NATIVES OF GREENLAND. (i? 



with other tribes, who from causes, not necessary to 

 form a part of this inquiry, had already spread over other 

 parts of the American continent, and being of peaceful and 

 very unwarlike habits, they were unfit to associate with their 

 new neighbours. The consequence Avas, that the red In- 

 dians, as they are termed, Avho lived entirely by the chace, 

 usually attributed to their timid neighbours every unfavour- 

 able change of weather that interfered with their hunting. 

 Hence arose wars, which to the present clay are continued 

 with undiminished asperity. The appearance too of the 

 Uskee, clad in his skins, his head wrapped in a hood, and 

 his whole figure loAvly, and little expressive of warlike cha- 

 racter, was remarkably contrasted with the tall, graceful 

 figure of the red man, accustomed to warfare, and impa- 

 tient of intrusion. 



The Uskees, in self-defence, must have learned also hoAv 

 to fight, and doubtless retaliated with devastating efl'ect, 

 having always a sure retreat in their boats. This disposi- 

 tion the early settlers from Norway found to their cost, 

 when they provoked them to vengeance in Greenland, and 

 were in consequence extirpated. Neither did a subsequent 

 visit from the Europeans tend to diminish the rancour arising 

 from unprovoked injury. For, in the year l605. Christian 

 IV. of Denmark having sent out Admiral Lindenow with a 

 small fleet, under the guidance of John Knight, an English 

 mariner, in search of Old Greenland, " they seized four 



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