Don't know from Prince Madoc, but Madoc Ontario is sixty miles west of here as the land liner rolls...

I said: It is entirely credible that they would have set up expeditions to Newfoundland, Labrador and possibly farther inland. BUT NOT TOLD THE WHOLE WORLD WHERE THEY WERE GETTING THEIR GOODS for obvious reasons. They didn't want the competition here. Logically they might have set up at least seasonal, and possibly semi-permanent settlements to organize their resource-harvesting activities

LEJ replied:
I like this concept, but am still doubtful that such information could have been kept secret. Human nature would seem to dictate that members of a crew who conquered the Atlantic, encountered unknown tribes of peoples, and saw all sorts of plants, animals, and geography that were unknown in their world, would have talked. I am unaware of any pre-Columbian writings in any European culture which speak of this new land, other than the Viking Sagas. Since the Viking settlement occurred ca 1000 AD, why, if the knowledge was widespread, was there not a subsequent rush to colonization?

The last question has already been answered. You can get here via Greenland, with enough luck, navigation skills, and warm clothing, but it ain't a pretty picture.

Before that, I didn't say the knowledge was widespread as such. I'm sure the crews who made the voyage and returned would have talked about it. Doesn't mean it got written down in any enduring form. And bear in mind, we could be talking of not only pre-Columbian but pre-Viking era voyages. Yer late Dark Ages.

Awhile back there was a similar thread where I was referring to Farley Mowat's interesting recent book "The Farfarers". It's his hypothesis of a seafaring people--he calls them Albans-- who, squeezed north and west by the competition of the Celts and Picts, preceded the Vikings into Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland and Labrador in pursuit of walrus. Hypothetical being the keyword, but Mowat makes note of an ethnic group of Newfoundlanders, known there as "Jakatars", who he believes to be the descendants of his Albans.

W-O