52 WHALE-FISHERY. 



which was killed, — encouraged the hope that the 

 profitable nature of the fishery would continue un- 

 abated. This consideration induced the enterpri- 

 sing Dutch to incur very great expences in making 

 secure, ample and permanent erections, which they 

 gradually extended in such a degree, that at length 

 they assumed the form of a respectable village, to 

 which, in reference to the use that it was designed 

 for, they gave tlie name of Smeerenhei'g *. 



Tlie result did not, however, justify the sanguine 

 expectations of the Greenland Companies ; for the 

 fishery, as it soon appeared, had already attained 

 its acme f , and began to decline so rapidly from the 

 year 1636-7, to the termination of the companies 

 cliarters, that their losses are stated, on some occa- 

 sions, as having exceeded their former profits '^. To 

 the system of extravagance which they had adopted, 

 with the vast expence which they incurred in the 

 the construction of buildings, in a region where most 

 of the materiak had to be imported, is attributed 

 the subsequent failure of the Dutch chartered com- 

 panies. 



Towards the expiration of the charters of the uni- 

 ted Dutch Greenland Companies in the year 1642, 



* Beschryving der Walvisvangst, vol. i. p. 27,-28. The 

 •word Smeerenberg is probably derived from the Dutch words 

 smeer signifying^/, and hergen, to put up. 



t Forster's Discoveries in the North, p. 420. 



X Bescliryving der Walvisvangst, vol. i. p. 29. 



