» 481 
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mys .¥8 
sa ye GREE NUAND.* 
i 
MT astra hl gil tatngamhrs & ; 
eaten is the most northern country of the 
western hemisphere of the globe. It reaches as far as 
the land is discovered, from Cape Farewell, in La- 
titude 59° 30’ to the 78th degree of North Latitude. 
the year 999, Leif made a voyage to Norway, and was Greenland. 
persuaded by King Tryggegon to embrace the Chris- —~— 
tian religion ; he took priests with him to Greenland, for pyosressive 
the conversion of his countrymen ; andvhis father Erie Geography. 
Its eastern coast runs north-east towards Spitzber- 
gen, and is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean. Its west- 
ern coast has, a northwest direction, and is bounded 
by Davis Straits and Baffin’s Bay, ‘Its southern coast 
natrow,. not occupying one degree. The 
“ of its northern coast, .are entirely unknown. 
he eastern coast is commonly called East Greenland, 
and Osterbygd by the old Icelanders and Norwe- 
jans ; tad pine Mert Grsealands and Wester- 
q ignifying, in the old Icelandic language. 
settlement. . Ban the date of its discovery, the foriher 
is called Old Greenland, the latter. New Greenland, 
The whale fishers, speaking of Greenland, include un- 
der this name the islands of Spitzbergen, so called 
from the many pointed mountains with which it 
abounds, and they call the whole west side Davis Strait. 
The Danes further divide the west coast into South 
Greenland, a distance from 59° 30’ to the 68th degree, 
and into North Greenland from the 68th degree to the 
most point. That Greenland joins the con- 
tinent of America on the end of Baffin’s Bay, is nearly 
ascertained. — ny 
The discovery of Greenland between the years 830 
and 835, is mentioned in the chronicle of Snorre Stur- 
leson, a learned Icelander, who wrote about the years 
1212; or 1215.’ Another Danish writer, Claudius Chris- 
tofferson, places the discovery in the year 770. An 
Acelander, Eric Raude, or Eric the Red, so called from 
his red hair, having killed another powerful chief of 
that land, was obliged to bt the country, and deter- 
' mjned to make a voyage of discovery, a practice very 
on at that time. Soon after he set sail, he reach- 
ed the point of a cape on the continent. of Greenland, 
which ‘cape he called Heriolfsnas in commemoration 
of one of his, ancestors, Turning from this to the 
south-west, he entered a very large inlet, which he 
called Eric's Sound, probably the sound called by the 
natives Ikareseksoak, which separates Cape. Farewell 
from the continent of Greenland ; he then stopped and 
emained on an island in the vicinity of it. ‘The fol- 
lowing summer he explored the continent, and return- 
‘ed in the third year to Iceland, where he boasted very 
th of the fertility of the new country which he 
eat iat Ms ~- gave the name Green- 
, hoping thereby to induce’ a great mar le 
How hin. Of 25 vessels which set out with Bat 
‘Greenland, only fourteen arrived safe. These set- 
tlers were soon followed by others, both from Iceland 
and Norway, and their number in a very short time in- 
creased so much, that they occupied part of the east 
and west coast of Greenland. Erie Raude and his 
sons’ Leif and Thorstein afterwards made excursions 
from time to time'to the opposite side of Davis Strait, 
or the North American coast, and founded colonies 
there, to which they gave the name of Winlandia. \ In 
Lovtey 1 ‘ 
Raude, with many of the people, went over to the Chris- 
tian faith, and there was rwards established a bi- 
shopric, and a-great number of churches. The old Ice- 
landie and Danish writers tell us, that there existed 12 
parishes on the east coast of Greenland, containing 190 
villages; and four parishes, containing 100 villages on 
the western coast. The Jast Bishop Andrew was sent 
there, in 1408, and after that year Greenland was no 
more thought of for a very long time. 
Amongst the foreign travellers who visited the coast 
of Greenland very gate. about the years 1379 and 1380, 
were the Venetian noblemen Antonio and Nicolo Xeno, Antonio 
to whom we are indebted for the first map of Green- 24 Nicole 
eno, 
A. D. 1380. 
land, published with a description of their voyage, by 
Francésco Marcotin, at Venice, in 1558. From the 
ear 1408, all intercourse was cut off, and all know- 
edge of Greenland has been buried in oblivion. _ Pre- 
vious to that time the Esquimaux, now called Green- 
landers, be to ‘shew themselves on the western 
coast. It cantiot now bé ascertained whether these Es- 
quimaux, harassing incessantly the Icelandic and Nor- 
wegian settlers, have at lengthy prevailed against them, 
wd extirpated the whole race.’ Some suppose that the 
plague called the black death, which devastated the 
north of Europe, from the year 1402 to 1404, reached 
this land, and carried off a great number of the settlers, 
so that, by their diminution, they were weakened to 
such a degree, that at last it became an easy matter 
for the Esquimaux, (called Skrellingers Ms the settlers) 
-to make war upon them, and to exti em. In this 
forgotten and neglected state Greenland sti!l remained, 
until the beginning of the 16th century, when a new 
spirit burst forth in Europe, to explore the unknown re- 
gions of the earth, 
. 
Martin 
Meta Incognita. A sound which, according to him, di- 
vided that continent, was called Forbisher Strait. He 
‘was sent out again by Queen Elizabeth; in the year 
1578 ; but he lost two of his vessels, and could find nei- 
ther the sound nor the land. The Forbisher Strait is 
marked on all charts of Greenland, but it does not exist 
anywhere on the whole coast. 
John Davis followéd’ the samé course, in the year John Davis, 
1585, and discovered that strait which now bears his A. D. 1586. 
name, viz. Davis Strait, which reaches "tothe 70th de* 
gree: ’ Some’ public-spirited gentlemen sent out Robert 
Bylot as captain, ant 
Strait, artd)advanced as far as the 77° 30’. 
“The Danish government, animated by these disco- 
veries, began also to think of their lost Greenland, or the 
Osterbygd, (eastern settlements,) and during the reigns 
of seven, kings, ‘spent consid sums upon it, but 
without success; the eastern coast having become inac- 
© * The Editor has been indebted for the following article on Greenland to the Curvatrer Caantes Lovis Girsecae, Professor of Mi- 
psn to the Dublin Society, who resided many years in that country, for thé express putpose: of examining its mineralogy and 
VOL, X. PART II. 
2 
3p 
Forbisher, or Frobisher, was, in. the year Frobisher, 
1576, the first that navigated this coast, and called it A. D. 1576. 
William: Baffin as pilot, with the pin, 
ship Discovery, ‘in the year 1616: they reached Davis a. p. 1616. 
