CHAPTER III
CHRONOLOGY
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Bjarni was a young merchant of Iceland who made it a rule to voyage and traffic a year, and in alternate years to remain at home with his father. But once, upon returning, the son found that Hjerulf, his father, had gone with Erik the Red to help colonise Greenland. So he went to seek him, sailing, so he supposed, toward the great island that lay to the west. Many days passed, and each day Bjarni thought to see what had been described as the "high ice hills" of Greenland. But instead, as he continued a westerly course, he came in view of a flat wooded shore which later navigators have identified with the coast that extends from Connecticut to Massachusetts. Bjarni's companions were eager to land, but this wild, unwanted country had no enticements for him. He was of a mind to find Greenland, and his father. So he re-shaped his course according to the principles of navigation at his command,—the Northmen of that time sailed without compass or quadrant—and coasted by other strange shores, past the Nova Scotia and Newfoundland of our day,
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