236 NATURAL HISTORY of ^0£ WA T. 



they are confequently, derived from that very European people 

 they had afterwards fo great caufe to complain of. Neverthelefs, 

 if we may judge by their manners and cuftoms, I am convinced 

 that their origin is of a much more ancient date. I rather think, 

 that they came fome ages fince from the Britifh and Orkney 

 iflands. 



If there were not frill fome remains of idolatry and fuperftitionj 

 without the leaft fign of chriftianity amongft them, we might 

 perhaps aver, that they are defcended from thofe Cambri, which 

 fbrfook Wales, to difcover new countries in the weft, about the 

 end of the twelfth century, under the command of Madoc their 

 prince, a fon of Owen Guynedd, mentioned by David Powel, in 

 his hiftory of the Cambri; if this voyage of Madoc be not fabu- 

 lous." So far the anOnimous author of the hiftory of the country 

 and inhabitants in America. His hypothefis, that the faid Eild- 

 maux are derived from Europeans who came there fome ages 

 ago, I think we cannot but believe to be true. To make Bifcay- 

 ans, or Britons of them, who have been converted to chriftianity 

 fo long, of which there muft without doubt have remained fome 

 footfteps, does not at all agree with fads. Upon the whole, all 

 hypothefes on this fubjecl: are at an end when we read fome of 

 our good Norvegian authors, efpecially Arngrimus Jona quoted 

 above. 



Many confiderable colonies have gone away at the latter end 

 of the fourteenth century from hence, as well as from other 

 countries, and a great many were carried ofF by an epidemical 

 diftemper that raged at that time, which the Norvegians called 

 forte dod, or black death. By this means the country has been 

 greatly weakened and ftrip't of its inhabitants in many places, 

 However, later times have recovered this lofs, fo that the old 

 habitations are again occupied, and new ones added to them. 

 Hence we may fee the benefits of peace, and what advantages it 

 brings to a country. That it conduces to the increafe of the in- 

 habitants, may be concluded by examining thefe laft thirty years 

 peace; for the increafe of people is fo obvious in this diocefe, and 

 in all probability in other places, that moft of the farm-houfes 

 which formerly had but one family, now have two, three, or four. 

 To this we may add the great numbers of young feafaring men, 

 1 who, 



