Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/811

 De Roo : History of Amci'ica before Columbus 80 1 far as the introduction of Christianity is concerned, we are told that "while there are to be found in America some prehistoric vestiges that point to the apostle St. Thomas's presence" (I. 217), yet this "is not absolutely proved ; while on the contrary there are no arguments want- ing to make us believe that the origin of the vestiges of Christianity, still existing on the continent at the beginning of the sixteenth century, is not anterior to the sixth or seventh century of our era " (I. 524). Plato's Atlantis is duly accepted by our author as an historical narra- tive, but he has doubts about the significance of the discovery of Fusang by Buddhist monks, in the fifth century, although referring to Charles G. Leland's book on this subject as the work of an Englishman (I. 339). He also defends the alleged Bull of Gregory IV., in the year 835, as proving " the discovery and partial Christianization of Greenland, as well as of Ice- land long before any exiled Northman first set foot on its shores ' ' (II. 45). That these countries ' ' were newly converted during the eleventh century is perfectly correct in regard to their Scandinavian inhabitants ; but it does not disprove the fact of a previous Christian population placed by the Roman pontiff under the jurisdiction of St. Ansgar " (II. 67). The name "Greenland," according to our author, is derived not from the familiar statement in the Icelandic sagas that it was given to a newly- discovered country by Eric the Red, A. D. 985, on account of its nat- ural features, but from its resemblance to " Cronland," the island where Jupiter chained in everlasting sleep his conquered antagonist Cronos, or Saturn, according to the veracious narrative of Plutarch, in his treatise On the Face in the Orb of the Moon (II. 64). Much space is devoted to an account of the discovery of Vinland by Leif Ericson, A. D. 1000, as narrated in the Sagas, which in our author's opinion are neither mythical nor vague, and which are confirmed, he thinks, by other historical sources. But certainly his statement that it was not "recorded in writing at once," but was " for the space of one or two generations faithfully preserved by the Icelandic professional saga- men or story-tellers " (II. 289) is very wide of the truth. The shortest period to which such a tradition has ever been reduced is three hundred years.' Archaeological evidence of the presence of the Northmen upon this continent abounds, in our author's view. Professor Horsford's discovery of "Norumbega," the ancient seaport of Vinland, with all its basins, wharves, docks and canals, at Watertown, in Massachusetts, is ardently maintained, and Longfellow's Skeleton in Armor is made to "speak" once more ; but the Dighton Rock and the Old Stone Mill at Newport, R. I., are given up. Not so, however, is the inscription upon a rock on the banks of the Potomac over the grave of Syasi the Blonde, in which were found fragments of bones and two Byzantine coins, "all of which interesting articles are now preserved in the Smithsonian Institution, at Washington" (II. 322), notwithstanding the fact that Professor Joseph Henry, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, so long ago as ' Reeves, The Finding of Wineland the Good, p. 23.