150 
VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
in 1721 3 and a capital of ten thousand rix-dollars 
was raised for that purpose. 
The new established company fitted out three 
ships for Greenland, and the indefatigable Egede 
was sent thither as missionary, furnished with three 
hundred guilders by the society for propagating the 
gospel at Copenhagen. It was not without great 
danger and difficulty, that the single ship which 
had the missionary on board, at length arrived off 
Baal’s river, on the west side of Greenland, and 
wintered in an island there. M. Egede and forty 
men that remained with him, immediately set about 
building a house, in which the natives readily assisted 
them. The new colony, thus commenced, was from 
year to year carefully supplied with necessaries by 
the company ; but the trade carried on with Green- 
land brought in no great profit. In the mean time, 
the missionary employed his time in learning the 
Greenland language, and by his liberality and 
suavity of manners so endeared himself to the inha- 
bitants, that the respect they showed him in some 
particulars far exceeded his wishes, for they enter- 
tained such an exalted idea of his piety and virtue, 
that all the sick flocked about him imploring him 
to heal them, being persuaded that his breathing 
on them would restore them to health. His Danish 
majesty, in 1728, caused horses to be transported 
to New Greenland, in hopes that the settlers might 
thereby travel over land to Eastern or Old Green- 
land. Lieutenant Richards, in a ship which had 
wintered near the new Danish colony, also attempted 
