Possibly the Western Settlement was visited for recruiting purposes. The visitors from Iceland, as we are told, only accounted for 80 men out of the 160 eventually taking part in the expedition; the original Icelandic crews, after a winter in Greenland, would probably need to be brought up to strength, and the better part of 100 volunteers must have been difficult to collect in so small a colony.[100] Mr. Babcock, p. 97, seems to think that the shortest way to Labrador _via_ the north was already known in Greenland, and he also, curiously enough, considers it the safest route. On the question of danger there is room for difference of opinion, but it may be pointed out that progress from north to south or _vice versa_ is frequently impeded by ice till a late date in the summer. The very slow Moravian mission ship, sailing from London, often reaches the stations on the Labrador coast before the Newfoundland steamer service, since, sailing from east to west, she travels across instead of along the ice-barrier. Karlsefni’s ultimate and principal objective being to the south, he would hardly have deliberately undertaken so dangerous, unexplored, and roundabout a course, even if he had known of the possibility, which seems extremely doubtful. As a basis for calculation we may therefore safely put the point of departure in the neighbourhood of Godthaab. From this point we are told that the expedition sailed for two days with a north wind, i.e. in a southerly direction. It should be pointed out that the map occurring opposite page 106 of Mr. Babcock’s treatise is very misleading as to the courses which it suggests. It contains no meridians, and is tilted westward at an angle of nearly 40 degrees, with the result that the Western Settlement of Greenland is brought almost exactly north of the neighbourhood of Nain on the Labrador coast, which is the point selected by the author for Karlsefni’s landfall in Helluland. As a matter of fact there are not far short of 10 degrees of longitude between the two places, and the course between them is very far to the west of south. Mr. Babcock appears to have chosen this point on the coast of Labrador in order to retain the statement made as to the voyage having occupied but two days. The distance being about 450 miles, the author is compelled to assume a speed of nearly ten miles an hour, in support of which he cites statistics as to the speed of yachts and other modern sailing vessels. Now, as we have seen in Chapter V, this seems far beyond the capacity of ancient Icelandic ships, and, since on this point we have definite evidence, it is impossible that the time can have been correctly stated, even if we suppose the very nearest point on the Labrador coast to have been the land first sighted. It is moreover difficult to suppose that Karlsefni made the nearest point; he had no clue to its position, and his ultimate objective, for which he had a guide in the