d by the court, he resolved to leave Iceland. His
vessel being prepared, and every thing ready, Eirek's partisans in the
quarrel accompanied him some distance. He told them he had determined to
quit Iceland and settle somewhere else, adding that he was going in
search of the land Gunniborn had seen when driven by a storm into the
Western Ocean, and promising to revisit them if his search should be
successful. Sailing from the western side of Iceland, Eirek steered
boldly to the west. At length he found land, and called the place
Midjokul. Then, coasting along the shore in a southerly direction, he
sought to find a place more suitable for settlement. He spent the winter
on a part of the coast which he named "Eirek's Island." A satisfactory
situation for his colony was found, and he remained there two
years.[TN-5]

On returning to Iceland he called the discovered country "Greenland,"
saying to his confidential friends, "A name so inviting will induce men
to emigrate thither." Finally, he went again to Greenland, accompanied
by "twenty-five ships" filled with emigrants and stores, and his colony
was established. "This happened," says the chronicle, "fifteen winters
before the Christian religion was introduced into Iceland;" that is to
say, Eirek made this second voyage to Greenland fifteen years previous
to 1000 A.D. Biarni, son of Heriulf, a chief man among these colonists,
was absent in Norway when his father left Iceland. On returning, he
decided to follow and join the colony, although neither he nor any of
his companions had ever seen Greenland, or sailed on the "Greenland
Ocean." Having arranged his business, he set sail, and made one of the
most remarkable and fearful voyages on record.

On leaving Iceland they sailed three days with a fair wind; then arose a
storm of northeasterly winds, accompanied by very cloudy, thick weather.
They were driven before this storm for many days, they knew not whither.
At length the weather cleared, and they could see the sky. Then they
sailed west another day, and saw land different from any they had
previously known, for it "was not mountainous." In reply to the anxious
sailors, Biarni said this could not be Greenland. They put the ship
about and steered in a northeasterly direction two days more. Again they
saw land which was low and level. Biarni thought this could not be
Greenland. For three more days they sailed in the same direction, and
came to a land that was "mountainous,