e in time to
die there in 1406. After Antonio's arrival, his brother Nicolo was
appointed to the chief command of Sinclair's little fleet, and assisted
him in taking possession of the Shetland islands, which were properly
comprised within his earldom. In the course of these adventures, Nicolo
seems to have had his interest aroused in reports about Greenland. It
was not more than four or five years since Queen Margaret had undertaken
to make a royal monopoly of the Greenland trade in furs and whale oil,
and this would be a natural topic of conversation in the Faeroes. In
July, 1393, or 1394, Nicolo Zeno sailed to Greenland with three ships,
and visited the East Bygd. After spending some time there, not being
accustomed to such a climate, he caught cold, and died soon after his
return to the Faeroes, probably in 1395. His brother Antonio succeeded to
his office and such emoluments as pertained to it; and after a while, at
Earl Sinclair's instigation, he undertook a voyage of discovery in the
Atlantic ocean, in order to verify some fishermen's reports of the
existence of land a thousand miles or more to the west. One of these
fishermen was to serve as guide to the expedition, but unfortunately he
died three days before the ships were ready to sail. Nevertheless, the
expedition started, with Sinclair himself on board, and encountered
vicissitudes of weather and fortune. In fog and storm they lost all
reckoning of position, and found themselves at length on the western
coast of a country which, in the Italian narrative, is called "Icaria,"
but which has been supposed, with some probability, to have been Kerry,
in Ireland. Here, as they went ashore for fresh water, they were
attacked by the natives and several of their number were slain. From
this point they sailed out into the broad Atlantic again, and reached a
place supposed to be Greenland, but which is so vaguely described that
the identification is very difficult.[279] Our narrative here ends
somewhat confusedly. We are told that Sinclair remained in this place,
"and explored the whole of the country with great diligence, as well as
the coasts on both sides of Greenland." Antonio Zeno, on the other hand,
returned with part of the fleet to the Faeroe islands, where he arrived
after sailing eastward for about a month, during five and twenty days of
which he saw no land. After relating these things and paying a word of
affectionate tribute to the virtues of Earl Sinclair, "a