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4 VOYAGES IN ELEVENTH CENTURY. [BOOK 1. sent his followers in search of him in every direction. When they at last found him, he began to speak to them in the Teutonic language, with many extravagant signs of joy. They at last made out to understand from him in the North tongue, that he had found in the vicinity vines bear ing wild grapes. He led them to the spot, and they brought to their chief a quantity of the grapes which they had ga thered. At first Leif doubted whether they were really that fruit, but the German assured him he was well ac quainted with it, being a native of the southern wine coun tries. Leif, thereupon, named the country Vinland. “ In the spring following, Leif returned to Greenland. In the winter died his father, Erik the Red, and his brother Thorwald, not being satisfied with the discoveries made by Leif, obtained from him his ship, and engaged thirty com panions to embark with him on a new voyage of discovery. On his arrival in Vinland, he passed the winter in the huts constructed by Leif, and subsisted by fishing. In the spring, he took with him a part of his ship’s company in a large boat, and explored the coast to the westward, which he found a pleasant country, well wooded, the shores consist ing of banks of white sand, and a chain of islands running along the coast, separated from each other by shallow in lets, but no trace of wild beasts or of human inhabitants, except a corn-shed of wood. After spending the summer in this excursion, they returned to their winter quarters. In the following summer, Thorwald sailed in his ship to exa mine the east and north, but was cast on shore by a storm, and the whole season was lost in repairing the vessel. Here he erected the keel of his ship, which was no longer fit for service, on a head-land, which he called, from that circum stance, Kijalar-nes. He then pursued his voyage to the eastward, giving names to the various capes and bays which he discovered, until he came to a large inlet, where he cast anchor, attracted by the promising appearance of the coun-
