VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
147 
their colonization did not extend to the southern 
limits of the arctic circle ; they soon became a 
thriving colony, and bestowed on their new habita- 
tion the name of Groenland, or Greenland. This 
colony was converted to Christianity by a missionary 
from Norway, sent thither by the celebrated Olaf, 
the first Norwegian monarch who embraced the 
Christian religion. The Greenland settlement con- 
tinued to increase and thrive under his protection ; 
and, in a little time, the country was provided with 
many towns, churches, convents, bishops, &c., 
under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Dron- 
theim. A considerable commerce was carried on 
between Greenland and Norway ; and a regular 
intercourse maintained between the two countries 
till the year 1406, when the last bishop was sent 
over. About this time, by the gradual increase of 
the arctic ice, the colony appears to have been com- 
pletely imprisoned in the frozen ocean ; while on 
the west a range of impassable mountains and 
plains, covered with perpetual ice and snow, pre- 
cluded all access. The ancient settlement may be 
traced in the map of Torfaeus in his Groenlandia 
Antiqua ; from which it would seem that the colony 
extended over about two hundred miles in the south- 
east extremity of Greenland. On the west, some 
ruins of churches have also been discovered. About 
a hundred years after all intercourse between Norway 
and Greenland had ceased, several ships were sent 
successively by the kings of Denmark, in order to 
discover the eastern district, but all of them mis- 
L 2 
