THE LAST MAN.
The final destruction of the Northmen in Greenland is a matter of
melancholy interest. Exactly when it came about we can not know. We
have seen that the bishop’s see was abandoned in 1409. Prior to that
time, however, we have accounts of the desperate straits to which the
people were reduced. In 1383 we find the following curious entry in
the Icelandic annals:
“A ship came from Greenland to Norway which had lain in the former
country six years, and certain men returned by this vessel who had
escaped from the wreck of Thorlast’s ship. This ship brought the news
of Bishop Alf’s death from Greenland, which had taken place there six
years before.”
Of the causes which led to this state of affairs we are not,
however, left wholly to conjecture. First came a royal decree (for
by this time Greenland had passed over, along with Iceland, from a
state of independence into the possession of the King of Norway)
laying a prohibition on the foreign trade, and creating Greenland a
monopoly of the crown. This was a dreadful blow, and the shipping
was practically at an end. Trade must, indeed, have been sadly
languishing when six years were required to obtain a return cargo.
But “misfortunes never come singly.” In 1418 a hostile fleet made
a descent upon the coast, and, after laying waste the buildings,
carried off what plunder and as many captives as they could. With
respect to this latter event, and the generally poor condition to
which the colonies were reduced, we find the following appeal of
Pope Nicholas the Fifth, written to the Bishop of Iceland in the year
1448:
“In regard,” says the pope’s letter, “to my beloved children born in
and inhabiting the island of Greenland, which is said to be situated
at the farthest limits of the great ocean, north of the kingdom of
Norway, and in the Sea of Trondheim—their pitiable complaints have
reached our ears, and awakened our compassion; hearing that they
have, for a period of near six hundred years, maintained, in firm and
inviolate subjection to the authority and ordinances of the apostolic
chair, the Christian faith established among them by the preaching
of their renowned teacher, King Olaf, and have, actuated by a pious
zeal for the interests of religion, erected many churches, and, among
others, a cathedral, in that island, where religious service was
diligently performed until about thirty years ago, when some heathen
foreigners from the neighboring coast came against them with a
fleet, fell upon them furiously, laid waste the country and its holy
buildings with fire and sword, sparing nothing throughout the whole
island of Greenland but the small parishes said to be situated a long
way off, and which they were prevented from reaching by the mountains
and precipices intervening, and carrying away into captivity the
wretched inhabitants of both sexes, particularly such of them as were
considered to be strong of body and able to endure the labors of
perpetual slavery.”
Furthermore, the letter states that some of those who were carried
away captive have returned, but that the organization of the colonies
is destroyed, and the worship of God is given up because there are no
priests or bishops; and finally, the Bishop of Iceland is enjoined to
send to Greenland “some fit and proper person for their bishop, if
the distance between you and them permit.”
But the distance did not permit. At least, there is no evidence of
any action having been taken, so that this is the last we know of
ancient Greenland, and from that time “the lost colonies” passed into
tradition.
Who the raiders were who thus gave rise to the necessity which
existed for the pope’s earnest interference we are not positively
informed, but about this time the savages attacked the colonists,
as we know from the sagas of Ivar Bere. Previous to this, however,
they had appeared upon the coast. This was about the middle of the
fourteenth century.
In a former chapter I have alluded to the progress of the Northmen up
the Greenland coast, and have mentioned their occupation of an island
near Upernavik. But no important settlements were effected farther in
that direction than those which were founded upon the banks of what
is now Baal’s River, where stands the modern colony of Godthaab—a
deep fiord, alike in character with that of Ericsfiord. Here there
was a considerable population, the colonies being distinguished by
the name of West Buygd; while those about Ericsfiord and to the
south, towards Cape Farewell, were called the East Buygd, meaning the
western and eastern inhabited places.
In the year 1349 intelligence was brought to Ericsfiord from the West
Buygd that a descent had been made upon them by the Skraellings. An
expedition was immediately fitted out for their defense and succor,
and was placed in charge of Ivar Bere (the same who left a written
account of his Greenland experiences), who was secretary to the
bishop, and lay superintendent of Gardar. He found, however, on
arriving there, not a human being left, but merely a few cattle,
which he brought away with him. Nor did he discover any enemies.
Having accomplished their murderous and plundering design, the
savages had retreated with the fruits of their raid, and for a time
were not again heard from. But at length they learned of the still
greater wealth of the white men lower down the coast, and there they
began to show themselves—at first in small bands, but finally in
great numbers, until they overran the habitable parts of the country;
and, driving the Northmen from place to place, at length wiped them
out as completely here as they had formerly done in the West Buygd.
The churches were pillaged and burned, and the monasteries of St.
Olaf, St. Michael, and St. Thomas were levelled with the earth.
A peculiar interest attaches to the church at Krakortok from the
circumstance that here the Northmen made their last stand, and, under
the leadership of a man named Ungitok, for some years maintained an
obstinate and successful resistance. At this time great numbers of
the savages were collected upon the island of Aukpeitsavik (about
midway between Krakortok and Julianashaab), under the lead of their
chief, Krassippe.
These savages, or Skraellings, were the Esquimaux of the present
time. Originally they appear to have been warlike and aggressive. At
present they are an inoffensive, harmless people—a change entirely
due to the influence of the Danish missionaries and the Moravian
Brethren, who have been among them during the past hundred and fifty
years.
Whence they came, we can of course only conjecture, since they had
formerly no written language of any kind, and possessed only vague
traditions of having come from the West. That they crossed from
Asia by Behring’s Straits, and then wandered eastward along the
coasts of Arctic America, until, in course of time, they reached
Greenland, there can be no reasonable doubt. Of the period of their
original migration we can not, of course, have ground for even a
rational speculation. This is, however, wholly unimportant to our
present purpose, which concerns only their appearance in Greenland—an
event which, as we have seen, happened in the fourteenth century.
Could it be that these same savages were identical with those of
similar character which Lief and his successors, three centuries
before, had found on the shores of Massachusetts, and who were there
in sufficient numbers to prevent the Northmen from occupying the
country? I think it very probable; and their appearance in Greenland
is, perhaps, due to the fact that the tribes now known as Indians
(who first appeared upon the eastern slope of the Alleghanies about
that time) drove them from their southern hunting-grounds, and forced
them to seek safety in the inhospitable North, compelling them to
reside upon the sea-shore, because the land produced but little game,
while the sea everywhere abounded in fish. Hence their name, derived
from the Indian word _Esquimatlik_, applied to them in derision, and
signifying “eaters of fish.”
In what manner they crossed Baffin’s Bay is left in doubt. It would
not have been impossible for them to do so in their skin boats.
Possibly, however, they went higher up, and crossed over on the ice
of Smith’s Sound. Some tribes still exist in that neighborhood; and
to show their insatiable love of wandering, I may mention that I
have found evidences of their presence upon the shores of Grinnell’s
Land as far north as latitude 81°. It has been conjectured that
they came over in fleets of boats, crossing the narrowest part of
Davis’s Strait, which is less than two hundred miles wide, from land
to land. It may be that they were not less influenced by a motive
of revenge for the wrongs of their ancestors than fleeing from the
Indians who possessed their lands, for they had been sadly ill-used
in Massachusetts by the Northmen when they first came there. These
Northmen had killed and tortured a great many of them in very
wantonness, before actual hostilities began. There might seem to be,
therefore, in the destruction of the Northmen by these Skraellings
something of retributive justice.
This destruction went on, as we have seen, until the remnant of the
race was brought to bay and driven to defend themselves at Krakortok.
But they could neither be dislodged nor completely destroyed until
stratagem was brought to bear; and the device to which these savages
resorted in order to accomplish their purpose deserves to rank with
the famous wooden horse of Troy.
This did not, however, happen until after a most desperate attempt
had been made by Ungitok to get free from the clutches of his brutal
adversaries. He managed, with a large party of his followers, to
get over to the island, and in the dead of night he surprised them
in their huts, and, with the loss of only one man, destroyed the
entire party, putting men, women, and children to the sword. It was
a fearful massacre, and a dreadful revenge; but it only further
imbittered the savages against the whites, and caused them to
redouble their efforts. One man escaped the general slaughter, and
carried with him the memory of their burning huts and bleeding wives
and children. Two there were at first, and, unhappily for the whites,
one of those men was the chief, Krassippe; while the second was his
brother. These Ungitok pursued upon the ice (the attack was made in
winter), with several men following after; but Ungitok outstripped
them all, and, overtaking the brother, ran him through the body, and
then cutting off the right arm of his fallen enemy he brandished it
in the air, shouting at the same time to Krassippe (who by this time
had reached the shore), intimating to him, in an obliging manner,
that if he ever wanted an arm he would know where to come for it.
Krassippe was now beyond pursuit, so Ungitok returned, well pleased
with the trophy he had cut from his victim.
After this Krassippe neither rested by night nor day until he had
compassed the destruction of Ungitok and his band. In a fair fight
every Northman was good for at least half a dozen savages, and,
notwithstanding the destruction they had spread elsewhere, the people
of Krakortok held them personally in the greatest contempt. But
Krassippe was nevertheless, by numbers and strategy, to get the best
of them at last. He constructed an immense raft of boats, over which
he erected a low and irregular scaffolding. This he covered with
tanned and bleached seal-skins, so that when afloat the structure
looked like an iceberg. This he filled with armed men, and turned
it adrift upon the fiord, allowing it to float down with the tide
towards Krakortok among some pieces of ice. When it floated too fast,
the people threw overboard stones, with lines attached to them.
These, by retarding the progress of the raft, enabled them to keep
in company with the icebergs. Ungitok and his people saw the raft;
but so much did it appear like the ice alongside of it, that they
never once suspected its character, and the armed men drifted around
into a bight almost at the rear of the town. Running the raft ashore,
they then rushed up and made for the church by an unfrequented route,
which was left unguarded, except close to the town. The sentinel
was killed, and the church was surrounded before a single person
escaped from it. Then it was fired, and all who were not burned or
smothered with smoke met death, as they rushed out, on the points
of their enemies’ spears. Not a soul escaped except Ungitok and
his son, who was but a small boy. With him Ungitok fled to the
mountains, and there hid for a time in a cave, where at length he
was discovered through the indefatigable exertions of Krassippe. The
hiding chieftain was surrounded, and, discovering that his case was
hopeless, he threw his son into the lake to prevent his falling into
the hands of the savages, who would be sure to torture him, and then
prepared to sell his life as dearly as possible. In the end he was
overpowered and borne down. While yet sensible, Krassippe completed
his revenge by cutting off his right arm, and, flourishing it before
the expiring chieftain, he exclaimed, “Thou didst tell me where to
come for an arm if I should want one. I have come for it.”
Thus perished the last man of his race; and since that day the
Esquimaux, whom their defeated rivals had so contemptuously called
Skraellings, have held possession of the country undisturbed. They
have, however, very evidently decreased in numbers, and where there
were once tens of thousands, there are only thousands now. For a
long period of time they remained the sole occupants of the country,
and nothing was known of them save vague and exaggerated accounts
brought by occasional ships—such as those of Davis, Baffin, and
Frobisher, who touched at Greenland on their way to the discovery of
a north-west passage. In later times, however, the Danish Government
(to which Greenland as well as Iceland had become subject) made
numerous efforts to recover the “lost colonies,” with the hope of
sustaining the trade and fisheries. Admiral Lindenau reached the
coast in 1605, and carried off some of the savages. Afterwards
Captain Hall, an Englishman in the employ of Denmark, took away four
others, and shot what more he could, as if by way of amusement.
Another, who was not versed in ocean currents, did not get near
the land at all; but, becoming frightened at being able to make no
progress, he declared that there was a huge magnet in the sea holding
his ship, which so alarmed him that he returned home. About half a
dozen enterprises followed, the last in 1670, without any further
result than the killing of a few more of the savages. Then the “lost
colonies” were given up altogether, until that excellent missionary,
Hans Egede, went there in 1721, and established himself in Baal’s
River, near where the West Buygd had flourished. Here he founded the
colony of Godthaab. Then came the Moravians; and from that time to
the present the re-establishment of colonies, and the civilizing and
Christianizing of the natives, has gone steadily on. But nowhere did
Egede or his followers find any traces of the race that had dwelt
there in ancient times, save those evidences of their decay which I
have described. Egede travelled very extensively; and others coming
after him have described all we shall probably ever know of this
Land of Desolation as it was in the days of Red Eric. Among the most
important discoveries were those of Captain Graah, of the Danish
navy, who visited both coasts in oomiaks during the years between
1828 and 1832; and after him Dr. Henry Rink.
I will close this historical account of Greenland with a paragraph
from the _Dublin Review_ of twenty years ago, which has not less
interest at the present time than then. “Few people,” observes the
_Review_, “imagine the extent of these ancient Greenland colonies.
At best, it seems to most persons some sort of Arctic fable, and
they are hardly prepared to learn that of this Greenland nation
contemporary records, histories, papal briefs, and grants of land
yet exist. So complete was the destruction of the colonies, and
so absolutely were they lost to the rest of the world, that for
centuries Europe was in doubt respecting their fate, and, up to a
very recent period, was ignorant of their geographical position. To
the Catholic they must be doubly interesting when he learns that
here, as in his own land, the traces of his faith—of that faith
which is everywhere the same—are yet distinctly to be found; that
the sacred temples of his worship may still be identified; nay, that
in at least one instance the church itself, with its burial-ground,
its aumbries, its holy-water stoup, and its tomb-stones, bearing
the sacred emblems of the Catholic belief, and the pious petitions
for the prayers of the surviving faithful, still remain to attest
that here once dwelt a people who were our brethren in the Church of
God. It was not, as in our own land, that these churches, these fair
establishments of the true faith, were ruined by the lust and avarice
of a tyrant. No change of religion marked the history of the Church
of Greenland; the colonies had been lost before the fearful religious
calamities of the sixteenth century. How or when they were swept away
we scarcely know, save from a few scattered notices, and from the
traditions of wandering Esquimaux—a heathen people that burst in upon
the old colonists of Greenland, and laid desolate their sanctuaries
and their homes, ‘till not one man was left alive.’”