[69] Many have supposed that the skeleton in armor, dug up near Fall River, was a relic of the Northmen, and one of those men killed by the natives in the battle with Karlsefne. But it would be far more reasonable to look for traces of the Northmen among the Indians of Gaspe, who, at an early day, were distinguished for an unusual degree of civilization. Malte Brun tells us that they worshiped the sun, knew the points of the compass, observed the position of some of the stars, and traced maps of their country. Before the French missionaries went among them they worshiped the figure of the Cross, and had a tradition that a venerable person once visited them, and during an epidemic cured many by the use of that symbol. See Malte Brun's _Geography_ (English edition), vol. V, p. 135. Malte Brun's authority is Father Leclerc's _Nouvelle Relation de la Gaspesie_, Paris, 1672.
[70] _The Landnama-bok._ This is probably the most complete record of the kind ever made by any nation. It is of the same general character as the English _Doomsday Book_, but vastly superior in interest and value. It contains the names of three thousand persons and one thousand four hundred places. It gives a correct account of genealogies of the first settlers, with brief notices of their achievements. It was commenced by the celebrated Frode, the Wise, who was born 1067, and died 1148, and was continued by Kalstegg, Styrmer and Thordsen, and completed by Hauk Erlendson, _Lagman_, or Governor of Iceland, who died in the year 1334.
[71] Gunnbiorn appears to have been a Northman who settled in Iceland at an early day. Nothing more is known of him.
[72] Torfæus says that these rocks lie six sea miles out from Geirfuglesker, out from Reikiavek, and twelve miles south of Garde in Greenland, yet they cannot now be found. It is not too much to suppose that they have been sunk by some of those fearful convulsions which have taken place in Iceland; yet it is quite as reasonable to conclude that these rocks were located elsewhere, probably nearer the east coast, which was formerly more accessible than now. In the version of the Account of Greenland, by Ivar Bardason (see _Antiquitates Americanæ_, p. 301), given from a _Faroese Manuscript_, and curiously preserved by Purchas, _His Pilgrimage_, vol. III, p. 518, we read as follows: