Page:EB1911 - Volume 21.djvu/973

Rh came thither. The fact that Irish monks lived in Iceland before the Norsemen settled there in the end of the 9th century is verified by the Icelandic sagas.

In his translation of Orosius, King Alfred inserts the interesting story of the first known really Arctic voyage, told him by the Norwegian Ottar (Alfred calls him Ohthere), who about 870 rounded the North Cape, sailed eastwards along the Murman coast and discovered the White Sea, where he reached the south coast of the Kola Peninsula and the boundary of the land of the Biarmians (Beormas). Ottar told King Alfred that “he chiefly went thither, in addition to the seeing of the country, on account of the walruses.”

After Ottar’s time the king of Norway took possession of all land as far east as the White Sea and the land of the Biarmians, and the native “Finns” had to pay him tribute. Many voyages, mostly of hostile nature but also for trade purposes, were undertaken from Norway to the White Sea, and even kings went as far. It is told of King Eric, called Bloodyaxe, who died as king of York in England, that he made such a voyage, and fought with the Biarmians, about 920, and about 965 his son Harold Graafeld defeated the Biarmians and killed many people in a great battle near the river Dvina, where Archangel was built later.

After having settled in Iceland in the end of the 9th century, the Norsemen soon discovered Greenland and settled there. The first who is reported to have seen the coast of Greenland was a Norwegian, Gunnbjorn Ulfsson, who on his way to Iceland was storm-driven westwards. He came to some islands, afterwards called Gunnbjornskier, and saw a coast, but, without exploring the new land, he had evidently continued his way till he reached Iceland. The real discoverer and explorer of Greenland was the Norwegian, Eric the Red, who, with his father had settled in Iceland. As he and his men had there been declared outlaws for having killed several people they had to leave Iceland for three years, and he went westward to find the land which Gunnbjorn was reported to have seen. He explored the west coast of Greenland for three years, probably about 982–985. He then returned to Iceland, but founded the following year a colony in (q.v.). Many colonists followed, and two Norse settlements were formed, viz. the Eystrabygd (i.e. eastern settlement) on the south-eastern part of the Greenland west coast, between Cape Farewell and about 61° N. lat, where Eric the Red had his house, Brattalid, at the Eiriksfjord, and the Vestrabygd (i.e. western settlement) in the region of the present Godthaab district, between 63° and 66° N. lat. The Norse settlers carried on their seal and whale-hunting still farther north along the west coast beyond the Arctic circle, and probably in the region of Disco Bay. A runic stone was found in a cairn on a small island in 72° 55′ N. lat north of Upernivik, showing that Norsemen had been there. The stone probably dates from the 14th century. About 1267 an expedition was sent northwards along the west coast and may possibly have reached some distance north of Upernivik.

The last known communication between the Norse settlements in Greenland and Norway was in 1410, when some Icelanders returned, who four years previously had been storm-driven to Greenland After that time we possess no reliable information about the fate of these settlements When Greenland was rediscovered in the 16th century no descendants of the Norse settlers were found The probability is that having gradually been cut off from all communications with Europe, the remaining settlers who had not returned to the motherland were obliged to adopt the Eskimo mode of life, which in those surroundings was far superior to the European, and by intermarriage they would then soon be absorbed amongst the more numerous natives. There is evidence to show that an expedition was probably sent from Denmark or Norway to Greenland in the latter part of the 15th century (perhaps about 1476) under Pining and Pothorst (by Purchas called “Punnus and Pothorse”); and perhaps with Johan Scolvus as pilot. It is probable that this expedition had intercourse with the natives of Greenland, and possibly even reached Labrador, but it is unknown whether any remains of the Norse settlements were found on the Greenland west coast.

It is reported by Adam of Bremen (about 1070) that the Norwegian king Harold Haardraade (in the 11th century) made an expedition into the Arctic Sea (probably northwards) in order to examine how far it extended, but we know nothing more about this voyage.

The Icelandic annals report that a land called Svalbardi was discovered in 1194. The name means the cold side or coast. The land was, according to the sagas, situated four days’ sailing from north-eastern Iceland northwards in the Hafsbotn (i.e. the northern termination of the sea, which was supposed to end as a bay). There can be no doubt that this land was Spitsbergen. The Norsemen carried on seal, walrus and whale hunting, and it is believed on good ground that they extended their hunting expeditions eastwards as far as Novaya Zemlya and northwards to Spitsbergen.

On his way to Greenland from Norway in the year 1000 Leif Ericsson found America, probably Nova Scotia, which he called Wineland the Good. A few years later Thorfinn Karlsefni sailed from Greenland with three ships to make a settlement in the land discovered by Leif. They first came to Labrador, which they called Helluland, then to Newfoundland, which was called Markland (i.e. woodland), and then to Cape Breton and Nova Scotia (Vinland, Wineland). After three years they had to give up the undertaking on account of hostilities with the natives, probably Red Indians, and they returned to Greenland about 1006. We know of no later expedition of the Norsemen that reached Greenland; it is stated that Eric Uppri, the first bishop of Greenland, went in 1121 to seek Vinland, but it is not related whether he ever reached it, and the probability is that he never returned.

The Icelandic annals state that in 1347 a small Greenland ship which had sailed to Markland (Newfoundland) was afterwards storm-driven to Iceland with seventeen men. This is the last known voyage made by the Norsemen of Greenland which with certainty reached America.

The discoveries of the old Norsemen extended over the northern seas from Novaya Zemlya in the east to Labrador, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in the west; they had visited all Arctic lands in these regions, and had explored the White Sea, the Barents Sea, the Spitsbergen and Greenland Sea, Davis Strait, and even some part of Baffin Bay. They were the first navigators in history who willingly left the coasts and sailed across the open ocean, and they crossed the Atlantic between Norway and America, thereby being the real discoverers of this ocean, as well as the pioneers in oceanic navigation. They were the teachers of the navigators of later centuries, and it is hardly an accident that the undertakings of England towards the west started from Bristol, where many Norwegians had settled, and which from the beginning of the 15th century had much trade with Iceland.

John Cabot, sent out by the merchants of Bristol, rediscovered the American continent in 1497. He came to Cape Breton and Nova Scotia, probably the same land where Leif Ericsson had landed 500 years before. John Cabot started on a new expedition towards the west in 1498, but no more is known of this expedition, not even whether Cabot returned or not. There is no reliable evidence to prove that John Cabot or his son Sebastian ever discovered Labrador, as has been generally believed.

The Portuguese Gaspar Corte-Real rediscovered Greenland in 1500. He sailed along its east coast without being able to land on account of the ice. Whether he visited the west coast is uncertain. In 1501 he made a new expedition when he also rediscovered Newfoundland. One of his ships returned home to Lisbon, but he himself and his ship disappeared. His brother went in search of him the following year, but was heard of no more.

Cabot’s and Corte-Real’s discoveries were followed by the development of the Newfoundland and Labrador fisheries,