INTRODUCTION. 
XXV11 
death,” I do not find that there is any certain ac¬ 
count of this plague having ever reached the 
country. Crantz only negatively argues, that, as 
this contagion prevailed most in the northern 
parts of Europe, “ it may he well supposed, that 
Greenland, too, must have been infected, through 
its frequent commercial intercourse with Nor¬ 
way.” And, in regard to their destruction by 
the Skradlings, the proofs are equally negative 
and inconclusive. These people made their ap¬ 
pearance on the west side among the colonists, 
in the time of Alpho, the 11th Bishop of Green¬ 
land, probably about the year 1850. “ They are re¬ 
ported to have killed eighteen of the Norwegians, 
and to have carried away two boys prisoners 
but “ the ancients record no other circumstanced 
of war.” As the Skraellings arc represented as a 
very cowardly race, whereas the colonists were 
known to be a brave people,—“ How then,” in¬ 
quires the judicious Crantz, “ should they be ca¬ 
pable of over-matching the valiant Norwegians, 
these sons of conquerors, in their well peopled 
colonics, and barricadoed by craggy rocks; and 
of extirpating them so totally, that wc have not 
hitherto been able to trace any footsteps of them ?” 
