Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Zeno, Nicolo 1405-1405

Navigator; born in Venice about 1340; made a voyage of discovery into the northern seas about 1390. He was wrecked on one of the Faroe Islands, it is supposed, and entered the service of a chief, whom he called Zichmini, as pilot of his fleet. He wrote a letter to his brother Antonio, giving an account of his voyage. Antonio joined him. Nicolo died in Newfoundland about 1391, and Antonio remained in the service of Zichmini ten years longer, and wrote letters to his brother Carlo. Antonio returned to Venice, and died in 1405. From the letters of Nicolo and Antonio a narrative, accompanied by a map, was compiled and published in 1558, by a descendant of Antonio Zeno. It gives an account of a visit made by Nicolo to Greenland, of the colonies there, and of the voyages of fishermen to the island of Estotiland (supposed to have been Newfoundland), and to a great country called Drogeo, conjectured to have been the mainland of America. See Northmen in America.