Ships were lost during these dark voyages, and said to have had to
return; I must refer my readers to this book and refer him there for
details. Such tales may be true. This book may have more faith than it
deserves; I must refer my readers to a record of the discovery of the
North-West Passage, a record which cannot possibly be doubted.
And if one of these books be true, I will tell you what happened to
Baffin, Hudson, and the rest. They may have had a glimpse of the
passage, but they were not prepared for it; it was too sudden and
unexpected. They were not men of that type which discovers new lands.
I can hardly believe the stories about the discoverers of the North-West
Passage, but as it is possible for them to have been true, I must add
these remarks about their probable beliefs.
Hans Egede, in his account of the first voyage to Greenland, described
two sailors who died during that journey. After the report of the dead
having been seen floating in the sea, he writes, "I have been informed
that some people who have passed the winter in Greenland saw, in the
spring, those corpses which floated; and those who saw them thought that
their companions had only floated to such a distance from the coast,
that those who saw them might have taken them for people swimming;
because the said floating corpses had on their clothes, and their money
also, as was usual when the people went to Greenland; and besides, their
feet were bare, as though they had swum, that the waters should not
injure their feet."[19]
Mr. Egede's book was translated by Peter Kalm, the Swedish botanist,
in 1770, just before the English and French voyages. "These two sailors
were drowned after a storm, and their bodies were never found; I have
been assured that the sailors themselves were seen in that neighbourhood
where they had left their ship the same year that the storm happened.
And this I have learned from the same persons who informed me of their
death, and who have had means of being certain of the truth of their
statement, and no doubt did see them, for when any of their relatives
died, the people in that neighbourhood assembled to pray for them. It
is said that such bodies often rise to the surface of the water, but
are never seen more; that they often cry out when they are about to sink
into the deep sea, and that when drowned men attempt to swim ashore,
their arms are seen swimming like a buoy in the sea, as long as they can
be seen. Some of these drowned men are buried, and rise again in white
garments, and other strange forms." (This all happened in Iceland, in
1733.)
Peter Kalm adds that many of the inhabitants of Bergen "believe that
several of their countrymen have been drowned near land, but can prove
no certain instance." Kalm also relates a story that, during one of
the early voyages, the ship was driven a long distance towards land.
"It seems that the people were alarmed, and got on the yards, to warn
each other that the vessel was driving on shore; but what was the
greater calamity, the sea broke into the forecastle, and filled the
whole ship, till they were all very near drowning. Yet some time after
there was a general fast, at which time they had been quite persuaded
that the vessel had really been driven ashore, and every one had prayed
for himself. After the fast, they soon took down the anchor; they did
not like to risk having the ship again driven on shore. They sailed
back, and saw many of their drowned friends swimming near the vessel,
who took hold of it, and pulled it out into deep water."
A few more details in regard to these beliefs, and a story of a sailor
who came back, will suffice to show that they are in the line of other
incredible stories.
There is a letter from C. F. G. Martenszoon in the _New York
Journal of Commerce_ of October 12, 1878, written from Batavia, Java.
It runs as follows: "In 1668 an English vessel, driven from her course,
was driven along the outer edge of the continental land. The captain
observed the coast from a distance and found it an island--and so
it proved, since it became the American State of New Jersey. He anchored
in what proved to be a bay, but his men and some of the native people
fled to land. They built canoes, and the natives were glad to have them
go and assist them in getting their stores, &c. The people, who on a
sudden found themselves set down at an unknown coast, had a dreadful
time. Many of their number were drowned during the first few days, for
the natives allowed them to drown whenever they approached a canoe.
Several of them who were sick drowned too. Many times their vessel was
dashed against the rocks. All the natives were frightened, and the
stranger made war upon them in order to obtain some of their women. On
the ninth day of the voyage they cast anchor in a harbour where the
natives were friendly; and having recovered the chief part of their
men, and not finding the captain's cabin, they put in there. But their
captain, after making a number of charts, and sending back the vessel to
the Netherlands, perished himself on a second voyage.
"Four years ago I met an officer who has seen this captain's cabin, and
I obtained permission to visit it; the cabin was as he had described it,
and one of its walls was marked with a pencil by the captain with the
words, 'A terrible storm.' This occurred on the 14th of November, 1669,
at 2 p.m."
The following is a Danish version of these marvellous events, said to
have occurred as late as 1582:
"In the year 1658, a ship, full of emigrants and people in search of
prosperity, sailed from Denmark. This ship, driven by a violent storm,
ran upon the coast of Greenland, where, on the 12th of November, at
twelve o'clock, in the night, she became a prey to the enormous waves
which dashed against the coast. All the people perished, including the
captain, who was cast into the sea. During the hurricane, the ship,
after getting completely inshore, became wrecked, and, in addition to
its crew of thirty-eight men, was dashed against the rocks by the sea,
which caused it to split into a number of fragments. All of the crew
were drowned; many drowned bodies were also washed ashore. The water
carried away nearly all the things in the ship; there remained only the
luggage of the captain, the ship's compass, a small chest, and some
other things. The weather became calm, and thus the ship's fragments
were thrown on the land. The captain, whose body was cast on the shores
of the land of Iceland, had some of his teeth knocked out by the
ship's rudder, which was still fixed on his breast. The Icelanders had
already settled in that part of the country, and they took him for a
being of their own race. To escape from them, he began to run away; he
soon exhausted himself; the air exhausted him, and thus he soon died,
although he had remained alive for three whole days. On account of this
fact, many Icelanders believe that the sea has islands with large
animals resembling men, and will not live on the continent of the
people. And hence one of the Icelanders, when he heard the captain's
wish to go to Hell, believed the captain a wizard and believed he was
seeking a distant land. After burying the captain, they buried the
compass under the stone of the tower of the church, which is still
known as the 'compass stone' in Iceland, although it is now very old.
And finally the natives had peace in that neighbourhood."[20]
If the Icelanders knew anything of the people of the new world, they
would probably have got the same notions about the strange men and women
there that Hans Egede received at Batavia. And if such notions were
generally prevalent among the old Norsemen, it would explain why most
of the Icelandic voyagers were supposed to have drowned; and there is
an added reason in the very name, _skrælingar_, which means the "grey
folk." When Skrælinga were first mentioned in Icelandic literature, in
the eleventh century, they were the old legends of the Finns; they were
the creatures of legends, and they were grey; from which came the name
_skrælinga_.
Besides these stories of the drowned people, there were various other
accounts. Thus a man named Brand, a passenger on a ship, narrated to the
_Bishop of Sodor and Man_ that when he was out fishing, a vessel with
a strange sail came near him. A large head with a broad forehead was
seen at the side of the
