Sometime afterwards, Finbog and Helgo, two Icelanders, fitted out two ships, carrying thirty men, with which they made a voyage to Winland. In this expedition they were accompanied by Freidis, the daughter of Eric-raude; but by the turbulence of her disposition, she occasioned many divisions and quarrels in the infant colony, in one of which Finbog and Helgo were both killed, together with thirty of their followers. Upon this Freidis returned to Greenland, where she lived for some time universally detested and despised, and died in the utmost misery. The remaining colonists were dispersed, and nothing farther that can be depended on remains on record concerning them. Even the Icelandic colony in Greenland has disappeared, and the eastern coast, on which especially it was settled, has become long inaccessible, in consequence of the immense accumulation of ice in the straits between it and Iceland. To this it may be added, that, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, a prodigious number of people were carried off in Norway and Iceland by a disease or pestilence called the Black Death; probably the scurvy in its worst state, occasioned by a succession of inclement seasons and extreme scarcity, impelling the famished people to satisfy the craving of hunger upon unwholesome food. Deprived of all assistance from Iceland and Norway, the colonists of Greenland and Winland were in all probability extirpated by the continual hostilities of the Skraellingers, or Eskimaux; and the fabulous idea of any remnant of those in Winland having still an existence in the interior of Newfoundland, is entirely unworthy of any consideration.
[CHAPTER IV.]
Travels of two Mahomedans in India and China, in the Ninth Century.[1]
[1] Translation from Renaudot, 8vo. Lond. 1733. See likewise Harris, I. 522.
INTRODUCTION.
This curious remnant of antiquity was translated from the Arabic, and published in 1718, by Eusebius Renaudot, a learned Member of the French Academy, and of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres. It is not known by whom the travels were actually performed, neither can their exact date be ascertained, as the commencement of the MS. which was translated by Renaudot was imperfect; but it appears to have been written in the 237th year of the Hegira, or in the year 851 of the Christian era. Though entitled the travels of two Mahomedans, the travels seem to have been mostly performed by one person only; the latter portion being chiefly a commentary upon the former, and appears to have been the work of one Abu Zeid al Hasan of Siraf, and to have been written about the 803d year of the Hegira, or A.D. 915. In this commentary, indeed, some report is given of the travels of another Mahomedan into China. The MS. employed by Renaudot belonged to the library of the Count de Seignelay, and appears to have been written in the year 619 of the Hegira, or A.D. 1173. The great value of this work is, that it contains the very earliest account of China, penned above four hundred years earlier than the travels of Marco Polo, who was esteemed the first author on the subject before this publication appeared.
There are many curious and remarkable passages in these travels, which convey information respecting customs and events that are nowhere else to be found; and though some of these carry a fabulous appearance, the greatest part of them have been confirmed and justified by the best writers in succeeding ages. The first portion, or the actual narrative, begins abruptly, on account of some portion of the original manuscript being lost, which would probably have given the name and country of the author, and the date and occasion of his voyage.
In the accompanying commentary by Abu Zeid, we are informed that the date of the narrative was of the Hegira 237, A.D. 851, which circumstance was probably contained in the missing part of the manuscript; but though written then, it is probable that the first journey of the author was undertaken at least twenty years before that date, or in 831, as he observes, that he made a second journey into the same countries sixteen years afterwards, and we may allow four years for the time spent in the two journies, and the intervening space, besides the delay of composition after his last return. Though not mentioned, it is probable his travels were undertaken for the purpose of trade, as we can hardly suppose him to have twice visited those distant countries merely for the satisfaction of curiosity.
With regard to the second treatise or commentary, it seems probable, that when the affairs of China became better known, some prince or person of distinction had desired Abu Zeid to examine the former relation, and to inform him how far the facts of the original work were confirmed by succeeding accounts. The date of the commentary is not certainly ascertainable; yet it appears, that Eben Wahab travelled into China A.H. 285. A.D. 898, and that Abu Zeid had conversed with this man after his return, and had received from him the facts which are inserted in his discourse, which therefore is probably only sixty or seventy years posterior to the actual treatise of the nameless traveller.
SECTION I.