178 THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



people tlie first to offer us help and refreshment — who 

 can describe our wonder and delight ? 



The land reached, each wanted to be first on the bank. 

 I sprang into shallow water. We almost forgot the 

 boats; the men could not finish the work quickly enough. 

 What hand-shaking and grasping on all sides. Words 

 died away in the throat, and the voice trembled. Tlie 

 man from the cliffs, too, and the natives had come up to 

 greet us. The supposed guardian of public security was 

 Mr. Starick, the missionary, who with Mr. Gericke super- 

 intended the Mission. The good people opened their 

 eyes when they heard some short details of our voyage ! 

 But this was Germany. As a token, we have Mr. 

 Gericke' s command : — " Wives, go and get ready at once 

 some good coffee ; in the meantime, we men will drink 

 a bottle of wine as a welcome." No sooner said than 

 done. Whilst the men on the strand were busy making 

 fast and unloading the boats, we followed the missionaries 

 to the house, relating and listening alternately. 



The mission-house is a small one-storied building. 

 Like most of the European houses in Greenland, it was 

 made in Denmark, brought piecemeal from the ship to 

 this place, and at last set up there. It is not larger than 

 the houses in the Erzgebirge, or the Harz ; and from 

 the red paint resembles the Swedish peasant-houses. 

 The foundation is a rocky site covered with moss. The 

 building of that, as well as of the unadorned wooden 

 church, cost more trouble than the building of many a 

 palace in Germany. Tediously must every piece have 

 been brought from Julianeshaah, nearly eighty miles 

 distant, in the small umioks or women's boats. 



The dwelling-houses are small, and not adapted for a 



