a thousand years ago Greenland was
explored by Vikings from Iceland, and a hundred years later Leif
Ericsson discovered a land--Markland, the land of woods--which is
plausibly identified with Newfoundland. Still keeping a southern
course, the adventurer came to a country where grew vines, and where
the climate was strangely mild; it is likely enough that this landfall
was in Massachusetts or Virginia. The name Vinland was given to the
newly-discovered country. The later voyages of Thorwald Ericsson, of
Thorlstein Ericsson--both brothers of Leif--and of Thorfinn Karlsefne,
are recounted in the Sagas. The story of these early colonists or
"builders," as they called themselves, is weakened by an infusion of
fable, such as the tale of the fast-running one-legged people; but
with all allowances, the fact of Viking adventure on the American
mainland is unquestioned and unquestionable, though we may say of
these brave sailors, with Professor Goldwin Smith, that nothing more
came of their visit, or in that age could come, than of the visit of a
flock of seagulls.

It has been asserted by some writers that Basque navigators discovered
the American continent a century before Cabot or Columbus; but
evidence in support of such claims is either wanting or unconvincing.
"Ingenious and romantic theories," says a critic of these views, "have
been propounded concerning discoveries of America by Basque sailors
before Columbus. The whale fishery of that period and long afterwards
was in the hands of the Basques, and it is asserted that, in following
the whales, as they became scarcer, farther and farther out in the
western ocean, they came upon the coasts of Newfoundland a hundred
years before Columbus and Cabot. No solid foundation can be found for
these assertions. The records of the Basque maritime cities contain
nothing to confirm them, and these assertions are mixed up with so
much that is absurd--such as a statement that the Newfoundland Indians
spoke Basque--that the whole hypothesis is incredible."[4]

The question has been much discussed whether Columbus or Cabot in
later days rediscovered the American mainland. It does not, perhaps,
much matter whether the honour belongs to an Italian employed by Spain
or an Italian employed by England; and it is the less necessary to ask
whether Cabot explored the mainland before Columbus touched at Paria,
that in any event the real credit of the adventure belongs to the
great Spanish sailor