These savages had knives and swords made of the horns or teeth of that fish which they call unicorn, and which they ground to an edge upon a stone; nor were they less sharp than if they had been made of iron or steel.
Godske Lindenau, not finding it practicable to establish any amicable communication with the people of this district, set sail for Denmark; but of the six Greenlanders whom he had recently forced on board, one was pierced with such regret at the thought of never more seeing his native home, that he threw himself into the ocean in a paroxysm of despair. Upon their return the Danes had the pleasure of rejoining the fifth ship, which had disappeared in a fog; but they had been only five days together when they were all separated by a storm; and a month elapsed before they could re-unite when the tempest had passed away. They arrived at Copenhagen upon the 5th of the following October, after having experienced many awful perils and hairbreadth escapes.
The King of Denmark, who deserves praise for his perseverance, now determined upon a third expedition to Greenland. He accordingly ordered two large ships to be fitted out, which he placed under the command of a Captain Karsten Richkardisen, a native of Holstein, whom he furnished with some sailors from Norway and Iceland that were acquainted with the navigation. These vessels sailed from the Sound on the 12th of May, but the Danish Chronicle has not stated in what year; nor was it known to Peyrere. On the 8th of June Richkardisen discovered the high points of the Greenland mountains; but he was prevented from landing by the rocks of ice which ran out far into the sea and rendered the coast inaccessible. He was therefore obliged to return without accomplishing the object of his voyage, as he despaired of being able to penetrate the icy barrier which blockaded the shore. No similar attempt has hitherto been successful; and the Eastern coast of Greenland, though for several centuries well known to, and habitually visited by, the Norwegians and Danes, is, at present, a _terra incognita_, notwithstanding the spirit of European adventure and the zeal of modern discovery.
The King of Denmark caused particular attention to be paid to the three savages who had survived the preceding, and the five who had been imported by the last expedition to Greenland. They were fed upon milk, butter, and cheese, as well as upon raw flesh and raw fish, to which they had been accustomed at home. They appeared to have an invincible repugnance to our baked bread and dressed meat; nor did they relish any kind of wine so much as the oil and grease of the whale. They often turned a wishful and desponding look to the North; and sighed so anxiously to return to the place of their nativity, that, whenever they were watched with less vigilance than usual, those who had an opportunity seized any boat that was at hand and put to sea, regardless of the dangers they had to encounter. A storm once overtook some of these intrepid adventurers at ten or twelve leagues from the Sound, and forced them back to the coast of Schonen, where they were made prisoners by the peasantry and conveyed back to Copenhagen. This caused them to be guarded with more rigour, and kept under greater restraint. But three of them fell sick and died of grief.