Two days' prosperous sailing brought them to a third
shore, on the north of which lay an island: they entered, and sailed up a
river, and landed. Pleased with the temperature of the climate, the
apparent fertility of the soil, and the abundance of fish in the rivers,
they resolved to pass the winter in this country; and they gave it the name
of Vinland, from the quantity of small grapes which they found growing. A
colony was soon afterwards formed, who traded with the natives; these are
represented as of diminutive stature, of the same race as the inhabitants
of the west part of Greenland, and as using leathern canoes. The
merchandize they brought consisted chiefly of furs, sables, the skins of
white rats, &c.; and they principally and most eagerly requested, in
exchange, hatchets and arms. It appears from the Icelandic Chronicles, that
a regular trade was established between this country and Norway, and that
dried grapes or raisins were among the exports. In the year 1121, a bishop
went from Greenland for the purpose of converting the colonists of Vinland
to the Christian religion: after this period, there is no information
regarding this country. This inattention to the new colony probably arose
from the intercourse between the west of Greenland and Iceland having
ceased, as we have already mentioned, and from the northern nations having
been, about this period, wasted by a pestilence, and weakened and
distracted by feuds.
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