from the sea except at high tide. It was once believed that this was
Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island, but this is no longer believed. Here
they landed and called the place Hop, from the Icelandic word _hopa_,
meaning an inlet from the ocean. Here they found grape-vines growing and
fields of wild wheat; there were fish in the lake and wild animals in the
woods. Here they landed the cattle and the provisions which they had
brought with them; and here they built their huts. They went in the
spring, and during that summer the natives came in boats of skin to trade
with them--men described as black, and ill favored, with large eyes and
broad cheeks and with coarse hair on their heads. These, it is thought,
may have been the Esquimaux. The first time they came, these visitors held
up a white shield as a sign of peace, and were so frightened by the
bellowing of the bull that they ran away. Then returning, they brought
furs to sell and wished to buy weapons, but Harald tried another plan: he
bade the women bring out milk, butter, and cheese from their dairies, and
when the Skraelings saw that, they wished for nothing else, and, the
legend says, "the Skraelings carried away their wares in their stomachs,
but the Norsemen had the skins they had purchased." This happened yet
again, but at the second visit one of the Skraelings was accidentally
killed or injured.

The next time the Skraelings came they were armed with slings, and raised
upon a pole a great blue ball and attacked the Norsemen so furiously that
they were running away when Erik's sister, Freydis, came out before them
with bare arms, and took up a sword, saying, "Why do you run, strong men
as you are, from these miserable dwarfs whom I thought you would knock
down like cattle? Give me weapons, and I will fight better than any of
you." Then the rest took courage and began to fight, and the Skraelings
were driven back. Once more the strangers came, and one of them took up an
axe, a thing which he had not before seen, and struck at one of his