214 DESCRIPTION OF GREENLAND. 



clccessors, had levied, that no one should go to Greenland 

 Avithout leave. He allowed any one who wished to go with- 

 out requiring his special permission ; but the Norwegians 

 had so few sailors, and so poor also were they, that they had 

 not the means to make preparations for a voyage attended 

 with such difficulty and danger. 



King Frederick II followed out the wish of his father. Chris- 

 tian III, and sent out a man named Magnus Heigningsen to 

 the discovery of Greenland. And if it is as the chronicle states, 

 there is an unknown secret and a hidden cause, which visibly 

 oppose the designs that may be formed for gaining a know- 

 ledge of this land. Magnus Heigningsen, after many errors 

 and mishaps, discovered Greenland ; but was not able to get 

 near it, because, before he had seen the land, his ship stopped 

 short : at which he was much astonished, and with reason ; 

 for it was in the open sea and in great depth of water, there 

 was no ice, and the wind was fresh. Unable to proceed he 

 Avas obliged to return to Denmark, where he reported what 

 had happened to him, and told the king that there were 

 loadstones at the bottom of the sea which arrested his vessel. 

 If he had known the history of the Remora, perhaps he 

 would have given that also as a reason as well as the load- 

 stone. This adventure occurred in the year 1588, in the 

 reign of Frederick II ; and our Danish Chronicle, which is 

 connected with the chain of events, lias inserted between the 

 reigns of Christian and Frederick, a long account of a voyage 

 that INIartin Frobisher, an English captain, made to Green- 

 land in 1577. This narration throws much more light on 

 Greenland and the people than the history we have used 

 thus far ; therefore I have thought proper to send you a 

 version of what is there said. 



Martin Frobisher left England for Greenland in 1577, as 

 I have already said. He discovered it, but could not land 

 that year on account of the night and the ice ; for winter had 

 surprised them on their voyage. Having returned to Eng- 



