CHAPTER III.

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

Scandinavian Records-Eric the Red-Speculation of Europeans-Columbus and his Voyages-Balboa, Magellan, Cortez-Pizarro and his Comrades-Sir Francis Drake-Expeditions to he Arctic Ocean and their Result.

SCANDINAVIAN RECORDS--ERIC THE RED.

THE discovery of a New World, with all its attendant novelties, must certainly form an epoch in the history of the times when it was made known. To trace the progress of its discovery and the gradual advancement made in exploring the various regions and their peopling, must prove of interest to those who purpose to follow the footsteps of countless thousands who reclaimed the woods and the prairies from the savage.

If the reader will take a cursory look at the map, he will perceive the close proximity of Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and Greenland, and the various groups of islands in the north-east, while upon the north-west he will find that Asia and North America are only separated by a narrow strait, called Behring Strait. It will at once be obvious that the peopling of North America from both Asia and Europe by this route, is not only within the bounds of possibility, but probability. The adventurous spirit of man would lead him to at least venture a few miles from his own coast in order that he might understand the nature of those boundaries or surroundings which were peculiar to his abode; and, therefore, while remaining ignorant of the history of America previous to the year 986, A.D., and only partially and meagrely being able to trace any history up to the time of the discovery by Columbus, yet we have sufficient evidence furnished by Scandinavian records to prove that America was known to the inhabitants of Iceland and Norway long anterior to the voyages of Columbus. It is true these discoveries were made of no practical utility to the inhabitants of the Old World, but it is undeniable that adventurers who had been nurtured amidst the perils and hardships of a seafaring life did penetrate into the American Continent and establish commercial relationship to a limited extent with the natives. Iceland was

discovered by some Scandinavians in 861, A.D., and circumnavigated within three years afterwards; at a later date a Norwegian colony was established there. We next find these colonists proceeding towards the south as far as Greenland, where it is related that Eric the Red established a colony which he christened Erico-Fiord, and which continued to exist for nearly four centuries. During the

whole of this time constant communication and intercourse was held with Norway. Large quantities of whale oil and seals were transmitted to the parent country, while in return the settlers received their necessary supplies.

In the same year in which Eric the Red migrated to Greenland, Biarne, the son of one of his companions, sailing in a similar direction, was carried by northerly winds out of his intended course and beyond his destined point. He reached a land which was without mountains, exhibiting only gentle elevations covered with wood, and still further to the southward another land which was flat and also overgrown with wood. Standing thence out to sea, and sailing for three days with a south-west wind, Biarne and his companions arrived at a large island, the shores of which were high and covered with icebergs. From this last-discovered land they returned by four days' sailing to the colony of Greenland. The discoveries of Biarne were speedily followed up. Lief Ericsonthat is, Lief, son of Eric the Red-in the year 1000, A.D., came to the same land which Biarne had seen, and to which he gave the name of Helluland. He next met with a country which he called Woodland; from thence he continued to journey to the eastward till he discovered an island where they found many vines and grapes. To this island they gave the name of Vineland, and here he and his companions spent three winters, and during that time explored the adjacent country; but afterwards falling into a difficulty with the natives (Esquimaux), Thomald, the brother of Lief Ericson, being slain, the remainder of the expedition returned to Greenland in 1005. The observations they made, and the descriptions which they gave upon their return of the country they had visited, soon prompted others to undertake voyages in the same direction, in hopes of making still further discoveries. The King of Norway himself seems to have been impressed with the story related by the returned adventurers, and he therefore authorized Thorform, surnamed Karisfene (one who is destined to be an able or great man), and related to the king, as well as Snorre Thorbrandsen, a noted geographer-both of whom were men occupying exalted and influential positions in their country to form an expedition, and endeavour to reach still further south, and if possible establish a colony as a nucleus from which explorations might be made into the interior of the country. In the spring of 1005 the expedition, which consisted of two ships, and contained one hundred and sixty men, with all the attendants of such scientific instruments as were then known, with many of the party who had accompanied the former expeditions, and with ample provisions and all the necessaries for a three years' voyage, left Greenland. They found the first part of their journey both dangerous and tedious, and the navigation intricate, in consequence of the great icebergs and immense fields of ice which impeded their progress; they, however, soon passed Helluland, discovered by Lief

Ericson, and Markland, discovered by the same explorer. Next they reached Kialarnes, inhabited by the Esquimaux. They continued their journey southward, passed numerous islands near the mouth of a river, and finally reached Vineland, where they landed. They found a country more beautiful to the eye than their own, and rich in trees, corn, and flowers. They record that cattle could feed without being housed, and that fruit, delicious to the palate, but new to them, grew in abundance; that there were vast mountains luxuriant with great forests; that they were full of deer and game, and that the rivers were full of fish. But although they spent three winters in this attractive land-although they found that the seed which they had brought with them, and which they sowed, thrived wonderfully, and the climate was healthy and pleasant-yet unfortunate bickerings and quarrels with the natives soon brought about discord and war, and they and they were compelled to depart to their own homes after a three years' sojourn. Still the intercourse between Greenland and Vineland did not cease, but on the contrary it was carried on for over a century, that is, to 1121.

The testimony here given is taken from the Scandinavian records, and is most particular in the relation of details; and there can be no doubt that the Helluland of the Northmen was our present Newfoundland, with its naked and rocky approaches; Markland answers to Nova Scotia and the adjacent forest-covered regions; the keel-shaped Cape Kialarnes is the well-known Cape Cod, with its deserts and long narrow beaches of sand; in the island between which and the neighbouring mainland Biarne sailed, we recognize Nantucket, with its adjacent shoals; and the pleasant Vineland is the region beyond the Connecticut and neighbouring New England States of our modern maps.

SPECULATION OF EUROPEANS.

But from the year 1121 to 1492 we have a blank in the progress of discovery. No tales had ever reached the nations. of Southern Europe of the adventures of the hardy Northmen -not a whisper of the existence of a territory that was to be the theatre of actions so marvellous, and of a progress so unparalleled, that in its contemplation the mind is lost in wonder-not a fugitive leaf from the Scandinavian records ever found its way into the libraries of Southern Europe, to tell the enthusiastic dreamers that their mental visions were but the positive reflex of a living, moving world-no wanderer ever made his way to England or Spain to guide the barques of Columbus over the unfathomable deep. The currents of the ocean might fill the mind with speculation and conjecture; the shipwrecked mariner washed on some desolate shore pauses, and starts with mingled fear and amazement, when for the first time he sees clearly defined upon the sand the outline of the human foot; he knows at once he is not alone-that there

C

before him is palpable evidence of the existence of a being like unto himself; and though he may doubt whether he be friend or foe, yet he is convinced that there must be within his reach the means of sustaining human life. Did the idle wanderers, as they strolled along the Atlantic shore, toying with the glistening pebbles in the sunshine, gathering the floating seaweed that had journeyed over many thousand miles, or examining the strange natural curiosities that were wafted to them by wave and tide, ever pause to reflect from whence they came? Did they think that the ocean swept onward without boundary and beyond the navigator's reach? Did the rich and rare fruits, perhaps half decayed, that were left by the waves upon the sandy shore, never create conjectural thoughts as from whence they came? In shape, in taste, and in colour they were strange to the eye and to the palate. Did they not wonder at the beauty and newness of the flowers that grew from the seeds they gathered from the faded and drooping plants that lay upon the wave-washed beach? Did the botanist never gaze with delight on the branches of trees whose formation puzzled his intelligence-on trees whose character differed from those indigenous to his own soil, whose trunks were greater in circumference, whose wood was rich in colour and beautiful in grain, and whose branches were arranged with marvellous beauty? What more perfect to his eye than the expanding fan-like leaf of the palmetto, or sweeter to the taste than the stately sugar-cane? There were branches of innumerable and yet unknown varieties of trees; there were weeds of exquisite and delicate texture and form; there were images quaint, grotesque, and peculiar; there were, finally, the poor silent bodies of the dead of an unknown race (that peopled not their own land) found lying on the rugged rocks and bare sands where the receding waves had left them. Was it to be wondered at that men of a contemplative and reflective character conjectured that these were the evidences of a land peopled beyond the Atlanticthat they interpreted it to mean that these were signs to tell them that if they would but venture they might discover "a land flowing with milk and honey." The spherical nature of the earth had become a positive belief in the mind of Columbus; the marvellous narrative of Marco Polo had strengthened his belief in a Western World, or at least in a passage to India and China-the fond hope of the explorer to discover. All the evidences which the shore could give, all the theories he could build up from the study of the map of Ptolemy, the golden-tinted pictures of Marco Polo, and the fond hopes of his own buoyant nature, assisted him in battling against every obstacle, every disappointment, and every opposing force that seemed to delay the accomplishment of that which had now become to him the dream of his life. It is said that "all great discoveries, whether in the physical or the moral world, are the consequences of prior trains of thought and events." The classic fable of a Minerva springing full armed from the brain of Jupiter, has no parallel in

the actual world of human nature. The dreams of the visionary enthusiast point towards the conclusions which a later age carries into active being the loose and scattered events which, taken singly, point to no conclusion, are combined by the philosophical observer into a connected train, and important consequences educed from the consideration to which they lead. All the signs on the sandy shores-all the fervid belief of the age was in favour of the existence of a great western region; and Columbus, besides this, believed that, by philosophic induction, he was certain of its existence. Once convinced, and his whole soul was in his dream of success. He petitioned Ferdinand and Isabella-he conversed with the most celebrated savans of Spain upon his projects-he endeavoured to obtain the assistance of all who had power within the magic circle of the Court-he tried to enlist the sympathies of the rich and the influential. Long were his delays and patient were his endeavours, but he never faltered. Ever earnest, ever steadfast, and ever hopeful of success, despondency never claimed him as a victim for an hour. The day of triumph came-the day when the means were to be placed at his disposal for the fulfilment of his project had arrived. A generous and noble Castilian lady, with a crown upon her brow, became his patron, and through her agency Columbus was provided with an armament sufficient, with good fortune and fair winds, to accomplish his desire. To Isabella of Spain is the honour due of encouraging with her money, her good wishes, and her smiles, the expedition which discovered America; and yet in all that land no single monument is erected to her honour and her glorious memory.

COLUMBUS AND HIS VOYAGES.

Three small vessels carrying ninety men set sail from Palos, on the coast of Spain, on a bright September morning. The shores were lined with a noble concourse of spectators. Proud Castilian maidens and noble Spanish cavaliers cheered Columbus as he departed, though they looked upon his errand as madness. A long and stormy passage ensued, dissention and mutiny broke out amid the crew, and all the anticipations of a successful issue seemed gradually passing away; but the heart of the bold and heroic navigator was true as steel, and his resolution never faltered. Firm in the conviction that ere long he would descry the wished-for land-strong in the belief that a glorious conclusion would be the result of his laborious. journey-he sailed on; and as the sun went down, crimsoning the west, on the 11th day of October, 1492, a new world, and the home of future millions, dawned upon his delighted eye.

The spot on which Columbus landed was the small island of Guanahani, or San Salvador, one of the Bahama Archipelago. After visiting Hayti, or Hispaniola, where he left some of his crew who desired to settle, he returned to Europe to report the result of his discoveries, and to receive the congratulations of his sovereign.