Prince Henry Sinclair Part V

PRINCE HENRY SINCLAIR PART V

We left in the last posting with Prince Sinclair just arriving at the castle on the hill at Cross, Nova Scotia. The type of construction of the walls were of a type found in Norway and northern Scotland pre 13^th century. Looking down the Gaspereau River from on the hill top he had a clear view towards another island in the bay of Fundy about 2 miles off the mouth of the Gaspereau River.

The Stuart dynasty ruled Scotland from 1371 to 1603. In that time 9 Stewart Monarchs ruled Scotland.

The first family to arrive in Scotland from Normandy/Brittany Sir Walter Fitz Alan was the High Steward of Scotland. His decedents became the House of Stewart, later the name was changed to Stuart. Which were descended from Robert the Bruce's grandson Robert II

Sir Walter Fitz Alan was the son of SirAlan Fitz Fladd who was Baron of Oswasty in Shopshire. Baron Fladd was a son of Sir Alain who was a a crusader with Sir Henri Sinclair on the first crusade with Godfri de Boulion. Sir Alain was also in the greater Sinclair family as a descendant of Duke Lo Lo of Normandy through his son William Longsword and his grandson Richard I, Richards daughter married the Count of Brittany.

Sir Alain was of the Priory of Sion who was established at Mount of Olives in Jerusalem and elected Godfri de Boulion the first christen King of Jerusalem. Sir Alain was also of the Rex Deus.

The Stuart's had access to a great deal of gold which they funded their family dynasty. They were descended from Norse explorers who had been coming to the lands to the west for the last 500 years at least. The Stuarts established a settlement on a mid peninsular hilltop called Norumbega. They panned gold from the bed of the mineral rich Gold River and Norumbega also served as a refuge for Stuart family princes.

Jean Allefonsea, a french explorer who in 1548 was looking for the lost city of Norumbega, reported that he had coasted south from Newfoundland, and had discovered a great river with many islands, (an excellent description of Mahone Bay) entering it from the sea. The river is more than 40 leagues wide at its entrance. It retains its width some 30 or 40 leagues. The islands extend into the sea some 10 leagues. 15 leagues up the river is a village called Norembega, with clever inhabitants who trade in furs of all types, the town folk dress in furs of sable....the people use many words that sound like Latin. They worship the sun. They are tall and handsome. The land of Norumbega lie high and is well situated.

This is where Prince Henry was standing, The Prince established a settlement at this site on the foundations of a previous Norse colony. Nothing is recorded as to the condition of the settlement but it was believed that the Stuarts were still using this site, and they were related to Prince Henry and were also of the Rex Deus and Priory of Sion.

Prince Henry left half of his crew with instructions to return to the island in Mahone Bay and to seed it with oak acorns. After two days of rest and exploration, Prince Henry started down the river to the Bay of Fundy and the island off the mouth of the Gaspereau River and after a day of exploration set about seeding this island also with oak acorns.

The Vikings were primarily coastal navigators, they knew how to read the prevailing winds, they knew the different kinds of seaweed common in different continents and seas, they were aware of the seabirds and what direction they were flying, always towards land. They were aware of the presence of whales and other sea animals.

When they were out of sight of land they would release captured sea birds and ravens and follow them. They would drop a sounding plumb and look at the type and color of sea floor they were crossing over. They would observe the sunrise, and know that was east. At noon they would measure the angle of the sun to determine the exact time of noon, and the direction of north and south.

The numbers three and thirty three are occult numbers. They are part of “Sacred Geometry”. The calculation of speed and location (ETA) were once considered the highest form of Sacred Geometry. Without the geometry of the three sided triangle establishing ones location and distance traveled on a map or Triangulation would have been impossible.

To do this you draw a line on a chart and measure the course in degrees of the 360 degrees of the compass rose. But in the middle ages they didn't so much use degrees as points of the compass which had 18 points. The compass was invented by the Chinese a hundred and fifty years before being used in Europe.

There are question as weather Prince Henry was using a Compass or not. Some people feel that it wasn't being used until around 1410. Unlike the compasses used today they used a dry compass It was invented, but not in common use.

The dry compass had a magnetized needle attached to a compass rose and was placed in a box on a pivot with a glass cover in line with the keel. When the direction of the ship changed the needle would move wildly. For those of you who have never been on a boat or small ship they are in constant motion they never hold still, because of this holding a stead compass course is next to impossible.

The helmsman was actually going in a direction not so much holding a compass course. He would be going west or southwest or north north west. When your offshore floating down from Newfoundland in fog and rolling waves in the Labrador current it is quite easy to miss your river and quite easy to miss your mark by quite some distance.

This is why there are two oak islands, frequently you want to fetch Mahone Bay but because of wind current and waves you may end up approaching the peninsula through the Bay of Fundy. You can anchor off either one of the Oak Islands, launch a row boat and get to the Castle on the Hill from either the Gold River or the Gaspereau River.

Then at last we discovered. Land as the sea ran high and we did not know what country it was, we were afraid at first to approach it. But by God's blessing, the winds lulled, and then a great calm came on. Some of the crew then pulled ashore and then soon returned with joyful news. They had found an excellent country and a still better harbor. So we brought our barks and our boats in to land, and we entered a excellent harbor. We saw in the distance a great mountain that poured out smoke.

Zeno Narrative

Admiral Antonio Zeno goes on to describe a landing party of 100 Templar's sent to the mountain to seek out any inhabitants. Those who remained on the ship retrieved wood from the island , replenished their water supply. They also caught a considerable quantity of fish and waterfowl, which were found in large quantities.

After eight days the 100 Templar's returned and reported that they had been through the island and up to the mountain. The smoke naturally came from a great fire in the bottom of the hill. There was a spring giving out certain matter like pitch, which ran into the sea. There were a great multitude of people half wild and living in caves. These people were small in stature and very timid; for as soon as they saw our people, they fled into their holes. Our men also reported that there was a very large river near by and a very good and safe harbor.

Zeno Narrative

This was the first description by Europeans of Stellarton Nova Scotia, in the Pictou area of Nova Scotia. This also was close to Cape D' Or. On the Zeno Map of the North there are symbol's on the map showing two settlements, one in Pictou and the other at the Castle on the Hill in central Nova Scotia.

From both of these two settlements they could maintain look outs, to survey the Bay of Fundy and the gulf of St Lawrence. They were close to fishing and an ample supply of waterfowl and with the many ancient mines in the area they already had a form of lodging set up for the fast approaching winter.

It is believed based on Micmac legends that Prince Henry divided his time between these locations during the winter. In Pictou he built a ship over the winter and continued frequent exploration of the Peninsula.

We know that from descriptions of the Oak Island treasure hunters that there are two wooden chests in the very bottom of the pit and that they were built extremely sturdy and by what description we can get from boring studies and video from cameras inserted into the sink hole the chests are beneath the area of the oak platforms which were associated with pirate activity of the 1500's and early 1600's.

The spruce wood that is carbon dated to 835 AD and 1135 AD would also predate Prince Henry's voyage but that doesn't necessarily mean that it wasn't put there by earlier travelers perhaps Norse Stuart voyagers. The vikings were defiantly in the area somebody was operating the ancient gold mines and for Prince Henry to have found the Sink Hole with out prior knowledge is just a little suspicious, but for him to plant oak trees as sign posts makes perfect sense.

The chests were made out of planks that were 8 in thick, just as a point of reference the supports for the average home deck today are 4 in treated studs. There were 22 in of space in these chests, the length of these chests was unknown but based on the thickness of the chests I would tend to think they were quite long.

I imagine that the chests were also covered in a grease to act as a sealer against the elements. The boring studies showed that there were metal items in the chest and also parchments. Parchments are not the normal type of treasure that pirates would carry.

Part of the Holy Grail was said to be knowledge lost during the great flood. Sacred knowledge going back to the time of Moses. This knowledge would have been expressed on parchments.

Templar's are also well known builders. In their building they used “ Sacred Geometry”, They had built two castles in the Shetlands not to mention 13 ships for his fleet. They would have had the knowledge and skills to transport such heavy chests and rig a hoist to lower them 200 feet into the pit.

Of course this is my opinion and not fact. But this makes sense. I don't believe this is all of the Holy Grail because they wouldn't normally leave all their wealth in one spot. This voyage to the new lands across the Atlantic was to escape the oppression of the church, it was the new Jerusalem.

This meant they probably brought all the necessities they would need to establish a settlement, that meant women. While Prince Henry was exploring the peninsula his crew were busy teaching the Micmac's how to make fishing nets and the use of them in fishing. They were also involved in building a “stone canoe” which is the term the Micmac used to describe the ship that they were building to return home in.

They called it stone because they laid a deck that they could walk on and it was the strangest canoe the Micmac had ever seen!

Prince Henry gave a farewell banquet and invited all to attend;

By the great lake Minas shore

on the silver waters edge.

And when the feast was over,

entered his great canoe and

sailed away over the water,

the shiny waves of the Minas.

When Prince Henry departed leaving his settlers behind, he probably left the Bay of Fundy and his first stop may very well have been at Desert Island Maine. In the area of North East Harbor Maine. Prince Henry had brought a select few Micmac's with him to serve as guide's and to convey his peaceful intentions to others of the greater Algonquin nation. They worked their way down the Penobscot Bay of Maine. Down past the area of Camden Maine, taking their time exploring as they went.

They rounded Cape Ann exploring as they went at times they left effigies of their vessels in shore side rocks. They followed around Boston Bay with a short excursion up The Charles River in what is now Boston.

They saw a high hill, inland in the far off distance and a group left the ship with a small vessel to take the Merrimack River towards the high hill known as Prospect Hill. Sir James Gunn ,a life long friend of Prince Henry, and a Knight Templar, took part in the expedition, but the ascent up the hill proved to much for the loyal knight and he died in his sleep while camped on the hilltop.

For his life long service to clan Sinclair Prince Henry ordered an effigy carved into a rock which became known to history as the WESTFORD KNIGHT. From on top of the Hill they were able to see the countryside for 50 miles in all directions.

They came down to what is now Plymouth and continued around Cape Cod exploring as they traveled making copious notes and making maps as they progressed.

They went to Martha Vineyard to a settlement that the Vikings had established as a settlement after leaving Greenland in 999 AD. From this settlement they traveled up Narraganset Bay.

When the exploratory expedition returned to the ship they retreated back down the bay to the area of Newport where they established a winter camp.

In 1524 when Verrazano arrived in Narragansett Bay he described a European looking tower with local inhabitants that were quite interesting. He described them as the most beautiful and civilized people he had met on his expedition; they excelled his own people in size and he called them “Euro-Amer-Norse”.

When the first settlers arrived in 1600's, they described a group of blue eyed fair haired natives that they called the “banished Indians”, they were the descendants of the group of people that Verrazano described.

On the Mercator world map published in 1569 a tower was clearly identified in New England. The tower known as the “Newport Tower”, is described as a circular round rubble stone structure that was thought to be a combination of a church and an watch tower.

The structure was built in Norse-Romanesque style, inspired by the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The structure was a combination of Templar temples, round cathedrals of Scandinavia, and traditions of Norse Scottish builders from where the builders came.

The Architectural features are those found in construction between 1150 and 1400. This structure was pre planned this was not a spontaneous idea. It was built with Sacred Geometry. The masons were completely familiar with the construction materials available on site.

The structure was aligned to the east and each of the eight supporting pillars were on a cardinal point of the Templar's. It was not constructed using a compass, the north pillar is aligned within three degrees of the north star, 600 years later.

The tool marks are of tools made before 1400. These marks are unique and not seen in colonial structures. The arch and lintel designs are of those found in Orkney, Shetland, and the round churches of Scandinavia before 1400.

There isn't any architectural comparable structure in America. It is similar architecturally to Great Heeding Church in Denmark,, St. Olaf's church at Tonsberg Norway, The Church of St. Mikael in Scheswig in Denmark, and Vardsberg Church in Ostergotland Sweden.

To build this church in the early 1400's, five thousand cubic feet of soil had to be excavated, and later refilled. The building required more than a million pounds of stone, sand and lime.

In the spring Prince Henry left his Templar building crew on site and departed for the Orkney Islands. He brought several variety's of plants back with him which are indigenous only to North America

. When Henry's grandson William began construction of Roslyn Chapel which was started 1448 and completed 1482, ten years before Columbus voyaged to the New World, William incorporated depictions of maize, aloe cactus, sassandras, albidium, trillum, grandilorum and quercus nigra all of these plants were completely unheard of in Europe at this time. Henry returned in the summer of 1400 and was said to have died by an incursion of either England or the Hanseatic League that same year. However there isn't a record of his burial. Neither in Norway or in Scottish documents.

He wasn't buried in the Orkney’s or the Castle at Roslyn. How could a person who is a Royal and an extremely important person in both Scotland and Norway fail to have been recorded in state documents?

Henry's son Henry II was never formally installed as Earl of Orkney because he was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1405. He was released from time to time to attend to family business, as long as a prominent family member took his place. As a result of his prolonged imprisonment he didn't leave much of a trace upon history.

For Henry II not to have been formally recognized as the Earl of Orkney is significant, normally the Crown would have had to address this immediately. Why didn't Norway address this matter immediately?

The Treaty of  kalmar was signed in 1397. Bishop Rens of Orkney represented Henry in his absence. This treaty unified Norway, Denmark and Sweden under one crown. Could Henry be absent with the Queen's full blessing, was he engaged in a mission of exploration to extend the Queen's sovereignty to the New World?

To suggest that as meticulous and organized as Henry was it would be unbelievable that he didn't leave instructions who would succeed him in the event of his death.

The King of Scotland was becoming increasingly concerned over Henry's rise in power and wealth. There is an unproven theory that the Prince could have been killed in a skirmish with the King of Scotland.

I am more inclined to go with the theory that Henry gave Antonio permission to return to Venice where he died of natural causes a year later. I suggest that Henry returned to North America and assimilated in with the Micmac Indians. Henry’s beliefs and values were close to those of the Micmac’s.

Templar ideals stress communal living, service to others, and the elevation of the communities which they join. On his journey's to America he had found a community that not only preached these ideas but lived them also.

It is not beyond the realm of possibilities that the attractions of this way of life outweighed the so called good life in Europe! Living in the arrogant, dangerous, intolerant world of mid-evil Europe!

There is perhaps a clue in Indian legends that lends credence to this theory. When the Narragansett Indians were asked who built the Newport Tower, they replied that one of their ancestors built it as a Temple. They described the fire haired green eyed people as their ancestors.

The Indians didn't have Temples. If Prince Henry did build this structure as a temple it would be significant, perhaps an attempt to merge two beliefs into one!

There are credible reports of “white skinned” Indians in Nova Scotia, Narargansett Bay and also the Mayan's were confused when Cortez arrived in the Yucatan Peninsula as to recognize him as Quetzalcoatl the feathered Serpent god, or with the green eyed fair haired god that had treated them so well a hundred years ago!

Prince Henry Part III

Prince Henry Sinclair with Admiral Antonio Zeno as his fleet commander set sail from the Shetland islands in 1398. Antonio had been in his employ for the last seven years ever since he arrived at the request of his late brother Nicolo. Nicolo was ship wrecked and saved by Prince Sinclair. The Zeno's have been in his service ever since, for the last eight years.

During this time they were preparing to explore the lands to the west, which was primarily based on Prince Sinclair getting his affairs in order.

Frequent conflicts with England, fighting pirates in the Shetlands and re enforcing Norway as the sovereign power in the islands, that means collecting taxes from a group of people that were fiercely independent, of the viking stock and for generations hadn't paid taxes at all.

The cannon was a new concept at this time and had with in the last few years been used in naval conflict. The first engagement that the cannon was used shipboard was at the battle of Chioggia for the freedom of Venice. Antonio's older brother Carlo the”Lion” of Venice was credited as the “ Savior of Venice” because after a long siege of Venice he had arrived with his fleet from a routine patrol in the eastern Mediterranean and was able to attack the Genonese with his newly refined cannons.

They had reforged the cannon for ship board use. Antonio was at that time a Galley Captain in the Navy of Venice, and had personal experience with the cannon in naval conflict. He transferred this knowledge to the Templar Navy of Prince Henry Sinclair. For the prior seven years before leaving on the Trans-Atlantic voyage to the New World, Antonio used the cannon to fight piracy in the Shetland Islands, and Norway's enemy the Hanseatic League in the Baltic.

A fisherman who was lost at sea for twenty years, returned with a very interesting story of lands to the west but history doesn't give the legend credit so I won't go into the story at this point only to say the fisherman was going to accompany the fleet as a “guide” but died three days before the fleet was to leave in the early spring of 1398.

In  late March the fleet departed the Shetland Islands from the Island of Fer to the Faroes Islands which lay half way between Scotland and Iceland in the Norwegian Sea. They rested for seven days and fished and took on water to replenish their supplies.

From the Zeno Narratives: "Departing thence, we arrived on the 1^st of April at the island of Ilofe;( Iceland) and as the wind was full in our favor, pushed on. But not long thereafter, when on the ocean, there arose so great a storm that for eight days we were in toil, and driven we do not know where, and a considerable number of vessels were lost to each other. At length when the storm abated, we gathered together the scattered vessels, and sailing with a prosperous wind, we sighted land on the west."

"Steering straight for it, we reached a safe and quiet harbor, in which we encountered a very large group of armed people, who came running, prepared to defend the island. Sinclair now caused his men to make peace to them, and they sent ten men to us could speak ten languages, but we could understand none of them, except one who was from Iceland.

Being brought before our Prince and asked what was the name of the island, and what people inhabited it, and who was the governor, he answered that the island was called Icari, and all the Kings there were called Icari, after the first King, who was the son of Daedalus, King of Scotland.

Daedalus conquered that island, left his son there for King, and gave them those laws that they retain to the present time. After that, when going to sail farther, he was drowned in a great tempest; and in memory of his death that the sea was called to this day the Icarian sea, and the Kings of the island were called Icari. They were content with the state which God had given them, and would neither alter their laws nor admit any strangers.

They therefore requested our prince not to attempt to interfere with their laws, which they had received from that King of worthy memory, and observed up to the present time. That the attempt would lead to his own destruction, for they were all prepared to die rather than relax in any way the use of those laws. Nevertheless, that we might not think that they all together refused intercourse with other men, they ended by saying that they would willingly receive one of our people, and give him an honorable position among them, if only for the sake of learning our language and gaining information as to our customs , in the same way as they had already received those ten other persons from ten different countries, who had come into their island.

To all this our Prince made no reply, beyond inquiring where there was a good harbor, and making signs that he intended to depart.

Accordingly, sailing round about the island, he put in with all his fleet in full sail, into a harbor which he found on the eastern side. The sailors went ashore to take in wood and water, which they did as quickly as they could, for fear that they might be attacked by the islanders and not without reason, for the inhabitants made signals to their neighbors by fire and smoke, and taking their arms, the others coming to their aid, they all came running down to the seaside upon our men with bows and arrows, so that many were slain and several wounded. Although we made signs of peace to them, it was of no use, for their rage increased more and more, as though they were fighting for their own very existence.

Being thus compelled to depart, we sailed along in a great circuit, about the island, being always followed on the hilltops and along the seacoasts by a great number by a great number of armed men. At length doubling the north cape of the island, we came upon many shoals, amongst which we were for ten days in continual danger of loosing our whole fleet, but fortunately all that time the weather was very fine. All the way until we came to the east cape we saw the inhabitants still on the hill tops and by the sea coasts, howling and shooting at us from a distance to show their animosity towards us.

We therefore resolved to put into some safe harbor, and see if we might once again speak to the Icelander; but we failed in our object; for the people more like beasts then men. Stood constantly prepared to beat us back if we should attempt to come on land. Wherefore, Sinclair, seeing he could do nothing, and if we were to preserve in this attempt, the fleet would fall short of provisions, took this departure with fair winds and sailed six days to the westwards; but the winds afterward shifting to the southwest, and the sea becoming rough, we sailed four days with the winds aft, and finally sighted land.

As the seas ran high we did not know what country it was, we were afraid at first to approach it, but by God's blessing the winds lulled, and there they came on a great calm. Some of the crew pulled ashore and soon returned with great joy with news that they found an excellent country and a still better harbor. We brought our barks and our boats to land, and on entering a excellent harbor. We saw in the distance a great hill that pored forth smoke, which gave us hope that we might find some inhabitants in the island. Neither would Sinclair rest, though it was a great way off, without sending  100 soldiers to explore the country, bring us an account of what sort of people the inhabitants were.

Meanwhile, we took in a store of wood and water, and caught a considerable quantity of fish and sea fowl. We also found such an abundance of bird eggs that our men, who were half famished, ate of them to repletion.

While we were at anchor there, the month of June came in, and the air in the island was mild and pleasant beyond description; but as we saw nobody, but as we saw nobody, we began to suspect that this pleasant place was uninhabited. To the harbor we gave the name of Trin, and the headland that stretched out into the sea we called Cape Trin.

After eight days the 100 soldiers returned, and brought word that they had been through the island and up to the hill, and the smoke was a natural thing proceeding from a great fire in the bottom of the hill, and there was a spring from which issued a certain substance like pitch, which ran into the sea, and thereabouts dewlt a great many people half wild, and living in caves. They were of small stature and very timid. They reported also that there was a large river, and a very good and safe harbor.

When Sinclair heard this, and noticed the wholesome and pure atmosphere, and fertile soil, good rivers, and many other convinces, he conceived the idea of founding a settlement. But his people, fatigued, began to murmur, and say they wished to return to their homes for the winter was not far off, and if they allowed it to once set in, they would not get away before the following summer. He therefore retained only boats propelled by oars, and such of his people as were willing to stay, and sent the rest away in ships, appointing me against my will, to be their Captain.

Having no choice, therefore, I departed and sailed 20 days to eastwards, without sight of any land; Then, turning my course to the southeast, in 5 days I sighted on land, and found myself on the island of Neome, and knowing the country, I perceived I was past Iceland; and as the inhabitants were subject to Sinclair, I took in fresh stores and sailed 3 days to Frislanda, where the people, who thought they had lost their Prince, in consequence of his long absence on the voyage we had made, received us with hearty welcome....

Concerning those things you desire to know of me, as to the people and there habits, the animals, and the countries adjourning, I have written about it all in a separate book, which please God I shall bring with me. In it I have described the country, the monstrous fishes, the customs and laws of Frislanda, of Iceland, of Shetland, the Kingdom of Norway, Estotiland and Drogio; and lastly I have written....the life and exploits of Sinclair, a Prince as worthy of immortal memory as any that lived, for his remarkable goodness.”

And this is what the Zeno narratives say about the Trans-Atlantic voyage. The Narrative was copied verbatim so the punctuation and run on sentences are driving my word perfect into overtime. This was written in the first person of Antonio, Nicolo died some years earlier.

Prince Henry Sinclair Part II

With as many titles as Prince Henry holds you might imagine he was a master of time management and that I am sure he was. But he also needed to take “business trips” sometimes for extended periods of time. He made regular excursion to Roslyn Castle, in addition to the rest of the five hundred properties that were contained in his estate.

In 1384 he visited Roslyn to arrange a donation of land for his cousin, Sir James St. Clair, Baron of Longformacus, the deed of donation was witnessed by five Nobles During 1385 he was also away from the islands for a prolonged period of time. A large English army under King Richard II marched on Scotland.

Prince Henry spent several weeks in this campaign. The Templar's under his command defended Scotland and followed the English into the northern provinces of England and laid siege to Carlisle Castle.

This defense of Scotland prevented Henry from returning to Orkney for several month's. When he did return he continued with his responsibilities to Queen Margaret, maintaining law and order among the rough and tumble islanders, arranging trading relationships managing infrastructure projects and making occasional excursions to his properties to the south.

Queen Margaret was ruler of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Her infant son was King of these kingdoms but died as a child in 1389. She realized that her Royal subjects, mainly the men would rather be ruled by a man so she adopted a 5/yo boy named Eric of Pomerania as her heir. Then she persuaded the council of Electors, which Prince Henry was a member of, to recognize Eric as rightful heir to the three Kingdoms, which in effect left her in charge of the Kingdoms until he came of age.

The charter proclaiming Eric as heir to the throne of the three Kingdoms and was signed by Vinold, Archbishop of Drontheim; Prince Henry Sinclair Earl of Orkney; various bishops and nobles of the council. Prince Henry was at Helsingborg in Sweden on July 9, 1389 when Eric was acclaimed as King of the country and was also present in September in 1389 when Eric was crowned King of Norway.

Nicolo Zeno was a younger brother of Carlo Zeno who Prince Henry had met on the crusades, and earlier in Denmark in 1364. Nicolo was almost as skilled and experienced as his brother. He was a Captain of a galley in a war against the Genoese. He had served at one time as the Venetian Ambassador to Ferra in northern Italy.

His personal wealth that he used to build and outfit a ship for voyages to the northern waters, was such that he was one of the riches men in Venice. At all times he kept his family informed of his progress through a series of letters to Antonio and Carlo.

Two hundred and fifty years later a descendant edited and published and these became known to history as the Zeno Narrative. Nicolo describes passing through the straits of Gibraltar and on to Flanders and England. He continues with an account of a terrible storm that resulted in a shipwreck that I described at the Island of Fer.

Prince Henry is described as lord of the islands of Frislanda and Portlanda, which is the ancient Italian version of Fer Island, Portlanda being Orkney. He further describes Prince Henry as war like, valiant, especially famous in naval exploits, and a “great lord who ruled certain islands called Portlanda which laid to the south of Frislanda”

Besides being described as lord of these islands he goes further and describes him as Duke of certain estates in Scotland, Prince Henry invited Nicolo and his crew to serve aboard his fleet, and they shared navigational techniques and knowledge.

Nicolo and his crew served in Prince Henry's Navy in the Shetland Islands for a period of time, the Prince showed his gratitude by granting Captain Nicolo Zeno the honor of Knighthood and rewarded his crew with handsome gifts.

As part of the Zeno Narratives there is a letter from Nicolo to his brother Antonio, requesting him to commission another ship to come out to the islands and join in the expedition.

Since Antonio had as great a desire as his brother to see the world and it's various

nations, and to make himself a great name, he bought a ship and directed his course that way.

After a long voyage full of many dangers, he joined Sir Nicolo in safety and was received by him

with great gladness, as his brother not only by blood, but also in courage.

In 1392 Queen Margaret contacted King Richard II of England to arrange safe passage for Prince Henry Sinclair Earl of Orkney and Barron of Roslyn to travel to London to lease three warships to make good the deficiency in the Norwegian fleet.

On March 10^th, 1392 safe -conduct was granted to Prince Henry to enter England with a part of no more than twenty-four people. Anyone who was a fugitive from English law was excluded from the safe-conduct. This was good until September 29 of 1392.

It is safe to assume that Prince Henry brought some of his Italian sailors with him especially in light of what was about to take place. It is reasonable to assume that the Zeno brothers were compiling a list of nautical supplies needed for a trans-Atlantic voyage, while Prince Henry took care of state business for the crown.

After Prince Henry had the Shetland Islands operating to his standards he set a bought building a second Castle, perhaps fortress is more appropriate description. The foundation can still be seen to-day . near Lerwick Scotland in Bressay bay.

Captain Nicolo Zeno remained at Bressay and the following year, 1393, equipped three barks for a voyage of exploration.

He sailed north in July of 1393 and set foot on Greenland: here he found a monastery of the preaching friars. A church dedicated to St. Thomas by a hill which vomited fire like Vesuvius and Etna. There is a spring of hot water there which is used to heat both the church of the monastery and the chambers of the friars.

The water comes up into the kitchen so boiling hot that they use no other fire to cook their food. They also put their bread into brass pots without any water, and it is baked as if it were in a hot oven.

Dr William H Hobbs a geologist at the University of Michigan states that evidence of everything written in the Zeno Narrative has been discovered in that area of Greenland. As a result of the severe weather Nicolo encountered in Greenland He became ill and returned to the Shetland Islands where he died. His brother Antonio assumed his responsibility as Admiral of the Fleet and also inherited Nicolo's wealth and honor's.

The account of Nicolo's survey of Greenland and his death in the Shetland Islands were confirmed by Marco Barbaro in his work Discendenz Patrizie published in 1536, twenty -two years before the Zeno Narratives were published

Prior to the infamous voyage of 1398 Antonio Zeno writes a letter to Carlo's stating;

...this noble man (Prince Henry) is now determined to send me out with a

fleet towards these parts. There are so many that want to join on the

expedition on account of the novelty and the strangeness of the thing,

that I think we shall be very well equipped, without any public expense

at all

a descendant wrote two hundred years later: “ he set sail with many vessels and men, but he was not to be the commander, as he expected to be.” The Prince was in charge and three days before their scheduled departure the fisherman (guide) died. Despite that, however the expedition went ahead.

Prince Henry Sinclair Part I

PRINCE HENRY 

Baron of Roslyn, Baron of Pentland Moor, Baron of Cousland, Baron of Cardain Saintclair, Lord of Shetland, Earl of Orkney, under the King of Norway, Lord chief Justice of Scotland, Lord Admiral of the High Seas, great protector, keen defender of Prince of Scotland, Knight of the Order of St. Michael, Grand Master Scottish Rite Knight Templar, member Priory of Sion, of the Rex Deus, grandfather of William Sinclair 1^st Earl of Caithness builder of Roslyn Chapel, he was age 13 at this time around 1358.

In 1363, five years after ascending to the barony of Roslyn, Prince Henry was appointed Ambassador to Denmark. He moved to Copenhagen for two years. One of his first duties was to attend the wedding of Princess Margaret I of Denmark to King Haakon of Norway. This began a close friendship of Henry and Margaret I that would last until his death.

KNUTSON EXPEDITION

In 1354 Norwegian King Magnus dispatches Sir Paul Knutson to Greenland to check on the welfare of the village.

...we desire to make known to you Sir Paul Knutson that you are to select men that shall go in the koru (Royal Trading Vessel) ...from among my bodyguards and also from the retainers of other men, whom you wish to take on the voyage, and that Commandant Paul Knutson will have full authority to select such men that he feels are best qualified to accompany him, whether officers or men....

The objective of the expedition was to bring apostates back to Christianity.  They first departed for Greenland, where they found the village abandoned and then their fleet split into three groups. The first to remain between the St. Lawrence River and Hudson Bay.  The second group penetrated deep inland, and the third group, stayed at Leif Erickson’s original colony at Norembega.

In 1898 a Minnesota farmer was clearing trees on his farm when he discovered a rune stone with an inscription on it which has become known to history as the Kensington Stone. Hjalmar Holand translated the inscription

....We are eight Swedes and twenty two Norwegians on an exploratory journey from Vinland round about west. We had camp by a lake with two skerries one day’s journey north from the stone. We were out and fished one day.  After we came home we found ten of our men red with blood and dead.  Ave Virgo Maria save us from evil!  We have ten men by the sea to look after our ships. Fourteen day’s journey from this island in the year of our lord 1362.

According to Professors storm and Nansen who claim there is conclusive evidence that the remnants of the expedition returned to Norway in 1364.

Hearing of the Knutson expedition was one of many events in the young Prince's life that would be formidable. A bought this time he was married to Princess Florentina of Denmark, Queen Margaret younger sister. It was in 1364 that he made the acquaintance of Admiral Carlo Zeno of Venice, who was later to become savior of Chioggia.

Admiral Zeno was touring the northern cities with King Peter of Cyprus. In order to promote a new crusade. They had two objectives, two raise funds for this very expensive undertaking and to recruit crusaders.

Henry was recruited by King Peter of Cyprus in 1365. The Sinclair's had given refuge to persecuted Knight Templar's during the purge in 1307. They formed into the army and navy of Scotland and they and their descendants formed into the Scottish Rite of Knight Templar’s under the patronage of the Clan Sinclair.

Henry departed on the crusade in 1366 leaving his new bride with her family in Denmark. He departed for Cyprus as part of a fleet with 300 ships, they moved on to Egypt where they pillaged Alexandria and from then on he was frequently called the Holy Henry Sinclair.

When he was away on the crusade his wife Princess Florentina died before reaching puberty. Upon his return he married his childhood sweetheart, Janet Halyburton, the daughter of Lord Dirleton. They had three children Henry II, John, and a daughter Elizabeth.

To strength his position and as is custom within the Rex Deus he arranged marriages for his children. Henry II married Egida Douglas, the granddaughter of King Robert II of Scotland. John married the daughter of King of Denmark, Ingeborg. Elizabeth married the Justice John Drummond of Cargill.

Henry had a direct lineal decent from Turf Einar, Earl of Orkney, and natural son of Rognvald the Mighty. He received the Earldom of Orkney on Aug 2^nd 1379. Prince Henry had his work cutout for him in the Orkney and Shetland Island where corruption was running rampant, the church was corrupt and stealing from the general populace and from the tax coffers, it was a haven for piracy, and tax's weren't being collected.

Henry built a Castle at Kirkwall, and brought law and order to the islands. The islanders were of Viking stock rough and tough. They included the families of Bernstane,Clouston, Cragy, Cromarty, Peterson,Petrie, Heddle, Halcro, Ireland, Kirkness, Linflater, Ness, Paplay, Rendall, Scarth,Scalter and Yenstay. All card carrying members of Clan Sinclair.

Hatred of the church was intense for years they had been illegally collecting rent, taxes, seizure of lands, every thing he did to oppose the bishop won popularity with the people. Then in 1382 there was a uprising and the bishop was killed by his flock. The bishop was a Scott. The flock were Norse. Henry consolidated his power restored the stolen lands to their rightful owners. The Avigon Pope put a proper Norse Bishop in the church, Robert Sinclair.

The Orkney and Shetlands each supported a population of 25,000. They were now a prosperous chain of islands. They exported large quantities of fish, pork, sheep and hides to Scotland, and the Hanseatic merchants. They imported timber, flax, pitch, salt, wax and pewter. The prosperity of the island ensured that the taxes were high.

Under Prince Henry's control the island were the most prosperous in this period. Prince Henry started to build a fleet to increase his control over the rest of the island chain. He imported pine and oak from his estate of Roslyn, and built a fleet of thirteen seaworthy ships. He built two galleys, undecked ship powered by oars, one long decked battleship and ten decked barks.

In 1390 when Prince Henry was at the Island of Fer, negotiating trade agreements, all the peoples arose went for their weapons and immediately departed for the coast where a ship had run aground on the rocky coast.

The inhabitants were not adverse to making a profit on the misfortune of others. They practiced a form of piracy called wreckers. Any cargo that washed up on shore was considered fair game any survivors paid with their lives.

Henry noticed that the mast had snapped probably on impact and the crew were hanging on to the rigging afraid to swim to the shore which was lined with murderous pirates. Prince Henry was able to disperse the pirates with his Templar crew and was able to make lines fast and rigged to the shipwreck.

Henry was able to rescue the crew and was able to communicate with the universal christen language, Latin. They came from Venice and the captains name was Nicolo Zeno!

Nicolo Zeno was the younger brother of the savior of Chioggia, Carlo Zeno, who Henry was on the crusade with and had met while in Denmark.

Henry knew that the Venetians made annual trips to Flanders and England but didn't usually venture further north because of the Hanseatic League who violently protected their turf. Henry also new that the Venetian trading pattern were changing because of the increasing pressure from the Turks in the eastern Mediterranean and continual conflict with the Genoese.

Carlo Zeno was seeking to increase trade with Scandinavia because of the influx of fish and furs from the lands to the west that were flowing into Norway. Carlo was in Norway when news of the Knutson expedition reached Norway. He was privy to information that arrived from Nicholas Lynn and was being dispatched from Norway to Rome. Carlo was very aware of the possibility of trade with the New World.

Venice needed to increase their trade and circumvent the Hanseatic League. Both Carlo and Henry were of the Rex Deus, they both met in Norway and were exposed to the possibility of trade with the New world. Because of their brotherhood in the Rex Deus, they were steeped in the Templar tradition of secrecy based on trust in the brotherhood which would form the basis of an excellent partnership.

They were also acutely aware that persecution and repression was a fact of life in European Christendom. The churches constant search for heresy. After the genocide of the Cathars, the arrest and torture of the Templar's, no one was truly save anywhere in Europe.

From the Rex Deus perspective, their was a need for a northern trading route, out of the reach of the Hanseatic League, and the reaches of the church, somewhere men of talent could prosper and practice their true beliefs in safety without fearing for their lives.

Henry would use his power, his money, his ships, with the Zeno's knowledge of the sea's and navigation. They would use the islands as stepping stones to reach the new New World ! They would go from the Orkney’s to Iceland, to Greenland. From Greenland they had several options, Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, or strait down to Martha's Vineyard. All of which were explored and traveled to for the last five hundred years by the Vikings.

Ancient Charts Part I

The difficult part of medieval navigation was establishing Longitude. It required measuring time with great accuracy. Time pieces that were accurate enough to provide accurate time didn't arrive until the eighteenth century. There wasn't anyone in this time period that could have produced such accurate charts as these. Dr. Norgenskold analyzed hundreds of these portolans in the late 1800 and in 1890 declared that all of these were copies of just one chart!

In the 1950’s Professor Charles Hapgood reviewed Dr. Nordenskold work from the 1890's and stated he would review the work if the United States Air Force Strategic Air

Command (SAC) the(8th Reconnaissance Technical Squadron) would confirm his work. Dr. Hapgood confirmed that all the copies came from one source

There have been found two amazing maps that lead scholars to believe that the Templar’s had accurate charts of just not the Mediterranean but also of the Americas, Africa, the Caribbean and middle America. In 1860 the Hadji Ahmed map was discovered in Lebanon. In 1929 the Piri Re'is map was discovered in the old Imperial Palace in Constantinople.

In 1559 in Damascus a Geographer, by the name of Hadji Ahmed, drew a chart which is based more on art than science. It depicts the entire world that is typical of Arab chart work of the mid sixteenth century.

The depictions of the Mediterranean and Africa were distorted because they tried to improve the chart based on local accounts from sailor’s instead of keeping the chart in its original state.

However the Americas were amazingly accurate and are quite comparable to Mercator Projections drawn years later. Since he hadn’t any local informational to corrupt the Americas with he was left to copy from the Wraparound Charts which were very accurate.

This chart shows Baja California, which had not yet been discovered, it shows the northwest coast of North America including Alaska. It shows the Hawaiian Islands which weren't discovered for another two hundred years. It shows the Islands of

the South Pacific which had not been discovered yet which is not to say they haven’t been settled yet. It clearly shows Antarctica and the Palmer Peninsula which also hadn't been

discovered yet. The far east is distorted but reasonably accurate. A very interesting aspect of this chart is in between Alaska and Asia there isn't a Bearing Strait, the whole area is a landmass!

This chart depicts how the earth actually was ten thousand years ago. This chart shows the Bearing Land Bridge between Asia and North America. This is how the Eskimos and several other Native American peoples arrived in North America. This chart also confirmed the theory of scientists from the 1950’s that the Bearing Strait wasn't a land bridge but a whole subterranean continent.

These charts are from a time when the sea level was 300 feet lower than it is today. It is from a time when the continental shelf off of southern California was above sea level. When Newfoundland and Nova Scotia were joined by a land mass. When Georges Bank and the Grand Banks were joined together and above sea level which was confirmed when a Georges Bank trawler found human remains in his nets which were carbon dated to ten thousand years ago.

The Piri Ri’is Chart is from 1519, the year that Magellan’s expedition set out to circumnavigate the world, and returned in 1521 so any information gained from this expedition wouldn't have been available for the production of the Piri Ri’is chart.

Piri Re’is made notation on the margins of the chart which indicated that Columbus’s charts were used as reference as were charts from Alexander the Great!

Piri Re’is was a Turkish Admiral ,although he was of the Constantinople Palace he was Jewish. This chart caused great debate because it showed the continents of the America’s in great detail. By 1519 the European explorers were still in the Caribbean and their knowledge of the America’s was at best limited.

 Professor Hapgood states in his book “Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings” and this statement is confirmed by the US Air force. That the Piri Re’is chart could only been produced by

Aerial Photography….PERIOD.

The Great Spirit

In the first one hundred years after Columbus’s voyages of discovery, the Native American Indians population was decimated. It was estimated that the Native population was around eighty million, a hundred years later it was estimated to be around eleven million.

This decline in population wasn't from disease. The primary cause was genocide! The Spanish conquistadors arrived at the conclusion that the Native Americans were sub-human, they were sub-human because the Spanish did not believe that they had souls. Therefore it was acceptable to enslave and murder them!

This genocide greatly crippled the ability of the settlers to have a labor pool. Crippled only to the point of the importation of slaves from West Africa.

The determined protestant settlement of North America showed an arrogance coupled with greed and compounded by racial bigotry that was enough in itself to fuel a genocide that even the nortorious gestapo would admire.

The arrogance of the colonists intent on destroying the culture of the Native American's was coupled with a religious certainty, science and protestant work ethic which was a disasterous equation for the first Americans.

The Puritans came to the new lands in search of religious freedom and a state founded on christian principles. They were fanatical with their religious fervor however they were unable to tolerate people of a different creed and culture.

The Puritans sought the New World for a state of reformation, but there was nothing in their history to prepare them for this. The author and civil rights activist Daniel N Paul states that “compassion among the Europeans for Aboriginal Americans was non existent. Yet when recording their relationships with the Tribes they described the generosity that the Aboriginal peoples showed toward them.”

These Native Americans were and their descendants still are, deeply spiritual; a people who had always sought spiritual guidance; they lived in harmony with the land and all it's creatures.

The Native Americans believed that the Great Spirit lived in all of the creations in the world, the land, animals, vegetation and people.

“There is no quiet place in the white man's cities. No place to hear the unfurling of the leaves in the spring, or the rustle of the insects wings ...what is the meaning of life if man cannot hear the cry of the whippoorwill or the argument of frogs around the pool at night? Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of earth! If man spits on the earth he spits on themselves. This we know—the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that connects the family. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”

Every part of this earth is sacred to my people...The sap which courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man...Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red man. 

We are part of the earth and the earth is part of us. The murmur of the water is the voice of my fathers father. The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The air is important to the red man because all things share the same breath...We know that the white man does not understand our ways...The earth is not his brother but his enemy, when he has conquered it he will move on.

His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert...Perhaps it is because I am a savage that I can't understand. What is man without the beasts?

 If all the beasts were gone man would die from loneliness of spirit. For what ever happens to the beasts will soon happen to man.

Crazy Hoarse dreamed and went into the world, where there is nothing but the spirits of all things. That is the real world that is behind this one, everything that we see here is something like a shadow from that world.

All things are the work of the Great Spirit. We should all know he is within all things: the trees, the grasses, the rivers, the mountains and all four legged animals, the winged people: and even more important, we should understand that he is above all peoples and things.

The foundation of the Native American life is their spirituality, it affects everything from the way they enter a room to their sense of honor, there wasn’t a difference between the material and spiritual world. Their spirituality controlled their actions in war and in peace, within families and relationships with others.

It was the basis for their courage, hospitality, courtesy to the strange people from across the sea. These strange looking people, who appeared to not have the ability to survive, in this new world, which the Great Spirit offered to them.