282 Arctic and Antarctic Exploration [part i 
Graah found 500 to 600 inhabitants. He returned to the 
settlements on the west side of Greenland in 1830. His 
object was to find the lost colony, for it was not then 
understood that the East Bygd was on the west side 1 . 
The distance from Graah's furthest to the southern 
point of Scoresby's survey remained undiscovered, and its 
exploration was reserved for Danish seamen. Dr Peter- 
mann had long been urging his countrymen to join the 
noble band of Arctic explorers, and in the spring of 1868 
he fitted out a small vessel at his own risk, with Karl 
Koldewey, a native of Hoya in Hanover, in command. 
Unable to approach the east coast of Greenland, that able 
navigator made for the Spitsbergen seas, attaining a 
latitude of 8i°5 / N., sailing down Hinlopen Strait, sighting 
Wiche's Land, and returning to Bergen on September 30th, 
1868. 
Interest in Arctic work was thus aroused in Germany, 
a committee was formed, and it was resolved again to 
despatch an expedition under Koldewey to the east coast 
of Greenland. A vessel of 143 tons was built at Bremers- 
haven, at a cost of £3150, and named the Germania. The 
schooner Hansa, of only 76! tons, was bought as a consort, 
with Captain Hegeman of Oldenburg in command. 
Captain Koldewey's expedition sailed from Bremers- 
haven on the 15th June, 1869, and reached the edge of 
the ice in 74° 47' N. On September 14th the Hansa was 
closely beset and drifted south all through the winter 
until she was destroyed by the ice. Officers and crew 
then took to their three boats and eventually reached 
the Danish settlement of Friedrichsthal. Meanwhile the 
Germania worked her way through the ice, and reaching 
land on the 5th August, her winter quarters were finally 
fixed in a small bay in one of Clavering's Pendulum 
Islands, in 74 0 24' N. Julius Payer, a Lieutenant in the 
Austrian army who was born at Teplitz in 1842, was the 
moving spirit of the expedition in the work of sledge- 
travelling and in the ascent of glaciers and mountains. 
He made one journey in September, but the principal 
work was undertaken after the winter was over. The 
details were not thought out with that close attention 
1 Captain Graah's narrative was translated by Gordon Macdougall, 
and piiblished by the Royal Geographical Society in 1837. 
