NATIVES OF GREENLAND. 73 



exist, before these people, strongly guided by a sense of 

 right and wrong, could be brought to express an ab- 

 horrence of their masters' principles ; and this must be 

 either by the Danes exacting from their industry a demand 

 in the shape of tax for the protection afforded them, or 

 for the support of the missionaries, or else by trucking 

 with them on 4erms obviously disadvantageous to the 

 natives. On either point, the Uskee feels his superiority 

 in principle over his master, and is not to be reconciled to 

 his views. 



The original form of society still exists amongst the 

 Uskee-mes in all its simplicity. Though a nation as dis- 

 tinctly defined as any other in the world, yet they are 

 such only in identity of character. Their institutions are 

 truly patriarchal without the danger of dissolution from 

 the extravagant acquisition of property. Whilst in the 

 early government of patriarchal form, the gradual ac- 

 cession of landed property and flocks of cattle and ser- 

 vants led to the despotism of some wealthier Lord ; and 

 many, sharing such abundance in common, desired a chief 

 who should maintain equal justice, these petty govern- 

 ments became gradually absorbed into larger ones, and 

 empires have been formed, and revolutions given rise to 

 ruinous and wasting wars. During all this, that has formed 

 the basis of ancient and modern history, the simple 

 Uskee-me, content in his kaiak, plies his paddle in un- 



L 2 



