228 DESCRIPTION OF GREENLAND. 



raised their heads till they had got two or three hundred feet 

 from the vessel. The Danes, surprised at the novelty of this 

 fact, made signs to them to return, and assured them that 

 they would not hurt them. The savages believed them, and 

 returned to the vessel after they had got rid of their fear 

 and saw no more smoke, and the air had regained its former 

 tranquillity. Their manner of trading is this : they choose 

 what strikes their fancy amongst the merchandise of the 

 foreigners, and make a heap of it ; they then make another 

 heap of the goods they will give in exchange, and they all 

 arrange these heaps until they agree. 



At the time the Danes were trading with these savages, 

 they saw from the vessel one of the fish which have the 

 horns and are called unicorns, lying down on the grass of 

 the shore, which the return of the tide had left dry. They 

 maintain that it is the habit of the seals to go on the 

 grass, and that these fish, which are like large sea-oxen, have 

 this habit also. The savages went in crowds to this fish, 

 killed it, pulled out its teeth and horn, and sold it to the 

 Danes immediately. This fish, which cannot defend itself 

 on land, is very ferocious in the water. It is to the whale 

 what the rhinoceros is to the elephant. It fights with it and 

 pierces it with its tooth, which serves for a lance ; they say 

 that it has struck vessels with such force that they break and 

 sink. 



But a commerce of trifles was not the princij)al object 

 of this voyage. The pilot who conducted them, had known a 

 bank on this coast where the sand was of the colour and 

 Aveight of gold. He speedily proceeded to this bank, and 

 having filled his vessel with the sand, told his companions 

 that they were all rich, and set sail for Denmark. The 

 Grand Master of this kingdom, who is chief of this company, 

 and Avho, in fact, principally formed it to reconnoitre the 

 country and to visit it at leisure, was surprised at so sudden 

 a return ; but the pilot, \s ho felt aggrieved, told him that he 



