Norwe.,..,ian. and German sailors as good. In iaaa;. during the wtr with Scotland. we find the English ships, which were sailing for foreign countries, proceeded in strong companies, so as to be

the hetter able to protect themselves against the Scots and pirates.

At some date early in the fourteenth century arose a flourishing trade 1)etween England and Iceland. There are sinall traces of this iu English records, but fortunately the Icelandic chronicles leaxe no possible douht. Thus the ' [slenzkir AnnMen,' under the year 134, record the fact of the news of the black death in England reaching Iceland, adding that two hulnlred thousand people had died of the disease. In la4L the de&th of English sailors at Bergen iu Norway, is mentioned. Such items of news must have arrived hy the boats which came to fish and the ships which came to barter cloth and other English m;mufactures for dried fish. It is possible that earIv intercourse with Iceland may be reflected in Gintldus ('ambrensis' comparatively accurate knowledge of the position of that island. He adds that the people were few but truthful. and that the priests were their kings?

Following out the histo D' of this trade, we find in 1:354 an admiral appointed for the English fleet in the "Boreal," ,,r n,,rthern parts, which may possibly have been intended to l,rotect our fisheries. In lae we hear that there was a bad year in shipwrecks for the Germans, Euglish, and Norwegians, and that many cogs were wrecked on the N,,rwegian coast. In la;. Thord Arnisson was killed by "outlander chapmen." who had c,me ashore, and who were probably l';nglish. a

It is somewhat remarkMile that. after sailing so far as to Icehind. the English sailors and fishermen should not have pushed on across the eompanttively narrow strait which separates Iceland from Greenland. The memory of Greenhind and Winland ealm,,t, at the date when the English appeared. have died out; nnd hence it is probable that English fishermen or adventurers f, lh,wed the leading of the Icelanders. timugh record there is n,me of their doings. There are supposed to he traces -f navigatorsnot more

Nicolas, ' IIitory of the Royal Navy,' ii. . 11 .x.,. firnhlus 'ambreni: 'Top. ilihernica,' Dilinct. u. xiii.; Rolls Series, v.

h.elan,li,' Sagas, R,,]I Series, iv. 4211L: De