Now it is to be told that Karlsefni caused a strong wooden palisade to be constructed and set up around the house.  It was at this time that a baby boy was born to Gudrid and Karlsefni, and he was called Snorri.  In the early part of the second winter the Skrellings came to them again in greater numbers than before, and brought with them the same kind of wares to exchange.  Then said Karlsefni to the women, “Do ye carry out now the same thing which proved so profitable before, and nothing else.”  The Skrellings seemed contented at first, but soon after, while Gudrid was sitting in the doorway beside the cradle of her infant son, Snorri, she heard a great crash made by one of the Skrellings who had tried to seize a man’s weapons.  One of Karlsefni’s followers killed him for it.  “Now we must needs take counsel together,” said Karlsefni, “for I believe they will visit us a third time in greater numbers.  Let us now adopt this plan:  when the tribe approaches from the forest, ten of our number shall go out upon the cape in front of our houses and show themselves there, while the remainder of our company shall go into the woods back of our houses and hew a clearing for our cattle.  Then we will take our bull and let him go in advance of us to meet the enemy.”  The next time the Skrellings came they found Karlsefni’s men ready and fled helter-skelter into the woods.  Karlsefni and his party remained there throughout the winter, but in the spring Karlsefni announced that he did not intend to remain there longer, for he wished to return with his wife and son to Greenland.  They now made ready for the voyage and carried away with them much in vines and grapes and skins.

[1] From the “Saga"’ of Hauk Erlendsson.  Except for the Norse discovery, the honor of being the first child of Anglo-Saxon race born in America would belong to Virginia Dare.  Virginia Dare was born in Virginia during one of the attempted settlements under Sir Walter Raleigh.  An account of her is given in Volume II of this work.  Children of Spanish and French parents had, of course, been born in America before the date of Virginia Dare’s birth.

    [2] By Skrellings the author means natives.

IV

Other pre-Columbian voyages[1]

BY HENRY WHEATON

No subsequent traces of the Norman colony in America are to be found until the year 1059, when it is said that an Irish or Saxon priest, named Jon or John, who had preached for some time as a missionary in Iceland, went to Vinland, for the purpose of converting the colonists to Christianity, where he was murdered by the heathens.  A bishop of Greenland, named Erik, afterward (A.D. 1121) undertook the same voyage, for the same purpose, but with what success is uncertain.  The authenticity of the Icelandic accounts of the discovery and settlement of Vinland were recognized