nd here I should
like to make my home."

They then returned to the ship, and discovered on the sands, in beyond
the headland, three mounds: they went up to these, and saw that they
were three skin canoes with three men under each. They thereupon
divided their party, and succeeded in seizing all the men but one, who
escaped with his canoe. They killed the eight men, and then ascended
the headland again, and looked about them, and discovered within the
firth certain hillocks, which they concluded must be habitations. They
were then so overpowered with sleep that they could not keep awake,
and all fell into a [heavy] slumber from which they were awakened by
the sound of a cry uttered above them; and the words of the cry were
these: "Awake, Thorvald, thou and all thy company, if thou wouldst
save thy life; and board thy ship with all thy men, and sail with all
speed from the land!" A countless number of skin canoes then advanced
toward them from the inner part of the firth, whereupon Thorvald
ex-claimed, "We must put out the war-boards on both sides of the ship,
and defend ourselves to the best of our ability, but offer little
attack." This they did; and the Skrellings, after they had shot at
them for a time, fled precipitately, each as best he could. Thorvald
then inquired of his men whether any of them had been wounded, and
they informed him that no one of them had received a wound. "I have
been wounded in my arm-pit," says he. "An arrow flew in between the
gunwale and the shield, below my arm. Here is the shaft, and it will
bring me to my end. I counsel you now to retrace your way with the
utmost speed. But me ye shall convey to that headland which seemed to
me to offer so pleasant a dwelling-place: thus it may be fulfilled
that the truth sprang to my lips when I exprest the wish to abide
there for a time. Ye shall bury me there, and place a cross at my
head, and another at my feet, and call it Crossness forever after." At
that time Christianity had obtained in Greenland: Eric the Red died,
however, before [the introduction of] Christianity.

Thorvald died; and, when they had carried out his injunctions, they
took their departure, and rejoined their companions, and they told
each other of the experiences which had befallen them. They remained
there during the winter, and gathered grapes and wood with which to
freight the ship. In the following spring they returned to Greenland,
and arrived with their ship in Ericsfirth