expulsion by the Swedes, soon led to his deposition by the Danes. It is on this account that he is represented with a shivered sceptre amongst the Danish kings.
Eric Valkandor, who had been chancellor to Christian II, and was a Danish gentleman of great and generous sentiments, had been made Archbishop of Drontheim. After the disgrace of his master, he retired to his archiepiscopal see, where he exerted himself with great zeal and activity in order to renew the communication with Greenland, and to discover the fate of that ancient settlement. This learned prelate made it his business to read all the books in which it was mentioned, to examine all the merchants and mariners who had any knowledge of it; and he also caused a chart to be formed of the route which was supposed to have been observed. He was on the point of putting his projects in execution, when, being suspected of favouring the cause of the deposed monarch, he was deprived of his archbishoprick, and banished from the Norwegian territory. The benevolent scheme, which he had formed, was thus disconcerted; and the hopes, which had been excited, vanished in disappointment. The good Archbishop Valcandor retired to Rome, where he ended his days.
Frederick I was succeeded by Christian III, who had an expedition fitted out for the discovery of the lost settlement in Greenland; but this proved as abortive as similar attempts had previously been. This monarch now repealed the ordinances which his predecessors had established, by which all communication with Greenland had been strictly prohibited, without a special permission from the crown. The intercourse was now rendered free, without any limitations or restraints. But this act of royal grace came too late to be of any use; for the Norwegians at this period had degenerated from the enterprizing valour of their ancestors; and they were, at the same time, so impoverished that they did not possess the means of equipping any vessels for such a difficult and hazardous undertaking.
Frederick II entertained the same project as his father, Christian III, and he dispatched Magnus Heigningsen to attempt the discovery of Greenland. This Magnus Heigningsen, if the relation be not fabulous, actually discovered the long lost land, but was prevented by the operation of some mysterious cause from reaching the shore. His ship, without any visible cause, was stopped in its course, though in the midst of deep water and a fresh breeze, without any obstruction from the ice. As this Magnus Heigningsen could not advance any farther he was happy to be able to retreat; and he accordingly sailed back to Denmark. When he got back to that country he published an account of what had happened to his ship; and pretended that its farther progress had been stopped by a great loadstone at the bottom of the sea.
The Danish Chronicle, of which Peyrere has made such liberal use, gives the following account of the expedition of Sir Martin Frobisher to Greenland in 1576.
Frobisher set sail from England in the year just mentioned, and discovered the coast of New Greenland, but did not make any landing till he returned with another expedition in the following spring. The inhabitants of that part of the coast where he disembarked, abandoned their dwellings, and fled in different directions at the approach of the English. The alarm of some of these natives appears to have been so great that they clambered up to the tops of some rocky precipices, from which they threw themselves into the sea.
The English, who found it impossible to allay the suspicions, or conciliate the confidence of these savages, took possession of the huts which they had deserted. They were, in fact, tents formed of sealskins, stretched upon four poles, and sewed together with sinews instead of thread. All these tents had two entrances, one of which fronted the West, and the other the South; but they were closed against the winds from the East and the North, by which they were liable to be the most incommoded.
The English discovered in these cabins only an ancient matron, who appeared a picture of hideous deformity, and a young woman, who was in the family way, and had a little child holding her hand. These two last they carried off, regardless of the opposition of the old beldam, who set up a frightful howl. Departing from this point, they steered along the Eastern coast, where they beheld a marine monster as large as an ox, with a horn projecting from the snout of more than two yards in length, which they took for the unicorn. Proceeding in a North-east direction, they landed on another part of the coast of Greenland, which they discovered to be subject to earthquakes, that threw great rocks down into the plain. Here they found some gravel abounding, as they imagined, with particles of gold, of which they carried off a considerable quantity.
They spared no pains to conciliate the natives of this part of the coast, who themselves made a show of a desire to maintain an amicable correspondence. But these demonstrations of friendship appear to have been designed only to put the English off their guard; for, when Frobisher had landed, he was suddenly attacked by a body of savages, who had concealed themselves behind a bank for that purpose. He retreated to the shore and eluded their machinations. The savages, however, still imagined that the strangers might be caught in the snare; and in order to entrap them, they scattered pieces of raw flesh along the shore, as they would have done to allure dogs. Finding this attempt fail, they had recourse to another stratagem. They carried a lame man, or at least one who feigned to be lame, down to the sea-side; and, having left him there, they went away and kept themselves entirely out of sight. They supposed that the English would make an attempt to carry off this lame man in order to serve them as an interpreter, or to procure some intelligence by his means. But Frobisher, who suspected some deception, ordered a shot to be fired over his head, when he instantly sprung up upon his legs and ran away with precipitate velocity.
The savages now appeared in great numbers, and assailed the English with a shower of arrows and stones; but they were soon repulsed by a discharge of great and small guns.
The native Greenlanders are represented as perfidious and cruel, neither to be softened by caresses nor moved by benefits. This, however, is the character of very imperfect knowledge and limited observation. They are described as plump in their appearance, active in their limbs, and with an aspect of olive hue. Some of them are reported to be as black as negroes. Their clothes are made out of the skin of the seal, and sewed with sinews. The women wear their hair loose, but throw it back behind their ears in order to show the face, which they paint blue and yellow. They wear no petticoats, but short trousers made of fish-skin, drawn one over the other; in the pockets of which they carry their knives, little mirrors, and the working materials, which they procure from foreigners or obtain from the wrecks which may happen upon their coasts. The shirts or chemises of both sexes are made from the intestines of fish, and sewed with fine sinews. They wear their clothes loose, and gird them with a belt made of fish-skin. They are disgustingly dirty, and covered with vermin. Their criterion of wealth is the number of bows and arrows, of slings, boats, and oars, which an individual may possess. Their bows are small, their arrows thin and armed at the end with a sharp point of bone or horn. They are expert in the use of the bow and the sling; and in killing fish with the spear. Their little boats are covered with sealskin, and can hold only one man. But they have larger boats formed of wood, covered with the skin of the whale, and which will carry twenty men. Their sails are made of the same materials as their shirts; or of the intestines of fish fastened together by fine sinews. And though they make use of no iron in the construction of their canoes or boats, they are put together with so much skill, and so well compacted, that in them they venture out into the wide ocean with perfect security. They have no venomous reptiles or insects; but are sometimes infested with swarms of gnats. They make use of very large dogs for the purpose of drawing their sledges. All the fresh water which they possess they procure from the melted snow.
Such are the principal particulars which are detailed in the Danish account of Frobisher’s voyage. We will now proceed to relate some attempts of the Danes to renew their intercourse with Greenland, subsequent to those which have been previously mentioned, and which proved abortive.
Christian IV resolved, if possible, to signalize his reign by the discovery of that lost settlement, which his father and grandfather had sought in vain. For this purpose he sent for an experienced mariner from England, who had the reputation of being well acquainted with the Northern ocean, and with the route to Greenland. Having procured this skilful auxiliary, whose name was John Knight, the Danish monarch
