Professor Rafn, in _Antiquitates Americanæ_, gives brief notices of
numerous Icelandic voyages to America, and other lands at the west, of
which there is now no record. The works in which they are found are of
the highest respectability. It is only necessary here to give the facts,
which have been collected with much care. They show that the
pre-Columbian discovery of America has tinged nearly the whole body of
Icelandic history, in which the subject is referred to, not as a matter
of doubt, but as something perfectly well known. All these revelations
combine to furnish indisputable proof of the positions maintained in
this work, showing as they do, beyond all reasonable question, that the
impression which so generally prevailed in regard to the discovery of
this land, was not the result of a literary fraud. Some of the facts are
given below:
1121. Eric, Bishop of Greenland,[245] went to search out Vinland.
Bishop Eric Upse sought Vinland.
1285. A new land is discovered west from Iceland.