This interesting and erudite volume is composed of ancient Icelandic histories relative to America, being mostly accounts of voyages of discovery to this country, made by the Northmen in the 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries, that is, anterior to the time of Columbus. To these are added critical and explanatory notes, chronological and genealogical tables, archaelogical and geographical disquisitions, concerning the migration of the Northmen to this country, their first landing-places, and earliest settlements, with the vestiges of the same now remaining. We give the following summary of the conclusions drawn by the author of this work in reference to the discovery and settlement of this country by the Norwegians.
In the spring of 986, Eric the Red emigrated from Iceland to Greenland, and formed a settlement there. In 994, Biarne, the son of Heriulf Bardson, one of the settlers who accompanied Eric, returned to Norway, and gave an account of discoveries he had made to the south of Greenland. On his return to Greenland, Leif, the son of Eric, bought Biarne's ship, and with a crew of thirty-five men, embarked on a voyage of discovery, A. D. 1000. After sailing some time to the south-west, they fell in with a country covered with a slatey rock, and destitute of good qualities; and which, therefore, they called Helluland, (Slate-land.) They then continued southerly, until they found a low, flat coast, with white sand cliffs, and immediately back, covered with wood, whence they called the country Markland, (Woodland.) From here they sailed south and west, until they arrived at a promontory which stretched to the east and north, and sailing round it, turned to the west; and sailing westward, passed between an island and the mainland, and entering a bay through which flowed a river, they concluded to winter there.
Having landed, they built houses to winter in, and called the place Lefsbuthir, (Leifs-booths.) Soon after this they discovered an abundance of vines, whence they named the country Vinland or Wineland. Antiquarians have been much puzzled to know where Vinland was located; but the Antiquarian Society, to whose exertions we owe the above work, after the most careful examination of all the evidence on the subject, do not hesitate to place it at the head of Narragansett Bay, in Rhode Island. Every thing in the description of the voyage and country agrees most exactly with this. The promontory extending east and north, corresponds closely with that of Barnstable and Cape Cod, and the islands they would encounter immediately upon turning west, would be Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.
Two years after, 1002, Thorwold, the brother of Leif, visited Vinland, where he spent two years, and was finally murdered by the natives. Before his death, he coasted around the promontory, and called the north end, now Cape Cod, Kjalarnes, (Keel-Cape.) He was killed and buried on a small promontory, reaching south from the mainland, on the west side of the Bay, inclosed by the promontory of Kjalarnes, and which answers most accurately to the strip of land on the east side of Plymouth Harbour, now called Gurnet's Point. The Norwegians called it Krassanes, (Crossness or Crossland,) because the grave of Thorwold had a cross erected at both ends.
In 1007, three ships sailed from Greenland for Vinland, one under the command of Thorfinn Karlsefne, a Norwegian of royal descent, and Snorre Thorbrandson, of distinguished lineage; one other commanded by Biarne Grimalfson and Thorhall Gamlason; and the third by Thorward and Thorhall. The three ships had 100 men, and carried all sorts of domestic animals necessary for the comfort and convenience of a colony. An account of this voyage, and a history of the country, by Thorfinn Karlsefne, is still extant, and forms one of the documents in the Antiquities Americana. They sailed from Greenland to Helluland, and passing Markland, arrived at Kjalarnes, whence sailing south by the shore of the promontory, which they found to consist of trackless beaches and long wastes of sand, they called it Furthutrstrandir, (Wonder-Strand, or Beach;) whether on account of the extensive sandy shore, or from the mirage and optical illusion so common at Cape Cod, it is impossible to determine. Passing south, they sailed by the island discovered by Leif, which they called Straumey, (Stream-Isle,) probably Martha's Vineyard, and the straits between Straumfjothr, (Stream-Firth,) and arrived at Vinland, where they spent the winter. The Bay into which they sailed, they called Hopsvatn, and their residence received the name of Hop, (English Hope, Indian Haup,) the identical Mount Hope, so much celebrated as the residence of King Philip. After various successes, Thorfinn returned to Greenland, and finally went to Iceland and settled.
From a comparison of all the remaining accounts of these voyages, the geographical, nautical and astronomical facts contained in them, with the natural history and geography of this country when first settled by the whites, there can be little doubt that Vinland has been correctly located by the learned Society. By similar evidence it also appears, that Markland was what is now called Nova Scotia; that Litla Helluland (Little Helluland) was Newfoundland; and that Helluland it Mikla, (Greater Helluland,) was the coast of Labrador. We ought also to have observed above, that Straumfjothr (Stream-Firth) probably included the whole of Buzzard's Bay.
Of the climate of Vinland, the Northmen say, it was, when they were there, so mild, that cattle would live out-doors during the year; that the snow fell but lightly, and that the grass continued to be green in some places nearly all winter. Among the productions of Vinland, were abundance of vines, a kind of wild wheat, (maize,) a beautiful wood which they called mazer (Birdseye-maple, Acer Saccharinum,) a great variety of forest animals, Eider Ducks in great plenty; and the rivers and bays they describe as filled with fish, among which they reckon salmon, halibut, whales, &c. It is also said by the same historians, that the sun rose at half past seven o'clock in the shortest days, which is the exact time it rises at Mount Hope.
Subsequent to this time, explorations were made to the south of Vinland along the eastern shore, and judging from the fragments of voyages, it would seem that some penetrated as far south as Florida. The whole country south of Chesapeake Bay is called by them Hvitamannaland, (white-man's-land,) or Ireland it Mikla, (Ireland the Great.) In 1121 Vinland was visited by Bishop Eric, and as there is no account of his return, it seems probable that he spent his days there. Other explorations were made by the Norwegians and Greenlanders to the north, who penetrated as far as Barrow's Straits, which they called Kroksfjorthr, (Kroks-Firth or Strait,)and the land on the northern side, now known as the Cumberland Mountains, they denominated Kroksfjarltharheithi, (Barren-highlands-of-Kroks-Strait.) There are several other particulars we should be glad to notice, but the length of this article will not allow.
Among other matters, curious and important, contained in this valuable publication from Copenhagen, not noted by the New-Haven Chronicle, are one or more readings of the celebrated hieroglyphic inscription upon "Dighton Rock," in Fall River, Massachusetts, and of which no satisfactory explanation has previously been given. These Northern Antiquaries profess at length to have mastered that inscription. They pronounce the characters to be Runic, and read therein a confirmation of their theory, that a settlement was formed by the Northmen at Fall River as early as the tenth century. But this is not all. Since the work of the Copenhagen Antiquaries has been published, another discovery has been made in the immediate neighborhood of Dighton Rock, which is equally curious and important as connected with this investigation. The discovery referred to may be considered the most interesting relic of antiquity ever discovered in North America, viz:—the remains of a human body, armed with a breast plate, a species of mail, and arrows of brass; which remains we suppose to have belonged either to one of the race who inhabited this country for a time anterior to the so-called Aborigines, and afterwards settled in Mexico or Guatemala, or to one of the crew of some Phoenician vessel, that, blown out of her course, thus discovered the western world long before the Christian era.
These remains were found in the town of Fall River, in Bristol county, Massachusetts, about eighteen months since.