Stockholm, 1883.]

[Sidenote: The Zeno family.]

[Sidenote: Nicolo Zeno wrecked upon one of the Faeroe islands, 1390.]

[Sidenote: Nicolo's voyage to Greenland, cir. 1394.]

[Sidenote: Voyage of Earl Sinclair and Antonio Zeno.]

The Zeno family was one of the oldest and most distinguished in Venice.
Among its members in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries we find a
doge, several senators and members of the Council of Ten, and military
commanders of high repute. Of these, Pietro Dracone Zeno, about 1350,
was captain-general of the Christian league for withstanding the Turks;
and his son Carlo achieved such success in the war against Genoa that he
was called the Lion of St. Mark, and his services to Venice were
compared with those of Camillus to Rome. Now this Carlo had two
brothers,--Nicolo, known as "the Chevalier," and Antonio. After the
close of the Genoese war the Chevalier Nicolo was seized with a desire
to see the world,[278] and more particularly England and Flanders. So
about 1390 he fitted up a ship at his own expense, and, passing out from
the strait of Gibraltar, sailed northward upon the Atlantic. After some
days of fair weather, he was caught in a storm and blown along for many
days more, until at length the ship was cast ashore on one of the Faeroe
islands and wrecked, though most of the crew and goods were rescued.
According to the barbarous custom of the Middle Ages, some of the
natives of the island (Scandinavians) came swarming about the
unfortunate strangers to kill and rob them, but a great chieftain, with
a force of knights and men-at-arms, arrived upon the spot in time to
prevent such an outrage. This chief was Henry Sinclair of Roslyn, who in
1379 had been invested by King Hacon VI., of Norway, with the earldom of
the Orkneys and Caithness. On learning Zeno's rank and importance,
Sinclair treated him with much courtesy, and presently a friendship
sprang up between the two. Sinclair was then engaged with a fleet of
thirteen vessels in conquering and annexing to his earldom the Faeroe
islands, and on several occasions profited by the military and nautical
skill of the Venetian captain. Nicolo seems to have enjoyed this
stirring life, for he presently sent to his brother Antonio in Venice an
account of it, which induced the latter to come and join him in the
Faeroe islands. Antonio arrived in the course of 1391, and remained in
the service of Sinclair fourteen years, returning to Venic