uropean claimants of prior discovery. We will
name them in their order. They are the Scandinavians, the Cimbri and
tribes of Celtic type, and the Venetians. Still prior, is the Asiatic
claim of a predatory nation, who, in the days of the Exodus, lived in
caves and dens of the earth, under the name of Horites,[4] and who
culminated at a later era, under the far-famed epithet of
Phoenicians--a people whose early nautical skill has, absolutely, no
cotemporary.

[4] Forster.

Scandinavian antiquities have recently assumed the highest interest,
which the press and the pencil can bestow. Danish art and research have
achieved high honors in disinterring facts from the dust of forgotten
ages. And we may look to the illustrated publications, which have been
put forth at Copenhagen, under royal auspices, as an example of what
literary costume and literary diligence, may do to revive and
re-construct the antiquarian periods of the world's history. The
publication of the ancient northern Sagas, and the ballads of the
Scandinavian Skalds, has revealed sufficient of the history of the
early and bold adventures, in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth
centuries, to show that these hardy adventurers not only searched the
shores of Iceland and Greenland, and founded settlements and built
churches there; but pushed their voyages west to the rocky shores of
Heluiland, the woody coasts of Markland, and the vine-yielding coasts
of ancient Vinland. These three names geography has exchanged in our
days, for Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Massachusetts. Perhaps some
other portions of New England may be embraced by the ancient name of
Vinland.

The ancient songs and legends of a people may be appealed to, as these
Sagas and ballads have been, for historical proof, as it is known that
the early nations celebrated their heroic exploits, in this manner.
Authors tell us that Homer but recited the traditions of his
countrymen. The nautical and geographical proofs, by which portions of
the North Atlantic shores have been identified by the bold spirit of
northern research, are certainly inexact and to some extent
hypothetical. In extending the heretofore admitted points of discovery
and temporary settlement, south to Massachusetts and Rhode Island, they
carry with them sufficient general plausibility, as being of an early
and adventurous age, to secure assent. And they only cease to inspire a
high degree of historical respect, at the particular po