between Norway and Greenland, till new adventurers began to apply
themselves to the discovery of the Eastern district. The first of those
who took this affair to heart was Erick Walkendorff, archbishop of
Drontheim, who was resolved, at his own charge, to fit out ships for
this purpose, but was stopped in this pious design by King Christian the
Second, whose disgrace he had incurred. The next was King Frederick the
First, whose mind, as it is reported, was bent upon the said expedition,
but it was never put in execution. Christian the Third (as Lyscander
relates) sent several ships with the same design, but without making any
discovery. Frederick the Second succeeded his royal father, as well in
the government as in his good design about Greenland; on which errand he
sent Mogens Heinson, a renowned seaman in those days. This adventurer,
after he had gone through many difficulties and dangers of storms and
ice, got sight of the land, but could not approach it; whereupon he
returned home again, and pretended, that he might have got on shore, if
his ship had not been stopped in the midst of its course, by some
loadstone rocks hidden in the sea, so that he could not proceed though
he had a very favourable and strong gale of wind, and no ice to hinder
him: which frightened him and made him sail back again to Denmark. But
the true loadstone rocks, in my opinion, was the terrible fright he was
in of not getting safe through the dreadful ice mountains, which
threatened him, or else the strong current, which always runs along the
states promontory with such violence and rapidity, that it often stops a
ship under full sail, so that the ship can make but little or no way at
all against it. The cause by others assigned for this strange effect,
the fish Remora, which the Northlanders call Kracken, is nothing but a
fabulous story of the too credulous ancients, and labours under no less
absurdities than the former opinion, that rocks of loadstone, laying on
the bottom of the sea, can stay the course of a ship that sails on the
surface of it.
In the same year that Mogens Heinson went upon the Greenland discovery,
the English histories inform us, that Captain Martin Frobisher, an
Englishman, was by the glorious Queen Elizabeth sent upon the same
errand. This adventurer got sight of the land, but being partly hindered
by the ice, which adhered to it, and partly by the shortness of the
winter days (for it was late in the year), he could not approach it, and
so returned to England again. Next year in the spring, he went upon the
same expedition with three ships. After having gone through many great
dangers of the ice and storms, he at length reached the shore, where he
found a wild and savage nation; who, when they saw the English coming to
them, being frightened, left their huts, and ran away to hide
themselves. Some from the highest rocks threw themselves into the sea;
whereupon the English entered their huts, where they met with nobody but
an old woman, and a young one, who was pregnant, and those they carried
away with them. It is also reported, that they here found some sand
which contained particles of gold and silver, of which they filled
three hundred tuns, and brought it home with them to England. As to this
gold and silver sand, I cannot help questioning whether they found any
such on the Greenland shore, inasmuch as Sir Martin, in the same strain,
relates wonderful things of the politeness and civility of a nation that
dwelt in those parts; of which he says, they were governed by a prince,
whom they called Kakiunge; and carried him in state on their shoulders,
clothed in rich stutfs, and adorned with gold and precious stones, which
does not at all agree with the meanness and coarseness of Greenland and
its inhabitants; but rather seems to belong to the rich kingdoms of Peru
and Mexico, where gold and silver abounds; and from whence he may have
brought the above-mentioned gold and silver sand.
But I think it high time to leave such uncertain relations to their
worth; and turn our thoughts towards the pious endeavours of our most
gracious sovereigns the Kings of Denmark to discover and recover
Greenland again. An we find, that after the expeditions of Frederick
the Second, Christian the Fourth, his successor, with great cost,
ordered four different expeditions for this discovery. The first was
undertaken, under the command of Godske Lindenow, with three ships. And,
as the history tells, Lindenow with his ship arrived upon the East coast
of Greenland (which I hardly can believe), and found none but wild,
uncivilised people there, like those Frobisher is said first to have met
with. He staid there three days, during which time the wild Greenlanders
came to trade with him; changing all sorts of furs and skins with pieces
of precious horns, against all kinds of small trifling iron ware, as
knives, scissars, needles, common looking glasses, and other such
trifles. When he set sail from thence, there were two Greenlanders
remaining in the ship, whom he carried off, and brought them home along
with him: these as they made all their endeavour to get away from him,
and sometimes would have jumped into the sea, they were obliged to tie
and secure them; which, when their countrymen observed, who flocked
together upon the shore, they made a hideous outcry and howling, flung
stones, and shot their arrows at the sailors, upon which they from the
ship fired a gun, which frightened and dispersed them; and so the ship
left them. The two other ships, that set sail in company and under the
command of Lindenow, after they had doubled Cape Farewell, steered
directly for the Strait of Davis; in which navigation they discovered
many fine harbours and delightful green meadow lands, but all the
inhabitants along the coast wild and savage as before. It is pretended
also, that they in some places found stones, which contained some silver
ore, which they took along with them; of which one hundred pounds
yielded twenty-six ounces of silver. (Here again I cannot forbear
questioning, whether this silver ore has been found on the Greenland
shore, or rather over against it on the American coast.) These two ships
also brought four savages home with them to Copenhagen.
The second expedition was made by order of the same King in the year
1606, with five ships under the conduct of the before-mentioned Admiral
Lindenow; bringing along with them three of the savages (one of them
dying in the voyage) which they had carried off the year before from
Greenland. But this time he directed his course to the Westward of Cape
Farewell, standing for the Straits of Davis; where he, coasting along,
took the survey of several places, and then returned home again.
The third and last expedition of this glorious King was only of two
ships, commanded by Captain Carsten Richards, a Holstenian by birth; he
spied the land and its high and craggy rocks afar off, but could not
come near it on account of the ice; and so, after he had lost his labour
he returned home.
The fourth expedition of King Christian the Fourth, under the conduct of
Captain Jens Munck, in the year 1616, was not made for the discovering
of Greenland but to find out a passage between Greenland and America to
China; the misfortunes of which expedition are related by the said
commander.
There was, besides these four expeditions at the King’s cost, a fifth
undertaken, in the same King’s reign, by a company settled in Copenhagen
in the year 1636, of which company the president was the lord high
chancellor, Christian Friis, as Lyscander informs us. Two ships fitted
out by this company, directing their course to the Westward of
Greenland, fell in with the Straits of Davis, where they traded for a
while with the savages; but this was not the main concern of the
commander, who was acquainted with a coast, whose sand had the colour
and weight of gold, which he accordingly did not miss, and filled both
their ships with the same. After their return to Copenhagen, the
goldsmiths were ordered to make a trial, whether this sand would yield
any gold or not; who, not being skilful enough to make such a trial,
condemned it to be all thrown overboard, which was done by order of the
high chancellor, president of the company. Some part of the said sand
was yet kept out of curiosity, out of which an artificer, who afterwards
came to Copenhagen, did extract a good deal of pure gold. The honest
and well-meaning commander, who went upon this adventure, was turned out
of favour, and died of grief soon after; whereby, not only the treasure
they had brought home, but also the knowledge of the place where it was
to be found, was entirely lost, as he kept this a secret to himself.
In the year 1654, during the reign of King Frederick the Third, a noble
and wealthy adventurer, by name Henry Muller, fitted out a ship for
Greenland, under the command of David de Nelles, who arrived safe in
Greenland, and brought from thence three women, whose names were
Kunelik, Kabelau, and Sigokou; who, according to the opinion of Bishop
Torlais, who had perused the said captain’s journal, were taken in the
neighbourhood of Herjolsness, on the Eastern shore, as Thormoder Torfæus
pretends; but which I cannot be made to believe. My opinion is, they
were brought from the Western shore, near Baal’s River, as some of the
inhabitants, who are still living, had in fresh remembrance, telling me
their names, as they are laid down in the fore-mentioned Journal.
The last adventurer, that was sent upon the discovery of Greenland,
according to Torfæus in his History of Greenland, was Captain Otto
Axelson, in the year 1670, in the reign of Christian V of glorious
memory. But what success this adventurer met with he leaves us to guess.
Nevertheless we find, in a manuscript description of Greenland, written
by Arngrim Vidalin, Part iii, chap. 1, that his said majesty did invite,
and with great privileges encourage Mr. George Tormúhlen, counsellor of
commerce at Bergen, to fit out ships for the said discovery; whereupon
the said counsellor not only got ready shipping well stored for such an
expedition, but also got together a number of passengers, who resolved
to go and settle in those parts, whom he provided with all things
necessary for that purpose; both provision and ammunition, as well as
houses made of timber, ready to be erected in that country. But this
great design miscarried, the ship being taken by the French and brought
into Dunkirk.
Thus, for a long while, it seemed, that all thought of Greenland was
laid aside until the year 1721; when after many well-meant invitations,
and projects proposed by me to the Greenland company at Bergen in
Norway, approved and authorised by his late majesty Frederick IV of
glorious memory, the company thereupon resolved not only to send ships,
but also to settle a colony in Greenland in 64°; when I went over with
my whole family and remained there fifteen years. During my stay I
endeavoured to get all the intelligence that could be procured both by
sea and land of the present state of the country, and did not lose my
labour; for I found some places that formerly were inhabited by the old
Norwegians, on the Western shore. Which expedition I have lately treated
of in another treatise, and set out in all its circumstances, and with
all the difficulties it has laboured under; wherefore I think it need
not be here repeated.
But whereas my main drift and endeavour has been all along chiefly to
discover the Eastern district of Greenland, which always was reckoned
the best of our ancient colonies, accordingly I received from the above
mentioned Greenland company at Bergen a letter, in the year 1723, in
which I was told, that it was his majesty’s pleasure, that the East
district might likewise be visited and discovered. Which the better to
effectuate, I took the resolution to make this voyage in person; and
accordingly I coasted it Southwards, as far as to the States Promontory,
looking out for the Strait of Frobisher, which would have been my
shortest way, according to those charts, which lay the said strait down
in this place; but such a strait I could not find. Now as it grew too
late in the year for me to proceed farther, the month of September being
nearly at an end, when the winter season begins in those parts,
accompanied by dreadful storms, I was obliged to return.
In the year 1724 the directors of the said Bergen company, according to
his majesty’s good will and pleasure, fitted out a ship to attempt a
landing on the Eastern shore, as had been formerly practised on that
coast which lies opposite to Iceland. But the surprising quantity of
ice, which barricadoed the coast, made that enterprise prove abortive
and quite miscarry, as many others had done. As there was no appearance
for ships to approach this shore, the same king, in the year 1728,
resolved, besides other very considerable expenses, to have horses
transported to this colony, in hopes, that with their help they might
travel by land to this Eastern district: but nothing was more impossible
than this, project, on account of the impracticable, high, and craggy
mountains perpetually covered with ice and snow, which never thaws.
Another new attempt by sea was by order of the said king made in the
year 1729, by Lieutenant Richard; who with his ship passed the winter
near the new Danish colony, in Greenland, and in his voyage back to
Denmark made all the endeavours he could to come at the aforesaid shore,
opposite to Iceland; but all to no purpose, being herein disappointed,
like the rest before him.
All these difficulties and continual disappointments have made most
people lose all hopes of succeeding in this attempt: nevertheless, I
flatter myself to have hit luckily on an expedient, which to me seems
not impracticable though hitherto not tried, or at least but lightly
executed; _viz._ to endeavour to coast the land from the States
Promontory, or (as we call it) Cape Prince Christian, Northwards. The
information I have had of some Greenlanders, who in their boats have
coasted a great part of the East side, confirms me in my opinion; for
although an incredible quantity of driven ice yearly comes from
Spitzbergen or New Greenland along this coast, and passes by the States
Promontory, which hinders the approaching of ships as far as the ice
stretches, whereabout the best part of the Norwegian colonies were
settled; yet there have been found breaks and open sea near the shore,
through which boats and smaller vessels may pass; and according to the
relation of the Greenlanders, as well as agreeably to my own experience,
the current, that comes out of the bays and inlets, always running along
the shore South Westwards, hinders the ice from adhering to the land,
and keeps it at a distance from the shore; by which means the
Greenlanders at certain times, without any hindrance, have passed and
repassed part of this coast in their kone boats (so they call their
large boats); though they have not been so far as where the old Norway
colonies had their settlement; of which no doubt there are still some
ruins to be seen on this Eastern shore. Furthermore I have been credibly
informed by Dutch seamen that frequent these seas, that several of their
ships have at times found the East side of Greenland cleared of the ice
as far as 62°; and they had tarried some time among the out rocks on
that coast, where they carried on a profitable trade with the savages.
And I myself, in my return from Greenland homewards in the year 1736,
found it to be so when we passed the States Promontory and Cape
Farewell, and stood in near the shore, where at that time there was no
ice to be seen, which otherwise is very uncommon. But as this happens
so seldom, it is very uncertain and unsafe for any ship to venture so
far up under the Eastern shore. But, as I observed a little before, it
is more safe and practicable to coast it from the Promontory along the
shore in small vessels; especially if there be a lodge erected in the
latitude of between 60° and 61°: and it would be still more convenient,
if there could be a way and means found likewise to place a lodge on the
Eastern shore in the same latitude. For according to the account the
ancients have left us of Greenland, the distance of ground that lies
uncultivated between the West and East side is but twelve Norway miles
by water. See Ivarus Beri’s relation; or, according to a later
computation, it is a journey of six days in a boat. And as the ruins of
old habitations, which I have discovered between 60° and 61°, are
without doubt in the most Southerly part of the West side, it of
necessity follows, that the distance cannot be very great from thence to
the most Southern Parts of the Eastern side. Now, if it should be found
practicable, at certain times, to pass along the shore with boats or
small ships to the East side, to the latitude of 63° and 64°, little
lodges might be settled here and there with colonies; by which means a
constant correspondence might be kept, and mutual assistance given to
one another, though larger ships could not yearly visit every one of
them, but only touch at the most Southerly ones. I am also persuaded,
that the thing is feasible, and if it should please God in his mercy to
forward this affair, colonies might be established here, which, without
great trouble, might be supplied yearly with all necessaries.
CHAP III.
[Illustration]
_Treats of the Nature of the Soil, Plants, and Minerals of Greenland._
As to the nature of the soil, we are informed by ancient histories, that
the Greenland colonies bred a number of cattle, which afforded them
milk, butter, and cheese in such abundance, that a great quantity
thereof was brought over to Norway, and for its prime and particular
goodness was set apart for the King’s kitchen, which was practised until
the reign of Queen Margaret. We also read in these histories, that some
parts of the country yielded the choicest wheat corn, and in the dales
or valleys the oak trees brought forth acorns of the bigness of an
apple, very good to eat[24]. The woods afforded plenty of game of rein
deer, hares, &c. for the sport of huntsmen. The rivers, bays, and the
seas furnished an infinite number of fishes, seals, morses, and whales;
of which all the inhabitants make a considerable trade and commerce. And
though the country at present cannot boast of the same plenty and
richness, as it lies destitute of colonies, cattle, and uncultivated;
yet I do not doubt, but the old dwelling places, formerly inhabited and
manured by the ancient Norway colonies, might recover their former
fertility, if they were again peopled with men and cattle; inasmuch as
about those places there grows fine grass, especially from 60° to 65°.
In the great Bay, which in the sea charts goes under the name of Baal’s
River, and at present is called the Bay of Good Hope (from the Danish
colony settled near the entrance of this inlet), there are on both sides
of the colony many good pieces of meadow ground, for the grazing and
pasturing numbers of cattle, besides plenty of provision, which the sea
as well as the land yields. Trees or woods of any consideration are
rarely met with; yet I have found in most of the bays underwoods and
shrubs in great quantity, especially of birch, elm, and willows, which
afford sufficient fuel for the use of the inhabitants, The largest wood
I have seen is in the latitude of 60° and 61°, where I found birch trees
two or three fathom high, somewhat thicker than a man’s leg or arm:
small juniper trees grow also here in abundance, the berries of which
are of the bigness of grey peas. The herb called quaun, which is our
angelica, is very obvious and common, as well as wild rosemary, which
has the taste and smell of turpentine; of which, by distillation, is
extracted a fine oil and spirit, of great use in medicine. That precious
herb, scurvy grass, the most excellent remedy for the cure of the
distemper which gives its name, grows everywhere on the sea side, and
has not so bitter a taste as that of softer climates; I have seen
wonderful effects of its cure. The country also produces a grass with
yellow flowers, whose root smells in the spring like roses: the
inhabitants feed thereupon, and find benefit by it. In the bays and
inlets you have wild thyme at the side of the mountains, which after
sunset yields a fragrant smell. Here also you meet with the herb
tormentil, or setfoil, and a great many other herbs, plants, and
vegetables, which I cannot call to mind, and whose names indeed are
altogether unknown to me. Their most common berries are those called
blew-berries, tittle-berries, and bramble-berries. Multe-berries, which
are common in Norway, do not arrive here to any perfection, on account
of the thick fogs that hang upon the islands, when these plants bud.
This country affords the most pleasant prospect about the latitude of
60° to 64°, and seems fit to be manured for the produce of all sorts of
grain; and there are to this day marks of acres and arable land to be
observed. I myself once made a trial of sowing barley in the bay joining
to our new colony, which sprung up so fast, that it stood in its full
ears towards the latter end of July; but did not come to ripeness, on
account of the night frost which nipped it and hindered its growth. But
as this grain was brought over from Bergen in Norway, no doubt it wanted
a longer summer and more heat to ripen. But I am of opinion, that corn
which grows in the more Northern parts of Norway would thrive better in
Greenland, inasmuch as those climates agree better together. Turnips and
cole are very good here, and of a sweet taste, especially the turnips,
which are pretty large.
I must observe to you, that all that has been said of the fruitfulness
of the Greenland soil is to be understood of the latitude of 60° to
65°, and differs according to the different degrees of latitude. For in
the most Northern parts you find neither herbs nor plants; so that the
inhabitants cannot gather grass enough to put in their shoes to keep
their feet warm, but are obliged to buy it from the Southern parts.
Of Greenland metals or minerals I have little or nothing to say. It is
true, that about two Norway miles to the South of the colony of Good
Hope, on a promontory, there are here and there green spots to be seen,
like verdigris, which shows there must be some copper ore. And a certain
Greenlander once brought me some pieces not unlike lead ore. There is
likewise a sort of calamine, which has the colour of yellow brass. In my
expedition upon discoveries, I found, on a little island where we
touched, some yellow sand, mixed with sinople red, or vermillion
strokes, of which I sent a quantity over to the directors of the
Greenland company at Bergen, to make a trial of it; upon which they
wrote me an answer, that I should endeavour to get as much as I could of
the same sand; but to theirs as well as my own disappointment, I never
was able to find the said island again, where I had got this sand, as it
was but a very small and insignificant one, situate among a great many
others; and the mark I had taken care to put up was by the wind blown
down. Nevertheless there has been enough of the same stuff found up and
down in the country, which, when it is burnt, changes its former colour
for a reddish hue, which it likewise does if you keep it awhile shut up
close.
Whether or no this be the same sort of sand as that of which Sir Martin
Frobisher is said to have brought some hundred tons to England, and was
pretended to contain a great deal of gold; and again (as we have above
taken notice of) of which some of the Danish Greenland Company’s ships
returned freighted to Copenhagen in the year 1636, is a question which I
have no mind to decide. However, thus much I can say, that by the small
experience I have acquired in the art of chemistry, I have tried both by
extraction and precipitation if it would yield any thing, but always
lost my labour. After all I declare, I never could find any other sort
of sand that contained either gold or silver. But as for rock crystal,
both red and white, you find it here: the red contains some particular
solis, which can only be produced by the spagyric art.
Stone flax, or what they call asbestos, is so common here, that you may
see whole mountains of it: it has the appearance of a common stone, but
can be split or cloven like a piece of wood. It contains long filaments,
which, when beaten and separated from the dross, you may twist and spin
into a thread. As long as it has its oily moisture it will burn without
being consumed to ashes.
Round about our colony of Good Hope there is a sort of coarse bastard
marble of different colours, blue, green, red, and some quite white,
and again some white with black spots, which the natives form into all
sorts of vessels and utensils, as lamps, pots to boil in, and even
crucibles to melt metals in, this marble standing proof against the
fire[25]. Of this marble there was brought a quantity over to Drontheim
in Norway, which they made use of in the adorning of the cathedral of
that city, as we have it from Peter Claudius Undalin[26].
Amongst the produce of the sea, besides different shells, muscles, and
periwinkles, there are also coral trees, of which I have seen one of a
fine form and size.
CHAP. IV
_Of the Nature of the Climate, and the Temperament of the Air._