A Book of American Explorers - Thomas Wentworth Higginson

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the land, and fare not further than that they may come home at evening, and they shall not separate.” Now so they did one time. Leif changed about, so that he went with them (one day) and (the next) was at home at the house. Leif was a mickle20 man and stout, most noble to see, a wise man, and moderate in all things.

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      One evening it chanced that a man was wanting of their people; and this was Tyrker, the Southerner.21 Leif took this very ill; for Tyrker had been long with his parents, and loved Leif much in his childhood. Leif now chid his people sharply, and made ready to fare forth to seek him, and twelve men with him. But when they had gone a little way, there came Tyrker to meet them, and was joyfully received. Leif found at once that his old friend was somewhat out of his mind: he was bustling and unsteady-eyed, freckled in face, little and wizened in growth, but a man of skill in all arts. Then said Leif to him, “Why wert thou so late, my fosterer,22 and separated from the party?” He talked at first a long while in German, and rolled many ways his eyes, and twisted his face; but they skilled not what he said. He said then in Norse, after a time, “I went not very far; but I have great news to tell. I have found grape-vines and grapes.”—“Can that be true, my fosterer?” quoth Leif. “Surely it is true,” quoth he; “for I was brought up where there is no want of grape-vines or grapes.” Then they slept for the night; but in the morning Leif said to his sailors, “Now we shall have two jobs: each day we will either gather grapes, or hew grape-vines, and fell trees, so there will be a cargo for my ship;” and that was the counsel taken. It is said that their long boat was filled with grapes. Now was hewn a cargo for the ship; And when spring came they got ready, and sailed off; and Leif gave a name to the land after its sort, and called it Vinland (Wine-Land). They sailed then afterwards into the sea, and had a fair wind until they saw Greenland, and the fells23 under the glaciers. … After that he was called Leif the Lucky. Leif was now both well to do and honored. …

      Now there was a great talk about Leif’s Vinland voyage; and Thorvald, his brother, thought the land had been too little explored. Then said Leif to Thorvald, “Thou shalt go with my ship, brother, if thou wilt, to Vinland.”24

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      Now Thorvald made ready for this voyage with thirty men, with the counsel thereon of Leif, his brother. Then they fitted out their ship, and bore out to sea (A.D. 1002): and there is nothing told of their voyage before they came to Vinland, to Leif’s booths; and they laid up their ship, and dwelt in peace there that winter, and caught fish for their meat. But in the spring, Thorvald said they would get ready their ship, and send their long-boat, and some men with it, along to the westward of the land, and explore it during the summer. The land seemed to them fair and woody, and narrow between the woods and the sea, and of white sand. There were many islands and great shoals. They found neither man’s abode nor beast’s; but, on an island to the westward, they found a corn-shed of wood. More works of men they found not; and they went back, and came to Leif’s booths in the fall. But the next summer fared Thorvald eastward with the merchant-ship, and coasted to the northward. Here a heavy storm arose as they were passing one of two capes, and drove them up there, and broke the keel under the ship; and they dwelt there long, and mended their ship. Then said Thorvald to his companions, “Now will I that we raise up here the keel on the ness,25 and call it Keelness;”26 and so they did.

      After that, they sailed thence, and coasted to the eastward, and into the mouths of the firths27 that were nearest to them, and to a headland that stretched out. This was all covered with wood: here they brought the ship into harbor, and shoved a bridge on to the land, and Thorvald went ashore with all his company. He said then, “Here it is fair, and here would I like to raise my dwelling.” They went then to the ship, and saw upon the sands within the headland three heights; and they went thither, and saw there three skin-boats, and three men under each. Then they divided their people, and laid hands on them all, except one that got off with his boat. They killed these eight, and went then back to the headland, and looked about them there, and saw in the firth some heights, and thought they were dwellings. After that there came a heaviness on them so great that they could not keep awake; and all slumbered. Then came a call above them, so that they all awoke. Thus said the call, “Awake, Thorvald, and all thy company, if thou wilt keep thy life; and fare thou to thy ship, and all thy men, and fare from the land of the quickest.”28 Then came from the firth innumerable skin-boats, and made toward them.

      Thorvald said then, “We will set up our battle-shields, and guard ourselves the best we can, but fight little against them.” So they did, and the Skraelings29 shot at them for a while, but then fled, each as fast as he could. Then Thorvald asked his men if any of them was hurt: they said they were not hurt. “I have got a hurt under the arm,” said he; “for an arrow flew between the bulwarks and the shield under my arm; and here is the arrow, and that will be my death. Now I counsel that ye make ready as quickly as may be to return; but ye shall bear me to the headland which I thought the likeliest place to build. It may be it was a true word I spoke, that I should dwell there for a time. There ye shall bury me, and set crosses at my head and feet, and call it Krossanes30 henceforth.” Greenland was then Christianized; but Eirek the Red had died before Christianity came thither.

      Now Thorvald died; but they did every thing according as he had said, and then went and found their companions, and told each other the news they had to tell, and lived there that winter, and gathered grapes and vines for loading the ship. Then in the spring they made ready to sail for Greenland, and came with their ship to Eireksfirth, and had great tidings to tell to Leif.

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      [Karlsefni, a rich Norwegian, came to Greenland, staid at Leif’s house, married a wife, and was finally persuaded to bring a colony of sixty men and five women to Vinland.]

      This agreement made Karlsefni and his seamen, that they should have even handed31 all that they should get in the way of goods. They had with them all sorts of cattle, as they thought to settle there if they might. Karlsefni begged Leif for his house in Vinland; but he said he would lend him the house, but not give it. Then they bore out to the sea with the ship, and came to Leif’s booths, hale and whole, and landed there their cattle. There soon came into their hands a great and good prize; for a whale was driven ashore, both great and good; then they went to cut up the whale, and had no scarcity of food. The cattle went up into the country; and it soon happened that the male cattle became wild and unruly. They had with them a bull. Karlsefni had wood felled, and brought to the ship, and had the wood piled on the cliff to dry. They had all the good things of the country, both of grapes, and of all sorts of game and other things.

      ESQUIMAU BOAT.

      After the first winter came the summer; then they saw appear the Skraelings, and there came from out the wood a great number of men. Near by were their neat-cattle; and the bull took to bellowing, and roared loudly, whereat the Skraelings were frightened, and ran off with their bundles. These were furs and sable-skins, and skin-wares of all kinds. And they turned toward Karlsefni’s booths, and wanted to get into the house; but Karlsefni had the doors guarded. Neither party understood the other’s language. Then the Skraelings took down their bags, and opened them, and offered them for sale, and wanted, above all, to have weapons for them. But Karlsefni forbade them to sell weapons. He took this plan: he bade the women bring out their dairy-stuff32 for them; and, so soon as they saw this, they would have that, and nothing more. Now this was the way the Skraelings traded: they bore off their wares in their stomachs. But Karlsefni and

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