Prof. Nordenshiold — Expedition to Greenland. 299 



Board of Directors of tke Greenland trade, who not only granted us 

 the same favourable terms for our voyage out in the "Trade's" ships 

 which they grant to their own officers, but also gave us an un- 

 limited letter of credit on their various stations, together with a letter 

 patent of recommendation to their Governors, who also everywhere 

 received us in the most hospitable manner, and assisted us in getting 

 boats, provisions, and particularly crews. The obtaining of crews in 

 Greenland is an especially difficult matter. A Greenlander's desire 

 to earn is, in general, confined to the day's necessities ; his un- 

 willingness to undertake any service is particularly great; and 

 lastly, he is so attached to his home, his wife and his children, 

 and, if not provided with these, to his in general very ill-treated 

 dogs, that already, after a fortnight's separation, he is quite homesick. 

 This is equally true of the thoroughbred Greenlander and of the 

 mixed races, which form a considerable portion of the population of 

 the colony. The Danish artisans in Greenland, in fact, often marry 

 natives. The children in these cases are said seldom to learn 

 their father's language, but in general only Greenlandish, which 

 language — difficult as it is to elder persons consciously or uncon- 

 sciously accustomed to totally different linguistic rules, — perhaps on 

 account of the abundance of expressions for the objects and actions 

 amid which the children grow up — is caught by them with such ease 

 and partiality that even pure European parents find it difficult to get 

 their children to speak their real mother-tongue- Moreover, the 

 necessity of earning their bread soon compels these children to have 

 recourse to purely Greenlandish sources of gain, and to adopt Green- 

 landish customs. The child of a Danish father and a Greenlandish 

 or mixed-race mother thus becomes, both in language and manners, 

 a complete Greenlander; perhaps, however, a little less given to 

 think only of the day actually passing, and therefore with a somewhat 

 better prospect of maintaining himself than the more careless original 

 natives. 



Thus, while European customs of society and European language 

 are almost powerless when in competition with those of Greenland, 

 the European features and form of the body are preserved, almost 

 without any alteration. The mixed-race, therefore, which meets us 

 in almost every colony, is distinguished by a tall figure, often with 

 light hair, and not unfrequently a very handsome person, if not too 

 completely spoiled by Greenlandish dirt. 



European features seem to have something more attractive to a 

 Greenlander's sense of the beautiful than the flat form of countenance 

 common among themselves, and thus many skin-clad canoe-men are 

 descended, through several generations, from purely European 

 fathers, married with women of mixed race ; and there is, therefore, 

 more Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, or English, than Greenlandish 

 blood in their veins. Anything of that readiness to face danger and 

 seek adventures, which, inherited from the wild piratic and chivalrous 

 ages, forms a feature in our national character, will be looked for in 

 vain in the descendants of Europeans in Greenland ; and the 

 European with Greenlandish blood in his veins is as timid and faint- 



