Name Prefix:<NPFX> Prince
Name Suffix:<NSFX> of Denmark "the Rich
[inglis family.and Keith .4FBK.ged.FBK.FBK.FBK.FTW]
Torf wandered to the count ry of Greenland. "In 1007 a rich Greenlander,Torfin, determined to emigrate to Vinland, [now New England]. His
followers numbered 60, and he was accompan ied by his wife, Gudrida, the widow of a previous explorer. Five other women were on board, and the
ships were freighted with all kinds of domestic animal s, tools and provisions for a permanent colony. Gudrida had been the first female to
see the new world, having accompanied her former husband the previous year. The Expedition prospered. The natives came in great numbers and
trafficked in furs and produce. Gudrida bore a son, Snorro, the first birth of Eu ropean parentage in America, who is said to have been an
ancestor of the scul ptor Thorwaldson. The family remained three years in
the colony, but ultimate ly returned, and Thorfin settled and died in
Iceland. The widow made a pilgra mage to Rome in her bereavement, and died
in a cloister founded by her son in Iceland. Other chiefs went to
Vinland, but their history throws no further l ight upon the colony. They,
however, discovered land extending far away to th e south-west and
inhabited by natives of different caste, of darker color and more
vigorous frame. The colony perished at last, destroyed probably like th at
of Greenland. Traces of it were found by Jesuit missionaries among the
I ndians Gaspe at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, a tribe which revered the
cros s before the arrival of the missionaries. Pysical constitution and
peculiarit ies of manners and custom are also cited in confirmation of
European descent. Father Charlevoix adds that 'many marks distinguishing
them from other Ameri can Indians go far to make me believe that they are
a colony of Europeans deg enerated into savages through destitution.'"