Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in North America; including the United States, Canada, the shores of the Polar Sea, and the voyages in search of a North-West Passage; with observations on Emigration. (Appendix.-List of important works relating to America.)

Front matter

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF DISCOVERIES AND TRAVELS IN NORTH AMERICA. HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF DISCOVERIES AND TRAVELS IN NORTH AMERICA; INCLUDING THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, THE SHORES OF THE POLAR SEA, AND THE VOYAGES IN SEARCH OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE; WITH OBSERVATIONS ON EMIGRATION. BY HUGH MURRAY, ESQ., F.R.S.E., Author os Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in Africa, Asia, -Sic. æiliistratrtf &£ a diHap of $ort& America. VOL. I. LONDON : PUBLISHED BY LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, & GREEN ; AND OLIVER & BOYD, EDINBURGH. 1829- Oliver & Boyd, Printers.

ADVERTISEMENT.

. The following Historical Account of Discoveries in North America, including a View of the Actual State of that Continent, is on the same plan with the for mer works of the Author on Discoveries in Africa and in Asia. These works having been favourably received, he has been led to believe that the present one might be equally acceptable to those readers who take an interest in the progress of geographical discovery and the present state of the world. The series of bold adventure by which the coasts of North America were discovered and its colonies founded ; the daring attempts to find a Northern Pas sage by its arctic shores ; the unparalleled growth and extending power of the United States ; with the open ings which America affords to our emigrant population, — all these circumstances conspire to render that continent an object of peculiar interest. VI

Chapter I

— On supposed Early Discoveries of America. General Statement of the Question, 5. — Absence of authentic Records, 6. — Probabilities, 7- — Mode of ancient Navigation, ib. — Different Modes in which Vessels might have reached America, 10. — The Carthaginians, the Saracens, 11. — The Welsh under Madoc, 12. — The Scandinavians, 13. — Voyages to Vinland, 14.— Eric, Leis, Thorvald, Thorfin, &c, 15.— Vinland not America, 19. — -What Country Vinland is, 21. — Voyages of the Zeni, 28. — Estotiland, 30. — Estotiland not America, 32. — What Country Estotiland is, 33. CHAP. II. — On the Origin op the Inhabitants op America. General Statement of the Question, 37. — Whether all Men were derived from one Original, 38. — Arguments for this Opinion, 39. — Action ofthe Sun on the Human Skin, 41. — Form and Colour of the Americans, 44. — Various Causes affecting it, 46. — White Nations in America, 49. — Various Theories respecting the Peopling of America, 51. — Imagined Resem- CONTENTS. blance between the Americans and Jews, 52. — Acosta, 53. — Grotius, 54. — Probable Quarter whence America was peo pled, 54.

Question whether Colonists might come from any other Quarter, 55. — Supposed Resemblances between the Languages of America and those of the other Continents, 57-

Book I. Discovery And Colonization Op North America

CHAP. I. — Early Voyages to the American Coast. Discovery of North America, 61. — John and Sebastian Cabot, 62. — Various Accounts of their Voyage, 65. — Ponce de Leon, Discovery of Florida, 71- — Verazzani, his Voyages along the American Coast, 74- — His Tragical Fate, 80. — Cartier, 81. — Discovers the Gulf of St Lawrence, 84. — Montreal, 87. — Roberval, 89. CHAP. II. — Spanish Expeditions into Florida. Florida becomes known as Part of the Continent, 91. — Expedition of Pamphilo Narvaez, 92. — War with the Indians, 97. — Various Adventures, 101. — Alvaro Nunez reaches the Gulf of Mexico, 114. — Expedition of Fernando de Soto, 115. — Various Countries through which he passes, 117. — His Return, 154. — His Death, 155. CHAP. Ill — French Expeditions into Florida. Expedition of Ribaut, 162.— Of Laudonniere, 164.— Of Menendez, 166 — Dreadful Catastrophe, 169.— Expedition of De Gourgues, 173 — His Success, 175— Return to France, 176.

CONTENTS. IX CHAP. IV. — Discovery and Settlement of Virginia. Rise of Maritime Enterprise in England, 178. — Sir Humphrey Gilbert, 180.— His Arrival at Newfoundland, 184.— Fate of his Expedition, 187- — Sir Walter Raleigh, 192. — Sends an Expedition under Amadas and Barlow, 193. — Sir Richard Greenville, 196.— Lane, 197— White, 202.— Gosnold, 205— Captain John Smith, 208. — His Voyages and Adventures, 211. — The Princess Pocahuntas, 215. — Progress ofthe Settlements, 223. — Conflicts with the Indians, 228. — View of the Government, Religion, &c. of the Native Indians, 230. CHAP. V. — Discovery and Settlement op New England. First Discovery by Gosnold, 236. — Voyage of Challons, 237- — Captain John Smith, 239. — Unsuccessful Attempts, 241. — Religious Persecution in England, 243. — The Brownists, 245. — Their Colony at New Plymouth, 246. — Persecution of the Puritans, 247- — Numerous Emigrations, 248. — Settlement of Salem and Boston, 249. — First Arrangements of the Colony, 254. — Schism occasioned by Williams, 259. — The Red Cross, ib. — Rise ofthe Antinomian Sect, 260. — Mrs Hutchinson, 261. — Violent Ferment in the Colony, 265. — Proceedings against the Antinomians, 268. — The Anabaptists, 276. — The Quakers, 278. — Accounts of their Conduct, 279. — Violent Proceedings against them, 284. — Invasion of the Colonial Charter, 289.— Andros Governor, 290.— Revolution of 1688, 292.— Alarm about Witchcraft, 293.— Trials, 296.— Singular Confessions, 297— Dreadful State of the Colony, 306— Close of the Proceedings, 309. — The Native Indians, 311. — Dreadful Wars with them, 313. — Measures taken for their Conversion, 316.

CHAP. VI. — Settlement of the other Colonies. Secondary States of New England, 322. — Connecticut, 323. — X CONTENTS. Rhode Island, 326.— New Hampshire, 327— New York, settled by the Dutch, 329. — Transference to England, 331. — Maryland, 337-— Carolina, 340. — Its Constitutions, 342— Various Vicissitudes, 344. — Georgia, 348. — Pennsylvania, 351. — Account of Penn, 352. — Treaty with the Indians, 355. — Its rapid Increase, 357- CHAP. VII. — Settlement of the French in Canada and Louisiana. Plan of Colonizing Canada, 360. — La Roche, 362. — Disastrous Issue, 363.— De Monts, 364— Champlain, 365— Marquette and Jolyet, 372— La Salle, 378— His Death, 393— Hennepin, ib. — Lahontan, 402. — Charlevoix, 404. CHAP. VIII.— The American Indians. Views of Savage Life, 405 — The Five Nations, 407- — Form of Policy, 408.— War, 409.— Declaration, 413— March, 414— Surprise, 415. — Return, 416. — Treatment of Captives, 417. — Negotiations, 419. — Religious Belief and Observances, 420.

Arts, 428 — Amusements, Music, Dancing, 430. — Domestic Life, 431. — General Decline and Disappearance of these Tribes, 435— Its Causes, 436. CHAP. IX. — America before and after the Revolution. General Progress of the Colonies, 437.— Comparative State before and after the Revolution, 438.— Kalm, Burnaby, Smith, Chastellux, Rochefoucault, 440. — Progress of Agriculture, 441.— Of Commerce, 446.— Society and Manners, 447— Imbittered Hostility of the two Parties, 453. CHAP. X.— Settlement of the Western Territory. Difficulties of crossing the Alleghany, Daniel Boon, 458.— CONTENTS. XI Kentucky, 460.— Henderson, 461.— Smith, 463.— Dreadful Wars with the Indians, 465.— -Settlement and Progress of Kentucky and Tennessee, 467- — Of Ohio, 469. — Indiana, 473. — Illinois, Michigan, 474. — Mississippi, 475. — Alabama, 476.

CHAP. XI. — Discoveries in the Regions beyond the Mississippi. Acquisition of Louisiana, 477- — Claim on the Countries West of the Mississippi, 478. — Expeditions sent to explore them, ib. — Pike to the Head of the Mississippi, 479. — To the Head of the Arkansaws, 483. — His Disasters, 486. — Return, 487- — Expedition of Lewis and Clarke, 488. — They cross the Rocky Mountains, 497- — Reach the Pacific, 506. — Long and James to the South of the Missouri, 510. — Cass and Schoolcraft up the Mississippi, 517- — Long and Keating to St Peter's River and the Lake of the Woods, 520. HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF DISCOVERIES AND TRAVELS IN NORTH AMERICA.

Introduction

. America, of the three quarters of the world that lie beyond the limits of Europe, possesses the strong est claim upon the attention of the nations of that continent. It has had the most powerful influence in calling forth their energies, and modifying their des tiny. The moment, in which that mysterious veil was lifted up, which had so long covered from their eyes this other half of the world which they inhabited, was the most memorable in their annals. It was a moment mighty in itself, and big with a long train of event and adventure. America was every way a different world from that to which the eyes of its discoverers had been familiar. Nature appeared in savage and primeval grandeur, without a trace of those arrangements of art and culture, which give to Europe its form and aspect. The eternal fo rest, not planted by human hand, covered almost its entire surface. Every feature existed on a bold and VOL. I. A

INTRODUCTION.

. sublime scale. The mountains were more extended, more lofty, and subject to volcanic action more ter rible, than any yet known to exist in the old world. Rivers, rolling across the entire breadth of the conti nents, held a course so immense, and poured such a profusion of waters, that streams which appeared great in Europe ranked here only as creeks or rivu lets. Man in America was a still more singular ob ject than the region which he occupied. The man of nature was seen ranging through his primeval fo rests, a stranger to art, to science, to even the rudest forms of social existence. Even in the few favoured regions where civilization had already begun her ca reer, it had taken a direction, and assumed forms, essentially different from those which the old world any where exhibited. As the new world thus presented so many objects calculated to arrest the attention and enlarge the ideas of its visitants, it afforded also peculiar excite ments to their energy and enterprise.

Being found thinly peopled by savage, and, as compared to their invaders, defenceless tribes, the discovering nations established among themselves, certainly an iniquitous law, by which every part of America was held to be long to the European by whom it was first discovered and occupied. The early prizes were singularly brilliant. Private individuals, often of humble birth, made the conquest of empires, whose treasures eclipsed even the boasted wealth of the East. As kingdom after kingdom opened to the view, the san guine hope was always excited, that a new adven turer would arrive at something still more splendid

INTRODUCTION.

. 3 than had rewarded the search of his predecessors. Although these hopes proved ultimately illusory and even disastrous, yet they impelled to high exertions, and developed great characters, for the display of which America became one of the grand modern theatres. Through the agency of these causes, in the course of a few centuries, a new form has been impressed on the whole of the western continent. It has been filled with European colonists, before whom the na tives have disappeared, or sought shelter in its ruder and remoter tracts. The native race of wandering savages has been succeeded by another, the most civilized and improved on the globe. This new race, by transporting into America the arts and in dustry of Europe, fit its immense surface to yield a mass of subsistence, and to support a population, in calculably greater than was formerly possible, or than yet exists.

Its people are, therefore, in that state of rapid increase which always ensues when the means of subsistence are ample. There is every presumption, that, in a very few centuries, the whole of the western world will be as highly peopled as Europe. America will then be the most powerful and flourishing portion of the globe ; and the arts and improvements of life, transported from Europe, will be carried, perhaps, to higher perfection than they have ever attained in their parent region. At present, America, growing with such rapidity, presents the spectacle of constant and cheerful change ; — new countries rising, new cities founding, desert after de sert converted into the abode of culture and habitation.

INTRODUCTION.

. . Before beginning to trace the progress of Ameri can discovery, two preliminary questions arise, which have excited the natural curiosity and interest of the modern world : — Was America known in any degree, or through any channel, before the days of Colum bus ? — and what was the origin of the nations by whom it was found inhabited, thinly indeed, but throughout its whole extent ? The questions are closely connected, and have generally been treated in combination ; but as they are materially different, we shall here endeavour successively to collect the means of forming a judgment relative to each. SUPPOSED DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 5

CHAPTER I. ON SUPPOSED EARLY DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA.

General Statement of the Question.— Absence of authentic Records. — Probabilities. — Mode of' ancient Navigation. — Different Modes in which Vessels might have reached America. — The Carthaginians. — The Saracens. — The Welsh under Madoc. — The Scandinavians. — Voyages to Vinland — Eric, Leis, Thorvald, Thorfin, fye. — Vinland not America. — What Country Vinland is. — Voyages of the Zeni. — Estotiland. — Drogio. — Icaria. — Estotiland not America. — What Country Estotiland was. It occurs at once as a curious and interesting ques tion, whether the ancients, who made such researches into all the kingdoms of nature, and from whom we derive the principles of almost every other knowledge, remained in profound and perpetual ignorance of that vast portion of the globe which lay beyond the At lantic?

Did no Greek or Phenician navigator ever venture across that formidable gulf? — Did they ne ver for a moment succeed in lifting that awful veil, which covered from their view the vast world of the West? Upon this subject volumes have been written, the SUPPPOSED DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. authors of which have made an immense display of erudition. They have ransacked the records of every naval state in antiquity, to examine whether they have or have not undertaken this grand expedition. These discussions have served no purpose but that for which, perhaps, they were mainly intended, — of displaying the erudition of their authors. They have all been obliged to begin and end with the simple fact, that the records of antiquity contain upon this subject absolutely nothing. There are distinct no tices of voyages undertaken along the eastern and western coasts of Africa, the southern of Asia, and the northern of Europe ; but there is not the faint est rumour of one who directed his daring keel into the vast abysses of ocean.

In the total absence of historical document, we have left only a calculation of probabilities. Was it or was it not probable that some one vessel belonging to the great maritime Me diterranean states should make its way across the Atlantic ? If we listen to some speculators, nothing could be less difficult. To a learned professor, seated at ease in his elbow-chair, and looking at the space which the Atlantic occupies on a sheet-map of the world, the crossing of it appears no very vast achievement. Very different is the lot of the mariner, who, without guide or compass, amid the peril of tempest and famine, must make his way across the space which it really occupies on the surface of the globe. Let us grapple closely with the subject. There were only two modes in which America could have been discovered.

Either an adventurer, like Colum bus, must have undertaken a voyage for that express THE ANCIENTS. 7 purpose, or a vessel sailing along the western coasts of Europe must have been driven by tempest upon the shores of the new world. Let us attempt to weigh the probabilities in either case. Is it likely that any voyage was undertaken and achieved by the ancients for the discovery of America ? Of this idea a strong refutation is certainly afforded simply by the profound silence of antiquity. Doubt less its naval records, when compared with the modern, are very scanty. Yet enough transpires to show that deep interest was excited, and reiterated efforts made, for the exploration of all the unknown shores of the three continents. Eudoxus, Sataspes, and Hanno, are celebrated by their attempts to navigate the eastern and western coasts of Africa ; Himilco and Pytheas examined the western and northern shores of Europe ; while Nearchus was sent by Alexander to traverse the southern shores of Asia.

But there is not the least hint as if a wish or idea had ever arisen, to inquire into the secrets of the Atlantic deep. Such a conception was indeed alto gether foreign to the genius of ancient navigation. The vessels were constructed and equipped solely with reference to coasting voyages. The oar was the main instrument in producing the movement even of the largest vessels, which were only dis tinguished by the numbers and successive benches of oars. Being thus in the constant proximity of the coast, they were not in the habit of carrying either provisions or water for the whole voyage, but trusted to obtaining them on land at short intervals. Even the fleet of Nearchus, equipped by Alexander with all the resources which Asia could furnish, could not keep the sea for a week, without landing and obtain ing supplies by the most violent means.

All the exploratory voyages, therefore, which appear to have been anciently attempted, or even conceived, were along coasts, and never had for their object to fathom the depths of an unknown ocean. Unreal terrors probably guarded that vast expanse which terminated all the western shores of Europe and Africa ; and the idea seems to have prevailed, that on this side lay the dark boundaries of the universe. It may be said, however, that though the Greeks and Romans were not likely to undertake the voyage to America, it lay fairer for the Carthaginians, a much greater maritime people, and who had exten sive possessions and commerce beyond the Straits. The deep and studied mystery which that people threw over their naval transactions, may have shroud ed for ever the knowledge of such an event from the classic writers of Greece and Rome.

Nothing, however, either in the nautical system of the Car thaginians, or in the structure of their vessels, appears to have materially differed from the forms common to antiquity. Amid all the depth of that veil which they threw over their naval operations, some voyages of discovery, and even one entire narrative, have made their way ; but not the least hint appears as if they had ever conceived the idea of penetrating across the ocean. All their enter prises recorded seem to have been undertaken with a view to commerce rather than curiosity; and in that early state of navigation, a route which led THE ANCIENTS. 9 across a thousand miles of open sea would not have been considered by them as a naval route. It must not be concealed, that one, and only one, path across an ocean appears to have been traced in antiquity.

This was effected by the Alexandrians, in the most advanced state of their skill and enter prise, under the Roman empire. They then traced a line across the Indian ocean from the mouth of the Red Sea to the coast of Malabar. The voyage was performed under the influence of a favouring mon soon, which rendered it secure and prosperous. It was not at all by this route, however, that the Indian coast was discovered. The circuitous voyage along the coasts of Arabia and Persia had been followed for ages, ere some daring sail adventured to strike across to a coast, of which the situation was already well known, and which was of such a great and continuous extent, that the navigator could not fail of arriving upon some one of its portions. To perceive all the improbability that the discovery of America should ever have been made by the ancients, we have only to consider the magnitude of the efforts which it cost to Columbus, with the use of the compass, and under a greatly-improved sys tem of navigation.

After the resources furnished by the most powerful monarch in Europe, joined to his own almost superhuman fortitude and enthusiasm, his undertaking met every thing short of failure. What then would have been expected from any ex pedition fitted out under antique auspices ? But there was, I think, every ground to believe that no such expedition was ever undertaken. The ardent imagination of the Greeks was so strongly acted upon by every thing which bore a sublime and adventurous aspect, that an enterprise of so much bolder and more peculiar a character, than any of those of which the fame spread so wide, could scarcely have existed, without penetrating to them, through every veil which distance and mystery could draw across it. There is another hypothesis, according to which vessels may have been reluctantly driven upon the shores of the new world.

On this subject it is observable, that the distance from any part of the coasts of France and Spain to America would seldom fall short of two thousand miles. I cannot forbear remarking, that these monstrous aberrations occasioned by tempest, which occur so frequently in the writings of maritime theorists, are excessively rare, if they exist at all, in real navigation. Although the number of ships passing along the western coasts of Europe exceeds now, perhaps, a hundred times what it anciently was, has it ever been known that a vessel sailing between a port of Spain, France, or Ireland, found itself landed on the coast of Virginia ? Let us take the much more limited space of the German ocean. I really am not aware if there ever was an instance in which a ship sailing along the somewhat rough eastern coast of England and Scotland was obliged to put into a port of Denmark or Norway.

The mariner, driven before an adverse wind, takes down every sail, opposes every obstacle, avails himself of every interval to regain his course ; and it seldom happens, that a wind of extreme violence blows many days in the same direction. The ancient THE SARACENS. 11 vessels, from causes already observed, were singular ly ill prepared for such a fearful extent of enforced navigation. The scanty stock of provisions and water with which they were furnished, rendered it impossible for them to be long distant from land, without being reduced to the most dreadful extremities. When we consider that their reluctant progress westward would at least be retarded by their continual efforts to return, it seems inevitable that they would either regain their destined course or perish. Sup posing that they did reach America, nearly equal obstacles would occur to their ever returning ; and, on the whole, it seems still more improbable that this than the former process should have led to the discovery of the transatlantic continent.

The Arab or Saracen conquerors, who for several ages were the most civilized and enterprising of the old continent, had been bred in the interior of the Asiatic continent, and never acquired much of mari time habits. The idea of the termination of ocean in darkness, which had only floated in the minds of the Greeks and Romans, was formed by them into a regular creed. The whole circuit of the bounding ocean of the earth appears in their maps under the appellation of the " Sea of Darkness." A region to which such a name and idea were affixed was not likely to invite the course, even of enterprising navi gators. There is, however, the record of a voyage westward from Lisbon while that city was under the dominion of the Saracens. It was performed by two brothers, of the name of Almagrurim, and led to the discovery of some islands at a considerable distance in the West.

But Hartmann, in his edition of Edrisi, seems to have clearly proved that these were the Azores only, and not any portion of the West Indies. The Welsh have a tradition of some celebrity, in virtue of which they claim the discovery of the western world.* Amid certain dissensions which distract ed the royal family of North Wales, Madoc, one of its members, fitted out, in 1170, several vessels, and set sail in quest of maritime adventure. Proceeding to the westward, after a long navigation, he arrived at a " faire and large country," in which many won derful things were beheld. After leaving there the greater part of his companions, he returned to Wales, and prevailed on a number of his kindred and ac quaintances to accompany him in a second expedi tion, which consisted of ten sail. Here authentic tra dition stops, though various other tales were circu lated among the people of the country.* The narrative is so meagre, that it is difficult to found any conclusion, unless upon the probability of the event, which, assuredly, is very slender.

These easy and comfortable trips across the vast Atlantic have nothing which can suggest to our minds the Welsh navigation of the twelfth century. The little that is said of the direction is far from pointing pre cisely at America ; " he sailed west, leaving Lreland so far north that he came," &c. Here it is clearly implied, that the main direction beyond Ireland was south. The country at which he arrived was * Hackluyt, iii. 1. Powell's History of Wales, p. 196, &c. THE WELSH. THE SCANDINAVIANS. then most probably Spain ; the reaching of which, across the bay of Biscay, was in that age no inconsi derable achievement of a young Cymric chieftain. As for the tribes found in the interior of America speaking purer Welsh than is spoken in Wales itself, I shall leave M. Humboldt to deal with them, finding nothing to add to his judicious observations on that subject.* But, if these discoveries are fanciful or fabulous, there is one, it is said, which can no longer admit of any reasonable doubt.

The Northmen who settled Iceland and Greenland, sailed from the latter country to Labrador and Newfoundland, with which they had regular intercourse, and founded settlements. Some centuries after, a party of Friesland fishermen found their successors in Newfoundland, where they had built castles, founded cities, endowed libraries, and in troduced all the arts of European life into a region formerly supposed to be the seat of unbroken and primeval barbarism.f As I am about to contest the established opinion of the learned in Europe, and especially of the northern literati, upon this curious and celebrated question, the reader must excuse a somewhat greater detail than the limits of the work might perhaps otherwise have warranted. It is carried on under the disad vantage of being unacquainted with the Norse languages ; but the Saga of King Olaf Tryggeson has been translated by Peringskiold, in his edition of the * Personal Narrative, vi. 324-6. ' t Forster, Discoveries in the North, b. ii. ch. 2.

Make Brun, Precis I. La Richarderie, Bibliotheque des Voyages, i. 49, &c. Heimskringla ; and Torfaeus, in his histories of Green land and Vinland, has collected with the greatest care all the northern traditions upon the subject. As the statements by which I expect to overthrow this hypothesis will all be drawn from the writings of these its most zealous supporters, there can be no room for the suspicion of their being false or garbled. About the end of the tenth centmy, the Icelanders had begun to form settlements on the opposite coast of Greenland. Biorn, a young Icelandic mariner, who had employed the summer in some distant voyages, arrived at home in the end of the season, intending to spend the winter with his father, who, however, was found to have gone across to Greenland. The enterprising and affectionate disposition of Biorn induced him to follow, though across a stormy sea which he had never before traversed.

For three days the voy age was prosperous ; but then the sky was overcast, a strong wind blew from the north, and they were tossed about for several days they knew not whither. At length the darkness dispersed, and, after a day's sail, they descried an unknown land covered with woods and low hills. Biorn sailed for several days along this coast, after which, the wind becoming fa vourable, he made his way back, and arrived at his Greenland destination.* This adventure was no sooner reported to Leis, son of Eric Redhead, a bold and enterprising young chief, * Torfaeus, Hist. Vinland, ch. i. Heimskringla (edit. Pe ringskiold), i. 328. than he determined upon an expedition to this newly discovered region. He set sail with thirty-five men, and, following the direction pointed out by Biorn, arrived in view of the unknown land.

It was rude and rocky, with lofty mountains, whose interstices were filled with snow. This he called Helluland, or the land of rocks. He came next to a flat and wooded region, which he named Markland. Sailing still on ward, and favoured by a north wind, he reached a delightful island, situated opposite to the northern coast of the continent. The soil was fertile, the ground covered with bushes which bore sweet berries, and there was a river and lake amply stored with sal mon and other fish. The very grass dropped dew, sweet like honey. In this agreeable abode they spent the winter. Their retreat was one day enli vened by the arrival of a German of the name of Tyrker, leaping and dancing, in that state of extravagant gaiety which wine usually inspires. As his com panions crowded round him to inquire the cause, he showed them some fruits, which, from his experience of southern countries, he knew to be grapes ; whence the name of Vinland or Winland continued to be given to this newly-discovered region.* The next adventurer was Thorwald, the brother of Leis, who, after repeated voyages, came at last to a promontory, with which he was so much delighted that he made a vow to fix his abode there.