setts. This country was named by them Vinland, the Good. There they found wheat "that grew without planting" and other bounties of nature sung during a decade of centuries by Scandian bards.
The earliest reference to Vinland is found in an account written by Adam, a bishop's assistant from Bremen, of a visit paid to the Danish court in 1073. On that occasion he was informed of western explorations which had been undertaken less than a hundred years previous to the date of his chronicle.
A first translation of Icelandic manuscripts preserved in the Royal and University Libraries at Copenhagen was published in 1837 by Professor Rafn; upon such data is based the assertion of this eminent authority that the shores of northeastern America were colonised by the Norsemen about the year 1000. His opinions, and those of Torfaeus, who wrote in 1705 on the same subject, have never been convincingly refuted.
Columbus visited Iceland in February, 1477, with the undoubted purpose of searching the archives of this viking isle, which had been a centre of learning when Europe was yet steeped in illiteracy. It is believed that he received sufficient confirmation of the existence of a western continent to encourage the pursuit of the long-deferred dream finally achieved in 1492.
Basque and Breton voyagers are said to have
