Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/197

 stone mill. This is not all. One of the first settlers, a Mr. Peter Easton, had the laudable custom of marking in his pocket-book whatever notable event oc curred in his township; and under the year 1663 he makes the memorandum, "This year we built the first windmill." Now we have here, first, the documentary evidence of Governor Arnold's will, calling it, in 1678, his stone mill, and bequeathing it as such; and of Mr. Peter Easton's pocket-book, giving posterity the information that "the first windmill in the township was built in 1663;" and as they could scarcely have required two mills at once if they had none before, we may fairly presume that the mill built in 1663 was that bequeathed in 1678. And, secondly, we have the material proof of the building, with its modern walls, built with mortar of lime and sand, and harled, and with a chimney-place, windows, and beam supports for a mill platform or floor, being altogether fit for and on the plan of a mill, and of nothing else, and its situation also being adapted for that purpose; and the only name given to it by the neighbouring inhabitants being u the old stone mill." Don Quixote himself could not have resisted such evidence of this having been a windmill. But those sly rogues of Americans dearly love a quiet hoax. With all gravity they address a solemn communication to the Poyal Society of Northern Antiquaries at Copenhagen, respecting these interesting remains of "a structure bearing an antique appearance"—"a building possibly of the ante-Columbian times"—"a relic, it may be, of the Northmen, the first discoverers of Vinland! " After describing the situation of the mill, they go on to say, that this "dilapidated structure" has long attracted the attention of the numerous strangers who come in the fine season, from all parts of the Union, to enjoy the sea-bathing and pure air of Newport, and they often question the inhabitants concerning its