USA > Massachusetts > Dukes County > Early History of Naushon Island > Part 2
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They remained there during that winter, and gathered vinber and vínvid for a cargo for their ship.
In the spring they made their ship ready and returned to Greenland. They came with their ship to Ericsfiord, and they could now tell Leif great news.
11
EXPLORATION
THORFINN KARLSEFNI'S VOYAGE
From the Saga of Eric the Red, Hawk's Book A.M. 544; Codex A.M. 557
Thorfinn Karlsefni was an able seaman and merchant, and sailed one summer from Iceland to Greenland. Snorri Thor- brandsson from Alptafiord went with him, and there were forty men on board the ship. At the same time two other Icelanders, Bjarni Grimolfsson and Thorhall Gamlason, equipped another ship and sailed to Greenland; they had likewise forty men on board their ship. Both vessels arrived at Ericsfiord in the fall. The merchants traded with Eric and stayed with him at Brat- tahlid during the winter. .
That same winter there was much talk at Brattahlid about an exploration of Vinland the Good, which country was thought to possess great natural wealth. Next spring an expedition to find the new country was fitted out. It consisted of three vessels, one under Karlsefni and Snorri, one under Bjarni and Thorhall, and the third under Thorvard. . .. There were in all one hundred and sixty men on board the ships when they sailed.
They sailed first to the Western Settlement and from there to Bjarneyar (Bear Islands) . Thence they bore away southward two days [A.M. 557. Thence they bore away with a north wind, and were out two days ], when they saw land, and put out the boat, and explored the land, and found there large flat stones, many of which were twelve ells wide. . .. There were many Arctic foxes there. They called the land Helluland (Land of Flat Stones). Then they sailed two days (dægr), and found a land, wooded, and with many animals. An island lay off the land to the southeast; there they killed a bear, and called the island Bjarney (Bear Island), but the land was called Markland (Woodland). Thence they sailed southward along the coast for a long time, and came to a cape (ness) ; the land was on the star- board side; long strands and sands were there. They rowed to
1
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EARLY HISTORY OF NAUSHON ISLAND
the shore, and on the cape they found the keel of a ship, and they called the cape Kjalarness (Keelness) ; and the strands were called Furdustrands (Remarkable Strands), because they were so long to sail by. Then the land became indented with bays. They steered their ships into a bay. [Two Scotch runners were sent out. ]
. They stayed there and waited during that time, but when the runners came back, one of them carried in the hand a bunch of vínber, and the other an ear of newly (or self-) sown wheat. They went on board their ships and sailed on. They stood with their ships into a fiord. Outside it there was an island, round which there were strong currents ; therefore they called it Straumey (Stream Island) .
There were so many eider ducks [A.M. 557: birds] on the island that it was scarcely possible to walk for the eggs. They [A.M. 557 : sailed through or into the fiord and] called it Straum- fiord. They carried their goods ashore and prepared to stay there. They had brought with them all kinds of livestock. The country was very beautiful there. [A.M. 557: There were mountains thereabouts.] They occupied themselves exclusively with the explorations of the country, and they remained there during the winter [A.M. 557: which was very severe], without having stored a supply of food. During the summer the fishing began to fail, and they began to get short of food. [A.M. 557: then they went out to the island in the hope that something might be forthcom- ing in the way of fishing or flotsam; there was not, however, much food on the island, but their livestock fared well there.] . . .
Then they sailed northward past Furdustrands and Kjalar- ness, intending to beat past (or along) the coast to the westward, but they were met by strong westerly winds and were driven ashore in Ireland. . . .
Karlsefni, together with Snorri and Bjarni and their people, went southward along the coast. They sailed for a long time, and
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EXPLORATION
came at last to a river which flowed down from the land into a lake and then into the sea. There were great beaches (eyrar) be- fore the mouth of the river, and the river could not be entered ex- cept at high tide. Karlsefni and his men sailed into the mouth of the river and called the place Hop. They found there on the shore self-sown wheat-fields on the low land, but vines (vinvidr) where the ground was high. Every brook there was full of fish. They dug pits on the beach at the edge of the high tide, and when the tide fell there were halibut in the pits. There were great numbers of animals of all kinds in the woods. They remained there half a month and enjoyed themselves without anything happening. . . . One morning early they observed a great number of skin boats, and saw that staves (or rods) were brandished, and it sounded like the wind whistling in stacks of straw, and the staves were swung with the sun. .. . These people rowed up to them, went ashore, and looked at the newcomers with surprise. They were swarthy men of a savage appearance and had scraggly hair (illt) on their heads. They had big eyes and broad cheeks. . .
Karlsefni and his followers built their houses (búdir) above the lake. Some of their dwellings (skálar) were near the lake, and others far away. They remained there that winter. No snow came and all of their livestock lived by grazing. . . .
Karlsefni and his people now realized that, although the land was rich, they would always live in constant danger of hostilities with the natives. They therefore determined to return to their own country, and at once prepared to leave. They sailed to the northward along the coast, and found five Skraelings, clad in coats of skin, lying asleep near the sea; they had with them boxes containing animal marrow, mixed with blood. ... They now came back to Straumfiord, where they found abundance of all that they needed. . . .
Karlsefni then set out with one ship; . .. they sailed north- ward around Kjalarness, and then bore to the westward with the
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EARLY HISTORY OF NAUSHON ISLAND
land on their port side; the country there was a wooded wilderness, as far as the eye could see, with scarcely any open spaces. When they had sailed for a long time, a river flowed down from the land from east to west; they sailed into the mouth of a river, and lay to by the southern bank. . .. Then they sailed back toward the north, and thought they saw the land of the unipeds. Therefore they would not expose their men any longer. They concluded that the mountains of Hop were the same as those which they now viewed, and there appeared to be very nearly the same distance from Straumfiord to both places.
The third winter they were in Straumfiord. ... There Snorri, Karlsefni's son, was born the first fall, and he was three winters old when they went away. When they sailed from Vinland they got a southerly wind, and so came to Markland. . . . [A.M. 557. Now they arrived in Greenland, and remained with Eric the Red during the winter.]
After the voyages of the Norsemen the explorers and fisher- men who may have cruised on and off the coast have for the next 500 years left practically no trace. It is not until the 16th Cen- tury that men came who left enduring records.
In the game of marbles there is a rule that, "Findsies keep- sies." Had the discoverers been able to abide by this rule, our Atlantic seaboard would have been a checker board of nation- alities.
Of the Norsemen, Spaniards, Portuguese, French, English and Italians who are known to have crossed the Atlantic before 1600, probably not many chanced to tread the sands of Tarpaulin Cove. Only brief mention can be made of those who from maps or accounts of their travels seem most likely to have done so.
1511 MIGUEL CORTE REAL
Evidence has been found that the inscription on the famous
15
EXPLORATION
"Dighton Rock," on the bank of the Taunton River, was made by the Portuguese navigator Miguel Corte Real. Professor Dela- barre has deciphered the inscription as follows:
"Miguel Corte Real. 1511. V. Dei. Hic. Dux. Ind." Which he says could be interpreted to read,
"Miguel Corte Real 1511. By the will of God I became here the chief of the Indians."
It is known that Miguel Corte Real left Lisbon on May 10th, 1502, and that of the three ships of the expedition his alone never returned.
Nine years of wandering should have made him well acquainted with our shores. When traveling on the mainland or cruising down the Sound, did he ever look or land upon the Elizabeth Islands? As in the case of the Norsemen, this will probably never be known unless fortune brings to light coins or other unmistakable evi- dences of his presence.
JANUS VERRAZANUS
In the accounts written by Hakluyt are the following letters purporting to be written by a Florentine explorer:
Certaine Voyages to Florida and the later more perfect dis- coveries thereof, to wit of all the sea coasts, Rivers, Bayes, Havens, Isles and Maine lands farre up into the Counterey and a Report of some Colonies and Fortes there planted and displanted, with a Description of the Government, Disposition and Qualitie of the Naturall Inhabitants and a Declaration of the Temperature of the Climate and of the Manifolde good Commodities found in these regions.
1524 To the most Christian King of France Francis the First
The relation of John de Verrazzano a Florentine of the land by him discovered in the name of his Majestie.
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EARLY HISTORY OF NAUSHON ISLAND
Written in Diepe the eight of July 1524
"We weyed anker, and sayled toward the East, for so the coast trended, and so alwayes for 50. leagues being in sight thereof, we discovered an Iland in form of a triangle, distant from the maine land 10. leagues, about the bignesse of the Iland of the Rhodes; it was full of hills covered with trees, well peopled, for we saw fires all along the coast; wee gave it the name of your Majesties mother, not staying there by reason of the weather being contrary.
"And we came to another land being 15. leagues distant from the Iland, where we found a passing good haven, wherein being entred we found about 20. small boats of the people, which with divers cries and wondrings came about our ship, coming no neerer than 50. paces towards us; they stayed and beheld the artificialnesse of our ship, our shape and apparel; then they all made a loud showt together, declaring that they rejoyced. When we had something animated them, using their gestures, they came so neare us, that we cast them certain bels and glasses, and many toys, which when they had received, they looked on them with laughing, and came without feare aboard our ship." [The next section of this letter gives an account of the Indians and will be found in the following chapter.]
"This land is situated in the Paralele of Rome, in 41. degrees and 2. terces [thirds]; but somewhat more colde by accidentall causes and not of nature (as I will declare unto your highnesse elsewhere), describing at this present the situation of the afore- said Countrey, which lieth East and West, I say that the mouth of the Haven lieth open to the South halfe a league broad, and being entred within it betweene the East and the North, it stretcheth twelve leagues; where it waxeth broader and broader, and maketh a gulfe about 20. leagues in compasse, wherein are five small Ilands very fruitful and pleasant, full of hie and broade trees, among the which Ilands any great Navie may ride safe
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FROM THE LARGE MAPPAMONDI OF HIERONIMO DE VERRAZANO, BROTHER OF THE NAVIGATOR. MADE ABOUT 1529
17
EXPLORATION
without any feare of tempest or other danger. Afterwards turn- ing towards the South in the entring into the Haven on both sides there are most pleasant hills, with many rivers of most cleare water falling into the sea.
"In the middest of this entrance there is a rocke of free stone growing by nature apt to build any Castle or Fortresse there, for the keeping of the Haven. The fift of May being furnished with all things necessarie, we departed from the said coast keeping along in the sight thereof, and wee sailed 150. leagues finding it alwayes after one manner; but the land some what higher with certaine mountaines, all which beare a show of minerall matter, wee sought not to land there in any place, because the weather served our turne for sailing; but wee suppose that it was like the former, the coast ranne Eastward for the space of fiftie leagues. And trending afterwards to the north, we found another land high full of thicke woods, the trees whereof were firres, cipresses and such like as are wont to grow in cold Countreys."
This description leads to a study of the early maps, Verrazano's own map being here shown with the Island of Luisa large and diagrammatic.
He says in speaking of this island, as above quoted, "Wee gave it the name of your Majesties mother." The mother of His Majesty Francis I was Louisa of Savoy ; his wife Claudia, whom he married in 1514, was daughter of Louis XII. It is interesting to note that on the very early maps this island appears sometimes as Luisa and sometimes as Claudia. It has been thought that this island is Block Island, but it is conceivable it is Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard.
The fact that it appears on so many of the old maps shows that it was considered an important landmark to seamen arriv- ing upon the coast.
The bay which has been so fully described is conceded to be
18
EARLY HISTORY OF NAUSHON ISLAND
Narragansett Bay. While admitting an inaccuracy in the width of the entrance and the "rock of free stone," does not the descrip- tion, in latitude, compass directions, size and general topography, suggest Buzzards Bay, and the "five small Islands," the Eliza- beth Islands?
Granting that this is something of a stretch of the imagination, the pictures of the country and its inhabitants apply to the shores of both these Bays.
1525
AYLLON AND GOMEZ
The year after the voyage of Verrazano there are hints of two navigators upon the coast. The first of these, Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, left Spain for Hispaniola [Santo Domingo] in 1502. Here he was a magistrate and engaged in various commercial enterprises. He became interested in a plan for the extension of the Spanish settlements to the North American mainland.
Ayllon obtained in 1523 a rather indefinite charter from Charles V of Spain, giving him the right to plant colonies. After he and one of his followers had made reconnoitering trips along the coast he attempted to found a settlement at the mouth of one of the rivers south of Cape Charles. Here he and many of his fol- lowers died, the remainder returning in December, 1526, to Hispaniola.
The second is Estevan Gomez, a Portuguese.
At Badajos in Spain in 1524 a council was convened to decide the rival claims of Spain and Portugal in the New World. Sebastian Cabot, Juan Vespucius, Estevan Gomez and others were called in to testify as experts in navigation and cartography.
The council authorized a voyage of exploration to the western shore of the Atlantic.
Estevan Gomez sailing under the Spanish flag left Corunna
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EXPLORATION
1525-26
in February, 1525. He returned to Spain ten months later, and the following description of his voyage has been found.
Digo que esta tierra de que aqui se trata, desde cuarenta e un grados hasta cuarenta é dos y medio, descubrio el peloto Esteban Gómez.
Translation. I say that this land here described lying from 41 degrees to 42} degrees, was discovered by the pilot Esteban Gómez.
"Passing this river (Rio de los Gamos) and islands, to the coast of Florida they found many islands, all deserted, these seen and discovered by Ayllón (who was 'oidor' of the 'Chancilleria' of Santo Domingo, killed many people and lost all his armada, as we said in our 'General History'). He went to a part of the north and found a great deal of land continuing with that which is called the 'Bacallaos' and to about 40 to 41 degrees and thus more or less from where he brought some Indians and there are some of them at present in this city, who are of larger size than those of Terra Firma [the main land?] and walk covered with skins of animals.
"They have silver and copper, they listen or pay attention to dreams and worship the sun and the moon and thus commit other idolatries and errors like those of Terra Firma. The same chronicler [Gonsalvo de Oviedo] in his 'General History' ex- tends the limit of the discoveries of Gómez to 41 degrees up to 42 degrees 30 minutes.
"All the islands were then in the altitude of 43 and 44 degrees and in the 7th 'clima' and his longest day was fifteen hours* and one quarter.
"In any case, summing up that which results from the map accompanying the 'Islario,' we are able then to assign to Gómez,
* The longest day at Boston is 15 hours 18 minutes.
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EARLY HISTORY OF NAUSHON ISLAND
as limits of his discoveries, from 38° to 45° of latitude north, which is equivalent to saying that he explored from the Chesapeake to some point of Nova Scotia."
The testimony of Ribero's map of 1529 shows the land of Estevan Gomez as extending over most of New England. Just at the point probably intended for Cape Cod, the Tiera de Estevan Gomez joins the Tiera de Ayllon. Without doubt some one of these southern European explorers knew the coast in detail and gave the various rivers and promontories the names used by Ribero and other cartographers of that time.
As sassafras was one of the most sought for commodities in the New World, Hakluyt's account of it may be of interest.
"Moreover, Doctor Monardus, that excellent phisition of Civill, writinge of the trees of the West Indies in his booke called Joyful Newes out of the New found worlde (1574) maketh men- tion of a tree called Sassafras which the Frenchmen founde in Florida ... in the manner following; From the Florida they bringe a woodde and roote of a tree that groweth in these partes, of greate vertues and excellencie healinge therewith grevous and variable diseases. It may be three yeres paste that I had knowl- edge of this tree, and a Frenchman that had bene in those partes shewed me a pece of yt, and tolde me marvells of the vertues thereof, and howe many and variable diseases were healed with the water which was made of it, and I judged that, which nowe I doe finde to be true and have seene by experience. He tolde me that the Frenchmen which had bene in the Florida, at the time when they came into those partes had bene sicke the most of them of grevous and variable diseases, and that the Indians did shewe them this tree, and the manner howe they should use yt, etc. so they did and were healed of many evills; which surely bringeth admiration that one onely remedy should worke so valuable and marvelous effectes. The name of this tree, as the Indyans terme yt, is called Pauame, and the Frenchmen called it Sassafras. To
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FROM MAP OF DIEGO RIBERO, 1529
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EXPLORATION
be brefe the Doctor Monardus bestoweth eleven leaves in describ- inge the sovereinties and excellent properties thereof.
"The nature and comodities of the reste of the coaste unto Cape Briton I will shewe unto you oute of the printed testimonies of John Verarsanus and Stephen Gomes, both which in one yeare, 1524, discovered the said contries, and brought home of the people, Verarsana into Ffrannce, and Gomes into Spaine."
1602
The first description of the Elizabeth Islands comes from members of the expedition of Bartholomew Gosnold.
Gosnold sailed from Falmouth, England, on March 26th, 1602, with a company of thirty-two. Two of these, Gabriel Archer and John Brereton, wrote at length about the voyage, and Gos- nold himself sent a short letter to his father giving a meager sketch.
Historians usually use only one of these accounts in telling of this voyage, as there is necessarily much repetition. As the landing and twenty-five-day stay of Gosnold is the striking event in exploration which concerns the Elizabeth Islands, and which in fact gives them distinction as the site of the first known effort of the English to colonize in New England, the two accounts of this part of the voyage are here given in full.
A Brief and True Relation of the Discovery of the North Part of Virginia Being a most Pleasant, Fruitful and Commodious Soil; Made this Present yeere 1602, by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, Captain Bartholomew Gilbert, and Divers other Gentlemen, their associates, by
I
22
EARLY HISTORY OF NAUSHON ISLAND
the Permission of the Honorable Knight, Sir Walter Ralegh, &c. Written by M. John Brereton one of the Voyage.
To the honorable, Sir Walter Ralegh, Knight, Captaine of her Maiesties Guards, Lord Warden of the Stanneries, Lieuten- ant of Cornwall, and Gouernour of the Isle of Jersey.
Honourable Sir, being earnestly requested by a deere friend, to put downe in writing, some true relation of our late performed voyage to the North parts of Virginia; at length I resolved to satisfie his request, who also emboldened me to direct the same to your honourable consideration; to whom indeed of duetie it perteineth.
May it please your Lordship therefore to understand that upon the sixe and twentieth of March 1602, being Friday, we went from Falmouth, being in all two and thirty persons, in a small Barke of Dartmouth, called The Concord, holding a course for the North part of Virginia, and although by chance the winde favoured us not at first as we wished, but inforced us so farre to the southward as we fell with S. Marie, one of the ilands of the Açores (which was not much out of our way) but holding our course directly from thence, we made our journey shorter (than hitherto accustomed) by the better part of a thousand leagues ; yet were wee longer in our passage than we expected; which happened, for that our barke being weake, we were loth to presse her with much saile, also our sailers being few, and they none of the best, we bare (except in faire weather) but low saile ; besides, our going upon an unknown coast, made us not over-bold to stand in with the shore, but in open weather, which caused us to be certeine daies in sounding, before we discovered the coast, the weather being by chance somewhat foggie; But on Friday the
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EXPLORATION
fourteenth of May, early in the morning, wee made the lande, being full of faire trees, the land somewhat low, certeine hum- mocks or hills lying into the land, the shore full of white sand, but very stony or rocky. . . .
From this place we sailed around about this headland, almost all the points of the compass, the shore very bold; but as no coast is free from dangers, so I am persuaded, this is as free as any. The land somewhat low, full of goodly woods, but in some places plain. At length we were come amongst many faire islands, which we had partly discerned at our first landing; all lying within a league or two one of another, and the outermost not above sixe or seven leagues from the maine; but coming to an anchor under one of them, [The first Island called Marthaes Vineyard. ] which was about three or four leagues from the main, Captain Gosnold, myself and some others, went ashore, and going around about it, we found it to be four English miles in compass without house or inhabitant, saving a little old house made of boughs, covered with bark, an old piece of a weare of the Indians to catch fish, and one or two places where they had made fires. The chiefest trees of this Island are beeches and cedars, the outward parts all over- grown with low bushy trees, three or four feet in height, which bear some kind of fruits, as appeared by their blossoms; straw- berries, red and white, as sweet and much bigger than ours in England; raspberries, gooseberries, whortleberries, and such an incredible store of vines, as well in the woody part of the Island, where they run upon every tree, as on the outward parts, that we could not go out for fear of treading upon them; also many springs of excellent sweet water, and a great standing lake of fresh water, near the sea side, an English mile in compass, which is main- tained with the springs running exceeding pleasantly through the woody grounds which are very rocky. Here are also in this Island, great store of deer, which we saw, and other beasts as we saw by their tracks; as also divers fowls, as cranes, hernshaws,
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