Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/748

Rh 706 AMERICA [DISCOVERY, towns as well as a thickly-populated country. At the present day they have all the appearance of being natural ponds, and indeed were long considered to be such, not withstanding the repeated assertions of the Indians that they had been built by their ancestors, until chance led to the discovery that the muddy floor of one was entirely composed of flat stones, the interstices between which were stopped with a kind of clay not known in the neighbourhood. The centre was occupied by four artificial wells, the walls of which were formed of polished stones. Further research led to the discovery of numerous other zonotes. After the final fall of the Toltec empire there commenced the great movement of the northern tribes towards the south, a movement which continued throughout the llth, 12th, and 13th centuries. The movement consisted of a succession of migrations, and its starting-point appears to have been in New Mexico and California, which region was evidently the seat of a semi-civilised empire. Amongst these in vading tribes was one which subsequently rose to high importance. The Aztecs, or Mexicans proper, were living at Atzlan in the llth century, a country which was sur rounded by water, and where their usual occupation was as boatmen and carriers of wood. Other tribes also lived in this region, which is believed to be that of Lower California, The Aztecs commenced their joiirncy towards Mexico in 1090. In 1116 they reached Chicomoztoc, and in 1177 they entered Anahuac. Settlements were gradually estab lished in the valley, towards which peoples of various nations converged from the south as well as the north. The numbers of the Aztecs were slowly augmented by fresh arrivals; but it was not until 1325 that they were able to lay the foundations of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, and thus to inaugurate their assumption of power. In 1464 the empire of the Tutul-Xius was overthrown. The Mexican empire had, however, acquired large proportions, and was conducted with a magnificence and splendour scarcely equalled by any other court in America, and this empire continued up to the time of the Spanish conquest. )is- ovcry The discovery of a continent so large that it may be said f America to have doubled the habitable world, is an event so much Luro- ue more grand and interesting that nothing parallel to it can ever occur again in the history of mankind. America had of course been known to the barbarous tribes of eastern Asia for thousands of years ; but it is singvilar that it should have been visited by one of the most enterprising nations of Europe five centuries before the time of Columbus without awakening the attention of either statesmen or philosophers. Iceland was discovered about 860, and colonised by the Nor wegians in 874. About 50, or, according to other accounts, 100 years later, the same people planted colonies in Green land. Into the disputes respecting the situation of these colonies we have not room to enter. Sir Charles Giesecke, a good authority, states that their ruins exist near the south ern point of the peninsula. It is obvious that the same ad venturous spirit which enabled these northern mariners to discover the southern extremity of the country, would not permit them to stop short without visiting what is nowknown to be the most habitable part of it the western coast ; and the fact has been established by an inscription in runic cha racters found on a stone four miles beyond Upernavik, at the 73d parallel, intimating that &quot; Erling the son of Sigvat, and Enride Oddsoen, had cleared that place and raised a hillock on the Friday after Rogation day.&quot; The marking of the date is indistinct, but it is supposed by Professor Rask, the translator, to be either 1135 or 1170; and the runic characters show at any rate that it was anterior to the Refor mation, when this mode of writing was prohibited. 1 Whoever looks at the map of Greenland, and reflects on the fact 1 Ferussac, Bulletin dcs Sciences Ifistoriques, Julliet 1828. that the Norwegians must have been ascending through Norwegi Davis Straits as high as the latitude mentioned, annually, Disco- perhaps for two or three centixries, will admit that, with half venes&amp;lt; the spirit of enterprise which had carried them so far, the discovery of some portion of the west coast of these straits was almost unavoidable. Now, the position and direction of this coast once known, it required no great effort to trace it southwards to Labrador and Newfoundland. We mention these particulars because Mr Murray, one of the few who have denied the discovery of America by the Norwegians, grounded his disbelief chiefly on the hypothesis that the colonies and the navigation of that people at the period alluded to were confined to the east coast of Greenland. In 1001 an Icelander, sailing to Greenland, was driven away by a tempest far to the south-west, where he saw a level country covered with wood. The wind abating, he turned his course homeward, and on his arrival gave such a flattering account of the country he had seen as induced Lief, the son of the founder of the Greenland colony, to undertake a voyage thither. Lief and Bjorn, who sailed together, first reached a rocky island, to which they gave the name of Helhiland ; then a low country, thickly wooded, which they called Markland ; and some days afterwards they found trees loaded with fruits on the banks of a river. They spent the winter in the country ; and one of them, who was a German, having found wild vines growing, they called it Vinland. They had some intercourse and traded for furs with a people who came in leathern boats, and were called /Skrcelinffs, from their dwarfish size. A colony was planted, and remained for many years in the country, the situation of which is indicated by a fact casually mentioned, that the sun remained nine hours above the horizon at the shortest day. This indicates the 41st parallel of latitude; and the actual latitude of Rhode Island, the country which every col lateral circumstance would lead us to fix upon as the seat of the colony, is from 41 to 42. The Skrselings were of course the Esquimaux. 2 The vine appears to be the fox grape ( Vitis vulpina), which grows wild in that part of America. Only a few unimportant particulars respecting the settle ment are preserved ; but it was probably abandoned or destroyed, like the Greenland colonies, of which it was an offset. The account, though meagre, is distinct and consis tent. Its authenticity can scarcely be disputed ; and it is almost equally obvious that the country it refers to under the name of Vinland is in the vicinity of Rhode Island. A conclusion resting on such strong grounds scarcely requires to be supported by the high authority of Humboldt and Maltc-Brun. That the colony disappeared, and that the discoveries made were not prosecuted farther, are not cir cumstances which will shake the credit of the narrative in the minds of those who know the numerous reverses which befell the early colonies in New England and other parts of America. The hostilities of the Skrajlings was no doubt the principal cause of the abandonment of the colony. The Norsemen describe Vinland as a rich country, with a de lightful climate. Helluland, Markland, and Vinland, were no doubt regarded as countries either connected with or similar to Greenland, the flattering descriptions of which, given by the first discoverers were sadly belied by later ex perience. 3 The interest excited by the obscure accounts 2 See the curious work of Torfams called Vinlandia Antiqun, Ilafn, 1705 ; and the valuable Antiquitates Americancc, published at Copen hagen in 1837. Also Humboldt s Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 233, Sabine s transl. 1848. 3 M. Rafn, a Dane, who was much engaged in researches respecting these early voyages, announced that he had ascertained, from original documents, various facts previously unknown ; among others, that America (first discovered in 985) was repeatedly visited by the Ice landers in the llth, 12th, and 13th centuries ; that the embouchure of the St Lawrence, and in particular the bay of Gaspe, was their principal station ; that they had penetrated along the coast as far south, as Carolina ; and that they introduced a knowledge of Chris-