( 305 )
on, narrowing towards the north, till the opposite American continent can be easily discerned from Greenland, and that the extremity of this bay ends in a river, over which, wandering savages, inured to cold, might easily pass from one land to the other, even if they had had no canoes.
The result of all this seems to be, that there can be no doubt, but that the Norwegian Greenlanders discovered the American continent; that the place where they settled was either the country of Labrador, or Newfoundland, and that their colony subsisted there a good while. But then this is all we can say about it with any certainty. To endeavour to ascertain the exact site, extent and fortune of the establishment, would be a fruitless labour. Time and chance may possibly one day inform us of these circumstances. I shall not therefore amuse the reader with uncertain conjectures; neither shall I trouble him with such reflections as he is able to make much better than myself.
