Much learning has been devoted to the elucidation of the Icelandic
Sagas, or vague accounts of voyages which Bjorne Heriulfson and Lief
Ericsson, sons of the first Norse settlers of Greenland, are supposed to
have made at the end of the tenth century, to the eastern parts of what
is now British North America, and, in the opinion of some writers, even
as far as the shores of New England. It is just possible that such
voyages were made, and that Norsemen were the first Europeans who saw
the eastern shores of Canada. It is quite certain, however, that no
permanent settlements were made by the Norsemen in any part of these
countries; and their voyages do not appear to have been known to
Columbus or other maritime adventurers of later times, when the veil of
mystery was at last lifted from the western limits of what was so long
truly described as the "sea of darkness." While the subject is
undoubtedly full of interest, it is at the same time as illusive as the
_fata morgana_, or the lakes and rivers that are created by the mists of
a summer's eve on the great prairies of the Canadian west.

Five centuries later than the Norse voyagers, there appeared on the
great field of western exploration an Italian sailor, Giovanni Caboto,
through whose agency England took the first step in the direction of
that remarkable maritime enterprise which, in later centuries, was to be
the admiration and envy of all other nations. John Cabot was a Genoese
by birth and a Venetian citizen by adoption, who came during the last
decade of the fifteenth century, to the historic town of Bristol.
Eventually he obtain from Henry VII letters-patent, granting to himself
and his three sons, Louis, Sebastian, and Sancio, the right, "at their
own cost and charges, to seek out and discover unknown lands," and to
acquire for England the dominion over the countries they might discover.
Early in May, 1497, John Cabot sailed from Bristol in "The Matthew,"