Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1940, Blaðsíða 143

THE VINLAND VOYAGES
i37
III.
Another question connected with the Vinland voyages is
whether they in any way influenced explorers of other countries
and of later centuries, or in any way contributed to the final and
definite discovery of the American continent. It has frequently
been maintained in print that Columbus had heard of them and
that he was inspired by them to seek a land in the west. In sup-
port of this the information found in his biography by his son, to
the effect that he visited Iceland in February 1477, has been cited.
In view of recent researches on the subject this voyage of his
must be considered very doubtful, in fact next to impossible, and
the observations, quoted by his son, which he is supposed to have
made in Iceland are incorrect in most respects, although they may
derive from Columbus himself, but his later statements about his
early experiences are not to be relied upon. And there is nothing
in the history of Columbus which points to any influence upon
him from the North.
There is, on the other hand, the possibility of John Cabot hav-
ing heard of Vinland after he settled in Bristol. He had, how-
ever, before that conceived the idea of reaching Asia by going
west. Any information about the Vinland voyages could there-
fore only have influenced his choice of route to follow in his
search. The uncertainty which prevails about the Cabot ex-
peditions makes it difficult to come to any definite conclusions in
the matter. Recent writers on the Cabots seen, however, inclined
to assume some influence from Iceland, so the door is still open for
further discussions of the subject.