34 



De pygmaeis Gruntlandiae is an illustration represenling a 

 European fighting ^\ith a native dwarf (Eskimo). 



Thus we have found evidence of the advance of the Eskimo 

 along the west coast of Greenland all the way from the account 

 in Historia Norwegiæ dating from the 13"' C. down to these 

 late accounts from the \^^^ C. 



However scattered and unsatisfactory they are, yet they 

 furnish certain proof that all the way down to the beginning 

 of the new era, indeed far into the Iß*** С, there still continued 

 to exist a living tradition in the Scandinavian lands about 

 Greenland and about its strange inhabitants, who had gradually 

 penetrated into the land from the north. 



The Eskimo invasion of Greenland did not take place 

 without some bloody conflicts, which, considering this race's 

 cowardly character, explain why it took such a long time for 

 them to penetrate to the southernmost part of Greenland. The 

 invasion has probably taken place through repeated advances 

 from the west, which have been occasioned by shillings in the 

 territory of the more western Eskimo, it is possible that in 

 South Greenland they have mingled with the few^ Norsemen who 

 still remained there after all communication with the rest of 

 the world had ceased. 



It лvas at this point that English sailors, driven by the 

 hope of finding a new way to India, rediscovered Greenland, 

 and brought home fresh accounts of the land (Frobisher's 

 first voyage 1576, John Davis's -first voyage 1585). Herewith 

 begins a new section of the history of this land and its in- 

 habitants. 



