_First Settlement of Greenland, with some Thoughts on the Extinction of the Norwegian Colonies; and whether on the East Side no Remainders may be found of the old Norwegians: also, whether the same Tract of Land cannot be recovered._
It is undoubted that the ancients, not so much driven by any necessity or compulsion as led by a natural and inbred curiosity, embarked upon many strange ventures; as for instance, to discover and settle colonies in so many formerly quite unknown and uninhabited countries, to whose discovery what particular accidents have most contributed we learn by the several histories and descriptions thereof. For the Almighty and good God, who has not in vain created the vast globe of the Earth, has also not intended, that any part or province of it should lie buried in eternal oblivion, useless to mankind. And that Greenland by such means has been discovered and inhabited by our old Norwegians and Icelanders, we are fully informed by the annals of Iceland; where we read, that the brave and valiant Erick Raude (or red) who was the first discoverer of this country, after he, in company with several other Icelanders, in the year of our Lord 982, by mere casualty fell in with the land, and had taken a survey of its present state, he returned to Iceland the next year, 983, spoke much in commendation of the land, calling it the Greenland, by which he persuaded many of his countrymen to follow him thither, in order to find out places fit for dwelling, and to settle there[22]. They no sooner were arrived and settled here, but they found God was come along with them; I mean the saving knowledge of his most holy Word. For the said Erick Raude’s son, called Leif, after he had been instructed in the Gospel truths by King Olaf (who was the first Christian king of Norway), brought along with him from Norway to Greenland a priest, who taught and christened all the inhabitants of the country. Thus this country has first been settled by Norway and Iceland colonies, which, in after-times, have increased and been provided with many churches and convents, bishops and teachers; which lasted as long as the correspondence and navigation continued between them and Norway, until the year 1406, when the last bishop was sent over to Greenland. Yet the Norwegians were not the original natives of the land; for, not long after their arrival, they met with the old inhabitants, a savage people dwelling on the Western shore, originally descended from the Americans, as may with great probability be gathered from the agreement of their persons, customs, and habits with those who dwell to the North of Hudson’s Bay; as likewise while those, that inhabited the Northern parts (now known by the name of Davis’s Straits), advanced nearer and nearer to the South, and often made war upon the Norwegians. Concerning the cause of the ruin and total destruction of that so well established Norwegian colony there is nothing found upon record; the reason of which I think to be, that after all correspondence and navigation ceased between Greenland and Norway, partly by the change and translation of the government in Queen Margaret’s reign, and partly by the next following continual wars between the Danes and Swedes, which caused the navigation to those parts to be laid aside, and chiefly by the great difficulty and innumerable dangers of such navigation; which several causes cut off all intelligence, that might be had of that country’s state, as may be seen in Pontanus and Claudius Lyscander.