Note I-215 — Chapter I · ON THE ORIGIN OF THE AMERICANS. (continued 2)

Though the question of the Scandinavian discoveries would seem to merit considerable attention from one who wrote a 'colonial history' of America, yet Mr George Bancroft disposes of the entire subject in a single page: 'The story of the colonization of America by Northmen,' he writes, 'rests on narratives, mythological in form, and obscure in meaning; ancient, yet not contemporary. The chief document is an interpolation in the history of Sturleson, whose zealous curiosity could hardly have neglected the discovery of a continent. The geographical details are too vague to sustain a conjecture; the accounts of the mild winter and fertile soil are, on any modern hypothesis, fictitious or exaggerated; the description of the natives applies only to the Esquimaux, inhabitants of hyperborean regions, the remark which should define the length of the shortest winter's day, has received interpretations adapted to every latitude from New York to Cape Farewell; and Vinland has been sought in all directions, from Greenland and the St. Lawrence to Africa.' Bancroft's History, vol. i., pp. 5-6. Irving says that as far as he 'has had experience in tracing these stories of early discoveries of portions of the New World, he has generally found them very confident deductions drawn from very vague and questionable facts. Learned men are too prone to give substance to mere shadows, when they assist some preconceived theory. Most of these accounts, when divested of the erudite comments of their editors, have proved little better than the traditionary fables, noticed in another part of this work, respecting the imaginary islands of St. Borondon, and of the Seven Cities.' Columbus, vol. iii., p. 434. All of which would certainly be true enough of most theories, but that it was erroneous as far as the Northmen's visits are concerned, has, I think, been conclusively shown in later years.