Of the reality and importance of the Greenland colony there exists no
doubt, notwithstanding the records are so meagre and fragmentary.[40] It
maintained its connection with the mother countries for a period of no
less than four hundred years; yet it finally disappeared and was almost
forgotten.
The causes which led to the suspension of communication were doubtless
various, though it is difficult to account for the utter extinction of
the colony, which does not appear ever to have been in much danger from
the Skrællings. On one occasion, in 1349 or later, the natives attacked
the western settlement, it is said, and killed eighteen Greenlanders of
Icelandic lineage, carrying away two boys captives.
We hear from the eastern colony as late as the middle of the fifteenth
century. Trade was carried on with Denmark until nearly the end of the
fourteenth century, although the voyages were not regular. The last
bishop, Andreas, was sent out in 1406, and Professor Finn Magnussen has
established the fact that he officiated in the cathedral at Gardar in
1409.[41]
From this time the trade between Norway and Greenland appears to have
been given up, though Wormius told Peyrere of his having read in a
Danish manuscript that down to the year 1484 there was a company of more
than forty sailors at Bergen, in Norway, who still traded with
Greenland.[42] But as the revenue at that time belonged to Queen
Margaret of Denmark, no one could go to Greenland without the royal
permission. One company of sailors who were driven upon the Greenland
coast, came near suffering the penalty of the law on their return.
Crantz[43] says, that "about the year 1530, Bishop Amund of Skalholt in
Iceland is said to have been driven by a storm, on his return from
Norway, so near the coast of Greenland by Heriulfness, that he could see
the people driving in their cattle. But he did not land, because just
then a good wind arose, which carried the ship the same night to
Iceland. The Icelander, Biærnvon Skardfa, who relates this, also says
further, that a Hamburgh mariner, Jon Greenlander by name, was driven
three times on the Greenland island, where he saw such fisher's huts for
drying fish as they have in Iceland, but saw no men; further, that
pieces of shattered boats, nay, in the year 1625, an entire boat,
fastened together with sinews and wooden pegs, and pitched with seal
blubber, have been driven ashore at Iceland from time to time; and since
then they found once an oar with a sentence written in Runic letters:
'_Oft var ek dasa, dur elk drothik_,' that is, 'Oft was I tired when I
drew thee.'"[44]