After His Death, His Widow
Gudrid Made A Pilgrimage To Rome, Whence She Returned, And Ended Her Days
In A Nunnery In Iceland, Which Was Built For Her By Her Son Snorro, Who Was
Born In Winland.
Sometime afterwards, Finbog and Helgo, two Icelanders, fitted out two
ships, carrying thirty men, with which they made a voyage to Winland.
In
this expedition they were accompanied by Freidis, the daughter of
Eric-raude; but by the turbulence of her disposition, she occasioned many
divisions and quarrels in the infant colony, in one of which Finbog and
Helgo were both killed, together with thirty of their followers. Upon this
Freidis returned to Greenland, where she lived for some time universally
detested and despised, and died in the utmost misery. The remaining
colonists were dispersed, and nothing farther that can be depended on
remains on record concerning them. Even the Icelandic colony in Greenland
has disappeared, and the eastern coast, on which especially it was settled,
has become long inaccessible, in consequence of the immense accumulation of
ice in the straits between it and Iceland. To this it may be added, that,
in the beginning of the fifteenth century, a prodigious number of people
were carried off in Norway and Iceland by a disease or pestilence called
the Black Death; probably the scurvy in its worst state, occasioned by a
succession of inclement seasons and extreme scarcity, impelling the
famished people to satisfy the craving of hunger upon unwholesome food.
Deprived of all assistance from Iceland and Norway, the colonists of
Greenland and Winland were in all probability extirpated by the continual
hostilities of the Skraellingers, or Eskimaux; and the fabulous idea of any
remnant of those in Winland having still an existence in the interior of
Newfoundland, is entirely unworthy of any consideration.
[1] Forster, Hist. of Disc. in the North, 82.
[2] Every quality must be judged of by comparison; and, contrasted
with the inhospitable regions of Iceland and Greenland, in lat. 65 deg.,
this country, which was as far south as even beyond the south of
England, must have appeared admirable. - E.
[3] It is true that grapes grow wild in Canada which are very good
to eat, yet no one has ever been able to make good wine from their
juice. Whether these wild grapes are found in Newfoundland I know not.
The species of vines which grow in North America, are named by
Linnaeus, Vitis labrusca, vulpina, and arborea. - Forst.
The propriety of the names imposed by the Norwegians on their new
discoveries is admirable. Iceland, Greenland, Helleland, Markland,
Winland, and many others; which are perfectly philosophical,
excellently systematic, and infinitely preferable to the modern clumsy
appellations, New Britain, New France, New England, New Holland,
Sandwich Islands, Society islands, and a multitude of much worse
names. - E.
CHAP. IV.
Travels of two Mahomedans in India and China, in the Ninth Century.[1]
INTRODUCTION.
This curious remnant of antiquity was translated from the Arabic, and
published in 1718, by Eusebius Renaudot, a learned Member of the French
Academy, and of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres. It is not
known by whom the travels were actually performed, neither can their exact
date be ascertained, as the commencement of the MS. which was translated by
Renaudot was imperfect; but it appears to have been written in the 237th
year of the Hegira, or in the year 851 of the Christian era. Though
entitled the travels of two Mahomedans, the travels seem to have been
mostly performed by one person only; the latter portion being chiefly a
commentary upon the former, and appears to have been the work of one Abu
Zeid al Hasan of Siraf, and to have been written about the 803d year of the
Hegira, or A.D. 915. In this commentary, indeed, some report is given of
the travels of another Mahomedan into China. The MS. employed by Renaudot
belonged to the library of the Count de Seignelay, and appears to have been
written in the year 619 of the Hegira, or A.D. 1173. The great value of
this work is, that it contains the very earliest account of China, penned
above four hundred years earlier than the travels of Marco Polo, who was
esteemed the first author on the subject before this publication appeared.
There are many curious and remarkable passages in these travels, which
convey information respecting customs and events that are nowhere else to
be found; and though some of these carry a fabulous appearance, the
greatest part of them have been confirmed and justified by the best writers
in succeeding ages. The first portion, or the actual narrative, begins
abruptly, on account of some portion of the original manuscript being lost,
which would probably have given the name and country of the author, and the
date and occasion of his voyage.
In the accompanying commentary by Abu Zeid, we are informed that the date
of the narrative was of the Hegira 237, A.D. 851, which circumstance was
probably contained in the missing part of the manuscript; but though
written then, it is probable that the first journey of the author was
undertaken at least twenty years before that date, or in 831, as he
observes, that he made a second journey into the same countries sixteen
years afterwards, and we may allow four years for the time spent in the two
journies, and the intervening space, besides the delay of composition after
his last return. Though not mentioned, it is probable his travels were
undertaken for the purpose of trade, as we can hardly suppose him to have
twice visited those distant countries merely for the satisfaction of
curiosity.
With regard to the second treatise or commentary, it seems probable, that
when the affairs of China became better known, some prince or person of
distinction had desired Abu Zeid to examine the former relation, and to
inform him how far the facts of the original work were confirmed by
succeeding accounts.
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