Chap. II. 
Northefn Ccafls of Europe. 
When we entered the City, his Majefty being inform^ 
ed that we had brought Zemhlians us, he com- 
manded us to bring them to Court; which we did, every 
body gazing at them as if they had been born in another 
World, The King himfelf admired the Oddnefs of their 
Drefs, and the Strangenefs of their Figures. He ordered 
the Steward of his Houfhold to give Directions that they 
might be carefully kept and provided for, and be taught 
the Danijh Language, hoping he might then get fome- 
thing out of them, relating to their Country, that would 
be beneficial to his own. He commanded us to give 
him an Account of the feveral Places we had been at ; 
of the Manners of the Pepple, and their Way of living. 
We gave his Majefty full Satisfaction in all his Demands, 
and went then to wait upon our Owners, to inform them 
what Markets we had met with, and what Returns we 
had brought them home ; which proved mightily to 
their Advantage and Content. Our Ships were ordered 
up to Chriflian Haven., to be unladen, which was done 
in two Days time. One of the chief Merchants of the 
Company trading to the North, prefented the King in 
the Name of the reft, with the two Sea Horns, which we 
brought home with us. He received them as Rarities, 
that were of ineftimable Price, believing they were really 
Unicorns-Horns, of which abundance of Authors have 
written, and pretended there is a great Virtue in them. 
The King commanded they fliould be depofited in the 
Treafury Chamber, and promifed to grant the Company, 
in return, as many Privileges as it was in the Power of 
his Prerogative to beftow on them. The Merchant who 
prefented the Florns, v/as rewarded with a Chain of 
Gold, with his Majefty’s Picture hanging to it ; and had 
a Licence to trade, Cuftom-free, for a certain Term of 
Years. 
32. As I have mentioned the Unicorn, whofe Horn 
is fo much fpoken of, and valued for. the Virtues 
that are attributed to it, I ftiall take this Occafion to fpeak 
my Thoughts of this Matter, after I have given the 
Reader an Account of the Sentiments of others. It is 
very difficult to decide what Creature it is which is pro- 
perly the Unicorn. There are feveral Animals, called by 
the Greeks., Monoceros, and by the Latins.,' Unicornu. 
Among the four-footed Beafts, feveral wild Affes, and 
wild Bulls, particularly the Bull of Florida. Among 
Serpents, it is tlie horned Afp, and the red Salamander. 
Among Fifli, the Sea-horfe, and many more, whofe 
Names are unknown to Europeans. There are fome Fowl, 
■and even fome Infedts, that have, been thought to be 
Unicorns *, fuch as the Flemifh and Engliflo Beetle, both 
which are frequently mentioned Iw Naturalifts ; and be- 
fides thefe, other Animals' of different kinds in the In- 
dies have been, by fome, fancied to be the Creature, 
called by the Latins., Unicornu. Some Authors will have 
it to be a Land-beaft; others aWater- Animal ; and fome 
again an amphibious Creature, that lives either on Land 
or in Water. 
Pliny fays, the Unicorn is like a Bull, fpeckled with 
white Spots ; her Hoof hard, and clofed like a Horfe’s. 
Munfter writes, that it refembles a Colt of three Years 
old, of the Colour of a Weazel ; her Head like a Stag’s ; 
her Legs and Feet little, and her Horn growing out in 
the Middle of her Forehead, about two Cubits long. 
Marco Paulo., the Venetian, fays, fiie refembles an Ele- 
phant, only (he is fomething lefs ; that her Colour is the 
fame, and alfo her Shape or Form, excepting her Tail, 
which is like a Bull’s , and her Head like a Hog’s, but fo 
heavy, that ftie cannot hold it up •, this evidently is the 
Rinoceros. Philofiorgius writes, that her Head is like a 
Dragon’s •, that in the Midft of her Forehead, her Horn 
grows out of an indifferent Size, refembling that of a 
Snail •, that flie has a Beard like a Goat ; a long -Neck ■, 
her Feet like thofe of a Lion, and the reft of her Body 
much like that of a Stag, excepting her Skin, which is 
like a Snake’s. Helidorus adds, that' fhe is fo nimble a 
Beaft, the Hunters can never come at her. Louis Pari- 
dis will have it, that fometimes fhe is taken, and that 
her Food, afterwards, is Peafe, Lentils, and Beans ; that 
fhe is not much bigger than a large Greyhound, but is 
not of /o {lender a make ; her Sldn, in Colour, like a 
Caftor’s, only fleek; her Neck fmall, but longs and hef 
Feet cloven, like a Stag’s ; her Tail fhort ; her Muzzle 
like a Cow’s ; her Eyes great ; her Ears little ; and be- 
tween them grows her Horn, about a Foot long. 
Fhevet affirm's, that the Unicorn is as big as a Bull- 
Calf fix Months old, that her Legs and Feet refemble 
thofe of an Afs 5 her Ears like a Rain-Deer’s, and that 
her Horn grows up ftrait on the Top of her Head 4 
Louis de Bartheme imagines the Unicorn is like a Bay 
Horfe, cloven footed ; and that her Horn grows in the 
middle of her Forehead. Some fay, that the Rinoceros 
is the Unicorn ; Kircher, that it is the Sea-Horfe, which 
he alfo calls Lamia ; wherein he is very much miftaken % 
for the Lamia is another Sort of Fifh, called by the 
Englijh Rahen, of wliich the Inhabitants of Martinico^ 
Guardaloupe, St. Chriftophers, and the other Ameri- 
can Iffands, ftand in great fear ; for they are in danger of 
being devoured by them, as often as they bathe in the 
Sea. 
Authors differ widely about the Size and Shape of this 
Horn. Alhertus fays, that at the Bottom, or Root, it 
is as broad as one’s Hand ; that from thence it rifes 
taper to a Point, and that it is ten Foot long. Munjiet 
will have it only^ three Cubits in length, which is only 
four Feet and a half. Marco Paulo fhortens it to lefs than 
two Foot. Paradis reduces it to a Foot and a halfi 
Nicolaus Venetus brings it down to a Foot : And the fa- 
mous Jerom Cardan will have it the length but of three 
Inches. We find as great or greater Differences as to 
Colour. Pliny -is very clear that the Unicorn’s Horn is 
black. Solinus fays it is of a purple Coloim. Paradis fays 
it is red, or of a reddifh yellow. Albertus Magnus thinks 
it may be like a Stag’s Horn ; But other Writers are 
very pofitive that it is much whiter than any Ivory. 
We are likewife affured, by fome, that it is quite ftrait 
and fmooth *, others perfuade us, that it is finely wreath'- 
ed, and fhines as if it was poliftied ; neither are there 
Authorities wanting to prove, that fome are very finely fpot- 
ted with brown and black, but they do not tell us where* 
When I refleft on the feveral Opinions of thofe who have 
written of the Unicorn, and hov/ they differ from one 
another, I fometimes believe that each of them fpoke 
after his own Invention, to raife the Admiration of the 
Reader. 
As for the imaginary Virtues of the Unicorn’s Horn, 
they are confequently fiditious ; but fuppofmg that what 
has been pretended to be the true Horn was really fuch, 
I will venture to affirm, there is no more Virtue in it 
than in that of a Stag, a Goat, or Elephant’s Tooth, 
which is made ufe of to flop the fpitting of Blood and a 
Bloody-flux, wfiich is done by the aftringent Qiiality of 
thefe Horns, and that cannot fo properly be called a 
Virtue as a Malignity. The Unicorn’s Florn, or what ' 
has been faid to be fo, has neither Smell nor Tafle, and 
of courfe can have nothing in it ot fuch cordial Virtue as 
is pretended. 
Since my Voyage to the North I have looked 
over feveral Charts drawn by the moft celebrated 
Geographers, and I wonder to fee they placed Zemhla 
no farther to the Eaft-north-eaft of Lapland. It is more 
to the Northward than they make it. They are alfo in 
the wrong to divide it from the Continent, and to place 
it twelve hundred Leagues from Greenland, as many of 
them do ; for indeed it is contiguous with it. The Coafts 
of Greenland join to thofe of Zemhla and were it not for 
the prodigious Snows that fall there, and the Rigour of 
the Seafon, which render the Place uninhabitable, one 
might eaffly go from Greenland to Zemhla by Land, and 
from Zemhla paffing the Pater Nofiers, a Ridge of vaft 
Mountains, enter Samojeda, and thence either into the 
Great T artary or Mufcovy. 
I admired alfo, that they did not make the Streights, 
called Weygatz, above ten French Leagues long *, v/hereas 
they are five and thirty German Leagues in length. They 
fhew by their Charts that Ships may by that Streight 
enter the great Sea of Fartary ; which, wdiatever they pre- 
tend to, is not to be done. Some have faid, that in the 
Days of Prince Maurice a Ship paffed the Streights of 
Weygatz, and failed into the Tartarian Sea, which is a 
