Having put the impress of his personality so indelibly upon English life, it goes without saying that the Norseman's influence reached America with the first Englishman who landed here, if, indeed, it had not been here already since the days of Eric the Red among the Iroquois Indians. But contenting ourselves with the established testimony of history, there are still surprises in store for us. Not many of those who trace their descent back to the Pilgrim Fathers would think perhaps of ascribing to their Scandinavian origin any share of the character which made these pioneers the moulding and determining force of this country's history. But a single witness will establish such a claim. John Fiske in his "Discovery of America" says: "The descendants of these Northmen (who came to England) formed a very large proportion of the population of the East Anglian counties, and consequently of the men who founded New England. The East Anglian counties have been conspicuous for resistance to tyranny and for freedom of thought." In another place he says, "While every one of the forty counties of England was represented in the great Puritan exodus, the East Anglian counties contributed to it far more than all the rest. Perhaps it would not be far out of the way to say, that two-thirds of the American people who can trace their ancestry to New England, might follow it back to the East Anglian shires of the mother country." So far John Fiske. But having done that, it might be possible for these same excellent people, if the record could only be found, to trace their descent back from the East Anglian counties to the mountains and plains of the Scandinavian peninsulas.