DESCRIPTION OF GREEXLAXD. 225 



good rowers, but the sloop had great difficulty in following 

 the boat. 



The ambassador sent to each of the savages a sum of money, 

 and they all employed it in dressing themselves in the Danish 

 fashion. Some of them put large feathers in their hats, were 

 booted and spurred, and sent word to the king of Denmark 

 that they would serve him on horseback. This lively humour 

 did not last very long, for they relapsed into their usual 

 melancholy, and as they thought of nothing but how they 

 might return to Greenland, two of those who had put out to 

 sea and whom the storm had cast on Schonen, and who were 

 less suspected than the others, because it seemed unlikely 

 that they Avould expose themselves a second time to the 

 perils they had encountered, seized their boats and succeeded 

 in regaining the north. They were pursued and overtaken 

 near the mouth of the sea, but only one was taken, the other 

 escaped, or, rather, was lost ; for it does not seem pro- 

 bable that he ever could have arrived in Greenland. They 

 noticed in this savage, that he burst into tears whenever he 

 saw a child hanging on its mother's neck or with its nurse ; from 

 which they judged that he was married, and wept for the loss 

 of his wife and children. Those who were kept back at Copen- 

 hagen were guarded still more strictly than before, which 

 only increased their desire of returning to their country, and 

 their despair of ever doing so. They nearly all died of this 

 regret, and there only remained two of these unhappy Green- 

 landers, who lived ten or twelve years in Denmark after the 

 death of their companions. 



The Danes did all in their power to keep them alive, and 

 gave them to understand that they would be treated like their 

 friends and fellow-countrymen, for which, in a certain mea- 

 sure, they were grateful. They tried to make them Christians, 

 but they could never learn the Danish language, and it was 

 impossible to make them understand our inysteries. Those 

 who watched them more closely, often saw them raise their 



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