Ebook A History of Canada

Keelness. From Leif and his followers went forth good reports of the western country. Ships from Greenland came yearly for cargoes of the Vineland timber, much coveted for masts. A leader named Thorfinn Karlsefni made a larger effort to found a colony. With one hundred and sixty followers, and horned cattle, and grain to sow in the new fields he led three dragon ships to Vineland and planted his booths in a sheltered haven. But the work of settlement thus bravely begun went to ruin under the arrows of the savages. Then fell a darkness of four centuries. Events in Europe opened richer fields to the yellow-haired free hooters of the North, and Vineland, Bushland, Stoneland were Failure ofthe forgotten. Even the great Greenland colony, with its mm stone-built cities, its churches and its bishoprics, its ambitions and its letters and its trade, lapsed soon into decay. The Esquimaux laid it waste; a hostile ?eet completed its de struction; and dense fields of ?oe and berg shut in the devas tated coast. Of the visit of the Northmen to America there came1 nothing at last but two Icelandic sagas, in which are told the brave adventures of Eric, and Leif, and T horfinn.