THE COLONY OF PRÖVEN.--THE KAYAK OF THE GREENLANDER.--SCARCITY OF
DOGS.--LIBERALITY OF THE CHIEF TRADER.--ARCTIC FLORA.
We were escorted into the harbor of Pröven by the strangest fleet of
boats and the strangest-looking boatmen that ever convoyed a ship. They
were the far-famed kayakers of Greenland, and they deserve a passing
notice.
[Sidenote: THE KAYAK OF THE GREENLANDER.]
The _kayak_ of the Greenlander is the frailest specimen of marine
architecture that ever carried human freight. It is eighteen feet long
and as many inches wide at its middle, and tapers, with an upward
curving line, to a point at either end. The skeleton of the boat
is made of light wood; the covering is of tanned seal-skin, sewed
together by the native women with sinew thread, and with a strength and
dexterity quite astonishing. Not a drop of water finds its way through
their seams, and the skin itself is perfectly water-proof. The boat is
about nine inches deep, and the top is covered like the bottom. There
is no opening into it except a round hole in the centre, which admits
the hunter as far as his hips. This hole is surrounded with a wooden
rim, over which the kayaker laces the lower edge of his water-tight
jacket, and thus fastens himself in and keeps the water out. He propels
himself with a single oar about six feet long, which terminates in a
blade or paddle at either end. This instrument of locomotion is grasped
in the centre, and is dipped in the water alternately to right and
left. The boat is graceful as a duck and light as a feather. It has no
ballast and no keel, and it rides almost on the surface of the water.
It is therefore necessarily top-heavy. Long practice is required to
manage it, and no tight-rope dancer ever needed more steady nerve and
skill of balance than this same savage kayaker. Yet, in this frail
craft, he does not hesitate to ride seas which would swamp an ordinary
boat, or to break through surf which may sweep completely over him. But
he is used to hard battles, and, in spite of every fortune, he keeps
himself upright.
I watched their movements with much interest as they collected
about the schooner. Among the benefits which they had derived from
civilization was an appreciation of the value of rum, coffee, and
tobacco; and they were not overly modest in their demands for these
articles. Most of them had, however, something to trade, and went home
with their reward. One old fellow who had managed to pick up a few
words of English, without being particularly clear as to their meaning,
was loud in his demands for a "pound rum, bottle sugar," offering in
exchange a fine salmon.
[Sidenote: SCARCITY OF DOGS.]
I had intended to remain at Pröven only a single day, and then to
hasten on with all possible speed; but our stay was prolonged by
circumstances to which I was forced to submit with as good a grace as
possible. It was idle for me to leave without a supply of dogs, for my
plans and preparations were entirely based upon them; and the prospect
of accomplishing my design in this respect appeared, from the first,
very feeble. In order to save time, Sonntag had gone to the village
when we lay becalmed off Svarte Huk, and he returned on board with the
most discouraging accounts of the poverty of the settlements in that
which was such an essential addition to our equipment. A disease which
had prevailed among the teams, during the past year, had diminished
the stock to less than half of what was required for the prosperity
of the people; and all our offers to purchase, either with money or
provisions, were at first flatly refused, and were in the end only
partially successful.
Mr. Sonntag had called upon the Assistant Trader immediately after his
arrival, and was at once informed by that official of the unfortunate
state of affairs. He would, however, personally interest himself in
the matter, and advised that we should await the arrival of the Chief
Trader, Mr. Hansen, who resided at Upernavik, which is forty miles
to the north, and would be in Pröven in a day or so. It was evident
that nothing could be done without the aid of this all-powerful public
functionary, for whose arrival we had no alternative but to wait. If
we went on to Upernavik we ran the hazard of missing him; and, by not
seeing him until his return to that settlement from his southern tour,
of losing the advantage of his prompt coöperation.
Mr. Hansen arrived the following day, and assured me that he would
do what was in his power; but he feared that he should have little
success. As an earnest of his good-will, he informed me, with a
delicate courtesy which made me for the moment wonder if a lordly son
of Castile had not wandered to this land of ice, and disguised himself
in a seal-skin coat, that his own teams were at my disposal. Beyond
this, however, he could neither advise nor command. There was no
public stock from which to supply my wants; and so great and universal
had been the ravages of disease among the animals, that many hunters
were wholly destitute, and none were in possession of their usual
number. He however at once dispatched a courier to Upernavik, and
others to various small settlements, and thus heralded the news that
any hunter who had an extra dog would find a market for it by bringing
it forthwith to Pröven or Upernavik.
[Sidenote: LIBERALITY OF THE CHIEF TRADER.]
This action of the Chief Trader was the more appreciated that it was
disinterested, and was uncalled for either by any official demands
which were laid upon him, or by any special show of dignity or
importance with which the insignificant schooner lying in the harbor
could back up my claims. The State Department at Washington had, at my
solicitation, requested from the Danish Government such recognition
for me as had been hitherto accorded to the American and English naval
expeditions; but the courteous response which came in the form of a
command to the Greenland officials to furnish me with every thing in
their power did not reach the settlements until the following year. The
commands of his Majesty the King could not, however, have stood me in
better stead than the gentlemanly instincts of Mr. Hansen.
There is little in the history of Pröven, either past or present, that
will interest the readers of this narrative. What there is of it stands
on the southern slope of a gneissoid spur which forms the terminus of
one of the numerous islands of the vast archipelago lying between the
peninsula of Svarte Huk and Melville Bay. A government-house, one story
high and plastered over with pitch and tar, is the most conspicuous
building in the place. A shop and a lodging-house for a few Danish
employees stands next in importance. Two or three less imposing
structures of the pitch and tar description, inhabited by Danes who
have married native women; a few huts of stone and turf, roofed
with boards and overgrown with grass; about an equal number of like
description, but without the board roof, and a dozen seal-skin tents,
all pitched about promiscuously among the rocks, make up the town.
There is a blubber-house down by the beach, and a stunted flag-staff
on the hill, from which the Danish Flag gracefully waving in the wind,
gave the place a show of dignity. The dignity of civilization was
further preserved by an old cannon which lay on the grass under the
flag, and whose rusty throat made the welkin ring as our anchor touched
the Greenland rocks.
[Sidenote: THE SETTLEMENT.]
The settlement, or _Colonien_, as the Danes distinguish it, dates back
almost to the days of good old Hans Egede, and its name, as nearly as
can be interpreted, signifies "Experiment;" and, after the Greenland
fashion, a successful experiment it has been. Its people live, chiefly,
by hunting the seal; and, of all the northern colonies, few have been
as prosperous. The collections of oil and skins during some years are
sufficient to freight a brig of three hundred tons.
The place bears ample evidence of the nature of its business. Carcasses
of seals and seal's offal lay strewn along the beach, and over the
rocks, and among the huts, in every stage of decomposition; and this,
added to every other conceivable accumulation that could exhibit a
barbarous contempt for the human nose, made the first few hours of our
stay there any thing but comfortable.
[Sidenote: ARCTIC FLORA.]
A better prospect, however, greeted us behind the town. A beautiful
valley lay there, nestling between the cliffs, and rich in Arctic
vegetation. It was covered with a thick turf of moss and grasses, among
which the _Poa Arctica_, _Glyceria Arctica_, and _Alopecurus Alpinus_
were most abundant. In places it was, indeed, a perfect marsh. Little
streams of melted snow meandered through it, gurgling among the stones,
or dashing wildly over the rocks. Myriads of little golden petaled
poppies (_Papaver nudicaule_) fluttered over the green. The dandelion
(_Leontodon palustre_), close kindred of the wild flower so well known
at home, kept it company; the buttercup (_Ranunculus nivalis_), with
its smiling, well-remembered face, was sometimes seen; and the less
familiar _Potentilla_ and the purple _Pedicularis_ were dotted about
here and there. The saxifrages, purple, white, and yellow, were also
very numerous. I captured not less than seven varieties. The birch and
crowberry, and the beautiful _Andromeda_, the heather of Greenland,
grew matted together in a sheltered nook among the rocks; and, in
strange mimicry of Southern richness, the willows feebly struggled for
existence on the spongy turf. With my cap I covered a whole forest of
them.
[Sidenote: VALUE OF DOGS]
I had been in Pröven in 1853, and the place had not changed in the
interval. The old ex-trader Christiansen was there, a little older, but
not less frugal than before. He complained bitterly of Dr. Kane not
having kept his promises to him, and I endeavored to mollify his wrath
by assuring him that Dr. Kane had lost his vessel and could not return;
but his life had been made unhappy during seven long years by visions
of a barrel of American flour, and he would not be comforted. He was
scarcely able to crawl about; but, when I sent ashore to him the
coveted treasure, he found strength to break the head out of the cask,
to feast his eyes on the long-expected gratuity. His sons, each with
a brood of Esquimaux visaged, though flaxen-haired children, crowded
around the present. My diary records that they were the best hunters in
the settlement, and that they had the best teams of dogs; and it also
mentions, with a little chagrin, that they would not sell one of them.
I attributed this obstinacy, at the time, to their cross old paternal
relative; but there were better reasons than this. They knew by bitter
experience the risks of going into the long winter without an ample
supply of dogs to carry them over the ice upon the seal hunt, and to
part with their animals was to risk starvation. I offered to give them
pork and beef and canned meats, and flour and beans; but they preferred
the seal and the excitement of the hunt, and refused to trade.
At last the couriers had all come in, bringing unwelcome news. A
half-dozen old dogs and a less number of good ones were all that I had
to console myself for the delay; but the Chief Trader had returned to
Upernavik, from which place I had received more encouraging accounts
than from the lower stations.
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