VINLAND, or WINELAND. The name given to that part of the continent of America visited by the Vikings of Norway. This coast was sighted in 98C) by Bjarni IlerjnIfson (q.v.), who, in attempting to reach Greenland from lee land, was carried out of his course by storms and the Arctic current. The land was not ex /demi and named until 1000, when it was visited by Leif Ericson, who sailed along the coast from Labrador southward and gave the name of Wineland to one portion of the country because of the number of grapes lie found grow ing there. Leif spent the winter felling timber with which to load his ship, and when spring Caine returned to Iceland. In 1002 Leif's brother Thorwald visited the land and spent the greater part of two years in exploration. He attempted a settlement, but was attacked and killed by the natives, whom the Norsemen called Skrellings. In 1007 a colony of 100 men sailed from Green land to establish themselves in the new land. They put up houses, but were discouraged by the persistent hostility of the natives, and after one winter returned to their own country. Occa sional later voyages to America were made in search of timber or for the purpose of fishing. The last which is recorded was in 1347.
The Icelandic historian, Are the \Vise, who wrote in the early part of the twelfth century, Inentions the discovery of Vinland, and he is authority for the accounts dating from the three centuries next following. Raft] (q.v.), in his Antiguitates Jtnericanre (1837), sets forth such evidence as exists respecting colonization in America by the Norsemen. This work attracted great attention in Americh, and to it may be traced the extended popular belief in the state ments that the 'Old Mill' at Newport. the 'Digh ton Rock.' and other supposed remains can ac tually be ascribed to the Viking - settlements. Professor TIorsford. of Harvard, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, revived in terest in these settlements by a series of pub lications in which he tried to prove that the Norsemen visited the Charles River above Boston. The actual sources of documentary in formation are best given in Reeves's Finding of Thine/and the Good (London. 1890). Consult also Anderson, America Not Discovered by Co lumbus (Chicago. 1S74); and De Costa. Pre Columbian Discovery of America (Albany, N. Y., 1901).