seen that the same kind of folk had been there as they which inhabited
Vinland, and whom the men of Greenland [_i.e._, the explorers] called
Skrellings."

A sort of negative corroboration of this is offered by a work of high
rank, the famous _Speculum Regale_, written in Old Norse in Norway in the
middle of the thirteenth century. It contains much trustworthy
information on Greenland; it tells, "with bald common sense," of such
characteristic things as glaciers and northern lights, discusses the
question as to whether Greenland is an island or a peninsula, tells of
exports and imports, the climate, the means of subsistence, and
especially the fauna, _but not one word concerning any natives_. Moreover
Ivar Bardsen's account[11-2] of Greenland, which is entirely trustworthy,
gives a distinct impression that the colonists did not come into conflict
with the Eskimos until the fourteenth century.

There is consequently no valid reason for doubting that the savages
described in the sagas were natives of Vinland and Markland. But whether
it can ever be satisfactorily demonstrated that the Norse explorers came
in contact with Algonquin, Micmac, or Beothuk Indians, and just where
they landed, are not matters of essential importance. The
incontrovertible facts of the various Norse expeditions are that Leif
Ericson and Thorfinn Karlsefni are as surely historical characters as
Christopher Columbus, that they visited, in the early part of the
eleventh century, some part of North America where the grape grew, and
that in that region the colonists found savages, whose hostility upset
their plans of permanent settlement.

According to the usually accepted chronology, Leif's voyage from Norway
to Greenland (during which voyage he found Vinland) was made in the year