Transcriber's Note: Obvious errors in spelling andpunctuation have been silently closed.
THE
PRE-COLUMBIAN
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
BY
THE NORTHMEN,
ILLUSTRATED BY
Translations from Icelandic Sagas,
EDITED WITH
NOTES AND A GENERAL INTRODUCTION,
BY
B. F. DE COSTA.
ALBANY:
JOEL MUNSELL.
1868.
PREFACE.
The aim of the present work is to place within the reach of theEnglish reading historical student every portion of the IcelandicSagas essentially relating to the Pre-Columbian Discovery of Americaby the Northmen. These Sagas are left, in the main, to tell theirown story; though, with the necessary introductions, notes have beenadded, either to remove misconceptions, to give information inregard to persons and places, or to show the identity of localitiesdescribed.
So long ago as the year 1838, a distinguished writer in the NorthAmerican Review, in closing a valuable and appreciative article onthe Sagas relating to America, said: "We trust that some zealousstudent of these subjects will be immediately found, who will putthe Icelandic authorities into an English dress, and prepare them,with proper literary apparatus, for the perusal of the general reader."
Nevertheless, no one in this country has really undertaken thetask until now; for the dialogues of Joshua Toulmin Smith, howevervaluable they may have proved at the date of their publication,can by no means be regarded as constituting the strict historicalwork contemplated. The English treatise by Beamish was conceivedin the right spirit; but, while encumbered with much irrelevantmatter, it did not complete the subject, and, together with Smith'swork, long since went out of print. Several of the brief Narrativesare also given by Laing, buried in the appendix of his valuabletranslation of the Heimskringla; but the labors of these authors arenot now available, and, if combined, would not meet the presentwant. The author has therefore improved a favorable occasion to[Pg iv]present what may, perhaps, be regarded as an exposition of the wholequestion. In doing so he has freely made use of such material fromthe above mentioned writers as he considered valuable for the purpose.The brief translations of Laing, being well done, have beengiven entire, with the exception that particular expressions havebeen improved upon; but such portions of the unsatisfactory andnot altogether ingenuous work of Smith as have been used havebeen somewhat thoroughly recast. A better use could have beenmade of Beamish's work, if the author