2. FACSIMILE OF THE FIRST PAGE OF THE FOLIO (FIRST) EDITION OF
THE SPANISH TEXT OF COLUMBUS'S LETTER, DATED FEBRUARY 15, 1493,
TO SANTANGEL, DESCRIBING HIS FIRST VOYAGE. From the original
(unique) in the New York Public Library (Lenox Building) 262

3. THE NEW WORLD IN THE CANTINO CHART OF 1502, SHOWING THE
STATE OF GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE AT THE TIME OF THE DEATH OF
COLUMBUS 418




ORIGINAL NARRATIVES OF THE VOYAGES OF THE NORTHMEN




INTRODUCTION


The important documents from Norse sources that may be classed as
"Original Narratives of Early American History" are the Icelandic sagas
(prose narratives) that tell of the voyages of Northmen to Vinland. There
are two sagas that deal mainly with these voyages, while in other
Icelandic sagas and annals there are a number of references to Vinland
and adjacent regions. These two sagas are the "Saga of Eric the Red" and
another, which, for the lack of a better name, we may call the "Vinland
History of the Flat Island Book," but which might well bear the same name
as the other. This last history is composed of two disjointed accounts