Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/174

 the purpose of establishing the priority of discovery; but when the northern antiquaries proceed to prove the details,—to establish the exact points in the state of Massachusetts at which Leif put up his wooden booths, and where Karlsefne and his wife Gudrid lived, and Freidisa committed her wholesale slaughter, and to make imaginary discoveries of Eunic inscriptions and buildings erected by Northmen in Rhode Island,— they are poets, not antiquaries. The subject is of so much interest both in Europe and America, and so much has been written in very expensive books to prove what is not susceptible of proof, and of no importance if proved, that a few pages must be bestowed on it.

From the adventurous spirit of the Northmen in the 11th century,—from their habits of living on board ship, on their ordinary viking cruises, for many more weeks and months together than are required for a voyage from Iceland to America,—from their being at home on board, and accustomed on their sea expeditions up the Mediterranean, to the White Sea, and to Iceland direct across the ocean, to a sea life,—it is not improbable that they should have undertaken a voyage of discovery to the west and south, and have renewed it when they found a land which produced building timber and skins to repay them. It was certainly not seamanship that was wanting among them in those ages, but science only. The class of vessels in which they sailed made them in a great measure independent of the science of navigation; because their vessels were of an easy draught of water, and they had a command with their oars and their numerous crews over their vessels, which made a lee shore, or other unfavourable position, of no such importance as to modern ships. In size, and as seaboats, their vessels in general were probably equal or superior to those in which Columbus made his first