The Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2): with some account of Ancient America and the Spanish ConquestFiske, John
History
The Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2): with some account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest
Fiske, John
America -- Discovery and exploration; Latin America -- History
accustomed to such a climate, he caught cold, and died soon after his
return to the Faeroes, probably in 1395. His brother Antonio succeeded to
his office and such emoluments as pertained to it; and after a while, at
Earl Sinclair's instigation, he undertook a voyage of discovery in the
Atlantic ocean, in order to verify some fishermen's reports of the
existence of land a thousand miles or more to the west. One of these
fishermen was to serve as guide to the expedition, but unfortunately he
died three days before the ships were ready to sail. Nevertheless, the
expedition started, with Sinclair himself on board, and encountered
vicissitudes of weather and fortune. In fog and storm they lost all
reckoning of position, and found themselves at length on the western
coast of a country which, in the Italian narrative, is called "Icaria,"
but which has been supposed, with some probability, to have been Kerry,
in Ireland. Here, as they went ashore for fresh water, they were
attacked by the natives and several of their number were slain. From
this point they sailed out into the broad Atlantic again, and reached a
place supposed to be Greenland, but which is so vaguely described that
the identification is very difficult.[279] Our narrative here ends
somewhat confusedly. We are told that Sinclair remained in this place,
"and explored the whole of the country with great diligence, as well as
the coasts on both sides of Greenland." Antonio Zeno, on the other hand,
returned with part of the fleet to the Faeroe islands, where he arrived
after sailing eastward for about a month, during five and twenty days of
which he saw no land. After relating these things and paying a word of
affectionate tribute to the virtues of Earl Sinclair, "a prince as
worthy of immortal memory as any that ever lived for his great bravery
and remarkable goodness," Antonio closes his letter abruptly: "But of
this I will say no more in this letter, and hope to be with you very
shortly, and to satisfy your curiosity on other subjects by word of
mouth."[280]
[Footnote 278: "Or M. Nicolo il Caualiere ... entro in
grandissimo desiderio di ueder il mondo, e peregrinare, e farsi
capace di varij costumi e di lingue de gli huomini, accio che
con le occasioni poi potesse meglio far seruigio alla sua
patria ed a se acquistar fama e onore." The narrative gives
1380 as the date of the voyage, but Mr. Major has shown that it
must have been a mistake for 1390 (_op. cit._ xlii.-xlviii.).]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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