always distinct and separate from it if we can, yet to effect this separation, early, punctual, and continual information of the current chain of events, and of the political projects in contemplation, is no less necessary than if we were directly concerned in them. It is necessary, in order to the discovery of the efforts made to draw us in the vortex, in season to make preparations against them. However we may consider ourselves, the maritime and commercial powers of the world will consider the United States of America as forming a weight in that balance of power in Europe which can never be forgotten or neglected.-Williams, Statesman's Manual, I., 111. 1801, Mar. 4. JEFFERSON'S INAUGURAL ADdress. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the hundredth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth but from our actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them including honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter; with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? . . It is proper that you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our government, and consequently those which ought to shape its administration peace, commerce, and honest friendship, with all nations-entangling alliances with none.-Williams, Statesman's Manual, I., 150–151. 1803, Oct. 17. JEFFERSON'S ANNUAL MESsage. Separated by a wide ocean from the nations of Europe, and from the political interests which entangle them together, with productions and wants which render our commerce and friend VINLAND THE GOOD FOUND. LEIF, a son of Eric the Red, passed this same winter, in good repute, with King Olaf, and accepted Christianity. And that summer, when Gizur went to Iceland, King Olaf sent Leif to Greenland to proclaim Christianity there. He sailed that summer to Greenland. He found men upon a wreck at sea and succoured them. Then likewise he discovered Vinland the Good, and arrived in Greenland in the autumn. THE STORY AS GIVEN IN HAUK'S BOOK. LEIF THE LUCKY FINDS VINLAND. LEIF put to sea [from Norway] when his ship was ready for the voyage. For a long time he was tossed about upon the ocean, and came upon lands of which he had previously had no knowledge. There were self-sown wheat-fields and vines growing there. There were also those trees there which are called mausur, and of all these they took specimens. Some of the timbers were so large that they were used in building. Leif found men upon a wreck and took them home with him and procured quarters for them all during the winter. VOYAGE OF THORFINN KARLSEFNI AND SNORRI. About this time there began to be much talk at Brattahlid, to the effect that Vinland the Good should be explored, for, it was said, that country must be possessed of many good qualities. And so it came to pass, that Karlsefni and Snorri fitted out their ship for the purpose of going in search of that country, in the spring. Biarni and Thorhall joined the expedition with their ship, and the men who had borne them company. . . . They had in all one hundred and sixty men, when they sailed away to the Western Settlement and thence to Bear Island. Thence they bore away to the southward two dægr. Then they saw land, and launched a boat, and explored the land, and found there large flat stones, and many of these were twelve ells wide; there were many Arctic foxes there. They gave a name to the country and called it Helluland [the land of flat stones]. Then they sailed with northerly winds two degr, and land then lay before them, and upon it there was a great wood and many wild beasts; and land lay off the land to the southeast, and there they found a bear, and they called this Biarney [Bear Island], while the land where the wood was they called Markland [Forest land]. Thence they sailed southward along the land for a long time, and came to a cape; the land lay upon the starboard; there were long strands and sandy banks there. They rowed to the land and found upon the cape there the keel of a ship, and they called it Kialarnes [Keelness]; they also called the strands Furdustrandir Wonder-strands], because they were so long to sail by. Then the country became indented with bays, and they steered their ships into a bay. It was when Leif was with King Olaf Tryggvason, and he bade him proclaim Christianity to Greenland, that the King gave him two Gaels [Scots]; the man's name was Haki, and the woman's Haekia. The King advised Leif to have recourse to these people, if he should stand in need of fleetness, for they were swifter than deer. Eric and Leif had tendered Karlsefni the services of this couple. Now when they had sailed past Wonder-strands they put the Scots ashore and directed them to run to the southward, and investigate the nature of the country, and return again before the end of the third halfday. ... Karlsefni and his companions cast anchor, and lay there during their absence, and when they came again, one of them carried a bunch of grapes, and the other an ear of self-sown wheat. They went on board the ship, whereupon Karlsefni and his followers held on their way, until they came to where the coast was indented with bays. They stood into a bay with their ships. There was an island at the mouth of the bay, about which there were strong currents, wherefore they called it Straumey [Stream Isle]. There were so many birds there, that it was scarcely possible to step between the eggs. They sailed through the firth and called it Straumfiord [Streamfirth], and carried their cargoes ashore from the ships and established themselves there. They had brought with them all kinds of livestock. It was a fine country there. There were mountains there abouts. They occupied themselves exclusively with the exploration of the country. They remained there during the winter, and they had taken no thought for this during the summer. The fishing began to fail and they began to fall short of food. . . . It is said that Thorhall wished to sail to the northward beyond Wonder-strands, in search of Vinland, while Karlsefni desired to proceed to the southward, off the coast. Thorhall prepared for his voyage out below the island, having only nine men in his party. . . . Then they sailed away to the northward past Wonder-strands and Keelness, intending to cruise to the westward around the cape. They encountered westerly gales, and were driven ashore in Ireland, where they were grievously maltreated and thrown into slavery. There Thorhall lost his life, according to that which traders have related. It is now to be told of Karlsefni that he cruised southward off the coast, with Snorri and Biarni and their people. They sailed for a long time, and until they came at last to a river, which flowed down from the land into a lake, and so into the sea. There were great bars at the mouth of the river, so that it could only be entered at the height of the flood-tide. Karlsefni and his men sailed into the mouth of the river, and called it there Hop [a small land-locked bay]. They found self-sown wheat-fields on the land there, wherever there were hollows, and wherever there was hilly ground, there were vines. Every brook there was full of fish. They dug pits, on the shore where the tide rose highest, and when the tide fell, there were halibut in the pits. There were great numbers of wild animals of all kinds in the woods. They remained there half a month and enjoyed themselves and kept no watch. They had their livestock with them. Now one morning early, when they looked about them, they saw a great number of skin canoes, and staves were brandished from the boats, with a noise like flails, and they were revolved in the same direction in which the sun moves. Then said Karlsefni: "What may this betoken?" Snorri, Thorbrand's son, answers him: “It may be that this is a signal of peace, wherefore let us take a white shield and display it." And thus they did. Thereupon the strangers rowed toward them, and went upon the land, marvelling at those whom they saw before them. They were swarthy men, and ill-looking, and the hair of their heads was ugly. They had great eyes, and were broad of cheek. They tarried there for a time looking curiously at the people they saw before them, and then rowed away, and to the southward around the point. Karlsefni and his followers had built their huts above the lake, some of their dwellings being near the lake, and others farther away. Now they remained there the winter. No snow came there, and all of their livestock lived by grazing. And when spring opened, they discovered, early one morning, a great number of skin-canoes, rowing from the south past the cape, so numerous, that it looked as if coals had been scattered broadcast out before the bay; and on every boat staves were waved. Thereupon Karlsefni and his people displayed their shields, and when they came together they began to barter with each other. Especially did the strangers wish to buy red cloth, for which they offered in exchange peltries and quite grey skins. They also desired to buy swords and spears, but Karlsefni and Snorri forbade this. In exchange for perfect unsullied skins, the Skrellings would take red stuff a span in length, which they would bind around their heads. So their trade went on for a time, until Karlsefni and his people began to grow short of cloth, when they divided it into such narrow pieces, that it was not more than a finger's breadth wide, but the Skrellings continued to give just as much for this as before, or more. It so happened that a bull, which belonged to Karlsefni and his people, ran out from the woods, bellowing loudly. This so terrified the Skrellings, that they sped out to their canoes, and then rowed away to the southward along the coast. For three weeks nothing more was seen of them. At the end of that time, however, a great multitude of Skrelling boats was discovered approaching from the south, as if a stream were pouring down, and all their staves were waved in a direction contrary to the course of the sun, and the Skrellings were all uttering loud cries. Thereupon Karlsefni and his men took red shields and displayed them. The Skrellings sprang from their boats, and they met them, and fought together. It now seemed clear to Karlsefni and his people, that although the country thereabouts was attractive, their life |