HANS EGEDE AND DANISH GREENLAND
In the beginning of the 18th century there was living at Vogen, in the
diocese of Trondhjem in Norway, a priest named Hans Egede, who for
some years had been engaged solely in his parochial duties. In about
1708, when his age was 26, he became deeply impressed with the story
of the abandonment of the Greenland colony. The fact that Christians
had formerly lived in Greenland, that they had been abandoned to their
fate, and that the world had heard of them no more, preyed upon his
mind. He felt that it was the duty of every Norwegian to help in the
search for them. If no one else had that feeling he, a poor parish
priest, would do so single-handed. He was torn by conflicting duties to
his parish, and to his wife and children, but his Greenland duty seemed
the most urgent. This inward impulse was the strongest, and in 1710 he
addressed a petition on the subject to his Bishop. The reply commended
the project, but dwelt on the almost insuperable difficulties.
Hans Egede was looked upon as a fanatic, as a knight errant. At first
no one would listen to him. He went to Bergen to try and get support,
but none could be obtained, though some were touched by his zeal. One
great comfort was that after a time his wife embraced the idea and
became as enthusiastic as her husband. At last, in 1718, he determined
to go to Copenhagen and appeal to his King. Frederick IV admired the
good priest’s devotion to a noble cause, encouraged him in his efforts,
and used the royal influence for raising funds. At last a sum of £2000
was got together, while the King gave £40 towards the equipment of a
vessel and granted a salary of £60 a year to Egede.
A vessel called the _Hope_ was bought, and the adventurous priest
embarked with the crew and his wife and four little children, a party
altogether of forty souls. The 2nd May, 1721, was the memorable day
when the _Hope_ sailed from Bergen, and the history of modern Danish
Greenland was commenced.
Though ice was found blocking up the approaches to the Greenland coast,
a lane of water was seen apparently leading to the land, and the little
vessel was steered into it. But the ice closed, and she was beset,
a dense fog being followed by a strong gale, and for some time the
adventurers were in danger. The gale had the effect of clearing away
the ice, so that at last the _Hope_ was brought safely into Gilbert
Sound of Davis. Hans Egede called it Bell’s River. He appears to have
been ignorant of the details of Davis’s voyages, but he must have known
the expedition of Hall, who named one of the branches of the fjord
Bell’s river, after Mr Richard Bell, and the other after Sir James
Lancaster. Hans Egede set up the house he had brought out in pieces
on an island in Gilbert Sound, the native name of which was Kenget,
renamed by him Haabetsö or Hope Island. At first the Eskimos were very
friendly and Egede at once began to learn the language. But neither he
nor his people were at all efficient in hunting and fishing, and they
could only occasionally get food from the natives. The consequence was
that scurvy broke out, and most of his people returned in the _Hope_
when the navigable season arrived. But in 1723 two ships arrived with
provisions and the good news that the King had imposed a Greenland
assessment for the support of the colony.
It was found that the Dutch had long frequented Davis Strait for the
whale fishery. Several ships arrived every year and they made use of
two or three harbours, but had no permanent settlement.
In the second year after his arrival Hans Egede undertook a boat voyage
in search of the lost Greenland colony. The distance was great from
Gilbert Sound to Cape Farewell, and then round to the east side of
Greenland, for the general belief then was that the “East Bygd” of the
Norsemen was on the east coast. On Egede’s map Frobisher’s Strait was
shown to pass through Greenland, instead of on the other side of Davis
Strait, and he naturally relied upon being able to make a short cut
to the east coast by passing through it. This was the last time that
anyone was misled by the errors of Niccolo Zeno’s chart. For the first
land of Frobisher was supposed to be the Friesland of Zeno, in which
case the second land would be Greenland. In reality the first land was
Greenland, and the second land of Frobisher was the other side of Davis
Strait.
Hans Egede proceeded along the coast to the southward, examining the
principal fjords, discovering the ruins of the church at Kakortak[95]
and other vestiges of the Norsemen, little thinking that all the time
he was in the “East Bygd,” which he supposed to be on the other side
of Greenland. He looked out anxiously for Frobisher’s Strait, which of
course he never found, and went almost as far as Cape Farewell. The
lateness of the season at last obliged him to return.
Hans Egede then devoted all his energies to the instruction and
conversion of the Eskimos, who were scattered in small bodies along
the coast. He carefully sought out any words in their language that
resembled those of the Norsemen[96]. Probably he thought that these
Greenlanders had Norse blood in their veins, that in fact they
represented all that remained of the lost colony. The Danish Government
came to the conclusion that Greenland might be a valuable acquisition
and there was still a desire to reach the east coast where the East
Bygd of the Norsemen was supposed to be. In 1728 Major Paar arrived as
Governor with five ships, one of them a man-of-war, bringing materials
for a fort and a garrison, as well as horses for crossing to the East
Bygd, so little was the inland ice then understood. Major Paar removed
the settlement from Kenget Island to the mainland, on the south side
of Gilbert Sound, where it received the name of Godthaab, and is now
the capital of Danish Greenland. Unfortunately a form of scurvy broke
out and the people died off rapidly, the mortality continuing until
the spring of 1729, when the survivors were sent home, and this first
attempt at a colony came to an end, leaving Hans Egede almost in
despair. His eldest son Paul was sent to Copenhagen to complete his
education.
Governor Paar made an attempt to comply with his instructions about
the east coast. On April 25th, 1729, he set out with a party of seven
men to explore the Amaralik Fjord, but found it impossible to make any
progress on the inland ice, and returned on the 7th of May. On the
map in the English translation of the book by Hans Egede there is a
strait passing right across Greenland from Disco Bay with the following
legend:--“_It is said that these streights were formerly passable but
now they are shoot up with ice._” All the names from Ivar Bardsen are
scattered along the east side of Greenland in this map of 1740.
The attempt to form a colony had a very injurious result for the
mission, as it made most of the natives move northwards to Disco Bay.
The death of King Frederick IV, who had steadily supported Egede and
the Greenland enterprise, seemed to be a mortal blow. The Government
of his successor, Christian VI, saw no probability of any commercial
advantage, and considered that the ten years of missionary efforts had
produced little or no result. An order was therefore issued that the
colony was to be given up, Hans Egede being given the option either to
return with the rest or to remain. He resolved to stay, ten sailors
volunteering to stand by him, and after much importunity, a year’s
provisions were left with him. His youngest son Nils was now old enough
to assist his father, and undertook the commercial part of the work,
going about to collect blubber and other products, and striving, when
possible, to take the part of a catechist. But privations and anxieties
were telling upon Egede. A feeling of despondency was beginning to
weigh him down, and he was only encouraged to perseverance by the
heroic constancy of his wife.
At last hope was revived. In May, 1733, a ship arrived with the news
that the Greenland trade was to be continued, and that the King would
make an annual grant of £400 a year to the mission. In the same
ship three Moravian missionaries arrived who formed a station which
they called “New Herrnhuth,” a few miles from Godthaab, and worked
in harmony with the Danish missionaries[97]. But progress was still
further delayed by an appalling calamity. An Eskimo boy who had been
at Copenhagen brought back the smallpox. It spread like wildfire, and
threatened to wipe out the whole Eskimo race. The sufferings were
terrible and several thousands died.
Hans Egede’s eldest son Paul had returned, and gave lessons in the
Eskimo language, of which he was a master, having learnt it from
childhood, to the Moravian missionaries. He afterwards had charge of
the mission station of Christianshaab in Disco Bay until 1740. The
devoted wife of Hans Egede died in December 1735, a true Christian
heroine, full of zeal for the conversion of the natives and of helpful
care for their welfare. With the loss of his brave wife Hans Egede
felt that his work was at an end and sailed with his daughters and his
youngest son on the 9th August, arriving at Copenhagen on the 24th
September, 1736. His wife’s remains were taken with him, and interred
in St Nicholas churchyard.
Hans Egede had made a beginning. He had sown the good seed. He
left four missionaries and two catechists in Greenland, twenty or
thirty adult converts, and about a hundred baptized children. He
had formed rather a high opinion of the Eskimo character after an
experience extending over 15 years. He looked upon the Greenlanders
as even-tempered and good-natured, of orderly behaviour and hating
every kind of strife. There was no thieving among themselves, though
foreigners were considered fair game. They were hospitable, and every
one was content with his own state and condition.
On the arrival of Hans Egede at Copenhagen he had an audience of the
King, who appointed him Superintendent of the Greenland Mission, with
a salary of £100 a year. He passed the last years of his life in
retirement with his daughters on the island of Falster, where he died,
in his 73rd year, on the 5th November, 1758[98].
The Danish Government took both the Greenland Mission and the trade
under royal protection. For it began to be understood that there was
wealth in the products of Greenland, in the whalebone and oil, the
skins of seals, deer, and foxes, the walrus and narwhal ivory, and
the eider-down. There were to be royal factors and storehouses, side
by side with missionaries and churches. Stations were to be formed
at intervals along the coast, to be visited annually by ships which
were to receive the products collected by the factors during the year.
The larger stations consisted of the factor’s house, storehouse, and
smithy, the mission house and church, and the native huts.
The most southern station, Frederikshaab, was formed in 1742 by Jacob
Severin, a merchant of Jutland. About 40 miles to the north of this
station is the famous _Eis blink_, a great ice mass whose “glance” or
“blink” in the sky is seen for many leagues out at sea. It forms a vast
ice bridge over the fjord, two leagues across and eight leagues long
and the ebb tides take quantities of ice out to sea, under the bridge.
Further north is the bay which Hans Egede called Fischer’s Fjord, in
lat. 63° N. Here a station was formed in 1754, and, four years later,
on the same island, the Moravians settled their second mission, which
they called Lichtenfels. These were the only stations south of Godthaab
in the early days.
To the north, the station of Sukkertoppen was founded in 1755, and in
1759 Holsteinborg was established, and named after Count Holstein,
President of the Missions College. The first factor was Nils Egede,
younger son of the great missionary. Holsteinborg is well placed in an
excellent harbour with the numerous Knight Islands in the offing. Fifty
miles further north is the station of Egedesminde which was founded by
Nils Egede in 1759, who gave it that name in memory of his father. In
Disco Bay a settlement was formed by order of Jacob Severin as early
as 1734 and named Christianshaab. Paul Egede was the first missionary
there[99]. Claushavn was established further north in 1752. The shores
and islands of Disco Bay were, at that time, the most populous part of
Greenland. Another station was founded there in 1741, which was named
Jacobshavn in memory of the Director of trade, Jacob Severin. In the
south entrance of the Waigat the station of Rittenbenk was founded in
1755, and at the other end that of Noursoak in 1758. In those days
nothing was known further north, but these 12 stations had factors,
and were annually visited by ships to receive the year’s collection
of blubber and skins. Some 20 years later, in 1774, the station of
Julianshaab was founded in the far south.
Danish Greenland has since continued on much the same lines. The
Royal Trade Monopoly was established by a statute in 1774, and the
system of collecting the products along the coast commenced. There
are 176 inhabited places scattered over 1000 miles of coast, and 60
trading stations where the products are collected and sent to the
chief stations. Besides the yield of the cryolite mine these products
consist of oil, the skins of seal, reindeer, fox and bear, eider-down,
feathers, whalebone, narwhal horns, walrus tusks, and dried cod; the
net revenue being about £6600 a year, not including the cryolite
royalty.
The Danish Mission is also a government institution, there being eight
missionaries with small salaries, besides catechists, not counting the
Moravian missionaries with four stations.