May the Kingdom of God daily increase, and be spread far and wide, under the 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 a blessing before his face to all eternity, are the hearty wishes and prayers of
Your Serene Royal Highness’s
most obedient,
most humble,
and most devoted
Subject and Servant,
H A N S E G E D E.
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 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; no well ordered polity or civil government; 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 its 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 products.
As for the land in itself, it yields little or nothing, not being manured or cultivated, but lies altogether waste and untilled; 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 cultivated. But as to the seas, they yield more plenty and wealth of all sorts of animals and fishes than in most other 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.