These traditions bring to light another and no less important fact: namely, that the Algonquins and Iroquois, after having crossed the valley of the Mississippi, from which they drove the people, whose singular monuments are now the object of study, had no more fighting to do, and found the country uninhabited as far as the coast, and far away to the south. The traditions of some tribes of South America point, though not so plainly, to the same conclusion. Thus, probably in the two halves of the New World, and certainly in the northern portion, those uninhabited lands existed which we have already noticed in Polynesia, and the pretended American autochthon of Agassiz, Morton, Nott, and Gliddon was, on the contrary, one of the latest arrivals upon this continent.
These facts of thin populations, and of their low social condition, which was everywhere the case except in those centres where legislators had appeared who were perhaps entirely foreign to the soil, involuntarily lead us to the conclusion that the general peopling of America by the existing races, though it may be traced to an earlier period than that of Polynesia, is, nevertheless, much more recent than that of the Old World.
VI. It is not from Asia alone that America has received its population. They came from Europe also long before the era of great discoveries; I am not now alluding either to the story of Atlantis, of which many interpretations are still possible, or to Phœnician and Carthaginian traditions, nor again, to the pretentions of the Basques and Dieppois, although they appear to be supported by facts, which are, to say the least, curious; nor to Irish and Welsh traditions, though Humboldt considers them well worthy of attention. I shall only speak of the voyages accomplished by the Scandinavians as related by Rafn from Irish sagas, and which have been lately republished in detail by M. Gravier.
We are not now dealing with isolated facts belonging to the darkness of those ages which they only occasionally illuminate. It is a detailed history embracing several generations, and sometimes giving circumstantial details which explain, and are confirmed by certain modern discoveries.
In 877, according to M. Gravier, perhaps as early as 770, according to M. Lacroix, Gunnbjorn discovered Greenland. In 886 Erick the Red doubled Cape Farewell, and built at the head of a fjord his house Brattahilda, the lately discovered ruins of which have been compared to those of a town. In 986 Bjarn Meriulfson, when on his way to Greenland, was carried by a storm as far as the shores of New England. In 1000, Leif, the son of Erick the Red, started for the country discovered by Bjarn. Accompanied by 35 men, he ran down as far as Rhode Island, where he found the vine, and gave the name of Vinland to the country of which he took possession; he built Leifsbudir, passed the winter there, and noticed that the shortest day began at half-past seven and ended at half-past four. This observation, which agrees with all the other details, places Leifsbudir near the present town of Providence, 41° 24′ 10″ N. lat.
Thorwald succeeded his brother Leif. Followed by 30 warriors, he reached Vinland and passed the winter at Leifsbudir. In the spring of 1003 he ran down as far as Long Island, explored the neighbourhood, and returned in the autumn to his starting point. The following summer he turned his steps northwards. Near Cape Alderton, his companions surprised three boats made of osier, and covered with leather, and slew eight of the men by whom they were manned. The ninth escaped; he soon returned, however, accompanied by a great number of his fellow-countrymen, who showered upon the Scandinavians a cloud of arrows and then fled. But Thorwald, mortally wounded, was interred in this land which he had expressed a desire to inhabit. It may possibly have been his tomb which was discovered at the end of the last century in Rainsford Island, near to Hull and Cape Alderton; a tomb of solid masonry, containing a skeleton, and a sword with an iron hilt, indicating a period anterior to the fifteenth century.
In 1007 Thorfinn, accompanied by his wife Gudrida, started with three ships carrying 160 men, some women, and cattle. This time the object was to found a colony. They settled not far from Leifsbudir at Mount Hope Bay. The strangers were soon visited by some of the natives, who are easily identified with the Esquimaux from the description given in the Saga. The relations maintained with these Skrellings were at first pacific. But the following year an act of brutality on the part of a Scandinavian led to war, and Thorfinn, although victorious, did not feel his position to be secure, and resolved to return to his country with his companions, his wife, and his son Snorre, the first Scandinavian born in Vinland.
Before quitting his settlement, the chief was anxious to leave some trace of his presence. Such, at least, is the opinion adopted by Scandinavian savants, and by M. Gravier, on the subject of the famous Dighton Writing Rock. This block of gneiss, situated upon the right bank of Tauton River, and alternately covered and left bare by the tide, bears a certain number of characters engraved upon it to the depth of eight millimetres (one-third inch). This inscription, which has given rise to many discussions, has, probably, a double origin. Schoolcraft tells us that an old Indian, who was familiar with American pictography, recognized the hand of his countryman in a certain number of signs which he was able to explain, though at the same time he confessed that others were quite new to him. On the other hand, Magnusen and his followers have also only been able to interpret some of these same signs. They were, in their opinion, a mixture of runic and cryptographic signs, and of figures referring to the adventures of Thorfinn. They thought they could recognize Gudrida with her son Snorre, and the phonetic portion might, it seemed, be translated in the following manner:—131 MEN OF THE NORTH HAVE OCCUPIED THIS COUNTRY—WITH THORFINN. I should add, however, that Mr. Wittlesey does not admit the existence of a single alphabetical inscription in the United States. Yet we must not suppose that the opinion of the American antiquarian at all affects the authenticity of the Sagas which relate the history of Thorfinn.
I cannot here repeat all the adventures of Thorvard and Freydisa, of Ari Marson, Bjorn Asbrandson, Gudleif and Hervador ..., but I must remark, in reference to the latter, that, through the indications contained in the Skalholt Saga, the American savants have been able to find upon the shores of the Potomac the tomb of a woman who fell by the arrows of the Skrellings in 1051.
VII. The colonies founded in Greenland by Erick and his successors multiplied rapidly; both the east and west coasts were peopled. These two centres bore the names of Osterbygd and Vesterbygd. From the documents consulted by M. F. Lacroix, it appears that the former possessed a cathedral, eleven churches, three or four monasteries, two towns called Garda and Alba, and 190 Gaards or Norwegian villages; in the second, there were four churches and 90 or 110 gaards. These figures clearly indicate a considerable population. This is still more strongly proved by the fact, that as early as 1121, an Irishman, Erick-Upsi, was created Bishop of Greenland, and had eighteen successors. Vinland was in the jurisdiction of this diocese. The tithes of this country figured among the revenues of the Church in the fourteenth century, and were paid in kind.