No geographical information contained in the sagas of Iceland and Greenland verifies the statement that the Northmen discovered America and explored the coast of a part of the present territory of the United States. What tradition relates respecting the Northmen finding wine-berries in Vinland does not make it indubitably evident that they were the fruit now called grapes.[63] The wine-wood that was cut and carried on board of Leif’s ship indicates that there was no large timber in Vinland, and that the trees that were felled were of a stunted growth as those that are now found on the coast of Greenland. The statements respecting the great number of eider ducks, the natives who were frightened by the bellowing of a bull, the skin-boats used by them, the want of food by the Northmen, their eating the flesh of a stranded whale to escape starvation, and the sarcastic language of the song sung by Thorhall concerning Vinland being a land of wine, clearly establish the fact that this country or region was very near the Arctic circle. Further, all the early maps of Greenland show Helluland, Markland, and Vinland to be regions of that country.
The questionable interpretation of the characters on the rock, lying in the water, on the east side of the Taunton River, opposite Dighton, Massachusetts, by a number of foreign antiquaries, is a notable exemplification of the fictitious nature of the so-called evidence that the Northmen discovered America and explored a part of the eastern coast of the present territory of the United States.[64] The remarkable statement that the round, stone-tower, at Newport, Rhode Island, mentioned by Governor Benedict Arnold in his will, made in 1677, as “my stone-built windmill,” was erected by the Northmen, is also an instance of the infatuation of the learned men who believed it to be a Norse monument.[65]
The supposition that the Welsh adventurer, Madoc Guyneth, planted a colony on the Atlantic coast of North America, in the twelfth century, rests on some traditionary information in a history of Wales, published in 1584.[66] In this rare work it is related that the sons of Owen Guyneth, King of North Wales, on the death of their father, had many contentions respecting the heirship to his estates and who should rule after him. This strife mortified Madoc. In order to separate himself from his quarrelling brothers he fitted out a number of ships and sailed west, “leaving the coast of Ireland so far north, that he came to an unknown land, where he saw many strange things.” He then returned home and gave an account of the attractive and fertile countries “he had seen without inhabitants.” He induced a number of men and women, who desired to live peaceably, to emigrate to the western land. The second voyage was safely made to the colony in the “fair and large country.” He returned again to Wales for more colonists. Ten ships filled with emigrants shortly afterward set sail for the new settlement. It is further related that many fictions were current thereafter respecting Madoc’s discoveries in the unnamed country.[67] Meredith ap Rhees, a Welsh bard, who died in 1477, has rehearsed in a number of verses a part of the unsatisfactory tradition concerning Madoc’s voyage.[68] As said by Baron von Humboldt: “The deepest obscurity still shrouds every thing connected with the voyage of the Gaelic chief, Madoc.”[69]
The story of a Frisland fisherman, in the history of the discoveries of the Zeni brothers, published in 1558, is thought by some writers to be a true narrative of this man’s adventures on a part of the continent of America, in the fourteenth century.[70] It is related that Nicolò Zeno, a wealthy man, had a ship built, equipped, and manned at his own expense, and sailed in it from Venice, “with the intention of visiting England and Flanders.” But in a storm his vessel was cast upon an island called Frisland.[71] “The crew were saved together with most of the ship’s cargo. This occurred in the year 1380. The inhabitants of the island, having collected in considerable numbers, attacked the chevalier and his men, who, being exhausted by the hardships they had endured, and not knowing in what part of the world they had been thrown, were unable to resist them, much less to defend themselves with the spirit that the emergency demanded. They would have been treated, without doubt, in a most barbarous manner, had it not fortunately happened that a powerful chieftain, with an armed force, was in their neighborhood, who, learning that a large ship had been cast upon the island, and hearing the noise and shouts of the inhabitants as they rushed upon our poor mariners, hastened forward, and putting the islanders to flight, inquired of the Venetians, in Latin, of what nation they were, and whence they had come. When informed that they were from Italy, and natives of that country, he was filled with joy and amazement.... He was a great lord and possessed certain islands called Porland, about a half-day’s sail from Frisland, the richest and most populous of all the islands of those parts. This chieftain’s name was Zichmni.”
Nicolò Zeno then entered the service of this distinguished man. Some time afterward he wrote to his brother Antonio, and related these incidents. The latter visited Frisland, where he lived fourteen years. On the death of Nicolò, which occurred four years after Antonio’s arrival, he was appointed to take command of Zichmni’s fleet. From letters written by Antonio to his brother Carlo, the remarkable particulars of the following narrative are said to have been compiled:
“Six and twenty years ago four fishing-boats put out to sea from Frisland, and being overtaken by a storm were drifted about for many days in a helpless condition. When, at last, the tempest abated, they descried an island called Estotiland,[72] lying more than a thousand miles westward from Frisland. One of the boats was cast upon its coast, and the six men in it were taken by the inhabitants and conducted to a fair and populous city, where the king sent for many interpreters, but none could be found who understood the language of the fishermen except one man who spoke Latin, and who likewise had been cast by accident upon the same island. Ordered by the king, he asked them who they were, and where they came from, and when he reported their answer, the king desired that they should remain in that country. Accordingly, as they could not do otherwise, they obeyed his order, and remained five years on the island, and learned the language. One of them in particular visited different parts of the island, and reports that it is a very rich country, abounding in all good things. It is a little smaller than Iceland but more fertile. In the middle of it is a very high mountain, in which rise four rivers which water the whole country.
“The inhabitants are a very intelligent people and possess all the arts as we do; and it is believed that in time past they have had intercourse with our people, for he said that he saw Latin books in the king’s library, which they at the present time do not understand. They have their own language and letters. They have all kinds of metals, especially gold. Their foreign intercourse is with Greenland, where they import furs, brimstone, and pitch. He says that toward the south there is a great and populous country, very rich in gold. They sow corn and make beer, which is a kind of drink which northern people take as we do wine. They have woods of vast extent. They construct their buildings with walls, and there are many towns and villages. They make small boats and sail them, but they have not the loadstone, nor do they know the north by the compass. For this reason these fishermen were held in great esteem, insomuch that the king sent them with twelve boats to the southward to a country which they call Drogio; but in their voyage they had such stormy weather that they were in fear for themselves. Although they escaped a miserable death they afterward met a more painful one, for they were taken into the country and the greater number of them were eaten by the savages, who are cannibals and consider human flesh very savory meat. But as this fisherman and his remaining companions were able to show them the way to catch fish with nets, their lives were spared. Every day he would go fishing in the sea and in the fresh waters, and take a great number of fish, which he gave to the chiefs, and thereby ingratiated himself so much into their favor that he was greatly liked and held in high esteem by all.
“As this man’s fame spread among the different tribes, there was a neighboring chief who was very anxious to have him with him and to see how he practised his wonderful art of catching fish. With this object in view he made war on the other chief with whom the fisherman was, and being more powerful and a better warrior, he, at last, overcame him, and so the fisherman was sent to him with the rest of his companions. During the space of thirteen years that he dwelt in those parts, he says, he was sent in this manner to more than five-and-twenty chiefs, for they were continually fighting among themselves, this chief with that one, and solely for the purpose of having the fisherman to dwell with them, so that wandering up and down the country without any fixed abode, he became acquainted with almost all those regions. He says that it is a very great country, and, as it were, a new world. The people are very rude and uncultivated, for they all go naked, and suffer bitterly from the cold, nor have they the sense to clothe themselves with skins of the animals which they take in hunting. They have no kind of metal. They live by hunting, and carry lances of wood, sharpened at the point. They have bows, the strings of which are made of beasts’ skins. They are very fierce, and have deadly wars with one another, and eat the flesh of their captives. They have chiefs and certain laws, but differing in different tribes. The farther you go southwestward, however, the more refinement you meet with, because the climate is more temperate, but there they have cities and temples dedicated to their idols, in which they sacrifice men and afterward eat them. In those parts they have some knowledge and use of gold and silver.
“This fisherman after dwelling so many years in those parts resolved to return home if possible to his own country, but his companions, despairing of ever seeing it again, gave him Godspeed, and remained where they were. Accordingly he bade them farewell and made his escape through the woods in the direction of Drogio, where he was welcomed and kindly received by the chief of the place, who knew him and was a great enemy of the neighboring chief. Thus passing from one chief to another, being the same with whom he had been before, he, at last, reached, after a long time and many hardships, Drogio, where he remained three years. Here by good fortune he learned from the natives that some boats had appeared off the coast, and hopeful of being able to carry out his intention, he went to the beach, and found to his great delight that the men on board the boats had come from Estotiland. He immediately begged them to take him back with them, which they willingly consented to do. He understood the language of the country which none of them could speak, and they employed him as an interpreter. Afterward he traded in company with them to such good purpose that he became very rich, and having fitted out a vessel of his own he returned to Frisland.”[73]
When Zichmni heard the story of the returned fisherman, it is said that he prepared a fleet to go to the countries described by him. The fisherman dying about the time that the vessels were ready to sail, some of the seamen who had come from Estotiland in his ship were taken to pilot them. An island called Icaria was discovered, but no exploration of it could be made on account of the hostility of its inhabitants. The fleet afterward proceeded to the coast of Greenland, from which it sailed to Frisland.