216 DESCRIPTIOX OF GREENLAND. 



the English, and gave them to understand that if they went 

 higher up they would find what they wanted. Frobisher 

 told them he would go there, and getting into a sloop with 

 some soldiers, he gave orders to his three vessels to follow. 

 Coasting along the shore higher up he perceived a number 

 of savages on the rocks, and began to fear he might be sur- 

 prised by them. The savages who conducted him over the 

 coast understood the alarm he felt, and, in order not to 

 frighten him away, made three men appear from under the 

 dyke, much better made and better clothed than the others, who 

 invited them by signs and demonstrations of friendship to 

 land. Frobisher went to them full of confidence, as he only 

 saw three men in the port, and the savages on the rock were 

 at some distance from them. But those who were hidden 

 under the dyke, as soon as they saw Frobisher, became im- 

 patient, and rushed in a crowd to the port. This made Fro- 

 bisher draw back, but, nevertheless, the savages were not dis- 

 couraged; they still tried to attract the English, and threw 

 quantities of raw flesh on the shore, as if they had to do with 

 bulldogs. When the English did not seem inclined to ap- 

 proach, the savages had recourse to another stratagem. They 

 brought a man who was lame, or at least appeared to be so, to 

 the sea shore, and having left him there did not show them- 

 selves for some time, as though they had gone away to a dis- 

 tance from them. Their idea was that the English, after the 

 custom of strangers, would come to take away this poor 

 wretch, who could not save himself, to serve them as inter- 

 preter. But the English, suspecting the deceit, fired at the 

 lame man, who sprang up in consternation and ran back 

 at full speed to the land. Upon this an immense number 

 of savages appeared at the sides of the dyke, and showered 

 upon the English a prodigious quantity of slones and arrows 

 from slings and bows ; at which the English only laughed, 

 and in their turn fired muskets and cannon, which frightened 

 them away in a moment. 



