Leif Ericson, the long-forgotten Scandinavian discoverer ofNorth America, nearly five hundred years before Columbus, has atlast received American justice, and a statue in his honor has beenerected, which was unveiled in Boston, on Commonwealth Avenue,before a distinguished assemblage, on the 29th of October.
The history of the Scandinavian discovery and settlement wasrelated on this occasion by Prof. E. Horsford, from whose addressthe following passages are extracted:
“What is the great fact that is sustained by such an array ofauthority? It is this: that somewhere to the southwest of Greenland,at least a fortnight’s sail, there were, for 300 years after thebeginning of the 11th century, Norse colonies on the coast of America,with which colonies the home country maintained commercialintercourse. The country to which the merchant vessels sailed wasVinland.
“The fact next in importance that this history establishes is, thatthe first of the Northmen to set foot on the shores of Vinland wasLeif Ericson. The story is a simple one, and most happily told byProf. Mitchell, who for forty years was connected with the coastsurvey of the United States in the latitudes which include theregion between Hatteras and Cape Ann. Leif, says Prof. Mitchell,never passed to the south of the peninsula of Cape Cod. He wassucceeded by Thorwald, Leif’s brother. He came in Leif’s ship in1002 to Leif’s headquarters in Massachusetts Bay and passed thewinter. In the spring, he manned his ship and sailed eastward fromLeif’s house, and, unluckily running against a neck of land, brokethe stem of the ship. He ground
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