Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/37



HE history of Barrington includes its discovery by Europeans, its aboriginal occupation by the Indians, and the permanent settlement by the English Pilgrims since 1620. It is authentic history that the sea coast and the country of New England, including Narragansett Bay, had been explored long before the seventeenth century. While obscure tradition invests with interest the stories of discoveries of America by Europeans prior to the year 1000 A. D., the evidence is convincing that the Norse sea kings pushed their discoveries to Iceland, Greenland, and the coast of North America, certainly as far south as New England, and made temporary settlements on our southern and eastern shores,nearly nine hundred years ago. The dwellers on the Norway peninsula were the sea kings of Western Europe and the pioneers of maritime adventure and discovery, as early as the middle of the ninth century of the Christian era. They were a people of tough sinew and bold hearts, afraid of no perils by land or sea. They preferred the hardy life of the navigator to the peaceful pursuits of husbandry, and, pressed in the rear by the entrance into Europe of Eastern hordes of barbarians, they sought for lands beyond their western horizon. As early as the year 861, A. D., a Norwegian pirate or trader named Naddodd discoved Iceland, and in 875, Ingolf with a company of Northmen "cast