of America now known as Labrador.

When the captain of the ship returned home he told what he had
seen. His tale so excited the curiosity of a young Viking prince,
called Leif the Lucky, that he sailed to the newly discovered coast.

Going ashore, he found that the country abounded in wild grapes;
and so he called it Vinland, or the land of Vines. Vinland is
thought to have been a part of what is now the Rhode Island coast.

The Vikings were not aware that they had found a great unknown
continent. No one in the more civilized parts of Europe knew anything
about their discovery; and after a while the story of the Vinland
voyages seems to have been forgotten, even among the Vikings
themselves.

So it is not to them that we owe the discovery of America, but to
Columbus; because his discovery, though nearly five hundred years
later than that of the Norsemen, actually made known to all Europe,
for all time, the existence of the New World.


II


The Vikings had many able chieftains. One of the most famous was
Rollo the Walker, so called because he was such a giant that no
horse strong enough to carry him could be found, and therefore he
always had to walk. However, he did on foot what few could do on
horseback.