home to Greenland in the spring (1001 A.D.). As they
brought timber, much prized in the Greenland settlement,
their voyage caused a great deal of talk. Naturally others
wished to rival Leif. In the next few years several
voyages to Vineland are briefly chronicled in the sagas.

First of all, Thorwald, Leif's brother, borrowed his
ship, sailed away to Vineland with thirty men, and spent
two winters there. During his first summer in Vineland,
Thorwald sent some men in a boat westward along the coast.
They found a beautiful country with thick woods reaching
to the shore, and great stretches of white sand. They
found a kind of barn made of wood, and were startled by
this first indication of the presence of man. Thorwald
had, indeed, startling adventures. In a great storm his
ship was wrecked on the coast, and he and his men had to
rebuild it. He selected for a settlement a point of land
thickly covered with forest. Before the men had built
their houses they fell in with some savages, whom they
made prisoners. These savages had bows and arrows, and
used what the Norsemen called 'skin boats.' One of the
savages escaped and roused his tribe, and presently a
great flock of canoes came out of a large bay, surrounded
the Viking ship, and discharged a cloud of arrows. The
Norsemen beat off the savages, but in the fight Thorwald
received a mortal wound. As he lay dying he told his men
to bury him there in Vineland, on the point where he had
meant to build his home. This was done. Thorwald's men
remained there for the winter. In the spring they returned
to Greenland, with the sad news for Leif of his brother's