200 THE GERMAN AECTIC EXPEDITION. 



crowded witli people, from the midst of wliom shots rose 

 in the air every now and then. Again and again the 

 crowd broke into howls of delight. More than three 

 hundred natives — men, women, and children — waited our 

 arrival. We had hoisted our flag. As a return greeting, 

 the Danish colours fluttered from the station-house. We 

 had some difficulty in preventing the people, in their 

 willingness to serve us, from pulling us to land in the 

 boats. The men really tore each other, in order to lay 

 their hands on the painter. At length the figure of a 

 European pushed through the crowd; it was the mer- 

 chant, Mr. Rosing, who now welcomed us, and invited us 

 to accept his hospitality. The ceremonious politeness of 

 the man left us in doubt as to whether he had provided 

 this festive reception for us ; but he soon enlightened us 

 himself. He admitted openly, that for his part he would 

 not have wasted so much powder upon us ; besides which, 

 it was Esra who had gone from one island to the other, 

 relating our story, and had thus caused all the natives 

 to assemble from all parts to receive us in this alarming 

 manner. I had already seen Esra's finendly face in the 

 crowd and nodded to him ; that his countrymen should 

 be assembled in such numbers seemed to make him very 

 happy. Shortly after our landing, the natives dispersed 

 in their " Umiaks " and " Kajaks." It had not escaped 

 me that the type of population at Nennortalik differed 

 essentially from that of Friedrichsthal. What we after- 

 wards remarked in all Danish colonies and outlying 

 towns we here noticed for the first time, namely, the 

 preponderance of European features, even amongst the 

 Greenland natives. Indeed, those who wish to know the 

 genuine unmixed Greenlanders, will only find them at the 



