We shall, in due order, proceed to show that the indirect and remote effect of the Crusades, and of the intercourse produced by them between two totally separated regions, was to induce the _Discovery of America_, the _Doubling of the Cape of Good Hope_, and the _Passage of the Straits_ at the southern extremity of Patagonia,--results due to COLUMBUS, VASCO DA GAMA, and MAGELLAN, every one of whom were seeking, in the voyages which have rendered them immortal, another passage to the Indies than that held by the Italians--so far as they could prosecute it in vessels upon the Mediterranean. But, before we can proceed from the coasting enterprises of the Lombards upon the land-locked waters of their inland sea, to the daring ventures of the Portuguese and Spaniards upon the raging billows of the Tropical and South Atlantic, we must turn for a moment to the North of Europe, and inquire into the maritime achievements of the Anglo-Saxons and the Northmen during the Dark and Middle Ages. [Illustration: DANISH VESSEL OF THE TENTH CENTURY: FROM AN INSCRIPTION.] CHAPTER IX. THE SCANDINAVIAN SAILORS--THEIR PIRACIES AND COMMERCE--THE ANGLO-SAXONS--ALFRED THE GREAT A SHIP-BUILDER--THE VOYAGE OF BEOWULF--DISCOVERY OF ICELAND BY THE DANES--DISCOVERY OF GREENLAND--THE VOYAGE OF BJARNI AND LEIF TO THE AMERICAN CONTINENT--THEIR DISCOVERY OF NEWFOUNDLAND, NOVA SCOTIA, NANTUCKET, AND MASSACHUSETTS--ADVENTURES OF THORWALD AND THORFINN--COMPARISON OF THE DISCOVERIES OF THE NORTHMEN WITH THOSE OF COLUMBUS. The nations inhabiting the borders of the Baltic and the coasts of Norway, as well as those dwelling on the shores of the German Ocean, were situated quite as favorably for maritime enterprise as those upon the banks of the Mediterranean. Though their earliest expeditions by sea were not stimulated by the same cause,--the desire for commercial intercourse,--they arose from causes equally active. While the Mediterranean countries possessed a fruitful soil and a balmy climate, those of the North, under a sky comparatively ungenial, afforded their inhabitants but a few of the articles which they needed: they were led, therefore, to increase their power by sea, in order to establish themselves in more favored climes, or at least to obtain from them by plunder what their own country could not furnish. Thus they neglected the arts of agriculture, and became inured to a life of piracy upon the sea. They spent their lives in planning and executing maritime expeditions. Fathers gave fleets to their sons, and bade them seek their fortune on the ocean-highway. The ships, at first small,--being mere barks propelled by twelve oars,--came at last to be capable of carrying one hundred or one hundred and twenty men. They were supplied with stones, arrows, ropes with which to overset small vessels, and grappling-irons with which to come to close quarters.