Tamers of the Sea ... From the French ... by Mrs. Cashel Hoey. Illustrated

Part I. Discovery Of America By The Norsemen In The Year One

THOUSAND. I. Herwolf, the Last of the Sea-kings . i II. Bjorn Herwolfson Discovers a Continent S III. Leif Erikson 17 IV. Vinland 29 V. Conclusive Evidence 39

Part II. The Norsemen's Colonies In America From The Tenth To The

FOURTEENTH CENTURY. VI. The Baptism of Erik the Red ... 43 VII. One "Dead, yet Speaking" ... 50 VIII. A Blank Voyage 62 IX. Bird Island 70 X. The Skrellings 84 XI. The Dighton Rock Contents. VI CHAP. PAGE XII. The End of a Hero • io2 XIII. The Queen of Vinland . . . .107 XIV. An Expedition to the South of Vinland. 123 XV. Syasi -the -fair '4° XVI. Bjorn Kappi. ... . . 149 XVII. The Bishops .....•• 166 XVIII. The End of Vinland. . . . .180

Part III. America Rediscovered At The End Of The Fourteenth Century

XIX. Northern Expeditions . . . .185 XX. From Newfoundland to the Gulf of Mexico 202 XXI. Beyond the Seas ...... 214

Part IV. The Dieppe Men In Brazil Four Years Before The Expedition

OF CHRIS- TOPHER COLUMBUS. XXII. Jean Cousin 225 XXIII. The Bombardment of Dieppe. . . 249 XXIV. The Spanish Lieutenant .... 258 Epilogue LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE "'Is This the Same Land that You Formerly Beheld?'" (Page 31) . . . Frontispiece The Ships Flying from the Decree of Hakon 2 'The Same Day the Mariners Sighted Land" . 14 Leif Erikson Finding Bjorn ..... 23 The Baptism of Erik the Red .... 48 ' A Wonderful Country Lay before His Eyes " 54 The Endless Reverie of Gudrid .... 65 Gudrid Accepting the Hand of Thorfinn . 74 The Attack by the Skrellings .... 85 " He Anchored at the Mouth of a River " . 97 " As There Was No Time for Delay . . . the Lots Were Drawn on the Spot" . . 104 "Freydize Put a Finger on Her Lips" . 114 The Norsemen Meeting the White Chief . . 134 Syasi -the- Fair 143 Hervador and the Mysterious Monk . . .150 Bishop Jouns in Leifs-Budir 170 "Sinclair Interrupted Him Rudely" . . . 197 " He Taught the King of the Cannibals the Art of Net - making " 209 "The Wall of Ice Had Become Solid" . 216 Jean Cousin Upbraiding His Lieutenant . 237 The Reception of Jean Cousin at Dieppe . . 246 The Fire-ship Last spring, just as the blossoms on the apple trees in the orchard were shedding per fume over the re-born earth, I was preparing to leave Rouen, where I had been working in the library for two months.

That Rouen library is an inexhaustible mine, certainly the richest and the best arranged in provincial France. Half a million volumes and manu scripts always at the disposal of the public ! Rare missals profusely illuminated! A superb collection of medals ! And the library is open all the year round, from ten o'clock in the morning to ten o'clock at night, with an Edison lamp on every table, and easy chairs that misrht startle Voltaire's arhost. And all this in a vast hall with two galleries lighted by a glass roof and garnished from ceiling to floor with that bewildering array of books, old and new, which is so dear to the lovers of X reading. But what is the good of it all when the apple blossoms are out? Well, then, before starting for the country, I went to make my farewell visit to M. Noel, the librarian, one of the most popular and sympathetic men in Rouen.

Every hour I passed in his company was literally filled with anecdotes and reminiscences. On this par ticular day, I found M. Noel in great trim. We talked about everything, and especially of Normandy. The Norman navigators were particularly interesting to me, and, as I was expressing my admiration of those true sons of the sea - kings who were, as I observed, among the first to reach Senegal, the Guinea coast, — " Say the first," said M. Noel, eagerly. " They forestalled the Portuguese and the Spaniards on the coast of Africa, they doubled the Cape of Good Hope long before Vasco da Gama. You have said well ; they are in deed true sons of those who discovered America several centuries before Christopher Columbus." "Ah, yes! The Whalers, at Newfound land?" " I don't mean them, for they cannot have landed on the American shore, but the ex plorers who visited the country now known as Massachusetts, Virginia, and Florida, established themselves there, colonised it, and held it for four centuries."

I heard but did not understand him. M. Noel resumed : " Yes, I repeat it. The Norsemen of the past had flourishing colonies in America. You are astonished, and I understand why. Of course, they did not call their territory America, seeing that Vespucius, whose bap tismal name was Americus, did not come there until five hundred years later. But they had given their transatlantic settlements the name of Vinland, ' the good land of wine,' on account of the grapes which it produced." My surprise increased as he went on speaking. " Nor is this all. They established, in Vin land, the amazing civilisation that they carried with them everywhere. They had cities, kings, and bishops in America, they paid tithes and Peter's Pence. But, if you desire to be more particularly informed on this matter, go to M. A SHORT HISTORY OF THIS BOOK.

Gabriel Gravier, the President of our Geo graphical Society, — it is a specialty of his. He is as obliging and as simple as he is learned; he will give you a cordial reception, and your time will not be wasted in his company." I acted on the librarian's advice at once, and presented myself to M. Gabriel Gravier. His abode was the typical home of a scholar. Books everywhere, on the walls, on the floor heaped up in the easy chairs, and sliding off the ordinary ones. On the table a mountain of folios and yellow bundles of papers which preserved their equilibrium only by a continuous miracle. And, like the set scene in " Faust," a corner of the cathedral visible from the window through a blue cloud proceeding from a pipe which was always lighted. M. Gabriel Gravier is a Norman by adop tion. His employment in the administration brought him forty years ago to Rouen, and he, like all lovers of beautiful things, was fas cinated by the famous Norman capital.

Very soon the stones of the great churches and those of the old houses which are its pride gave up their secrets to him; the Seine and its ships laden with cotton, spices, and foreign timber revived, in his fancy, the grandeur of the ancient Rouen fleet, the great rival of the fleets of Dieppe and Honfleur. Then came the library, hitherto unexplored, with its dusty bales of uncared-for curiosities. The distant and fantastic expeditions of the navigators, and their marvellous discoveries, inspired the privileged explorer of this mine of wealth with eager and intense interest. He described to me his emotion when, on opening a little red backed volume, he found it was The Voyage of Jacques Cartier, first edition, printed in 1545, and of which, up to that time, only one copy was known to exist, namely, the one preserved in London.

And yet, Jacques Cartier is not the man for M. Gravier. He came from St. Malo, and was, therefore, disqualified for a place in the Norman Pantheon. It will be objected to this exclusion, that St. Malo, the first Breton city, is very near Pontorson, the first Norman port ; but a narrow watercourse, the Conessan, divides them, and that mere rivulet is a world's width between Normandy and Brittany — above all between Normans and Bretons. And M. Gravier admits Nor mans only. " What seamen in the world," said he, " can present such a Golden Book? Jehan de Be thencourt, King of the Canaries; D'Esnambuc, Viceroy of the Antilles ; Aubert, who went to the St. Lawrence long before Cartier; Par mentier; Lelievre ; Jean Ribaut, Viceroy of Florida ; Gouneville, and so many others ; then the greatest of all, Cavelier de La Salle, who, being of the same race as the discoverers of America, gave half of the New World to France."

" We were in America, and we stayed there. Then it was true ? They really did discover America? " " Can you doubt it ? " With this, M. Gravier rose and collected together from left and right, from high and low, a mass of books, packages of manuscripts, and copy-books of scholastic aspect. " These," said he, showing me some vener able folios, are the Sagas, the chronicles of the monks of Iceland,* relating, in their order, the facts which make up the transatlantic Odys sey of the Scandinavians. The Sagas are in *The origin of the name, Iceland, is Ceile de,— Servant of God. — Translator. the Norse language, with a Latin translation on the opposite pages, carefully verified by collation with the originals, which are preserved at Copenhagen. This is the true his tory, the pure history of the discovery and colonisation of America by the Norsemen.

Then, here are the ancient Norwegian writers, Thormodos Thorfaus, Snorle Sturlesons, An derson, and several others. Rafu comes later with his American Antiquities crammed with proofs. His book is in Latin, which indicates its venerable age. The same is to be said of this Reeneil des fails accomplis par les vieux Borealieus, of Particularises du Groenland, of this Histoire du Vinland. You understand Latin ? and English ? Well, here are Whea ton, Kohl, Reamish, De Costa, and more recently, Eben Horton Horsford, and his daugh ter, Miss Cornelia Horsford, whose archæ ological discoveries establish the settlement of the Norsemen in America. The Germans, too, beginning with Humboldt, have treated this subject. The Italian Ramusio is full of revelations, as well as Zeno, with respect to a particular episode in which he was one of the chief actors.

Lastly, do not fail to consult A SHORT HISTORY OF THIS BOOK. Pere Le Clerq and some other missionaries who found indisputable remains of a former Christian civilisation in several places in America." I was overwhelmed by all these documents and proofs, but I ventured to ask how it was that these facts were so little known among us. " Ah ! " replied M. Gravier, " but they are no better known abroad. I have been quoting the savants to you, and the savants are very rarely read. Nevertheless, several of our well known writers speak of the Norsemen in America ; for instance, Depping, Eugene Bauvois, Estancelin, Gaffarel, and Margry. Twenty years ago, I myself published a book on this subject, in which I endeavoured to lay down the exact truth as I had made it out from the old texts, and these did not always agree.

It might serve you as a guide, per haps, if you take up the matter. Unfortu nately, I possess only one copy, but you will find the book in the library. In the mean time, take this pile home with you. When you have done with it, bring it bask and I will give you another." I carried away the pile, returned for a second, and then for a third. The researches that were made easy for me by the great work and the invaluable advice of the President of the Norman Geographical Society became a passion with me. The spring advanced, the summer passed, then came the autumn. After the Norsemen came the Normans, and, when I had to re-tread the road to Paris, the fields had already lost their golden garniture, and the newly stripped apple-trees wore mourning for the fruit which had long since taken the place of the pink blossom.

Edmond Neukomm. I errata. In "A Short History of this Book." Page 12, line 2, for " specialty " read "speciality." ,, 12, ,, 9, comma after the word "floor." ,, 15, ,, it,, for " Renueil " read " Recueil." ,, 16, „ 7, so r " these " read " the. " "Tamers of the Sea." Page 21, line 7, for " suit " read " suite." ,, 22, last line, for " buckles " read " bucklers." ,, 27, line 17, for " Lief's-Budir " read " Leifs-Budir." ,, 41, ,, 6, insert " that of " after " than." ,, 44, „ l$,for " Pope" read " Rape." „ 44, ,, 16, commas after " dwarfs " and seq. „ 47, ,, 6 from end of page, for "cursed" read " caused." ,, 66, ,, 2 from end of page, " Aslang the Black" to be read in parenthesis. ,, 7S, ,, I, for " changed" read " charged." „ 79, ,, 12, for " her " read " the." ,, 81, ,, 1, for " Jonsson" read " Jonssen." >> 83, ,, 3, for " Karlsefn " read " Karlselu." ,, 100, ,, 3 from end of page, so r " Suorr " read " Snorr.

" ,, 105, ,, 16, for "vine" read "wine." „ no, ,, 6 from end of page, for "further " read "farther.'' ,, 119, ,, $, for "stranm " read "straum." i> '37> >> '4i for "you "read" them." i> :53> ii 8, for " arole " read" aureole." ,, 162, ,, 4 and 22, for " jarl" read " Jarl." ,, 168, „ 13, for "jarl" read "Jarl." „ 181, ,, i8,_V "Jou"«_cy"Jon." ,, 191, Footnote,^?- "La Lourse" read"l.a Course." ,, 202, line 6, after "especially" insert "in." >. 2I3> >> 5 from end of page, for "further "read" farther." ,, 233, ,, 8, for " aimourers" read "armourer's." ,, 236, ,, 8,y.r " god" read " God." „ 238, ,, IO, for " his" read " the." ,, 241, ,, I, for "Aigulles " read " Aiguilles." ,, 241, ,, 4 from end of page,y_^ " Moel " read " Noel ! " ,, 251, ,, 3 from end of page, yi?- " La Hague " read "La Hogue." „ 254, ,, l&,for "broke " read "burst." ,, 220, ,, l,for " was " read " were." ,, 226, ,, 18, for " admiralty " read " Admiralty." ,, 226, ,, 21, for "admiralty " read " Admiralty." „ 226, last line from end of page,_/c>r " Cristofal" read " Cristobal." „ 27S, line 3, for "admiralty " read "Admiralty." Part I.

Chapter I. Herwolf, The Last Of The Sea-kings

In the year 985, Herwolf the Jarl, that old northern pirate whose ship had " furrowed the sea-gull's realm " for half a century, sowing terror everywhere B Herwolf, the Last oj the Sea - kings. and leaving spoil for sharks in its track, was taking his rest by his fireside, bending under the weight of years, bearing the scars of many wounds, cursing the fate that had torn his blood-stained sword from his hand. He was still king, but in name only; at his age fighting time was passed; and this was his trouble, for none but warriors who fall by the sword, and those who are heroes of great adventures, may take their seats at the banquet of the gods. Now it came to pass that in this year 985, Hakon the Bad, King of Norway, resolved he would be the only king in his kingdom, and with this intent he ordered all those who bore the title of king to lay it down, come without delay to his Court, and do homage to him.

There were some who obeyed, but the greater number resisted, so that in a very short time vessels great and small, from the drakar propelled by thirty-two pairs of oars, to the humble wicker work carabos, issued from every port and every fjord, and breasted the foaming sea, all fleeing in exasperation from disgrace and subjection. Both old and young then took to the sea again, with no thought of returning. At the first call to action Herwolf's blood rushed to his heart, his limbs regained their strength, and, although his son Bjorn was absent on a distant expedition, he resolved to set out immediately. According to custom he em- THE SHIPS FLYING FROM THE DECREE OF HAKON. Henvolf, the Last of the Sea - kings. 3 barked the sacred pillars of his house, to be thrown into the sea when the vessel should be nearing shore, and vowed to make his new home in what soever country he might be borne to by the waves.

Then the old Jarl hoisted the sail behind the green dragon that gripped the keel of his ship with its legs and wings, and, without turning his head for a fare well look, he sailed for Iceland, his chosen refuge. "There," he had heard Thorolf, the tale-teller, declare, " you will find a land of sunshine, flowery and fertile, where the plants drop butter ; the sky is always blue ; there is no frost or snow in winter ; the hills are clothed with leafy trees, and the waters peopled by salmon and whales." Trusting in these fair promises, the old outlaw was sailing over a calm sea towards this benign clime, when there arose in the latitudes where he expected to find it a sudden tempest which disabled the gallant old drakar of adventurous fame, and flung it on the coast, where it broke up. Then indeed did Herwolf, alone upon a rock, stretching out his arms towards the fragments of his ship, and the floating corpses of his late companions, now ghastly playthings of the waves, realise that everything was lost to him.

He, who never before had shed tears, wept ; hot drops moistened his long, white moustache, and looking upward for the last B - kings. 4 time at the sky — made of the skull of Ymer — he cried : " The old warrior is going to die, but he has no arms, and his blood does not flow from any wound. Farewell, ye companions of the glorious days, you are happier than I. To you Valhalla is open and the Valkyrie have borne your gasping bodies to the banquet board of Odin. There, until final chaos, until the day when the last man shall perish by the hand of his fellow, whom he shall kill at the same moment, you will drink the delicious hydromel from flagons filled by nymphs, and feast on the flesh of the wild hog, which is cut up every morning and reborn entire every evening. You will leave the board only for the lists where wounds leave no scars.

But I shall not see the palace in the clouds, shining with light. Heimdrol, the warden, whose ear is so keen that he hears the wool growing on the sheep's back, will not catch the sound of my footsteps ; the sacred bridge of Bafrost will not be lowered to give passage to the victor in so many fights. Of Hela only shall I be the guest ; Hela, who presides at the refuge of those to whom death comes without glory ; Hela, whose palace is pain, and whose table is famine." The old man had spoken, and already his brow was bent towards the depth beneath him when a strong hand was laid upon his shoulder. He turned, - kings. 5 beheld a warrior white-haired like himself, and demanded : " Who are you ? " " I am Erik the Red, once a pirate, now a free man. Like you, I had learned from my childhood to redden a lance ; the sword was familiar to my hand before I had seen twenty winters.

Then, always there was fighting by sea and land. The deck of my ship was empurpled as though with rich wine poured out by young maidens ; the sea was as red as a gap ing wound ; and when we returned from an expedition we had raised the coast-levels and appeased the hunger of the vultures with corpses. But, one day, all this glory had to be given up. Age came to me, just as it came to you, and at the same time ; my ship was dashed to pieces on this coast as yours has been ; but I am less fortunate than you, I may not remain here. This land is fair, free, hospitable ; nevertheless it has its laws, and I have been so im prudent as to infringe them." " Explain yourself, friend," said Herwolf. " I provoked a coward, a felon, and I killed him. I have not laid hands on anything that belonged to him, neither his horse, nor his helmet, nor his money.

I laid the body of my victim on his shield, the head turned to the East, with his lance planted in the ground, his arms grouped about him, and his horse tethered hard by. Then I went to the nearest vii- - kings. lage and told the first man I met the thing that had occurred. Such is the law of Iceland. My fate was from that moment in the hands of my adversary's kinsmen. They might have been satisfied with a ransom, an expiation in one form or another ; they have exacted my banishment. I am going away. I must leave my hearth fire forever, the place where I have lived since I grew old with my wife, Thor hilda, my three sons, Thornstein, Leif and Thorwald, not yet come to man's estate, and my daughter, Freydize, whose indomitable nature proclaims her race, and does it honour." " Alas ! there is no more a rooftree and a hearth fire for me," said the old sea-king; "the roof posts of my dwelling are floating away even to the immen sity of waters ; nothing remains for me but to die."

"No, my king, you shall not die," cried Erik. "You shall be my guest ; we will warm our stiff old limbs at the same fire, and we will merit the fate of the brave by enriching our country with a new terri tory. I know to the westward a land that is always green ; it is Greenland. In the time of my great pirate voyages I made an incursion there, and I want to return. I have communicated my plan to several of my associates, and thirty-five, ships await only my signal to set sail. Come with us." After a thoughtful pause the old man said, slowly : - kings. 7 " I cannot. In springtime every year my son Bjorn comes back to the old house, and finding it empty he must know where my blessing is awaiting him." "By the first ship sailing for our country those who have remained there shall learn the place of your refuge," answered the Icelander.

At these words Herwolf cast a long last look upon the immense sheet of water, now calm, limpid and sunny, that like a golden veil covered those who slept forever in its depths. Then he placed his right hand in Erik's. " My kingdom is no more," he said. " The day of heroic adventure is past. Yes, I will be your companion, your guest, your brother. Let us em bark at once ! Let us flee from this accursed coast where all that remained of my glory has gone down before my eyes ! Let even the memory of my exploits perish ! Now I shall brave death with a smile." That same day, the thirty-five barks set sail. Only fourteen reached Greenland with Erik the Red. The others were driven apart by storms, flung upon reefs, rent and devastated by cyclones, and became the prey of the waves. Among the lost ships was that which bore Herwolf and his fallen fortunes. It was written in the Book of Destiny that the last sea king should perish on the sea.

Chapter II. Bjorn Herwolfson Accidentally Discovers

A CONTINENT BEYOND THE SEAS. HE DOES NOT LAND UPON IT. THE OLD PIRATE, ERIK THE RED, REPROACHES HIM SEVERELY. When Bjorn Herwolfson returned to Norway, according to his custom, in the spring of 986, and found the house of his ancestors dismantled, he was profoundly grieved. Some said that his father had set out for Iceland ; but a sailor who had returned from that country informed him that Herwolf had sailed for Greenland with Erik the Red. Bjorn was reminded by the description of this continent, unknown to him, of the white peaks that had been discovered a hundred years earlier by Gunnbjorn the Corsair. And Thorolf, the tale-teller, who had a thousand strings to his bow, and wanted to secure a subject of noble race for the King of Norway, assured him, in order to keep him, that Hollur Geit, the Jarl, claimed to have reached that land by crossing the ice with a goat, and also asserted that he had seen oaks laden with acorns as big as men, also giants, and icebergs which crushed ships in their passage.

The sea, he added, was covered with floes, and the land, which was ravaged by internal fire, though covered in parts by eternal snow, spouted streams of boiling water into the air, and was ceaselessly racked by terrible convulsions. These warnings were powerless to frighten the son of the old sea-king. In his haste, he did not even pause to unload his ship. As, however, he had charge of their souls, he mustered his seamen, and said to them : " My men, I am about to set out on an expedition in which there will be neither fighting nor booty. Filial piety alone directs my course to an unknown land. My sword will remain in its scabbard, and, during long days and long nights, you will have nothing to amuse you but waves following waves, and the horse of Night, he with the frosted mane, yielding the place to the chariot of Day, with its sparkling wheels that illumine the skies.

I tell you the truth, my men, this voyage is rash, for not one of us has seen the Greenland Ocean." These words, far from discouraging the men, aroused the thirst for adventure which instinctively seizes the seaman of the North by the throat. They all cried out together ; io Bjorn Herwolfson Discovers a Continent. "We will follow you, Bjorn. Where you com mand us to go we will go ; the star you choose shall be our guide ; the land you lead us to shall become our country." The great expanse of the summer sea lay stretched before the brave men ; the hot sun gilded the crests of the rocks, and flung a fiery glow upon the waves. It seemed as though the whole world must bask in the ineffable delight of those balmy and benignant days. But mariners do not allow themselves to be beguiled by such splendour; they know that in Hyperborean regions this same sun covers the waves which do not break on any shore with dense fogs, making thick darkness around the ship.

The crew of Bjorn Herwolf son's vessels had often encountered such fogs, and knew that they might last for two or three days, perhaps even longer. A story was told of an old fisherman, who went every year to cast his nets in the Gunnbjorn latitudes, and, having got into a fog of the sort, did not get out of it until all his provisions were exhausted — he had taken enough for a week ! Neither obstacles nor perils could, however, deter Herwolfson's crew, and they set sail without an hour's delay. For three days the wind was favourable. The Sncggar, shaped like a snail, was speeding so rap idly over the waves in a northwesterly course that the mariners could not fail soon to sight the promised land, when, suddenly, a night fell which did not end in the sweet light of dawn. The hours wore on, dark and dreary ; the atmosphere was laden with a thick, hot, sickening vapour.

A strong current drew the ship as a loadstone draws iron. Then the bravest gravely asked of their own souls whether they were not sailing to the dark realm of Hela. But tempests came from time to time to recall them to the reality. The lightning, rending the mist, lighted up the raging sea ; the sails, the ropes, creaked and whistled ; the vessel, straining from bow to stern, at every moment seemed about to founder. Then a calm, more dismal than the com motion, would set in again. The sand-glass marked hour after hour, and the hours succeeded each other like a chain of terror; and still the darkness brooded over the deep. At last, after a terrific storm, in which the lightning had left a phosphorescent penumbra after it, the colours of the rainbow shone out through the mist, pale at first, then more distinct, and lastly brilliant.

At sight of this, Bjorn and his crew went down on their knees, for the rainbow is the bridge of Bafrost. And there arose, in truth, in the beneficent cloud a golden palace, the most beautiful, the most resplen dent of all, that of the Day Star, which darted its rays upon the bold mariners, whose eyes could hardly distinguish the watery plain from the cloud less sky, so dim were they after the prolonged dark ness. It seemed to them, however, that a bar of blue, different from that which marked out the hori zon, was taking a body, and even assuming distinct forms. Their surprise was great, and when their sight could bear the light of day all doubt was dispelled. There lay before them — land. Already strange birds, whose like they never had seen, were flying around their sails, and the fishes that played just beneath the surface of the sea in no wise resembled the salmon and the whales of the northern coasts.