234 DISCOVERIES OF JENS MUNK. 1620. 



voyage, seemed to ascribe the loss of his people 

 to some mismanagement. Munk feeling sensibly 

 this reproof, answered in a manner less respectful 

 than that to which the royal ear had been ac- 

 customed, and the King, forgetting all decency 

 and moderation, struck him a blow with his cane. 

 The indignity thus sustained by the unfortunate 

 navigator was never to be effaced, and he is said to 

 have taken his bed and died of a broken heart a 

 few days afterwards. 



There is an air of romance thrown over a great 

 portion of the narrative of Munk's voyage ; their 

 imparalleled sufferings — the survival of the three 

 persons only — their recovery from death's door by 

 eating grass and roots — their being able to get pro- 

 visions for a voyage across the Atlantic — and bring- 

 ing home one of the vessels — are things not physi- 

 cally impossible, though not very probable; and the 

 conduct of the King is most likely one of those 

 stories which have been repeated over and over 

 again, from one and the same source, without the 

 slightest foundation in truth. Forster indeed men- 

 tions, but without giving his authority, that the 

 same Munk was after his return employed by the 

 King in the years 1624, 25, and 27, in the north 

 sea, and on the Elbe ; and that he died on the 

 3d June 1628, in the course of a naval ex- 

 pedition.'^ 



* History of the Voyages and Discoveries, &c. p. 471. 



