4 INTRODUCTION. 



pose of communicating the gospel tidings to the supposed 

 lost settlers from Norway, who, in the stories of the day, 

 Avere said to inhabit the eastern shores of Greenland, about 

 the sixty-fourth degree of north latitude. Accordingly, in the 

 same year, the worthj^ and pious missionary arrived at Baal's 

 River, being driven thither, rather than succeeding in his 

 endeavours to gain the point of coast to which the prevail- 

 ino; traditions of the time directed him. At the above 

 place native Greenlanclers were found, who expressed the 

 greatest reluctance to any settlement being made upon their 

 shores. 



This account seems to have but little weight even with 

 Crantz, the writer who repeats it. He possessed a strong 

 imagination, involved in all the Eible commentaries of the 

 day, and, though evidently possessed of much capacity of 

 thought, appears not to have availed himself of the great 

 and abundant materials for observation, which his situation 

 atibrded him, but was obliged to eke out a tardy volume 

 of ecclesiastical detail to gratify his German patrons. The 

 confusion of dates in Crantz's book is extremely perplexing, 

 and is calculated very much to mislead inquiry. 



The cold which prevails in the arctic regions is also 

 another source of difficulty in the endeavour to procure 

 accurate information regarding those countries from the 

 natives, and the harsh medium of the Danish language, and 

 uncertain transfer of intellioence throua-h the Danish inter- 



