ame to the ears of Leif Ericsson, who asked him many
questions about the land he had seen. There grew no trees in Iceland or
Greenland, fit for house-timber, and Leif was minded to find out this
place of great forests. Thus it came that Leif sailed from Brattahlid in
Greenland with five and thirty men in a long ship upon a journey of
discovery.

"First came they to a barren land covered with big flat stones, and this
Leif named Helluland, the slate land. Southward sailed he for many days
until he saw a coast covered with wooded hills, and there he landed,
calling it Markland, the land of woods. Then southward again they bore
and came to a place where a river flowed out of a lake and fell into the
sea. The country was pleasant, with good fishing. Leif said that they
would spend the winter there, and they built wooden cabins well-made and
warm.

"Then at the season when the leaves are blood-red and bright gold came
in from the woods Thorkel the German, smacking his lips and making
strange faces and jabbering in his own language. When they asked what
ailed him he said that he had found vines loaded with grapes, and having
seen none since he left his own country, which was a land of vineyards,
he was out of his senses with delight. Therefore was that country named
Vinland the Fair. In the spring went Leif home, well pleased, with a
cargo of timber, but his father being dead he voyaged no more to
Vinland, but remained to be head of his house.

"Next went Thorvald, Leif's brother, to Vinland and stayed two winters
in the booths that Leif built, until he was slain in a fight with the
men of that land. His men buried him there and returned sorrowfully to
their own land.

"Next went Thorestein, Leif's second brother, forth, with Gudrid his
wife, to get the body of Thorvald but he died on the voyage and his
widow returned to Brattahlid.

"Next came to Brattahlid Thorfin Karlsefne, the Viking from Iceland, who
loved and married Gudrid and from her heard the story of Vinland, and
desired it for his own. In good time went he forth in a long ship with
his wife, and there went with him three other valiant ships. They had
altogether one hundred and sixty men and five women, with cattle, grain
and all things fit for a settlement. This was seven years after Leif
Ericsson found Vinland. Among the stores for trading was scarlet cloth,
which the Skroelings greatly covet, insomuch that one small strip of
scarlet would buy many rich fur