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 counsellors, who have made so much of Greenland, 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 the 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 monarchs, 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 us to continue our endeavours to discover the Eastern shore, where it is confessed the chief colony has been seated; and perhaps the offspring of the old Norwegians and Icelanders may be recovered; which I do not think impossible, provided we go on in the right way, as I hope to show in the following treatise.
How praiseworthy and glorious an enterprize would it be, to undertake so great and wholesome a work, chiefly in regard to these unhappy people, who, by a just judgment of God, now for upwards of three hundred years, have been debarred all communication with Christians; which to remedy not only our civil but Christian duty obliges us. It becomes us therefore heartily to pray God 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, the best way and means to this country’s discovery and happy restitution. And 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 costs made to 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 graciously 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 his dominions. This my well meant project, that God in his mercy will advance and promote, to the honour of his most Holy Name, and the enlightening and saving of these poor souls, is the sincere desire of
THE
N A T U R A L H I S T O R Y
OF
Greenland.
CHAPTER I.
Of the Situation and Extent of Greenland.
GREENLAND lies but forty miles to the West of Iceland, beginning from 59° 50´ North Latitude. 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 the continent of Greenland. The Western shore is discovered as far as seventy odd degrees. Whether it be a large island, or borders upon 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; 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 frequented by ships of different nations, on account of the Whale Fishery: but nobody as yet has been able to find out the bottom of it. And according to the notice we have endeavoured to gather from those Greenlanders who live farthest to the North, there is either but a very narrow passage between America and Greenland, or, as is most likely, they are quite contiguous[21]: and 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 observe 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 Muscovia on the North East: what confirms them in this notion is an old story they give credit to, that a certain Harrald 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 surname of Harrald goat. Furthermore, the ancient Greenland Christians, in their Chronicles, relate, that there were come to them from the 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 inhabited.—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 country; where the first Danish lodge was settled in the year 1721. In all sea charts you will find laid down Frobisher’s Strait and Baer Sound which they pretend, form two large islands, adjacent to the main land; which I think are not to be found, at least not upon the coast of Greenland; 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 60° that way: but at present the newer charts lay them down, the Northern strait in 63°, and the Southern in 62°. Some of the ancients, whom Thormoder follows in his Greenland History, place them between 61° and 60°. 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 themselves 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. And whereas I myself have lately met with so many stone buildings, so far to the South, I 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 described, all those bays and islands that were inhabited, they would not have passed by in silence these two large islands upon which such stately buildings were erected. And for this reason I have 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 Thormoder and others, which I follow, as far as I find them not contradictory to the description of the ancients and to my own experience.