DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 21 described in the records of Egypt reappear in the strange features of the civilization of Mexico, and in the vestiges of its aborigines, which amazed the Spaniards who accompanied Hernando Cortes into the interior of the country, in the early part of the sixteenth century. The remarkable accounts given by Bernal Diaz and other contemporary writers respecting the people, the kings, the cities, the palaces, the temples, and the public works seen by the Spanish invaders, verify, in many ways, the declarations of the Egyptian priests concerning the Atlantic race.' For centuries after the disappearance of the islands lying in the ocean west of the Pillars of Hercules, the wide expanse of water, dashing its foaming surges on. the shores of the continents of the two hemispheres, was not only unexplored but was deemed impassable. Superstition filled its misty distances with frightful chimeras and geographical absurdities. About the beginning of the Middle Ages the vikings of Northern Europe. were venturing across the North Sea in their single-masted, many-oared galleys. Until this time the superstitious seamen of Scandinavia had not attempted to sail beyond the sight of land to any great distance. Their first lessons in navigating the narrow expanse of the the North Sea were taken when their boats were unexpectedly carried away from the rugged ' Vide Historia Verdadera de la Conqvista de la Nueva-España. Escrita por el Capitan Bernal Diaz del Castillo, vno de sus Conquistadores. En Madrid, 1632. Antiquities of Mexico: comprising fac-similes of ancient Mexican paint. ings and hieroglyphics, preserved in the Royal libraries of Paris, Berlin, and Dresden; in the Imperial library at Vienna; in the Vatican library; in the Borgian museum at Rome; in the library of the Institute at Bologna; and in the Bodleian library at Oxford. Together with the monuments of New Spain, by M. Dupaix; with their respective scales of measurements and accompanying descriptions. The whole illustrated by many valuable inedited manuscripts, by Lord Kingsborough. In nine volumes. London, 1831–1848. 22 DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. coast of Norway by tempestuous winds to the Hetland' and Fer öe' (Far islands). Whatever fears of permanent exile on these unexplored islands may at first have alarmed the deported Northmen, these were dispelled by the cheering suggestion that when the wind blew from the west they could return to their own country. As soon as the wind blew eastwardly they put to sea. Using their sails and oars they safely reached the western shore of Scandinavia. Frequent experiences of this kind in time emboldened the Norwegian seamen to undertake voyages to the westward islands in search of booty. Having no compass to guide their galleys thither, they carried with them hawks or ravens, and when uncertain respecting the course of their vessels, they let loose a cast of these birds, which instinctively flew to the nearest land. Thitherward they steered, and finding that it was their destination or not, they secured whatever plunder they could and departed. Not unfrequently the vessels of the Norse sea-kings were lost in storms on the wild waters of the Atlantic, or wrecked on the inhospitable shores of remote islands. It is said that Naddoddr, a Norwegian pirate, was drifted in his ship by an adverse wind, in 860, to Iceland, which he called Sneeland (Snowland). It is 'Now called the Shetland islands, but the name is printed on the early maps Hetland; from Swedish het, hot, and land, land. The group lies about 180 miles from Norway, between 59° 50′ and 60° 50′ north latitude. The Fer öe or Far islands lie about 170 miles northwest of the Shetland group, and are between 61° 20′ and 62° 25′ north latitude. The name is derived from fer, far, (Swedish,) and õe, islands. 'Iceland lies between latitude 63° 24′ and 66° 33′ N. and longitude 13° 31′ and 24° 17′ W. It is one hundred and sixty miles east of Greenland, six hundred west of Norway, and two hundred and fifty northwest of the Fer de, or Far islands. Delineation of the Hyperborean Regions, by Sigurd Stephanus in the year 1570. (Size of the original, 64 inches square.) DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 23 also related that when the famous viking, Floki, was lost in his vessel in stormy weather, between the islands of Faroe and Sneeland, in 865, he let fly three ravens, one of which flew back to the Faroe islands, the second returned to the ship, and the third winged its way toward the more northerly island which the perplexed Northman was seeking. This sturdy seaman described the new country as volcanic and sterile, glacial and cold, and appropriately called it Island (Iceland). His companions, however, reported that they had found it to have a delightful climate and a fertile soil. One, wishing to describe its general fruitfulness in a more attractive way, averred that “milk dropped from every plant and butter from every twig." In a short time a course to Iceland was marked out by the early rovers of the North Sea, who, before the close of the ninth century, planted a colony on the bleak coast of this icy island, the most westerly land hitherto discovered by the fearless seamen of Scandinavia.❜ . But Iceland did not long remain the most remote part of the western world known to the people of Europe. Gunnbjörn, a Norwegian, driven westward in his ship beyond Iceland, in a storm, in 876, descried land looming up along the western horizon. In the latter part of the tenth century, Eric the Red, whom the public assembly of Iceland had declared an outlaw, determined to go in search of the land seen by Gunn 'History of the Northmen, by Henry Wheaton. London, 1831. pp. 17, 18. Iceland, or the journal of a residence in that island, during the years 1814 and 1815, by Ebenezer Henderson. vol. i. Intro. pp. xv. and 308. "Men of experience say, who have been born in Greenland, and have recently come from Greenland, that from Stadt, in the north part of Norway, to Horns, on the east coast of Iceland, is seven days' sailing directly westward." -Antiqvitates Americanae, sive scriptores septentrionales rerum Ante-Columbianarum in America. Edidit Societas Regia Antiqvariorum Septentrionalium. Hafniæ, 1837. Ivar Bardsen's treatise. p. 302. |