he face of argument, sophistry,
sneer, skepticism, and contempt. After a brief interval the sovereigns
requested from Columbus a recital of his adventures; and when he had
done so, the King and Queen, together with all present, prostrated
themselves on their knees in grateful thanksgivings, while the solemn
strains of the _Te Deum_ were poured forth by the choir of the royal
chapel, as in commemoration of some glorious victory.--_Ibid._

THE CLAIM OF THE NORSEMEN.

From an editorial in _Public Opinion_, Washington.

Modern historians are pretty generally agreed that America was actually
first made known to the Eastern world by the indefatigable Norsemen.
Yet, in spite of this fact, Columbus has been, and still continues to
be, revered as the one man to whose genius and courage the discovery of
the New World is due. Miss Brown, in her "Icelandic Discoverers," justly
says it should be altogether foreign to American institutions and ideas
of liberty and honor to countenance longer the worship of a false idol.
The author first proceeds to set forth the evidence upon which the
claims of the Norsemen rest. The author charges that the heads of the
Roman Catholic church were early cognizant of this discovery of the
Norsemen, but that they suppressed this information. The motives for
this concealment are charged to their well-known reluctance to allow any
credit to non-Catholic believers, under which head, at that time, the
Norsemen were included. They preferred that the New World should first
be made known to Southern Europe by adherents to the Roman Catholic
faith. Most damaging evidence against Columbus' having originated,
unaided, the idea of a western world or route to India is furnished by
the fact that he visited Iceland in person in the spring of 1477, when
he must have heard rumors of the early voyages. He is known to have
visited the harbor at Hvalfjord, on the south coast of Iceland, at a
time when that harbor was most frequented, and also at the same time
when Bishop Magnus is known to have been there. They must have met, and,
as they had means of communicating through the Latin language, would
naturally have spoken of these distant countries. We have no hint of the
object of this visit of Columbus, for he scrupulously avoids subsequent
mention of it; but the author pleases to consider it as a secret
mission, instigated by the Church for the purpose of obtaining all
available information concerning the Norse