LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XV Portrait of King James I.; from an English print. Drawn by Croome, Engraved by 112 Portrait of Charles I.; after Vandyke; from an English print. Drawn by Croome, 113 Ornamental Letter. Drawn by Croome, Engraved by Waitt.. 113 114 Arrest of Governor Harvey. Drawn by Croome, Engraved by Waitt..... Opechancanough reproving Sir William Berkeley. Drawn by Croome, Engraved by Waitt..... 117 The Signing of Bacon's Commission. Drawn by Croome, Engraved by Waitt..... 125 Portrait of George Calvert, the First Lord Baltimore. The Head from a Print in Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors. Drawn and Engraved by Croome.... Ornamental Letter. Drawn and Engraved by Croome.... 126 126 129 The Settlement of St. Mary's. Drawn by Croome, Engraved by Waitt..... ..... Cecil Calvert, the Second Lord Baltimore; from an English Print in Hugh Plymouth Rock. Drawn by Croome, Engraved by G. T. Devereux. 137 142 143 143 151 154 160 Treaty with Massasoit. '161 Gorges and Mason naming their Provinces. Drawn by Croome, Engraved by Waitt. 163 Lumber Mills. Drawn by Croome, Engraved by Waitt..... 168 Portrait of John Winthrop, the first Governor of Massachusetts; from Vandyke. 169 Ornamental Letter; Arms of Massachusetts. Drawn and Engraved by Croome. 169 177 179 Roger Williams entertained by the Indian Chiefs. Drawn by Croome, Engraved by Waitt..... 181 Ornamental Letter; the Hand of Endicott tearing the Cross from the Standard. 181 Roger Williams Exiled. Drawn by Croome, Engraved by Henry B. Brown...... 183 Portrait of Sir Henry Vane, the Younger; from an English print. Drawn and Engraved by Croome.... 195 Emigration of Mr. Hooker and his Company. Drawn by Croome, Engraved by Waitt..... 196 Ornamental Letter. Drawn and Engraved by Croome.... 196 Destruction of the Pequods. Drawn by Croome, Engraved by Waitt 201 .... Croome, Engraved by Waitt...... 208 Deputies Signing the Act of Union. Drawn by Croome, Engraved by Waitt..... xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Portrait of Oliver Cromwell; from a print in Forster's Life of Cromwell. Drawn by Croome, Engraved by Waitt...... Ornamental Letter. Drawn and Engraved by Croome... Trial of Wenlock Christison. Drawn by Croome, Engraved by Waitt.... 215 215 221 Portrait of Charles II.; from an English print. Drawn by Croome, Engraved by Waitt...... The first Money coined in New England. Drawn and Engraved by Croome, from a coin in the United States Mint..... 224 225 Ornamental Letter. Drawn and Engraved by Croome.. 225 Execution of Sir Henry Vane. Drawn by Croome, after Corbould, Engraved by Waitt.... 231 Elliot Instructing the Indians. Drawn and Engraved by Croome 233 O historical question is more interesting to the American than that which relates to the original discovery of the Western Continent. The honour of making it effectively known to the inhabitants of the Old World unquestionably belong to Columbus. From his glory as the great discoverer, it would be unjust in the slightest degree to detract. But the claim to a prior discovery, urged in favour of the Northmen, and never relinquished by the Icelandic scholars, has recently been revived by the Royal Society of Antiquaries at Copenhagen, and sup 1.-3 (17) 18 VOYAGE OF BIARNE. ported by such weighty testimony that it is now treated with respect by most historical writers. The facts, as recorded by the Icelandic authorities, cited by the Danish antiquaries, in their recently published volume* are briefly these:† "In the spring of the year 986, Eric Rauda, that is Eric the Red, emigrated from Iceland to Greenland, and formed a settlement there called Brattalid, at a place named from himself Ericsfiord. Among those who accompanied him was Heriulf Bardson, who established himself at a place which still bears the name of Heriulfsness. Heriulf had a son named Biarne, Biorne, or (in some modern writers) Biron. Biarne was absent. on a trading voyage in Norway, when his father accompanied Eric to Greenland. Returning to Iceland in the course of the summer, and finding his father gone, he sailed in pursuit of him, though wholly ignorant of the navigation between Greenland and Iceland. His vessel was soon enveloped in fogs; and after many days' sailing, he knew not whither he had been carried. When the fog cleared up, the voyagers found themselves sailing with a south-west wind, and saw land to the left. It was without mountains, overgrown with woods, and rose in several gentle elevations. As it did not correspond with the descriptions of Greenland, the country of which they were in scarch, they left it to larboard, and continued sailing for two days, when they saw another land, which was flat and overgrown with wood. From thence they stood out to sea, and sailed three days with a south-west wind, when they saw a third land, which was high and mountainous, and covered with glaciers. Coasting along its shore, they discovered that it was an island. They bore away from it without landing, and after four days' sailing with fresh gales, reached Heriulfsness in Greenland. Such is the tradition of Biarne's voyage in 986. He appears to have been carried by a north-east wind and currents far to the south till he struck the coast of America; and thence, with an opposite wind, stretched along the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, till he reached his destination in Greenland. Biarne is stated not to have landed on the continent of America. * Antiquitates Americanæ. †North American Review, Jan. 1838. VOYAGE OF LIEF. 19 Some time after this, probably in 994, Biarne made a visit to Eric, Earl of Norway; and gave him an account of his voyage, and of the unknown land he had seen. He was censured by the earl, for not having explored the region. On his return to Greenland, a voyage of exploration was determined upon. Leif, a son of Eric the Red, for this purpose bought Biarne's ship, and put on board a crew of twenty-five men, among whom was a German, named Tyrker, who had been long attached to the family of Eric. They sailed in the year 1000, and came first to the land which had been last discovered by Biarne. Here they landed. No grass was visible; the shore was lined with icebergs, and the intermediate space between them and the water was one continuous stratum of slate. This substance is called Hella, in the Icelandic tongue, and hence the region was named HELLULAND. This must have been Newfoundland or Labrador.* The voyagers now put out to sea from Helluland, and descried another land, where they also went on shore. It was level, covered with wood, and presented a front of white sand bluffs. This they called MARKLAND OF WOODLAND. It is supposed to have been the coast of Nova Scotia. Again, standing out to sea, they sailed for two days, with a north-east wind, before they saw land again. They then came to an island, east of the main, and entered a channel between this island and a promontory projecting in an easterly (or northerly) direction from the main land. They sailed westward; there was much land left dry at ebb tide. Afterwards, they went on shore at a place, where a river, issuing from a lake, fell into the sca. They brought their ship into the river, thence into the lake, and there anchored. Here they first constructed temporary huts; but having determined to pass the winter, they erected more permanent buildings, which they called LEIFSBUTHIR, Leif's booths or huts. Thus established, Leif divided his company into two parties, whose business it was alternately to watch the settlements. *Dunham's History of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. North American Review. |