THE PERIOD OF THE NORTHMEN.

The Northmen were the first Europeans to set foot on American soil,' and they made several attempts to colonize the country.2 From their various voyages to the Western World sprang up a considerable Saga literature,3 more or less influ

'See the excellent account by Fiske in his Discovery of America, I., p. 151, ff.

"The attempt made by Prof. Horsford and others to prove that the Northmen made extensive settlements in Massachussetts must be considered a failure. See Mr. Fiske's criticism of this, ibid, I., p. 217, ff., especially Note 2, on pp. 220-221. Mr. Fiske's contentions that cattle must have remained in America if the Norsemen made settlements here, can hardly be admitted. For what became of the cattle which Thorfinn brought over (see The Viking Age, II., 527, 528 and 529; De Costa's tranlation of the Sagas, etc.)? They were killed either by Thorfinn before he left or by the Indians afterwards. But of course his argument as to other remains has weight.

'See The Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by the Northmen, B. F. De Costa, pp. 76-197, where a translation of the most important Sagas and fragments relating to Vinland are found. See also Fiske, D. of America, I., p. 154, Note 1, 198-209; also The Viking Age, II., 527 ff.

attacked him in great force.10 This was, as Mr. De Costa says, the most important expedition of the Northmen to the coast of America, and it would seem very probable that Thorfinn should try to celebrate the event in some appropriate and lasting manner, customary among the early Scandinavians. Whether the Daighton inscription (or some part of it) is the work of Thorfinn or not can most likely never be conclusively decided. There is, however, some probability that such may be the case.11 A full discussion of the probable remnants of the Northmen and their works in America does not enter into the plan of this essay, and the rest is therefore passed by.12

THE SWEDISH PERIOD OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

That those early Viking expeditions to Vinland (or America) were ever generally known in the Scandinavian countries is doubtful. At any rate, they seem to have been quite forgotten in the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century, when the voyages of Columbus became known in these distant regions. As great a scholar as Rudbeck did not associate Vinland with

See the three accounts given in the translations of De Costa's Pre-Columbian Discovery of America, pp. 120-153; also Antiquitates Americanae, p. 84 ff.

"If the Roman number "CXXXI" is really found on the stone it would agree very well with the account. Thorfinn had 140 men (Pre-Columbian Dis. of America, p. 124); 9 men left (ibid, 144), leaving 131 men, or in reality 159, as the Norsemen used the "great hundred," which was 120. See Islandingaboc (Golther's edition), p. 7, Note 15; also America Not Discovered by Columbus, p. 83.

"As to works on this subject, see Bibliography in America Not Discovered by Columbus (Chicago), pp. 124-140, which is quite full; also Memoires de la Société Royale des Antiquaires du Nord, 1840-1844, Supplement; also The Problem of the Northmen, by Horsford; also Antiquitates Americanae, PP. 355-405, 446, etc.

America at all, but thought the Sagas meant Finland.18 But, when the romance of discovery had touched the imagination of all peoples and stimulated research in ancient geography and accounts of voyages and discoveries of long before, Scandinavian scholars came to realize that Columbus was by no means the first white man to visit the regions that were then attracting the attention of the world. But it remained the cherished truth of the scholar, and did not instil into the northern peoples a desire to gain what by right of discovery might have been theirs -this for many reasons. When England, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands sent out bold sailors to make discovery and acquisitions of new territory in the East Indies and the Western World, the Scandinavian countries were too busy fighting each other or extending their territories at the expense of their neighbors to find time to cross the seas in search of a field for their operations. Sweden and Denmark were just awakening to consciousness and drawing the boundaries that were eventually to fix their realms, and Norway was a province under Denmark. But there soon came a change. In the beginning of the seventeenth century Sweden was raised to a position of influence and power in European politics by its great kings, Gustavus Vasa, Charles IX., and Gustavus Adolphus. Willem Usselinx, 14 an exiled merchant from Antwerp, who was instrumental in organ

13 See Fiske's Dis. of America, I., p. 387, Note 1, quoted from Olof (not Ole as Fiske writes it); Atland eller Manhem, p. 291. But see also Kort Beskrifning om Provincien Nya Sverige, p. 17 ff.

"His name is generally spelled "Willian" in modern works; see The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America, by John Fiske, pp. 100, 237, etc.; also American History Told by Contemporaries, I., p. 548, and others. But he himself seems most often to have spelled it "Willem." See his autograph on page 443 of Justin Winsor's Narrative and Critical Hist. of America, Vol. IV. See on this point Willem Usselinx, by J. F. Jameson (N. Y., 1887), p. 14, Note I.

izing the West India Company,15 but who failed to receive the just reward for his labors, 16 turned to the rising power in the North for aid and proposed his plans to Gustavus Adolphus.1 The famous leader, whose ambition was to build up a great nation, powerful on both land and sea, recognized the importance of colonies and seems to have adopted the plan of Usselinx at once. In 1624 a manifesto was issued, establishing the Australian Company.18 "The scheme," as Fiske says, "met with great favor," but the many wars had drained the treasury, and Sweden was just now entering upon a struggle that was to require all the resources and all the energy of the little kngdom.19 For these reasons the plan was delayed several years, but in 1635, when the name of Sweden was known and respected in every land, the scheme of planting colonies in America was renewed, and in 1637 two small vessels, "Kalmar Nyckel" and "Gripen," set sail for America.20 The little expedition arrived on the Delaware in the spring of 1638 and landed there a few days before the 29th of March of that year.21 Eleven expeditions were made in

15 Narrative and Critical Hist. of America, IV., p. 395 ff.; also Willem Usselinx, by Jameson; also Kort Beskrifning om Provencien Nya Sverige, P. 55 ff.

16

10 Narrative and Critical Hist. of America, IV., 443.

17

See Sveriges Inre Historia under Drottning Christinas Förmyndare, pp. 299 (trans. by G. B. Keen in Penn. Magazine, VII., p. 268).

"See The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America, I., 237 ff., for an account of this; also Narrative and Critical Hist., IV., p. 443 ff., for a detailed description, especially Willem Usselinx, p. 21 ff.

See History of the Swedes, by E. G. Geijer (trans. by J. H. Turner), pp. 236-88, for an account of this period in Swedish history.

"See The Founding of New Sweden, by Odhner (trans. by G. B. Keen in Penna. Magazine, III., p. 277 ff.).

"The exact date can most likely never be definitely settled. The approximate date can be determined by a document discovered at Stockholm in the summer of 1877. See Penna. Magazine, VII., p. 402, Note 1. A stone was erected in 1903 by the Society of Colonial Dames of America on the spot where the landing is supposed to have taken place, and the 29th of March was selected as the date on which the landing occurred.