A LUNCH ON BOARD. 41 



It was in some measure to show my appreciation 

 of the spirit which prompted these warm-hearted peo- 

 ple that I resolved to signaUze our departure with a 

 lunch to the representatives of King Frederick the 

 Seventh, at tliis most northern outpost of Christian 

 settlement. Accordingly I sent my secretd,ry, Mr. 

 Knorr, out with some formal-looking invitations, got- 

 ten up in all the dignity of Parisian paper and rose- 

 scented wax. He came back in a few hours with 

 three couples. Two of the ladies were from the par- 

 sonag-e : the other was the wife of the Chief Trader. 

 Dr. Rudolph, Mr. Hansen, and the missionary, were 

 their escorts. The master of the Thialfe was already 

 on board. 



Meanwhile our old Swedish cook had gone half 

 crazy, and the steward kept him company. To pre- 

 pare a lunch for ladies in these high latitudes was not 

 within their conception of the hard-fisted require- 

 ments of exploration dignity. They " could not un- 

 derstand it." The steward contrived, however, to 

 stow away in the bunks the seal-skins which encum- 

 bered the cabin, and thus got rid of all our Greenland 

 rubbish but the odor. But it was not until the clean 

 white table-cloth, which he produced from some out- 

 of-the-way locker, was covered with the smoking dishes 

 which his ingenuity had contrived, that his face was 

 lit up with any thing approaching the kindly. Being, 

 however, in a general way a mild-mannered man, his 

 ferocious looks did not materially affect the progress 

 of the preparations ; and the solemn face with which 

 he predicted, in great confidence, to the cook that 

 " such folly would bring us all to ruin, indeed it 

 would," at length wore a ghastly smile, and finally 

 exhibited decided manifestations of a forgiving dis- 



