The Danish Monarch desisted from any farther attempt to discover Old Greenland; but some merchants at Copenhagen 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 Davis’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 inconsiderately 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 they did not emerge till they had proceeded to two or three hundred yards from the ship.
The Danes at last succeeded in appeasing the apprehensions of the Greenlanders, and in alluring them again on board their vessels. The Danish commander 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 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 the 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, and they perished in the vain attempt. It is pleasant to contemplate that sentiment, 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 successful than the preceding, was made in the year 1670. This expedition was fitted out by order of Christian V, and was commanded by Captain Otto Axelson; but Crantz[19] says, “We have no account of its issue;” and, according to Torfæus, 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 ancient route, it is stated, that half way between Iceland and Greenland there was a cluster of little islands, or rocks, called Gondebiurne Skeer, which were inhabited by bears. The drifting ice has probably collected round these islands, and been so petrified by successive accumulations as to become impenetrable to the sun.
Peyrere, whose account of Greenland has been generally followed in this Introduction, 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 settlers, whose remains have been so anxiously sought. But this impression was effaced by the information of many persons 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 language and manners, and that the Danes and Norwegians could not understand a 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 bows and arrows, who destroyed every body that came in their way.
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 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 research 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 centuries. When the enterprizing spirit of an English navigator is directed to that quarter of the world, we feel a firm confidence, that nothing will be left untried, which skill or courage can effect, to extend our acquaintance with these Northern regions, and to make valuable additions to our present stock of information respecting the countries in the more immediate vicinity of the North Pole.