160 Arctic and Antarctic Exploration [part i 
cut to the east coast by passing through it. This was 
the last time that anyone was misled by the errors of 
Niccolo Zeno's chart. For the first land of Frobisher was 
supposed to be the Friesland of Zeno, in which case the 
second land would be Greenland. In reality the first 
land was Greenland, and the second land of Frobisher 
was the other side of Davis Strait. 
Hans Egede proceeded along the coast to the south- 
ward, examining the principal fjords, discovering the 
ruins of the church at Kakortak 1 and other vestiges of 
the Norsemen, little thinking that all the time he was 
in the " East Bygd/' which he supposed to be on the 
other side of Greenland. He looked out anxiously for 
Frobisher's Strait, which of course he never found, and 
went almost as far as Cape Farewell. The lateness of 
the season at last obliged him to return. 
Hans Egede then devoted all his energies to the 
instruction and conversion of the Eskimos, who were 
scattered in small bodies along the coast. He carefully 
sought out any words in their language that resembled 
those of the Norsemen 2 . Probably he thought that these 
Greenlanders had Norse blood in their veins, that in fact 
they represented all that remained of the lost colony. 
The Danish Government came to the conclusion that 
Greenland might be a valuable acquisition and there was 
still a desire to reach the east coast where the East Bygd 
of the Norsemen was supposed to be. In 1728 Major 
Paar arrived as Governor with five ships, one of them 
a man-of-war, bringing materials for a fort and a garrison, 
as well as horses for crossing to the East Bygd, so little 
was the inland ice then understood. Major Paar removed 
the settlement from Kenget Island to the mainland, on 
the south side of Gilbert Sound, where it received the 
name of Godthaab, and is now the capital of Danish 
Greenland. Unfortunately a form of scurvy broke out 
and the people died off rapidly, the mortality continuing 
1 See p. 40. 
2 Hans Egede made out half a dozen words to be common to Eskimos 
and Norsemen. Ouan, the word for angelica, is nearly the same in both 
languages. In Eskimo Kona is a woman, in Norse Kone ; in Eskimo 
Nerriok to eat, in Norse Naere ; Nise, the word for porpoise, is the same 
in both languages. Ashes is Asket in Eskimo, in Norse Aske. In Eskimo 
a lamp is Kollek. in Norse Kolle. 
