The Norse colonised[19]
Greenland, Labrador, and possibly even Massachusetts, and it was on a
voyage to Iceland that Jean Cabot heard of America, on whose continent
he was the first modern sailor to land, and it is said that it was
through him that Columbus, after he had discovered the West Indian
Islands, first heard that North America had been proved to be a
continent by Cabot's coasting voyage along its shore from Maine to
Florida. The Vikings, too, taught us the discipline without which no
ship can live through an ocean storm. Their spirit, too, when piracy
had died out, led us into trade; for, as we have seen, the Viking was
no mere pirate, but ever a trader as well.[20] Their sea-fights live
in story, though their traders found no skald or bard, and it is thus
that we hear less of their trading or of their civic or domestic life.
This spirit of theirs, like their blood, is ever with us still. It has
gone into our race, and it keeps coming out in unexpected quarters.
Hidden under Celtic colouring and Highland dress, the Viking warrior
is there in spirit, glorying in battle, though often apparently no
more of a real "Barelegs" by race than was kilted King Magnus.
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