334 W. Thalbitzer 



An Easilandefs song about those who journey to the 

 West coast to trade. 



When the travellers southward go, 



Their friends await them with longing. 



What a surprise to go, they say ! 



To the big men they go, 



To them who never know want, 



And there they buy richly of iron — 



And we here nourish great longings 



For tobacco and iron. 



Sewing needles and beads. 



When they returned, we rejoiced greatly. 



And I grew very gay, 



And I rejoiced aloud and called loudly: 



The boat is coming, the boat is coming! 



Voyages of discovery between Ammassalik and West Green- 

 land. — Of the journeys of the East Greenlanders round to the 

 west coast in earlier times we know something, not from themselves 

 but from European records. As the first reports of history regarding 

 these isolated people may perhaps be of some interest, I shall here 

 mention the principal records or refer to them as sources. 



Hans Egede reports in his "Relation" under June 11th 1728^): 

 — "A large number of Greenlanders arrived from farthest south 

 from between 60 and 61 degrees, some of them intending to journey 

 far north and remain there during the approaching winter. These 

 stated, that two years previously natives had been among them from 

 the east side, who had brought with them large pieces of whale- 

 bone, to exchange them for other things they desired. The western 

 natives, according to what they said, were also accustomed some- 

 times to travel round to the east side. They knew nothing more 

 to relate regarding the nature of the place or the inhabitants". The 

 rest of what they had to say regarded the movements of the ice 

 along the east coast. 



On June 29th and again July 29th 1733 Egede again had visitors 

 from the south point of the land. Under the date last-mentioned he 

 writes^): "Some strange Greenlanders arrived from the south and 

 visited us, and when I asked various questions regarding the nature 

 of the country there in the south and round about "Hukken" (Cape 



') Hans Egede (1738) p. 240; he was living at the time in Godthaabs Fjord 64*^ 



10' N. lat. on the west coast. 

 2) id. ibid. pp. 342-343. 



