Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/40

20 The word "Hop" is of Norse origin, meaning a small land-locked bay, and is by some supposed to be the original word from which Mount Hope and Bay at Bristol were named. In support of this story, there was a tradition current among the oldest Indians in these parts, that there came a wooden house and men of another country in it, who fought the Indians with mighty success.

One morning in the following spring, (1009,) they (the Norse sailors) saw a great number of canoes approaching from heyond the promontory at the southwest, which may have been Bristol Neck. The story goes, "They were in such great numbers that the whole water looked as if it were sprinkled with cinders. Poles were suspended in each canoe. Thorfinn and his party held out shields; after which a barter of goods commenced between them. These people desired, above all things, to obtain some red cloth, in exchange for which they offered various kinds of skins, some perfectly gray. They were anxious, also, to purchase swords and spears, but this Thorfinn and Snorre forbade. For a narrow strip of red cloth they gave a whole skin, and tied the cloth round their heads. Thus they went on bartering for some time, when the supply of cloth began to run short. Thorfinn's people cut it into pieces so small that they did not exceed a finger's breadth; and yet the Skraelings, (Indians), gave for them as much as, or even more, than before."

"Thorfinn and his companions now thought it obvious that, although the quality of the land was excellent, yet there would always be danger to be apprehended from the natives. They therefore prepared to depart, and return to their native country. They first sailed round the land to the northward. They took, near the shore, five Skraelings clothed in skins and sleeping; these had with them boxes, containing marrow mixed with blood. Thorfinn presumed them to have been exiled from the country and his people killed them. They afterward came to a promontory abounding in wild animals, as they judged from the marks found in