed to America and proceeded along the coast from Florida to the fiftieth degree of north latitude. He is supposed to have entered the harbor of New York. He made another voyage, from which he never returned, nor is it known by what disaster he perished. During the next forty years, frequent voyages were made to the coast of North America. Fishing, and trade with the natives, appears to have been the principal object.