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From the Library of
JAMES FRANCIS MEAGHER
Gift of his Children
1928

EGEDE'S

DESCRIPTION

GREENLAND.

CHARLES WOOD, Printer,
Poppin's Court, Fleet Street, London.

JSn/fratv/f farJEfff^t.f Glivn/imtf

3$&$3&w2?*-iBz8-ly T.£J_JT?nimi,2rincetr Street^JSeaiop'ei- Sfuar*

DESCRIPTION OF GREENLAND.
BY HANS EGEDE,
WHO WAS A MISSIONARY IN THAT COUNTRV
FOR
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS.

A NEW EDITION.
WITH AN
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
AND
A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.
ILLUSTRATED
WITH A MAP OF GREENLAND, AND NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR T. AND J. ALLMAN,
PRINCES STREET, HANOVER SQUARE J
W. H. REID, CHARING CROSS; AND BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOV,
PATERNOSTER ROW.
1818.

CONTENTS.

PAGE
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION  i
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR  xciii
CHAPTER I.
Of the Situation and Extent of Greenland. Probability
of its forming Part of America  1
CHAR II.
First Settlement of Greenland, with some Thoughs on
the Extinction of the Nonveginn Colonies ; and whe
ther on the East Side no Remainders may be found
of the old Norwegians : also, whether the same Tract
qf Land cannot be recovered  7
CHAP. III.
Of the Nature of the Soil, Plants, and Minerals of
Greenland  41
CHAP. IV.
<Of the Natwe of the Climate, and the Temperament of
the Air  • 5°

VI CONTENTS.' CHAP. V.
Of the Land Animals, and Land Fowls or Birds of
Greenland; and how they hunt and kill them  59
CHAP. VI.
Of the Greenland Sea Animals, and Sea Fowls and
Fishes  66
CHAP. VIL
Of the ordinary Occupations of the Greenlanders, as
Hunting and Fishing : of the Tools and Instruments
necessary for these Employments : of their House Im
plements and Utensils  IOO
CHAP. VIII.
Of the Inhabitants, their Houses, and Home Fur
niture  .....a  113
CHAP. IX.
Of the Persons, Complexion, and Temperament of the
Greenlanders  119
CHAP. X.
Of the Customs, Virtues, and Vices, and the Manners
or Way of Life of the Greenlanders  123
CHAP. XI.
Of their Habits and Way of Dressing  130

CONTENTS. Vll
CHAP. XII.
Of their Diet, and manner of dressing their Victuals  135
CHAP. XIII.
Of their Marriages, and Education of their Children ... 140
CHAP. XIV.
How the Greenlanders mourn and bury their dead
Friends  143
CHAP. XV.
Of their Pastimes and Diversions, as also their Poetry..,, 154
CHAP. XVI.
Of their Language  ,  16S
CHAP. XVII.
Pf the Greenland Trade, and whether in promoting it
there is any advantage to be expected  179
CHAP. XVIII.
The Religion, or rather Superstition, of the Green
landers  1*88
CHAP. XIX.
The Astronomy ofthe Greenlanders, or their Thoughts con
cerning the Sun, Moon, Stan, and Planets  206

Vill CONTENTS. CHAP. XX.
The Capacity of the Greenlanders, and their Inclination
towards the Knowledge of God, and the Christian
Religion; and by what Means this may easily be
brought about  214

HISTORICAL

INTRODUCTION.

THE regions in the neighbourhood of the
North Pole have lately become the objects
of increased curiosity ; and among these
regions Greenland has attracted a more
than usual interest. This country was
first peopled by a colony from Iceland,
which occupied both the Western and
Eastern parts of the Island. The first
h

HISTORICAL

settlers in the West appear to have been
destroyed by the natives, who are deno
minated Skrellings; and though a com
munication was preserved for several cen
turies between the Eastern coast of
Greenland and some parts of the Danish
territory, yet it was interrupted about
the close of the fourteenth century by
accumulated masses of ice, which formed
an impenetrable barrier pf considerable
extent around the shore; and though
various attempts have been made, at dif
ferent times, to explore a passage through
this frozen rampart, yet there is no de
finite account of any attempt of this kind
which has hitherto been successful. May
we hope that the execution of this project,
which is prompted, not only by curiosity
but by philanthropy, is reserved for the

INTRODUCTION. xi
present era, and that it will be finally
accomplished by the nautical skill and
enterprise of this country !
As we possess indubitable evidence that
a considerable extent of this coast was
formerly occupied by a flourishing colony,
and that it contained numerous villages,
with a bishop's see, we cannot but be
anxious to know what has been the fate
of so many human beings, so long cut off
from all intercourse with the more civi
lized world. Were they destroyed by an
invasion of the natives, like their coun
trymen on the Western coast ? or have
they perished by the inclemency of the
climate, and the sterility of the soil? or
do they still subsist? If they subsist, it
must greatly interest our curiosity to learn
in what manner they have vanquished the
h2

Xll HISTORICAL,
difliculties with which they have had to
contend, both from the climate and the
soil, and the total privation of all articles
of European manufacture. In the novel
circumstances in which they have been
placed, have the present race advanced
or declined in the degree of culture which
their forefathers possessed? What pro
ficiency have they made? or what dete
rioration have they undergone? Have
they remained nearly stationary at the
point of civilized existence at which their
ancestors were placed four centuries ago ?
or have they entirely degenerated into a
savage race, and preserved no memory
nor vestige of their original extraction
from, and subsequent communication with,
the continent of civilized Europe ? These
are certainly points of interesting re-

INTRODUCTION. Xlll
search ; and to which we cannot well be
indifferent as Christians, or, indeed, as
human beings.
In the mean time, though we cannot
yet supply any particulars respecting the
present state of the Eastern coast of
Greenland, we think that the readers of
this new edition of Egede will not be
displeased with us for furnishing them
with all the information which remains,
respecting its past state, as well as with
some historical details, which will render
the present volume more complete than
it would otherwise have been.
Greenland was first discovered by Eric,
surnamed Rufus, or the Red, in the year
981 or 982*. This chieftain was of

* Torfsei Gronlandia Antiqua Havnise, 1706, p. 16;
see also Peyrere Relation du Greenland, p. Si. These

XIV HISTORICAL
Norwegian extraction. His father had
fled from Norway, and taken refuge in
Iceland, in order to avoid the vengeance
which menaced him, on account of a
murder which he had perpetrated in his
native land. Eric appears to have com
mitted in Iceland a crime similar to that
for which his father had fled from Nor
way. In endeavouring to escape the pur
suit of justice, Eric accidentally discovered
the coast which is the present object of
our inquiry. He took his departure from
Iceland at the port of Snaefellzness, which
is situate in a Western promontory of
that island. He arrived in the vicinity
of a mountain called Midjokul*; or, as
it is denominated by others, Miklajokul.
two authorities are principally followed. Peyrere's work
is in Recueil de Voyages au Nord, tome premier.
* Torfaeus, p. 13, " median alpes."

INTRODUCTION. XV
Peyrere interprets this, " le grand gla-
con," the great mountain of ice. Sub
sequent navigators gave it the name of
Bloeserken, or Blue Smock, and others
of Huidserken, or White Smock, accord
ing to the variations in the hue of the
ice in different aspects and at different
periods of the year.
Eric passed the first winter after his
departure from Iceland in an island which
he called after his own name, Ericscun,
and which Torfseus places in the midst
of the cultivated Eastern district. In
the following spring he entered one of
the bays of Eastern Greenland, to which
he gave the name of Ericsfiord ; and
where he formed his first settlement,
which he denominated Brattahlis. In the
summer of the same year he explored

XVI , HISTORICAL
parts of the more Western district, and
gave names to many of the places which
-he visited*. He passed the following
winter in the island of Eriksun ; and in
the succeeding summer he passed over
to the main land, and proceeded along
the Northern coast till he reached an
immense rock^ which he called Sneefiell,
or the Rock of Show. At this point he
gave the name of Ravensfiord to another
bay, on account of the multitudes of that
ill-omened bird with which this spot
abounds. Other parts of the coast de
rived their appellations from the names
of the different adventurers who accom
panied Eric in this expedition, as, Her-
gulfsness, Ketillsfiord, Solvadal, Einars-
fiord, &cf.
* Torfaeus, p. 14. f Ibid, p.. 19.

INTRODUCTION. XVII
In the following summer Eric, hav
ing conciliated the forgiveness, or pur
chased the forbearance, of his enemies
in Iceland, returned to that country to
procure an additional supply of inhabit
ants for his new settlement. In order to
render his proposals more attractive, he
named the country for which he was en
deavouring to provide colonists, Green
land, as if, compared with the rugged
Sterility of their native Iceland, it was a
region of verdure and delight. He de
scribed it as abounding in cattle, and as
rich in every species of game and fish.
And as such delusive representations,
when assisted by the vivid eloquence of
enthusiasm, or the unhesitating assurance
of effrontery, seldom fail of their effect,
Eric returned to his recent acquisition

xviii HISTORICAL
with numerous ships, and a large body
qf settlers, from Iceland.
In less than twenty years after Eric
the Red had begun to colonize Green
land, his son Leiff, who had made a
voyage into Norway, renounced his Pagan
errors, and received the baptismal rite.
His conversion was owing to the example
and the admonitions of King Olave Trygg-
wine, or Trugguerus*, who had himself
recently embraced the same doctrine,, and
had been very successful in causing it to
be diffused throughout his dominions.
Leiff, liaving passed the winter at the
court of the King of Norway, returned
to Greenland, in company with a priest
and some other missionaries, whom the
* Peyrere.

INTRODUCTION. XIX
King had commissioned to instruct Eric,
and the other settlers, in the faith which
Leiff had embraced. On their voyage to
Greenland they met some mariners, who
were floating upon a wreck in the open
sea. These they took on board, and
conveyed to the new settlement. Eric,
at first, incensed with his son for having
laid open to strangers the route to the
new-discovered country, turned a deaf
ear to his Christian admonitions. But
the earnestness of the son, seconded by
the instruction of the missionaries, at
last prevailed over the insensibility of the
father, who submitted to the rite of bap
tism, when the other Greenlanders fol
lowed his example.
The Christian doctrine, which had
been thus introduced, was so much ap-

XX HISTORICAL
proved, and so generally received, thai
churches were established in twelve dif
ferent parts of .East Greenland, and in four
in the Western district. Torfseus makes
the year 1000 the era of the conversion
of the Greenland colonists to the Chris
tian faith. This historian of ancient
Greenland has also preserved a list of
its bishops, from the year 1021 to 1406*,
after which period no mention is made, of
any subsequent episcopal appointments ;
and indeed the intercourse between
Greenland and the native region of the
first settlers appears to have been pre
viously discontinued.
A Danish Chronicle, which M. Pey-
rere had consulted, refers the discovery
of Greenland to a much earlier date than
that which has been given upon the au-

INTRODUCTION. XXI
thority of Torfaeus; and the earlier date
of 770 is more likely to be true, if, as
M. Peyrere mentions, there is a bull of
Pope Gregory IV, in 835, relative to the
propagation of the Christian faith in the
North of Europe, in which Iceland and
Greenland are particularly mentioned.
The Danish Chronicle, to which Pey-
rere appeals, states, that the Kings of
Denmark, having been converted to
Christianity during the empire of Louis
le Debonaire, Greenland had become an
object of general attention at this period.
The Danish Chronicle relates, that the
first settlers in Greenland were succeeded
by a numerous posterity, who penetrated
farther into the country, and discovered,
among the rocky heights and icy moun
tains, some fertile spots, which were more

XXU HISTORICAL
auspicious to pasturage and cultivation.
They followed the division of Greenland
which Eric had established, and called the
two settlements in the East and the West,
Osterbygdt and Westerbygdt.
In the Eastern district the Green
landers erected a town, to which they
gave the name of Garde, where, accord
ing to Peyrere, who refers to the Chro
nicle, the Norwegians established a sort
of emporium for the deposit and sale of
their merchandize. The town of Garde
became also the residence of their bishops ;
and the church of St. Nicholas, the patron
of sailors, which was built in the same
town, became the cathedral church of the
Greenlanders. As the temporal jurisdiction in Green
land was subject to the kings of Norway,

INTRODUCTION. XX1U
so the spiritual power of the bishops was
subordinate to that of the archbishops of
Drontheim; and the bishops of Green
land are said frequently to have passed
over to Norway, in order to consult their
ecclesiastical superior.
The Danish Chronicle, which was one
of the early documents upon which Pey
rere founded his narrative, relates, that
an insurrection broke out in Greenland,
in 1256, when the inhabitants refused
any longer to submit to the tributary
exactions of Magnus, King of Norway.
On this occasion, Eric, King of Denmark,
at the request of Magnus, who had mar
ried his niece, equipped a naval armament
in order to quell the rebels, and restore
the authority of his nephew. The Green
land insurgents no sooner beheld the flag

XXIV HISTORICAL
of the Danish fleet approaching their coast
than they were struck with a panic, an4
sued for peace.
This peace was ratified in the year
1261. Angrim Jonas, who records th#
.abovementioned transaction, gives the
names of the three principal inhabitants
of Greenland, who signed the treaty
in Norway. " Declarantes," says An
grim, as quoted by Peyrere, " suis factum
auspiciis ut Groenlandi perpetuum tribu-
tum Norveguo denuo jurassent." Under
their auspices the Greenlanders had been
again brought to swear to pay a perpetual
tribute to the Norwegian.
In composing his account of ancient
Greenland, Peyrere derived his principal
information from an Icelandic and a
Danish Chronicle. The first was the pro-

INTRODUCTION. XXV
duction of Snorro Sturleson, who was
a native of Iceland, and chief justiciary of
that island in 1215. We are also indebted
to him for the compilation of the Edda.
In the Icelandic Chronicle above-men
tioned, which appears to be a tissue of
different narratives, one of the chapters is
entitled, a Description of Greenland,
which Peyrere has copied into his account
as literally as the difference of languages
would admit. There is a similar descrip
tion in Torfaeus (p. 42, &c), with parti
cular but unimportant variations. Both
the accounts are founded on the authority
of Ivar Bert or Ivar Bevius, who had, for
several years, been steward or maitre
cl'hotel to the Bishop of Garde, and was
one of the persons who had been selected
by the governor toj expel the Skrellings

XXVI HISTORICAL
from the Western province of Greenland
or Westerbygdt, which they had invaded
and depopulated.
Perhaps it will be best to insert this
description of Eastern Greenland, which
was the most flourishing settlement of the
Norwegians in this country, as it is found
in the narrative of Peyrere, and in the
history of Torfaeus. If the skill, the phi
lanthropy, and the enterprize of some
English navigators should ever obtain an
access to this long lost settlement, and the
passage should again become as safe and
practicable as it was in ancient times, it
will be an interesting research to compare
the present state of this district with the
early accounts.
The most Eastern town in Greenland,
says Ivar Bert, as exhibited in the French

INTRODUCTION. XXVII
version of Peyrere, is called Skagefiord*,
where is an uninhabitable rock, and farther
out in the sea is a shoal, which prevents
ships from entering the bay, except at
high water, and it is at this time, or dur
ing a violent storm, that numbers of
whales and of other fish enter the bay and
are caught in abundance.
As you proceed a little higher towards
the East, there is a port called Funka-
* Torfaeus possessed three versions of this account in
German, Danish, and Icelandic. His narrative runs, —
The most Eastern settlement of Greenland lies under the
promontory of Herjolfsness, and is called Skagafiord.
Here is an uncultivated mountain, called Barrafell. At
the mouth is a long sand bank (pulvimis longus), stretched
across, so that no ships can enter, except when the water
is raised to a great height by the wind and tide. At that
time numbers of whales crowd into the bay. Here is a
never-failing fishery, which is part of the episcopal do
main.
C 2

XXVIII HISTORICAL,
badir, from tlie name of a page or mis
sionary of St. Olave, King of Norway,
who, with several other persons, suffered
shipwreck at that spot*.
In a still higher latitude, and close to
the mountains of ice, or, as Torfaeus says,
" propius Alpes" is an island, named
Roansen or Ranseyaf, which, in early
times, appears to have been celebrated for
the quantity of animals, particularly of
white bears, which it furnished for the
chace. Torfaeus says, that these white
bears were not to be hunted without leave
* Torfaeus and Peyrere.
•f Torfaeus says, " ubi publica in sylvis venatio." Of
what trees were these woods composed ? Peyrere, copy
ing the Icelandic Chronicle, says, " Ou il se fait grande
chassede toutes sortes de bestes, et entre autres de quantity
d'ours blancs."

INTRODUCTION. XXIX
of the bishop. Beyond this spot the land
and ocean are said to present nothing but
an accumulation of snow and ice.
To the West of Herjolfsness is Kindil-
fiord, or, as Peyrere spells it, Hindelfiord,
which is described as a cultivated and
well peopled bay. Upon the right, as you
enter the bay, there is a church, called
Krokskirk or Korskirk, with a monastery
consecrated to St. Olave and to St. Augus
tin, the domain of which extends to
Petersvic, where there are numerous habi
tations. It also possesses the territory on
the opposite side of the bay.
Next to Kindilfiord is Rumpesinfiord,
or Rumpeyariiord*, in an interior recess
of which there is a convent, dedicated to
* Torfaei Hist. p. 45.

XXX HISTORICAL
St. Olave, which is proprietary of the whole
district to the shore of the bay. This bay
contains many holms or little islands, the
property of which the monastery divides
with the episcopal see. Numerous hot
springs are found in these islands, of
which both Peyrere and Torfaeus say, that
they are so hot as to be inaccessible during
the winter, but that in summer the tem
perature is so much reduced, that they
become the resort of many persons in a
diversity of maladies.
Next to Rumpesinfiord, is Einarsfiord,
and between them is a large mansion,
named Fos, fit for a king or " regi com-
petens" in the language of Torfaeus*. Here
is also a large church dedicated to St. Ni-
* Peyrere's words are, " il y a une maison royale nom-
m£e Fos."

INTRODUCTION. XXXI
cholas. As you enter Lunesfiord, to the
left, there is a little promontory called
Klining ; and beyond it an arm of the sea,
denominated Grantvich. Farther in the
interior is a house*, named Daller, which
belongs to the bishop's see. The cathe
dral is at the end of the bay. Here is a
large wood, in which cattle are left to
browse. The whole of Lunesfiord, with the
large island which is called Linseya by
Torfaeus, Reyatsen by Peyrere, is appro
priated to the cathedral. This part
abounds with rein deer, which are hunted
with the consent of the bishop. The island
of Reyatsen contains a species of stone or
marble, out of which they cut bowls, jugs,
* Torfeus calls it " villa magnifica."

XXXII HISTORICAL
and different kinds of culinary vessels,
which possess the property of resisting the
fire. More to the West is an island named
Langent, where there are eight farms*.
In the vicinity is Ericsfiord; and at the
entrance of this arm of the sea there is an
island called Herrieven, or the Harbour
of the Lord, half of which belongs to the
bishop's see, and the other half to the
church, which is called Diurnes, which is
seen on entering Ericsfiord -j-.
The country, says Peyrere, copying the
Icelandic Chronicle, is unpeopled and desert
between the Osterbygdt and Westerbygdt ;
and upon the borders of this desert there
is a church, called Strosnes, which was
* Torfaeus says, " rusticorum villas."
f Peyrere,

INTRODUCTION. XXXIU
formerly the metropolitan see, and the re
sidence of the bishops of Greenland. The
Westerbygdt is represented as occupied by
the Skrellings*. This part of the country
is described as possessing horses, oxen,
sheep, goats, and other animals, but no
human beings, either Christian or Pagan,
* Doctor Wormius, who was famed for his great re
search in Northern antiquities, told Peyrere, that these
savages, the aborigines of Greenland, inhabited one side
of the bay of Kindelfiord, in the Western district, and
that the Norwegians had a settlement on the opposite
bank. When, then, the author of the Icelandic Chro
nicle said, that the Skrellings possessed all the Wester
bygdt, he meant only the country to the West of this
bay. A small party of Norwegians, who had passed over
to the Western bank, were destroyed by tlie Skrellings.
This caused the Viceroy of Norway, who is called judge
of Greenland, to dispatch a ship with a large force to
revenge this affront. But the savages, at the sight of this
vessel, took to flight and concealed themselves in the
woods and rocks; which occasioned Ivar Bert to repre
sent the country as destitute of inhabitants.

XXXIV HISTORICAL
Such is the account which is given of
the ancient state of Greenland by Ivar
Bert, the author of the Chronicle, which
is mentioned above, and in which, if there
be some inaccurate representation, there is
probably more truth.
Peyrere remarks, that the Icelandic
Chronicle is incorrect in describing the
church of Strosnes as the episcopal see,
since that honour always belonged to the
town of Garde. The Danish Chronicle,
whilst regretting the interruption of the
communication with Greenland, assures
us, that, if the episcopal residence of
Garde* were still standing and accessible,
we should find a great number of docu-
* Angrim Jonas, of Iceland, according to Peyrere,
says expressly, " Fundata in Garde Episcopal is residentia
in sinu Eynatsfiord Groenlandiae Orientalis."

INTRODUCTION. XXXV
ments for a complete and authentic his
tory of Greenland.
The Iceland Chronicle, according to
Peyrere, gives a varying and inconsistent
account of the fertility of Greenland. In
one part it says, that the country fur
nishes the best corn which is to be found
in any part of the world ; and that the
oaks are of such vast bulk, and such
stately growth, that they produce acorns
as large as apples. But in another pas
sage the same Chronicle affirms, that no
seed of any kind, which is sown in Green
land, will grow on account of the cold;
and that the inhabitants are unacquainted
with the use of bread. The latter part of
this account harmonizes with that of the
Danish Chronicle, which affirms, that
when the country was first discovered by

XXXV1 HISTORICAL
Eric the Red, the sterility of the soil
obliged him to subsist entirely upon fish. .
But in the same Danish Chronicle,
which has just been mentioned, we find it
asserted, that, after the death of Eric, his
successors, who penetrated farther into
the country, discovered some fertile spots
between the mountains, and fit either for
pasture or tillage. Tbe Icelandic Chro
nicle contradicts itself when it says, that
nothing will grow in Greenland owing to
the intensity of the cold. Peyrere also re
marks, that that part of Greenland, which
was peopled by the Norwegians, is in the
same latitude as Upland, which is the
most fertile province in Sweden, and pro
duces fine crops of grain. And the Ice
landic Chronicle itself says, in another
place, that the cold in Greenland is not

INTRODUCTION. XXXVII
so great as in Norway; and very good
corn is grown in that country.
Greenland, says Peyrere, like other
countries, which are composed of plains
and mountains, exhibits great diversities
of soil, and though the close approxima
tion to the farthest North, in many situa
tions, destroys the process of vegetation, yet
there appear to be localities, which are by
no means destitute of fertility. There are
pastures possessing excellent herbage ; and
amongst the animals, which contribute to
the subsistence of man, or to other uses,
we find* sheep, oxen, horses, rein deer,
stags, and hares ; and of the more savage
animals, we find wolves, foxes, and an
abundance of white and black bears. The
* Peyrere, p. 9£>.

XXXVI11 HISTORICAL
Icelandic Chronicle mentions beavers and
martens. Peyrere adds*, that grey and white
falcons abound more here than in any
other part of the world. The superior
excellence of these birds caused them to
be formerly sent to the kings of Denmark,
who made presents of them to the kings
and princes in the neighbouring countries,
when falconry constituted one of the
amusements of the great.
The above-mentioned author, who
wrote in the middle of the seventeenth
century f, says, that in Greenland nature
produces a singular phenomenon, which
* P. 99. See also Crantz, vol. i. p. 78.
t Peyrere's account of Greenland is dated from the
Hagve, ISth Juno, 1646.

INTRODUCTION. XXXIX
is described as a sort of miracle in the
Icelandic Chronicle. This phenomenon is
no other than what is commonly called
the Northern Lights. These lights are
mentioned as appearing more particularly
about the time of the new moon; and
illuminating the whole country, as much
as if the moon were at the full. " The
light is more bright," says Peyrere, " in
proportion as the night is more dark."
The Danish Chronicle, which is quoted
by Peyrere, relates, that in the year 1271 a
violent hurricane from the North East
drove a vast accumulation of ice upon the
coast of Iceland, which was covered with
so many bears and so much wood that it
led to the supposition, that the territory
of Greenland was extended more to the
North East than had been hitherto ima-

Xl HISTORICAL
gined. This circumstance tempted some
Northern sailors to attempt the discovery,
but they found nothing but ice. The
kings of Norway and Denmark had long
before this fitted out ships for the same
purpose, but without any more success
than the Icelanders had experienced.
The principal incitement to these voyages
was a received opinion, or traditionary
report, that this country contained numer-
ous veins of gold, of silver, and precious
stones. The Danish Chronicle, pretends, that
some adventurous merchants formerly
amassed a large treasure by these expedi
tions. But regions of silver and gold
have always been amongst the favourite
illusions of mankind; and the imagination
has revelled in visionary mines of the pre-

INTRODUCTION. xii
cious metals, not only in the South but in
the North ; and both at the Equator and
the Pole*
In the time of St. Olave, King of Nor
way, some sailors from Friesland^ incited
by the thirst of gold, are said to have
undertaken a voyage to the North 'Eastern
extremity of Greenland ; but, instead of
returning home with mountains of Wealth,
they were happy to escape the fury of the
winds on this rocky coast, in any miser
able asylum which they could find.
The Danish Chronicle, which is a
mixture of truth and fable, adds, that the
Frieslanders, having made, a landing upon
the coast, discovered some wretched ca
bins just rising above the earth,' around
which lay heaps of gold and silver ore.
Each of the sailors helped himself to
d

Xiii HISTORICAL
as much as he could carry away. But*
when they were retreating to the shore,
in order to re-embark with their treasure,
they saw some human forms, as ugly as
devils, issuing out; of their earthen huts,
armed with bows ,and arrows, and ac
companied with dogs of vast size. Be
fore all the sailors <?oUld reach the shore
some of .them were seized by these fright
ful archers, who tore jthem limbvfrorft
limb within, sight of their companions.
The Danish ' Chronicle adds, that this
region is so rich that it is peopled only by
devils. Peyrere tells us, that one^ of the
chapters in the Icelandic Chronicle de
scribes this ancient route between Nor
way and. Greenland, before the naviga
tion was rendered impracticable: by the

INTRODUCTION. xliii
descent of accumulated mountains of ice
from a more remote point of the North.
But what is mentioned concerning this
route contains nothing very definite or
satisfactory. The above-mentioned Icelandic Chro
nicle has another chapter on the affairs
of Greenland, transcribed from an old
book entitled Speculum Regale. This
chapter describes some marine monsters
of enormous dimensions, which were
formerly seen upon the coast of Green
land. The Norwegians called the first
of these prodigies Haffstramb ; and speak
of it as showing itself breast high above
the waves. It resembled the human form
in the neck, head, visage, nose, and
mouth, except that the head was more
than usually elevated, and terminating in
d2

xliv

HISTORICAL

a point. It had wide shoulders, at the
end of which were two stumps of arms,
without any hands. The body tapered
downwards, but it was never visible
below the middle. It had a frozen look.
The emersion of this phantasm above
the waves was the signal of a hurricane.
The second monster received the ap
pellation of Marguguer. It resembled
the female form as far as the middle.
It had large breasts and dishevelled hair;
its stumps of arms were terminated by
large hands, the fingers of which were
united by a web like the toes of a goose.
It has been seen holding fish in its hands,
and putting them into its mouth. Its
appearance always presaged some violent
storm. If it turned its eye to the sailors,
when it plunged into the water, it was a

INTRODUCTION. xlv
sign, that they would not suffer ship
wreck ; but, if it turned its back, if was
a sure omen, that they would perish in
the deep.
The third phenomenon received the
name of Hafgierdinguer, which was not
properly a monster, but consisted of three
large bodies or mountains of water, which
the tempest impelled into that form; and
when, unfortunately, any ships happened
to become engaged in the triangular
surface, which these three mountains
formed, there was but little chance of
their escape. This marine monster ap
pears to have been engendered by strong
currents conflicting with opposing winds,
which suddenly arise and swallow up the
vessels which happen to be within the
shock of these furious elements.

&Ivi HISTORICAL
The Danish History relates, that in
the year 1348, a great pestilence, which
was called the black plague, depopulated
a great part of the North. It carried off
most of the sailors and merchants of
Norway and Denmark who were engaged
in the trade between Greenland and
those kingdoms. About this period the
navigation to Greenland became less fre
quent, and the traffic began to be dis
continued. But the learned Wormius
assured Peyrere, that he had read in a
Danish manuscript, that down to the
year 1484 there was a company of more
than forty sailors, at Bergen, in Norway,
who went every year to Greenland and
brought back some valuable products.
Some German merchants had come to
Bergen for the purpose of purchasing

INTRODUCTION. xlyU
these products, which the Greenlandmen
were not willing to dispose of; and it is
added, that the Germans, resenting this
disappointment, invited the Greenland
traders to a supper, at which they put
them treacherously to death. But, as
Peyrere remarks, this account has not
much appearance of truth; nor is it
probable, that the navigation between
Greenland and Norway was, at this
period, so open as the above details
would induce us to suppose. Those
details are, besides, refuted by the follow
ing facts.
The revenue accruing from the pro
vince of Greenland was, in ancient times,
appropriated to the domestic expenses of
the Norwegian king ; and no one could
go to Greenland without the royal per-

HISTORICAL
mission/ upon pain of death. In the
year 1389, Henry, Bishop of Garde, in
Greenland, embarked for Denmark, and
was present at the meeting of the States
of that kingdom, " which were held at
Funen in the reign of Queen Margaret,
who united the kingdoms of Denmark
and of Norway under the same crown.
At this time some Norwegian merchants,
who had gone to Greenland without leave,
were accused of having purloined the re*
venue which was reserved for the expen
diture of the queen. The queen showed
no lenity towards these merchants, and
would have proceeded to take away their
lives, if they had not made oath upon the
Holy Evangelists that their voyage to
Greenland was unpremeditated, and that
they were forced to that destination by

INTRODUCTION. xllSf
the violence of a sudden storm. They!
alleged that they had brought back only,
commodities which they had purchased,,
and that they had not in the least inter
fered with the revenue belonging to the
queen, They were accordingly set at
liberty; but the danger which they had'
escaped, and the more rigorous prohibi
tions which were issued, prevented any
other individuals from that time from
attempting to carry on any traffic with
the interdicted coast.
Some time after this the queen herself
dispatched some vessels to Greenland ;
but of which no tidings were ever re
ceived ; and they must consequently have
perished. This disastrous expedition con
tributed to put an end to the intercourse
with Greenland; and the queen having

I HISTORICAL
her attention occupied by her hostilities
with Sweden, lost sight of this remote
colony, or left it to its fate.
The Danish Chronicle relates, that in
the year 1406, Eskild, Archbishop of Dron-
theim, wishing to exercise the same eccle
siastical authority over Greenland, which
his predecessors had done, sent a prelate
named Andrew, in order to succeed
Henry, in the see of Garde, if he were
dead, or to convey some intelligence con
cerning him if he were living. Nothing
more was ever heard of Bishop Andrew,
after his embarkation for Greenland ; nor
were any farther tidings ever received of
Henry, Bishop of Garde. After this, the
intercourse between Norway or Denmark
and Greenland, suffered an interruption
from that period to the present ; nor is

INTRODUCTION. li
there much probability that it will ever be
renewed. Queen Margaret was succeeded, upon
the throne of Denmark, by Erick, of Po-
merania, who gave himself little trouble
about a settlement so remote as that of
Greenland. His successor, Christopher
of Bavaria, was employed during his
whole reign in making war upon the
Pomeranians. The house of Oldenburg began its
reign in Denmark in the year 1448.
Christian, who was the first sovereign of
that race, and of that name, neglected
his dominions in the North in order to
turn his attention to the South. He made
a pilgrimage to Rome, where he obtained
from the Pope a grant of the country of

Iii HISTORICAL
Dttmarsh, and permission to establish an
academy at Copenhagen.
Christian I was succeeded by Chris
tian II, who, at the period of his corona
tion, bound himself by a solemn promise
to make every possible exertion to restore
the intercourse between Denmark and
Greenland, and to recover that settlement.
But this monarch, instead of recovering
what his predecessors had lost, himself
lost part of what they had possessed. His
tyrannical barbarities caused him to be
expelled from Sweden, which Queen Mar
garet had united with the Danish and
Norvvegian crown. From Sweden Chris
tian II retired into Denmark ; but the
same conduct which had occasioned his
expulsion by the Swedes, soon led to hi*

INTRODUCTION. liii
deposition by the Danes. It is on this
account that he is represented with a
shivered sceptre amongst the Danish-
kings, z
Eric Valkandor, who had been chan
cellor to Christian II, and was a Danish
gentleman of great and generous senti
ments, had been made Archbishop of
Drontheim. After the disgrace of his
master, he retired to his archiepiscopal
see, where he exerted himself with great
zeal and activity in order to renew the
communication with Greenland, and to
discover the fate of that ancient settle
ment. This learned prelate made it his
business to read all the books in which it
was mentioned, to examine all the mer
chants and mariners who had any know
ledge of it ; and he also caused a chart to

liv HISTORICAL
be formed of the route which was sup
posed to have been observed. He was on
the point of putting his projects in execu
tion, when, being suspected of favouring
the cause of the deposed monarch, he was
deprived of his archbishoprick, and ba
nished from the Norwegian territory.
The benevolent scheme, which he had
formed, was thus disconcerted; and the
hopes, which had been excited, vanished
in disappointment. The good Archbishop
Valcandor retired to Rome, where he
ended his days.
Frederick I was succeeded by Chris
tian III, who had an expedition fitted
out for the discovery of the lost set
tlement in Greenland ; but this proved
as abortive as similar attempts had pre
viously been. This monarch now repealed

INTRODUCTION. W
the ordinances which his predecessors had
established, by which all communication
with Greenland had been strictly prohi
bited, without a special permission from
the crown. The intercourse was now
rendered free, without any limitations or
restraints. But this act of royal grace
came too late to be of any use ; for the
Norwegians at this period had degene
rated from the enterprizing valour of
their ancestors ; and they were, at the
same time, so impoverished that they did
not possess the means of equipping any
vessels for such a difficult and hazardous
undertaking. Frederick II entertained the same
project as his father, Christian III,
and he dispatched Magnus Heigningsen
to* attempt the discovery of Greenland.

Ivi HISTORICAL
This Magnus Heigningsen, if the relation
be not fabulous, actually discovered the
long lost land, but was prevented by the
operation of some mysterious cause from
reaching the shore. His ship, without
any visible cause, was stopped in its
course, though in the midst of deep
water and a fresh breeze, without any
obstruction from the ice. As this Mag
nus Heigningsen could not advance any
farther he was happy to be able to re
treat; and he accordingly sailed back to
Denmark. When he got back to that
country he published an account of what
had happened to his ship ; and pretended
that its farther progress had been stopped
by a great loadstone at the bottom of the
sea. The Danish Chronicle, of which Fey-

INTRODUCTION. lvii
yere has made such liberal use, gives the
following account of the expedition of Sir
Martin Frobisher to Greenland in 1576.
Frobisher set sail from England in the
year just mentioned, and discovered the
coast of New Greenland, but did not
make any landing till he returned with
another expedition in the following spring.
The inhabitants of that part of the coast
where he disembarked, abandoned their
dwellings, and fled in different directions
at the approach of the English. The
alarm of some of these natives appears to
have been so great that they clambered up
to the tops of some rocky precipices, from
which they threw themselves into the sea.
The English, who found it impossible
to allay the suspicions, or conciliate the
confidence of these savages, took posses-

Iviii

HISTORICAL

sion of the huts which they had deserted.
They were, in fact, tents formed of seal-*
skins, stretched upon four poles, and
sewed together with sinews instead of
thread. All these tents had two en
trances, one of which fronted the West,
aud the other the South; but they were
closed against the winds from the East
and the North, by which they were liable
to be the most incommoded.
The English discovered in these cabins
only an ancient matron, who appeared a
picture of hideous deformity, and a young
woman, who was in the family way, and
had a little child holding her hand.
These two last they carried off, regardless
of the opposition of the old beldam, who
set up a frightful howl. Departing from
this point, they steered along the Eastern

INTRODUCTION. Hx
coast, where they beheld a marine monster
as large as an ox, with a horn, projecting
from the snout of more than two yards in
length, which they took for the unicorn.
Proceeding in a North-east direction, they
landed on another part of the coast of
Greenland, which they discovered to be
subject to earthquakes, that threw great
rocks down into the plain. Here they
found some gravel abounding, as they
imagined, with particles of gold, of which
they carried off a considerable quantity.
They spared no pains to conciliate the
natives of this part of the coast, who
themselves made a show of a desire to
maintain an amicable correspondence.
But these demonstrations of friendship
appear to have been designed only to put
the English off their guard ; for, when
e2

lx , HISTORICAL
Frobisher had landed, he was suddenly
attacked jt>y a body of savages, who had
concealed themselves behind a bank for
that purpose. He retreated to the shore
and eluded their machinations. The sa
vages, however, still imagined that the
strangers might be caught in the snare ;
and in order to entrap them, they scat
tered pieces of raw flesh along the shore,
as they would have done to allure dogs,
Finding this attempt fail, they had re
course to another stratagem. They car
ried a lame man, or at least one .who
deigned to be lame, down to the sea-side ;
and, having left him there, they went-
away and kept themselves entirely out of
sight. They supposed that the English
would make an attempt to carry off this
lame man in order to serve them as an in-

INTRODUCTION. lxi
terpreter, or to procure some intelligence
by his means. But Frobisher, who sus
pected some deception, ordered a shot to
be fired over his head, when he instantly
sprung up upon his legs and ran away
with precipitate velocity.
The savages now appeared in great
numbers, and assailed the English with a
shower of arrows and stones ; but they
were soon repulsed by a discharge of great
and small guns.
The native Greenlanders are repre
sented as perfidious and cruel, neither to
be softened by caresses nor moved by be
nefits. This, however, is the character of
very imperfect knowledge and limited ob
servation. They are described as plump
in their»appearance, active in their limbs,
and with an aspect of olive hue. Some of

Ixii HISTORICAL
them are reported to be as black as ne
groes. Their clothes are made out of the
skin of the seal, and sewed with sinews.
The women wear their hair loose, but
throw it back behind their ears in order to
show the face, which they paint blue and
yellow. They wear no petticoats, but
short trowsers made of fish-skin, drawn
one over the other ; in the pockets of
which they carry their knives, little mir
rors, and the working materials, which
they procure from foreigners or obtain
from the wrecks which may happen upon
theif coasts. The shirts or chemises of
both sexes are made from the intestines of
fish, and sewed with fine sinews. They
wear their clothes loose, and gird them
with a belt made of fish-skin. They are
disgustingly dirty, and covered with ver-

INTRODUCTION. lxiil
min. Their criterion of wealth is the
number of bows and arrows, of slings,
boats, and oars, which an individual may
possess. Their bows are small, their ar
rows thin and armed at the end with a
sharp point of bone or horn. They are
expert in the use of the bow and the
sling ; and in killing fish with the spear.
Their little boats are covered with seal
skin, and can hold only one man. But
they have larger boats formed of wood,
covered with the skin of the whale, and
which will carry twenty men. Their sails
are made of the same materials as their
shirts ; or of the intestines of fish fastened
together by fine sinews. And though they
make use of no iron in the construction
of their canoes or boats, they are put
together with so much skill, and so well

Ixiv

HISTORICAL

compacted, that in them they venture out
into the wide ocean with perfect security.
They have no venomous reptiles or insects ;
but are sometimes infested with swarms
of gnats. They make use of very large
dogs for the purpose of drawing their
sledges. All the fresh water which they
possess they procure from the melted*
snow. - Such are the principal particular*
which are detailed in the Danish account
of Frobisher's voyage. We will now pro
ceed to relate some attempts of the Danes
to renew their intercourse with Greenland,
subsequent to those which have been pre
viously mentioned, and which proved
abortive. Christian IV resolved, if possible,: to
signalize his reign by the discovery of

INTRODUCTION. lxT
that lost settlement, which his father and
grandfather had sought in vain. For this
purpose he sent for an experienced ma
riner from England, who had the repu
tation of being well acquainted with the
Northern ocean, and with the route to
Greenland. Having procured this skilful
auxiliary, whose name was John Knight,
the Danish monarch equipped three stout
ships, which he put under the orders of
Godske Lindenau, who sailed from the
Sound on the breaking up of the ice in
the year 1605. The Englishman, who
was appointed to the command of one
ship, having reached the latitude he
wished, steered his course to the South
West in order to avoid the ice and to make
the land with less risk. The Danish ad
miral Lindenau, thinking that the Eng-

Ixvi HISTORICAL
lish captain was deviating from the right
track by keeping to the South West, con
tinued Ws route to the' North East, and
arrived on the coast of Greenland without
either of the other ships. Admiral Lin
denau had no sooner come to an anchor,
than a number of savages put off their
boats from the shore ta visit his ship.
The admiral gave them a very hospitable
reception, and made them a present of
some wine, which, however, was not
agreeable to their taste; and they mani
fested signs of their dislike.- They saw
some whale oil, which they expressed a
desire to have; and it was accordingly
poured out for them in large mugs, which
they drank with avidity and delight.
These savages possessed a number of
skins of the fox, the bear, and the seal,

INTRODUCTION. Ixvil
with many horns in pieces, ends, and
trunks, which they exchanged with the
Danes for knives, needles, looking-glasses,
and trifles of different kinds. They showed
no desire for gold or silver money, the
offer of which provoked their ridicule or
excited their contempt. They manifested
on the other hand a passionate eagerness
for every article of steel manufacture,
which they were willing to purchase by
the sacrifice of their greatest valuables, as
of their bows and arrows, their boats and
oars. When they had nothing more to
offer in exchange, they stripped themselves
to the skin, and offered to make away with
all the clothes they possessed.
Godske Lindenau remained three days
in the road, but it is not said that he once
went ashore. He was probably afraid of

lxviii HISTORICAL
trusting the lives of the small number of
persons he had with him in the midst of
such a mass of savages, by whom they
were so greatly outnumbered.
He took his departure upon the fourth
day; but before he set sail he secured
two of the natives on board his ship in
order to carry them to Denmark j but
they made so many violent efforts to es
cape, that it became necessary to secure
them by cords in order to prevent them
from plunging into the sea. When the
savages upon the beach saw two of their
countrymen made prisoners and fastened
to the deck of the Danish vessel, they dis-
charged a shower of stones , and arrows
upon the Danes, who were obliged to ter
rify them to a distance by firing off one of
their great guns. The admiral returned

INTRODUCTION. Ixix
to Denmark by himself, without knowing
what had befallen the other two ships,
with which he had originally embarked.
The Danish account of this expedition
says, that the English captain with the two
Danish vessels, which had separated from
that under Lindenau, reached the coast at
the Southern extremity of Greenland, or
Cape Farewell. It is also certain that the
English commander entered Davis's
Straits, and coasted along the shore to
the East. He discovered a number of
good harbours, a fine country, and verdant
plains. The savages in this part of
Greenland carried on some traffic with
him ; as those upon the other side had
done with Lindenau ; but they exhibited
more distrust ; for they had no sooner
received the Danish commodities in ex-

lxx HISTORICAL
change for their own than they took to
their boats with as much precipitation as
if they were pursued by an enemy;
The Danes armed themselves for the
purpose of making a landing in one of the
hays. The soil, where they went ashore*
appeared to be a mixture of sand and
rock, like that of Norway. Some fumes
exhaled from the- earth made them sup
pose that there were mines of sulphur in
the neighbourhood j and they found many
pieces of silver ore, which yielded twenty-
six ounces pf silver to the hundred weight
of ore. The English captain, who discovered
many fine harbours or bays along this
coast, gave them Danish names, and ber
fore his departure made a chart of what
he had seen. He also directed four of the

INTRODUCTION. lxxi
best* formed savages, whom the Danes
could seize, to be conveyed on board his
ship. One of these four natives became
so outrageous, that the Danes, not being
able to haul him along, knocked him on
the head with the but end of their mus
kets. This intimidated the three others,
who followed without farther resistance.
But the natives of the place, who had
beheld one of their companions put to
death, and three made prisoners, united
themselves in a body to avenge the one
and to Tescue the others. They pur
sued the Danes to the shore in order to
execute these resolutions, and to prevent
their embarkation. The Danes, however,
saved themselves and their boats by a
timely use of their fire-arms, which dif
fused great terror among the enemy.

lxxii

HISTORICAL

They now made good their retreat te#their
ships, and returned to Denmark with the
three captured Greenlanders, whom they
presented to the king, and who were
found to be much better made and more
eivilized than those whom Godske Linde
nau had imported. They also differed in
manners, language, and dress.
The Danish monarch, who was gra
tified by the result of this first expedition,
dispatched the same Admiral Lindenau to
Greenland with five stout vessels in the
following year, 1606. He departed from
the Sound upon the 8th of May ; having
on board his ship the three savages whom
the English captain had conveyed away,
in order to serve as interpreters and
guides. One of these savages fell sick
and died during the voyage ; and his body

INTRODUCTION* lxxtfl
Was thrown overboard. Godske Lindenau
took the same route which the English
captain had observed, and passed by Cape
Farewell into Davis's Straits. One of his
five ships was lost sight of in a fog ; but
the four others arrived in Greenland.
The natives showed themselves in great
numbers Upon the coast, but manifested
no inclination to trade, or to trust the
Danes, who, in their turn, showed the
same want of confidence, , This obliged
the latter to proceed higher up the coast,
where they discovered a finer harbour
than that which they had left ; but they
found the natives as suspicious and in
tractable as at the former station, and in
dicating a determination to resort to force
if the Danes attempted to land*
The Danes, not willing to hazard a
f

Ixxiv HISTORICAL
landing in such inauspicious circum
stances, 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 attend-
ants 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,

INTRODUCTION. IxXV
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 prac
ticable to establish any amicable commu
nication with the people of this district,
set sail for Denmark ; but of the six
Greenlanders w7hom 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,
/2

lxXVi HISTORICAL
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 expe
rienced many awful perils and hair
breadth escapes.
The King of Denmark, who deserves
praise for his perseverance, now deter
mined upon a third expedition to Green
land. 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 Nor
way and Iceland that were acquainted
with the navigation. These vessels sailed

INTRODUCTION. Ixxvii
from the Sound on the 12th of May, but
the Danish Chronicle has not stated in
what year; nor was it known to Pey
rere. On the 8th of June Richkardisen
discovered the high points of the Green
land 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 ob
liged 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 in
cognita, notwithstanding the spirit of

IxXviii HISTORICAL
European adventure and the zeal of modern
discovery. The King of Denmark caused par
ticular 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

INTRODUCTION. lxxix
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 ad
venturers 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 manoeuvres in their little
canoes upon the sea. The Spanish Am-

1XXX HISTORICAL
bassador was quite delighted with the
address which they displayed, and with
the extraordinary celerity with which they
glided over the waves. He made a pre
sent in money to each of the savages*
which they expended in equipping them
selves 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 Green
landers lasted only for a short time ; for
they soon relapsed into their usual melan
choly. They became entirely absorbed
with the idea of returning to their native
country ; and two of them having ob
tained possession of their little boats put
out to sea, They were pursued, but only

INTRODUCTION. . Ixxxl
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 hie

Ixxxii HISTORICAL
loss, again seized a boat and made;, an
effort to escape from captivity. ,He had
passed the Sound before he could be re
taken, 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 (i la foi estaht de. l'oiiye, il fut im
possible 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 Heayen, and worship the Sun.
The Danish Monarch desiste,d from

introduction. lxxxiii
any farther attempt to discover Old
Greenland ; but some merchants at Copen
hagen 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 Da
vis'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 inconsider
ately 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

lxxxiv HISTORICAL
they did not emerge till they had pro
ceeded to two or three hundred yards from
the ship.
The Danes at last succeeded in ap
peasing the apprehensions of the Green-
ianders; and in alluring them again on
board their vessels. The Danish com
mander 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

INTRODUCTION". IxXXV
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 th©
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,

Ixxxvi HISTORICAL
and they perished in the vain attempt.
It is pleasant to contemplate that senti
ment, 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 suc
cessful than the preceding, was made in
the year 1670. This expedition was fitted
out by order of Christian V, and waa
commanded by Captain Otto Axelson;

introduction. lxxxvir
but Crantz* says, *' We have no account
of its issue ;" and, according to Torfaeus,
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 an
cient route, it is stated, that half way
between Iceland and Greenland there was
a cluster of httle islands, or rocks, called
Gondebiurne Skeer, which were inhabited
by bears. The drifting ice has probably
collected round these islands, and been so
* Vol. i. p. 27S.

Ixxxviii HISTORICAL .
petrified by successive accumulations aS
to become impenetrable to the sun*
Peyrere, whose account of Greenland
has been generally followed in this In
troduction, 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 set
tlers, whose remains have been so anxi
ously sought. But this impression was
effaced by the information of many per
sons 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 lan
guage and manners, and that the Danes
and Norwegians could not understand a

INTRODUCTION. IXXXIX
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
hows and arrows, who destroyed every body
that came in their waj.
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
S

XC HISTORICAL
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 re
search 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 centu
ries. When the enterprizing spirit of an
English navigator is directed to that quar
ter of the world, we feel a firm confi
dence, that nothing will be left untried,
which skill or courage can effect, to ex-

INTRODUCTION. XCl
tend our acquaintance with these Northern
regions, and to make valuable additions
to our present stock of information re
specting the countries in the more imme
diate vicinity of the North Pole.

g2

SKETCH

OF THB

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 exer
cised the same functions at Drontheim, in
that kingdom. In an early period of his
ministry he was seized with a strong

XC1V SKETCH OF THE
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

LIFE OF EGEDE. XCV
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 related by difficulties, of
the hopes which it has conceived to> be
extinguished by inauspicious circum
stances. 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 con-
sidered as visionary and impracticable.
But at last Frederick IV, King of Den
mark, issued an order to the magistrates
at Bergen to make inquiries of all the

XCV1 SKETCH OF 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 re
turned 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 mer*
chants and others to subscribe some
small sums, out of which he collected a
capital of about 2000/, Of this incon
siderable sum he himself had furnished
about 60/,, which constituted his little
all. With these slender means, which

LTFE OF EGEDE, XCVU
seemed . totally inadequate to the under*
taking, a ship was purchased, called the
Hope, in which Egede was to be con-'*
veyed to Greenland, and to lay the foun*
dation of the meditated establishment.
But, in the spring of 1721, the Danish
monarch, who had been brought to think
more favourably of the expedition, ap
pointed Mr. Egede to be pastor of the
new colony, and missionary to the Hea
then, with a pension of 60/. a year, and
40/. 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

XCVlii SKETCH OF THE*
ship consisted of forty persons. They
lost no time in building a house of stdnfe
'and earth, upon an island near Kangefe,
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 concili
ated the confidence of the natives, minis
tered to their wants* learned their lan
guage, and gradually introduced some
additional rays of intellectual light into
their minds.
" As soon," Says Crantz, tol. i. p. 280,
"as he new the word kinu, 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,

LIFE ©F EGEDE. XC1X
by continually conversing with the child*
ren 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 set
tlers*, But this zealous missionary resolved

C SKETCH OF THE
not to abandon the good work which he
had begun ; and though most of the set
tlers left the coast in the ship which had
been sent to conduct them home, he re
mained behind with ten seamen whom he
had persuaded to adopt the same deter
mination. The Danish monarch, either
sympathising with his constancy, r or
moved bjr 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 prose 's
cuted 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

LIFE OF EGEDE. CI.
had undergone, and the mental solicitude*
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 relin
quished the mission, he was not inatten
tive to its interests ; for he devoted much
of his time, after his return, to the in
struction of young missionaries in the lan
guage of Greenland. He also composed
a grammar and a dictionary of that lan
guage, into which he translated the New
Testament for the use of the mission
and the benefit of the natives. He pub
lished the Description of Greenland, which
is contained in the present Volume, at

fill .sketch OF TH?
Copenhagen* in the Banish language*
the year preceding his death* which tookj
place in 1758 #.
* The Moravian mission in Greenland began in the
year 1733. The brethren of this mission- have two settle
ments or villages upon the Western coast. One of thgse,
which is called New Herrnhut, is on Ball's River; qgd
the other, which is denominated Lichtenfels, is at the dis
tance of thirty-six leagtjes from the first, and more to the
South. Crantz says, that, at his departure froqi Green
land, four hundred and seventy Greenlanders were living
at New Herrnhut in sixteen houses. The brethren them
selves describe this place as a sort of green Oasis in a
cheerless desert. *' No one," says one of the missionaries,
f would expect to find such a pleasant place in such an
unpleasant land. The country consists entirely of bald
rocks, thinly interspersed with spots ssd veins qf earth, or
rather sand. But our house, area, garden, &c. look very
regular and decent, and all the adjacent land round about
the place, where once not a blade of grass grew in the
sand, is now enrobed with the njflst beautiful foli*age, sq
that New-Herrnhut may be called a garden of tbe I*ord
in a most frightful wilderness." Crantz, vol. i, p. 1 62,
163. In p. 399, of the same volume, Grante extols the

• ••

LIFE OF EGEDE. CUI
soft beauty of this little Greenland village, compared with
the rugged sterility around. " On the spot," says he,
" that formerly consisted of nothing but sand, nay, on the
very rocks, grows now the finest grass, the ground being
manured for so many years with the blood and fat of their
seals. And when the Greenlanders live in their winter
houses, one may see every evening, yea, throughout the
whole night, a beautiful illumination, which is the more
agreeable as, the houses stand in two parallel lines, are of
equal height, and have light in all the windows."

DESCRIPTION

GREENLAND:

Showing
TUB 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 qf the Greenland Missions
beginning and propagation, which his Majesty
with so glorious a zeal protects and encou
rages ; so likewise, with the same most humble
submission, I presume to offer to your most
Serene Royal Highness this present Survey
g 2

CV111 DEDICATION.
or Natural History of Greenland; endea
vouring by this means to insinuate and re*
commend to your Royal Highness's favour
and protection so pious an undertaking ; be
cause the poor Greenlanders have a right ta
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 Fdniily's Exaltation ;
the -last of which Wholly depends on and he-.
cessarily follows the first ; for when the poor
Greenlanders shall have leariibd to know aiul
worship God as (heir Creator dftd Redeemed

DEDICATION. C1X
, then they will likewise leqrn 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
t,
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

CX DEDICATION. v
a blessing before his face to all eternity, ate
the hearty mshes 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.

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

CX11 PREFACE-
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 j no well
ordered polity or civil govonnment ; 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 it&

PREFACE. CX111
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 proi
ducts. As for the land in itself, it yields little
or nothing, not being manured or cultir
vated, but lies altogether waste and un
titled ; ¦ 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 cul
tivated- But as to the seas, they yield
more plenty and wealth of all sor,tg ,'«f
animals and fishes than in most other

CXiV . PREFACE.
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.
Thus it is confessed, that Greenland is
a country not unworthy of keeping and
improving. And this has been the well
grounded opinion of our late monarchs of
Denmark, and many of their chief coun
sellors, who have made so much of Green
land, that they have spared no costs in
fitting out several ships for its discovery,
of which hereafter farther notice shall be
taken. This discovery has been chiefly
undertaken to the end, that the Christian
religion, which has been unfortunately
worn out in these parts of the world,
might again be re-established, and the?
poor inhabitants, viz. the offspring of tlte

PREFACE. CXV
old Northern Christians, if through God's
mercy any such may yet be found there,
as true subjects to Denmark and Norway,
might be assisted and comforted both as
to body and soul. And although these most
laudable endeavours of those glorious mo
narchs, of pious and blessed memory, have
not had all the success one could desire,
yet they have opened the way for fresh
attempts of the same nature, which (God
be thanked) have not been lost, inasmuch
as the Western coast of Greenland (by
the Danes called Westerbygd) not only
has been fully discovered, but also several
new lodges have been there erected, and
the holy word of God has been preached,
with God's blessing, to these ignorant
Heathens, that dwell in those places
where Christianity has been quite extinct
and forgot. All this ought to encourage
lis to continue our endeavours to discover

CXV* PREFACE.
the Eastern shore, where it is confessed
the chief colony has haen seated ; and
perhaps the offspring of the old Norwe
gians and Icelanders may be recovered;
which I do not think impossible, provided
we go oh in the right way, as I hope to
thow in the following treatise.
How praiseworthy and glorious an
¦fchterprize would it be, to undertake so
great and wholesome a .work, Chiefly in re
gard to these unhappjr people, who, by a
just judgment of God, now, fof upwards of
ihree hundred years, hake been debarred
all communication with Christians; Avhich
la remedy not only our civil but phristian-
duty obliges us. It becomes us therefore
heartily to pray sGod Almighty, that he
will be pleased to appease his wrath
kindled against these poor wretches, and
to disclose to our most gracious sovereign,
and to other well intentioned -Christians,

PREFACE. CXVlj
the btest way and means to this country's
discovery and happy restitution. Ami
though we should fail of success, in still
meeting with the aforesaid offspring of the
old Norwegian and Iceland Christians, who,
for aught we know, may be all extinct and
destroyed, as we found it on the West
coast ; yet, for all that, I should not think
all our labour lost, nor our cosL made tat
no purpose, as long as it may be for the
good and advantage of those ignorant
Heathens, that live there ; to whom we
have reason to hope our most gracious
.sovereign will also extend his fatherly
clemency, and Christian zeal, to provide
for their eternal happiness, as he so gra
ciously has done for those on the Western
shore; seeing that by these means the old
ruined places might anew be provided with
colonies and inhabitants, which would
prove no small advantage to the king and

CXVUl PREFACE.
his dominions. This my well meant pro-
Iject, that God in his mercy will advance
and prpmote, to the honour of his most
Holy Name, and the enlightening and
vsaving of these pOor souls, is the sincere
desire of HANS EGEDE.

THE

NATURAL HISTORY

OF

<Hreenlatttr*

CHAPTER I.

Ofthe Situation and Extent of Greenland.
GREENLAND lies but forty miles to the West
of Iceland, beginning from 59° 50' North Lati
tude. The Eastern coast extends itself in the
North as far as Spitzbergen, between 78° and 80° ;
which is thought to be an island, separated from

2 THE NATURAL HISTORY
the continent of Greenland. The Western
shore is discovered as far as seventy odd de
grees. Whether it be a large island, or borders
upori countries to the North, is not yet found
out; there seems great, reason to believe it is
contiguous to America on the North West side ;
-.¦'*- j < '¦
because there we meet with the bay or inlet,
which in the sea charts is called Davis's Straits.
from an Englishman, who in the year 1585 was
the first discoverer of it ; ¦ and is yearly fre
quented by ships of different nations, on account
of the Wbale Fishery : but nobody as yet has
been able to find out the bottom of it. And ac
cording to the notice we have endeavored to
gather from those Greenlanders whd Hve farthest
to the North, there is either but a very narrow
passage between America a.nd Greenland, or, as
is most likely, they are quite contiguous* : and
"-> • An;-: '•> ' <oi mu !¦¦¦• •(/.,' ; * j ifj, •
* .According to the relation and opinion, of those Green
landers, that inhabit the gulf of Disco, in 69°, Greenland is
an island, which they infer from the strongcurreht that runs
from the Na:fth, and keeps the ic$ opei&even into the midst
of the sea : they will also tell you, they have spoken with
people different from themselves on the other side of the

OF GREENLAND. 3
I am the more inclined ;to believe this, because
the farther you go Northward in the said strait,
the lower is the land ; contrary to what we ob
serve where it borders on the seas or main
ocean, it never wants lofty promontories. It
has been the commonly received opinion, of a
long standing, that Greenland borders upon the
Asiatic Tartary and Moscovia on the North
East : what confirms them in this notion is an
old story they give credit to, that a certain Har-
rald goat did travel by land, over mountains and
rocks, from Greenland to Norway, bringing
along with him a she goat, of whose milk he
lived on the journey ; by which he got the sur
name of Harrald goat. Furthermore, the an
cient Greenland Christians, in their Chronicles,
relate, that there were come to them from the
ice, and hailed them. Their language, they say, is the same,
but the persons different, so that a small strait only divides
Greenland from America. The said straits are so narrow,
that men on both sides can shoot at once one and the same
fish, The continent farthest to the North is all covered with
ice : the islands only uncovered, where rein deer, and also
geese and other wild birds, are found in great numbers.
B 2

4 THE NATURAL HISTORY
Northern parts, foreign rein deer and sheep,
marked upon the ears, and with some marks tied
to their horns; from which they concluded, that
the Northern parts of Greenland were also inha
bited. — Vid. Theodore Torlaccius. But the
contrary is proved by later experiments made by
the navigation of Dutchmen and others to the
North. — See Zordrager's Greenland Fishery,
Part ii, ch. 10.
Greenland is a high and rocky country,
always covered with ice and snow (except on
the sea side, and in the bays or inlets) which
never thaws nor melts away. You may judge
of the height by the prospect they yield at more
than twenty Norway miles distance from the
shore. The whole coast is surrounded with a
vast number of large and small islands. There
are a great many inlets and large rivers to be
met with, among which the principal is called
Baal's River in 64°; and has been navigated
eighteen or twenty Norway miles up the coun
try ; where the first Danish lodge was settled in
the year 1721. In all sea charts you will find

OF GREENLAND. 5
laid down Forbisher's Strait and Baer Sound
which, they pretend, fonh two large islands, ad
jacent to the mainland ; which I think are not
to be found, at least not upon the coast of Green
land ; for I could not meet with any thing like
it in the voyage I undertook in the year 1723
Southward, going upon discoveries ; though I
went as far as to 6o° that way : but at present
the newer charts lay them down, the Northern
strait in 63°, and the Southern in b'2°. Some of
the ancients, whom Thormoder - follows in his
Greenland History, place them between 6l° and
6o°. So that the charts differ mightily in this
particular. Besides this, there is not a word or
a syllable mentioned in our ancient records of
Greenland of the aforesaid two straits and large
islands : they only inform us, that after the old
Norwegians and Icelanders had began to settle
colonies on the East side of Greenland, over
against Iceland, they continued to spread them
selves all along the shore and in the bays, as far
as Baal's River, where they stopped, and where
we find many ruins of the old Norwegian edifices.

6 THE , NATURAL HISTORY
And whereas I myself have, lately met with so
many stone buildings, * so far to , the .South, t
think my conclusion' is good, that the land upon
which these houses stand is no particular island,
but contiguous to the main. It is therefore very
reasonable to (believe, that, whereas, the ancients
took notice ; of, and so accurately desqribed, , ,ajl
those bays and islands that were inhabited, they
Won! d not have passed by in silence these twp
large islands upon which such stately Jbnildings
were erected. And fpif.thfe reason Lhave hereto
joined a new map or delineation of Greenland,
to show the contiguity of the East. and West
Greenland,? agreeably to other new charts of
Thorrnoder and others, which I follow, as far as
I find, them not contradictory to the description
of the ancients and to my own experience.

OF GREENLAND.

CHAP. II.

First Settlement of Greenland, zvith some
Thoughts on the Extinction ofthe Norwegian
Colonies ; and whether on the East Side no
Remainders may be found of the old Norwe
gians : also, whether the same Tract qf Land
cannot be recovered.
IT is undoubted, that the ancients, not so
much driven by any necessity or compulsion as
led by a natural and inbred curiosity, embarked
upon many strange ventures ; as for instance, to
discover and settle colonies in so many formerly
quite unknown and uninhabited countries, to
whose discovery what particular accidents have
most contributed we learn by the several histo
ries and descriptions thereof. For the Almighty

8 THE NATURAL HISTORY
*
and good God, who has not in vain created the
vast globe of the Earth, has also not intended,
that any part or province of it should lie buried
in eternal oblivion, useless to mankind. And
that Greenland by such means has been disco
vered and inhabited by our old Norwegians and
Icelanders, we are fully informed by the annals
of Iceland ; where we read, that the braVe and
valiant Erick Raude (or Red) who was the first
discoverer of this country, after he, in company
with several other Icelanders, in the year of our
Lord 982, by mere casualty fell in with the
land, and had taken a survey of its present state,
he returned to Iceland the next year, 983,
spoke much in commendation of the land,
calling it the Greenland, by which he persuaded
many of his countrymen to follow him thither,
in order to find out places fit for dwelling, and
to settle there*, They no sooner were arrived
* Historians disagree about the time of the first settle
ment of Greenland. The Icelanders (as we have men
tioned) will have it to be in the year 982-3. But Pontanus,
in his Danish History, refers it to the year 770 ; making

OF GREENLAND. 9
and settled here, but they found God was come
along with them ; I mean the saving knowledge
of his most holy Word. For the said Erick
Raude's son, called Leif, after he had been in
structed in the Gospel truths by King Olaf
(who was the first Christian king of .Norway)
brought along with him from Norway to Green
land a priest, who taught and christened all the
inhabitants of the country. Thus this country
has first been settled by Norway and Iceland
colonies, which in after-times have increased
and been provided with many churches and
convents, bishops and teachers ; which lasted
as long as the correspondence and navigation
continued between them and Norway, until the
year 1406, when the last bishop was sent over
to Greenland. Yet the Norwegians were not
the original natives of the land ; for, not long
his assertion good by a bull of Pope Gregory the 1 Vth,
who in the year 835 sent to Bishop Ansgerius, wherein the
propagation of the Gospel is recommended to him, as arch
bishop ofthe Northern Countries, and especially of Iceland
and Greenland.

1,0 THE^KATURAkflrSBORY
after* their! j.^iyah, they met -with the, ql^-injb^
hjterits, af sfffftgfc pdoplq drWfHing dn the-West-
dcm. shore, ©rjginaljy d*Sfietide#, fro*m the Ame-
ricaosy -M^may with lgre£t rJrdhability; fhe g^thereif
from t]be jagreeimeiitii^f then-; persons, customs,
and habits jwijhi VhmG w?hif dwell tol the , North
of Hadaon!& Bay ; <as Jik-aWjjsg while; thp§?S,. th^t
idhafeit«]diith«sr^(*thp?n" parts (nowknovtfn.by
the name, 'of .Davis's. Straits), ! advanced nearer
and neater, to the", south,; and often [made w-aj
upon the Norwegians^ Concerning the ; cause
of the r-iinnnaind total destruction of that so well
established 'Nqrwegian , colony there ;is nothing
found upon record ; the, reason of which I think
to, be, that, after, all correspondence and navigar
tima* ceased between Greenland fa/nd' Norway,
partly by the change and ' translation of the
government in. Queen Margaret's reign, and
partly by the next following continual wars
between the Danes and Swedes,, which caused
the navigation to' those parts to- be laid aside ;
and chiefly by the great difficulty and innume
rable dangers of such navigation ; which several

; ,! , OF! :GREENLAND. :\ ? 11
causes cut off all intelligence,' that, might be had
of. that country's state, asimay be iseen in Pon-
tahus and; Claudius Lyscander. *ii*,.'. .! ,. ' ,*ir'i
..::The ancient histoifibns; divide Greenland into
two parts or districts) called West Bygd, and
East Bygd. As to , the West district,' which is
said to have. Contained! four .parishes, and one
hundred villages, all we '.find in ¦> the , ancient
histories amounts to tbis, viz. that in the four
teenth century it was sorely infested by a. wild
nation (Jailed Sohr4llirigSj and laid so waste,
that when the inhabitants ofthe Eastern district
came to the assistance of the Christians, and to
expel the barbarous nation of the Schrellings,
who were fallen upon the Christians, they found
to their great astonishment the province quite
emptied of its inhabitants, and nothing remain
ing but some cattle and flocks of sheep, straying
wild and unguarded round about the fields and
meadows; whereof they killed a good number,
Which they brought home with them in their
ships. By which it appears, that the Norway
Christians in the Western district were destroyed,

12 THE NATURAL HISTORY
¦and Christianity rooted out by the Savage
heathens. The modern inhabitants of West
Greenland, being, no doubt, the offspring of the
before mentioned wild and barbarous Schrellings,
have no certain account to give us. of this matter ;
though they will tell you, that the old decayed
dwelling places and villages, whose ruins are
yet seen, were inhabited formerly by a nation
quite different from theirs ; and they also affirm,
•what the ancient histories tell us, that their
ancestors made war with them, and destroyed
them*.

* The Greenlanders relate a very ridiculous story, as
well concerning the origin of our colonies (whom they
call by the name of Kablunset) as of their total overthrowj
as follows : a Greenland woman, in her child-bearing, was
once delivered of Kablunaet and dogs* whelps, of which the
parents were highly ashamed, and for that reason withdrew
from their neighbours and countrymen. This monstrous
breed being grown up, became so troublesome to their father,
that he was not able to endure them; wherefore he retired
yet farther to some distant place. Meanwhile this inhuman
race came to this horrible agreement amongst themselves, to
devour their own father, ' whenever he should happen to
come among them ; which a little after came to pass, when

OF GREENLAND. 13
Now, as to the Eastern district, its present
state is entirely unknown to us, as there is no
approaching it with any shipping, upon account
of the vast quantity of ice, driven from Spitz-
bergen and other Northern coasts upon this
shore, which, adhering to the shore, barricades
the land, and renders it wholly inaccessible.
We may nevertheless gather from the above-
mentioned expedition of the East Greenlanders
he visited them with a present of some part of a seal, which
he had taken, according to custom. Kablunaet immediately
went down to him, to whom the father delivered the piece «a£
seal's flesh he had brought them. But he was no sooner
got ashore, than the doggish race seized and devoured him,
and then ate the seal's flesh given them. Whilst the Ka*b-
lunset dwelled there, one of the Innuits (or mankind), for
so they call themselves, came rowing along the shore, and
throwing his dart at some sea fowl, missed what he aimed at;
which one ofthe Kablunaet, who stood upon a point of land
running out into the sea, observing, mocked and ridiculed
him, and, laying himself down upon the ground, told him
that as he saw he was so dexterous in shooting, he would be
the bird ; he might throw the dart at him, and take care not
to miss him : whereupon Innuit shot and killed him. This
death caused continual strifes and wars between the Kab-
lunsets and Innuits, which last at length became masters,
and overthrew the former.

14 THE NATURAL HISTORY
against the Schrellingers, that- after the destruc
tion and total overthrow of' the: Western dis
trict and its coloniesj the Eastern were yet
standing and flourishing.' But in what year! this
happened no notice < is 'takenby the old histo
rians. Nevertheless,' from many ! tokens and
remainders of probable evidence it may be
inferred, that the old colony of the Eastern
district is not yet quite extinct. To the con
firmation of which, Thormoder, in his History
of Greenland, alledges the following passage £ —
Bishop Amand, of Shalholt in Iceland
(who, anno 1522, had been consecrated, but,
anno 1540^ again resigned), once returning
from Norway to Iceland, was by a storm driven
Westward upon the coast of Greenland, which
he coasted for some time Northwards, and made
land towards the evening, finding themselves
off Herjolsness. Tney came so near to the shore,
that they could descry the inhabitants driving
their flocks inthe pasture grounds : but as the
wind soon after proved fair they made all the
sail they could, steering for Iceland, which they

"<¦''©*¦ JGflEEN-liAND.""'!" 15
reached the day foUowingj and entered* th& Bay
of St. Patrick, whieh lifes oh the West coast of
the island, in the morhing early, 'i whew they
were milking their cow®.' i d li \>\> cw f»-n[i.t* i<»
Birni'of Skarsaa (is we learn bytfcae afare^
said Thormoder Torfager) gives ¦ the .following
reflation:- — n<» ''.¦>:; ¦ ¦• i, ¦••,¦,>.- ;;>;¦¦ ; «*v:r,'-
"In our time," says he,"" one named John
Greenlande'r, who for a considerable time had
been employed in the service of the Hamburgh
merchants, in a voyage from thence to Iceland,
met with, contrary winds and stormy weather,
in which he narrowly escaped being cast away,
and - lost with ship and crew upon the . dreadful
rocks of Greenland, by getting in at last to a
fine bay, which coutained many islands, where
he happily came to an anchor under a desert
island ; and it was not long before he tepied
several other islands not far off, that •wer*- in
habited ; which, for fear of the inhabitants, ' he
for a while did not dare to approach ; till at last
he took courage, and sending his boat on shoie,
went to the next house, which seemed but very

l6 THE NATURAL, HISTORY
small and mean. Here he found all the accou
trements necessary to fit out a fishing boat ; he
saw also a fishing booth, or small hut, made up
of. stones, to dry fish in, as is customary in Ice
land. There lay a dead body of a man, ex
tended upon the ground, with his face down
wards ; a cap sewed together on his head ; the
rest of his clothing was made partly of coarse
cloth, and partly of seal skin ; an old rusty knife
was found at his shie, which the captain took,
in order to show it to his friends at his
return home to Iceland, to serve for a token
of what he had seen. It is farther said, that
this commander was three times by stress of
weather driven upon the coasts of Greenland,
by which he obtained the surname of Green-
lander." This relation can be of no more than a hun
dred years standing, -as Theodore Torlack af
firms : becanse the above mentioned annals, in
which we read it, were composed by Biorno of
Skarsaa within these thirty years.
The same author furthermore informs us,

< OF GREENLA^D. 17
i
that in Iceland there has often been found, scat
tered here and there on the sea shore, old broken
pieces of deal boards, parts of the ribs of boats,
Which on the side were tacked together, and
pasted with a sort of pitch or glue made of the
blubber of seals. Now it is admitted, that this
kind of glue is nowhere made use of but in
Greenland; and a boat of this make was in
the year l625 found thrown Up> Upon a point
of land near Reiclie Strand, the structure Of
which was very artificial, joined together with
wooden nails, not unlike that in which Asmund
.Kastenrazius, in the year 11&9, in company
with twelve men, crossed over from Greenland
to Iceland ; which boat was likewise tacked
together with wooden nails, and the sinews of
animals. The same historian, in his book De
Novitiis Groenlandorum Indiciis, tells us, that
some years ago, they found an oar upon the
Eastern shore of Iceland, whereon these words
were carved in Runick characters : Oft var ek
dascedar ek dro dik, which signifies, " Often was
I tired, when I carried thee." Besides this, I
c

18 THE NATURAL HISTORY
find a relation in a German writer, whose name
is Dithtnarus Blefkenius, concerning a certain
monk, born in Greenland, who, as companion
to the bishop of tlie place, in the year 1546
made a voyage into Norway, where he lived
until the year 1564, and where, the author
says, he got acquainted and personally conversed
with him. This monk told him many -strange
and surprising things of a Dominican convent
in Greenland, called St. Thomas's Convent ; to
which his parents sent hiaa in his youth to be
come a monk of that order. But the truth of
jthis relation is very much questioned, being,
together with several others of Blefkenius's re
lations, refuted and gainsaid by Arngrim, in his
Treatise intitled Anatome Blefkeniana. Blef-
kenius's relation is nevertheless confirmed by
several other authors. Erasmus Franciscus, in
his book called East and West India State
Garden, in a place where he treats of Green
land tells us, that a captain of a Danish ship, by
name Jacob Hall, being ordered by the King his
master to undertake a voyage-to Greenland) be

, OF 4 GREENLAND. 19
touched first atKIeeland, where he from the
King's lieutenant got intelligence of Greenland,
which before was unknown to him. And that
he might the more fully be informed of every
thing relating to this matter, a certain monk was
6ent for to instruct him herein, who was said to
be a native of Greenland; of whom the said
Jacob Hall, ita> his short description, gives the
following account, according to our aboye-mehr
tioned author, Erasmus Fransciscus.
¦J. ii.-'") Jfu, , 1 ;.',i ¦ ¦ **>/:i j'.'// ,.- ;>. :
" There has formerly been a convent in Ice
land, called Helgafield, or Holy Mountain, in
which, though it was decayed, lived a certain
friar, native of Greenland, with a broad and
tawny face. This friar was sent for by the
King's lieutenant, in the presence of Jacob Hall,
who wanted to be informed of the state of
Greenland. The friar accordingly told him,
that being very young, he was entered into this
convent by his parents ; and that he afterwards
was commanded by the same bishop, of whom
h«r had received the holy orders, to go along
c 2

20* THE -tf ATtiRAL HISTORY

with him from thence to Norway,- > -where he
submitted himself to the bishop of Drontheim]
to whose authority artd jurisdiction all the priests
of' Iceland were subject; and being returned to
his native home, he again retired and shut him
self up in his former convent. This is said to
have happened in the year 1546. He said
moreover, that in the convent of St. Thomas,
where he also had passed some time/ there was
a well of burning hot water, whichj through
pipes, was conveyed into all the rooms and cells
of the convent, to warm them." -m i i
'¦ ". him1
But I think there is as much , reason to
question the authenticity of this relation as of
the former, inasmuch as there is no such thing
to be found in our Danish archives or annals.
Notwithstandiug which, what concerns St.
Thomas's convent in particular is confessed, and
confirmed by the old histories of Greenland.
Nicolas Zenetur, a Venetian by birth, who
served the King of Denmark in the quality of a
sea captain, is said by chance to have b®en

CF GREENLAND. HI 21
driven upon the coast of Greenland in the year
1380 ; and to have seen that same Dominican
convent. His relation is alleged by Kircherus
in the following words ; — -
-..•k;i« o teiil ¦;•¦ '>.(>
'* Heie is also a Dominican conyent to be
seen, dedicated to St. Thomas, in whose neigh
bourhood there is a volcano of a mountain that
vomits fire, and at the foot thereof a well of
burning hot water. This hot water is not only
conveyed by pipes into the convent, and through
all the cells of the friars to keep them warm, as
with us the rooms are heated by stoves of wood
fire or other fuel ; but here they also boil and
bake their meat and bread with the same. This
volcano, or fiery mountain, throws out such a
quantity of pumice stone, that it hath furnished
materials for the construction of the whole
convent. There are also fine gardens, which
reap great benefit from this hot water, adorned
with all sorts of flowers, and full of fruit. And
after the river has watered, these gardens, jt
empties itself into the adjoining bay, which
causes it never to freeze , and great numbers gf

42 THE NATURAL HISTORY
fish arid sea fowl flock thither, which yields
plentiful provision fof the nourishment of the
inhahitantsi" Of all the attested relations, that of Biorno
of Skarsaa^ concerning Bishop Amund of Skal-
holt, Who was driven uport the coast of Green*
land, deserves most to be credited 5 by which
we leiarn, that the colony Of the Eastern district
flourished about one hundred and fifty years
after the commerce and navigation ceased be^-
tween Norway and Greenland ; and, for aught
we knOw^ is not yet Wholly destitute of its old
Norwegian inhabitants. We have not been
able to get any account of this matter from the
modern Greenlanders, as they entertain no cor
respondence with those parts : either being hin
dered by the ice, which renders them altogether
inaccessible ; or else for fear the inhabitants
of that country might kill and devour them ;
for they represent them as a cruel, barbarous,
and inhuman natioUj that destroy and eat all
foreigners that fall into their hands. Yet
notwithstanding this, if we may believe the

OF GREENLAND. 23
relation of those adventnrers,, who> have coasted
a great part of the Eastern shore, there is no
other sort of inhabitants found on this than on
the Western side. But how it comes to pass,
that the Eastern district, which was so well
settled with Norway and Iceland colonies, that
it contained twelve large parishes, and one
hundred and ninety villages, besides one bishop's
see and two convents, and flourished till the
year 1540, at last has been destroyed and
laid waste, is what I cannot conceive. The
opinion of some, that the black plague, so
called, which ravaged the Northern countries in
the year 1348, also reached Greenland,, and
made its bavock among its Eastern colonies, is
without any ground or reason ; because the
commerce was carried into Greenland until the
year 1406 ; and in 1540 that colony was still
subsisting. If therefore this district be destitute
or bereft of its old inhabitants, it is not unlikely
they have undergone the same fatality as the
Western ones, being destroyed by the barbarity
of the savage Schrellingers..

24 THE NATURAL HISTORY
A whole centurypassed from the cessation
of all commerce and navigation between Nor
way 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 pur
pose, 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 re
ported, 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

OF GREENLAND^ 25
approach it ; whereupon he returned home
again, aud pretended, that he might haye 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
pea, can stay the course of a ship that sails on
the surface of it.

26* THE NATURAL HISTORY
In the same year that Mogens Heinson went*
upon the Greenland discovery, the English his
tories informs us, that Captain Martin For-
bisher, an Englishman, was by the glorious
¦Queen Elizabeth sent upon tbe same errand.
This adventurer got sight of tho 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 ap
proach 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 hots, 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

OF GREENLAND. 27
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 po
liteness and civility of a nation that dwelt in
those parts ; of which he says, they were go
verned by a prince, whom they called Kakiiinge ;
and Carried him in state on their shoulders,
clothed in rich stuffs, 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 un
certain 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. And

25 THE NATURAL HISTORY ,
we find, that after the expeditions of Frederick
the Second, Christian the Fourth, his successor,
with great cost, ordered four different expedi
tions for this discovery. The first was under
taken, under the command of Godske Lindenow,
with three ships. And, as the history tells, Lin
denow 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 Forbisher 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, nee-*-
dles, 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

OF GREENLAND. 2Q
their countrymen observed, who flocked together
upon the shore^ they made a hideous outcry and
howling, flting; 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 thecommand
of Lindenow, after they had doubled Cape Fare
well, steered directly for the Strait of Davis ; in
which navigation they discovered many fine har
bours and delightful green meadow lands, but
all the inhabitants along the coast wild and sa
vage 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 can
not 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 saKages home
with them to Copenhagen.
The second expedition was made by order of,
•"the same King in the year 1606, with five ships

30 THE NATURAL HISTORY
under the conduct of the before-mentioned ad
miral lindenow ; bringing along with them
three of 'the savages (one of them dying in the
voyage)' which they had carried off the year be
fore 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
Munek, 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

OF GREENLAND. J fc
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 com
pany the president was the lord high chancellor,
Christian Friis, as Lyscahder 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 accord
ingly did not miss, and filled both their ships
with the same. After their return to Copen
hagen, 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 after
wards came to Copenhagen, did extract a good

32 THE NATURAL HISTORY
deal of pure gold.r? The honest and well-iriean?
ing commander, who went upon this adventure>
wasturnied out. of favour, and ; died of grief
soon after; whereby y. 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 16*54, during the reign of King
Frederick the Third> a noble and , wealthy ad
venturer, by name Henry Muller, fitted put a
ship for Greenland, under the command of
David deNelles; 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 Tor-
lais, who had perused the said captain's journal,
were taken in the neighbourhood of Herjolsness,
on the Eastern shore, as Thormoder Torfaeus
i
pretends ; but which I cannot be made to be
lieve. My opinion is, they were brought front
the Western shore, near Baal's River, as some
of the inhabitants, who are still living, had
in fresh remembrance, telling me their names,

OF GREENLAND. 33
as they are laid down in the forementioned
Journal. The last adventurer, that was sent upon the
discovery of Greenland, according to Torfaeus
in his History of Greenland, was Captain Otto
Axelson, in the year 1670, in the reign of
Christian V of glorious memory. But what
f uccess 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 Tormuhlen, 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 expedi
tion, but also got together a number of passen
gers, who resolved to go and settle in those
parts, whom he provided with all things neces
sary for that purpose ; both provision and am
munition, 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.

34 THE NATURAL HISTORY
Thus, for a long while, it seemed, that all
thought of Greenland was laid aside until the
year 1721 ; when after many well-meant invita
tions, and projects proposed by me to the Green
land 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, bnt 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 endea
voured 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 la
bour; 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 diffi
culties 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

OF GREENLAND. 35
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 Forbisher, which
would have been my shortest way, according to
those charts, which lay tbe said strait down in
this place ; but such a strait I could not find.
Now as it grew too late in the year for rne 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 at
tempt a landing on the Eastern shore, as had
been formerly practised on that coast which lies
D 2

36 THE NATURAL HISTORY
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 ap
pearance 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 impos
sible than this project, on account of the im
practicable, high, * and craggy mountains perpe
tually 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 Den
mark 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 disap-

, OF GREENLAND. 37
pointments have made most people lose all
hopes of succeeding in this attempt : neverthe
less, 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 in
formation 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 Green
land 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 conies out of
the bays and inlets, always running along the

38 THE NATURAL HISTORY
shore South Westwards, hinders the ice from
adhering to the land, and keeps it at a distance
from the shore ; by which means the Green
landers 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 settle
ment ; of which no doubt there are still some
ruins to be seen on this Eastern shore. Fur
thermore 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 home
wards in the year 1736, found it to be so when
we passed the States Protnontovy 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 hap-

OF GREENLAND. 39
pens 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 6o° and 6l° : 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 computa
tion, it is a journey of six days in a boat. And
as the ruins of old habitations, which I have dis
covered between 60° and 6l°, 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

40 THE NATURAL HISTORY
the shore with boats or small ships to the East
side, to- the latitude of 63° and 64p, 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. 1 am also per
suaded, 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.

-rr<*

OF GREENLAND.

41

CHAP. III.

Treats of the Nature of the Soil, Plants, and
Minerals qf 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

42 THE NATURAL HISTORY
choicest wheat corn, and in tbe dales or valleys
the oak trees brought forth acorns of the
bigness of an apple, very good to eat*. 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,
ca|tle, 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 ; inas
much as about those places there grows fine
r
* A Greenlander, who came from the most Southern
part of the country near the States Promontory, told my
son, when he saw some lemons in his room, that he had seen
fruits much like thuse growing upon trees in his country,
though they were four times less ; which I take to have been
some of those acorns, which I above took notice of, treating
^of the nature of the soil.

OF GREENLAND. 43
grass, especially from 6o° to 65°. In the great
Bay, which in the sea charts goes under ihm
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 6l°, 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

44 THE NATURAL HISTORY
turpentine ; of which, by distillation, is ex
tracted a fine oil and spirit, of great use in me
dicine. That precious herb, scurvy grass, the
most excellent remedy for the cure of the
disterUper which gives its name, grows every
where 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 i the in
habitants feed thereupon, and find benefit by
it. In the bays and inlets you have wild thyme
at the side of tbe 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. Some of
them are represented in the following cuts.
Their most common berries are those called
blew-berries, tittle-berries, and bramble-berries.
Multe-berrries, which are common in Norway,
do not arrive here to any perfection, on account

OF GREENLAND. 45
of the thick fogs that hang upon the islands,
when these plants bud. This country affdrds
the most pleasant prospect about the latitude
of 6o° to 64°, and seems fit to be manured
for the produce of all sorts of grain; and
there is 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. i 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

46 THE NATURAL HISTORY
Greenland soil is to be understood of the-
latitude of 6o° to 65°, and differs according to
the different degrees of latitude. For in the
most Northern parts you find neither herhs
nor plants ; so that the inhabitants cannot
gather grass enough to pat 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 GREENLAND. 4/
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 Forbisher
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
• question which I have no mind to decide.

48 THE NATURAL HISTORY
However, thus nrnch I can say, that hy 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 clovenlike
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

OF GREENLAND. 49
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 mar
ble standing proof against the fire*. 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 Undalinf.
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.
* The lamps and pots, which the Southern Greenlanders
make of this marble, are sold at a very high price; so that
the natives of the Northern parts, where such marble is not
to be had, buy them at the rate of eight or ten rein deer
skins a large pot, and a lamp at two or three skins.
f According to what the natives tell, there is in the
Southern parts a hot well, of a mineral quality ; which, if
you wash therein, cures the itch; they wash their skins in
it, and it takes away all dirt and foulness, and make*
them look like new-

50 THE NATURAL HISTORY

CHAP. IV.

~ Of the Nature of the jClimate, and the
. Temperament of the Air.
THE natives of Greenland have no reason to
complain of rains and stormy weather, which
seldom trouble them; especially in the Bay of
Disco, in the 68th degree of Latitude, where
they commonly have clear and settled weather
during the whole summer season : but again,
when foul and stormy weather falls in, it rages
with an incredible fierceness and violence,
chiefly when the wind comes about Southerly,
or South West ; and the storm is^ laid and suc
ceeded by fair weather, as soon as the wind shifts
about to the West and North. "--'* -
The country would be exceeding pleasant

OF GREENLAND. 51
and healthful in summer time, if it was not for
the heavy fogs that annoy it, especially near the
sea coast • for it is as warm here as anywhere,
when the air is serene and clear, which happens
when the wind blows Easterly ; and sometimes
it is so hot, that the sea water, which after the
ebbing of the sea has remained in the hollow
places of the rocks, has often, before night, by
the heat of the sun, been found coagulated into
a fine white salt. I can remember, that once,
for. three months together, we had as fair settled
weather and warm sunshine days as one could
wish, without any ratin.
The length of the summer is from the latter
end of May to the midst of September ; all the
remaining part of the year is winter, which is
tolerable in the latitude of 64Q, but to the North
ward,- in 68° and above, the cold is so excessive,
that even the most spirituous liquors, as French
brandy, will freeze near the fire side. At the
end of August the sea is all Covered with ice,'
which does not thaw before April or May^
Ind sometimes not till the latter end of June."
E 2

52 THE NATURAL HISTORY
It is remarkable, that on the Western,
coasts of different countries, lying in one and
the same latitude, it is much colder than on
the Eastern, as some parts of Greenland, and
Norway. And though Greesnland is much
colder, than, Norway* yet the snow never lies
so high, especially in the bays and inlets, where
it is seldom above half, a yard, higher than the
ground ; whereas the inland parts and the
mountains are perpetually covered with ice
and snow, which never melts; and not a spot
of the ground is bare, but near the shore, and
in the bays'; where in the summer ypu are
delighted; with a charming verdure, caused by
the heat of the sun, reyerberated from, side to
side, and concentred in these lower parts of
the valleys, surrounded by high rocks and
mountains, for many hours together, without
intermission ; but as soon as the sun is set, the
air. i§ changed at once, and the cold ice moun
tains, make you soon feel the nearness voff their
neighbourhood, and oblige you to put on your
furs. Besides the frightful ice that, covers the

OF GREENLAND. 53
whole face of the land, the sea is almost choaked
with it, some flat and large fields of ice, or
bay ice, as they call it, and some huge and
prodigious mountains, of an astonishing bigness,
lying as deep under wafer as they soar high in
the air. These are pieces of the ice mountains
of the land, which lie near the sea, and burst
ing, tumble down into the sea, and are carried
off. They represent to the behdlders, afar off,
many odd and strange figures ; some of churches,
castles with spires and turrets ; others you
would take to be ships under sail ; and many
have been deluded by thefn, thinking they were
real ships, and going to board them. Nor does
their figure and shape alone surprise, but also
their diversity of colours pleases the sight ; for
some are like white crystal, others blue as
sapphires ; and others again green as emeralds.
One would attribute the cause of these colours
to metals or minerals of the places where this
ice was formed ; or of Waters of which it was
coagulated : but experience teaches me, that the
blue ice is the concretion of fresh water, which

5.4 THE NATURAL HISTORY
at first is white, and at length hardens and turns
blue ; but the greenish colour comes from salt
water. It is observed, that if you put the blue
ice near the fire and let it melt, and afterwards
remove it to a colder place, to freeze again, it
does not recover its former blue, but becomes
white. From whence I infer, that the vo
latile sulphur, which the ice had attracted from
the air, by its resolution into water, exhales and
vanishes. ,
Though the summer season is very hot in
Greenland, it seldom causes any thunder, and
lightning; the reason of which I take tp be
the coolness of the night, which allays the
heat of the day, and causes the sulphureous
exhalations to fall again with the heavy dew to
the ground.
As for the ordinary meteors, commonly seen
in other countries, they are visible in Green
land ; as the rainbow3 flying or shooting stars,
and the like. But what is more peculiar to
the climate, is the Northern Light, or Aurora
Borealis, which in the spring of the year,

OF GREENLAND. 55
about the new moon, darts streams of light
all over the sky, as quick as lightning,
especially if it be a clear night, with such
a brightness, that you may read by it as by
daylight. At the summer solstice there is nO night,
and you have the pleasure to see the sun turn
round about the horizon all the twenty-four
hours ; and in the depth of winter they have
but little comfort in that planet, and tbe
nights are proportionably long ; yet it never is
so dark, but you can see to travel up and
down the country, though sometimes it be
neither moonshine nor starlight : but the snow
and ice, with which both land and sea is
covered, enlightens the air; or the reason may
be fetched from the nearness of the horizon
to the equator.
The temperament of the air is not un-
lieidthful ; for, if you except the scurvy and
distempers of the breast, they know nothing
here -of the many other diseases with which

56 THE NATURAL HISTORY
other countries are plagued ; and these pectoral
infirmities are not so much the effects of the
excessive cold, as of that nasty foggish weather
which this country is very much subject to;
which I impute to the vast quantity of . ice that
covers the land and drives in the sea. From
the beginning of April to the end of July is
the foggish season, and from that time the fog
daily decreases. But as in the summer time
they are troubled with the fog, so in the
winter season they are likewise plagued with
the vapour called frost smoke, which, when
the cold is excessive, rises out of the sea as
the smoke out of a chimney, and is as thick
as the thickest mist, especially in the bays,
where there is any opening in the ice. It
is very remarkable, that this frost, damp, or
smoke, if you come near it, will singe the
very skin of your face and hands ; but when
you are in it, you find no such piercing or
singing sharpness, but warm and soft ; only it
leaves a white frost upon your hair and clothes.

OF GREENLAND. 57
I must not forget here to mention the
wonderful harmony and correspondence which
is observed in Greenland between fountains
and the main sea, viz. that at spring tides,
in new , and full moon, when the strongest
ebbing is, at sea, the hidden fountains or springs
of fresh water break out on shore, and discover
themselves, often in places where you never
would expect to meet with any such ; especially
in winter, when the ground is covered with
ice and snow ; yet at other times there are no
water springs in those places. The cause
of this wonderful harmony I leave to the
learned inquiry of natural philosophers ; how -
springs and fountains follow the motion
of the main sea, as the sea does that of
the moon. Yet this I must observe to you>
that some great men have been greatly
mistaken, in that they have taken for granted
and asserted, that in Norway and Green
land the tide was hardly remarkable. (See
Mr. WoUf's Reasonable Thoughts on the

58 THE NATURAL HISTORY
Effects of Nature, p. 541.) Whereas no
where greater tide is observed ; the sea,
at new and full moon, especially in tbe
spring and fall, rises and falls about three
fathoms.

OE GREENLAND.

?9

CHAP. V.

Ofthe Land Animals, and Land Fowls or Birds
1 ¦ qf Greenland; and how they hunt and kill
them.
THERE are no venomous serpents or insects,
no ravenous wild beasts fo be seen in Greenland,
if you except" the bear, which some will have to
be an amphibious animal, as he lives chiefly
upon the ice in the most Northern parts, and
-¦¦**,* ,ir
feeds upon seals and fish. He very seldom ap
pears near the colony, in which I had taken up
my quarters. He is of a very large size, arid of

§0 THE NATURAL HISTORY
a hideous and frightful aspect, with white long
hairs: he is greedy of human blood*. The
natives tell us moreover of another kind of ra
venous beasts, which they call Amarok, which
eagerly pursue other beasts, as well as men ; yet
none of them could say, they ever had seen
them, but onlj had it from others by hearsay ;
and whereas none of our own people, who have
travelled up and down the country, ever met
with any such beast, therefore I take it to be a
mere fable.
Rein deer are. in some places in so great
numbers that you will see whole herds of themf ;
* In the 76th degree of latitude the number of hears is
so great, that they in droves surround the natites' habita
tions, who then, with their dogs, fall upon them, and with
their spears and lances kill them. In winter, instead of
dend or caves under the earth, as iii Norway and other
places, here the bears make theirs under the snow ; which,
according to the information the natives have given me, are
made with pillars, like stately buildings.
-J- "the farther you go Northwards, the seldotoer you
meet With rein deer, except in the 3d or 4th degree to the
North of Disco, where they are in great numbers ; perhaps
by reason either of its joining to America, or else because

OF GREENLAND. Gl
and when they go and feed in herds they are
dangerous to come at. The natives spend the
whole summer season in hunting of rein deer,
going up to the innermost parts of the bays, and
carrying, for the most part, their wives and
children along with them, where they remain
till the harvest season comes on. In the mean
while they with so much eagerness hunt, pursue,
and destroy these poor deer, that they have no

the deer pass over to the islands upon the ice, in quest of
food, which the main land, covered with ice and snow, does
not afford them. The natives, instead of reason, give us a
very childish tale for the vast number of rein- deer being
found upon Disco Island, as follows : —
A mighty Greenlander (one Torngarsuk, as they call
him, who is father to an ugly .frightful woman, who resides
in the lowermost region ofthe Earth, and has command over
all the animals of the sea, as we shall see hereafter) did
with his Kajar, tow this island to the place where it now
lies, from the South where it was before. Now, as the face
of this island resembles very much the Southern coasts, and
the root angelica is likewise found upon it, which grows
nowhere else in the neighbouring parts, this confirms them
in their credulity. And furthermore, they assure you, that
a hole is seen to this day in the island, through which the
towing-rope had been fastened by Torngarsuk.

€S . THE NATURAL HISTORY
place of safety, but what the Greenlanders
know ; and where they are in any number, there
they chase them by clap-hunting, setting upon
them on 'all sides, and surrounding them with
aU their women "and children, to force them into
defiles and narrow passages, where' the men
armed lay in wait for them and kill them : and
when they have not people enough to -surround
them, then they put up white poles" (to make'up.
the number that is wanted) with pieces of turf
to head them, which frightens the deer,, and
hinders it from escaping.
There are also vast numbers of hares, which
are white summer and winter, very fat and of a
good tastei There are foxes of different colours,
white, grey, and blueish ; they are of a lesser
size than those of Denmark and Norway, and
not so hairy, but more like martens. The na
tives commonly catch them alive in traps, built
of stones like little huts. The other fourfooted
animals, which ancient historians tell1 us are
found in Greenland, are gables, martens, wolves^
losses, ermin&i and, several others;;: I have. tiiefc

OF GREENLAND. 6*3
with none of them on the Western side. — See
Arngrim Jonas's History of Greenland; as also
Ivarus Beni's Relation, mentioned by'Uridalinus.
Tame or domestic animals there are nonej
but dogs in great numbers, and of a large size;
with white hairs, or white and black, and stand
ing ears. They are in their kind as timorous
and stupid as their masters, for they, never bay
or bark, but howl only. In the Northern parts
they use them instead of horses, to drag their
sledges, tying four or, six, and sometimes eight
or ten to a sledge, laden with five or six of the
largest seals, with the master sitting up himself,
who drives as fast with them as we can do with
good horses, for, they often make fifteen German
miles with them in a winter- day, upon the ice:
and though the poor dogs are of so great service
to them, yet they do not use them well, for they
are left to provide for and subsist themselves as
wild beasts, feeding upon muscles thrown up on
the sea side, or upon berries in the sUmmer sea*
son ; and when there has been a great capture of

64 THE NATURAL HISTORY
seals they give them their blood boiled and their
entrails. As for land fowls or birds, Greenland knows
of none but rypper, which is a sort of large
partridges, white *« winter, and grey in summer
time, and these they have in great numbers.
Ravens seem to be domestic birds with them,
for they are always seen about their huts,
hovering about the carcases of seals, that lie
upon the ground. There are likewise very
large eagles, their wings spread out being a
fathom wide, but they are seldom seen in the
Northern parts of the country. You find here
falcons or hawks, some grey, some of a whitish
plumage, and some speckled ; as also ' great
speckled owls. There are different sorts of
little sparrows, snow birds, arid ice birds, and a
little bird not unlike a linnet, which has a very
melodious tune.
Amongst the insects of Greenland,, the midge
or gnats are the most troublesome, whose sting
leaves a swelling and burning pain behind it ;

OF GREENLAND. 65
nd this trouble they are most exposed to in the
ot season, against which there is no shelter to
e found. There are also spiders, flies, humble
ees, and wasps. Tbey know nothing of any
enomous animals, as serpents and the like ;
or have they any snakes, toads, frogs, beetles,
nts, < or bees X neither are they plagued with
ats, mice, or any such yermiti.

66

THE NATURAL HISTORY

CHAP. VI.

Of the Greenland Sea Animals, and Sea Fowls
and' Fishes.

THE Greenland Sea abounds in different sorts
of animals, fowls, and fishes, of which the
whale bears the sway, and is of divers kinds,
shapes, and sizes. Some are called the finned
whales, from the fins they have upon their
back near the tail ; but these are not much
valued} yielding but little fat or blubber, and
that of the meaner sort; they consist of no
thing but lean flesh, sinews, and bones. They
are of a long, round, and slender shape, very

OF GREENLAND. 6f
dangerous to meddle with, for, they rage and
lay about them most furiously with their tail,
so that nobody cares to come at them, or catch
them. The Greenlanders make much of tbem,
on account of their flesh, which, with them,
passes for dainty cheer. The other sort of
whales are reckoned the best for their fat, and
fins or whalebones. These differ from the first
sort,; in that they have no fin on the back
towards the tail, but two lesser ones near the
eyes, and are covered with a thick black skin,
marbled with white strokes. With these side
¦fins, they swim with an incredible swiftness.
The tail is commonly three or four fathoms
broad. The head makes up one-third of the
whole fish. The jaws are covered, both above
and beneath, with a kind of short hair. At
the bottom of the jaws are placed the so called
barders, or whalebones, which serve him instead
of teeth, of which he has none. They are of
different colours, some brown, some black, and
others yellow with white streaks. Within the
mouth, the barders or whalebones are covered
F2

68 THE NATURAL HISTORY
with hair like horse-hair, chiefly those that in
close the tongue. Some of them are bent like
a scymitar, or sabrev Tlie smallest are ranged
the -foremost in the mouth, and the hinder-
most near the throat; the broadest and largest
are in the middle, some pf them two "fathoms
long, by which we may judge Of* 'the vast
bigness of this animal. On each side there
are commonly two hundred and fifty, in all
five hundred pieces. They are set in a broad
row, as in a sheaf, one close to the other, bent
like a creseht or half-moon, broadest- at ' the
root, which is of a tough and grisly mafier, of
a whitish colour, fastened to the upper part of
the jaws, near the throat, and they grow smaller
towards the end, which is pointed; they are
also covered with hair, that they may not hurt
the tongue. The undermost jaw is commonly
white, to which the tongue is fastened, inclosed
in the barders,, or long whalebones ; it is very
large, sometimes about eighteen feet, and some
times more, of a white colour, with black
spots, of a soft, fat, and spungy matter. The

OF GREENLAND. 6Q
whale has a bunch on the top of his head, in
which are two spouts or pipes, parallel one to
the other, and somewhat bent, like the holes
upon a fiddle. Through these he receives the
air, and spouts out the water, which he takes
in at his mouth, aud is forced upwards through
these holes in very large quantities, and with
such violence and noise, that it is heard at a
great distance, by which, in hazy weather j he
is known to be near, especially when he finds
himself wounded, for then he rages most furi
ously, and the noise of his spouting is so loud,
that some have resembled it to the roaring of
the sea in a storm, or the firing of great guns.
His eyes are placed between the bunch and the
side fins ; they are not larger than those of an
ox, and are armed with eyebrows.
- The penis of a whale is a strong sinew, seven
or eight, and sometimes fourteen feet long, in
proportion to his bulk ; it is covered with a
sheath, in which it lies hidden, so that you see
but little of it : the nature of the female is like
that of the four-footed animals ; she has two

a:

70 THE NATURAL HISTORY
breasts with teats like a cow; some white,
others stained with black or blue spots. In
their spawning time their breasts are larger than
usual; and when they couple together, they
reach their head above water, to fetch breath,
and to cool the heat contracted by that action.
It is said, that they never bring forth more than
two young ones at a spawning, which they suck-.
with their teats. The spawn of the whale,
while it is fresh, is clammy and gluish, so that
it may be drawn out in threads like wax or
pitch; it has no relation to that which we call
spermaceti, for it is soon corrupted and by no
art can be preserved.
These sea animals, or rather monsters, are
of different sizes and bulks ; some yield one
hundred, and some two or three hundred tuns
of fat or blubber. The fat lies between the skin
and the flesh, six or eight inches thick, espe
cially upon the back and under the belly. The
thickest and strongest sinews are in the tail,
which serves him for a rudder, as his fins do for
oars, wherewith he swims with an astonishing

OF GREENLAND. 7\
swiftness, proportioned to his bulk, leaving a
track in the sea, like a great ship ; and this' is
called his wake, by which he is often followed.
These sea monsters are as shy and timorous
as they are huge and bulky, for as soon as they
hear a boat rowing, and perceive any body's ap
proach, they immediately shoot under water
and plunge into the deep ; but when they find
themselves in danger, then they shew their
great and surprising strength; for then they
break to pieces whatever comes in their way,
and if they should hit a boat, they would beat
it in a thousand pieces. According to the rela
tion of the whale -catchers, the whale, being
struck, will run away with the line some hun
dreds of fathoms long, faster than a ship under
full sail. Now one would think, that such a
vast body should need many smaller fishes and
sea animals to feed upon ; but on the contrary,
his food is nothing but a sort of blubber, called
pulmo, marinus, or whale food, which is ¦ of
shape and bigness, as represented in the cuts;
it is of a dark brown colour, with two brims

72 THE NATURAL HISTORY
of flaps, with which it moves in the water,
with such slowness, that one may easily lay
hold of it, and get it out of the water. It
' is like a jelly, soft and slippery, so that if you
crush it: between your fingers you find it fat
and greasy like train oil. The Greenland seas.
abound in it, which allures and draws this
kind of whales thither in search of it; for as
their swallow or throat is very narrow (being
but four inches in diameter), and the smaller
whalebones reaching down his throat, they.
cannot swallow any hard or large piece of other
food, having no teeth to chew it with, so that
this sort of nourishment suits them best, their
mouth being large and wide to receive a great
quantity, by opening it and shutting it again,
that nature has provided them with. the barders
or whalebones, which by their closeness only
give passage to the water, like a sieve, keeping
back the alimeut. Here we ought to praise
the wise and kind providence of an Almighty
Creator, who has made such mean things suf
fice for the maintenance of so vast an animal.

OF GREENLAND. 73
Next to this there is another sort of whales,
called the North Capers, from the place of their
abode, which is about the North' Cape of Norr
way, though they also frequent the coasts of
Iceland, Greenland, and sundry other seas,
going in search of their prey, which is herring
and other small fish, that resort in abundance
to those coasts. It has been observed, that
some of these North Cape whales haye had
more than a tun of herrings in their belly,
• This kind of whales has this common with the
former called fin-whale, in that it is very swift
and quick in its motion, and keeps off from the
shore in the main sea, as fearing to become a
prey to its enemies, if it should venture too
near the shore. His fat is tougher and harder
than that of the great bay whale ; neither are
his barders or bones so long and valuable, for
which reason he is neglected.
The fourth sort is the sword-fish, so called
from a long and broad bone, which grows out of
the end of his snout on both sides, indented
like a saw. He has got two fins upon his back,

74 THE NATURAL HISTORY
and four under the belly, on each side two:
those on the back are the largest ; those
under the belly are placed just under tbe
first of the back : his tail broad and flat under
neath, and above pointed, but not split or
cloved. , From the hindermost fin of the back
he grows smaller : his nostrils are of an oblong
shape: the eyes are placed on the top of his
head, just above his mouth. There are different
sizes of sword-fish, some of twenly feet, some
more, some less. This is the greatest enemy
the true whale has to deal with, who gives him
fierce battles; and, having vanquished and
killed him, he contents himself with eating the
tongue of the whale, leaving the rest of the
huge carcase for the prey and spoils of the
morses and sea birds.
The cachelot or pot-fish is a fifth species of
whales, whose shape is somewhat different from
that of other whales, in that the upper part of
his head or skull is much bigger and stronger
built ; his spouts or pipes are placed on the*
forehead, whereas other whales have them on

OF GREENLAND. 75
the hinder part of the head : his under jaw is
armed with a row of teeth which are but short :
his tongue is thin and pointed, and of a yel
lowish colour : he has but one eye on the side
of the head, which makes him of easy access
to the Greenlanders, who attack him on his
blind side. Of his skull that wrongly so called
spermaceti is prepared, one yielding twenty to
twenty-four tuns thereof. The rest of the body
and the tail are like unto those of other whales.
He is of a brownish colour on the back, and
white under the belly: beis of • different sizes,
from fifty to seventy feet long.
Then comes the white fish, whose shape is not
unlike that ofthe great bay whale, having no fins
upon the back, but underneath two large ones ;
the tail like a whale ; his spouts, through which
he breathes and throws out the water, are
the same ; she has likewise a bunch on the
head : his colour is of a fading yellow ; he
is commonly from twelve to sixteen feet in
length, and is exceeding fat. The train of his
blubber is as clear as the clearest oil : his flesh

76'

THE. NATURAL, HISTORY

as well as the fat has no bad taste, and when it
is marinated with vinegar and;, salt, it is as well
tasted as any pork whatsoever. The fins also
and the tail, pickled or sauced, are good eating.
This fish is so far from being shy, that whole
droves are seen about the ships at sea ; the
Greenlanders catch numbers of them^ of which
they make grand cheer..
There is yet another smaller sort of whales,
called but-heads, from the form of its head,
which at the snout is flat, like a but's end : he
has a fin upon his back towards the tail, and
two side fins : his tail is like to that of a whale,
In the hinder part of the head he has a pipe to
fetch air, and spout the water through, which
he does not spout out with that force the whale
does : his size is from fourteen to twenty feet :
he follows ships under sail with a fair wind, and
seems to run for a wager with them ; whereas,
on the contrary, other whales avoid and fly from
them. Their jumping, as well as that of fishes
and sea animals, forebodes boisterous and stormy
weather,

OF GREENLAND. Tf
Among the different kinds of whales sonie
reckon the unicorn>; as they commonly call him,
from a long small horn that grows out of his
snout ; hut his right name is nar-whale. It is a
pretty large fish, eighteen or twenty feet long,
and yields good fat : his skin is black and smooth
without hair : he has one fin on each side, at
the beginning of his belly: his head is' pointed,
and out of his snbut on the left side proceeds
the horn, which is round, turned, with a sharp
taper point ; the greatest length of it is fourteen
or fifteen feet, and thick as your arm. The
root of it goes very deep into the head, to
strengthen it for supporting' so heavy a burthen.
The horn is of a fine, white, and compact matter,
wherefore it weighs much i the third part of it,
beginning from the root, is commonly hollow ;
and there are some very solid at the rOot, and
above it grows more and more hollow. On the
right side of the head there lies another shorter
horn hidden, which does not grow* out of the
skin, and it cannot- be conceived for what end
the All-wise Creator has ordained it : he has,
like other whales, two pipes or spouts which

78 THE NATURAL HISTORY
terminate in one, through which he breathes and
fetches air, when he comes up out ofthe sea with
his head. Here I must observe to you, that when
the whale comes up to fetch :air, it is not water
he throws out at the spouts, as the common
notion runs; but his breath; which resembles
water forced out of a great spout. . As for the
rest of the unicOrn Or nar-whale's body, it is per
fectly of the same shape as that of other whales.
Concerning this animal's horn, which has
given occasion to so many disputes, whether it
be a horn properly so called, or a tooth, my
reader must allow me a little, digression, to
make these gentlemen disputants aware of their
0
mistake, who pretend it to be a tooth and not a
horn, being placed on one side ofthe snout, and
not on the top of the forehead,; where other
animals wear their horns. (See Wormius's Mu
seum, 1. iii. ch. 14.) But it appears clearly to
all beholders, that it neither has the shape of a
tooth, such as other sea animals are endowed
with, nor has its root in the jaws, tbe ordinary
place of teeth, but grows out of the snout, as
may be seen in the cut hereto joined. And be-

OF GREENLAND. ? 79
sides, the absurdity is much greater to hold and
maintain, that animals wear teeth on the snout
or head, like horns : or dare anybody deny, that
the whale's spouts are his nostrils, through
which he fetches breath, because they, are on
the top of his head ; or question,' that the clap-
mysses' (a large kind of seal) eyes are such,
because they are placed in the hiridermost part
of the head? Ought we not rather to think,
that an All-wise Creator has placed this horn
horizontally, to the end that it may not be of
any hinderance to the course and swimming of
this animal in the water, which would happen
if it rose vertically ? Furthermore, this horn
serves many other ends, as to stir up his food
from the bottom of the sea, as he is said
to feed upon small sea-weeds, and likewise
therewith to bore holes in the ice, in order to
fetch fresh air. The inference these gen
tlemen are pleased to draw from the ge
nerality of fishes and sea animals having •
no such paws or claws as land animals have,
is as lame, and of as little force. And it

80 THE NATURAL HISTORY
is much less absurd to hold, that sea animals
have something common with those of the land,
as it is confessed, that many of them have a
great resemblance together in figure and shape^
viz. sea-calves, sea-dogs; sea-wolves, and sea
horses, together with mermen and mermaids,
as it is pretended. Who is ignorant "of the
winged or flying fishes ; and of others with long
nebs or bills like birds; also of birds with four
feet like beasts, and why then may there, not be
sea-unicorns as well as land-unicorns ; if any
Such there be in rerum, natiira ? for it is a diffi-
Cult matter to determine what kind of animal
the Scripture understands, when it speaks ofthe
unicorn, as in Psal. xxix. ver. 6, and in other
places; whether it be such a one as Pliriius and
other writers describe, giving him the body of a
horse, with a stag's head, . and a horn on his
snout; or whether it ought not with better
reason be applied to a certain animal in Africa,
called rhinoceros, whose snout is horned in
that fashion. If one had patience to consider
the vast disagreement, that reigns between these

OF GREENLAND. 81
writers, one would conclude that this animal is
peculiar to the climate where the fabulous bird
phoenix builds its nest ; that is to say in Utopia,
or nowhere. For some describe this animal as
an amphibious one, that lives by turns upon
land and in the water ; some will have him to
be in the likeness of an ore white spotted, with
horse feet; others make a three years' colt of
him, with a stag's head, and a horn in the front
one ell long; and others again tell you it is like
a morse or sea-horse,with divided or cloven feet
and a horn in the front. There are authors,
who attribute to him a horn ten feet long, others
six, and others again but the length of three
inches. (See Pliny, Munsterus, Marc. Paulus,
Philostratus, Heliodorus, and several others,
whose relations are of the same authority with,
mine, as that of the Greenlanders, concerning
a fierce, ravenous wild beast, which they call
Amavok; which all pretend to know, but no
person ever yet was found, that could say he
had seen it.)
Nises or porpoises, otherwise sea hogs; are

o,. . r
THE NATURAL HISTORY

also placed in the class of whales, though of a
much smaller size, and are met with in all seas.
His head resembles that of a .butts-head- whale :
his mouth is armed with sharp teeth: he has
spouts or pipes like a whale. He has a fin upon
the middle of his back, which towards the tail
is bended like a half-moon. Under the belly
there are two side fins, overgrown with flesh
and covered with a black skin. His tail is broad
like that of a whale. He has small round eyes:
his skin is of a shining black, and the belly
white. His length is five to eight feet, at most*
His fat makes fine oil, and the flesh is by the
Greenlander reckoned a great dainty.
Of other Sea Animals.
The sea horse or morse has the shape of a
seal, though much larger and stronger. He
has five claws on each of his feet, as the seal :
his head rounder and larger. His skin is an
inch thick, especially about the neck, very
rough, rugged and wrinkled, covered with a

OF GREENLAND. 83
short, brown, and sometimes reddish, or mouse-
coloured hair. Out of his upper jaw there
grow two large teeth or tusks, bended down
wards over the under jaw, of the length of half
a yard, and sometimes of a whole yard and
more. These tusks are esteemed as much as
elephants' teeth ; they are compact and solid,
but hollow towards the root. His mouth is hot
unlike that of a bull, covered above and beneath
with strong bristles as big aS a straw : his nos
trils are placed above his mouth, as those of the
seal : his eyes are fiery red, which he can turn
on all sides, not being able to turn his head, by
reason of the shortness and thickness of his
neck. The tail resembles a seal's tail, being
thick and short : his fat is like hog's lard. He
lies commonly upon the ice shoals, and can live
a good while on shore, till hunger drives him
back into the seas ; his nourishment being both
herbs and fishes : he snores very loud, when he
sleeps ; and when he is provoked to anger, he
roars like a mad bull. It is a very bold and
fierce creature, and they assist each other, when
G 2

54 THE NATURAL HISTORY
attacked, to the last. He is continually at war
with the white bear, to whom he often proves
too hard with his mighty tusks, and often kills
him, or at least does not give over till they
both expire.
The. seals are of different sorts and sizes,
though in their shape they all agree, excepting
the clap-myss, so called from a sort of a cap he
has on his head, with which be covers it when
he fears a stroke. The paws of a seal have five
claws, joined together with a thick skin, like
that of a goose or a water fowl : his head re
sembles a dog's with cropped ears, from whence
he bas got the name of sea dog : his snout is
bearded like that of a cat : his eyes are large
and clear with hair about them : the skin is
covered with a short hair of divers colours, and
spotted ; some white and black, others yel
lowish, others again reddish, and some of a
mouse colour : his teeth are very sharp and
pointed. Although he seems laniish behind,
yet he makes nothing of getting up upon the
ice hills, where he loves to sleep and to bask

OF GREENLAND. 85
himself in the sun. The largest seals are from
five to eight feet in length ; their fat yields
better train-oil than that of any other fish.
This is the most common of all the sea animals
in Greenland ; and contributes the most to the
subsisting and maintaining of the inhabitants,
who feed upon the flesh of it, and clothe them
selves with the skin, which likewise serves them
for the covering of their boats and tents : the
fat is their fuel, which they burn in tlieir lamps,
and alsoHboil their victuals with.
As for other sea monsters and wonderful
animals, we find in Tormoder's History of
Greenland, mention made of three sorts of
monsters, where he quotes a book, called
(< Speculum Regale Iclandicum ;" or, the Royal
Island Looking-Glass, from whence he borrows
what he relates*. But none of them have been

* The above-mentioned author calls the first of these
monsters Havestramb, or Mer-man, -and describes it to have
the likeness of a man, as to the head, face, nose, and mouth ;
save that its head was oblong and pointed like a sugar-loaf;
it has broad shoulders, and two arms without hands ; the

86 THE NATURAL HISTORY
seen by us, or any of our time, that ever I could
hear, save that most dreadful monster, that
showed itself upon the surface of the water in
the year 1734, off our new colony in 64°. This
, body downwards is slanting and thin ; the rest below the
middle, being hid in the water, could not be observed.
The second monster he calls Margya, or Mer-woman, or
Mermaid, had from the middle upwards the shape and
countenance of a woman ; a terrible broad face, a pointed
forehead, wrinkled cheeks, a wide mouth, large eyes, black
¦untrimmed hair, and two great breasts, which showed her
sex; she has two long arms, with hands and fingers joined
together with a skin, like the feet of a goose ; below the
middle she is like a fish, with a tail and fins. The fisher
men pretend, that when these sea monsters appear, it fore
bodes sto;my weather. The third monster, named Haf-
gufa, is so terrible and frightful, that the author does not
well know how to describe it ; and no wonder, because he
never had any true relation of it : its shape, length, and
bulk, seems to exceed all size and measure. They that
pretend, to have seen it, say, it appeared t© them more like
a land than a fish, or sea animal. And. as there never has
been sgen above two of them in the wide open sea, they
conclude, that there can be no breed of them ; for if they
should breed and multiply, all the rest of fishes must be
destroyed at last, their vast body wanting such large quan
tity of nourishment. When this monster is hungry, itis
said to void through the mouth some matter of a sweet

OF GREENLAND. 87
monster was of so huge a size, that coming out
of the water, its head reached as high as the
mast-head ; its body was as bulky as the ship,
and three or four times as long. It had a
Scentj which perfumes the whole sea ; and by this means it
allures and draws all sorts of fishes and animals, even the
whales to it, who in whole droves flock thither, and run
into the wide opened swallow of this hideous mbnster, as
into a whirlpool, till its belly be well freighted with, a
copious load of all sorts of fishes and animals, and then it
shuts the swallow, and has for the whole year enough to
digest and live upon ; for it is said to make but one large
meal a year. This, though a very silly and absurd tale, is
nevertheless matched by another story, e-vjery whit as ridi
culous, told by my own countrymen, fishermen in the
Northern part of Norway. They tell you, that a great
ghastly sea monster now and then appears in the main sea,
which' they call Kracken, and is no doubt the same that the
islanders call Hafgufa, of which we have spoken above.
They say, that its body reaches several miles in length ;
and that it is most seen in a calm ; when it comes out of
the water, it seems to cover the whole surface of the sea,
having many heads and a number of claws, with which it
seizes all that comes in its way, as fishing boats with men
and all, fishes and animals, and lets nothing escape; all
which it draws down to the bottom of the sea. Moreover
they tell you that all sorts of fishes flock together upon it,
as upon a bank of the -sea, and that many fishing boats come

88 THE NATURAL HISTORY
long pointed "snout, and spouted like a whale
fish ; great broad paws, and the body seemed
covered with shell work, its skin very rugged
and uneven. The under part of its body was
thither to catch fish, not suspecting that they lie upon such
a. dreadful monster, which they at last understand by the
intangling of their hooks and angles in its body ; which the
monster feeling, rises softly from the bottom to the surface,
and'seizes them all ; if in time they do not perceive him and
prevent their destruction, which they may easily do, only
calling it by its name, which it no sooner hears, but it sinks
down again as softly as it did rise. Tbey tell you of ano
ther sea spectre, which they call the. Draw, who keeps to
no constant shape or figure, but now appears in one, now
in another. It appears and is heard before any misfortunes,
as shipwrecks and the like, happen at sea, which it fore
bodes with a most frightful and- ghastly howling ; and they
say it sometimes utters words like a man. It most com
monly diverts itself, in putting all things out of order, after
the fishermen are gone at night to rest; and then he leaves
behind him a nasty stench. The fishermen will not sufier
the truth of this tale to be questioned, but pretend it is con
fessed. But the most superstitious among them go yet a
step farther, and will make you believe, that there appears
to them another kind of sea phantom, in the shape of a child
in swadling clothes, which they call Marmel, and some.-
times draw him out of the sea with their angling hook,
when he speaks to them virith a human voice. They carry

, OF GREENLAND. 89
shaped like an enormous huge serpent, and
when it dived again under water, it plunged
backwards into the sea, and so raised its tail
aloft, which seemed a whole ship's length
distant from the bulkiest part of the body.
Of other Fishes.
Of fishes properly so called, the Greenland
sea has abundance and of great diversity, of
which the largest is called Hay, whose flesh is
•much like that of the halibut, and is cured in
the same manner; being cut into long slices,
and hung up to be dried in the sun and in the
air, as tbey cure them in the Northern parts of
Norway; but tbe Greenlanders do not much
care for it ; its flesh being of a much coarser
grain than that of the halibut. This fish has
him to their home, and at night they put him into one of
their boots, there to rest. In the morning, when they go a
fishing again, they take him along with them in their boats,
and before they let him go, they set him a task to inform
them of all they want to know, upon which they dismiss
him.

90 THE NATURAL HISTORY
two fins on the back, and six under the belly ;
the two foremost are the longest, and have the
shape of a tongue : the other two middlemost
are somewhat broader than the rest, and the
hindermost couple near the tail are alike broad
before and behind, but shorter than the middle
most : his tail resembles that of the sword fish.
There are no bones in him, but gristles only.
He has a long snout, under which the mouth is
plaeed like that of the sword fish : he has three
rows of sharp pointed teeth ; his skin is hard .
and prickly, of a greyish hue ; his length is two
or three fathom ; he has a great liver, of which
they make train oil, the biggest of which makes
two or three lasts. It is a fish of prey, bites
large pieces out ofthe whale's body, and is very
greedy after man's flesh : he cannot be caught
with lines made of hemp, for with his sharp
teeth he snaps it off; but with iron chains.
And the larger sort are taken with harpoons, as
we do the whales. The rest of fishes that
haunt the Greenland seas are the halibut, tor-
but, codfish, haddock^ seate, small salmon, or

OF GREENLAND. 91
sea-trout of different kinds and sizes (the large
salmon not being so frequent in Greenland) ;
and these are very fat and good ; they are found
in all inlets, and mouths of rivers. Cat-fish is
the most common food of Greenlanders, inso
much, that when all other things fail, the cat
fish must hold out, of which there are abund
ance, both winter and summer. In the spring,
towards the month of April, they catch a sort
of fish called rogncals, or stone biter ; and in
May another fish, called 1yds or stints : both
sorts are very savoury ; they frequent the bays
and inlets in great shoals. There are also
whitings in abundance ; but herrings are not to
be seen. Moreover there is a kind of fish,
which neither myself nor any of my company
had ever seen before : this fish is not unlike a
bream, only it is prickly with sharp points all
over, with a small tail. There are different
sizes : the Greenlanders say they are well
tasted. Among the testaceous animals in Greenland
the chief are the muscles, of which there are

92 THE NATURAL HISTORY
great quantities ; they are large and delicate.
In some waters I have found of those larger
sorts, in which the Norwegians find pearls.
These have also pearls, but very small ones, not
bigger than the head of a pin. I shall say no
thing of the other sea insects, as crabs, shrimps,
&c. though they be not rare here ; yet lobsters,
crawfish, arid oysters, I never met with. Ac
cording to information had of Greenlanders, on
the Southern coasts they sometimes catch tor
toises in their nets ; for they tell you, that they
are covered with a thick shell, have claws and
a short tail ; and moreover that they find eggs
in them, like birds' eggs.

Of Greenland Sea Birds.

Amongst the sea fowls the principal are
those they call eider-fowl, and ducks ; of which
there are such numbers, that sometimes sailing
along, you find the whole sea covered with
them ; and when they take their flight, you
would think there was no end of them, espe-

OF GREENLAND. 93
cially in winter time, when in large flocks, to
the number of many thousands, they hover
about our colony, morning and evening; in the
evening standing in for the bay, and in the
morning turning out to sea again. They fly so
near the shore, that you may from thence shoot
them at pleasure. In the spring they retire to
wards the sea ; for upon the island that lies
adjacent to the coast they lay their eggs, and
hatch their young ones, which arrive in June
and July.
The natives watch them in this season to
rob them of their eggs and their'young ones.
The fine down feathers, which is the best part
of this bird, so much valued by others, the na
tives make nothing of, leaving them in the
nests. There are three sorts of ducks. The first
have a broad bill, like our tame duck, with
a fine speckled plumage. These build their
nests upon the islands as the eider fowls do.
The second sort is of a lesser size, their bills
long and pointed ; tbey keep most in the bays

94 THE NATURAL HISTORY
and in fresh waters, where they nest among
the reeds. The third sort are called wood
ducks, resembling very much those of the first
sort, though somewhat larger in size ; the
breast is black, the rest of the body grey.
These do not propagate in the common way
of generation by coupling like other birds, but
(which is very surprising) from a slimy matter
in the sea, which adheres to old pieces of wood
driving in the sea, of which first is generated
a kind of muscles, and again in these is bred
a little worm, which in length of time is
formed into a bird, that comes out of the
muscle shell, as other birds come out of egg
shells*. Besides these there is another sea bird,
* What so many authors of great note relate of the
wood ducks, and affirm to be an unquestionable truth, is by
as many learned writers treated as an old woman's tale,
pretending that such an heterogeneal generation passes the
ordinary bounds of nature.
Others (in consideration of so many authors of credit, who
affirm that they have been eye witnesses to this -strange and
wonderful generation) have taken great pains to demonstrate
the causes and probability of it physically and philosophi-

OF GREENLAND. 95
which the Norway men call alkes, which in
the winter season contribute much to the main-
pally, amongst whom is the learned father Kirkerus, in his
Mundus Subterraneus ; where he maintains, that the semen
of this extraordinary generation is neither contained in
those old pieces of wood, that drive in the sea, nor in the
muscles originally ; for a piece of wood cannot produce a
living animal, this exceeding the virtue nature has endowed
it with; much less the summer froth of the sea, which
adheres to the rotten piece of wood, and may produce shells
or muscles. Then he forms the question, from whence
comes this semen or seed, which produces such a strange
fruit as a living bird ? which question he strives thus to re
solve; that, whereas he has been informed by certain
Dutchmen's journals or voyages into the Northern seas,
that this sort of birds, peculiar to that climate, make their
nest and lay their eggs upon the ice; when the ice by the
heat of the sun thaws and breaks asunder, this innumerable
quantity of eggs are likewise mashed and crushed to pieces
and beaten about by the waves; and that if that part of the
egg, which contains the seed, encounters any subject
matter proper to foment and brood it, and is received in it
loco nutricis, assisted by the temperament of the air, the
earth, or the sea, it becomes in due time a perfect bird.
This is the renowned father Kirkerus's notion concerning
the generation of these birds. But if one examines his
reasoning, it is found altogether incoherent : for it was
jiever known, that sea fowls lay their eggs upon the flaked
ice, but commonly upon the islands and rocks in the sea,

96 THE NATURAL HISTORY
tenance of the Greenlanders." Sometimes there
are such numbers of them, that they drive them
which are surrounded and sometimes covered with ice ; .
and, consequently when the ice breaks, and drives away
from the islands, the eggs remain still in their nest, without
receiving any hurt. And thus the Dutch found it at Nova
Zembla, in the year 1569; but what they saw was not the
right sort of wood ducks, but what they- in Norway call
gield ducks; for wood ducks never are seen to' couple, nor
to lay or hatch their eggs. Secondly, it seems no less ab
surd to maintain, that eggs, after they are mashed in pieces,
and beaten about by the waves, retain as much seminal
virtue as will serve to procreate a bird. -From whence I
infer, that either the information the good father had got
from the Dutch voyages was intirely groundless, or this
pretended generation goes beyond the bounds of nature.
As to the first inference, it is not impossible that the authors
who relate this story may have been imposed upon by a
common though false report of vulgar and ignorant people ; as
any one may, that takes a thing for granted upon a bare
hearsay, without the attestation of eye witnesses in such a
matter. For my part I do not doubt at all of this wonderful
generation ; for though I have not beheld it with my own
eyes, yet I have met with many honest and reasonable men
in my native country, who have assured me, that they have
found pieces of old, rotten, driven wood in the sea, upon
which there hang muscles, in gome of which they saw
young birds, some half formed, others in full perfection
and shape. From whence I conclude, that those fowls

OF GREENLAND. 97
in largfe flocks to the shore, where they catch
them with their hands. They are not so large
as a, duck, nor is their flesh so well tasted,
bejng more train y, or oily. The lesser sort of
alkes, which also abound here, are more eatable
than tbe large ones. Besides this vast number

Spring from ho -other sfe'ed than sortie clammy and viscous
matter floating in the sea, precipitated upon pieces of old
rotten wood as aforesaid; of which there is first formed a
muscle, and then a little worm in the muscle shell; from
whence at last a bird proceeds. And although this may seem
to exceed the ordinary bounds set by nature in the procre
ation of other birds, yet it is observed and confessed, that
the sea produces many strange and surprising things, and
even living animals, which Ive cannot affirm to have had
being from the first creation ; but that by virtue of the pri
mitive blessing God gave the sea to produce, it may yet
bring forth many uncommon and wonderful things; as for
example, many sorts of sea insects, viz. crabs and the like.
And thus the sea or water in general may with reason be
stiled pater et mater rerum; i. e. "the common parent of
things." Nature seems to delight sometimes in forming
out-of-the-way things : thus we see divers insects formed
out of the very dung of animals; some of which insects
often change their kind and shape, viz.. from a small worm
into a flying animal; as flies, beetles, butterflies, and so
forth. H

98 THE NATURAL HISTORY
of sea fowls, there is yet one of a smaller siise,
by the natives called tungoviarseck, which, for
the sake of its beautiful feathers, ought not
to" be forgot: it has the size and shape of a
lark. ' Wild geese or grey geese keep to the North
ward of Greenland ; they are of shape like
other geese, somewhat smaller, with grey
feathers. They take their flight from other
Southern climates over to Greenland every
spring, to breed their young ones ; which, when
grown and able to fly, they carry along with
them and return to the more Southern and
milder climates, where they pass the winter
season. In short, I have myself found in Greenland
all the several sorts of sea fowls which we
have in Norway ; as all kinds of mews large anij
small, which build their nests in the clifts of the
highest rocks, beyond the reach of any one ; and
some upon the little islands, as the bird called
terne and the like ; whose eggs they gather in
great abundance among the stones : the lundes.

OF GREENLAND. 99
or Greenland parrot, so called on account of its
beautiful plumage and' broad speckled bill : the
lumbs, the sea-emms, a fowl of a large size, and
very small wings, for which reason he cannot
fly : besides snipes, and a great number of
others ; some too common to be enumerated
and .described here, and others, of which I
know not the name, but whose figure and
shape you will see in the cats.

H 2

100

THE NATURAL HISTORY

CHAP. VII.

Treats of the ordinary Occupations, as Hunting
and Fishing : of the Tools and Instruments
necessary for these Employments : qf the
House Implements and Utensils, 8$c, qf the
Greenlanders.

AS every nation has its peculiar way of living
and of getting their livelihood, suiting their
genius and temper to the nature and produce of
the country tbey inhabit ; so the Greenlanders
likewise have theirs, peculiar to themselves and
their country. And though their way and
customs may seem to others mean and silly, yet

OF GREENLAND. 101
they are such as very well serve their turn, and
which we can find no fault with. Their ordi
nary employments are fishing and hunting; op
shore they hunt the rein deer, and at sea they
pursue the whales, morses, seals, and other sea
animals, as also sea fowls and fishes. The
manner of hunting the rein deer has been
treated of above in the fifth chapter ; but there,
we took no notice of their bows and arrows,
which they make use of in the killing those
deer. Their bow is of an ordinary make, com
monly made of fir tree, whicli in Norway is
called tenal, and on the back strengthened with
strings made of sinews of animals, twisted like
thread: the bow string is made of a good strong
strap of seal skin, or of several sinews twisted
together ; the bow is a good fathom long. The
head ofthe arrow is armed with iron, or a sharp
pointed bone, with one or more hooks, that it
may keep hold, when shot into a deer's Body.
The arrows they shoot birds with are at the
head covered with one or more pieces of bone
blunt at the end, that they may kill the fowl

102 THE NATURAL HISTORY

without tearing the flesh. The sea fowls are
not shot with arrows, but with darts,, headed
with bones or iron, which they throw very dex
terously, and with so steady a hand at a great
distance, that nobody can hit surer with a gun.
They are more frequently employed at sea than
on shore; and I confess they surpass therein
most other nations ; for their way of taking
whales,- sealSj and other sea animals is by far
the most skilful and most easy and handy.
When they go whale catching, they put on
their best gear or apparel, as if they were going
to a wedding feast, fancying that if they did not
come cleanly and neatly dressed, the whale, who
cannot bear slovenly and dirty habits, would
shun them and fly from them. This is the
manner of their expedition : about fifty persons,
men and women, set out together in one of the
large boats, called kone boat ; the women carry
along with them their sewing tackles, consist
ing of needles and thread, to sew and mend
their husbands' spring coats, or jackets, if tbey
should be torn or pierced through, as also to

OF GREENLAND. 103
mend the boat, in case it should receive any
damage; the men go in search of the whale,
and when they have found him they strike him
with their harpoons, to which are fastened lines
or straps two or three fathoms long, made ot
seal skin, at the end of which they tie a bag of
a whole seal skin, filled with air, like a bladder;
to the end that tbe whale, when he finds him
self wounded, and runs away with the harpoon,
may the sooner be tired, the air bag hindering
him from keeping long under water. When he
grows tired, and loses strength, they attack him
again with their spears and lances, till be is
killed, and then tbey put on their spring coats,
made of dressed seal skin, all of one piece, with
boots, gloves, and caps, sewed and laced so tight
together that no water can penetrate them. In
this garb they jump into the sea, and begin to
slice the fat of him all round the body, even
under the water; for in these coats they cannot
sink, as they are always full of air ; so that they
can, like the seal, stand upright in the sea : nay
they are sometimes so daring, that they will get

104 THE NATURAL HISTORY
upon the whale's back while there is yet life in
him, to make an end of him and cut away his
fat. They go much the same way to work in
killing of seals, except that the harpoon is
lesser, to which is fastened a line of seal skin
six or seven fathoms long, at the end of which
is a bladder or bag made of a small seal skin
filled with air, to keep the seal, when he is
wounded, from diving under the water, and
being lost again. In the Northern parts, where
the sea is all frozen over in the winter, they use
other means in catching of seals. They first
look out for holes, which the seals "themselves
make with their claws,, about the bigness of a
halfpenny, that they may fetch their breath ;
after they have found any hole, they seat them
selves near it upon a chair, made for this pur
pose ; and as soon as they perceive the .seal
come up to the hole and put his snout into it
for some air, they immediately strike him with
a small harpoon, which they have ready in their
hand, to which harpoon is fastened a strap a

OF GREENLAND. 103
fathom long, which they hold with the other
hand. After he is struck, and cannot escape,
they cut the hole so large, that they may get
him up through it ; and as soon as they have
got his head above the ice, they can kill him
with one blow of the fist.
A third way of catching seals is this : they
make a great hole in the ice, or, in the springs
they find out holes made by the seals, through
which they get upon the ice to lie and bask
themselves in the sun. Near to these holes
they place a low bench, upon which they lie
down upon their belly, having first made a
small hole near the large one, through which
they let softly down a perch, sixteen or twenty-
yards, long, headed with a harpoon, a strap
being fastened to it, which one holds in his
hand, while another (for there must be two em
ployed in this sort of capture) who lies upon the
bench with his face downwards, watches the
coming of the seal, which when he perceives, he
cries "Ka?;" whereupon he, who holds the pole,
pushes and strikes the seal.

106 THE NATURAL HISTORY
The fourth way is this : in the spring, when
the seals lie upon the ice near holes, which
they themselves make to get up and down, the
Greenlanders, clothed with seal skins, and a
long perch in their hand, creep along upon the
ice, moving their head forwards and backwards,
and snorting like a seal, till they come so near
hira, that tbey can reach him with the perch
and strike him. A fifth manner of catching
seals, is when in the spring the cnrrent makes
large holes in the ice the seals flock thither in
great shoals ; there the natives watch their
opportunity to Strike them with their harpoons,
and haul them upon the ice. There is yet a
sixth way of catching seals, when the ice is not
eovered with snow, but clear and transparent j
then the catchers lay under their feet foxes of
dogs* tails, or a piece of a bear's bide, to stand
upon and watch the animal, and when by his
blowing and snorting they find what course he
takes, they softly follow him and strike him.
In fishing they make use of hooks and angles
of iron or bones. Their lines are made of

, OF GREENLAND. 107
whalebones cut very small and thin,, and at the
end tacked together ; and with such lines they
will draw one hundred fishes to one which our
people can catch with their hemp lines. But to
catch halibut they use strong lines made of seal
skin, or thick bemp lines.
Their way of fishing the small salmon or
sea trout is this : at low water they build small
enclosures with stone, near the river's mouth, or
any other place where the salmon runs along ;
and when it begins to flow, and the tide comes
in, the salmon retreats to the river, and in high
water passes over the enclosure, and remains iu
tbe river till the water again falls ; then the
salmon wants to go to sea again ; but tbe fish
ermen way-lay him at the enclosure and stop his
passage. And soon after, when the water is
quite fallen, and it is low ebb, the salmon re
mains upon dry land, and may he caught with
hands. And where they are left in holes, they
take them with an instrument made for this
purpose, viz. a perch headed with two sharp
hooked bones, or with one or two iron hooks.

108 THE NATURAL HISTORY
The' rogn fish, or roe fish, so named from
the great quantity of roe that is found in it, as
he is commonly found in shallow water and
npon the sands, sO he is caught like the salmon
With the before-mentioned instrument. There
is such abundance of these fishes, that, as they
cannot consume them all fresh, they are obliged
to dry them on the rocks, and keep them for
winter provision. When roe fish catching is
over, which happens in the month of May, then
the Greenlanders retire into the bays and creeks,
where the Iod or stint fishing then takes place.
There are such numberless shoals of them near
the shore, that they catch them in a kind of
sieves fastened upon long poles, and throw
them upon tbe shore ; they open and dry them
upon the rocks, keeping them for their winter
stock. This fish is not agreeable, nor reckoned
wholesome, when eaten fresh ; besides they have
a nauseous smell, but when dried they may
pass. The natives eat them with a bit of fat,
or soused in train oil : and so of all other sorts
of fishes, what the Greenlanders cannot consume

OF GREENLAND. <<i 10Q
fresh they dry upon the rocks' in the sun, or in
the wind, and lay them up for the'winter. •¦
Now as to. the Greenland boatfo, i there are
two sorts of them ; the one, of which the 'men
alone, make use, . is a small vessel sharp and
pointed at both ends, three fathoms in length,
and at; most but three quarters of a yard broad,
with a round hole in , the midst, * just*>"*larg&
enough for a >, mail's body^ to enter it, and sit
down in it, the inside of the boat is made of
thin rafts tacked together with the sinews of
animals, and, the outside is covered with seal
skins, dressed and] without hair ;%no more than
one can sit in it, who fastens <it so tight about
his waist, -that no water can penetrate it. In
these small boats they go to sea, managing them
with one oar of a, .fathom in length,1 broad J at
both ends, with which they paddlej sometimes
on one side and sometimes { oh the other, with
so much swiftness, that they are .said to row ten
or twelve Norway, miles -in a day. They chiefly
make use of them in catching of seals and Sea
fowls, which tbey can approach on a -sudden

jlO THE NATURAE* HISTORY
and unawares ; whereas we in our large boats
can very seldom come so near as tb touch them.
They do not fear venturing out to sea in them
in the greatest storms, because they swim as
light upon the largest waves as a bird can fly ;
and when the waves come upon them with all
their fury, they only turn thfe side of the boat
towards them, to let them pass, without the least
danger of being sunk : though they may happen
to be overset, yet they easily raise themselves
again with their paddle ; but if they are overset
unawares (as it often happens) and the boat be
not close and tight about their waist, they are
inevitably drowned.
The other kind of boats are large and open,
like our boats, some of them twenty yards
long ; and these are called kone boats, that is,
women's boats, because the women commonly
row- them ; for they think it unbecoming a man
to row such a boat, unless great necessity re
quires it: and when they first set out for the
whale fishing, the men sit in a very negligent
posture, with their faces turned towards the

OF GREENLAND. Ill
prow, pulling with their little ordinary paddle ;
but the women sit in the ordinary way, with
their faces toward the stern, rowing with long
oars. The inside of these boats is composed of
thin rafts, and the outside clothed with thick
seal skins. In these boats they transport their
baggage, as tents and the like household furni
ture, when they go to settle in some distant
places in quest of provision. In these boats they
also carry sails, made of the bowels and entrails
of seals. The mast is placed foremost on the
prow, and as the sail is broad at the upper end,
where it is fastened to the yard, and narrow at
the lower end, so they neither want braces nor
bowlines and sheet ropes, and with these sails
they sail well enough with the wind, not other
wise. These boats, as they are flat-bottomed,
can soon be overset.
Tbe men meddle with no work at home but
what concerns their tools for hunting and fishing
tacklings, viz. their boats, bows, arrows, and
the like. All other work, even of building and

112 THE NATURAL HISTORY
repairing- their houses, belongs to the women.
As dexterous, and skilful as the men are at their
work, so the women are not behindhand with
them, but •> according to their way and manner
deserve to be praised. and admired. ,

OF GREENLAND.

U3

CHAP. VIII.

Of the Inhabitants, their Houses, and House
Furniture.

IT is undoubted, that the modern inhabitants
of Greenland are tbe offspring of the Schil
lings, especially those that live on the Western
coast; and there may be some mixture, for
aught we know, of the ancient Norway colonies
that formerly dwelled in the country, who in
length of time were blended and naturalized
among the natives, which is made probable by

1*4 THE NATURAL HISTORY
several Norway words found in their language.
For, although the Norway colonies were de
stroyed, yet there were, no doubt, some remains
of them, which joined with the natives and
became all one nation. With these, inhabitants
all the sea coasts are peopled, some more and
some less.
The-doast is pretty populous in the Southern
parts, and on the North in 68° and 690 ; -though,
compared to other Countries, it is in the main
but thihly inhabited. In the inner parts of the
country nobody lives, except at certain times in
the summer season, when they go rein deer
hunting. The reason of this is, that (as has
been said above) the whole upland country is
perpetually covered with ice and snow.
' As to their houses or dwelling places, tbey
have one for the winter season and another for
the summer. Their winter habitation is a lo#
hut built with stone and turf, two or three yards
high, with a flat roof. In this hut the windows
aie on one side,' made of the bowels bf seals
dressed and sewed together, br of tbe maws of

OF GREENLAND. 115
halibut, and are white and transparent. On
the other side their beds are placed, which
consist in shelves or benches made up of deal
boards raised half a yard from the ground ;
their bedding is made of seal and rein deer
skins. Several families live together in one Of
these houses or huts ; each family occupying
a room by itself, separated from the rest by a
wooden post, by which also the roof is sup
ported ; before which there is a hearth or fire-
place, in which is placed a great lamp in the
form of a half moon seated on a trevet ; over
this are bung their kettles of brass, copper, or
marbje, in which they boil their victuals : under
the roof, just above the lamp, they have a sort
of rack or shelf, to put their wet clothes upon
to dry. The fore door or entry of the house is
very low, so that tbey must stoop, and most
creep in upon all fours, to get in at it ; which is
So contrived to keep the cold air out as much
as possible. The inside of the houses is covered
or lined with old skins, whieh before have served
12

116 THE NATURAL HISTORY
for the covering of their boats. Some of these
houses are so large, that tbey can harbour seven
or eight families. *-:
Upon the benches or shelves, where their beds
are placed, is the ordinary seat of the women,
attending their work of sewing and making up
the clothing. The men with their sons occupy
the foremost parts of the benches, turning their
back to the women : on the opposite side, under
the windows, the men belonging to the family,
or strangers, take their seats upon the benches
there placed. . <{.
I cannot forbear taking notice, that though
in one of these houses there be ten or twenty
train lamps, one does not perceive the steam or
smoke thereof to fill these small cottages; the
reason, I imagine, is, the care they take io
trimming those lamps, viz. they take dry moss,
rubbed very small, which they lay on one side of
the lamp, which being lighted, burns softly, and
does not cause any smoke, if they do not lay it
on too thick, or in lumps. This fire gives such
a heat, that it not only serves to boil their

OF GREENLAND. 117
victuals, but also heats their rooms to that
degree, that it is as hot as a bagnio. But for
those who are notused to this way of firing, the
smell is very disagreeable, as well by the number
of burning, lamps, all fed with train oil, as on
account of divers sorts of raw meat, fishes, and
fat, which they heap up in their habitations ;
but especially their urine tubs smell most insuf
ferably, and strikes one, that is not accustomed
to it, to the very heart.
These winter habitations they begin to dwell
in immediately after Michaelmas, and leave
them again at the approach of the spring, which
commonly is at the latter end of March ; and then
for the summer season lodge in tents, which are
their summer habitations. These tents are made
of rafts or long poles, set in a circular form,
bending at the top, and resembling a sugar-loaf,
and covered with a double cover, of which the
innermost is of seal or rein deer skins with the
hairy side inward (if they be rich), and the
outermost also of the same sort of skins, with
out hair, dressed with fat, that the rain may not

US JHE NATURAL HISTORY
pierce them. In these tents they have their
beds, and lamps to dress their meat with ; also
a curtain made of the guts or bowels of seals
sewed together, through which they receive the
day light instead of windows. Every master of
a family has got such a tent, and a great
woman's boat, to transport their tents and lug*
gage from place to place, where their bnsiness
calls them.

OF GREENLAND. 11^

CHAP. IX.

The Greenlanders' Persons, Complexion, and
Temperament.
THE Greenlanders, as , well man as woman
kind, are well shaped and proportioned, .-, rather
short than tall, and strong built* inclined to b$
fat and corpulent ; their faces broad, thick lips,
and flat nosed; their hair and eyes black, their
complexion a very dark tawny ; though I have
seen some pretty fair. Their bodies are of a vi
gorous constitution. There are seldom found-
any sick or lame, and but few distempers are
known among them, besides weakness of the
eye-sight, which is caused by the sharp and
piercing spring winds, as well as the snow and
ice, that hurt the sight.

120 THE* NATURAL HISTORY
I have met, with some that seemed infected
with a kind of leprosy ; yet (what is surprising
to me), though they converse with others, and lay
with them in one bed, it is not catching. They
that dwell in the most Northern parts are often
miserably plagued with dysenteries or bloody
fluxes, breast diseases, boils, and epilepsy or fall
ing sickness, &c. There were no epidemical or
contagious diseases known among them, as
plague, small-pox, and such like, till the year
1734, when one of the natives, who with several
others were brought over to Denmark, and toge
ther with his companions had the small-pox at
Copenhagen, coming home again to his native
country brought the infection amongst them ; of
which there were swept away in and about the co
lony above two thousand persons. For as the na
tives as well as the animals of this climate are of
a hot nature, they cannot bear the outward heat,
much less the inward, caused by this burning
distemper, which inflames the mass of blood to
that degree, that it cannot, by any means, be
quenched. They are very full of blood, which

OF GREENLAND. 131
is observed by their frequent bleeding at the
nose. Few of them exceed the age of fifty or sixty
years j many die- in the prime of their life, and
most part in their tender infancy ; which is not
to be wondered at, considering they are quite
destitute of all sorts of medicines, and ignorant
of all that may strengthen and comfort sick
bodies. To supply which defects, they know of
nothing better than to send for their divines,
which they name angekuts, who mutter certain
spells over the sick, by which they hope to
recover. For outward hurts, as wounds, cuts of
knives, and the like, they sew or stitch them
together. If any grow blind, as it often happens
to them, the eye being covered over with a
white skin, they make a small hook with a
needle, which they fasten into this skin, to
loosen it from the eye, and then with a knife
they pull it off". When children are plagued
with worms, the mother puts her tongue (salvd
vericd) into the anus of the children, to kill

113 THE NATURAL JI19TPRY
them, Burnt moss with train; oil mixed toge?
ther serves for plaisters to fresh wounds ; or they
cover them with a piee£ of the innermost jripfl of
a tree, and it will heal of itself. : , ? , , /
•j The Greenlanders are commonly of a phleg
matic ;tempef^ which is the cause of a cold
nature arid stupidity; tbey seldom fly into a
passion, or are much affected or taken with any
thing, but of an insensible, indolent mind. Yet
I am of opinion, that what contributes most to
this coldness and stupidity is want of education
and proper means to cultivate their minds. In
which opinion I am confirmed by the experience
of some who had for some time conversed/with
ns, especially the young: ones, who easily have
taken all that they have seen or heard among
us, whether it was good or bad. I have found
some of them witty enough, and of good
capacity.
; ¦¦•¦l i.:-u;;. ,ii ,. . ., *,[

OF GREENLAND. IfflS

CHAP. X.

The Customs, Virtues, and Vices, and the Manners
or Way of Life of the Greenlanders.
THOUGH the Greenlanders are as yet subject
to no government, nor know of any magistrates^
or laws, or any sort of discipline ; yet they are
so farfrom being lawless or disorderly, that they
are a law to themselves ; their even temper and
good nature making them observe a regular and
orderly behaviour towards one another. One
cannot enough admire how peaceably, lovingly,
and united they live together ; hatred and envy,
strifes and jars are never heard of among
them*. And although it may happen that one
* When they see our drunken sailors quarrelling and
fighting together, they say we. are inhuman; that those
fighters do not look upon one another to be of the sam#
kind. Likewise, if an officer beats any of the men, thoy
Say, such officer treats his fellow creatures like dogs.

124 THE. NATURAL HISTORY
bears a grudge to another, yet it never breaks
out into any scolding or fighting; neither have
they any words to express such passions, or any
injurious and provoking terms of quarrelling.
It has happened once or twice, that a very
wicked and malicious fellow, out of a secret
grudge, has killed another; which none of the
neighbours have taken notice of, but all let it
pass* with a surprising indolence ; save the next
kindred to the dead, if he finds himself strong
enough, revenges his relation's death upon the
murderer. They know of no other punishment ;
but those old women called witches, and such
as pretend to kill or hurt by their conjuring ;
to such tliey show great rigour, making nothing
pf killing and destroying them without mercy.
And tbey pretend that it is very well done;
those people not deserving to live, who by secret
arts can hurt arid make away with 'others.
They have as great an abhorrence of stealing
or thieving among themselves, as any nation
upon Earth ; wherefore they keep nothing shut
up under lock and key, but leave every thing

OF GREENLAND. 125
unlocked, that every body can come at; it, with?
out fear of losing it. ¦;,.-'•.
... This vice is so much. detested by them, that
if a maiden should steal any thing,. she would
thereby forfeit a good match. Yet if. they can
lay hands upon any thing belonging to us fo
reigners, they make no . great scruple of con
science about it. But, as we now have lived
some time in the country amongst them, and are
looked upon as true inhabitants of the land, they
at last have forbore to molest us any more that
.way.' As to the transgressions of, tbe seventh com
mandment, we never have found them guilty in
that point, either in words or deeds, except what
passes amongst the married people in their public
diversions, as we shall see hereafter.
As for what we call civility and compliments,
they do not much trouble themselves about
them ; they go and come, meet and pass one
another, without making use of any greeting or
salutation : yet they are far from being unman
nerly or uncivil in their conversation ; for they

1$6 THE NATURAL HISTORY
make a* difference among persons, and give mbre
honour to one than to another, according to
their merit arid: deserts. They never enter' any
house where they are strangers, unless they are
invited, and when they come in, the master of
the house, to whom they pay the visit, shows
them the place where they are to take their
seat. As soon as a visitor enters the house, he is
desired forthwith to strip naked, and to sit
down in this guise like all the rest ; for this is
the grand fashion with them to dry the clothes
of their guest. When victuals are put before
him, he takes care not to begin eating immedi
ately, for fear of being looked upon as starved,
or of passing for a glutton. He must stay till
all the family is gone to bed before he can lie
down, for to them it seems unbecoming that the
guest goes to rest before the landlord. When-
ever a stranger comes into a house, he never asks
for victuals, though never so hungry; nor i$
there any need he should ; for they generally
exercise great hospitality, and are very free with

OF GREENLAND. \2f
what' they have J and what is highly to be ad
mired and praiseworthy, they have most things
in common; and if there be any amorig them
(as it will happen) who cannot work or get his
livelihood, they do not let him starve, but ad*
mit -him 'freely to their table, in which they con*
found us Christians, who suffer so many poor
and distressed mortals to perish for want of
victuals!. Finally, the Greenlanders, as to their manners
a6d common way of life, are very slovenly^
nasty, and filthy ; they seldom wash themselves*,
will eat out of plates and bowls after their dogs,
without cleansing them ; and (what is most
nauseous to behold), eat lice arid such like
* The way the men wash themselves is to lick thtir
fingers (as'thd cat does his paws) and rub their eyes with
them to .get the salt off, which the sea throws i nto their face
The women wash themselves in their urine, that their hair
may grow, and to give it (according to their fancy) a fine
smell. When a maiden has thus washed herself, their com.
mon saying is niviarsiarsuanerks, that is, she smells like a
Tirgin maid. Thu£ washed they go into the cold air, and
let it freeze, which shows the strength of their heads., and
it well becomes foreigners to do so.

128 THE NATURAL HISTORY
vermin, which they find upon themselves Or
others. Thus they make good the old proverb*
what drips from the nose falls into the mouth,
that nothing may be lost. They will scrape the
sweat from off their faces with a knife, and lick
it up. They do not blush to sit down and ease
themselves in the presence of others. Every
family has a urine tub placed before the entry,
in which they make water, and leave it so stand
ing till it smells most insufferably ; for they put
hi it the skins, which are to be dressed, fo
soak or steep, which affords not the most
agreeable scent ; to the encreasing of which the
rotten pieces of flesh meat and fat thrown under
their benches contributes a great deal ; so that
delicate noses do not find their account among
them. Yet through long custom the most
nauseous things become more supportable.
Notwithstanding, however, their nasty and
most beastly way of living, they are very good
natured and friendly in conversation. They can
be merry and bear a joke, provided- it be within
due bounds. Never any of them has offered in

OF GREENLAND. 129
the least manner to hurt or do harm to any of
our people, unless provoked to it. They fear
and respect us as a nation far superior to theirs
in valour and strength.

130

THE NATURAL HISTORY

CHAP. XI.

Of their Habits, and Way of Dressing.
THEIR clothes are, for the most part, made
of rein deer and seal skin, as also of bird's skin
nicely dressed and prepared. The men's habits
are a coat or jacket, with a cap or hood sewed
to it, to cover the head and shoulders, in tbe»
fashion of a domino, or monk's hood. This
coat reaches down to the knees. Their breeches
are very small, not coming above their loins,

OF GREENLAND. 131
that they may not hinder them in getting into
their small boats. And as they wear no linen,
the hairs of the skins the coat is made of, is
turned inward to keep them warm. Over this
coat they put on a large frock, made of seal
skin dressed and tanned, without hair, in order
to keep the water out ; and thus they are dressed
when they go to sea.
Between the leathern frock and the under
coat they wear a linen shirt, or, forswant of
linen, made of seal's guts; which also helps to
keep out the water from the under coat. Of
late they appear sometimes in more gaudy
dresses, as shirts made of striped linen, and coats
and breeches of red and blue stuffs, or cloth,
which they buy of ours, or the Dutch mer
chants, but fashioned after their own way ; in
these they make parade and feast, when they
keep holidays on shore. The stockings they
wore formerly were made of rein deer, or seal's
skin, but now they like better our sort of
worsted stockings, of different colours, white,
blue, and red, which they buy of us. Their
k 2

132 THE NATURAL HISTORY
shoes and boots are made of seal's skins, red
or yellow, well dressed and tanned ; they
are nicely wrought, with folds behind and
before, Without heels, and fit well upon the
foot*. The only difference between the dress of
the men and the women is, that the women's
coats are higher on the ghoulders and wider
than the men's, with higher and larger hoods.
The married women, that have got children,
wear much larger coats than the rest, most
like gowns, because they must carry their
children in them upon their backs, having
got no other cradle or swadling clothes for
them. They wear drawers, which reach to
the middle of the thigh, and over them
breeches : the drawers they always keep on,
and sleep in them. Their breeches come down
to the knee : these they do not wear in t^e
* In tbe summer they wear short frocks, as also in winte^
when they work on the ice in the bays ; but theft thgy put
a white covering over it, that thsy may not frighten the
seals.

OF GREENLAND. 133
summer, nor in the winter, but when they
go abroad ; and as soon as they come home
they pull them off again. Next to their body
they wear a waistcoat made of young fawns'
skins, with the hairy side inward. The coat,
Or upper garment, is also made of fine coloured
swans' skins (or, in defect of that, of seal skins)
trimmed and edged with white, and nicely
wrought in the seams, and about the brim,
which looks>ery well. Their shoes and boots,
with little difference, are like those of the men.
Their hair, which is very long and thick, is
braided and tied up in a knot, which becomes
them well. They commonly go bare-headed,
as well without as within doors ; nor are they
covered with hoods, but in case it rains or
snows. Their chief ornament and finery is to
wear glass beads of divers colours, or corals
about the neck and arms, and pendants in their
ears. They also wear bracelets, made of black
skin, set with pearls, with which they also trim
their clothes and shoes.
The Greenland sex have, besides this, an-

134 THE NATURAL HISTORY
other sort of embellishment, viz. they " make
long black strokes between the eyes on the
forehead, upon the chin, arms, and hands, and
even ' upon the thighs and legs ; these they
make with a needle and thread made black.
And though this to others seems a wrong way
of embellishing, yet they think it very handsome
and ornamental. And they say, that those who
do not thus deform their faces, their heads
shall be turned into train tubs, which are
placed under the lamps in Heaven, or tbe
land of souls.
They keep their clothes pretty clean, though
in other things, especially in their victuals, they
are not so nice, chiefly the women, who have
got children, are very dirty and slovenly, well
knowing, that they cannot be repudiated, or
sent a packing. But those wretches that are
barren, or whose children are dead, and do
not know the moment they may be sent away,
are obliged to take more care of their clean
ness and property, that they may please their
husbands.

OF GREENLAND. 135

CHAP. XII.

Of their Diet, and manner of dressing their
Victuals.
THE Greenlanders' provision and victuals are
flesh and fish meat (for the country affords no
other kind of provision) as rein deer, whales,
seals, hares, and rypes, or white partridges,
and all sorts of sea fowls. They eat their flesh
meat sometimes raw, sometimes boiled, or
dried in the sun or wind ; but their fish meat
is always thoroughly done, or they eat it dried
in the sun or air, as salmon, roe-fish, halibut,
or the small stints, which, in the months of
May and June, they catch in great abundance,
and. keep them cured and dried for winter
provisions. - And whereas, in the winter sea
son, it is yery rare to get seals, except in the

136 THE NATURAL HISTORY
most Northern parts, where they take them
upon the ice ; so they make all the provision
of them they can get in the fall, and bury
them under the snow, until the winter comes
on, when, they dig them up, and eat them
raw and frozen as they are. Their drink is
nothing but water, and not, as some writers
have wrongly pretended, train oil ; for they
do not so much as eat the fat, but only in
sauces to their dried fish.
Furthermore, they put great lumps of ice
and snow into the water they drink, to make
it the cooler to quench their thirst. They
are^ taking them in general, very hoggish and
dirty in their eating and dressing of their
victuals ; they never wash, cleanse, or scour
the kettles, pots, or dishes,, in which they
dress, arid out of which they eat their
victuals ; which, when dressed, they often lay
down upon the dirty ground, which they walk
upon, instead of tables. They will, with so
great an appetite and greediness, feed upon
the rotten and stinking seal flesh, that if turns

OF GREENLAND. 13/
the stomach of any hungry man who looks:
upon them. They have no set time for their
meals, every man eats when he is hungry,
except when they go to sea, and then their
chief repast is a supper, after they are come
home in the evening; and he, whose supper
is first ready, calls his neighbours to come
and partake of it, as he does again with them
reciprocally ; and so it goes round from one to
anothen The women do not eat in company with
the men, but separately by themselves ; and
in the absence of their husbands, when gone
a fishing, they being left to themselves, invite
one another, and make grand cheer. And as
they eat heartily, when they can come at it,
so they can as well endure hunger, when
scarcity of provision requires it. It has been
observed* that in great scarcity, they can live
upon pieces of old skins, upon reets, or sea
weeds, and other such trash. But the reason
why they can endure hunger better than we
foreigners, I take to be, their bodies being so

138 THE NATURAL HISTORY
squat and corpulent, their fat yielding them
matter- of nourishment within themselves, for
a while, till it be consumed.
Besides tbe fore-mentioned provisions, they
also eat a sort of reddish sea weed, and a
kind of root, which they call tugloronet, both
dressed with fat, or train oil ; the dung of the
rein deejy taken out of the guts, when
they cleanse them ; the entrails of partridges,
and the like out-cast, pass for dainties with
them. They make likewise pancakes of what
they scrape off the inside of seal skins, when
they dress them. In the summer they boil
their meat with wood, which they gather in
the field, and in winter time over their lamps
in little kettles, of an oval figure, made of
brass, copper, or marble, which they make
themselves. To kindle the fire, when extinguished,
they make use of this expedient, which shows
their ingenuity : they take a short block of
dry fir tree, upon which they rub another
piece of hard wood, till, by the continued

OF GREENLAND. 130
motion, the fir catches fire. When we first
came among them, tbey did not like to taste
any of our victuals, but now tbey are glad
to get some of it, especially bread and butter,
which they like mightily, but they do not
much care for our liquors ; yet, notwithstand
ing, some of them, who have lived some time
among us, have learnt to drink wine and
brandy, and never refuse it, when it is offered
them. But as for tobacco, they do not at all
like it, nor can they bear the smell or smoke
of it.

<r

\4& THE NATURAL HISTORY

CHAP. XIII.

Of their Marriages, and Education qf their
Children.
THE most detestable crime of polygamy, which
reigns so much among the Heathens, the Green
landers are not so much addicted to ; for com
monly they are contented with one wife. There
are some, but very few, that keep two, three, or
four wives ; but these pass for heroes or more
than ordinary men, in that, by their industry,
they are able to subsist so many wives and
children. And what is remarkable, before our
arrival, there was never heard of such a thing
as jealousy, among those wives, but they agreed
very well together, though the first wife was
reckoned the mistress. Since our arrival, as we
have informed them of the word, and will of

OF GREENLAND. 141
God, importing, that in the beginning the All-
wise Creator made one man and one woman, to
live in matrimony as husband and wife, there
has been some resentment in the wives, when
their husbands have had a mind to take any
other besides them ; they have addressed them
selves to me, and desired me to put a stop to
such a proceeding. Also when I have instructed
them in their catechism and the Christian doc
trine, they have always put me in mind, not to
forget fully to instruct their husbands in the
duties of the seventh commandment.
Some time passed before we could learn
how the men behaved themselves with regard
to other men's wives, or the women vice versa,
till at last we perceived them not to be over
scrupulous in this matter, of which we were
more fully convinced, by hearing of a certain
illegal game used among them , which is this.
A number of married men aud women meet
together at an assembly ; where, after they have
taken their fill of feasting and revelling, they
begin singing and dancing, according to their

142 THE NATURAL HISTORY
own way; and in the mean while one after
another take a trip with each other's wife,
behind a curtain or hangings made of skins at
one end of , the house, where their beds are
placed, and there divert themselves. Those are
reputed the best and noblest tempered, who,
without any pain or reluctancy, will lend their
friends their wives.
But, as I observed above, none but married
people frequent these sort of games, which,
they imagine, is not unbecoming. Especially
tbe women think themselves happy, if an
angekkok, or prophet, will honour them with his
caresses : there are even some men so generous,
that they will pay the angekkok for it ; chiefly
if they themselves can get no children ; for they
fancy that an angekkok's child will be more
happy and better qualified for business than
others. Maidens, on the contrary, and unmarried
women, observe much better the rules of mo
desty and continency ; for I never saw any of
them entertain any loose or slippery conversa-

OF GREENLAND. 143
tion with young men ; or show the least incli
nation to it either in, words or deeds. During
fifteen full years that I lived in Greenland, I
did not hear of more than two or three young
unmarried women, who had been guilty of in
continence ; because it is reckoned tbe greatest
of infamies, lt is remarkable that natural
decency is observed by them ; for they refrain
from marrying their next relations, even in the
third degree, taking such matches to be unwar
rantable and quite unnatural. It is likewise
reckoned uncouth and blameable, if a lad and
a girl, that have served and been educated in one
family, should desire to be married together;
for they look upon them as brother and sister.
The ceremonies they use in their marriages
and weddings are as follow: — When a young
man likes a maiden, he commonly proposes it
to their patents and relations on both sides : _
and after he has obtained their consent, he get!
two or more old women to fetch the bride (and
if he is a stout fellow, he will fetch her him
self). They go to the place where the young

144 THE NATURAL HISTORY
woman is, and carry her away by force ; for
though she ever so much approves of the match,
yet out of modesty she must make as if it went
against the grain, and as if she was much ruffled
at it; else she will be blamed and get an ill
name, as if she had been a love-sick wench.
After she is brought to the house of the bride
groom, she keeps for some time at a distance,
and sits retired in some corner, upon the bench,
with her hair dishevelled, and covering her
face, being bashful and ashamed. In the mean
while the bridegroom uses all the rhetorick he
is master of, and spares no caresses to bring her
to a compliance with his ardent wishes ; and
the good girl being at length persuaded and
prevailed with, yields kindly to his ravishing
embraces ; and then they lie down together,
and so the wedding is over. But sometimes
they take a shorter way to go to work, which is
to gratify their inclinations without the advice
or consent of the parents*. Nevertheless their
* When a man sends for his son's bride, to be conducted
to his house, if he be in good circumstances he makes a

OF GREENLAND. 145
matrimony is not of so indissoluble a nature
but that the husbands often repudiate and put
away their wives, if either they do not suit their
humours, or else, if they are barren and do not
bring forth children (which they hold to be very
ignominious), and marry others. But if they
have children by them, they bear a great deal
with them, and keep them for life. It is not
rare to see that a man beats his wife, and gives
her black eyes, for her obstinacy and stubborn
ness sake ; however they are soon reconciled
and good friends again, without bearing any
grudge. For, according to them, it signifies
nothing, that a man beats his wife ; brit they do
not like that a master should drub a servant
maid. Likewise they think it heinous that a
mother chastises her children ; and if she falls
great feast ; and throws out for prizes several presents of
poles, rafts, knives, and other toys. The same is practised
the day following after the bedding of the new-married
couple. If they have children before the year is past, or if
they often breed, they are blamed, and compared to dogs.
A new married woman is ashamed for having changed her
condition for a married state.

146 THE NATURAL HISTORY
foul of her maid, it is with them unpardonable ;
and such a woman gets an ill name.
If one of the party dies, the relict, whether
husband or wife, is at liberty to marry again.'
The women are of a very hardy and strong
nature, which they chiefly show in their child-
bearing ; for as soon as it is over, they will go
to work and do their ordinary business as usual.
But sometimes they pay very dear for this
bravery, it costing them their lives. The day
after their delivery they go abroad to work,
being girt with a waist belt two or three inches
broad, which they also wore before their de
livery. As soon as the child is born, the
mother dips her finger into water, and rubs the
child's lips with it ; or she puts a little bit of
snow into its mouth, saying, " Imekautit,"
which signifies, Thou hast drunk a good deal ;
and when she eats, she takes a bit of fish, and
holds it to the child's mouth, and shakes her
hand, with this word, " Aiparpotit," that is to
say, Thou hast eat and kept me company.
They cut the navel-string, not with a knife,

OF GREENLAND. 147
hut with a muscle shell, or they bite it off with
their teeth ; and when the string is dry they use
it as an amulet.
They hold a chamber pot over the head of
the woman in labour, imagining that it helps to
hasten her delivery. The child being a year
old, the mother slabbers and licks it all over,
from head to foot, that it may grow hale and
strong. They seldom bear twins, but monsters
are often brought forth. In the year 1737 a
woman, in the Bay of Disco, was delivered of a
hideous monster ; the eyes were placed on the
side of the nose : it had a pointed snout and no
ears. Instead of hands and feet it had paws,
and very thick thighs. Its front was covered
with hair like those of a rein deer, and the sides
were covered with something like a white skin
of a fish. In the same place another monstrous
birth was seen in the year 1739, without a
head, four-footed, with long nails, like claws ;
it had a mouth upon the breast, and claws upon
the back.
They have a very tender love for their
l 2

148 THE NATURAL HISTORY
children, and the mother ' always , carries her
infant child about with her upon her back,
wrapped up in her coat wherever she goes, or
whatever business she has in hand, for they
have no other cradles for them. They suck
them till they are three or four years old or
more ; because in their tender infancy they
cannot digest the strong victuals that the rest
must live upon.
The education of their children is what they
seem little concerned about ; for they never
make use of whipping or hard words to correct
them, when they do any thing amiss, but leave
them to their own discretion. Notwithstanding
which, when they are grown, they hever seem
inclined to vice or roguery, which is to be
admired. It is true, they show no great respect
to .their parents in their outward forms, but
always are very willing to do what they order
them ; though sometimes they will bid their
parents do it themselves. They are under the
care of their parents, boys as well as girls, till
they are married ; afterwards they shift for

OF GREENLAND. 149
themselves, yet so, that they continue to dwell
in the same house, or under the same roof with
their fathers, together with other kindred and
relations ; and what they get, they all enjoy in
common.

150 THE NATURAL HISTORY

CHAP. XIV.

How the Greenlanders mourn and bury their
dead Friends.
WHEN any person dies, they take what be
longs to him, as house-furniture, utensils, and
clothing, and throw it all out into the field,
that by touching of them they may not become
unclean, or any misfortune befal them on that
account: and all that live in the same house
are obliged to carry out any thing of their goods
that is new and has not been used ; but in the
evening they bring them all back again, for then
they say the stench of the dead body is quite
dissipated. Then they begin to lament and
mourn for their dead friend, with tears and
ghastly howlings, which they continue for an
hour, and then the nearest relations take the

OF GREENLAND. 151
body and carry, it to tbe grave, made up of stones
thrown together in a heap, under which they
bury him dressed in his best clothes, and well
wrapt up in skins of rein deer or seals, with his
legs bent under his back. Near the burying
place they lay his utensils, viz. his boat, bows,
arrows, and the like ; and if it be a woman, her
needles, thimbles, and the like ; not that they
believe they stand in need of those things, when
they are come to the land of souls, or in the
other world, whither they are retired, but for
the aversion they have for those things : lest by
refreshing the memory of the deceased, they
might renew their grief and sorrow for his loss ;
for if they should bewail him and weep too
much, they think he will endure the more cold
where he is.
They think themselves unclean if they touch
any thing belonging to the deceased ; as likewise
he that has carried him to the grave, and buried
him, is reckoned unclean for some time, and
dares not do certain things : nay, not only the
kindred and relations of the. deceased, but like-

152 THE NATURAL HISTORY
wise every one that has lived in the same house
with him, are obliged to abstain from certain
victuals and work, for a while, according to the
direction of angekkuts or divines.
The women never wash themselves during
their mourning time, nor appear Well dressed,
or with braided and tied up hair, but dishevelled,
and hanging about the face. They must put on
their hood as often as they go out of doors,
which is not customary at other times : but they
believe they otherwise should soon die.
They bewail their dead long eriough : for, as
often as any of their friends and acquaintance
come from other places to see them, the first
thing they do is to sit down in great sadness, and
weep and bemoan the loss of their deceased
friend : after which they are comforted with
good cheer. But if the deceased has left no
friend or relation behind him, he may lie long
enough where he died, whether at home or
abroad before any body comes and buries him.
If a person dies in the house, his body must not
be carried through the ordinary entry of it, but

OF GREENLAND. 153:
conveyed out at the window ; and if he dies in
a tent, he is brought out at the back part of it.
At the funeral, a woman lights a stick in the
fire, brandishing the same and saying, pikler-
f
rukpok, that is, Here is no more to be got.
When little children die and are buried, they
put the head of a dog near the grave, fancying,
that children having no understanding, they
cannot by themselves find the way, but the dog
must guide them to the land of the souls.

154

THE NATURAL HISTORY

CHAP. XV,

Their Pastimes and Diversions, as also their
Poetry.
THE Greenlanders have several kinds of sports
and recreations, with which they pass their
time, when they have nothing else to do, or
when they visit one another : of which these
are the most remarkable. When they meet
together for diversion's sake, the first step
made is always banqueting and revelling, where
they stuff themselves with all the dainty bits

OF GREENLAND. 155
'and the best cheer the country affords ; as
rein deer and seal flesh dried or bofled ; and
the tail of a whale, which they reckon among
the greatest delicacies. Of these things they
eat very greedily ; for it is a great honour
done to the landlord who treats, that his
guests, when come home, complain that their
belly was too small, and that it was ready
to burst. After the repast, they get up to divert
themselves in this manner : one of the com
pany takes a drum, which is made of a broad
wooden hoop, or ofthe rib of a whale, covered
with a thin skin, with a handle to it; which
drum he beats with a stick, singing at the
same time songs, either concerning the com
mon affairs in general, or his own private
ones in particular. In which, at the end of
each verse, the whole chorus of men and wo-1
men join with him.
He that can make the most odd and co
mical gestures, and play the most ridiculous
tricks with his face, head, and limbs, turning '¦

156 THE NATURAL HISTORY
them awry, passes for the most ingenious fel
low ; as he bvihis awkward and out of the
way postures can make. others laugh. .. iL -
They show 'their wit chiefly in satirical
songs, whieh -they compose against one an
other ; and hej that overcomes his fellow in
this way • of debate, is adriiired and applauded
by the rest of the assembly. If any body
conceives a jealousy, or bears a grudge to an
other, upon any account, he sends to him,: .and
challenges him to a duel, in such or such as
sembly ; where he will fight, it out with him
in taunting ditties. Whereupon the defied,
in defence Of his honour, prepares his wea
pons, and -does not fail' to appear at the time
and place appointed, if his courage do not
forsake him. When the assembly is met, and
the combatants arrived, every body being silent
and attentive to hear what end the combat
will take, the challenger first enters the lists*
ahd begins to sing, accompanying it with the
beat of his drum. The challenged rises also,
•pd in silence listens, until his champion or

OF GREENLAND. ISf
adversary has done singing. Then he like
wise enters the lists, armed with the same wea
pons, and lays about his party the best he
can. And thus they alternately sing as long
as their stock of ditties lasts. He that first
gives over, is reckoned overcome and con
quered. In this sort of taunting ditties they
reproach and upbraid one another with their
failings. And this is their common way of
/taking vengeance.
There is not to be expected great ingenuity
or sallies and points of wit in their poesies,
yet there is some cadence and number in their
verses, and some kind of rhyme in them. For
an instance of which I join hereto a Greenland
song, or ode, composed by one of the natives,
who formerly lived in our colony, by name
Frederick Christian, Hpon the birth day of his
then royal highness, Prince Christian, on the
30th of November, 1729, which is as follows.

158 THE NATURAL HISTORY

GREENLAND SONG,

COMPOSED

BY FREDERICK CHRISTIAN,
a jUatt'br.

Amna aja aja, aja aja, &c. (FHqtry.
. ¦,
One morning as I went out, and Annigarama irsigeik, amna aja aja,
saw, &c.
Tliat flags and colours were flying, Arvallirsullitlarmeta: amna aja^.
&c.
And that they made ready Opellungarsullarmeta, amna aja,
&c.
To fire the guns ; Erkaiseigamig og, amna aja aja,
&c.
Then I demanded, Tava orkai bigeik, amna aja aja,
&c.
Why do you fire ? Saag erkaisovise ? Amna aja, &c.
And they answered me, because the Tava akiyanga, assuog Neller.
King's Son's mago,
Birth day teas celebrated, Okuine anni vine nellermago,amna
aja, &c.
Who is to be king after his father, Augune tokkopet kongingoroma-
garae, amna aja, &c.

OF GREENLAND.

159

And sucieed in the kingdom.

Thereupon I staid to viy friend,

Let us make a song
To the King's Son ;

For

i
he shall be made king!

This my little song thall pfraise him :
'Tis said, he is a brave prince,
Let us therefore rejoice;
For lie shall be our king,
After, his Fattier' s death.
We rejoice also, because
He loves us as his Father dots;
Who sent over clergymen to us,
To teach us the ttord qf God;
Lest toe should go to the Devil. -
Be thou like him, so sliall we love
thee,

Kingoreis scmmane ; amna ajn,
&c.
Tava ikkinguntiga; amna aja aja,
&c.
Pitsimik sonuegiluk ; amna aja,&0.
Kongib imna niamganut, amna
aja, &c.
Kongingoromamet; amna aja aja,
&c.
Pisingvoara una; amna aja aja,
&c.
Ostantigirfaraet sillakartok un-
nertlugo, amna aja, Sec.
Tipeitsutigeik: amna aja aja, aja
aja.
Kongingoromamet; amna aja aja,
aja, &c.
Angune-oy tokkoppet : amna aja
aja, &c.
Tipeitsokigogut: -amna aja aja,
aja, Sec.
Attatatut asseigalloapatit: amna
aja, &c.
I'ellesille. tamaunga innekaukit *
amna aja, &c.
Gudimik ajokarsokullugit : amna
aja, &c.
Torngarsungmut makko inacille
pekonnagit: amna aja, &c.
Iblile tameitit neglitsomapaukil,

V
160 THE NATURAL HISTORY
And cherish thee, 4 Asseigomarpaukit : amna aja aja,
V&c. ivgakomarpautigut : amna aja
I aja^&c.
Our ancestors have also been thy Siurlit karalit kivgarimiaukit,
servants, V 1
Msen they. . Juko t amna aja aja, aja aja, &c.
That thou hast thought on us, Isumatigautigut : amna aja aja,&c .
This we know very well, 0 gracious Nellung«kallorapagut, Kongib Ni*
. Son of the King. arnga ajungitsotit,
We hope thou wilt continue so to do, Teimatoy isumariotit : amna aja
aja, &,.. .
The King thy father has before Kongib Angutit pekaramisigut,
possessed us,
When thou shalt be our King Iblile Konghgoruit namaksimptit :
thou'lt prove good enough. amna aja, &c.
Whatever we possess- Tomasa pirsaugut : amna aja aja*}
&c.
Shall be thine altogether. Piarmapotit makko : amna aja,&c.
When Greenland shall have re- Karalit illerpeta : amna aja, &c.
ceived instruction,
Then shall they love God and Gud negligomaparput, Kongible
honour the King. nalleklugo : amna aja aja, &c.
Let us be merry, Tecpeitsukigisa : amna aja aja,
aja, &c.
And ofthe King's Son Kongiblo Niamga : amna aja aja,
&c.
Drink the health. Skaalia immerlugo : amna aja aja,
&c.
And say, Long live Christian ! Tave okarpogut, Christian innu-
vit ; amna aja, &c.

OF GREENLAND.

161

And thy Consort. „ ¦ Nulliello : amna aja aja, aja aja,
&c.
May thy years be many ! Okiutikit armarlesorsuangorlutik :
amna aja, &c.
.•-
( This I wish) Frederick Christian, Friderik Christian ikingutigalo ;
and-my friend **• amna, &c.
Peter, who were the first baptized Peder, karalinit kockkartoguk :
of Greenland. amna, &c.
Would to God our countrymen Kannoktok! Ekkarlivut tama-
were also. kilit makko : amna aja, &c.
Amna, aja aja, aja aja, aja aja,
hei!
They have, besides this, another sort of
diversion, accompanied with singing, which
consists in swopping or bartering. He that
performs the office of drummer and singer,
exposes one thing or other to sale, at any
rate he thinks fit ; if any of the company has
a liking to it, he shows his consent by giving
the seller a slap on his breech, and the bar
gain is done, and cannot be retrieved, whether
good or bad. The boys and lads have also
their pastimes and plays, when they meet in
the evening. They take a small piece of wood,
with a hole in it at one end, to that they tie a
little pointed stick with a thread or string, and
M

162 THE NATURAL HISTORY
throwing the piece with the hole in it up into
tbe air, they strive to catch it upon the pointed
stick, through the hole. He that does it twenty
times successively, and without failing, gains
the match, or party, and he that misses gets a
black stroke on his forehead for every time he
misses. Another boy's play is a game of chance,
like cards or dice ; they have a piece of wood
pointed at one end, with a pin or peg in the
midst, upon which it turns; when the boys
are seated around, and every one laid down
what they play for, one of them turns the
pointed piece of wood with his finger, that it
wheels about like a mariner's compass ; and
when it has done, he that the point aims at,
wins all that was laid down. Ball playing is
their most common diversion, which they play
two different ways. They divide themselves
into two parties ; the first party throws the
ball to each other ; while those of the second
party endeavour to get it from them, and so by
turns. The second manner is like our playing at
foot ball. They mark out two barriers, at three

OF GREENLAND. l6o
or four hundred paces distance one from the
other ; then being divided into two parties, as
before, they meet at the starting place, which is
at the midway between the* two barriers; and
the ball being thrown upon the ground, they
strive who first shall get at it, and kick it with
the foot, each party towards their barrier. He
that is the most nimble footed and dextrous
at it, kicking the ball before him, and getting
the first to the barrier, has won the match.
Thus (they will tell you) the deceased play
at foot ball in Heaven, with the head of
a morse, when it lightens, or the North-
light (aurora borealis) appears, which they
fancy to be the souls of the deceased.
When their acquaintance from abroad
come to -see them, they spend whole days
and nights in singing and dancing ; and as
they love to pass for men of courage and
valour, they will try forces together, in wrestling,
struggling, and playing hook and crook, which
is to grapple with the arms and fingers made
M 2

164

THE NATURAL HISTORY

crooked, and intangled like hooks. Whoever
can pull the other from his place, thinks him
self a man of worth and valour. The women's,
or rather the maiden's plays, consist in dancing
around, holding one another by the hand, form
ing a circle, and singing of songs.

OF GREENLAND. 1 65

CHAP, XVI.

Of their Language.
THOUGH the Greenland language has no
affinity with other European tongues, yet it
seems to have borrowed some words from the
Norwegians, who formerly inhabited part of
the land ; for such words agree both in name
and signification; as, for example, Kona, a
Woman; Nerriok, to eat, from the Norway
word Noerrie. The herb Angelica, which
they in Norway call Quaun, the Greenlanders
call Qvaunnek. A Porpoise, in Norway called
Nise, they call Nise Ashes, in Norway, Aske,
in Greenland, Arkset. A Lamp, in the Nor
wegian, Kolle, in the Greenlandian, Kollek.
Some of their words resemble Latin words of

l66 THE NATURAL HISTORY
the same signification; as, Gutta, a drop;
in the Greenland tongue, Gutte, dr Kutte.
Ignis, Fire, they call Ingnek. And some
they have got from Hebrew roots, as, Appa,
a word the children use to name their father,
and some others.
The accent and pronunciation of it is hard
and difficult, because they speak very thick,
and in the throat. The same language is
spoke throughout the whole country, though
the accent and pronunciation differs here and
there as different ' dialects ; chiefly towards the
Southern parts, where, they have received arid
adopted many foreign words, not used iri the
Northern parts. But the angekuts, or divines,
make use ot a particular speech, whenever
they conjure; for then they use metaphorical
locutions and words in a contrary sense. The
women-kind also have a particular pronunci
ation peculiar to themselves, and different
from that of the men, making use of the
softest letters at the end of wdrds, instead of
hard ones; for example, Am for Ap, that

OF GREENLAND. l6/
is, Yes. Saving, for Savik, a Knife. Their
language, in common, wants the letters, c, d,
f, q, x. They have besides many double and
unknown consonants, which isAthe cause, that
many of their words cannot be spelt accord
ing to their manner of pronouncing them.
For the rest, their expressions are very na
tural and easy, and their constructions so neat
and regular, that one would hardly expect
so much from a nation so unpolite and il
literate. The language is very rich of words
and sense, and of such energy, that one is
often at a loss and puzzled to render it
in Danish; but then again it wants words
to express such things as are foreign, and
not in use among them. They have mono
syllables and polysyllables, but most of the
last. Their words, as well nouns as verbs,
are inflected at the end, by varying the ter
minations, without the help of the articles or
particles, like the Greek and Latin. The '
adjectives always follow their substantives; but
the possessive pronouns are joined to the

i6s

THE NATURAL HISTORY

nouns, as the Hebrew snffixa* : nor have
the nouns alone the'ir suflixa, but the verbs
also. To satisfy the reader's curiosity, I have
hereto joined a list of some of the words,
and a sketch, showing the construction and
inflections of _this language.
* In its inflections it agrees with the Hebrew-

VOCABULARY

OF THE

LANGUAGE OF GREENLAND.

Singular.

Dual.

Plural.

Innuk, Mankind,

Innuk,

Innuit.

Angut, a Man,

Angutik,

Angutit,

Arnak, a Woman,

Arnek,

Arnet.

Niakok, the Head,

Niakufc,

Niakut.

Irse, an Eye,

Irsik,

Irsit.

Kingak, the Nose,

Kingek,

Kinget.

Kinak, the Face,

Kinek,

Kinet.

Kannek, Mouth,

Kannek,

Kangit.

-Okak, Tongue,

Okek,

Oketu

OF GREENLAND.

169

Singular.

Dual.

Plural.

Kiut, a Tooth,

Kiutik,

Kiutit.

Kartlo, a Lip,

Kartluk,

Kartluit.

Suit, an Ear, 1

Siutik,

Siutit.

Nyak, Head qf Hair,

Nytkiek,

Nytkiet.

Ssekik, the Breast,

Saskkirsek,

Saekkirset

Iviange, Bubby,

Iviangik,

Iviangit.

Tue, Shoulder,

Tubik,

Tubit.

Tellek, Arm,

Tellik,

Tellit.

Ikusik, Elbow,

Ikiytik,

Ikivtit.

AAseit,Hand, (that is
is plural only.

tlie Fingers),

Tikek, Finger,

Tikik,

Tirkerit.

Kukik, Nail,

Kukik,

Kuket.

Nak, Belly,

Nersek,

Nerset.

Innelo, Bowel,

Inneluk,

Inneluit.

Okpet; the Thigh,

Okpetik,

Okpetit.

Sibbiak, the Hip,

Sibbirsek,

Sibbirset.

Serkok, Knee,

Serkuk,

Serkuit.

Kannak, Shank,

Kannek,

Kannerset.

Isiket, Foot, is only qf the plural
number.

Kimik, Heel,

Kimik,

Kimikt.

The construction with Possessive Pronouns is
thus.
Iglo, a House, Igluk, Iglut.
My House, Igluga, Igluka, Igluka.
Thy House, Iglut, Iglukit, Iglutk.

170

THE NATURAL HISTORY

His House,

Igloa,

Igluk,

Igloei,

His own House,

Iglune,

Iglugne,

Iglune.

Our House,

Iglout,

Iglogut,

Iglovnt

Your House,

Iglurs^,

Iglursik,

Igluse.

Theii' House,

Igloast,

Igloaekr

Igloeit.

Their own House,

Iglurtik,

Iglutik,

Iglutik.

This same Noun's construction with the
snffixas at Prepositions, mik and nik, mit and
nit, which signifies from ; mut and nut, to; me
and ne, on or upon, is thus performed.

' Singular.
To the House,
Ta my House, ,
To thy Hoiise,
To his House,
To his cwn House,
To our House,
To your House,
To their House,
To their own, House,

Iglomut,
Iglummit, Iglungnut,
Igloanut,Iglominut,
Iglotivnut, Iglusivnut,Igloaeuut,

Dual.
Iglugnut,
idem, idem,
Igloennut, Iglungmimit,
Iglutivnut,idem,
idem,

Iglomingnut, idem,

Plural.
Iglunut.idem.idem.Iglocinut.
Iglominut.idem.
idem. Iglijeinut,
idem.

As to the verbs, they are either simple or
compounded: there are five conjugations, to
which may be added a sixth of negative verbs.
There are three tenses in all, the present,

OF GREENLAND* 1/i
preterit, and future ; and six modds, toi%. in
dicative, interrogative, imperative, permissive,
conjunctive, and infinitive.
The examples of the simple verbs are these.
The first conjugation ends in kpok, as Ermikpok,
he washes himself: Aglekpok, he writes.
The second ends in rpbk, as Mattarpok, he
undresses himself: Aularpok, he sets out on a
journey : Ajokarsorpok, he teaches.
The third conjugation ends in pokpurum ; that
is, in pok preceded by a vowel, as Egipok, he
throws away ; Inginok, he sits down ; Akpapok,
he runs.
The fourth ends in ok or vok, as Pyokt he
receives : Aglyok, he grows : Assavok, he loves.
The fifth conjugation ends in au, as Irsigau,
he ogles ; Arsigau, he resembles ; Angekau, he
is tall. The sixth conjugation of negative verbs ends
in ngilak, as Ermingilak, he does not wash him
self: Mattengilak, he does not undress himself:
Pingilak, he receives not : Egingilak, he throws
not away : Irsigingilak^ he Ogles riot.

172

THE NATURAL HISTORY

Inflexion of a Verb with the suffixes of a person
agent of the first conjugation in kpok.
Indicative. Present.
Singular. Dual. Plural.
He waShe&himself, The two wash themselves, They wash themselves,
Ermikpok. Ermikpuk. Ermikput.
I wash myself, We two wash ourselves, We wash us.
Ermikpunga. Ermikpoguk. Ermikpogut.
Thou wash thyself, You two wash yourselves, ' You wash yourselves.
Ermikpotit. ' Ermikpotik. Ermikpose.

The inflexion with suffixes of a person patient
is formed this way.
Ye two wash me, You wash me,

Thou washest me.
Ermikparma, He washes me,
Ermikpanga. I wash him,
Ermikpara. He washes him,
Ermikp<e. Thou washest him,
Ermikpet. I wash thee,
Ermikpaukit.

Ermikpautiga. The two wash me,
Ermikpainga. We two wash him,
Ermikparpuk. The two wash him,
Ermikpaek. Ye two wash him.
Ermikpartik. We two wash thee,
Ermikpautikit.

Ermikpausinga. They wash me,
Ermikpanga. We wash him,.
Ermikparput. They wash him,
Ermikpset. You wash him,
Ermikparse. We wash thee,
Ermikpseutigit.

OF GREENLAND.

173

Indicative.

Present.

Singular,

Dual.

Plural.

He washes thee,

The two wash thee,

They wash thee,

Ermikpatit.

idem.

idem.

Thou wasliest us,

Ye two wash us.

You wash us,

Ermikpautigut.

Enuikpansigut,

He washes us,

The two wash us,

They wash us,

Ermikpatigut.

idem.

idem.

I wash you,

We two wash you,

•
1 We wash you,

Ermikpause,

idem.

idem.

He wastes you,

*¦
The two wash youi,

They wash you,

Ermikpase.

idem.

idem.

J wash them,

We two wash them,

We wash them,

Ermikpaka.

Ennikpauvut.

idem.

He washes them,

Tlie two wash them,

They wash them,

Ermikpei,

Ermikpatik.

Ermikpase.

, Thou washest them,

Ye two wash them.

Ye wash them,

Ermikpatit.

Ermikpatik.

Ermikpeit.

Inflexion of the Negative Verb.

He washes not him- The two wash not tliem- They wash not them-
self, selves. selves.
Ermingilak. Ermingilek. Ermingjilat.
I do not wash myself, We two wash not our- We wash not ourselves,
selves,

Ermingilanga. Ermingilaguk.

Ermingilagut.

1?4 THE NATURAL HISTORY
Indicative. Present". ,
Singular. Dual, Plural. \ .
Thou dost not wash Ye two do not wash your- You do not wash your-
thyself, selves, selves,
Ermingilatit. , Ermingilatik. Enningilase.
With the suffixes of the patient person the
negative verbs are inflected like the affirma
tives: as,

He washes me not,

Ye two wash me not,

They wash me not,

Ermingilanga.

idem.

idem.

Thou washest me not,

Ye two wash me not.

You wash me not,

Ermingilarma.

Ermingilautinga.

Ermingilausinga.

And in the same manner you may inflect all
verbs whatsoever.
The preterits and futures have the same
suflixa as fhe present tense.
Concerning the compounded verbs, it is to be
observed, that, whereas their auxiliary verbs are
but few, they make use of several particles to
supply their place, which are annexed to the sim
ple verbs, and so make them compounded verbs,
yet these particles by themselves are not used,

©F GREENLAND. 176
nor of any signification. And by this con
nection or composition the simple verbs change
their conjugation. ; As for example,
First, in this expression, they used to do so
and so, the composition is formed thus ; of the
simple verb Ermi/npok, he washes himself, in
the composition is made Ermingarace, he
uses to wash himself. Kieavok, he weeps ;
Kieeillarau, he uses to weep ; Aularpok, he
goes from home ; Aulararau, he uses to go
from home.
Second, when the expression runs thus, he
comes to do this or that, it is turned in this
manner. Ermigiartorpok, he conies to wash
himself; Aglegiartorpok, he comes to write.
And so in all other compositions.
But there are not only verbs compounded
with one, but sometimes with two, three, or
more particles' joined to the verb, when there is
a longer sentence to be expressed. And for this
reason, the words and particles undergo a great
many changes and variations, inasmuch as
they retain hut certain radical letters, the rest

176 THE NATURAL HISTORY
either being thrown away and quite lost, or else
changed for others. As for instance, Aulisari-
artorasuarpok, he made haste to go out a fishing.
Here three verbs are joined together in one.
Aulisarpok, he fishes ; Peartorpok, to go about
something ; and Pinnesuarpok, to make haste.
Again, Aglekkinniarit, endeavour to write bet
ter. Here we have another threefold composi
tion. First, Aglekpok, he writes ; then Pekipok,
to mend, or do better, and at last Pinniarpok,
to endeavour. From whence comes the verb
Aglikkinniarpok, he endeavours to write better ;
^in the imperative mood, Aglekkinniarit, as
above.

The Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, translated
into the Greenland Language.

ARTICLE I.

Operpunga Gud-mun Attatavnut, ajuakangit-
soniut, killagmik nunamiglo sennarsomut.

OF GREENLAND. 177
: ARTICLE II.
Operpunga Jesus Christusmut, Ernetuanut,
Nallegautimut, Annersamit helligmit pirsok,
Niviarsamit Mariamit erniursok ; anniartok
Pontias Pilatus-mit; Isektitaursok, tokkorsok,
illirsorto, allernum akkartok. Ullut pingajuane
tokkorsonit makitok ; Killangmut Kollartok ;
Angume Gub tellerpiet tungane ipsiarsok ; ter-
sanga amma tikiytsomaryok, umarsullo tokon-
garsullo auiksartitsartorlugit. ARTICLE III.
Operpunga Gub Annersanut, opertokarto-
niglo nuname: Innungliglo helligniglo illegei-
nik, Synderronermiglo, Timiniglo umaremarto-
nik, tokkorsublo Kingorna tokkoviungitsokar-
tomik. Amen.

The Lords Prayer.
NALLEKAM OKAUSIA.
Attavut killaugmepotit, akkit usorolirsuk ;
Nallegavet aggerle ; pekorset Killangme nunam
N

178 THE NATURAL HISTORY
etog tamaikile : Tunnisigun uUume nekiksau-
tivnik ; pissarauneta aketsorauta, pisingilagut-
tog akectsortivut ; Ursehnartomut pisitsarau-
riata ; ajortomin annautigut : Nallegauet,. Pi-
s'arlo, usornartoflo pigangaukit isukangithomun.
-Amen. >

OF GREENLAND. 179

CHAP. XVII.

Of the Greenland Trade, and whether, in pro
moting it, there is any Advantage to be
expected*
THE goods and commodities Greenland affords
for the entertaining of commerce, or traffic,
are whale blubber or fat, and whale bones, uni
corn horns, rein deer skins and hides, seal and
fox skins. These wares they barter against mer
chandizes of our produce, as coats and shirts
made of white, blue, red or striped linen or
woollen cloth ; as also knives, hand-saws,
needles, hooks to angle with, looking-glasses,
and other such merchandize or hardwares : be
sides what they buy of wood> as rafts, poles,
deal boards, chests; and of brass and copper,
as kettles and the like, tin dishes and plates ;
for which they pay to the full price. At the
n 2

180 THE NATURAL HISTORY
beginning of our late settlement in those parts
the trade was much brisker than at present, and
much more profitable ; for foreign traders
flocking thither in great numbers have so over
stocked them with goods, and undersold one
another, to draw the natives to them from
others, that the trade is considerably slackened
and fallen. Yet I trust, that, if we once became
masters of this trade, as it in justice belongs to
us, by the right the King of Denmark lawfully
claims to these countries as much as any king
dom or province subject to him ; I trust, that,
with this proviso, the trade to Greenland would
prove as profitable as any other whatsoever ;
which has been evidenced not long ago, when
by his Majesty's special order foreign trade has
been prohibited within a certain distance on
..each side of the colonies. For if the lading of
some ships with fish and train from Finmark, and
others offish, train, salt meat, and butter from
Iceland and Fero, bring to the traders considera
ble profit; who' would question, but the same
or better advantage 'may be expected from the

OF GREENLAND. 181
importing quantities of whale train, whale bones,
rein deer hides, fox and seal skins, which are of
more value than the Iceland or Feroe ? And, if
the , produce or commodities of Greenland were
formerly reckoned of that importance, that they
were deemed sufficient to maintain the King's,
table, why not also at present? provided Green*
land may by settlements and improvement re
trieve its former abundance, which is not im-
P°~ible. ¦ V old lands, formerly inhabited and ma-
nured by ti^ Norway colonies, were anew peo
pled with men ^d ca(tle . they would^ without
doubt, yield as muc, M either Iceland or Feroe,
seeing there is as gooo pasture ground as in
those islands. I shall forbea* to mention sal
mon and cod fishing, as it sterns ** present to
be but bf little or no importance, especially on
the West side ; though I am credibly informed
by the natives, that on the Southern coast they
catch abundance of fine large cod. Yet this
may be more than sufficiently compensated by
the whale fishery on the North and the capture of

182 THE NATURAL HISTORY
seals on the South, which if rightly undertaken,'
and with' vigour set on foot, will bring as much,
nay far more profit than the salmon and cod
catching does in other places ; chiefly the seal
capture, which can be undertaken at very small
expenses, viz. at the coast with strong nets', with
which they may catch many thousands in Green
land ; which] if hitherto not practised, bought to
be iiriputed to negligence and want of a goe
regulation. In short, Greenland, as we -?^J 1S
very convenient for trading, and raar De very
well worth one's while to take r hand* But
there is little to be done, witH«t an established
and formed company of wa of substance as well
as resolution ; bein? altogether impossible and
above the stren^n of any private man to master
it and go through with it.

OF GREENLAND, 183

CHAP. XVIII.

The Religion, or rather Superstition, qf the
Greenlanders.
• »)":,-
THE Greenlanders' ignorance of a Creator
would make one believe they were atheists, or
rather naturalists. For, when . they, have been
asked from whence they thought that Heaven
and Earth had their origin, they have answered
nothing, but that it had always been so. But if
we consider, that they have some notion of the
immortality of souls *, and that there is another
much happier life after this ; moreover, as they
are addicted to different kinds of superstition,
and that they hold there is a Spiritual Being,
.which they call Torngarsuk, to whom they
* The apgekuts say that souls ar« a soft matter to feel, of
rather that they eannot be felt, as if they had neither sinewp
nor bones.

184 THE NATURAL HISTORY
ascribe a supernatural power, though not the
creation or the production of creatures (of
whose origin they tell many absurd and ridicu
lous stories), all this, I say, supposes some sort
of worship ; although they do not themselves,
^out of their brutish stqpidity, understand, or infer
so much, or make use ofthe light of nature and
the remaining spark of the image of God in their
souls, to consider the invisible being of God by
his visible works, which is the creation of the
world.' — Rom. i. Forwhich reason, instead of
attaining the knowledge of God and true reli
gion, they are unhappily fallen into many gross
superstitions. But notwithstanding that all these super
stitions are authorized by, and grounded upon
the notion they have of him they call Torngar-
suk, whom their lying angekuts or prophets
hold for their oracle, whom they consult on
all occasions, yet the commonalty know little
or nothing of him, except the name only : nay
even the angekuts themselves are divided in
the. whimsical ideas they have formed of his

OF GREENLAND, 185
being ; some saying he is without any form or
shape ; others giving him that of a bear^
others again pretending he has a large body
and but one arm; and some make him as
little as a finger. There are those who hold
he is immortal, and others, that a puff of wind
can kill him. They assign him his abode
in the lower regions of the Earth, where
they tell you there is constantly fine sun
shiny weather, good water, deer, and fowls
in abundance. They also say he lives in the
water; wherefore, when they come to any
T
water, of which they have not drank before,
and there be any old man in the company,
they make him drink first, in order to take
away its Torngarsuk, or the malignant qua
lity of the water, which might make them
sick and kill them. They hold furthermore,
that a spirit resides in the air, which they
name Innertirrirsok, that is, the Moderator
or Restrainer, because it is pursuant to his
order, that the angekuts command the people
to restrain or abstain from certain things or

18$ THE NATURAL HISTORY
actions, that they may not come into harm's
way. According to their theology, or my
thology, there is yet one spirit, harbinger
of the air, whom they stile Erloersortok,
which signifies a Gutter, 'because he guts the
deceased, and feeds upon their intestines*.
His countenance, they say, is very ghastly
and haggard^ hollow eyes, and cheeks, like
a body that is starved.
Each element has its governor or presi
dent, which they call Innuae*; from whence
* The Innuae, or inhabitants of the sea, they call Kon^
geuserokit; of whom they say, that they feed upon foxtails.
Ingnersoit, a sort of sea sprites, which inhabit the rocks that
lie upon the coast; which, they tell you, will carry away*
the Greenlanders, not to do them any harm, but to enjoy
their company. Tunnersoit are phantoms living in the
mountains; and Ignersoit, or fiery sprites (because theyap-
pear to be all over fire) live near the shore, in steep and
reaggy cliffs. This is that meteor which we call the Flying
Dragon. Innuarolit they pretend to be a people of a dwarf
ish size, like pigmies, and are said to inhabit the East "side
of Greenland. Erkiglit, on the contrary, are said to be a
nation of.a huge and monstrous size, with snouts like dogs;
they are likewise said to dwell on the East side. Sillagik-
¦sortok, a spirit, who makes fair weather, and lives upon the

OF GREENLAND. 187
the angekuts receive their torngak, or fami
liar spirits. For every angekkok has a torn*
gak, who attends him, after he has ten times
-tfconjured in the dark.
Some have their own deceased parents for
their torngak, and others get theirs out of some
of our nation, who they say discharge their fire
arms when they wait before the entry of the
place where the angekkok performs his conju
ration. Whether Torngak and Torngarsuk be
one and the same thing I shall not decide ; but
certain it is, that one is derived from the other.
From Torngarsuk the angekuts pretend they
learn the art of conjuring ; which they are taught
in this method. If one aspires to the office of
an angekkok, and has a mind to be initiated
into these mysteries, he must retire from the rest
of mankind, into some remote place, from all
ice mountains. Nerrim Innua, or the ruler of diet, because
he prescribes rules for the diet or eating of those that are
obliged to keep abstinence. They ascribe also some sort of
diyinity to the air, and for fear of offending it they will re
frain from certain things and actions ; for which reason
they are afraid to go out in the open air in the dark.

1 8$ THE NATURAL HISTORY
commerce ; there he must look for a large stone,
near which he must sit down and invoke Torn
garsuk, who, without delay, presents himself
before him. This presence so terrifies the new
candidate of angekutismA that he immediately
sicken, swoons away, and dies ; and in this con
dition he lies for three whole days ; and then he
comes to life again* arises in a newness of life*
and betakes .himself to his home again. The
science of an angekkok consists of three things.
1. That he mutters certain spells over sick peo*
ple> in order to make them recover their former
health. 2. He communes with Torngarsuk,
and from him receives instruction, to give people
advice what course they are to take in affairs,
that they may have success, and prosper therein.
3. He is by the same informed of the time and
cause of any body's death ; or for what reason
any body comes to an untimely and uncommon
end; and if any fatality shall befal a man. And
though this lying spirit of the angekuts is often
times found out by their gross mistakes, when
the events do not answer their false predictions,

OF GREENLAND. 189
as commonly happens ; yet, for all that, they
are in great honour and esteem among this
stupid and ignorant nation, insomuch that no
body ever dare refuse the strictest obedience to
what they command him in the name of
Torngarsuk, fearing, that, in case of disobedi
ence, some great affliction and misfortune may
happen to him. Among many other fibs, and
toost impudent lies, they make also these silly
stupid wretches believe, that they can, with
hands and feet tied, mount up to Heaven, and
see how matters stand there; and likewise
descend to Hell, or the lower regions- of the
Earth, where the fierce Torngarsuk keeps his
court. A young angekkok must not under
take this journey but in the fall of the year,
by reason, that then the lowermost Heaven,
which they take the rainbow to be, is nearest
to the Earth.
The farce or imposture is thus acted : a
number of spectators assemble in the evening
at one of their houses, where, after it is grown

100 THE NATURAL HISTORY
dark, every one being seated, the angekkok
causes himself to be tied, his head between
his legs and his hands behind his back, and
a drum is laid at his side ; thereupon, after
the windows are shut and the light put out,
the assembly sings a ditty, which, they say, is
the composition of their ancestors ; when they
haye ddne singing the angekkok begins with con
juring, muttering, and brawling ; invokes Torn
garsuk, who instantly presents himself, and con
verses with him (here the masterly juggler knows
how to play his trick, in changing the tone
of his .voice, and counterfeiting one different
from his own, which makes the too credulous
hearers believe, that this counterfeited voice, is
that of Torngarsuk, who converses with the
angekkok.) In the mean while he works him
self loose, and, as they believe, mounts up , into
Heaven through the roof of the house, and
passes through the air till he arrives into the
highest of heavens, where the souls of angekkut
poglit, that is, the chief angekkuts, reside, by

OF GREENLAND. JQ1
whonv he gets information of all he wants to
• know. And all this is done in the twinkling of
an eye.
i Concerning the angekkut poglit, whom we
just now mentioned, as they pass for the heads
of the clergy, and are reckoned the most emi
nent and wisest of all, they also must pass
through the inferior orders, and several hard
trials, before they can attain to this high degree
of pre-eminency ; for none is deemed worthy of
such a dignity, but he that has made his novi-
ciateship in the lower rank, as an ordinary an
gekkok. The trial he must undergo, is this :
they tie his hands and feet, as aforesaid, and
after the light is put out, and they are all left in
darkness (that nobody may see bow the trick is
played, and their imposture be discovered), then
they pretend that a white bear enters the room,
takes hold of his great toe with his teeth, and
dragging him along to the sea shore, jumps
with him into the sea, where a morse is ready,
and takes hold of hira by his privy parts, de-

192 THE NATURAL HISTORY
vouring him, together with the white bear. A
little while after all his bones. are thrown in
upon the floor, one after another, not one
missing ; and then his soul rises up off the
ground, which gathers the bones, and animates
the whole body again, and up starts the man, as
hale and entire as ever he was ; and thus he is
made an angekkok poglik.
The angekkuts, as before observed, are kept
in great honour and esteem, and beloved and
cherished as a wise and useful set of men ; they
are also well rewarded for their service, when it
is wanted. But, on the contrary, there is
another sort of conjurers or sorcerers, especially
some decrepid old women, which they call illi-
seersut, or witches, who persuade themselves and
others, that, by the virtue of their spells and
witchcraft they can hurt people in their life and
goods. These are not upon the same footing
with the angekkuts ; for as soon as any one in
curs only the suspicion of such demeanor, he or
she is hated and detested by every body, and at

OF GREENLAND. IQ3
last made away with, without mercy, as a
plague to mankind, and not deemed worthy to
live. Moreover the angekkuts abuse the people's
credulity, making them believe, that they can
cure all sorts of diseases ; though they apply
such remedies as have no virtue in them to cure,
such as muttering of spells, and blowing upon
the sick bodies ; wherein they resemble to a hair
those conjurers of which the prophet Isaiah
speaks, chapter viii, verse 19.
And if by chance any one, who has been
under these jugglers' hands, recovers, they do
not fail to ascribe it to the virtue of their
juggling tricks. At times they use this way of
curing the sick; they lay him upon his back, and
tie a ribbon, or a string, round his head, having
a stick fastened to the other end of the string,
with which they lift up the sick person's head
from the ground, and let it down again ; and at
every lift he communes with his Torgak, or
familiar spirit, about the state of the patient,
whether he shall recover or not; now, if his
0

10y4 THE NATURAL HISTORY
head is heavy in lifting it, (it is with them a.
sign of death; if light, of recovery*. Notwith
standing all this, I am loth to believe, that, in
these spells and conjurings, there is any real
commerce with the devil ; for to me it clearly
appears, that there is nothing in it but mere fibs,
juggling tricks, and impostures, made use of by
these crafty fellows for the sake of filthy lucre^
for they are well paid for their pains. Never
theless, it cannot be denied, but that the evil
.spirit has a hand in all this, and is the chief
actor upon this Stage, to keep theSte poor
wretches in their chains, and hinder them from
coining to the true knowledge of God.
The angekkuts can also persuade whom they
please, that they have no souls, especially if
they are in a bad state of health, pretending "
they have the power to create new souls ip
* While angekkuts are conjuring, nobody must scratch
l)is head, nor sleep, nor break wind ; for they say, that such
a, dart can kill the enchanters, nay the devil himself. After
a conjuration has been performed, there is a vacancy fronp
working for three or four days.

OF GREENLAND. 195
them, provided they pay them well for it, which
the ignorant fools are very willing to do. They
prescribe to all rules of conduct and behaviour
in different cases, which rules none dare refuse
to live up to with the greatest exactness imagi
nable ; as for example, if any dies in a house,
those of the house cannot, for a set time, do all
sorts of work ; especially the relations of the
deceased are obliged to abstain, not only from
certain works, but likewise from certain
victuals. If a patient be under the hands of an angek
kok, he must live by rule, which they are ac
customed to observe so exactly, that even when
we have assisted many of them with our me
dicaments, they have always demanded what
sort of diet they were to keep. Women
in childbed are to abstain from working,
and from certain victuals, viz. flesh meat,
which their own husbands have not taken, or
that of a deer, whose entrails are not sound,
hut damaged. The first week after the delivery
they eat nothing but fish, afterwards they are al
lowed meat. The bones they pick in this state
o 2

196 THE NATURAL HISTORY
must not be carried out of doors. After the first
childbed, a woman is not allowed to eat of the
head or liver. They must not eat in the ©pen
air. During their lying-in they have their water
pails for themselves alone ; if any unwittingly
should drink of this water, the rest must be
thrown away. Their husbands must forbear
working for some weeks, neither must they
drive any trade during that time : likewise if
any body be sick, they do not care to meddle
with any trade. They are not allowed to eat or
drink bareheaded. They pull off one of their
boots, and lay it under the bowl which they
eat out of, to the end (as they imagine) that
the infant, being a male, may become a good
seal catcher. During the infancy of the child,
they dare not boil any thing over the lamp, nor
let any strangers light a fire with them ; and
many more fooleries to be observed*. It is
* Argnakaglertoko, a woman that lives by rule, they say,
can lay the storm, by going out of doors and filling her mouth
with air, and coming back into the house, blows it out
again. If she catches the rain drops with her mouth, it will
be dry weather ; and other strange effects they asqrihe to
ber.

OF GREENLAND. 197
customary among them for married women to
wash and cleanse themselves'after their months,
that their husbands may not catch a distemper
and die. Likewise, if they have happened to
touch a dead corpse, they immediately cast away
the clothes they have then on ; and for this reason
they always put on their old clothes when .they
go to a burying, in w hich they agree with the
Jews, as in many other usages and ceremonies ;
for example, to bewail the loss of their virginity ;
to mark themselves upon their skin ; to cut their
hairs round the head, which the Lord forbids
the Jews to do, Levit. xix. When I consider
this and many, other of their customs, which
seem to be of a Jewish extraction, I am not
far from acceding to the opinion of a certain
famous writer, concerning the Americans ;
among whom as he found sundry Jewish rites
and ceremonies, he took them to descend from
Jews, or rather from some of the ten tribes of
Israel, who were led into the Assyrian captivity,
and afterwards dispersed into unknown countries.
—See hereon Espars, 1. iv.

19$ THE NATURAL HISTORY
A superstition very common among them is,
to load themselves with amulets or pomanders
dangling about their necks and arms, which
consist of some pieces of old wood, stones or
bones, bills and claws of birds, or any thing else,
which their fancy suggests to them ; which
amulets, according to their silly opinion, have a
wonderful virtue to preserve those that wear
them from diseases and other misfortunes, and
gives them luck to good captures. To render
barren women fertile or teeming, they take old
pieces of the soles of our shoes to hang about
them ; for, as they take our nation to be more
fertile, and of a stronger disposition of body
than theirs, they fancy the virtue of our body
communicates itself to our clothing.
Concerning the creation and origin of all
things, they have little to say, but tbey think
all has been as it ever will be. Nevertheless
they abound in fables in regard to these matters.
Their tale of the origin of mankind runs thus :
at the beginning one man, viz. a Greenlander,
sprung out of the ground, who got a wife out

OF GREENLAND. 199
of a little hillock*. From these are descended
lineally the Greenlanders ; which may pass for
a remnant, though an adulteration from the
true tradition of the origin of man. But as to
us foreigners, whom they stile Kabluntft (that
is, of a strange extraction), they tell a most ri
diculous story, importing our pedigree from a
race of dogs ; they say, that a Greenland woman
once being in labour, brought forth at the same
time both children and whelps : these last she
put into an old shoe, and committed them to the
mercy of the waves, with these worqs ; Get ye
gone from hence and grow up to be Kablnnasts.
This, they say» is the reason, why the Kablunaets
always live upon the sea ; and the ships, they
say, have the very same shape as their shoes,
being round before and behind.
The reason why men die, they tell us, is,
that a woman of their nation once uttered these
words ; Tokkolarlutik qkko pillit, sillarsoak ret-
tulisavet, Let them die one after another ; for
else the world cannot hold them. Others relate
* A word not known to me in the Danish tongue.

200 THE NATURAL HISTORY
it in . this manner : two of the first men con
tended with one another, one said, Kaut sarlune
unnuinnarluna, innuit tokkosarlutik ; that is, Let
there be day, and let there be night, and let not
riien die. The second said, Unnuinnarlune,
kausunane, innuit tokkosinnatik ; that is, Let there
be nothing but night, and no day, and let
men live ; and after a long contention the first
saying got the day. Of the origin of fishes
and other sea animals they tell a ridiculous
story, viz. an old man was once cutting chips
off of a piece of wood ; with these chips he
rubbed himself between the thighs, and threw
them into the sea, whereupon they immediately
became fishes. But of a certain fish called hay,
they derive his production from this accident,
that a woman washing her hairs in her own
water, a blast of wind came and carried away
the clout with which she dried her hairs, and
out of that clout was produced a hay fish ; and
for this reason they say, the flesh of this fish has
got the smell of urine.
They have got no notion of any different

OF GREENLAND. • 201
state of souls after death ; but they fancy that
all the deceased go into the land of the souls, as
they term it. Nevertheless they assign two re
treats for departed souls, vizT some go to Heaven,
others to the centre of the Earth ; but this lower
retirement is in their opinion the pleasantest,
inasmuch as they enjoy themselves in a deli-
cious country, where the sun shines continually,
with an inexhaustible stock of all sorts of choice
provision. But this is only the receptacle of
such women as die in labour, and of those that,
going a whale fishing, perish at sea ; this being
their reward, to compensate the hardships they
have undergone in this life; all the rest flock
to Heaven.
In the centre of the Earth, which they reckon
the best place of all, they have fixed the resi
dence of Torngarsuk and his grandame, or (as
others will have it) his lady daughter, a true
termagant and ghastly woman, to whose de
scription, though already made in my continua
tion of the relations of Greenland, some time
ago published, I shall yet allow a place in this

20i THE NATURAL HISTORY
treatise, and is as follows. She is said to dwell
in the lower parts of the earth under the seas,
and has tbe empire over aU fishes and sea-
animals, as unicorns, morses, seals, and tbe like.
The bason placed under her lamp, into which
the train oil of the lamp drips down, swarms
with all kinds of sea fowls, swimming in andi
hovering about it. At the entry of her abode
is a corps de garde of sea dogs, who mount the
tbe guard, and stand sentinels at her gate's to
keep out the crown of petitioners*. None can
can get admittance there bat angekuts, pro-
*. Others say, that a huge dog watches the entry,, and. gives
warning, when an angekkok attempts to get in, and defends
the entry. Wherefore the angekkok must watch the mi
nute, that ,the dog. falls asleep (which lasts but a moment),
to steal in upon her. This moment nobody knows but an
angekkok poglik; wherefore the other angekkuts often
return home again without success. This frightfijl woman
is said to have a hand as big as. the tail of a whale, with
which, if she hits any body, he is at one stroke mouse-dead.
But if the angekkok conquers her (which he does if he can
get at her aglenutut, which hang dangling about her face,
and rob her of them) then she must discharge all fishes and
sea animals, which she has detained in captivity ; who there
upon return to their worsted stations in the sea.

OF GREENLAND. 203
vided they are accompanied by their Torngak, or
familiar spirits, and not otherwise. In their
journey thither they first pass through the man
sions of all the souls of the deceased, which
look as well, if not better, than ever; they did
in this world, and want for nothing. After
they have passed through this region, they come
to a very long, broad, and deep whirlpool*
which they are to cross over, there being nothing
to pas§ upon but a great wheel like ice, which
turns about with a surprising rapidity, and by
the means of this wheel the spirit helps his
angekkok to get over. This difficulty being
surmounted, the next thing they encounter is a
large kettle, in which live seals are put to be
boiled ; and at last they arrive, with much ado,
at the residence of the devil's grandame, where
the familiar spirit takes the angekkok by the
hand through the strong guard of sea dogs*
The entry is large enough, the road that leads
is as narrow as a small rope, and on both sides
nothing to lay hold on, or to support one ;
besides that, there is underneath a most frightful

204 THE NATURAL HISTORY
abyss or bottomless pit. Within this is the
apartment of the infernal goddess, who offended
at this unexpected visit, shows a most ghastly
and wrathful countenance, pulling the hair off
her head : she thereupon seizes a wet wing of a
fowl, which she lights in the fire, and claps to
.their noses', which makes them very faint and
sick, and they become her prisoners. But the
enchanter or angekkok (being beforehand in
structed by his Torngak, how to act his part in
this dismal expedition) takes hold of her by the
hair, and drubs and bangs her so long, till she
loses her strength and yields ; and in this com
bat his familiar spirit does not stand idle, but
lays about her with might and main. Round
the infernal goddess's face hangs the aglerrutit
(the signification of which is to be found in my
son's journals) which the angekkok endeavours
to rob her of. For this is the charm, by which
she draws all fishes and sea animals to her do
minion, which no sooner is she deprived of, but
instantly the sea animals in shoals forsake her,
and resort with all speed to their wonted shelves,

OF GREENLAND. 20$
where the Greenlanders catch them in great
plenty. When this great business is done, the
angekkok with his Torngak proud of success
make the best of their way home again, where
they find the road smooth, and easy to what it
was before.
As to the souls ofthe dead, in their travel to
this happy country, they meet with a sharp
pointed stone, upon which the angekkuts tell
them they must slide or glide down upon their
breech, as there is no other passage to get
through, and this stone is besmeared with blood;
perhaps, by this mystical or hieroglyphical,
image, they thereby signify the adversities and
tribulations those have to struggle with, who
desire to attain to happiness.

206 THE NATURAL HISTORY

CHAP. XIX.

The Greenlanders1 Astronomy, or their
Thoughts concerning the Sun, Moon, Stars,
and Planets.
THE notions the Greenlanders have of the ori
gin of heavenly lights, as Sun, Moon, and Stars,
are very nonsensical; in that they pretend that
they have formerly been so many of their an
cestors, who on different accounts were lifted
up to Heaven and became such glorious celestial
bodies. Their silly stories concerning this matter
have been related in the continuation to the
Greenland Memoirs, or relations , but as this
book very likely may not come to the hands of
every body, I shall shortly remember some of

OF GREENLAND. 207
them here. The Moon, as they will have it,
has been a young man, called Anningait, or An-
ningasma ; whose sister was the Sun, named.
Malina, or Ajut (by which latter name they call
any handsome woman, for whom they have a
value, Ajuna.) The reason (why these- two
were taken up into Heaven) they give, is this :
there were once a number of young men and
women assembled to play together in a house
made of snow (according to their custom in
the winter season), when the Moon or Annin*
gait, who was deeply in love with his sister,
who assisted at this assembly, was used every
night to put out the light, that he might caress,
her undiscovered; but she not liking these
stolen caresses, once blackened her hands with
soot, that she might mark the hands, face,
and clothes of her unknown lover, who in the
dark made addresses to her, and by that dis
cover who he was : hence, they say, come
the spots that are observed in the moon ; for as
he wore a coat of a fine white rein deer
skin, it was all over besmeared with soot;

208 THE NATURAL HISTORY
hereupon Malina, or the Sun, went out to
light a bit of moss ; Anningait, or the Moon,
did the same, but the flame of his moss was
extinguished; this makes the Moon look like
a fiery coal, and not shine so bright as the
Sun. The Moon then run after the Sun
round about the house to catch her ; but she,
to get rid of him, flew up into the air, and the
Moon pursuing her, did likewise ; and thus
they still continue to pursue one another,
though the Sun's career is much above that
of the Moon*.
They also tell us, that the Moon is yet
obliged to seek for his livelihood iipon the
earth and sea, in catching of seals, as a food
he formerly was used to ; which they pre
tend he is doing, when he appears not in
* They assign the Moon a house in the Western part of the
world, where he is often visited and resorted to by the an
gekkuts. And the Sun, they say, has her abode in the East;
but she is inaccessible on account of her heat, which keeps
the angekkuts at a distance; at which she is sorely grieved,
because she cannot learn by them how matters stand upon
Earth.

OF GREENLAND. 209
the air: nay, they do not stick to say, that
she now and then comes down to give their
wives a visit, and caress them ; for which
reason no woman dare sleep lying upon her
back, without she first spits upon her fingers
and rubs her belly with it.
For the same reason the young maids are
afraid to stare long at the moon, imagining they
may get a child by the bargain. During the
eclipse of the sun no man dare stir out of the
house; and likewise when the moon is eclipsed,
no Woman goes abroad, because they fancy that
both hate the sex of the other. The sun for
joy puts on her pendants, or ear-bobs ; the rea
son of which they take to be tbe hatred she
hears against her brother, which also reaches to
his sex. As on the contrary, the Greenland
women wear their pendants at the birth of a
boy, because so useful a creature is come into
the world. . Their notion about the stars is,
that some of them have been men, and other
different sorts of animals and fishes. The faint
light of some stars they attribute to their eating

210 THE NATURAL HISTORY
the kidney ; and brightness of others to their
feeding upon liver. They give also names to
many stars and constellations, viz. the three
stars in the belt of Orion, they name Siektut,
that is separated ; because these three, they say,
before their metempsychosis, or rather meta
morphosis, were three honest Greenlanders,
who being out at sea, a seal catching, were be
wildered, and not being able to find the shore
again, were taken up into Heaven.
Ursa Major, the great bear star, is styled by
those that dwell in 64°, Tugto, or rein deer;
while they that live in the bay of Disco at 6*)°,
call it Asselluit, the name of a tree, to which
they tie their line when they shoot seals. Tau
rus, the second sign in the Zodiac, is named
Kellukturset, or kennel of hounds, who seem
to have a bear among them ; by this constella
tion they reckon tbeir hours by night. Iversuk,
that is, two persons that contend with songs or
verses in taunting one another, as is customary
among the Greenlanders. These two stars are
in the constellation Taurus, of which heretofore.'

OF GREENLAND^ 211
Aidebaran or Nennerroak, that is, $ light which
lights the two singers; Canis Major is called
Nelleraglek, which is the name of a man
amongst them ; this they say has got on a coat
of rein deer's skin. Gemini, Auriga, and Ca
pella, are named Killaub Kuttuk, that is, the
breast bone of Heaven*
When two stars seem to meet together,
they say, that they are visiting one another ;
others will have it to be two women, who being
rivals, take one another by the hair.
Concerning thunder and lightning, they say
that two old women live together in one house
in the air, who now and then fall out and
quarrel about a thick and stiff outstretched seal
skin (because such a skin, if beaten as a drum,
has some likeness to the noise of thunder) ;
while they are thus by the ears together, down
comes the house with great bouncing and crack
ing, and the lamps are broken, the fires and
broken pieces fly about in the air3 and this, in
their philosophy) is thunder and lightning.
In their astronomical system, the heaven
p 2

212 THE NATURAL HISTORY
turn about upon the point of a huge rock. The
snow, according to their fancy, is the blood of
the dead, on account that it turns reddish if you
keep it 'in the mouth. The rain comes from a
ditch or wear above in Heaven ; when it over
flows there, it rains here below.
They have no calendar or almanacks, nor
do they compute or measure the time by weeks
or years, but only by months ; beginning their
computation from the Sun's first rising above
their horizon in the winter ; from whence they
tell the month, to know exactly the season, in
which every sort of fishes, sea animals, or birds
seek the land; according to which they order
their business.
As nonsensical now as these notions of the
Greenlanders are (as they in reality are), yet
they come short of the Egyptian King Ptolemy's
infatuation, who by the loathsome flattery of his
astronomers was persuaded that his Queen Be
renice's head of hair was translated into Heaven
and "astrified, if I may say so ; which constella
tion to this day goes by the name of Coma Be-

OF GREENLAND. 213
renices, or Berenice's hair ; and what travellers
relate of China and the East Indies, where some
are of opinion, that the Sun's eclipse is nothing
but that a certain devil or sprite sometimes
swallows up the Sun, and then again spews it
out.

t~

214 THE NATURAL HISTORY

CHAP. XX.

The Capacity ofthe Greenlanders, and their In
clination towards the Knowledge of God, and
the Christian Religion ; and by what Means
this may easily be brought about.
AS the Greenlanders are naturally very stupid
and indolent ; so are they likewise very little
disposed to comprehend and consider the divine
truths which we expound to them ; and notwith
standing people in years seem to approve of th$
Christian doctrine, yet it is with a surprising
indifference and coldness. For they can neither
comprehend the miserable condition they are in;
nor do they rightly understand and value the
exceeding great mercy and loving kindness God
has shown towards mankind in his dear Son

OF GREENLAND. 215
Christ Jesus, so as to move them to any desire
and longing after it ; some few excepted. This
is to me an undeniable evidence that the car
nally-minded man cannot comprehend the things
that belong to God ; for to him they seem to be
foolish, and he cannot know them, as the Apostle
speaks, 1 Cor. ii. But as they in general are so
credulous, that one can make them believe any
thing, so they are likewise in this grand affair.
They never question what they are taught of
God and Christ ; but at tlie same time it never
takes any rooting in their mind, because it
passes without any consideration and feeling.
For which reason they do not contradict or dis
pute with us the matters proposed ; and very
few have offered any objections, or desired any
difficulty to be explained. And as their beha
viour is silly and childish, so we have used the
same method in teaching them, as we do to in
struct little children ; inculcating the Christian
truths into their mind by frequent repetitions,
and making use of simple and obvious compa
risons, which, I thank God Almighty, has not

216 THE NATURAL HISTORY
wanted his blessing. For I have perceived in
some the working of his grace in a serious
amendment of their lives ; and their endeavours
have been to advance in tbe way to perfection-,
though all as yet is but a beginning and infancy,
as we have mentioned in the last year's Mer
moirs or Relations of Greenland.
It is a matter which cannot be questioned!,
that if you will make a Christian out of a mere
savage and wild man, you must first make him
a reasonable man, and the next step will be
easier. This is authorised and confirmed by our
Saviour's own method. He makes a beginning
from the earthly things ; he proposes the mys
teries of the kingdom of God in parables and
similitudes. The first care taken in the conver
sion of Heathens is to remove out of the way all
obstacles which may hinder their conversion,
and render them unfit to receive the Christian
doctrine, before any thing successfully can be
undertaken in their behalf.
It would contribute a great deal to forward
their conversion, if they could by degrees be

OF GREENLAND, 217
Drought into a settled way of life, and to aban^
don this sauntering and wandering about from
place to place to seek their livelihood. But
this cannot be hoped until a Christian nation
comes to be settled among them (I mean in such
places where the ground is fit for tillage and
pasturage) to teach them, and by little and little
accustom them to a quiet and more useful way
of life, than that which they now follow.
They should also be kept under some dis
cipline, and restrained from their foolish super
stitions, and from the silly tricks and wicked
impostures of their angekkuts, which ought to
be altogether prohibited and punished. Yet my
meaning is, not that they, by force and conr
straint, should be compelled to embrace our
religion, but to use gentle methods. Is it not
allowed in the church of Christ to make use of
Christian discipline at times and seasons, with
prudence and due moderation ; which is a
powerful means to advance the growth of piety
and devotion ? How much more is it necessary
to apply the same means here to grub up an

218 THE NATURAL HISTORY
untilled ground, where a new church is to be
planted ? Else it would be tbe same imprudence
as to throw good seed into thorns and briars,
which would choak the seed.
But as the chief fruit of our labours and
teaching is to be expected from the growing
youth, so if some good regulations and small
foundations were laid for the bringing up a
number of children in the Christian faith and
piety, no doubt God would prosper it ; inas
much as these poor children and growing youth
are very tractable and teachable, and good na-
tured ; showing no inclination or propensity to
vice. Neither do they want capacity ; for I
have found they will take any thing as soon as
any of our own children. Now if these gifts or
natural talents were forwarded by the gifts of
grace, who would question their growth and
advancement in the Christian faith and virtues,
which would ripen to the full harvest of eternal
happiness? Good God! how easy a thing would
it be to help these poor wretches out of their
misery, if those that God lias blessed with

OF GREENLAND. 219
wealth were heavenly minded, and would be
sensible of the wretched condition of their fellow
creatures, and contribute out of their abundance
to the founding of a school in these parts, and
the providing of other most necessary things ! .
His Majesty, out of his wonted most glorious
zeal for the growth and advancement of the
church of Christ, has most graciously provided,
by a considerable sum of money yearly set apart,
for fhe Greenland Missionaries' entertainment,
which royal bounty continues to this day ; for
which goodness the most gracious God will bless
his Majesty and all the royal hereditary house,
and be their reward for eyer. But as a good
deal of this bounty money must be employed in
the promoting of trade (without which the mis
sion could not subsist), but little remains for
promoting the proper end of the mission, which
is the conversion of the Heathens, in which at
present are employed no more than four mis*
sionaries, and two catechists, besides some fi*w
charity children belonging to both colonies,
whose entertainment is to be provided for,

220 THE NATURAL HISTORY
Hitherto we have not been able to do'' great-
matters, but contented ourselves with some ex
cursions here and there instructing the natives j
who likewise, when they have had an oppor
tunity, come to us with their families to be in-*
structed. But as these excursions of ours, and
those visits of theirs have not been very frequent:*
and only for a short time, by reason of the im*
possibility of travelling at all seasons, which has
Obliged us to leave them for a while to deal for
themselves ; it is not to be expected that our
pains-taking should have had that success, which
would attend it, if there were missionaries set
tled in differerit stations amongst theim For in
several years we count but between twenty arid
thirty aged persons, and a hundred and odd
young ones, that have been found capable to re
ceive the holy sacrament of baptism. If
amongst ourselves we had no schools, nor other
pious foundations, for the instruction and Chris
tian education of youth and old people, pray
what great feats would one or two teachers in a
whole country be able to do, by once or twice a

OF GREENLAND. 221
__ ear taking a journey throughout the land, and
preaching a passage sermon? The apostles of
Christ did not think this method sufficient ; but
after they had preached the word of God up and
down, they besides ordained and constituted
teachers and catechists everywhere. And if so
wholesome a method be followed in Greenland,
who will question a happier success ?
And this is all I at present have to say of the
affairs of Greenland ; leaving it to the judgment
of others to be made out and decided, whether
Greenland is a country that deserves to be im
proved and taken care of, or no ? And whether
its inhabitants may be called happy, or no ? AU
things well pondered, both the affirmative and
negative may be true, without the -least contra
diction. For Greenland can pass for no better
than a dismal and pitiful country, in regard to
the greatest part of it, viz. all the inland country,
which is perpetually covered with ice and snow,
that never melts, and therefore of no use to
mankind ; and as to the remaining part, on the
sea side, most of it lies uncultivated and unin-

222 THE NATURAL HISTORY
habited. But here it may again be said, that ati
to the first part, or the inland country, it is a
thing that is past remedy ; but as to the last
part, or the sea side, it may be put in a better
state by settlements, and manuring, so that it
may recover its former fertility; and thus * it
might be reckoned a good and profitable coun
try, provided the formerly inhabited tracks of
land were anew settled and peopled. I will
forbear to mention the great wealth and rich
ness, which lies hidden in the Greenland seas,
¦and can never be exhausted.
From the land I will go to the inhabitants,
which everybody will think more Wretched than
happy, considered as destitute of the true know
ledge of their Creator ; and besides lead but very
poor and despicable lives. The knowledge of
God is undoubtedly that which affords the
greatest happiness to mankind ; as the want of
. it makes one the most wretched of all beings.
But who would dare to deny it, if I should find
put somebody yet more wretched than they ?
And such there are who have been blessed with.

OF GREENLAND. 222
the true knowledge of God ; yet do nevertheless
refuse him that obedience, which, as our
Creator and Master, and in regard of our re
demption and a thousand other particular kind
nesses, he has the best of titles to demand it upon,
according as he requires it of us in his holy
Word. If the life of the Greenlanders, which
we call poor and despicable, with respect to
morality, be compared to that of the most pre
tended Christians ; I am afraid they will con
found others on the great Day of Judgment.
For though they have no law, yet by the light
of nature do some of the works of the law, as
the apostle says, Rom. ii. What thoughts will
any one harbour, who seriously considers the
predominant passions, as greediness after gain,
covetousness, unmeasured ambition and pride,
sumptuous, voluptuous, and prodigal lives ;
envy, hatred, and mutual persecutions, and in
numerable other vices and crimes of most Chris
tians ? Can any one help thinking, but that
such evil doers (the retnotest from the life, which
is God alone) must be deemed the most unhappy

224 THE ;NATURAL HISTORY
of all ? Whilst on the other hand, the Green
landers pass their lives, as^I may say, in a natu
ral innocence and simplicity. Their desires do
not extend farther than to necessary things j
pomp and pride is unknown to them.; hatred*
envy, andi; persecution never plagued them j
neither do they affect the dominion over one
another. In short, every one is contented with
his own state and condition, and are not tor
mented with unnecessary cares. Is not this the
greatest happiness of this life ? O happy people!
what better things can one wish you, than what
you already possess ? Have you no riches ? yet
poverty does not trouble you. Have you no
.superfluity? yet you suffer no want. Is there
no pomp and pride to be seen among you ? nei-.
ther is there any slight or scorn to be met with.
Is there no nobility or high rank amongst
them ? neither is there any slavery or bondage.
What is sweeter than liberty ? And what is
happier than contentedness ? But one thing is
yet wanting : I mean, thf saving knowledge of
God and his dear son Christ Jesus, in which

OF GREENLAND. 225
alone consists eternal life and happiness. John
xvii. And this is ^at we offer you, in preach
ing to you the noly Gospel.
Now, God, who bade, light shine forth in
darkness, enlighten your hearts, in the light of
the kuowledge of God's glorious appearance in
and through Christ Jesus. May he deliver your
souls from the slavery of the Devil, and of sinful
lusts, as you are free from corporeal bondage,
to the end that you always may be free with
the Lord both in soul and body. Amen.

THE END.

CHARLES WOOD, Printer,
Poppin's Court, Fleet Street, London.

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Illustrated with Nine Copper-plate Engravings highly
finished ; the whole designed to amuse and instruct the
Learner, remove the difficulties of this elegant and scien
tific Game, and render it attainable by the lowest capa
city. Second Edition. Handsomely printed in 4to.
price 7s. Texuntque fugas et prcelia ludo.— Firg. &neid.

CHESS EXERCISES,

W. S. KENNY, AUTHOR OF THE CHESS GRAMMAR.
Elegantly printed in one vol. foolscap 8vo., about forty
plates. In the Press,

Books published by Tu and J. Allman.

HUME ON HUMAN NATURE.
A TREATISE OF HUMAN NATURE;
Being an Attempt to introduce the Experimental Method
of Reasoning into-Moral Subjects.
BY DAVID HUME), ESQ.
A New Edition, handsomely printed in 2 vols. Svo. prioe
11. Is. boards.
In this Edition the three volumes are now comprised in two, am}
printed uniformly with his History of England.

7.
RAY'S PROVERBS.
A Complete Collection of ENGLISH PROVERBS;
also the most celebrated Proverbs of the Scotch, Italian,
French, Spanish, and other languages. The whole
methodically Digested and Illustrated .with Annotations

Books published by T. and J. Allmwi.
and proper Explications. By the late Rev. and Learned
J. Ray, M.A. Fellow of the Royal Society, and Author
of the Historia Plantarum, and Wisdom of God in the .
Works of Creation, &c. &c. To which is added (by the
same Author), A Collection of English Words not gene~
rally used, with their Significations and Original in two
Alphabetical Catalogues ; the one of such as are proper
to the Northern, the other, to the Southern Counties.
With an account of the preparing and refining sufch
Metals and Minerals as are found in England, Aug
mented with many Hundred Words, Observations, Letters,
&c. Reprinted verbatim from the best Edition of
1768, in one thick volume 12mo. price fs, in boards.

8.
FULLER'S PROVERBS.
GNOMOLOGIA : Adages and Proverbs, Wise Sentences
and Witty Sayings, Ancient and Modern, Foreign and
British (in number^ 6500). Compiled by Thomas
Fuller, M.D. A new Edition, very neatly printed^ in
one vol. 1 2mo. price 5& in boards.

Books publishing by T. and J. Allmaih.
9.
PETER WILKINS.
The LIFE and ADVENTURES of PETER WILKINS,
a Cornish man ; taken from his own mouth, in his pas-
sage.to England off Cape Horn in America, in the ship
Hector. By R. S. a Passenger. A new Edition, hand
somely printed in 2 vols, royal 18mo. (uniform with
Mrs. Barbauld's British Novelists) and embellished with
Engravings. Price 10s. 6d. boards.

THE
DRAMATIC WORKS
OF
CHRISTOPHER MARLOE,
Now first collected, with a Life of the Author. Hand
somely printed in 8vo.
EDWARDS'S WEST INDIES.
A new Edition, in 4 vols. Svo. The fourth volume is
entirely new matter, with additional Map and Plates.

3 9002 00750 5598

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