paintings, notably " Niagara as it Is," display ability. His published works include " Our Army of the Rio Grande" (Philadelphia, 1846); "Mys- teries of the Backwoods " (1846) ; " Our Army at Monterey" (1847); "Lynde Weiss, an Autobi- ography" (1854); "The Hive of the Bee-Hunter" (New York, 1854); "A Voice to America" (1855); "Scenes in Arkansaw" (1858); and "Reminis- cences of Charles L. Elliott."
THORVALD. Ericsson, Scandinavian navigator, d. in Massachusetts in 1004. He was the brother of Leif, the son of Eric the Red, who persuaded him to visit Vinland, giving him the ship
that he had bought from Biarn Hermlfson, and
many wise directions as to his course. Thorvald
selected thirty men, and sailed westward in 1002.
He reached what has been thought to be the coast
of Rhode Island, and passed the winter in Leifs-
budir (Leif's house), some wooden huts which Leif
is supposed to have built at the mouth of Pocasset
river, near the present site of Providence. In the
spring of 1003 he went on a voyage of discovery
along the southern coast. His men saw a lovely
country covered with forests, which were separated
from the shore only by a thin border of white sand.
The sea was enaAelled with little islands, in one of
which they discovered a wooden barn. The others
appeared without any trace of men or animals.
After obtaining a glimpse of an island that lay
toward the west, supposed to be Long Island, they
returned in the autumn to Leifsbudir. In the fol-
lowing summer Thorvald determined to explore
the northern coast, but a violent storm damaged
the keel of his ship. He stopped for some time,
refitting in the neighborhood, and when about to
put to sea he said to his companions: "Let us
raise on this point of land the keel of a ship, and
let us call it Kialarnes " (Keel cape). Rafn, Kohl,
and other scholars that are interested in the ante-
Columbian discovery of the American continent,
think that the Kialarnes of Thorvald is Cape Cod.
Then Thorvald sailed westward and anchored near
a promontory, which has been supposed to be
Gurnet point or Cape Alderton. The country ap-
peared so beautiful that after landing he said :
" This country is very fine ; I would like to build
my house here." After returning to the vessel, the
Northmen saw three dark points on the beach that
looked like hillocks. They were three " carabos "
(canoes of wickerwork, covered with skins), each
containing three men. The Northmen seized and
killed eight of the savages, but the ninth escaped.
Thorvald then landed, explored the promontory,
and discovered elevations, which he took for hu-
man habitations. The Northmen returned to their
vessel at nightfall, but they were soon awakened
from their sleep by cries of vengeance. The vessel
was surrounded by a crowd of canoes that came
to exact reparation for the assassinations of the
morning. They were manned by the Skrsellings,
or Esquimaux, who appear to have dwelt at that
time farther south than they did in the 16th cen-
tury. These savages discharged a shower of ar-
rows on the Northmen, and fled. Thorvald asked
his companions if they were wounded, and all re-
plied in the negative. " But I am," he said ; " this
arrow, after rebounding from my buckler, entered
under the armpit. I advise you to depart quickly
from this land and leave me on the promontory
where I wished to build my house. I have pro-
phesied my destiny, for there shall I dwell. You
shall bury me in this place, and put two crosses
on my tomb, one at my head and the other at my
feet, so that henceforward this promontory shall
be called Krossarnes " (Promontory of the Crosses).
A skeleton was discovered late in the 18th cen-
tury on Rainsford island, and with it the hilt of
an iron sword. Some antiquarians have conclud-
ed that the skeleton was that of an ancient Scan-
dinavian, and that the workmanship of the hi!t
proved it to be not later than the 15th century.
After the burial of Thorvald, the Northmen re-
turned to Leifsbudir, and in 1005 sailed for Green-
land. See " Decouverte de 1'Amerique par les Nor-
mands au X e siecle," by Gabriel Gravier (Paris,
1874) ; " Antiquitates Americana?," by Carl Chris-
tian Rafn (Copenhagen,' 1837); " Denkmaler Gron-
lands," by the same (3 vols., 1838-'45) ; " Etude sur
les rapports de 1'Amerique et de l'ancien continent
avant Christophe Colomb," by M. Gaffarel (Paris,
1869) ; " Historia Vinlandiae Antiquae," by Th.
Torfaeus (Copenhagen, 1711); " The Heimskringla
of Snorre Sturlesons, or Chronicles of the Kings of
Norway," translated into English by Samuel Laing
(London, 1844) ; and " Discovery of America by
Northmen," by Eben N. Horsford (Boston, 1888).
THRASHER, John S., journalist, b. in Port-
land, Me,, in 1817; d. in Galveston, Tex., 10 Nov.,
1879. While he was a youth his parents removed
to Havana, Cuba, where he followed for some time
a successful mercantile career, but abandoned it
for journalism, purchasing, in 1849, the " Faro In-
dustrial," which was then the only Liberal news-
paper. In September, 1851, his paper was sup-
pressed, and he was condemned by court-martial to
ten years' imprisonment with hard labor at Ceuta
and perpetual banishment from Cuba. After sev-
eral months the U. S. minister at Madrid secured
his release. He afterward established in New Or-
leans a Sunday journal called the " Beacon of Cuba,"
and in 1853-'5 was an active member of the junta
that organized a filibustering expedition to be led
by Gen. John A. Quitman. When the U. S. au-
thorities prevented the departure of this expedi-
tion, Thrasher went to New York city. For sev-
eral years he travelled in Central and South Ameri-
ca as a newspaper correspondent, and edited the
" Noticioso de Nuevo York," a journal devoted to
the interests of Spanish- American countries. Mar-
rying a lady whose property was in Texas, he re-
moved to the south, and remained there during
the civil war, acting as agent for the associated
press at Atlanta. After the war he edited for
several years Frank Leslie's " Ilustracion Ameri-
cana " in New York city, and afterward resided in
Galveston. He published a translation of Alexan-
der von Humboldt's " Personal Narrative of Trav-
els," with notes and an introductory essay (New
York, 1856), also many essays on the social, com-
mercial, and political conditions of Cuba.
THROCKMORTON, James Webb, governor of Texas, b. in Sparta, Tenn., 1 Feb., 1825. He accompanied his father to Texas in 1841, became a lawyer, and entered the legislature in 1851, serving continuously in one branch or the other till the beginning of the civil war. He was a member of the convention that passed the ordinance of secession, against which he voted, with six others,
but he joined the Confederate army in the spring of 1861, and served as a captain, and afterward as a major till November, 1863, when he resigned in order to take his seat again in the state senate. In 1864 he was appointed a brigadier-general of state
troops, and in May, 1864, was placed by the state military authorities in command on the north-western border of Texas, where he made treaties with the Comanches, Cheyennes, and other tribes,
returning from the plains in June, 1865, after Lee's surrender at Appomattox. He was a member of the Constitutional convention that was called in
