KKitir JRARY VERSITY OF aifOkMIA WORKS ISSUED BY Cfje Staftlugt &octtt& THE VOYAGES OF NICOLO AND ANTONIO ZENO. FIRST SERIES. NO. L-MDCCCLXXHI THTC VOYAGES OF THE VENETIAN BROTHERS, NICOLO & ANTONIO ZENO, TO THE NORTHERN SEAS, IN THE XIVth CENTURY, COMPRISING THE LATEST KNOWN ACCOUNTS OF THE LOST COLONY OF GREENLAND; AND OF THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA BEFORE COLUMBUS. TRAN8LATKD AND KDITKD, WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTION, BY RICHARD HENRY MAJOR, F.S.A., &c. BURT FRANKLIN, PUBLISHER NEW YORK, NEW YORK 1 1 r\^y G/HPublishedW U A by1 BURT FRANKLIN 514 West 113th Street New York 25, N. Y. ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY REPRINTED BY PERMISSION PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. V3 \Kd\ Ha so CLot».&- COUNCIL THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY. Thb Right Hon. Sie DAVID DUNDAS, Pbesident. Admibal C. R. DRINKWATER BETHUNE, C.B. -\ Vice-Pbesidents. Majob-Genebal Sie HENRY C. RAWLINSON, K.C.B., D.C.L., f F.R.S., Vice-Pbes.R.G.S. -> W. A. TYSSEN AMHURST, Esq. Rev. Db. GEORGE P. BADGER, D.C.L. JOHN BARROW, Esq., F.R.S. Vice-Admibal COLLINSON, C.B. Captain COLOMB, R.N. W. E. FRERE, Esq. EGERTON VERNON HARCOURT, Esq. JOHN WINTER JONES, Esq., F.S.A. R. H. MAJOR, Esq., F.S.A., Sec.R.G.S. Sie W. STIRLING MAXWELL, Babt. Sie CHARLES NICHOLSON, Babt., D.C.L. Vice-Abmieal ERASMUS OMMANNEY, C.B., F.R.S. Reab-Admieal SHERARD OSBORN, C.B., F.R.S. The Lobd STANLEY of Aldebley. EDWARD THOMAS, Esq., F.R.S. The Hon. FREDERICK WALPOLE, M.P. CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, Esq., C.B., F.R.S., Sec.R.G.S., Honoi; vbv Skckktaky. 246 PREFACE. The nucleus of this small volume is, in respect of quantity, remarkably small ; but the material which envelopes it and which supplies it with bulk enough to constitute a volume, is devoted to the purpose of showing that, if small in quantity, it is far from being insignificant in quality. The very object of our Society being to deal witt the Geography of the Past, by printing rare or unpub lished ancient texts of travels, it is clearly a duty ir> Editors to supply their readers with full information as to the position, in regard both of time and im- portance, which the documents that they produce occupy, or ought to occupy, in the history of Geo- graphy. But it is equally clear that the proportion which the illustrative matter may bear to the extent of the original text, must vary very much according to the circumstances of each case. In the present instance, we have the peculiar phenomenon of a most true and authentic narrative, which must henceforth, il PREFACE. it is hoped, hold a high position among ancient his- torical records of travel, having been, in conjunction with the map that accompanies it, the cause of a vast amount of error and misconception, and the subject of so much discredit as to have been finally condemned as "false" and "a tissue of fiction." To track the causes of such misconceptions and to free the document, if possible, from the discredit under which it laboured, became my duty as Editor. That I have succeeded in so doing will, I trust, be acknowledged not as a matter of opinion only, but of unanswerable fact. I advert to that fact here solely with the view of ex- plaining why the illustrative matter in the volume should be so large in comparison with the text. R. H. M. Sketch Map ofthe Countries referred to *J> <£'• Shetland R =V ZENO NARRATIVE FORTH SKA 1 g HAKLUYT. S. I. T. L INTRODUCTION. The duties of an Editor of one of our Hakluyt volumes are almost always limited to the elucidation of a text, which though antiquarian and therefore demanding a peculiar kind of editorial care, is at least undisputed as to its authenticity. Such is not the case in the present instance. By far the hardest portion of the task of preparing this introduction has been the investigation of the perplexities which hang about the Zeno narrative and the map which accom- panies it. It was truly said by the learned John Pinkerton in his History of Scotland (vol. i, page 261, Note) "Zeno's book is one of the most puzzling in the whole circle of literature." Unfortunately this perplexity, which up to the present time has baffled every commentator, has produced the mischievous but not unnatural effect of throwing discredit on the authenticity of a genuine and valuable narrative. It may even be said that this unlucky document has met with almost as injurious treatment from its advocates as from its enemies ; since, from failing to detect the real solution of that which perplexed them, even friendly critics have been compelled to resort to ran- dom speculations, which have only " made confusion worse confounded." The puzzle consisted in this, INTRODUCTION. The duties of an Editor of one of our Hakluyt volumes are almost always limited to the elucidation of a text, which though antiquarian and therefore demanding a peculiar kind of editorial care, is at least undisputed as to its authenticity. Such is not the case in the present instance. By far the hardest portion of the task of preparing this introduction has been the investigation of the perplexities which hang about the Zeno narrative and the map which accom- panies it. It was truly said by the learned John Pinkerton in his History of Scotland (vol. i, page 261, Note) " Zeno's book is one of the most puzzling in the whole circle of literature." Unfortunately this perplexity, which up to the present time has baffled every commentator, has produced the mischievous but not unnatural effect of throwing discredit on the authenticity of a genuine and valuable narrative. It may even be said that this unlucky document has met with almost as injurious treatment from its advocates as from its enemies ; since, from failing to detect the real solution of that which perplexed them, even friendly critics have been compelled to resort to ran- dom speculations, which have only " made confusion worse confounded." The puzzle consisted in this, — IV INTRODUCTION. that it presented geographical information very far in advance not only of what was known by geogra- phers in the fourteenth century, when the narrative was first written, but greatly in advance also of the geography of the sixteenth century, when it was published. At the same time the narrative, and the map which accompanied it, contained names of places which in the form of their spelling and the positions assigned to them, were so irreconcileable with all that geographers have been able to leam from other sources, that they have given rise to the wildest con- jectures, have puzzled the patient out of their wits, and driven the impatient to condemn the whole thing as an imposture. The story in brief is as follows : Towards the close of the fourteenth century Nicolo Zeno, a member of one of the noblest and most ancient families in Venice, went, at his own expense, on a voy- age rather of curiosity than discovery into the northern seas. For a long series of years before his time the Flanders voyage from Venice had been a matter of almost annual occurrence, but chance gave to this voyage a very peculiar interest. Nicolo Zeno was wrecked on what he describes as the Island of Fris- landa, which will presently be shown to be the Fasroe Group, and he and his companions were rescued from the wreckers by the chief of a neighbouring principality, named Zichmni, who happened to be there, and into whose service he entered in the capa- city of pilot of his fleet. After remaining with this chieftain some time, during which is recorded the INTRODUCTION. V conquest of Frislanda by Zichmni, Nicolo Zeno wrote home to his brother Antonio, inviting him to join him, which he did. Nicolo survived his brother's arrival four years, and died in Frislanda. Antonio remained ten years more in the service of Zichmni, and then returned to Venice, where he died. It is from the above- mentioned letter of Nicolo to Antonio and subsequent letters from Antonio to a third brother Carlo (a very distinguished man in Venetian history) that the narrative of the movements of the two brothers is derived. After Antonio's arrival the two brothers accompanied Zichmni in a victorious attack on what can be clearly shown to be the Shet- land group, although named Eslanda. The narrative, however, fortunately treats at greater length on two much more important subjects ; viz., a visit by Nicolo Zeno to Greenland, which he calls Engrone- land, and the observations of some fishermen in two parts of North America, called respectively Estoti- land and Drogeo, showing the existence at that period, more than a century before the time of Columbus, of the remains of those old Scandinavian colonists men- tioned by Adam of Bremen in the eleventh and Ordericus Vitalis in the twelfth century, and about whom we have learned so much in the present cen- tury from the Danish antiquaries C. C. Rafn and others. The whole story had been written out by Antonio Zeno, but a descendant of his, named Nicolo Zeno, born in 1515, when a boy, not knowing the value of these papers, tore them up, but, some of the letters surviving, he was able from them subse- VI INTRODUCTION. quently to compile the narrative and publish it, as we now have it, in the year 1558. He found also in the palace a map, rotten with age, illustrative of the voyages.