Thomas Wentworth Higginson, A book of American explorers

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[5] foot of the sail look towards land.¹ After that, they sailed two days before they saw another land. They asked if Biarni thought this was Greenland. He said he thought it no more Greenland than the first; ‘for the glaciers are very huge, as they say, in Greenland.’ They soon neared the land, and saw that it was flat land, and overgrown with wood.² Then the fair wind fell. Then the sailors said that it seemed prudent to them to land there; but Biarni would not. They thought they needed both wood and water. ‘Of neither are you in want,’ said Biarni; but he got some hard speeches for that from his sailors. He bade them hoist sail, and so they did; and they turned the bows from the land, and sailed out to sea with a west-south wind three days, and saw a third land; but that land was high, mountainous, and covered with glaciers.³ They asked then if Biarni would put ashore there; but he said he would not, ‘for this land seems to me not very promising.’ They did not lower their sails, but held on along this land, and saw that it was an island; but they turned the stern to the land, and sailed seawards with the same fair wind. But the wind rose; and Biarni bade them shorten sail, and not to carry more than their ship and tackle would bear. They sailed now four days, then saw they land the fourth. Then they asked Biarni whether he thought that was Greenland, or not. Biarni answered, ‘That is likest to what is said to me of Greenland; and we will put ashore.’ So they did, and landed under a certain ness⁴ at evening of the day. And there was a boat at the ness, and