In the next year after the second voyage of Eric the Red, one of the ships which were sailing from Iceland to the new settlement, was driven far off her course, according to the sagas, and Bjarni Herjulfson, who commanded the vessel, reported that he had come upon a land, away to the southwest, where the coast country was level; and he added that when he turned north it took him nine days to reach Greenland.[522] Fourteen years later than this voyage of Bjarni, which is said to have been in A.D. 986,—that is, in the year 1000 or thereabouts,—Leif, the same who had brought the Christian priest to Greenland, taking with him thirty-five companions, sailed from Greenland in quest of the land seen by Bjarni, which Leif first found, where a barren shore stretched back to ice-covered mountains, and because of the stones there he called the region Hellu land. Proceeding farther south, he found a sandy shore, with a level forest-country back of it, and because of the woods it was named Markland. Two days later they came upon other land, and tasting the dew upon the grass they found it sweet. Farther south and westerly they went, and going up a river came into an expanse of water, where on the shores they built huts to lodge in for the winter, and sent out exploring parties. In one of these, Tyrker, a native of a part of Europe where grapes grew, found vines hung with their fruit, which induced Leif to call the country Vinland. [Illustration: NORSE BOAT USED AS A HABITATION. From Viollet-le-Duc’s _Habitation humaine_ (Paris, 1875).] [Illustration: NORMAN SHIP FROM THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY. From Worsaae’s _Danes and Norwegians in England_, etc. “With the exception of very imperfect representation carved on rocks and runic stones [see Higginson’s _Larger History_, p. 27], there are no images left in the countries of Scandinavia of ships of the olden times; but the tapestry at Bayeux, in Normandy, is a contemporary evidence of the appearance of the Normanic ships.”] [Illustration: SCANDINAVIAN FLAGS. This group from Worsaae’s _Danes and Norwegians in England, etc._, p. 64, shows the transition from the raven to the cross.]