circumstances, sailed to a greater distance. As they proceeded along the
coast, they met some of the natives in their canoes. They surprised six
of these at different times, and took them on board along with their
canoes and little equipments.
The Danes, having afterwards cast anchor in a third bay, one of the
attendants of Godske Lindenau, who was a hardy and enterprising veteran,
solicited the permission of his master to proceed alone to the shore, in
order to reconnoitre the land, and, if possible, to establish some
intercourse with the savages. But this unfortunate valet had no sooner
set his foot upon the beach than he was seized, stabbed, and hacked in
pieces by the natives; who, after this atrocity, retired out of the
reach of the Danish guns.
These savages had knives and swords made of the horns or teeth of that
fish which they call unicorn, and which they ground to an edge upon a
stone; nor were they less sharp than if they had been made of iron or
steel.
Godske Lindenau, not finding it practicable to establish any amicable
communication with the people of this district, set sail for Denmark;
but of the six Greenlanders whom he had recently forced on board, one
was pierced with such regret at the thought of never more seeing his
native home, that he threw himself into the ocean in a paroxysm of
despair. Upon their return the Danes had the pleasure of rejoining the
fifth ship, which had disappeared in a fog; but they had been only five
days together when they were all separated by a storm; and a month
elapsed before they could re-unite when the tempest had passed away.
They arrived at Copenhagen upon the 5th of the following October, after
having experienced many awful perils and hairbreadth escapes.
The King of Denmark, who deserves praise for his perseverance, now
determined upon a third expedition to Greenland. He accordingly ordered
two large ships to be fitted out, which he placed under the command of a
Captain Karsten Richkardisen, a native of Holstein, whom he furnished
with some sailors from Norway and Iceland that were acquainted with the
navigation. These vessels sailed from the Sound on the 12th of May, but
the Danish Chronicle has not stated in what year; nor was it known to
Peyrere. On the 8th of June Richkardisen discovered the high points of
the Greenland mountains; but he was prevented from landing by the rocks
of ice which ran out far into the sea and rendered the coast
inaccessible. He was therefore obliged to return without accomplishing
the object of his voyage, as he despaired of being able to penetrate the
icy barrier which blockaded the shore. No similar attempt has hitherto
been successful; and the Eastern coast of Greenland, though for several
centuries well known to, and habitually visited by, the Norwegians and
Danes, is, at present, a _terra incognita_, notwithstanding the spirit
of European adventure and the zeal of modern discovery.
The King of Denmark caused particular attention to be paid to the three
savages who had survived the preceding, and the five who had been
imported by the last expedition to Greenland. They were fed upon milk,
butter, and cheese, as well as upon raw flesh and raw fish, to which
they had been accustomed at home. They appeared to have an invincible
repugnance to our baked bread and dressed meat; nor did they relish any
kind of wine so much as the oil and grease of the whale. They often
turned a wishful and desponding look to the North; and sighed so
anxiously to return to the place of their nativity, that, whenever they
were watched with less vigilance than usual, those who had an
opportunity seized any boat that was at hand and put to sea, regardless
of the dangers they had to encounter. A storm once overtook some of
these intrepid adventurers at ten or twelve leagues from the Sound, and
forced them back to the coast of Schonen, where they were made prisoners
by the peasantry and conveyed back to Copenhagen. This caused them to be
guarded with more rigour, and kept under greater restraint. But three of
them fell sick and died of grief.
Five of these savages were alive and well when a Spanish Ambassador made
his appearance in Denmark; and the Danish Monarch, in order to divert
this stranger, caused these native Greenlanders to exhibit their
manœuvres in their little canoes upon the sea. The Spanish Ambassador
was quite delighted with the address which they displayed, and with the
extraordinary celerity with which they glided over the waves. He made a
present in money to each of the savages, which they expended in
equipping themselves in the Danish fashion. They were accordingly seen
booted and spurred, with large feathers in their hats; and in these
habiliments they proposed to serve in the cavalry of the Danish King.
But these high spirits of the Greenlanders lasted only for a short time;
for they soon relapsed into their usual melancholy. They became entirely
absorbed with the idea of returning to their native country; and two of
them having obtained possession of their little boats put out to sea.
They were pursued, but only one of them was taken, and the other
probably perished in the waves; for it cannot be supposed that he ever
returned to the land of his fathers. With respect to one of the savages,
it was remarked, that he shed tears whenever he beheld a child at the
breast; from which it was supposed, that he had left a wife and children
at home.
Of these surviving savages two pined away with regret. The two others
lived ten or twelve years in Denmark after the decease of their
companions. No pains were spared to reconcile them to their condition,
but without success. One of them died of an illness, brought on by being
employed in diving for the pearl muscle, during the depth of winter. His
companion, who was inconsolable for his loss, again seized a boat and
made an effort to escape from captivity. He had passed the Sound before
he could be retaken, but he lived only a short time after this last
attempt to recover his liberty.
Peyrere says, that an attempt was made to convert these savages to the
Christian faith, but that they could never be brought to learn the
Danish language; and he remarks, with much simplicity, that “la foi
estant de l’oüye, il fut impossible de leur faire comprendre nos
mysteres.” “Faith,” says he, “coming from hearing, it was impossible to
make them comprehend our mysteries.” He adds, that those who narrowly
watched their actions often saw them lift up their eyes to Heaven, and
worship the Sun.
The Danish Monarch desisted from any farther attempt to discover Old
Greenland; but some merchants at Copenhagen formed themselves into a
Greenland Company, for the purpose of establishing a traffic with that
part of the world. In 1636 this Company fitted out two ships, which
visited that part of the coast of New Greenland which is washed by
Davis’s Straits. When they cast anchor, eight savages came off to them
in their little canoes. The Danes had displayed their knives, mirrors,
and other articles upon the deck, to which the savages had also conveyed
their furs, skins, and fish horns; but a gun having been inconsiderately
fired, in order to celebrate the drinking of some particular health,
these native traders were so frightened that they instantly leaped into
the sea, from which they did not emerge till they had proceeded to two
or three hundred yards from the ship.
The Danes at last succeeded in appeasing the apprehensions of the
Greenlanders, and in alluring them again on board their vessels. The
Danish commander having remarked an inlet of the coast where there was a
bank of sand, which bore a strong resemblance to gold, his cupidity made
him imagine, that he had discovered a mine of wealth. He lost no time in
filling his ship with this fancied gold dust, and made the best of his
way to Denmark, exulting in dreams of visionary opulence.
But the master of the Greenland Company, who was less credulous than the
captain of the expedition, having caused this precious sand to be
examined by the goldsmiths at Copenhagen, they were not able to extract
from the whole mass a single particle of gold. The captain was
accordingly ordered, to his great mortification, to throw the whole of
this valuable lading into the sea.
In this last expedition to Greenland the Danes secured and carried off
two of the natives before they left the coast. When they had reached the
open sea, the Danes released these captives from their bonds, when,
finding themselves free from restraint, the love of liberty prevailed
over every other sentiment, and they plunged into the waves in order to
regain their native shore. But that shore was too remote for them to
reach, and they perished in the vain attempt. It is pleasant to
contemplate that sentiment, which attaches us to our native land,
operating alike in all regions and climes, and attaching the human being
to a country of almost invincible sterility and perpetual frost, as well
as to one where there are the richest products and the most genial
seasons.
In the year 1654 a ship was sent to Greenland, under the command of
David Nelles, the success of which terminated in carrying off three
native women from the open part of the Eastern coast. The last voyage,
which was not more successful than the preceding, was made in the year
1670. This expedition was fitted out by order of Christian V, and was
commanded by Captain Otto Axelson; but Crantz[19] says, “We have no
account of its issue;” and, according to Torfæus, Axelson never returned
to tell what he had seen.
None of the expeditions which have sailed from Denmark, or other
countries, have been successful in recovering the knowledge of that part
of the Eastern coast which was peopled by settlers from Iceland and
Norway, and is denominated Old Greenland. In the account which the
Icelandic Chronicle gives of the ancient route, it is stated, that half
way between Iceland and Greenland there was a cluster of little islands,
or rocks, called Gondebiurne Skeer, which were inhabited by bears. The
drifting ice has probably collected round these islands, and been so
petrified by successive accumulations as to become impenetrable to the
sun.
Peyrere, whose account of Greenland has been generally followed in this
Introduction, tells us, that he was once inclined to believe, that
Godske Lindenau had actually reached the coast of Old Greenland in his
first voyage, and that the savages whom he carried off were descendants
of the first Norwegian settlers, whose remains have been so anxiously
sought. But this impression was effaced by the information of many
persons who had seen these savages at Copenhagen, and who assured him,
that they had not the smallest resemblance to the Danes or Norwegians in
their language and manners, and that the Danes and Norwegians could not
understand a word that these native Greenlanders uttered.
In the expedition to Greenland, which was undertaken in the year 1636,
the natives upon the western coast, who had some traffic with the Danes,
were asked, whether there were any inhabitants like themselves beyond
the mountains which were seen in the distance. The savages replied by
signs, that there were more people beyond the mountains than there were
hairs on their heads; and that they were men of large stature, with
great bows and arrows, who destroyed every body that came in their way.
The knowledge which the Danes have at any period acquired respecting the
people or the products of Greenland, never extended beyond a narrow slip
of territory along the coast. They knew nothing of the remote interior
of the country from actual observation; and their settlements occupied
only a very small comparative portion of the whole. Much is still left
to be explored; but the nature of the country itself opposes such an
accumulation of obstacles to the research of the traveller, that they
are not soon likely to be overcome. More, however, of the coast will
probably soon be discovered than has ever previously been explored; or,
if explored, it has at least been concealed for many centuries. When the
enterprizing spirit of an English navigator is directed to that quarter
of the world, we feel a firm confidence, that nothing will be left
untried, which skill or courage can effect, to extend our acquaintance
with these Northern regions, and to make valuable additions to our
present stock of information respecting the countries in the more
immediate vicinity of the North Pole.
SKETCH
OF THE
LIFE OF HANS EGEDE.
The Author of the present Volume was born in Denmark, on the 31st of
January, in the year 1686. He was educated for the Christian ministry,
and became pastor to a congregation at Vogen, in Norway, and appears for
some time to have exercised the same functions at Drontheim, in that
kingdom. In an early period of his ministry he was seized with a strong
desire of making himself acquainted with the fate of the Norwegian
families who had formerly been settled in Greenland, and of whom no
intelligence had been received for several centuries. All the inquiries
which he could make led to the conclusion, that that part of the coast
where these settlements had formerly existed had been rendered
inaccessible by the ice; and that the ancient settlers had been
destroyed either by the effects of the climate or the hostility of the
natives. But these unfavourable representations did not repress the
ardour of Egede to embark in this perilous undertaking; and either to
discover the old Norwegian settlements, or to form a new one, and to
devote his life to the instruction of the barbarous and uncivilized
Greenlanders in the salutary truths of the Christian doctrine.
He was a man of warm temperament, and mingled with such a portion of
enthusiasm as does not readily suffer its exertions to be relaxed by
difficulties, or the hopes which it has conceived to be extinguished by
inauspicious circumstances. For many years he attempted in vain to
interest the Danish government in the furtherance of the scheme which he
had conceived. His memorials were disregarded, and his proposals were
considered as visionary and impracticable. But at last Frederick IV,
King of Denmark, issued an order to the magistrates at Bergen to make
inquiries of all the masters of vessels and traders, who had been in
Davis’s Straits, concerning the state of the traffic with Greenland;
and, at the same time, to learn their opinion about forming a new
settlement upon that coast. But the answer which they returned was not
at all favourable to the wishes of our author, and the project seemed
never likely to be accomplished.
After more ineffectual attempts, his perseverance at last triumphed over
every obstacle; and he persuaded some merchants and others to subscribe
some small sums, out of which he collected a capital of about 2000_l._
Of this inconsiderable sum he himself had furnished about 60_l._, which
constituted his little all. With these slender means, which seemed
totally inadequate to the undertaking, a ship was purchased, called the
Hope, in which Egede was to be conveyed to Greenland, and to lay the
foundation of the meditated establishment. But, in the spring of 1721,
the Danish monarch, who had been brought to think more favourably of the
expedition, appointed Mr. Egede to be pastor of the new colony, and
missionary to the Heathen, with a pension of 60_l._ a year, and 40_l._
for his immediate exigencies.
Egede embarked for Greenland, with his wife and four small children,
upon the 12th of May, 1721; and he landed in Ball’s River, in the 64th
degree of North latitude, upon the 3d of July, in the same year. The
company on board the ship consisted of forty persons. They lost no time
in building a house of stone and earth, upon an island near Kangek,
which they called Haabets Oe, or Hope Island, after the name of the ship
in which they had made the voyage.
The conduct of Egede as a missionary deserves the highest praise. He
conciliated the confidence of the natives, ministered to their wants,
learned their language, and gradually introduced some additional rays of
intellectual light into their minds.
“As soon,” says Crantz, vol. i. p. 286, “as he new the word _kina_, i.
e. what is this? he asked the name of every thing that presented itself
to the senses, and wrote it down.” But his children, by continually
conversing with the children of the natives, learned the language,
particularly the pronunciation, with much more facility than himself;
and he was enabled to make considerable use of their proficiency in the
vernacular tongue of the country, in promoting the purposes of his
mission.
Upon the death of Frederick IV, and the accession of Christian VI, the
Danish government, dissatisfied with the expense which the settlement in
Greenland had occasioned, and the faint prospect which appeared of any
adequate remuneration from the trade with that country, issued, in 1731,
a mandate for the relinquishment of the colony, and the return of the
settlers. But this zealous missionary resolved not to abandon the good
work which he had begun; and though most of the settlers left the coast
in the ship which had been sent to conduct them home, he remained behind
with ten seamen whom he had persuaded to adopt the same determination.
The Danish monarch, either sympathising with his constancy, or moved by
his entreaties, assisted him with some supplies in the following year;
and in the year 1733 he was cheered by the assurance that the mission
should be more effectually supported, and the trade with Greenland more
vigorously prosecuted than it had hitherto been.
When the advanced age, or rather the growing infirmities of Egede, which
had been increased by the corporeal toils he had undergone, and the
mental solicitudes he had experienced, no longer permitted him to
continue his former occupation, his eldest son Paul became his successor
in the mission. After an abode of fifteen years in this sterile region
and inclement climate, he returned to Copenhagen in the year 1736.
Though he had relinquished the mission, he was not inattentive to its
interests; for he devoted much of his time, after his return, to the
instruction of young missionaries in the language of Greenland. He also
composed a grammar and a dictionary of that language, into which he
translated the New Testament for the use of the mission and the benefit
of the natives. He published the Description of Greenland, which is
contained in the present Volume, at Copenhagen, in the Danish language,
the year preceding his death, which took place in 1758[20].
A
DESCRIPTION
OF
GREENLAND:
Showing
THE NATURAL HISTORY, SITUATION, BOUNDARIES, AND
FACE OF THE COUNTRY;
THE NATURE OF THE SOIL;
THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE OLD NORWEGIAN COLONIES;
THE ANCIENT AND MODERN INHABITANTS;
THEIR GENIUS AND WAY OF LIFE, AND PRODUCE
OF THE SOIL;
THEIR PLANTS, BEASTS, FISHES, &C.
BY HANS EGEDE,
MISSIONARY IN THAT COUNTRY FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS.
TRANSLATED FROM THE DANISH.
TO
HIS MOST SERENE ROYAL HIGHNESS
FREDERICK,
HEREDITARY PRINCE, SUCCESSOR TO THE CROWN OF DENMARK AND NORWAY.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MOST SERENE
ROYAL HIGHNESS,
_As I took the freedom most humbly to address to the King your Royal
Father an account of the Greenland Mission’s beginning and propagation,
which his Majesty with so glorious a zeal protects and encourages; so
likewise, with the same most humble submission, I presume to offer to
your most Serene Royal Highness this present survey or Natural History
of Greenland; endeavouring by this means to insinuate and recommend to
your Royal Highness’s favour and protection so pious an undertaking;
because the poor Greenlanders have a right to claim your protection, as
well as the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, and are in hopes of
enjoying, one day, the greatest blessings under your happy reign._
_This little Work cannot fail of a gracious reception from your Royal
Highness, as it aims only at, and is calculated for, the honour of God
and your Royal Family’s exaltation; the last of which wholly depends on
and necessarily follows the first; for when the poor Greenlanders shall
have learned to know and worship God as their Creator and Redeemer,
then they will likewise learn to acknowledge and honour a Christian
Sovereign as their king and ruler, through whose most Christian care and
beneficence they have been brought to the knowledge of Salvation._
_May the Kingdom of God daily increase, and be spread far and wide,
under the government of your Royal House. May the word of God run
swiftly under the sway of its sceptre, as it doth in the East, so also
now in the coldest North._
_That it may please Almighty God to make your Royal Highness’s name as
the name of the great and mighty ones upon Earth; that he may establish
and powerfully support the Royal Hereditary Throne, and place you as a
blessing before his face to all eternity, are the hearty wishes and
prayers of_
_Your Serene Royal Highness’s
most obedient,
most humble,
and most devoted
Subject and Servant_,
HANS EGEDE.
Copenhagen, July 20, 1741.
PREFACE.
[Illustration]
A friend of mine, who lived some time in Greenland, published (unknown
to me) some years ago, a Description of Greenland, under the title of A
New Survey of Old Greenland, which, not long after my arrival in those
parts, I had sketched, to satisfy some of my friends, according to the
knowledge I then had acquired; but having since that time got a fuller
light in these matters, partly by my own observations and partly by
those of my Son Paul Egede, who has been four years missionary in the
North West colony of Greenland, I have found it necessary to perfect and
enlarge this little Work in embryo, under the same title that it made
its first appearance, with some useful Additions, and with a new
contrived Map of the country, that the reader may the better comprehend
what he finds in this Sketch.
Though Greenland be a country of a vast extent, yet it affords but a
narrow field for any observation or remarks of consequence; there being
no strong or well built towns to meet with; no well ordered polity or
civil government; no fine arts and sciences, or the like; but only a
number of mean, wretched, and ignorant Gentiles, who live and improve
the land according to their low capacity.
I must own, that Greenland, in its present state and condition,
compared with other countries, is but very mean and poor, though not yet
so despicable and wretched but it may, using care and industry, not only
richly maintain its own inhabitants, but also communicate to others out
of the remainder of its products.
As for the land in itself, it yields little or nothing, not being
manured or cultivated, but lies altogether waste and untilled;
nevertheless the ancient histories and accounts, yet extant, of the
land, make it appear, that it is not unfit for several products; and
therefore I do not question but it might retrieve the loss of its former
plenty and fruitfulness, should it come to be well settled again, and
cultivated. But as to the seas, they yield more plenty and wealth of all
sorts of animals and fishes than in most other parts of the world,
which may turn to very great profit; witness the exceeding great riches
many nations have gathered, and are still gathering, from the whale
fishery, and the capture of seals and morses, or sea horses.