A History of Barrington, Rhode Island/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II
THE NORTHMEN IN NARRAGANSETT BAY
THE 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 their door-posts toward the Icelandic shores," and made permanent settlements on that island. More adventurous spirits sailed further westward and discovered and made permanent settlement on the eastern and southern shores of Greenland, where their descendants dwell today. The tenth century witnessed maritime adventures and discoveries extended still further to the west and south, and in the year 1000 A. D., or thereabouts, a land was found where grapes and other fruits grew in abundance in a wild state, where the climate was milder than that already occupied by their countrymen, to which the name of "Vineland the Good," was given. This much is well authenticated history and the names of Lief Ericsson, Thorfinn, and Gudrid his wife, are connected with the first attempts to make a settlement in Vineland. The part of the eastern shores of America visited by these bold seamen is not easily determined, but it is claimed by those who are most familiar with the Norse sagas that brief settlements were made on the coast, at points between the mouth of the St. Lawrence river on the north and Long Island on the south. Some Maine historians locate Norumbega, a traditional Norse settlement, near the Penobscot River. Professor E. N. Horsford, late of Cambridge, Mass., fixed the site of Norumbega on the Charles River, and has erected at considerable expense a tower at Watertown, on or near what he regards old Norse fortifications. In "The Problem of the Northmen," the scholarly professor writes of Lief's land-fall and the site of his houses as follows: "He came, so we conceive, upon the northern extremity of Cape Cod, and set up his dwellings somewhere on an indentation of the shore of Massachusetts Bay," which he declares to be on the Charles River, near Longfellow's house in Cambridge. Speaking of Gudrid, the wife of Thorfinn, he says, "I may not fail to mention that this Gudrid was the lady who, after the death of her husband, made a pious pilgrimage to Rome (from Iceland), where she was received with much distinction, and where she told the Pope of the beautiful new country in the far west, of "Vineland the Good," and about the Christian settlements made there by Scandinavians. Nor may I forget to mention that her son, Snorre, born in America at the site of Lief's houses,—and perhaps it may some day be possible to indicate the neighborhood of his birthplace with greater precision,—has been claimed to be the ancestor of Thorwaldsen, the Danish sculptor."
The hardy voyagers going on shore found water rather than wine in Vineland and one of their poets sang these verses.
People told me when I came
Hither all would be so fine,
The good Vineland known to fame;
Rich in fruits and choicest wine;
Now the water-pail they send;
To the fountain I must bend,
Nor from out this land divine
Have I quaffed one drop of wine."
When about to depart and with sails hoisted the poet again sang,
Let our trusty band
Haste to Fatherland,
Let our vessel brave
Plough the angry wave,
While those few who love
Vineland here may rove,
Or with idle toil
Fetid whales may boil,
Here on Furdustrand,
Far from Fatherland."
Of greater interest to the dwellers on Narragansett Bay is the story of the Northmen in New England by Mr. Joshua T. Smith, who interprets the sagas to mean that Thorhall the hunter and Thorfinn the sailor parted company at Martha's Vineyard or Straumiford in 1008, the latter sailing southward, entering Mount Hope Bay through Sekonet River, and wintering at some point on the bay. The narrative reads that "Thorfinn and his companions sailed up as far as the mouth of the river and called the place Hop." 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 the sand. This very promontory was most probably either Chipinoxet point or Sowams." From the tenor of this part of the narrative, this expedition was obviously only a short one; and, from what follows, it seems clear also, that it must have been made before the Northmen left Hop to return to Straumiford. It was natural also that they should explore the coast in the immediate neighborhood, before finally quitting it. It is of interest to note that in Mr. Smith's book on the Northmen, the Barrington peninsula has inscribed across it the name, Sowams, thereby indicating the territory known to the Indians by that name, as well as the country supposed to have been explored by the Northmen. While at the present writing we cannot claim with absolute truth that the Northmen did explore Narragansett Bay and the Barrington promontory, we may not regard it as improbable that the first Europeans to discover our bay and town were the intrepid Northmen who really made the first recorded voyage to the North American shores. The later historian of this section may be able to find unearthed evidence that shall establish the truth of that which is now pleasing fiction and tradition, as to the Northmen being the first white occupants or discoverers of Barrington. We record but a brief hint of the story, which may happily prove to be the beginning of the history of the white men on the red men's territory, on Narragansett Bay.
Professor J. Lewis Diman, LL. D., the late eminent professor of history of Brown University, himself a native of Bristol, while a student of Brown University, wrote historical sketches under the title, "Annals of Bristol," which were published in the Bristol Phenix, in 1845–6. He speaks of the Norse expedition of Thorfinn with three ships and one hundred and sixty men in the year 1007–8, and gives it as his opinion that they wintered at or near Bristol. In closing his account he says, " The only trace which has been left by the Northmen, of their wintering in Bristol, is a rock situated near 'The Narrows,' on Mount Hope Bay. This rock was said to have been covered with characters in an unknown tongue, but was unfortunately destroyed by a heedless hand."
The rock to which he undoubtedly refers, has been re-discovered and happily corrects the error of statement made by Professor Diman that both rock and inscription had been destroyed. Fortunately for the theory that the Northmen wintered at Mount Hope, Mr. William J. Miller of Bristol has located the rock on the shore of Mount Hope Bay in the town of Bristol. The rock is of graywacke, ten and a half by six and a half feet in length, and twenty-one inches thick. The surface is much worn by the water which only leaves it bare at low tide. The inscription is a boat with a series of lines and angles, which, it is claimed by Mr. Miller, were carved by some Norse sailor, left in charge of a boat and awaiting his companions. While these characters and those on the Dighton Rock with the skeleton in armor found at Fall River, do not establish the fact of the Norse discovery of these shores as their "Vineland, the Good," they certainly afford strong circumstantial evidence in maintenance of the theory. We must satisfy ourselves with the pleasing fancy until the truth shall be established.