Ancient America, in Notes on American ArchaeologyBaldwin, John D. (John Denison)
History
Ancient America, in Notes on American Archaeology
Baldwin, John D. (John Denison)
America -- Antiquities; America -- Discovery and exploration -- Pre-Columbian; Indians -- Antiquities
The next spring Thorfinn explored the coast farther west and south. Then
he went to the bay where Leif spent the winter, and there passed his
second winter in Vinland. He called the bay Hóp. The Indians called it
Haup; we call it Hope. During the next season they saw many natives and
had much intercourse with them, which finally led to hostilities. The
natives, in great numbers, attacked them fiercely, but were signally
defeated. Freydis, being with the company, fought desperately in this
battle, and greatly distinguished herself as a terrible combatant,
although in that peculiar condition which does not specially qualify a
woman for such exploits. Thorfinn afterward explored Massachusetts Bay,
spent a third winter in Vinland, and then, with part of the company,
returned to Greenland. He finally went back to his home in Iceland, and
there remained during the rest of his life.
The Indians had traditions which appear to have preserved recollections
of these visits of the Northmen. In 1787, Michael Lort, Vice-president
of the London Antiquarian Society, published a work, in which he quoted
the following extract of a letter from New England, dated more than half
a century earlier: “There was a tradition current with the oldest
Indians in these parts that there came a wooden house, and men of
another country in it, swimming up the Assoonet, as this (Taunton) river
was then called, who fought the Indians with mighty success.”
There was now a settlement in Vinland, at Hóp Bay, and voyages to that
region became frequent. The old Norse narrative says: “Expeditions to
Vinland now became very frequent matters of consideration, for these
expeditions were considered both lucrative and honorable.” The following
appears in Wheaton’s History of the Northmen: “A part of Thorfinn’s
company remained in Vinland, and were afterward joined by two Icelandic
chieftains. * * In the year 1059, it is said, an Irish or Saxon priest
named Jon or John, who had spent some time in Iceland, went to preach to
the colonists in Vinland, where he was murdered by the heathen.” The
following is from the Introduction to Henderson’s Iceland: “In the year
1121, Eirek, bishop of Greenland, made a voyage to Vinland.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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