The island of Nantucket, when first settled by the whites, was occupied by two tribes whose names have not been preserved. One occupied the west end of the island, and was supposed to have come from the mainland by way of Martha’s Vineyard. The other lived at the east end, and is said to have come direct from the mainland. The two tribes were independent and were, at a time, hostile to each other. The tribe which came from Martha’s Vineyard was subject to the Wampanoags.[2] [2] “Hand-Book of American Indians,” Vol. II, p. 26. When the original discovery of the island of Nantucket was made by foreigners is still a moot point, many writers alleging that two hardy Norsemen, Bjorne Herjulfson, in A. D. 986, and Leif Ericsson, in A. D. 1000, during their respective voyages, had both sighted the New England coast, and that Leif had visited Nantucket, and bestowed upon it the name of Nauticon. If this is probable, it is equally probable that the name Nauticon was merely a Norse approximation to the original Indian name of the island, viz: =Natocket=[3]. It is now generally believed, however, that neither of these navigators got nearer to the New England coast than Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, although there is much to be said on both sides of the question. [3] H. B. Worth: Nantucket Hist. Asso., Vol. 11, Bull. 6, p. 290. With regard to “Vinland”, which Leif Ericsson is said to have visited on his way to Greenland, a circumstantial account of his voyaging is given in the Norse saga—the =Flateyarbok and the Hauksbok=. These accounts were subsequently confirmed by Adam of Bremen, in his =History of the Bremen Church, etc.=, and in the MSS. of numerous historians, from the eleventh to the fifteenth century; but the conjecture is not adequately substantiated by facts to warrant a conclusion, and it seems impossible in this age to divest the ancient story from the cloud of myth and mystery which surrounds it. It seems strange, nevertheless, that the name Nautican is that applied to Nantucket island by Sir Ferdinand Gorges (=circa= 1630), and Nantican in Hough’s book, under the date 1641. John Cabot, the navigator—of Italian birth—settled in Bristol, England, in the time of Henry VII., and he obtained a patent from the King “for the purpose of discovering unknown lands in the eastern, western and northern seas.” His son Sebastian accompanied him, and in 1497–1498, they cruised along the coast of America from Florida to Labrador. =The claim of the English Government to Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands was based upon these voyages of the Cabots.= Nantucket, however, looms out of mythland and into genuine history, when, in June or July, 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold, an English mariner, landed upon its shore at Sankaty Head, when he, and some thirty sailors, were =en route= for Virginia, seeking a new plantation.