DID THE VIKINGS FIND AMERICA.

Shannon News, 10 November 1925, Page 3

DID THE VIKINGS FIND AMERICA.

— NORSI3 RUINS UNCOVERED IN LABRADOR. BOSTON, October 6. Captain Donald B. McMillan, who has returned from his Arctic expedition in the schooner Bowdoin, announced to-day , that he will lead another party to Labrador next year, to excavate some old Norse ruins he has discovered. “We establish'd conclusively the fact that the Vikings had settlements in Labrador similar to the remains found in Greenland and Iceland,” he said. There are not many places remaining on the earth that have not been visited by modern man in his search for knowledge, and it is because of this that much of the ground alread.v covered is being gone over once again, writes W. ,J. Green in the Christchurch “Star". Thus many of our set beliefs, beliefs to which we have clung firmly for centuries are being upset. We have long been taught that in 164-’ Columbus sailed the ocean blue and discovered America. We set him up as one of our household gods and honoured him as a pioneer. Then historians told us that Cabot reached the Continent of America before Columbus and that ir. any case Columbus landed on the West Indian Keys only and not on America. We were forced to take him from his high pedestal and place him on a lesser. Now we are told that neither Cabot nor Columbus was the first. The Vikings forestalled them both.

Discoveries made in Labrador by Captain Donald B. McMillan, leader of a National Geographic expedition into the Arctic, point to the early occupation of at least part of America by Europeans long before it was rediscovered by Cabot or Columbus. At Nain, a Moravian Mission station in Labi’ador, Captain McMillan found ruins of a Norse settlement that are similar in character to those in Greenland. Vikings’ New Hunting Ground. It has long been established that the Vikings sailed into the Arctic in search of new hunting grounds and that they established settlements in both Greenland and Iceland, . but there has been considerable difference of opinion as to whether they- reached America or not. Many authorities hbwever, contend that they did visit America and it is certain that in.the “Saga of Eric , the Red” we are given accounts of voyages into the seas lying beyond Greenland, and are told that they discovered and settled on the Coasts of a land well-wooded and fertile from which they took cargoes of vines and grapes. This land they called “Wineland or “Vinland.”

Many things point to this country having been America, but those who have accepted this have long differed as to the part of the North American coast touched on. Some hold that it was New England that was visited, whilst others assert that it was Labrador. The saga says that Leif, a son of Erie the Red, who discovered Greenland was the first voyager to face the stretch of ocean lying beyond Greenland. Leif set sail with a crew of thirty-live men, and after sailing for some days, came to a barren, rocky land, with great ice-moun-tains in the background. This place Leif named Heliuland. A New Island.

Shortly after again setting out they came to another land, well-wooded and level; with great stretches of white sand along its shores. This country they named Markland. They once more put to sea, and with northeast winds behind them, sailed for two “doegr” before they again touched land. This ti’„e it was a wellgrassed island to the northward of a much larger land. It is recorded that the grass was wet with dew when they went ashore, and that the voyagers touched the grass and then tasted the dew, which was sweeter than anything they had ever tasted before.

l<\roin the island they sailed into a sound between it and a cape which jutted out from the mainland on the north. They stood in to the land, and their ship grounded in the shallows but on the high tide they took it up a idver and anchored in a lakeThey took their hammocks ashore, built “booths” for themselves and determined to pass the winter there. They accordingly built a large house and set about exploring the immediate vicinity. There was no lack of salmon in the river and lake, the fish being much larger than any they had ever seen previously. “The country thereabouts seemed to be possessed of such good qualities that cattle would need no fodder there during the winter. There was no frost there, and the grass withered but little. The days and nights were of nibre.nearly equal length than in Greeland or Iceland.” Vines and Grapes. Leif appears to have been very, impressed with the possibilities of this country, for it afforded a much easier, life than they were used to in the more rigorous climate of their own land, He divided liis band into tv r o parties, so that they might better explore it, and it was during the wanderings of one of these parties that the vines "were discovered that gave the country its name. Amongst the crew was a Ge'rman named Tyrker, Leif’s foster-father who one night failed to return to the camp with the rest and a search party was immediately organised. They had not travelled far before Tyrker w r as met coming towards the camp, but when asked for an explanation commenced to speak in German which Leif could not understand. “In the beginning Tyrkor spoke for some time in German rolling his eyes and grinning and they could not understand him; but after a time he addressed them in the Northern tongue: “I did not go much further than you and yet I'

have something of a novelty to rel&te. I have found vines and grapes.” This was news, indeed, and next day Leif set his men to gathering the grapes and cutting vines that they might take ' a cargo back with them to Greenland. When the ship sailed in the spring, she had a full cargo, and Leif gave to the land the name of “Wineland” or “Vinland.”

Following Leif's return to Greenland with his rich and unusual cargo, his brother Thorvald expressed a desire to visit this land, as he considered that Leif had not explored the place fully enough. Leif lent him his ship and Thorvald sailed to Vinland. There he found the first traces of natives recorded and had a skirmish with them, receiving a mortal wound in the battle, and being buried there. His crew returned to Greenland with another rich cargo and further voyages were planned and carried out by other descendants of Eric. The saga gives accounts of several of these voyages and recounts the struggles of these early settlers W'ith the Skrellings as they.called the aboriginal. What Became of Colonists. A considerable settlement appears to have been established by one of these later Vikings, Thorfinn Karlsefni, a Norwegian, who built a palisade around his house as a precaution against attack by the Skrellings. There he conducted some trade with the natives bartering food with them for furs and peltries. What became of these Vikings, or what caused them to leave the country, if they ever did leave, is not known. Maybe the Skrellings, w'ho far out-numbered them, attacked them and killed them. Perhaps di_ sease may have been the cause of their disappearance from the ken of thir fe!low r s. It seems unlikely that they should leave such a fertile country as Win-eland without good reason and return to cold, forbidding (Greenland. Still it is equally unlikely that their relations in Greenland should let them perish in Wineland and not seek and record the reason. All is wrapped in mystery. Mayhap it is the remains of Ivarlsefni’s Settlement that Captain MacMillan has found at Nain, but if it were Labrador that these Norsemen settled on, then the character of the country must have changed very much since Leif visited it, shortly after the beginning of the Christian Era. Today it is a bleak barren country, where only a few tribes of Eskimos and nomadic Indians dwell. Indeed, it is mainly on the climatic differences that. those who assert that it was New' England that Leif landed in, base ’their claim. Perhaps the expedition which Captain McMillan intends leading into Labrador next year will clear up this mystery. Certainly the results of his further investigations w ill be awaited with keen interest.