Historic Tales, Vol. 1 | Page 2

since the birth of Christ. The world was about to come to an end. Such
was the general belief. How it was to reach its end,--whether by fire,
water, or some other agent of ruin,--the prophets of disaster did not say,
nor did people trouble themselves to learn. Destruction was coming
upon them, that was enough to know; how to provide against it was the
one thing to be considered.
Some hastened to the churches; others to the taverns. Here prayers went
up; there wine went down. The petitions of the pious were matched by
the ribaldry of the profligate. Some made their wills; others wasted
their wealth in revelry, eager to get all the pleasure out of life that

remained for them. Many freely gave away their property, hoping, by
ridding themselves of the goods of this earth, to establish a claim to the
goods of Heaven, with little regard to the fate of those whom they
loaded with their discarded wealth.
It was an era of ignorance and superstition. Christendom went insane
over an idea. When the year ended, and the world rolled on, none the
worse for conflagration or deluge, green with the spring leafage and
ripe with the works of man, dismay gave way to hope, mirth took the
place of prayer, man regained their flown wits, and those who had so
recklessly given away their wealth bethought themselves of taking
legal measures for its recovery.
Such was one of the events that made that year memorable. There was
another of a highly different character. Instead of a world being lost, a
world was found. The Old World not only remained unharmed, but a
New World was added to it, a world beyond the seas, for this was the
year in which the foot of the European was first set upon the shores of
the trans-Atlantic continent. It is the story of this first discovery of
America that we have now to tell.
In the autumn of the year 1000, in a region far away from fear-haunted
Europe, a scene was being enacted of a very different character from
that just described. Over the waters of unknown seas a small, strange
craft boldly made its way, manned by a crew of the hardiest and most
vigorous men, driven by a single square sail, whose coarse woollen
texture bellied deeply before the fierce ocean winds, which seemed at
times as if they would drive that deckless vessel bodily beneath the
waves.
This crew was of men to whom fear was almost unknown, the stalwart
Vikings of the North, whose oar-and sail-driven barks now set out from
the coasts of Norway and Denmark to ravage the shores of southern
Europe, now turned their prows boldly to the west in search of
unknown lands afar.
Shall we describe this craft? It was a tiny one in which to venture upon
an untravelled ocean in search of an unknown continent,--a vessel

shaped somewhat like a strung bow, scarcely fifty feet in length, low
amidships and curving upwards to high peaks at stem and stern, both of
which converged to sharp edges. It resembled an enormous canoe
rather than aught else to which we can compare it. On the stem was a
carved and gilt dragon, the figurehead of the ship, which glittered in the
bright rays of the sun. Along the bulwarks of the ship, fore and aft,
hung rows of large painted wooden shields, which gave an Argus-eyed
aspect to the craft. Between them was a double row of thole-pins for
the great oars, which now lay at rest in the bottom of the boat, but by
which, in calm weather, this "walker of the seas" could be forced
swiftly through the yielding element.
[Illustration: VIKING SHIPS AT SEA.]
Near the stern, on an elevated platform, stood the commander, a man of
large and powerful frame and imposing aspect, one whose commands
not the fiercest of his crew would lightly venture to disobey. A coat of
ring-mail encircled his stalwart frame; by his side, in a richly-embossed
scabbard, hung a long sword, with hilt of gilded bronze; on his head
was a helmet that shone like pure gold, shaped like a wolf's head, with
gaping jaws and threatening teeth. Land was in sight, an unknown coast,
peopled perhaps by warlike men. The cautious Viking leader deemed it
wise to be prepared for danger, and was armed for possible combat.
Below him, on the rowing-benches, sat his hardy crew, their
arms--spears, axes, bows, and slings--beside them, ready for any deed
of daring they might be called upon to perform. Their dress consisted
of trousers of coarse stuff, belted at the waist; thick woollen shirts, blue,
red, or brown in color; iron helmets, beneath which their long hair
streamed down to their shoulders;