Navigator; born in
Scandinavia in the tenth century.
In 1002 he selected a crew of thirty men and
[
74]
sailed westward.
He is supposed to have reached what is now the coast of
Rhode Island, and to have wintered near the present site of
Providence.
In the spring of 1003 he sailed southward and westward and anchored near what is supposed to be Cape Alderton.
Here were sighted three canoes containing nine savages, eight of whom were slain.
The ninth escaped, and on the following night brought back a large number of Eskimos, who appeared
to have lived in the tenth century much farther south than in later times.
These natives, after discharging a shower of arrows on the Scandinavians, fled.
During the attack
Thorvald received an arrow wound of which he died.
After burying him at Cape Alderton his crew returned to
Rhode Island, and in 1005 sailed for
Greenland.
