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A CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY

I

OF

VOYAGES INTO THE ARCTIC REGIONS;

UNDERTAKEN CHIEFLY FOR THE PURPOSE OF

DISCOVERING A NORTH-EAST, NORTH-WEST,

OR

POLAR PASSAGE

BETWEEN THE

ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC:

TBOM THE EARLIEST PERIODS OF SCANDINATIAN NAVIGATION, TO THE

DEPARTURE OF THE

RECENT EXPEDITIONS,

UNDER THE ORDERS OF

CAPTAINS ROSS AND BUCHAN.

" How shall I admire your heroicke courage, ye marine worthies, beyond all names of worthiness ! that neyther dread so long eyther presence or absence of the suune ; nor those foggy mysts, tempestuous winds, cold blasts, snowes and hayle in the ayre : nor the un- equall seas, which might amaze the hearer, and aniate the beholder, where the Tritons and Neptune's, selfe would quake with chilling feare, to behold such monstrous icie ilands, rent- ing themselves with terrour of their owne massines, and disdayning otherwise both the sea's sovereigntie, and the sunne's hottest \aolence, mustering themselves in those watery plaiues where they hold a continual civill warre, and rushing one upon another, make windes and waves give backe ; seeming to rent the eares of others, while they rent themselves with, crashing and splitting their congealed armours." — Purchas.

By JOHN BARROW, F.R. S.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

1818.

j[ HE two expeditions recently fitted out for ex- ploring a northern communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans were of a nature to excite public attention and to engage a large share of general conversation. But as many crude and absurd notions seemed to be entertained on the sub- ject, it was thought that a brief history, arranged in chronological order, of the dangers and diffi- culties and progressive discoveries of former attempts, might serve as a proper introduction to the narratives of the present voyages, which, whether successful or not, will be expected by the public.

In the compilation of this brief history no pre- tensions are set up to authorship — the collecting of the materials, though widely scattered through many large and some few scarce volumes, employed no great share either of the writer's time or research ; in their present form they may be the means of saving both to those who feel disposed to acquire a general knowledge of what has been and what yet remains to be accom- plished.

London, \st August , 1818,

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

DISCOVERIES IN THE NORTH, FROM THE EARLY PERIODS OF SCANDINAVIAN NAVIGATION TO THE END OF JHE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

Iceland, Greenland, Labrador, and Newfoundland disco- vered by the ancient Scandinavians. — Discoveries of Nicolo and Antonio Zeno — Columbus — John and Sebas- tian Cabota — the Cortereals 1

CHAPTER II.

DISCOVERIES MADE IN THE NORTH DURING THE SIX- TEENTH CENTURY.

Aubert and Jacques Cartier — Estevan Gomez — The Domi- nus Vobiscum — The Trinitie and the Minion — Sir Hugh Willoughby — Richard Chancellor and Stephen Burrough — Sir Martin Frobisher — Edward Fenton — Arthur Pet and Charles Jackman — Sir Humphry Gilbert — John Davis— Maldonado — Juan de Fuca — Barentz — William Adams ,49

CHAPTER IIL

VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY IN THE NORTHERN REGIONS DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

George Weymouth— James Hall, 1st, 2d, and 3d Voyages —John Knight— Henry Hudson, 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th Voyages— Sir Thomas Button-rJames Hall, 4th Voyage

CONTENTS,

— Captain Gibbons —Robert Bylot — Bylot and Baffin — Voyages of a mixed Character between l6()3 and 1 6 15 — Jens Munk — Luke Fox — Thomas James — Zachary Gil- lam — Wood and Flawes 1^4

CHAPTER IV.

Discoveries in the northern regions during the

eighteenth century.

Knight, Barlow, Vaughan, and Scroggs — Middleton and Moor — Moor and Smith — Hearne — Phipps — Cook and Gierke — Pickersgill — Young — Duncan — Lowenorn and Egede — Mackenzie 271

CHAPTER V.

VOYAGES OF NORTHERN DISCOVERY UNDERTAKEN IN THE EARLY PART OE THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

Lieutenant Kotzebue — John Ross, David Buchan, William Edward Parry, and John Franklin 357

APPENDIX.

No. L

Mr. Buchan's Expedition into the Interior of Newfound- land 1

No. II.

A Relation of the Discovery of the Strait of Anian ; made by Capt. Lorenzo Ferrer Maldonado, in the Year 1588; in which is given the Course of the Voyage, the Situation of the Strait, the Manner in which it ought to be fortified, and also, the Advantages of this Navigation, aijd the Loss which will arise from not prosecuting it 24

CHAPTER I.

DISCOVERIES IN THE NORTH, FROM THE EARLY PERIODS OF SCANDINAVIAN NAVIGATION, TO TPIE END OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTUtlY.

Iceland, Greenland, Labrador, and 'Newfoundland disco- vered hy the ancient Scandinavians. — Discoveries of Nicolo and Antonio Zeno — Columbus — John and Sebas" tian Cabota — the Cortereals,

The piratical expeditions of the ancient Scandi- navians spread terror and dismay, by their destruc- tive ravages, among all the maritime nations of Europe. " We cannot read the history," says M. Mallet, " of the eighth, ninth, and tenth centu- ries, without observing, with surprize, the sea covered with their vessels, and, from one end of Europe to the other, the coasts of those countries, now the most powerful, a prey to their depreda- tions. During the space of two hundred years, they almost incessantly ravaged England, and fre- quently subdued it. They often invaded Scot- land and Ireland, and made incursions on the coasts of Livonia, Courland, and Pomerania. — They spread like a devouring flame over Lower Saxony, Friezeland, Holland, Flanders, and the

VOL. I. B

2 DISCOVERIES OF A7l.S6l.

banks of the Rhine, as far as Mentz. They pe- netrated into the heart of France, having long before ravaged the coasts : they every where found their way up the Somme, tlie Seine, the Loire, the Garonne, and the Rhone. Within the space of thirty years, they frequently pillaged and burnt Paris, Amiens, Orleans, Poitiers, Bour- deaux, Toulouse, Saintes, Angouleme, Nantes, and Tours. They settled themselves in Cam argue, at the mouth of the Rhone, from whence they wasted Provence and Dauphiny, as far as Va- lence. In short, they ruined France, levied im- mense tribute on its monarchs, bnrnt the palace of Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle, and, in con- clusion, caused one of the finest provinces of the kingdom to be ceded to them." And he adds, what one would wish to be true, that these daring robbers, " sometimes animated by a more pacific spirit, transported colonies to unknown or unin- habited countries, as if they were willing to repair in one place the horrid destruction of human kind occasioned by their furious ravages in others."*

One of these pirates, in proceeding to the Faroe islands, in the year 861, was driven, by an eas- terly gale of many days continuance, so far to the westward, that he fell in with an island utterly unknown to him, and to which, from the great -quantity of snow on the mountains, he gave the

* Mallet's. Northern Antiquities, vol. i. p. 245*

^n. 865. THE SCANDINAVIANS. 3

name of Si20W-land, Three years after his return, a Swede, of the name of Gardar Suaifarson, was mduced to undertake a voyage in search of this newly discovered island, which he was fortunate enough to find; and, having spent the winter upon it, and reached home in safety the following- year, he gave so lively a description of its fair woods and fertile soil, that one Flocke, or Flokko^ was induced to try his fortune on Snowland. The mariner's compass being at that time unknown, and the foggy and clouded atmosphere of the north frequentl}' hiding the face of the sun for days to- gether, Flokko took the precaution of providing himself with a raven, or, as some say, four ravens, which, like Noah, being let loose in the midst of the ocean, might serve as a guide for him to follow. The first is supposed to have flown back to the land it had left ; but on the second directing his flight to the w est ward, he followed the course taken by the bird, and found the land he was in quest of. He also passed the winter on the island, and, on his return, gave a less inviting picture of its ap- pearance than that which had been painted by Gardar. From the severity of the weather, and the vast quantities of drift ice which filled all the bays on the northern side of the island, he changed the name to that of Iceland, which it ever after retained. Some of his companions, however, de- scribed it as a pleasant and fertile country ; but no attempts appear to have been made towards a re-

b2

4 DISCOVERIES OF 874.

gular establishment upon it, till the year 874, when one Ingolf, and his friend Leif, or Hiorleif, dissatisfied with the arbitrary authority of Harold Harfagre, king of the Norwegians, determined to aliandon their countr}^, and, as voluntary exiles, to seek an asylum in Iceland. On approaching the island, Ingolf, conformably with an ancient superstition of his country, threw overboard a wooden door, determining to make his first land- inp' on that part of the coast to which the S'ods

't?

pa

should direct this floating guide ; but the current having carried it away fi'om his sight, he landed in a fiord or gulf on the southern part of the island, which still bears his name.*

The report of their arrival having reached Nor- way, a number of families, with their followers and connexions, taking with them their cattle and furniture and implements of husbandry, embarked for this new colony, with a view of establishing their future residence there. It is mentioned as a fact in the Iceland annals, whose authenticity has rarely been called in question, that these early Norwegian colonists were fully persuaded that the island had been inhabited before their coming- there ; as wooden crosses, bells, and even books, were found near the shore, such as w^ere then in use in Britain and Ireland. The distance is so short from Ireland, that it is not improbable that some

* Arngrim Jonas. Chri)moga:a.

982. THE SCANDINAVIANS. 5

of its fishermen might have been driven thither, and left behind them these rehcs of Christianity ;* or, as Forster supposes, some of the Norman pirates, with their booty, after plundering Ireland, may have directed their course to the westward, and left there these articles of their booty, j

Towards the close of the tenth centuiv, a man of the name of Thorw^ald, being obliged to fly on account of a murder, set sail for Iceland. His sou, Eric Rauda, or Eric the Redhead, having also been guilty of murder and many irregularities, soon fol- lowed. The latter set out from hence on an expe- dition to the westw ard in 982, and fell in with that part of the east coast of Greenland called lierjolfs Ness, and standing to the southward, entered a large inlet, which was called by him, or after him, Eric's Sound.:}: He passed the winter on a pleasant island in this sound, explored the coast in the fol- lowing year, and in the third year returned to Ice- land ; and by a lively description and the most lavish praises of its green and pleasant meadows, and the abundance of fine fish on the coast, he induced a number of settlers to accompany him to this newly discovered country, to which, in com- parison of its appearance with Iceland, he gave the name of Greenland. Such is the account of this discovery, as given by the northern historian

* INIallet's Northern Antiquities. . t Forster's Northern Voyages. X Tarfei Green. Ant.

b3

6 DISCOVERIES OF 1001.

and Icelandic judge Snorro; but Toifseus and some others contend that this country, as well as Iceland, was known before the times above men- tioned; and the grounds for this opinion rest chiefly on the privilege granted to the cliurch of Ham- buro'h in 834 bv Louis the Debonnair, and a bull of Pope Gregory IV., wherein permission is granted to the Archbishop Ansgarius to convert the Sueones, Danes, Sclavonians, Icelanders and Gr^eenlajiders ; but it is now supposed that the last two names have been interpolated by the church of Hamburgh, with a view to secure to itself certain rights over these countries ; and that, the better to carry on this pious fraud, it had falsi- fied the documents. Whether this be really the case or not, the church, it would appear, succeeded in its object, the Norwegian colonies having con- tinued to pay to the bishops and the holy see, in the way of tythe and Peter-pence, two thousand six hundred pounds, in weight, of the walrus or sea-horse teeth.

The Norweo-ians and the Normans flocked in great numbers to Iceland, and a regular trade was established between the colonists and the mother countrv. About the vear 1001, as one of the colonists, of the name of Herjolf, with his son Biorn, were proceeding on a trading voyage, their ships were separated by a storm, and Biorn was driven to Norway, where he soon afterwards learnt that his father Herjolf was gone to Green- land. On this information he set sail to the west-

1001. THE SCANDINAVIANS. 7

ward, intending to join him, but being driven by a storm a great way to the south-west he dis- covered, by chance, a fine plain country well clothed with wood. The relation which he gave of this new discovery, on his return to Iceland, inflamed the ambition of Leif, the son of Eric, who had founded the colony on the coast of Greenland. He immediately equipped a proper vessel, and taking with him his friend Biorn, they proceeded together in quest of the newly dis- covered land. On approaching the coast they ob- served a barren and rocky island, which they there- fore named Helleland ; and to the low sandy shore beyond it, which was covered with wood, they gave the name of Mai^kland. Two days after this they fell in with a new coast of land, to the northward of Avhich they observed a large island. They ascended a liver, the banks of Avhich were covered with shrubs, bearing fruits of a most a2:reeable and delicious flavour. The temperature of the air felt soft and mild to the Greenland adventurers, the soil appeared to be fertile, and the river abounded with fish, and par- ticularly with excellent salmon. On proceeding upwards they discovered that the river issued from a lake, near which they resolved to pass the winter. On their return, they mentioned, among other things, that, on the shortest day, the sun was visible above the horizon eight hours ; that a

B 4

8 DISCOVERIES OF 1001.

German, who was one of the crew, in strolling into the woods, met with wild grapes, which he informed the Scandinavian navioators were such as, in his country, were used to make wine, upon which they gave to the island the name of Vinland.

The latitude deduced from the observation of the length of day, supposing it to be correct, would point out some of the rivers on the eastern coast of Newfoundland as the spot on which the adven- turers wintered, several of which rivers take their rise in lakes ; or it w ould equally answer to the coast of Canada, near the mouth of the river St. Lawrence. It is now known that vines grow wild in various parts of Canada, some of them pleasant to the taste and agreeable to the eye, such as the Hjitis labrusca, vulpina, and arborea;^ but whether , any species may grow on Newfoundland, wx know so little of the interior, or even of its shores, that, after a settlement of more than two hundred years, no attempt has yet been made to collect a Flora of the island. But it is by no means necessary to sup- pose that the fruit found by the German was the grape. TVunb<^r or mn-ber (wine-berry)t is the generic name, among the nations where the grape was not known, for the i^ibesia and grossularia (the various species of currants and gooseberries) ;

* Forster's Northern Discoveries.

t Dr. Percy — Trandation of Mallet's Northern Antiquities,

1001. THE SCANDINAVIANS. g

and of the former of these, Canada, Labrador, the shores of Hudson's Bay, and Newfoundland, afford several species.^ There is, therefore, no reason to call in question the veracity of the relation on ac- count of the circumstance which gave the name of Vinland to the new-discovered country.

Though Newfoundland has now been settled more than two hundred years, it is scarcely yet known with certainty whether, in the interior, any natives are found with permanent habitations on the island, or whether they are not merely annual visitors, who come over from the continent in the summer months for the purposes of killing deer, bears, wolves, and other animals, whose skins are valuable for clothing and their flesh as food ; and for catching salmon in the rivers, and collecting fowls and eggs on the intermediate islands. Many of these Indians have occasionally been met with in their boats near the coast, but from the ill treat- ment they experienced from the European fisher- men, they withdrew themselves at an early pe- riod from their intruders, and have since studious- ly avoided all intercourse with them. It is this which makes a recent expedition into the interior of the island, under the command of Captain

* Kibes prostratum is a native of Newfoundland ; and R. re- curvatum, bearing a black berry resembling a grape, is found on the shores of Hudson's Bay. Persoon, Synop. Plant, i. p. 251.

10 DISCOVERIES OP lOOi.

Buchan, now on the northern voyage of discovery, the more interesting, from whose manuscript jour- nal an abstract will be given in its proper place in the sequel.

Whether we are to consider Vinland as Labrador or Newfoundland is a matter of little importance, as the Scandinavians do not appear to have made any progress in the colonization of either country, though a recent discovery would seem to indi- cate the remains of an ancient colony, of which we shall presently have occasion to speak. These northern hordes, however, " thrust out of their exuberant hive," flourished with great rapidity on Iceland, in spite of its barren soil and rigorous climate. Religion and literature even took deep root where every luxury and frequently the com- mon necessaries of life were wanting. The ge- nius of native poetry survived amidst eternal ice and snows. The want of shady groves and verdant meadows, of purling streams and gentle zephyrs, was amply supplied by the more sublime and aw^ful objects of nature, — storms and tempests, earthquakes and volcanos, spouts of Hquid fire and of boiling water, volumes of smoke and steam and ashes darkening the air and enveloping the whole island, were the terrific visitors of this ultima Thule of the inhabitable world. '' The scalds or bards," says Pennant, " retained their fire in the inhospitable climate of Iceland, as vigorously as

1001. THE SCANDINAVIANS. H

when they attended on their chieftains to the mild air of Spain, or Sicily, and sung their valiant deeds."*

The Greenland colonies were less fortunate. The great island (if it be not a peninsula) known by the name of Greenland, is divided into two distinct parts by a central ridge of lofty mountains, stretching north and south, and covered with perpetual ice and snow. On the east and the west sides of this ridge, the ancient Scandinavians had established colonies. That on the west had progressively in- creased until it enumerated four parishes, containing one hundred villages : but being engaged in per- petual hostility with the native tribes, in possession of this territory and of the neighbouring islands, to whom they gave the name of Skroelings, but who have since been known by that of Eskimaux, the colony on that side would appear to have been ulti- mately destroyed by these hostile natives. The ruins of their edifices were still visible in 1721, when that pious and amiable missionary Hans Egede went to that country, on its being re-colonized by the Greenland Company of Bergen in Norway, and have since been more circumstantially described.

The fate of the eastern colony was, if possible, still more deplorable. From its first settlement by Eric Rauda in 983 to its most flourishing period

* Introd. to Arct. Zool. i. p. 44.

12 DISCOVERIES OF 1001.

about the commencement of the fifteenth century, it had progressively increased in population ; and, by the latest accounts, consisted of twelve parishes, one hundred and ninety villages, one bishop's see, and two convents — one of which is supposed to have been that which is described by Zeno as si- tuated near the spring of hot water. A succession of sixteen bishops is recorded in the Iceland an- nals; but when the seventeenth w^as proceeding from Norway in 1406 to take possession of his see, a stream of ice had fixed itself to the coast and rendered it completely inaccessible ; and from that period to the present time, no intercourse whatever has been had with the unfortunate colo- nists. Thormoder Torfager, however, relates, in his History of Greenland, that Amand, bishop of Skalholt in Iceland, in returning to Norway from that island about the middle of the sixteenth cen- tury, was driven by a storm near to the east coast of Greenland, opposite to Herjolfsness, and got so near as to be able to distino'uish the inhabitants driving their cattle in the fields ; but the wind coming fair, they made all sail back for Iceland. Hans Egede conceives this account of Amand worthy of credit, from which, he observes, " we iearn that the eastern colony continued to flourish at least one hundred and fifty years after com- merce and navigation had ceased between it and Greenland ;" and he adds, *' for aught we know to

138(1 THE SCANDINAVIANS. 13

the contrary, it is not yet wholly destitute of its old Norwegian inhabitants.'**

The several attempts that have been made to approach this coast, bound in chains of '' thick- ribbed ice," and to ascertain the fate of the un- happy colonists, will be noticed in their proper places. Hitherto, all endeavours have been fruit- less, but the recent disruption of the ice from that coast may afford the opportunity of exa- mining into the fate of the wretched inhabitants, and of ascertaining, if possible, in what manner they perished, after the closing of the icy barrier upon them, and whether any and what records or ruins have been left behind them. Such a research is at least an object of rational curiosity, and it would be a reproach to the Danish government, if it neglected the only opportunity that may occur for instituting this inquiry.

NICOLO AND ANTONIO ZENO. 1380.

The history of the noble family of Zeno is well known and celebrated in the records of Venice.

* Hans Egede, Crantz, Torfaeus, and a host of writers, concur in the planting and destruction of these two settlements; yet in spite of these authorities, and the repeated attempts on the part of the Danish government to examine into the state of the ancient colony on the eastern coast, a M. Eggers undertook to prove, in 1792, that the eastern colony never had existence, and that it was only called East Greenland from being situated on the 'west side. This question will more properly be examined in the descriptive volume.

14 DISCOVERIES OF 1380.

The extraordinary adventures of the two brothers NicoLo and Antonio, in the northern seas, were first pubhshed by Francesco MarcoHni, in 1558, and afterwards in Ramusio's Collection of Voyages and Travels.* They are stated to have been drawn up from the letters sent by Antonio Zeno to his eldest brother Carlo, and delivered to Marcolini for publication by a descendant of the Zeno family, who laments the imperfect state into which they had fallen, by his ignorance of their importance at a time when he was incapable of exercising a judgment on their contents, and had carelessly and thoughtlessly destroyed some of them ; that, however, in more mature years, he had collected together their scattered remains, and put them into order, with the view of preserving the me- mory of these early and interesting discoveries, made by his two noble relations.

From this circumstance, it is evident that great allowances must be made for what may appear to be inaccurate or mysterious ; but the relation, as we have it in its mutilated state, contains so much curious and correct description, and so many inte- resting discoveries, that it must always maintain its ground as one of the most important in the his- tory of early navigation. From this relation, it appears that Nicolo, being desirous of seeing foreign countries, fitted out a ship at his own ex-

* Dello Scoprimento del I'lsole Frislanda. Ramusio, Navig. et Viaggi, vol. ii. p. 220.

1380. N. AND A. ZENO, 15

pense, and passed the Strait of Gibraltar, with an intention of visiting England and the Low Coun- tries; but, in the course of his voyage, a violent storm arose, and his vessel was cast away on the coast of a large island which is called Frisland. Fortunately for him and his crew, he was saved from a savage attack made on them by the natives of the island, by the interference of a chieftain of the name of Zichmni, under whose protection he placed himself and all his people. This prince was also lord of certain small islands to the southward, called Borland^ and duke of Sorano^ lyi"g oppo- site to Scotland. " Of these northern parts," says the narrator, ^' I drew out a copy of a navigation chart, which I still possess among the antiquities of our house."

This Zichmni, being a great warrior by sea, and finding Nicolo a man of judgment and discretion, and well experienced in sea affairs, engaged him in an expedition to the westward. It consisted of thirteen vessels, with which they took possession of Ltdavo and Ilofe^ and some other small islands, in which the Venetians obtained great renown, as well for their valour as their skill in sea affairs. On their return to Frisland, Nicolo was made captain of Zichmni's fleet, and so well pleased with the honours he received, that he wrote to his brother Antonio to join him; who accordingly fitted out a ship and proceeded thither, where he remained fourteen years, ten of them alone, and four in company with his brother Nicolo; the

16 DISCOVERIES OF 1380.

latter of whom was again sent out on an expe- dition against Estland, which is situated between Frisland and Norway. After this he attacked and phmdered seven other islands, which are named Talas, Broas, Iscant, Tjyius, Mimanty Dambere, and Bres, in the last of which he built a fort. In the following year, having fitted out three ships, he set sail in July towards the North, and arrived in Engroneland, where he found a monastery of predicant friars, dedicated to Saint Thomas, and situated close to a mountain, which threw out flames like Vesuvius and .^tna.

There was besides in this place a fountain of hot water, with which the church of the monastery and the chambers of the friars were heated, and wdiich was also brought into the kitchen so boiling- hot, that no other fire was made use of for dressing their victuals ; and by putting their bread into brass kettles without water, it became baked as well as if it had been in a heated oven. They had also little gardens, covered over during winter, which being watered with this water, were defen- ded against the snow, and cold, which, in those parts, by reason of their situation so near the pole, is most severe ; and by these means the friars produced flowers and fruits, and herbs of various sorts, just as well as in more temperate countries ; so that the rude and savage people of those parts, seeing these supernatural effects, considered the friars as gods, and brought them presents of chick- ens, flesh, and other articles, and held them iu the

1384. N. AND A. ZEXO. 17

greatest awe and respect. When the frosts and •snows are severe, the friars heat their houses in this manner, and temper the heat or cold at pleasure. Their buildings are made of the stones which are thrown out like burning cinders from the mountain, and which by throwing water on them becoaie excellent white lime ; when cold and not dissolved with water, they shape them with iron tools and use them in their buildino-s.

Th*eir winter is said to continue for nine months their food to consist of wild fowl and fish; for the warm water runneth into a capacious haven, which, on account of its heat, it preventeth from freezing, and in consequence of this there is such a concourse of sea-fowl and such abundance of fish, that both are easily taken in vast multitudes, and enable the friars to maintain a great number of people, whom they keep in constant employment, in construct- ing their houses, in taking sea-fowl and fish, and in a thousand other matters relating to the monastery.

The trade of these friars with Norway and the neighbouring islands is then described ; and it is observed, that to this monastery of Saint Thomas resort the friars of Norway, of Sweden, and of other countries, but mostly from Iceland. The boats of the fishermen are described as being in shape like a weaver's shuttle, and made of the skins and bones of fishes.

This curious account of Engroneland or Green- land is p'iven bv Nicolo to his brother Carlo ; and

VOL. I. C ' ,

IS DISCOVERIES OF 1384 ta

it appears that, during his residence at this monas- tery, being unused to such severity of weather, he fell sick, and died shortly after his return into Fris- land. This Nicolo left behind him two sons in Venice, from one of whom was descended the celebrated Cardinal Zeno.

On the death of Nicolo, his brother Antonio succeeded to his property, and, unwillingly as it would seem, to all his dignities and honours, for he wished to return to his own country ; but all his entreaties with Zichmni were unavailing ; for Zichmni, " being a man of great courage and valour, had determined to make himself lord of the sea." At this time one of his fishermen re- turned to Frisland, after an absence of six and twenty years, and gave an account of his having been driven by a violent storm upon an island called Estotiland, about a thousand miles to the westward of Frisland. He related that the island was well peopled ; that a man was brought to him who had likewise been shipwrecked, and who spoke Latin ; that the island was nearly as large as Iceland, and more fertile, the people ingenious and skilled as artisans ; that the prince had Latin books, but did not understand them ; that they had gold and all manner of metals ; that they raised com, made beer, traded with Greenland, from whence they procured furs, brimstone, and pitch ; that their buildings were made of stone ; that they had extensive woods, of which they built ships, and

1394, N. AND A. ZENO. JQ

traded with a countiy to the southward called Dt^ogio.

Zichmni, havmg heard this strange relation, which was confirmed by the crew who had come to Frisland with the fisherman, determined to set out with a great number of ships and men in search of these countries, and Antonio Zeno ac- companied him on this expedition of discovery.

As they proceeded to the westward, the first point they fell in with was called Icaria, and beyond this they came to another country, whose temperature is said to have been inexpressibly mild and pleasant. To the haven in which they an- chored they gave the name of Trin. In the in- terior were great multitudes of people, half wild, hiding themselves in caverns, of small stature, and very timid. Zichmni, finding this place to have a wholesome and pure air, a fruitful soil, and fair rivers, v/as so delighted with the country, that he determined to take possession of it and to build a city. But his people began to murmur and to express a desire to return, upon which he sent away Antonio to conduct back to Frisland all those who were unwilling to stay. They sailed for the space of twenty days to the eastward without seeing any land; then south-east five days, when they perceived the island of Neome, and, taking in fresh provisions, in three days more reached Frisland.

" What followed after the letter containing'

c 2

20 DISCOVERIES OF \3M tO

this intelligence," observes the narrator, " I know not :" but from a piece of another letter of An- tonio, it would appear that Zichmni built a town near the harbour on the island which he had discovered. The beginning of the letter he says is as follows : —

" Concerning those things that you desire to know of me, as of the men and their manners and customs, of the animals and neighbouring coun- tries, I have set down particularly in a book, which, by the blessing of God, I will bring with me ; wherein I have described the country, the mon- strous fishes, the laws and customs of Frisland, Island, Estland, the kingdom of Norway, Estoti- land, Drogio, together with the life of M. Nicolo, the knight our brother, with the discovery which he made, and the state of Engroneland. I have also written the life and acts of Zichmni, a prince as worthy of immortal memory as any that ever lived, for his great valour and singular humanity ; wherein I have described the discovery of Engrone- land on both sides and the city which he built. Therefore I will speak no further hereof in this letter, hoping to be with you very shortly, and to satisfy you in sundry other things by word of mouth."

The letters containing the curious and interest- ing narrative of the adventures and discoveries of the two Zenos were written by Antonio to his brother Qirlo ; " and it grieveth me/' says the

1394. N. AND A. ZENO. 21

narrator, " that the book and various other writ- ings concerning these things should so lamentably have been destroyed ; for being but a child when they fell into my possession, and not knowing of what importance they were, I tore them in pieces, as the manner of children is, which I cannot call to remembrance without the deepest grief"*

The more the narrative of the two Zenos has been scrutinized, the stronger has the internal evidence appeared in favour of its general veracity. The heating of the monastery, the cooking of the friars' victuals, and watering their gardens with hot water, were considered, however, by many as things utterly incredible. But we are now " wiser than of yore," and manage these things in the same manner as the monks of St. Thomas were wont to do in the fourteenth century. The great difficulty, however, among geographers was that of assigning a proper position for the island of Frisland ; a name which occurs in the life of Christopher Columbus, and is placed by Frobisher as the southern extre- mity of Greenland. Ortelius maintained that it was a certain part of the coast of North America. Delislef and some others supposed that Buss island, to the south of Iceland, was the remains of Friesland, which had been swallowed up by an

* Dello Scoprimento del Tlsole Frisland, Sec. per Fran. IVIarcolini, 1558.

t Hemisphere Occidental, 1720.

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22 DISCOVERIES OF 1384 to

earthquake;^ and others again cut the matter short by considering the existence of Frisland, and even the whole voyage of the two Zenos, as a fiction. But M. Buache and IM. Eggers have gone far to prove the truth of the narrative on two different grounds ; the former having shewn that the geo- graphical position of Frisland corresponds with the cluster of the Feroe islands ;t and the latter, that the names given by Zeno correspond pretty nearly with the modern names of those islands. J Forster has tried the same thing, and finds a cor- responding island for every name mentioned in the narrative of the two Zenos. He has also dis- covered that one Henry Sinclair was Earl of Orkney and possessor of the Shetland islands so far down as the year 1406; and as Sinclair or Siclair to an Italian ear might sound like Zichmni, he concludes that Sinclair is the prince mentioned by Zeno.§ The name even of the aggregate, Feroesland, differs not materially from Frisland. Estotiland may be Newfoundland or Labrador.

* It is got rid of in this way by the Due d'Almadover, the Abbe Zurla and Amoretti ; (Voyage d, la Mer Atlantique, &c. tra- diiit par Ch. Amoretti;) and Buss island itself is gone, if it ever had an}' existence above water.

*t Mem. sur Tile de Frislande, dans I'Hist. de I'Acad. des Scien. 1784.

I Mem. sur I'Ancien Greenland. 1792.

§ History of Voyages and Discoveries made in the North, p. 209.

1394. N. AND A. ZENO. 23

The name, says M. Malte-Brun, appears to be Scandinavian ; ^' for Est-outUnul in English would signify land stretching farthest out to the east, which ao^rees with the situation of Newfoundland with reo-ard to the continent of America.'"* The same author observes, that the inhabitants of Es- totiland appear to be the descendants of the Scandinavian colonists of VinJand, whose lan- guage, in the course of three ages, might have been sufficiently altered to be unintelligible to the fishermen of Feroe. The Latin books (of which Zeno speaks) had doubtless, he thinks, been carried thither by that Greenland bishop, who, in 1121, betook himself to Vinland to preach the Christian religion in that country; that Drogio, on this hypothesis, w^ould be Nova Scotia and New England; and he concludes, that by bringing together under one point of view the discoveries of the Scandinavians in the tenth and eleventh centuries, and the voyages of the two Venetians in the fourteenth, we must be persuaded that the New World has been visited by the nations of the north as far back as the year 1000; and that it may perhaps be thought that this first discovery, historically proved, after having been confirmed anew in 1 390 by Zeno, may have been known to Columbus in 1477, (1467) when he made a voyage

* Precis de la Geog, Universclle, torn. i. p. 405.

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24 DISCOVERIES OF 1384 to

into the northern seas. At any rate, that the most prejudiced, on castmg a glance on the map, must be convinced that nature herself had designed New- foundland to be the first for receiving the visits of Europeans.*

With reo-ard to Columbus, too little remains on record, concerning his voyage to the north, even for hazarding any conjecture to what part, (beyond Iceland,) or for what purpose, it was undertaken. The discovery, however, which has just been made on Newfoundland would seem to corroborate the conjecture, that this island is the Estotiland of Zeno. A party of English settlers, in proceeding up the river which falls into Conception Bay, a little to the northward of St. John's, observed, at the distance of about six or seven miles above the bay, the appearance of stone walls, rising just above the surface. On removing the sand and alluvial earth, thev discovered the remains of an- cient buildings, oak-beams, and mill stones sunk in oaken beds. Enclosures resembling gardens were traced out, and plants of various kinds grow- ing about the place not indigenous to the island. But the most decisive proof of these ruins being the remains of an ancient European colony was in the different kinds of coins that were found, som.e of ductile gold, which the inhabitants con-

* Precis de la Geog. Univer. torn. i.

139'4. N, AND A. ZENO. 95

sldered to be old Flemish coins, and others of copper without inscriptions.*

The coins, which are said to be in the hands of many of the inhabitants of St. John's, will probably decide the question, Avhether these newly dis- covered remains of a former colony be that founded l^y Zichmni, in the latter part of the fourteenth century, or some attempt at the establishment of a colony by the descendants of Eric and Biorn from Iceland in the eleventh century. The Scandina- vians were in the practice of coining money before the tenth century, stamped with the im- pression of a sun, a star, or simply a cross, but w ithout any inscription ; and they also trafficked even before that period wdth foreign money, which they received principally from the Flemings.t One circumstance would seem rather to militate against the supposition of the recently discovered ruins being the remains of a Scandinavian colony. These northern settlers on Iceland and Greenland build chiefly with wood in countries where no wood grows. The ruins in question are of stone, and on a spot where timber grows abundantly. The probability, therefore, js in favour of their being the remains of the fort which Zichmni built on the banks of a fair river, if they may not be

* This information is received in a letter from Captain Buchan, written at the moment of his sailing on the