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 1 
 
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 6 
 
THE SAILORS MARVEL AS THEY SEE HIM GAZING WISTFULLY 
 AFTER THE DEPARTING SHIPS." -/. 40. 
 
 *. 
 
^mid Greenland Snows 
 
 OR 
 
 Ef)t lEarlg H^istorg of Arctic ilSlfesions 
 
 BY 
 
 JESSE PAGE 
 
 AUTHOR OF UAVID BKAINEKD, THE APOSTLE TO THE NORTH AMERICAN 
 INDIANS;" "SAML'EL CROWTHER, THE SLAVE BOY WHO BECAME 
 
 'C. H. SPURGEON, HIS LIFE 
 AND MINISTRY," ETC., ETC. 
 
 Who will the heathen of the Arctic save ? 
 Brave souls in answer willingly arose 
 To bear His Cross of Peace, and heal the woes 
 
 Of those who knew no hope beyond the grave. 
 
 
 SECOND EDITION. TENTH THOUSAND, 
 
 I 
 
 LONDON 
 
 S. W. PARTRIDGE & CO. 
 
 8 & 9 Paternoster Row. 
 
If 
 
 If 
 
 BGEDE TENDING THB SICK. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 l« 
 
 I 
 
 LITTLE is said about the Arctic regions in the 
 history of Christian Missions. And yet I am 
 bold enough to think that a perusal of these 
 pages will justify the statement that in the 
 neighbourhood of the North Pole there has been as 
 patient and heroic endeavour in the cause of the 
 Cross as in the fiery zone of the Equator. The 
 workers have been fewer and undistinguished, but they 
 were men singularly free from ostentation, content to 
 keep pegging away at the work as it lay ready to 
 
 r 
 
vi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 hand. The genuine missionary spirit burned in their 
 breast, while the conditions under which they have 
 laboured were trying to the last degree. If patience 
 is a special quality of the true missionary, these 
 saints surely had a double portion of it In their 
 experience this virtue had its perfect work, and if there 
 is one characteristic more than another which strikes 
 the student of their life, it is their marvellous endur- 
 ance of heart and purpose when, humanly speaking, 
 the prospect seemed hopeless indeed. Such men 
 deserve to be remembered with honour. 
 
 Hans Egede, the principal figure in this present 
 volume, was a man of such stamp and mould. 
 
 When I first began the work of research, he was 
 to me comparatively unknown, for scarcely anything 
 about him appears in the literature of this generation, 
 and his fuller history lies hidden in scarce volumes 
 of Norwegian, Danish, and German biography. As 
 I pored over the yellow, time-stained pages of some 
 old calf-bound English octavos, life began again to 
 stir within them, and slowly the personality of this 
 remarkable man became vivid on the horizon of that 
 far-off time. Gradually as the focus cleared the inter- 
 cepting haze, I seemed to look into the eyes of 
 this man, so full of pleading love and loyal patience, 
 as he stood by the side of his Greenlanders in the 
 snow. Certainly I shall be satisfied if in even a 
 modified degree my portrayal of Egede helps others 
 to share my fellowship with this simple and beautiful 
 character. A trifle old-fashioned he may seem in 
 
 i 
 
 '\ 
 
 It 
 
 %. 
 
 I 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 VII 
 
 
 II 
 
 ( 
 
 thought as in dress, but he stands in the line of saintly 
 succession, and drank of the same Divine fount which 
 inspired the heart of St Paul. 
 
 In describing the habits of life and religious ideas 
 of the Greenlanders» it will be found that the follow- 
 ing pages deal more especially with the natives as 
 Egede found them ; their subsequent contact with 
 European traders, and the wide-spread teaching of 
 Christianity have, of course, considerably modified 
 these characteristics. Although usually credited with 
 mental sluggishness, these Greenlanders were evi- 
 dently quick-witted enough in arguments with the 
 missionaries, and the reader will, no doubt, be struck 
 with the family likeness between many of the objec- 
 tions of these poor philosophers in fur and '^^e diffi- 
 culties raised by so-called lovers of wisdom to-day. 
 But while we recognise the old shadow darkening 
 their intelligence and pity them in their ignorance, 
 we also see in their case the demonstration of that 
 Divine energy by which the Sun of Righteousness 
 chases away all clouds and brings to the heart of man 
 light and peace. Like most pioneers it was not 
 given to Egede to see the full fruition of his labours, 
 but in those years of tearful sowing he beheld, like 
 Abraham, by faith the promise of God fulfilled, and 
 died in sight of that glorious harvest which his 
 successors reaped. 
 
 The Moravian Brethren who took up the thread of 
 his work, and have quietly and steadfastly maintained 
 it until this day, deserve a much better record than 
 
i 
 
 vm 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 the limits of these pages will allow. The names of 
 Christian and Matthew Stach, John Beck, Christian 
 David, and Frederic Boehnish are among the " honour- 
 ables," and ought not to be forgotten. They laid the 
 foundations of that extensive work among the inhabit- 
 ants of these Polar regions, which the Brethren have 
 continued to prosecute ever since. What the Metho- 
 dists have been in Fiji, so the Moravians have been 
 to Greenland and the neighbouring countries. 
 
 Perhaps now-a-days we are apt to overlook our 
 obligations to that devout, inoffensive, and yet 
 spiritually aggressive people, from whom indirectly 
 sprang some of the famous revivals of our time. 
 Stimulated by persecution, and cleansed by suffering, 
 they have passed on the fiery Cross of unswerving 
 loyalty to Christ and the teaching of Holy Scripture. 
 
 I cannot sufficiently acknowledge the courtesy with 
 which the archives of the Moravian Society have 
 been placed at my disposal in preparing this work. 
 
 Now, gentle reader, I put my little book into your 
 hand, trusting that God may graciously use it to your 
 profit and His everlasting praise. 
 
 
 I 
 

 EGEDE PREACHING ON A FIORD. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE FROZEN FIELD AND ITS HISTORY, . 
 
 I'AGU 
 II 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 A CRY FROM MACEDON, 
 
 • * 
 
 • • • 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS AND DELIVERANCE, . 
 
 . 24 
 
 36 
 
 ix 
 
I 
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PAGR 
 
 ALMOST ABANDONED, 50 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW, 5) 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE MORAVIANS COME, 75 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PESTILENCE AND PATIENCE, 88 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HOW THE GREENLANDERS LIVE, I08 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THEIR RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND SUPERSTITIONS, . .121 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE STORY OF KAJARNAK, 1 35 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 god's WORK GOES ON, . . ' 150 
 
 ^*.. 
 
AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE FROZEN FIELD AND ITS HISTORY. 
 
 Land of the wintry wind and cold 1 
 Icelocked is thy breast, the bravest and best 
 Shrouded in snow lie silent at rest, 
 Their sufferings and struggles untold. 
 
 IN the fascinating story of discovery and adventure 
 two portions of the globe have had a special 
 interest, one, the Dark Continent of the African 
 Equator, the other, the equally gloomy regions 
 of the Arctic circle. In the case of the former, 
 modern explorers have rapidly filled up what used to 
 be great spaces on our maps, and where civilisation 
 has not yet planted her towns and communities, the 
 footfall of the traveller has been heard in its lonely 
 solitudes, and the secret places have been traversed 
 
 from shore to shore. The mystery of Africa is 
 
 II 
 
12 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 shrinking year by year, and the day is not far distant 
 when the flags of the European nations shall wave 
 over every province of the land. 
 
 Not so, however, with the shadowy regions of ice 
 which girdle the North Pole. Progress thither has 
 been slow and difficult. Yet its explorers have been 
 ever most persevering and brave. If Africa can 
 boast of her Livingstone and Stanley, the Arctic has 
 her Frobisher and her Franklin, to mention none 
 other of the undaunted pioneers who penetrated her 
 frosty solitudes only to be clasped in her icy arms, 
 never to return. In tragic disappointment it surpasses 
 in its history all other fields of discovery. Again and 
 again have vessels, freighted with adventurous hearts, 
 sailed forth for the north, and as the months and 
 years passed by empty-handed, the weary eyes at 
 home have watched in vain for their returning sail, 
 and have wept for those who far away have found a 
 grave of snow. It is this fatal uncertainty which 
 enshrouds the polar regions with mystery. And yet 
 some of the bravest have constantly turned their faces 
 thither, and striven in their turn to penetrate the veil, 
 only to meet with disappointment and to return, bear- 
 ing back a few precious relics of the dead. Then they 
 tell their tale, and by the firesides at home the 
 recital of their escapes and trials stirs the hearts of 
 the listeners. What a wonderful world have they 
 seen! There the sun glows like a fiery ball in the 
 midnight sky, though the light be dim, across the 
 plains where there is never a tree or flower or blade of 
 grass, where huge mountains of glistening ice slowly 
 float in fantastic procession against the deep blue 
 firmament, where no sound is heard save the shriek 
 
 ^ 
 
THE FROZEN FIELD AND ITS HISTORY. 
 
 13 
 
 I ' 
 
 
 of clouds of wildfowl or the hoarse roar of the white 
 bear as it splashes across the ice to its lair. A land of 
 desolate gloom, save that above its vast moving fields 
 of white, like the spirits of the old Vikings above their 
 ancient graves, the mighty sky is resplendent with 
 myriads of flashing spears of light. 
 
 Not less strange are the little, tawny people, clothed 
 in fur skins and creeping in and out of molehills of 
 snow, or skimming the water in their light canoes. 
 Their land is alive with pathetic history. They can 
 tell how strong ships have been nipped and crushed 
 like toys between the ice floes, or frozen up for months 
 under a thick crust of snow. Every spot has some 
 history of the living or the dead, of eager and sorrow- 
 ful search, of men straining their eyes as they scan 
 the cliffs for some vestige of a cairn, of bits of coal 
 and buttons picked up with religious care, of tear- 
 stained cheeks at the sight of a few blanched bones — 
 the dear and mute mementoes of lost brothers. What 
 a thrilling history has this lone white land ! 
 
 One of the earliest discoverers in the Polar Seas 
 was Frobisher, the gallant admiral of Queen Eliza- 
 beth, who left England on the 15th June, 1576, with 
 three vessels, one of which was lost off the coast of 
 Greenland in a fog. Another deserted and returned 
 home with the false news of the death of Frobisher, 
 but his own ship, the Gabriel^ reached the Strait after- 
 wards to bear his name, and there landed some men. 
 Several of these were captured by the natives, and on 
 a second visit to rescue them they failed to appear, 
 and whether they were really killed or passed inland 
 to live with the natives has remained a mystery to 
 this day. The principal feature of Frobisher's visit 
 
14 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 was the discovery of gold ore, which attracted a great 
 number of miners and refiners to these inhospitable 
 
 MAP OF GREENLAND. 
 
 shores in pursuit of wealth they never won. After a 
 relapse of three hundred years the relics of Frobisher's 
 
 I, 
 
THE FROZEN FIELD AND ITS HISTORY. 
 
 15 
 
 I 
 
 (I 
 
 expedition were discovered by Captain C. F. Hall, 
 who thus narrates the incident in his interesting work, 
 " Life with the Esquimaux." He i? writiijg in his 
 journal under date Sunday, nth August, 1861, and 
 with great difficulty he had managed to explain to an 
 Esquimaux woman, by name Koo-ou-le-arng, that he. 
 was in search of brick, iron, and coal, and together 
 they set out for a certain spot upon the island of 
 Niountelik. He writes : — 
 
 *' Gaining the top of the island we made search 
 there for relics, but found none. 1 looked especially 
 for some signs of a stone monument which I con- 
 ceived Frobisher might in his day (if he visited this 
 island) have erected, this being the highest point of 
 the whole island. But none whatever could I find. 
 Thence we directed our way down to a small grassy 
 slope, not far from the termination of the island. 
 Here we made careful search, but without finding 
 anything that I so ardently wished. Thence we 
 commenced to make a circuit of the island, moving 
 along as near the coast as the bluff rocks would 
 permit, keeping the main island on our right — that is 
 continuing north-west, thence north-east and west 
 At the north-west end of the island we found abund- 
 ance of evidence that Inuits (Esquimaux) had made 
 Niountelik a stopping-place. There we saw the usual 
 circles of stones, always to be seen where Inuits 
 have had their tuples (summer tents). We saw seal, 
 walrus, tuktoo (reindeer), oratuck (duck), and various 
 other bones in abundance, some moss-aged, and some 
 nearly fresh, of not more than two or three years 
 exposure. Here we found also small pieces of wood, 
 some with the ends charred, small pieces of tuktoo 
 
i6 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 skins, and one relic of civilisation, a piece of an old 
 calico dress! This did not excite us as a matter 
 extraordinary, as I knew that the whalers now visit 
 every year the inlet at the north known as ' Northum- 
 berland Inlet' (the 'Cumberland Straits' of Davis), 
 and distribute freely among the Inuits various articles 
 of civilisation, especially cast-off calico dresses that 
 they have brought from the States or from England, 
 which are highly prized by the Inuit women. It is 
 rare to find at the present day a native family that 
 does not possess something of the kind. 
 
 " We continued on around the island, finding every 
 few fathoms of our progress numerous Inuit relics. 
 At length we arrived at a plain that extended back a 
 considerable distance from the coast. Here we 
 recognised on our right the point to which we first 
 directed our steps on reaching the high bank after 
 leaving the boat. 
 
 " I was several fathoms in advance of Koo-ou-le- 
 arng, hastening on, being desirous of making as 
 extended a search as the brief remaining daylight 
 would allow, when lifting up my eyes from the 
 ground near me I discovervd a considerable distance 
 ahead an object of unusual appearance. But a 
 second look satisfied me that what I saw were simply 
 stones scattered about and covered with black moss. 
 I continued my course, keeping as near the coast as 
 possible. I was now nearing the spot where I had 
 first discovered the black object. It again met my 
 view, and my original thought on first seeing it 
 resumed at once the ascendency in my mind. 
 I hastened to the spot. 
 
 "'Great God! Thou hast rewarded me in my 
 
 i 
 
 n 
 
THE FROZEN FIELD AND ITS HISTORY. 
 
 17 
 
 \ 
 
 search,' was the sentiment which came overwhelm- 
 ingly into my thankful soul, on casting my eyes all 
 around, seeing and feeling the character (moss-aged, 
 for some of the pieces I saw had pellicles of black 
 moss on them) of the relics before and under me. 
 
 FINDING FROBISHEK RELICS AFTUK THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 I felt as — I cannot tell what my feelings were. 
 What I saw before me was the sea coal of Frobisher's 
 expedition of 1578, left here nearly three centuries 
 ago! 
 
 m 
 
 >» 
 
 B 
 
i8 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 Perhaps the most notable event which has attracted 
 public attention to the Arctic regions, was the expedi- 
 tion of, and subsequent searches for, Sir John Franklin 
 and his brave companions. He sailed from England 
 in the summer of 1845, with the two ships, Erebus 
 and Terror^ but as months and years passed on, with- 
 out word or sign from the explorers, the desire to go 
 in search of them became widespread. 
 
 All sorts of wild conjectures were afloat as to the 
 probable existence and whereabouts of the absent 
 ones, and schemes, some fantastic enough, were sug- 
 gested for their recovery. Strange dreams and 
 visions, pointing to certain spots in the Arctic circle, 
 filled everybody's mind with eager curiosity ; one of 
 the most remarkable being that of Parker Snow, who, 
 in 185c, stated that, at three o'clock in the morning 
 of the 7th of January, he saw, on the wall of his room, 
 a picture representing a region of ice at the end of 
 King William's Land and the estuary of Great Fish 
 River, with the two deserted ships embedded in the 
 ice, and along the shore the lifeless bodies of several 
 men. At that time nothing whatever had been 
 heard of the ill-fated expedition, but when Captain 
 M*Clintock, nine years afterwards, reached this spot, so 
 strangely indicated, it was to find the relics of the ex- 
 pedition. Sir John Franklin, it was found, died on the 
 nth of June, 1847, ^"<^ the ships were abandoned on 
 the 22nd of April, 1848, the survivors, 105 in number, 
 moving southward. When M'Clintock returned with 
 the sad tidings of the loss of the expedition, it was by 
 no means convincing to all that the need for further 
 search had been closed. Many believed that the 
 missing men had gone farther north and became like 
 
 
 * 
 
THE FROZEN FIELD AND ITS HISTORY. 
 
 19 
 
 the Esquimaux, and that the day might yet come 
 when some, at anyrate, of the descendants of the sur- 
 vivors would be found. 
 
 Since then the Arctic regions have been the scene 
 of many noble enterprises, and if this present work had 
 for its object the recital of Polar adventures, and the 
 heroes who have there distinguished themselves, much 
 
 SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 
 
 might be written. But this is the story of missionary 
 pioneering, and its interest must be focussed upon 
 one Polar country — that of Greenland. Here, as else- 
 where, the missionary has led the way, and the Cross 
 has preceded the flag of commerce. Brave as the 
 Arctic explorers have been, they have not exceeded, in 
 valour and patience, those who, for the sake of Christ 
 
20 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 
 and His kingdom, alone have suffered and toiled in 
 the white fields of the far north. Their names are 
 forgotten in history, but they are inscribed in heaven, 
 and the story of their deeds would enforce the great 
 truth that, when the heart of a man is filled with a 
 Divine purpose, he becomes truly great in sufiering, 
 as in doing, and merits a hero's reward. 
 
 What is the early history of Greenland? The 
 ancient Scandinavian records answer from the far 
 past of the ninth century. There we find that Harold 
 Haarfagar was king of Norway, and his son, Eric, the 
 Redheaded, flying from justice, found "that one 
 Gunbioern had discovered, in the best part of the 
 island, not only some cliffs where there were plenty of 
 fish, which got from him the name of Gunbicern's 
 Shears, but that he espied a Continent further west. 
 The fugitive Eric being adjudged to a three years 
 banishment, sought this land, and the first point of it 
 he discovered was Herjolfs Ness; he coasted along 
 south-west, and wintered at an agreeable island near 
 a Sound, which he called Eric's Sound. The next 
 year he examined the mainland, and the third 
 year went to Iceland. 
 
 " In order to entice people to go to his new country 
 he called it Greenland, and pointed it out as such an 
 excellent place for pasture, wood, and fish, that the 
 next year he was followed thither by twenty-five ships 
 full of colonists, who had furnished themselves richly 
 with household goods and cattle of all sorts ; but only 
 fourteen of these ships arrived. In process of time 
 colonies came after, both out of Iceland and Norway, 
 and stocked the country with inhabitants, by degrees, 
 both in the east and west side, so that they have been 
 
THE FROZEN FIELD AND ITS HISTORY. 
 
 21 
 
 computed to be a third part as numerous as a Danish 
 Episcopal diocese." 
 
 Christianity came first to Greenland in the year 
 999, when Leif, the son of Eric, having been baptised 
 in Norway, came to preach to the Greenland colon- 
 ists, and after the fashion of the day, baptised the 
 king and all his mighty men. The first bishop was 
 Arnold, who in 1121 was appointed there by the 
 Papal a»'thorities in Rome ; but before that time, in 
 83s, the people there were evidently under the notice 
 of Rome, for in that year Pope Gregory in a bull he 
 issued specially commends the conversion of the 
 Greenlanders, and commits them to the care of Aus- 
 garius, the Archbishop of Hamburg, under Lewis, the 
 Pious. By this time over 300 villages had sprung 
 up in the land, and the ruins of some of their 
 churches remain to this day. One of the most 
 interesting of these is that of Ericsfiord, the walls of 
 which are still standing, and the arched windows and 
 doors in comparatively good condition. One who 
 visited it in 1 871, says: — "A single inscription on a 
 tombstone, carved in Runic characters, is all the 
 record that remains besides the crumbled walls. This 
 inscription reads : — 
 
 ( 
 
 ViGDIS, DAUGHTEii OF M***, RESTS HERE. 
 
 May God rejoice her soul. 
 
 And may God rejoice in the souls of all these 
 worthies of the olden time! I could not fail to 
 experience a feeling of sadness as I stood beside the 
 tombs of a people now utterly extinct. It seemed as 
 if voices from the past were speaking to me from 
 
33 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 il 
 
 
 out the crumbling church, from the almonry where 
 the priest dispensed his alms, from the holy water 
 stoup, from the tombstones bearing the sacred 
 emblems of our Christian faith ; from everywhere, 
 indeed, there was a silent whispering that here a 
 Christian people once dwelt in peace, and from 
 temples dedicated to Almighty God arose their 
 anthems of praise above the glittering crests of 
 snow." 
 
 After fourteen bishops had in succession ruled this 
 prosperous Church, a fearful calamity occurred in the 
 fifteenth century, when the wild and lawless hordes, 
 known as the Skraellings, swept down upon the 
 colony and utterly destroyed it. It was an awful 
 and a costly struggle for life ; the colonists with their 
 superior weapons strove in vain, for not only did the 
 hills swarm with these savages, but a huge fleet of 
 ships assailed them from the sea. The records which 
 remain of this terrible time are few and meagre. In 
 1446, the Pope mentions it in writing to the Bishop 
 of Iceland, and speaks sadly of " our beloved child- 
 ren," whose church has been so ruthlessly destroyed, 
 and especially of such survivors as have been carried 
 into slavery. 
 
 With this extinction of the colony of Northmen 
 the veil of mist seems to settle over Greenland, and 
 for centuries that gloom was undispelled. The Cross 
 with its witnesses had been borne down in conflict 
 with Paganism, and the history of what had been 
 was read with tears by the confessors of the faith in 
 other lands. For the saints were not forgotten. 
 Although from such slender evidence as the ancient 
 historians had left behind, it seemed that the Christ- 
 
THE FROZEN FIELD AND ITS HISTORY. 
 
 23 
 
 ian settlements there had been blotted out, still men 
 hoped against hope that all might not be lost. Per- 
 haps the onrush of that savage horde had exhausted 
 itself before the end was reached. Was it possible 
 that, after all, the Church in Greenland had not been 
 utterly annihilated, and that some feeble remnant 
 might yet be remaining faithful? Who would go 
 forth to find these lost tribes of Israel? Such 
 thoughts as these were destined one day to stir the 
 heart of a true and faithfu' standard-bearer of the 
 Cross of Christ. 
 
 
 ANCIENT CROSS OVER GREENLAND GRAVE. 
 
'^ ~yf!7^->T^m4^^^^] 
 
 V! 
 
 ■: 
 
 VAAGBN CHURCH AND EGEDE'S PARSONAQK. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A CRY FROM MACEDON. 
 
 *' Just as I am, young, strong, and free, 
 To be the best that I can be, 
 For truth and righteousness and Thee 
 Lord of my life, I come 1 " 
 
 THE attraction of hidden treasure has often 
 prompted the first steps in the untrodden 
 pathways of discovery, and it was so with 
 Greenland. The great lone land of the far 
 north was often in the thoughts of adventurous spirits 
 on the continent of Europe. From time to time 
 belated navigators came home with rent cordage and 
 broken spars to tell of a land which they had seen 
 and believed to be rich in mineral wealth, only wait- 
 ing for strong hands to win it. 
 
 So far back as the thirteenth century, when the 
 Iceland people noticed huge masses of drift snow and 
 
 34 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
A CRY FROM MACEDON. 
 
 25 
 
 1^ 
 
 i 
 
 ice blown on to their shores by a strong north wind, 
 bearing, as on rafts, some white bears, the desire to 
 find out this unknown country tempted many to take 
 ship and steer thither. But they found the ice 
 barrier everywhere blocking the way, and the sailors 
 came back, circulating the wildest stories, full of 
 romance, about the wonderful land hidden away 
 behind the glaciers and hills of glistening snow. An 
 old chronicler seriously defends the rumours afloat of 
 its hidden treasure. 
 
 " In Greenland forsooth," saith he, " there must be 
 gold too, because it stands in the version of the Book 
 of Job, chapter xxxvii., verse 22, ' Gold cometh out 
 of the north,' and because Theophrastus Paracelsus 
 has predicted more valuable gold mines there than in 
 the East." The same historian gives us an account 
 of the fruitless efforts made by one of the Danish 
 expeditions. 
 
 "In the year 1636 a company of merchants in 
 Copenhagen sent two ships into the Straits under the 
 patronage of the Chancellor Christian Friis, and they 
 traded with the natives. One of the sailors found a 
 shining sand on the shore which looked like gold and 
 was very heavy. Then they thought they had found 
 an Ophir or a Peru, and loaded both ships full. But 
 when it came to be assayed at Copenhagen it was 
 nothing but sand, and the Chancellor threw the whole 
 lading into the sea. Yet when a foreign artist 
 extracted genuine gold out of a sand found in 
 Norway just like this, they repented of this precipitate 
 affair ; but meanwhile the captain, dying of vexation, 
 they could not find the place again. These also 
 seized two Greenlanders and took them with them ; 
 
I 
 
 26 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 I ! 
 
 when they came out into the middle of the ocean 
 they let them come upon deck, and the poor 
 creatures sprang into the sea out of love for their 
 country and were probably drowned.'* 
 
 Other voyages were equally unsuccessful, and at 
 last the fever of enterprise died down, and Greenland, 
 with its reputed gold mines as well as its more 
 authentic Church history, sank into oblivion. For 
 nearly half-a-century the silence and the mystery of 
 the dark continent of the North continued unbroken. 
 But what the greed of gold cannot accomplish, 
 the love of God can do, and in this its moment of 
 darkest desolation, daybreak was to arise on Green- 
 land. 
 
 It is the old, old story of the beginning of all great 
 works. The Divine call came to one hidden, 
 insignificant, and obscure as regards this world, but 
 in the decree of Heaven the chosen servant for a 
 special mission from God to man. And in this wise 
 came the call from Macedonia. 
 
 Among the little group of islands which lie off the 
 Norwegian coast lived a young man in the early 
 days of the eighteenth century. He was new to the 
 place and the people, having only recently left his 
 college door at Copenhagen to take the pastoral care 
 of the simple fisher folk. The steeple of his little 
 church was seen over the cottages of Vaagen, and 
 from its pulpit and amid its streets the faithful parson 
 
 " Allured to brighter worlds 
 And led the way." 
 
 ) 
 
 In his work he had a faithful helpmate, who, with 
 him, passed from door to door tending the sick, warn- 
 
 tij 
 
t 
 
 A CRY FROM MACEDON. 
 
 27 
 
 1 
 
 
 ing the unruly, and in simple, humble ways glorifying 
 God. Sometimes the young pastor would go out 
 with the fishermen in their boats ; the friend of all, he 
 was trusted and loved. Such was Hans Egede in the 
 year 1708, and to all appearances he v/as destined to 
 remain among his people through the long years 
 until his hair should be whitened with age. But He 
 in whose service he was had other work for the young 
 pastor, and was about to lead him forth to a distant 
 land. He remembered having, in his college days, 
 read some old books, to which he now gave a closer 
 attention. These were the stirring records of the fate 
 of those Christian settlements in Greenland referred 
 to in the previous chapter. He had found them in 
 his library, and he could not get away from the 
 attraction of their pages. For hours he nourished the 
 deep yearnings of his breast by reading the history of 
 that early Church which had once existed beyond 
 those heights of snow, and which had been fc ; so 
 many long years lost in obscurity. The years had 
 passed without a sign from over the sea, and as Hans 
 Egede stood upon the hill behind his church and 
 looked across the ocean, strange longings seized him. 
 "Was it possible," he kept asking himself, "that 
 yonder some feeble remnant of Christians still 
 remained who cherished the faith and memory of their 
 forefathers, and waited, all in vain, for succour from 
 Europe ? " Who shall go, then, to these shepherdless 
 ones? The question burned in his heart. His fisher- 
 folk began to notice the pallor of his thought-worn 
 face, as, with abstracted gaze, he walked along the 
 shore ; and they wondered mightily what perplexed 
 their pastor's mind. They never guessed the conflict 
 
28 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 that was raging in his bosom; how a voice was ringing 
 in his ears calling him away, and how, looking into the 
 laces of his simple people, he shrank from leaving them. 
 He had every reason to stay. The comforts of his 
 quiet, little home; the little children growing like olive 
 branches around his table, and the devotion of his 
 flock, all bade him stay. But above all these con- 
 siderations rose ever the recurring cry, "Greenland 
 calls you ; will you not come over and help us ? " 
 Occasionally he heard news, bare and meagre bits of 
 intelligence, about the distant land from fishermen 
 and traders who put into the little port, and these 
 tidings whetted his desire to go. And yet Egede 
 was a most modest and retiring man, and it was quite 
 natural that he should constantly ask himself whether, 
 after all, he was good enough for so great and noble 
 an enterprise ? He thought, at any rate, his first duty 
 was to draw up some sort of memorial of the need of 
 action, in the hope that it might come into the hands 
 of some one worthy to carry it to a successful issue. 
 So, in 1 7 10, he prepared his appeal to the Christian 
 ChurclNon behalf of the Greenlanders, and despatched 
 it to Randolph, Bishop of Bergen, the port from which 
 most of the fishing trade with Greenland was carried 
 on. Another copy he sent to his own bishop, Krog 
 of Drontheim, and waited anxiously the result. A 
 year seems to have passed away, a long strain of 
 patience for poor Egede! And when, in 171 1, the 
 episcopal message did arrive, it commended his zeal 
 and promised to bear his poor clients in inind. But 
 for the present no such enterprise could be thought 
 of. The war with Sweden filled the public mind and 
 drained the national coffers; and then again the 
 
HERGEN. 
 
Ill 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 III** 
 
 ^^' 
 
A CRY FROM MACEDON. 
 
 31 
 
 terrible sufferings which others had undergone in times 
 past would deter their countrymen from exposing 
 themselves to new dangers. But the bishop was 
 quite alive to the remarkable results which would 
 flow from such a venture if it proved successful. In 
 the end both bishops promised to bring the subject 
 under the notice of the king of Denmark. 
 
 When it got abroad in the little village that Hans 
 Egede had taken up the cause of the Greenlanders 
 and might himself sally forth to find them, there 
 arose a turbulent opposition among his parishioners 
 and friends. They assailed him with remonstrances, 
 and finding these of no avail, declared their pastor 
 was mad and held aloof from him. His positio:: was 
 like that of Christian when he prepared to flee from 
 the City of Destruction. Wherever he went in the 
 old, familiar streets he met glances of anger or pity, 
 and the whole place had evidently resolved to let 
 their hair-brained parson severely alone. This was 
 not the worst he had to bear. He had taken his 
 wife at once into his confidence and to her conster- 
 nation had announced his intention to go away as 
 a missionary. She resolutely opposed the idea, 
 pleaded his love for her, and pointed to the children 
 whose lives would be full of hardship and suffering if 
 he persevered in his intention. Her mother, who 
 seems to have shared their home, added her voice 
 to the general outcry, till poor Egede, well-nigh torn 
 with contending claims, was almost beside himself. 
 He lifted up his heart to God and heard the words, 
 " He that loveth father and mother or wife or child 
 more than Me is not worthy of Me." 
 
 At last the elders of his church came in solemn 
 
32 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 It) 
 
 i' 
 
 m 
 
 order as a deputation to the parsonage and por- 
 trayed in moving terms what grief and dismay their 
 pastor's new ideas we«*e entailing upon the people. 
 Egede reasoned with them as best he could, and 
 pointed out how much he felt the urgency of the call 
 of God to give himself to Greenland. The conference 
 ended, an old whiteheaded man stepped up and 
 laying his hand upon the shoulder of Egede, said, 
 " Wait and see what the will of the Lord is. If it is 
 His will for you to go, He will give you a sign that 
 none of us shall be able to gainsay." 
 
 So he resolved to wait. 
 
 But the sign came in due time and in a way and 
 from a quarter least expected. Sometimes when we 
 are looking into the sky for a Divine indication we find 
 the providential guidance much nearer the ground. 
 The excitement which his proposal had caused quite 
 unsettled the church, and he began to see that the 
 hold he had formerly on his people had gone. The 
 old, sweet harmony and confidence had melted away, 
 and in place of it a bitter feeling and the cackle of 
 slanderous tongues were making his life miserable. 
 The trouble reached the manse, and his wife, who had 
 striven so earnestly to persuade him to stay, now 
 found herself the object of petty persecutions and 
 unfeeling treatment. 
 
 "I shall never find happiness in Vaagen any 
 more." 
 
 Then he appealed to her again in this crisis. Did 
 not this seem like a shaking of the nest ? Was it not 
 an indication that their work at Vaagen was done, 
 and that their eyes must look beyond the sea for a 
 fresh sphere. "Give thyself to prayer," was his 
 
 .1 
 
A CRY FROM MACEDON. 
 
 33 
 
 counsel as he left the matter for her consideration. 
 
 Sho did so and in answer to her prayer God gave 
 
 her a clear revelation of His mind. She returned to 
 
 her husband and fell on his neck with tears, bewailing 
 
 her former unwillingness to go with him. It was, 
 
 however, all so clear to her iiow, and the way of 
 
 duty was very plain. She would go with him, 
 
 willingly sharing his labours ; and ?f suffering were 
 
 before them, then they would endure it together. 
 
 'le had told her of Christ's warning about cherishing 
 
 domestic and human ties of relationship before Him, 
 
 and she responded with the words of Naomi, " Where 
 
 thou goest I will go, and where thou dwellest 
 
 I will dwell, and there will I be buried. Thy people 
 
 shall be my people and thy God my God." 
 
 It is not difficult to imagine the joy which filled 
 
 the heart of Hans Egede when he heard these words, 
 
 and feeling now that all hindrances were removed, he 
 
 set his face resolutely to begin what he felt to be the 
 
 real work and mission of his life. Again he appealed 
 
 to the bishops and begged their help, but alas! in 
 
 vain. They again postponed the matter, urging the 
 
 disturbed state of public affairs, and this awoke afresh 
 
 the enmity and opposition of his friends. There was 
 
 no help for it, he and his wife must continue a little 
 
 longer in Vaagen, but the persecution which he had to 
 
 endure became still worse. In the bitterness of this 
 
 condition of things, Egede once more rushed into 
 
 print, and in 171 5 his pamphlet was sent out, "A 
 
 Scriptural and lational solution and explanation with 
 
 respect to the objections and impediments raised 
 
 against the design of converting the heathenish 
 
 Greenlander." This did little, however, to change the 
 
 c 
 
y 
 
 34 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 current setting directly against him. Says the old 
 chronicler, already quoted : ** But still the world 
 strove to divert him from it, not only by urging the 
 miseries of that raw and frigid climate, the dangers 
 of his voyages and of his abode there, the frenzy of 
 relinquishing a certain for an uncertain livelihood, and 
 even of bringing his wife and children into manifest 
 perils in an unjustifiable manner; but what ^"^5 worse, 
 they defamed him with having carnal moti ^es, as if he 
 sought himself under the specious pretext of spread- 
 ing the honour of God, and that he properly wanted 
 to aggrandise his own name (or contradictory as this 
 wks) aimed at advancing his condition in temporals, 
 because his benefice was not so good as he 
 wished." 
 
 Resigning his pastoral office to his bishop, he asked 
 that his successor would allow him a small pension 
 until he left for Greenland, but this none would do. 
 So in 17 18 he left Vaagen to see its shore no 
 more. 
 
 Just as he was starting, news came of a fearful 
 disaster off the Greenland coast — a Bergen vessel 
 had been shipwrecked there, and the crew finding 
 a refuge on the shore were murdered and after- 
 wards eaten by the natives. Egede bade his friends 
 farewell, and for a brief space their old love for 
 him revived, and they came in crowds to see the ship 
 sail and bid him "God speed." So affected was 
 Egede by this manifestation of sympathy, that his 
 resolution almost failed him ; he began to feel how 
 much he loved his people. His wife, however, brave 
 and staunch, had no divided mind, and, standing by 
 his side, she begged him to be steadfast and play the 
 
 I 
 'if 
 
A CRY FROM MACEDON. 
 
 35 
 
 man. So waving their handkerchiefs as the shore 
 slowly receded behind the wake of the ship, Hans 
 Egede, with his wife and four young children, sailed 
 away for Bergen, which was for the present to be their 
 future home. 
 
 " The sweetest lives are those to duty wed, 
 
 Whose deeds, both great and small, 
 Are close-knit strands of one unbroken thread, 
 
 Where love ennobles all. 
 The world may sound no trumpets, ring no bells. 
 The Book of Life the shining record tells." 
 
 ship 
 
 was 
 
 his 
 
 how 
 
 )rave 
 
 by 
 
 the 
 
f 
 
 M 
 
 l! 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS AND DELIVERANCE. 
 
 Brothers ! we have a work, our hearts are young, 
 We watch the shadows on the wall of time, 
 
 We hear the thundering of the iron tongue, 
 This day's dark dawn shall grow to light sublime. 
 
 'l^O characters well-trained, persecution in the path 
 I of duty means increase of faith. Impediments 
 -^ are the stepping-stones to higher and better 
 things. So it proved with Hans Egede, as he 
 took up his abode in Bergen. He had escaped the 
 persecution of his village pastorate only to meet in 
 this town a more vexatious opposition. If he 
 had imagined that the better-educated classes would 
 appreciate his zealous aim, he was now doomed to dis- 
 appointment. In this respect history in every century 
 is repeating itself continually, and Egede, like so many 
 of the saints before him and since, was received as a 
 hare-brained enthusiast, whom religious ideas had sent 
 mad. Had he shown the same earnestness in the 
 pursuit of commerce, he would have been commended 
 for his business capacity ; or in scientific investigations 
 he might have gained a name to make the colleges 
 36 
 
 ii. 
 
DISAPPOINTMENTS AND DELIVERANCE. 
 
 
 37 
 
 ring. But his absorbing aim was for the salvation 
 of men, and when he looked to the Christians for 
 sympathy and help, he got well laughed at for his 
 pains. They would have none of him and his mission- 
 ary ideas. So in loneliness and heart-hunger he 
 
 MHS. EUKUE (GERTRUDE RAST). 
 
 walked the streets of Bergen, only kept up by the 
 strong consolation and the presence and approval of 
 his God. He had knocked at the Church door in 
 vain, and the gritless professors in their cushioned 
 comfort waived the disturber away. Then he turned 
 to secular sources and laid his plans before the trad- 
 
i ; 
 
 ; 
 
 ] 'I 
 
 n 
 
 38 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 ing community. Pointing out to them the business 
 advantages which might accrue if the new opening 
 proved a success, he soon got a hearing. We can 
 picture him buttonholing the merchants in the market- 
 place, or talking with the captains on the quay. He 
 was going to preach the Gospel, and it was for souls 
 not silver that he was ready to spend his strength. 
 But they might accompany him, and if they would 
 give him free passage to Greenland, he would do his 
 best to find them a colony and a trade. As he talked, 
 possibly old faded traditions of Greenland gold came 
 up before the minds of the listeners. Sometimes they 
 seemed disposed to hearken and act, but in the end 
 their confidence failed them, and poor Egede had to 
 walk home disappointed and sad. The trade which 
 already existed between Bergen and Greenland had 
 fallen off considerably, and the wars and national con- 
 troversies and jealousies did not seem likely to 
 encourage its revival. Dark and cloudy was his sky, 
 but he held on to God to see him yet through. His 
 faith grew stronger as the prospect became more 
 depressing. 
 
 For a moment light broke suddenly through the 
 shadows. The battle of Fredericksbald had resulted 
 in the defeat of Charles XII. of Sweden, and there 
 seemed a prospect of peace being proclaimed. With 
 this hope Egede hurried to Copenhagen, where was 
 the College of Missions, representing so much of the 
 zeal and influence of the Christianity of the kingdom. 
 He laid his plans before them, and with a trembling 
 lieart told the story of his call to work, and the pros- 
 pects of its accomplishment. The authorities not 
 only listened attentively, but showed themselves in 
 
DISAPPOINTMENTS AND DELIVERANCE. 
 
 39 
 
 favour of the scheme^ and promised Egede their 
 assistance. The next step was to get a personal 
 interview with the king, for Frederick IV., the reign- 
 ing monarch of Denmark, was well known for his 
 sympathy with evangelical enterprise. Successful in 
 g.'iining the royal ear, he found the king ready to 
 discuss the matter, and in the end he promised the 
 young apostle his favour and support. 
 
 Egede sped home with a light heart, singing praises 
 to God, who had so marvellously opened up his way. 
 His wife rejoiced with him, for she had been steadfast 
 all through. 
 
 The king was as good as his word, and very shortly 
 a royal mandate reached Bergen, addressed to the 
 magistrates, requiring that they should gather all the 
 information they could from the trading community 
 who possessed any knowledge of the far seas as to 
 what business had hitherto been done beyond Davis* 
 Straits, and whether if a colony were established on the 
 coast of Greenland it would be likeh' to succeed. 
 
 m 
 
 They were also to consider what would be required to 
 fit out such an expedition if it were thought advisable. 
 In obedience to this order, a grand council of the 
 captains, pilots, and merchants was held, but to 
 Egede's disappointment they decided that the perils 
 of the climate and the cruelty of the natives were so 
 well known, that it was useless to undertake such an 
 enterprise. Egede, not to be daunted by this reverse, 
 made his way to the houses of some of these coun- 
 cillors, and begged of them to give it a trial. They 
 listened to his appeal, and even went so far as to form 
 a trading company, but the man whose means were to 
 set the thing afloat withdrew at the last moment, and 
 
i ■■ 
 
 40 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 the scheme fell to the ground. The shadows began 
 to thicken down again, and his friends, with the 
 croaking alacrity so often developed in such cases, 
 told Egede that he had better give it up. It did 
 certainly seem that humanly speaking the cause had 
 no prospect. The royal favour, upon which so much 
 had been counted, had failed ; the merchants openly 
 distrusted the proposal and refused their help, and the 
 Church was worse than apathetic. But one man in the 
 world believed in its success, and that man walked 
 about Bergen with a mind made up to continue even 
 more strenuously to urge his cause. He felt, some- 
 how or other, from somewhere or other, that God 
 would yet make an open door for him. From house 
 to house he went. The scene is vividly described 
 by Dr. Robert Brown : — 
 
 " Altogether it is a singular and heroic spectacle, of 
 which that busy Norway port was for the most part 
 unconscious. There are not many narratives in 
 missions so touching as the story of those four years, 
 through which we see the figure of young Egede 
 haunting the streets and quays, till everybody gets to 
 know and wonder at him ; till the merchants shun 
 him as a bore, and the sailors marvel with a kind of 
 reverence as they see him gazing wistfully after the 
 departing ships, and at the corners men whisper that 
 he has seen strange visions of the Lord, and tell how 
 he left his parish and gave up everything to get to 
 Greenland ; and how they have watched him go down 
 to the forge with his little son, and take the hammer 
 and blow the bellows with the smith, * for they say a 
 man must learn to do for himself in those countries ! ' " 
 
 At last the patient waiting of those years was 
 
 !f 
 
 * il 
 
DISAPPOINTMENTS AND DELIVERANCE. 
 
 41 
 
 f II 
 
 as 
 
 rewarded. Some good men, whose commercial zeal 
 was happily supplemented by a desire to glorify God, 
 agreed to put down ;^40 each, if Egede himself would 
 add £60 to make a start with this Greenland business. 
 Another appeal to the bishop and clergy was made, 
 and the case of the distant field of work put very 
 strongly before them. The result was that enough 
 money was raised to purchase a ship, which was 
 christened T/ie Hope^ and might indeed have been 
 called as appropriately The Patience Rewarded. It 
 was necessary, however, to engage two other vessels, 
 to carry a freight of goods for barter and a quantity 
 of fishing tackle for the use of the colonists in their 
 new inheritance. Thus fully equipped, the little 
 flotilla spread sail on the 3rd May, 1721, the fruit of 
 thirteen years of work and waiting, patience and 
 prayer. 
 
 The starting of the voyagers was an event of stirring 
 importance to the inhabitants of Bergen. People had 
 grown so accustomed to seeing Egede about the 
 streets, that when it became known that he had really 
 succeeded and was about to start, every man, woman, 
 and child of the little Norwegian port was desirous of 
 bidding him farewell. They gathered in crowds upon 
 the quay, and boats filled with friends with waving 
 hands clustered round the ship. But the multitude 
 had many minds about the wisdom of his enterprise. 
 It is again the old story of the prophet and the 
 people. Some grasped his hand and freely and 
 sincerely wished him God-speed, but others pitied 
 him for his misguided enthusiasm, blamed him for his 
 reckless venturesomeness, lamented the wasteful cost 
 of the undertaking, or, looking upon his wife and 
 
f 
 
 
 42 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 children as they stood on the deck, wept to think 
 what these must suffer. But Egede — all unconscious, 
 or at any rate regardless of these varied views of his 
 conduct — saw Bergen fade in the distance behind 
 him, and then turned with a full heart to the wide 
 waste of waters which lay in front of the ship. 
 Yonder, beyond that horizon of sea, was his future, 
 the goal of his sacred ambition and the answer to his 
 many prayers. Misgivings of failure never clouded 
 his mind ; he had passed through so much and borne 
 so long a succession of disappointments, that he felt 
 the release from land was like the snapping of a 
 string, and that at any rate he was now free and 
 pressing onward to his work. 
 
 After tossing upon the waves for nearly a month, 
 the voyagers at last caught sight of land, and found 
 themselves in immediate danger from the huge hills 
 of ice which were drifting swiftly through the dark 
 sea. A creek appeared which seemed a safe haven, 
 but just at that point a fearful storm came up, tossing 
 their ships about like shuttle-cocks, and so injuring 
 one of them that she sprung a leak, and was only 
 saved from foundering by her crew stripping them- 
 selves and thrusting their garments into the rent 
 which the ice had made in her side. Then to com- 
 plete their discomfiture there fell one of the blinding 
 Arctic snowstorms, in which they lost all reckoning. 
 The captain gave up all hope, and told his passengers 
 to prepare for eternity, for they had not long to live. 
 
 Egede, like the Apostle to the Gentiles when in 
 similar straits, felt assured that God, who had called 
 him to do a work in Greenland, would preserve him 
 to do it, and began straightway to strengthen the 
 
DISAPPOINTMENTS AND DELIVERANCE. 
 
 43 
 
 hearts of his fellow -passengers. It was an awful 
 moment as they all knelt on the heaving deck, and 
 Egede spread forth his hands to Heaven for help in 
 their extremity. The snow had ceased falling and a 
 thick fog enveloped them, so that they heard but 
 could not see the crashing tumult of the icebergs 
 close by. All at once the mist lifted, and to their joy 
 they saw the masses of ice drifting away in the 
 distance, leaving the ships in comparatively smooth 
 waters. A psalm of praise rose to the lips of those 
 pious men — 
 
 " They cry unto the Lord in their trouble, 
 And He bringeth them out of their distresses. 
 He maketh the storm a calm, 
 So that the waves thereof are still. 
 Then are they glad because they be quiet ; 
 So He bringeth them unto their desired haven. 
 Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, 
 And for His wonderful works to the children of men ! " 
 
 So as the morning dawned of the 3rd July, 172 1, 
 just two months from the time of the embarkation at 
 Bergen, they made a landing at Balls River, on the 
 west coast of Greenland. They began at once to build 
 some rough temporary houses to shelter them on an 
 island called Kangek, and this place they called after 
 the name of the ship, and in the spirit of their 
 mission, Haabets-Oe — />., Hope Island. In their 
 first hut of earth and boards these pilgrims of the 
 faith gathered on the night of the 31st of August for 
 a thanksgiving service, Egede standing in the midst 
 of them, Bible in hand, and reading as his text the 
 words: "O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise 
 Him, all ye people, 'or His merciful kindness is 
 
44 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 f' 
 
 H 
 
 i5' 
 111 
 
 great toward us : and the truth of the Lord endureth 
 for ever. Praise ye the. Lord." 
 
 The thoughts of their perilous voyage and their 
 present safety filled the hearts of these simple people 
 with gratitude ; and after they had sung a hymn, 
 Egede commended them and their work to the care 
 of Almighty God. 
 
 How much he would need Divine comfort and 
 guidance events were soon to prove. One of their 
 ships had parted from them in the stress of the storm, 
 and though not eventually lost, she wb cast, dis- 
 masted and helpless, on the coast of Norway, and 
 those on board escaped without loss of life. But as 
 they slowly found their way back again to Bergen, 
 they told to excited listeners the tale of their suffer- 
 ings, and, of course, those who had been discreetly 
 dolorous over the thing in the first instance, now 
 nodded their heads with a self-flattered sagacity, as 
 much as to say, " I told you so." Certainly the loss 
 of this ship was a great blow to the colonists, as it 
 contained their fishing gear, so necessary for their 
 use in obtaining a livelihood. 
 
 Another disappointment to Egede and his friends 
 was the bare and inhospitable character of the country. 
 They had cherished dreams of a land green and beauti- 
 ful with grass and trees, instead of which they found 
 nothing but a dreary wilderness, without a blade of 
 herbage and most desolate. They had expected some 
 privations, of course, but hoped to find a soil capable 
 of cultivation, where by industry and patience they 
 might lay the foundations of a flourishing settlement. 
 But there seemed little chance of this being the case ; 
 the land was hard and unproductive, and even the sea 
 
o 
 
 w 
 
DISAPPOINTMENTS AND DELIVERANCE. 
 
 47 
 
 had for their inexperienced hands no fish. Then to 
 make matters worse the natives stood aloof from them 
 with distrust. At first they seemed more friendly, 
 and even offered to help the strangers in building 
 their houses ; but when they saw that they meant to 
 stay as in a permanent abode, these wild men resented 
 the intrusion, and patriotically refused to help them. 
 Vainly the colonists tried to propitiate them with 
 gifts ; they only slunk away with fear and scowling 
 looks. Significant gestures told the visitors to begin 
 at once, or the snow and cold would soon put an end 
 to them all. For a time the natives resolutely refused 
 to allow Egede to enter their wretched dwellings or 
 permit any familiar intercourse. There was indeed 
 little to encourage the colonists to make any advances 
 towards such a people. They were filthy in their 
 habits and persons, and, with their flattened noses, 
 high cheek-bones and little, glittering eyes, intensely 
 ugly. Short of stature, a sort of dirty brown skin, 
 their bodies thickly covered with sealskin, they ambled 
 about in a clumsy fashion. None of the people 
 seemed to have the vaguest idea of religion ; they 
 had evidently no public worship, and were utterly 
 dark and cruel. 
 
 And these were the people for whom Egede had 
 left his home and country, and cros'-ed those wintry 
 seas ! No wonder he felt troubled and discouraged. 
 Where were the Christians about whom he had read 
 in the old books at Vaagen ? Where the remnant of 
 those pious colonists so long lost in history, who 
 were to come with outstretched hands to bid him 
 welcome, as the apostle from afar? He looked in 
 vain across those snowy wastes for signs of a ruined 
 
48 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 house of prayer ; in his lonely walks about his new 
 settlement, he listened for some sound of singing, for 
 the songs which he had heard filling the air in his 
 dreams at Bergen, of the groups of worshippers he had 
 seen in fancy amid the snow. But the solitudes were 
 silent, save for the croak of some northern bird, the 
 wail of the wintry wind, or perchance, the coarse 
 mocking laughter of some Esquimaux looking on. 
 Doubts, icy in their touch as the cold landscape 
 sometimes chilled his very soul; had he after all 
 followed a chimera, and had there been no Divinr 
 call ? He looked again ; then the breath of the Lord 
 righted his tempest-driven faith, and he saw in these 
 poor heathen, so destitute of love or comeliness, 
 brethren for whom in Christ's name, he must work 
 and give his life. 
 
 Patiently, and with infinite tact, he strove to win 
 their confidence. By degrees the distrust melted, 
 and while still showing no particular interest in his 
 comrades, they began to listen and even respect 
 Hans Egede. In time, indeed, they paid him the 
 compliment of inviting him to their houses — if such 
 a term could be applied to foul-smelling huts of 
 earth, utterly without ventilation, quite dark, save for 
 the fitful blaze of odorous train-oil, and only to be 
 approached on hands and knees by a long and stifling 
 passage. Of course his first requirement was to 
 master some words of their language, a tongue singu- 
 larly guttural and unmusical. He succeeded in this 
 by seizing upon an interrogative which he found often 
 used, " Kina," meaning "what is this ? " Thus, as he sat 
 in their huts, or moved amongst them in their daily 
 occupations, he would point to this and that, asking, 
 
DISAPPOINTMENTS AND DELlVEkANCE. 
 
 49 
 
 " Kina ? " and noting carefully the reply. Then in his 
 home, by the midnight candle light, when his wife 
 and children were asleep, the faithful missionary 
 would gather together his little store of words for the 
 day, and record them for his service in the work of 
 God. 
 
 In doing this, he was simply performing the 
 laborious, but invaluable work, to which every pioneer 
 missionary must put his hand, and leaving behind 
 for his successors that open door of language, in 
 which can be utter the glad tidings of a common 
 salvation. 
 
r HI 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ALMOST ABANDONED. 
 
 ** The mystic mazes of Thy will, 
 The shadows of celestial light, 
 Are past the power of human skill ; 
 But what th' Eternal acts is right." 
 
 Chatterton. 
 
 TN every country, where, for the first time, the 
 J presence of the missionary is made known, there 
 -^ is found one common belief — that in the existence 
 of an evil spirit. And thiy is the horror that 
 startles the African in the equatorial wilderness, that 
 makes the Indian tremble at the waving of a leaf at sun- 
 set, that haunts the redskin in the solitude of the prairie, 
 that paralyzes the dusky giant of the South Sea, as 
 he falls prostrate before his idol of ugliness. The 
 universal fear of an unseen and all-powerful evil 
 worker seems the burden of the unenlightened soul 
 of man. And this characteristic was true in Egede's 
 first mission to the Esquimaux of Greenland. They 
 have a notion of two great spirits, one Torngarsuk, 
 so 
 
ALMOST ABANDONED. 
 
 51 
 
 the supreme good, and the other a female, repre- 
 senting the evil element in the world ; but the former 
 has no beneficent attributes, inspiring them solely 
 with an awful fear, while the other is in league with 
 a multitude of minor evil spirits which have to be 
 perpetually propitiated by the superstitious Esqui- 
 maux. These, as in all similar superstitions, where 
 fear is the element of worship, the indispensable 
 priest comes in, and the man who acts in this 
 capacity in Greenland, standing midway between the 
 dangerous deity and the frightened people, is called 
 an Angekok. This sorcerer, or diviner of evil spirits, 
 exercises an immense influence over the poor natives 
 of Greenland, a^^d each is supposed to have his 
 familiar spirit, who can at will charm away evil 
 influences and bring good things to pass. It is 
 needless to remark that such an individual professing 
 such forms is popular, and largely supported. 
 
 When Egede commenced his work in Greenland, 
 the people, fearing his power to work them mischief, 
 invoked the aid of their angekoks to destroy the 
 stranger. .AH sorts of wild incantations were tried, and 
 the whole armoury of devilish wizardry was ransacked 
 against the man of God in vain; so that,finding him un- 
 affected by all this, they adroitly, as so many have done 
 before, gave out that he was himself a great angekok, 
 and there was no need to fear him. From that 
 moment a certain respect was shown him, sufficient 
 to protect him and his family from injury. But that 
 had its drawbacks, as they expected from him the 
 rites and mysterious practices of their own wizards. 
 As an instance of this, they looked to him as able to 
 heal their diseases, and when he prayed with them to 
 
Sa 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 I 
 
 this end, and ministered as far as possible to their 
 needs, they insisted upon him blowing in their faces, 
 as the angekoks did when called in for like cases. 
 
 His success in healing soon brought him many 
 supplicants, to whom he endeavoured, as far as his 
 knowledge of the language would allow, to explain 
 that the glory must be given to God, who is merci- 
 ful and full of compassion. 
 
 On one occasion they brought a blind man to him, 
 and begged that he would touch his eyes as Jesus 
 did, and another time they led the missionary to a 
 grave entreating him to raise the dead to life 
 again. 
 
 In presenting the truths of the Christian religion, 
 he found great difficulty, as many texts of Scripture 
 were quite inexplicable to such a people. Thus, the 
 verse which speaks of " the Lamb of God which 
 taketh away the sin of the world" could not be 
 understood by a people who had never seen a sheep, 
 and whose only creature to take the place of the 
 lamb was a young seal. 
 
 The Gospel narratives, with their peculiarly 
 oriental surroundings had to be retold or carefully 
 explained, and it was a favourite and successful 
 practice of Egede's to get his little son to draw 
 pictures illustrating Christ blessing the children, 
 healing the sick, and dying on the Cross, and hold 
 them up before the Greenlanders while the Gospel 
 was preached unto them. This led them to ask 
 questions which gave the missionary fresh oppor- 
 tunities of attaining their language, and in return of 
 explaining to their poor, dull understanding and 
 yearning hearts the way of life. 
 
ALMOST ARANDONED. 
 
 53 
 
 I 
 
 But in many things he saw that they were not 
 trustworthy, and needed a strong hand. While in 
 many respects the Grccnlanders were wiUing to 
 do what was required, they had all the nature of a 
 pilfering and unreliable race of heathen. Many 
 times they showed a kindness which was not genuine, 
 and Egede felt that, if he would do anything with 
 
 EGEDE AND HIS SON TEACHING NATIVE BOYS. 
 
 them, a sound discipline must be secured. He had 
 noticed a great partiality they had for one of the 
 men he had brought with him, named Aaron ; and 
 in particular one Greenlander, whose name was 
 Arok, seemed very desirous of this man's company, 
 
11 
 
 54 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 probably for the similarity of the name. Egede 
 determined, therefore, to show a little confidence in 
 them by arranging with this member of his party, 
 with his concurrence, to stay behind in the Esquimaux 
 settlement a few miles inland, so that he might get a 
 better knowledge of the people. After his preaching, 
 Egede went home without his man, purposely dis- 
 regarding the cries of the people telling him that his 
 companion had been forgotten. Some days after 
 this they came to tell him that their visitor was well, 
 and he prevailed upon them to let him stay the 
 winter with them. The poor man, however, had not a 
 very good time in these quarters ; after a while they 
 began to treat him with great cruelty, robbing h:"n of 
 his clothes and gun, and on one occasion beating 
 him until blood flowed. Before he returned they 
 repented themselves, and endeavoured by presents 
 and kindnesses to make it up with him, begging 
 him very earnestly not to acquaint Hans Egede of 
 their conduct. This shows the respect which, at last, 
 the missionary had gained, and when he heard the 
 story of what they had done he said nothing in 
 his next visit but left another man in like manner, 
 committing him solemnly tc their care and affection, 
 a charge which on this occasion does not seem to 
 have been disregarded. 
 
 While, however, he was making some slight progress 
 with his mission work, there was a growing discontent 
 among his own people at the failure of any trade with 
 the natives. It must be remembered that most of 
 his party had come out with the sole object of 
 furthering a commercial enterprise, and it was to 
 them naturally very disappointing to find such 
 
 
ALMOST ABANDONED. 
 
 55 
 
 meagre progress in this direction. This was the 
 more aggravating to these Danes, because they found 
 the Greenlanders willing enough to do business with 
 the Dutch traders when they called ; and once, when 
 a fleet of Dutch ships passed, and one put into the 
 harbour of the colony, they found the natives exchange 
 more commodities with the Dutch in half-an-hour 
 than they had been able to do all the winter. 
 
 Then came the pinch of hunger to accentuate their 
 miseries. Having no proper tackle with which to catch 
 fish they could not provide food from the sea, and the 
 reindeer, which they occasionally saw in the interior, 
 could not be captured. An attack of scurvy, too, 
 seized upon the colony and distressed them beyond 
 measure. 
 
 It is not surprising, therefore, that under such 
 terrible calamities they clamoured to Hans Egede to 
 return. When he exhorted them to patience they 
 broke out in reproaches, and like Israel in the wilder- 
 ness they murmured against the Moses who had led 
 them from a land of fleshpots into starvation and 
 suffering. What could he do? On the one hand 
 he saw these men who at his bidding had adventured 
 their lives now in open mutiny; on the other hand 
 the Greenlanders, seeing the distress and conflicts, 
 mocked with derision the man who had given up 
 all for their sakes, but who now seemed forsaken by 
 h^s friends. Then he looked on his faithful wife, so 
 patiently enduring, and his children growing up amid 
 such privations and trouble, and it is not to be 
 wondered at that his heart failed him when he 
 thought how probably they would be murdered by 
 these savage natives when he was left by his com- 
 
56 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 panions. He besought the men to stay with him but 
 a little longer, to wait at any rate till the end of June, 
 when a ship of relief would probably come to their 
 assistance and if not they might leave him. This 
 counsel prevailed as regards six of the men, but 
 when these found the stores running short they also 
 told him that they would depart in the first Dutch 
 ship which came in sight At this crisis Egede gave 
 way and reluctantly told his wife of his decision — for 
 her sake and her children's he would return. Never 
 
 ' 
 
 THE SHIP COMING IN FROM BERGEN. 
 
 did Christian woman rise to the occasion as she did 
 that day. She refused to desert the post of duty, and 
 told him it was his call to stay where God had placed 
 him. Not only did she thus admonish her husband, 
 but she ran into the camp and ordered the men to 
 cease demolishing the house since she, a frail woman, 
 had refused to pack up her goods and retreat. She 
 spoke of the certainty of the ship coming soon to 
 bring them support. Turning to her husband she said : 
 " Wait a while, it may be that while we are giving 
 way to doubt and fear, God's providence is working 
 
ALMOST ABANDONED. 
 
 57 
 
 some good plan for us. Wait but a week or two and 
 
 see. 
 
 Three weeks thus passed ; no ship appeared, and 
 the gloom over the little settlement grew deeper and 
 deeper. Egede torn with distracting emotions worked 
 on with a desperate sense of being near his end, while 
 his heroic wife, strong in a mighty faith in her God, 
 comforted her children with the assurance that help 
 was at hand. Then came the 27th June, and, like the 
 Lucknow Scotch lassie who heard the distant pibroch, 
 this good woman, scanning again the waste of wintry 
 sea, caught the first glimpse of the approaching sail. 
 She sang her song of thanksgiving to the astonished 
 and weary-hearted people, and soon the ship came 
 right up to their shore, to be received with acclama- 
 tions of gratitude. The ample stores which were set 
 ashore soon replenished the famished colony, and 
 then, what was indeed food of a higher importance to 
 Egede, the captain told him the good news of 
 increased interest in the mission amongst those at 
 home ; the Bergen merchants, notwithstanding the 
 discouraging accounts brought by those who had 
 been driven back, had determined to support and 
 push forward the work in Greenland. The ColLge 
 of Missions too, had sent their letter of encourag- 
 ment, begging Mr. Egede, now that he had set his 
 hand to the plough, not to look back until the work 
 amongst these heathens had been established. The 
 king, whose royal favour they had already experi- 
 enced, was not behind-hand with his interest, for he 
 had started a lottery to raise funds for the work. 
 This not proving sufficiently successful he had 
 commanded a levy upon all his subjects in Norway 
 
 % 
 
1 n ' 
 
 58 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 ^.- 
 
 and Denmark under the style of the Greenland 
 assessment, which contributed a handsome sum to 
 the treasury of the mission. 
 
 Egede took fresh heart of hope, and the whole 
 colony felt the stimulation of the news. He made up 
 his mind to further cultivate intercourse with the 
 natives, and by a better knowledge of the languages, 
 bring them to the feet of Christ. To this end he took 
 his two little boys and went inland among the 
 natives, there to spend the winter of i722.\JF*or a 
 long time the sickening filth and degradation of the 
 people was almost unbearable. Their mud huts, in 
 which with his children he went to live, were inferior 
 to pig-styes, and with all apertures closed, the stench 
 forced them sometimes to rush out for a moment into 
 the keen, cold air."} The intelligence of these people 
 is chiefly displayed in their seal fishing. The 
 accompanying picture very clearly exhibits this. The 
 Greenlander having discovered the small breathing 
 hole of the seal by the aid of his dog, sits down to 
 patiently wait, and sometimes for many long hours, 
 for the puff of the creature's breath as it rises in the 
 ice cavity it has made. Then with unerring aim he 
 strikes his harpoon down the hole killing the seal, 
 which is held by the barbed point until the hole can 
 be enlarged sufficient to bring it to the surface. 
 
 At last Egede persuaded two deserted Esquimaux 
 children to come and live with him in order that they 
 might be educated, and also that his children might 
 have a better opportunity of catching up their words. 
 This experiment, however, soon led to inconvenience, 
 for six people asked to lodge with him forthwith. 
 Others followed, and it was evident that the natives 
 
ALMOST ABANDONED. 
 
 59 
 
 were attracted, not by any real desire to be of service 
 to him, but by a chance of living at his expense and 
 spying out his possessions. 
 
 They begged almost everything they saw, and 
 when the winter was over, and the fishing season 
 commenced, they stole away privately, and left him 
 and the two 
 boys on whom 
 he had be- 
 stowed such 
 care rnd atten- 
 tion, thus disap- 
 pointing all his 
 hopes. They 
 had been slow 
 scholars ; the 
 restless life that 
 they had led 
 made them im- 
 patient of any 
 restraint, and it 
 was only by a 
 present of a 
 fish-hook for 
 every letter they 
 learned that 
 any progress 
 could be made. 
 Then they began to speak contemptuously of their 
 teacher and his friends, because they only gazed at 
 paper and scrawls of ink, while the Greenlanders were 
 brave huntsmen who pursued the reindeer and could 
 hunt the seal. If teaching these people to read was 
 
 WATCHING FOR A SEAL. 
 
 i 
 
6o 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 !: 
 
 
 difficult, it was much more so to get them to under- 
 stand the doctrines of the Christian religion, and with 
 indifference they turned away and followed the old 
 practices again. What pain of heart all this caused 
 to the patient missionary ? Truly the soil was hard 
 and unreceptive, and there were times when in the 
 anguish of his soul he felt he had struggled and 
 toiled for nought. 
 
 His next concern was to find out some more 
 favourable position for the colony ; the little island 
 upon which they had built their house was in some 
 respects unsuitable, and Egede wanted to cultivate 
 some district on the mainland. He sent exploring 
 parties of his people in various directions, and finally 
 he decided upon a creek which ran up from the sea 
 and possessed many advantages. They began 
 laboriously to carry stones and timber to establish 
 the colony there, and almost accomplished their 
 preparations, giving it the name of Priesterfiord, when 
 the stormy weather soon showed that it would be 
 dangerous and must be abandoned. 
 
 Going farther in search of a better position, Egede 
 came unexpectedly upon some of the old relics, about 
 which in the years long since he had thought so much. 
 He sailed up Ameralik Bay in the year 1723, and 
 penetrated further the broad inlet called Balls River, 
 where he discovered according to the report of the 
 Greenlanders, that the seals lay in hundreds upon the 
 ice, although he found it difficult to catch any. But 
 going ashore he sighted in a beautiful valley a strange 
 quadrangular building of very ancient construction. 
 It was covered with moss and greatly decayed, but 
 the masonry was evidently that of the hardy and 
 
"■ V 
 
 ALMOST ABANDONED. 
 
 6i 
 
 pious Norsemen, and this was ibdW church. It had 
 been roofless for centuries, but, as he passed through 
 the ruined oorway and measured the dimensions of 
 the inner walls, he thought of the songs of praise 
 which had once ascended there in the olden time. 
 Passing round the church he noticed the remains of 
 the old houses of the worshippers, and the graves 
 where at last they found their rest. 
 
 3 i 
 
 'I I 
 
 
 i 
 
GREENLANDEK IN HIS KAYAK. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW. 
 
 " Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, 
 Is our destined end to-day, 
 But to act that each to-morrow 
 Finds us further than to-day." 
 
 Longfellow. 
 
 NOW it seemed, indeed, that light was breaking 
 over the snow-clad Greenland hills. The 
 mission was taking fresh root, and under its 
 brave leader was becoming permanently- 
 established in the land. Other ships arrived from 
 Bergen, and one of these brought not only supplies, 
 but what was perhaps their greater requisite, a fresh 
 helper in the person of Mr. Albert Top. The 
 presence of this new helper was, of course, a great joy 
 to Hans Egede. Hitherto his hands had been tied 
 by so many duties, but now he could hand over some 
 62 
 
SUNSHINE AND SHADOW. 
 
 63 
 
 of these to his colleague and carry out his cherished 
 intention of exploring the districts beyond the limits 
 of the colony. While his great aim was to preach the 
 Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to these people, 
 Egede had all an explorer's yearning for seeking 
 fresh fields and pastures new. He had had his 
 appetite for discovery whetted by the glowing accounts 
 given by some sailors, who told him of the eastern 
 coast of Greenland as offering many inducements to 
 settlers. 
 
 It was already late in the summer, and the ice 
 would soon begin to lock up the water-ways ; br^ he 
 determined to make a start, and fitted out a little 
 expedition of two shallops and a few stores, and with 
 these went forth to explore Frobisher's Straits. The 
 voyage was, as expected, beset with many difficulties. 
 V^hen they reached the Straits it was only to find the 
 pack ice driving in masses before the north wind, and 
 when they essayed to enter what seemed an opening, 
 the Greenland pilot dissuaded them with many fore- 
 bodings. Eventually they got clear of the ice and 
 reached an open sound beyond Cape Comfort, but 
 here they were doomed to disappointment, as it only 
 rounded again south-west and back to the open sea. 
 Egede determined at any cost to push through the 
 sound, which divided the mainland from Cape Fare- 
 well. Here, however, some natives approached them, 
 who, whether in sincerity or not they could not say, 
 drew such a picture of the storms which beat upon 
 that shore, and the wild and cruel people who lived 
 there, that the boatmen of the shallops were seized 
 with a panic of fear, and flatly refused to obey orders. 
 Vainly Egede reasoned with them ; neither promises 
 
 'i 
 
 )!l 
 
 : I 
 
 1 
 
 i i 
 
 •] 
 
64 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 I i 
 
 ? 
 
 f! 
 
 of reward nor the pains of disobedience affected them, 
 and so very reluctantly the order was given to turn 
 homewards. His voyage was not, happily, without 
 some interest and result. The old traditions of lost 
 Greenland Christians were making him eagerly scan 
 the coast for signs of rudera^ or relics of thav earlier 
 worship. On his way home he managed to explore 
 several inlets where there was undoubtedly evidence 
 of the Norwegian occupation. One place especially 
 attracted his attention. It was called by the Green- 
 landers, Kakoktok, and here he found the ruins of an 
 old church fifty feet long and twenty broad, and the 
 wp"s six feet thick, pierced by windows. Outside 
 was a churchyard "^all in a good state of preservation, 
 and the remains of several houses in the vicinity. 
 Egede felt strange emotions as he picked his way 
 amongst these ancient stones. All the old love and 
 yearning for the fate of the Norse Christians came 
 back again. Heaps of rubbish by the side of the 
 church were turned over, and he desired to explore 
 the graves around, but the Greenlanders true to their 
 superstitions refused to do this, lest disturbing the 
 spirits of ♦•-he dead they might do them some injury 
 in return. So lie had to be content with filling his 
 pockets with a few bones, pieces of coal, and scraps 
 of earthen urns, and retraced his steps with many 
 thoughts. 
 
 \^nother feature of this voyage was that he found 
 his reputation had been carried into these far districts. 
 There was a great distrust of the Danish sailors 
 amongst the natives, and at first nothing could^ per- 
 suade them to hold intercourse with the visitors ;\but 
 when the Greenland pilot assured them thai: the 
 
 ■■^-,- 
 
SUNSHINE AND SHADOW. 
 
 «s 
 
 minister, the great Angekok of the Kablunaks, was 
 with them, they evinced great joy and welcomed 
 Egede with shouts, taking him hither and thither 
 as a friend whom they could trust and love. Some- 
 thing of the " loaves and fishes " spirit was evidently 
 at the bottom of this. They brought out their sick 
 and begged him to release tliem from their troubles. 
 One man who was blind implored him to touch his 
 eyes. Egede talked to him of the Great Physician 
 and asked him whether he could believe in the Son 
 of God, then rubbed his eyes with a little brandy and 
 went his way. Thirteen years afterwards this same 
 man visited the mission colony to thank him for the 
 lestoration of his sight. 
 
 They had been able to send home to Bergen some 
 fine cargoes of whales' blubber oil, when intelligence 
 came in the spring that there was a good fishing- 
 ground a hundred leagues north of the colony. Egede 
 made up another expedition and in February pro- 
 ceeded thither, but after a month's excessive labour 
 and suffering from the cold, they had to return unsuc- 
 cessful. Efforts were made to bring the land under 
 cultivation, and some rocks were mined to discover 
 their mineral wealth. In some cases Egede caused 
 fires to be made so that the frozen ground might be 
 thawed, and the corn was sown. This came up and 
 bade fair to bear crop, but when in the ear the keen 
 night frosts killed it and it had to be cut unripe. The 
 interest which Egede took in the commercial develop- 
 ment of the colony might have been misunderstood 
 by those who believed it to be his sole duty to preach 
 the Gospel. Crantz, the old chronicler, who has 
 
 preserved to us tYt precious details of the life and 
 
 £ 
 
 I 
 
66 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 work of Egcde, anticipates this objection by the 
 following explanation : — 
 
 " By all this we see how busily Mr. Egede was 
 occupied in managing for the poor of the colony, 
 whose direction he had accepted from the company. 
 This was the reason, as he writes, that he was con- 
 strained to intermeddle in affairs that might else have 
 been taken ill of him as a divine. This was also the 
 reason of his undertaking so many difficult voyages 
 with danger of his life, to show any one by his own 
 example how he should act and to inspect with his 
 own eyes where and how the company's interest 
 might be promoted, because he was fully sensible that 
 the spiritual concern-l-viz., the conversion of the 
 Greenlanders, which he had so much at heart, could 
 not be attained but on supposition at the same time 
 of some sufficient temporal acquisition." 
 
 With the help of his colleague he laboured on still 
 more strenuously for the salvation of these heathen. 
 He took the greatest pains to teach them the truths,^ 
 the doctrines, and the facts of the Christian religion.^ 
 His plan was to translate, not without much difficulty, 
 short questions concerning the Fall, the Creation, 
 Redemption, Resurrection, and Salvation through the 
 death of Christ, and also to write short prayers for 
 them to say and hymns for them to sing. The one) 
 thing then was for the people to be taught all this, and; 
 by dint of many questions to make it clear to theirj 
 limited intelligences and fix it on their memories. 
 Such was no easy work. For a few moments these 
 people seemed willing to listen, and then they would 
 break out into ridicule and inattention. \li, however, 
 one of their angekoks were present, order could no 
 
SUNSHINE AND SHAPOW. 
 
 «7 
 
 •) 
 
 longer be preserved, for he would commence his incan- 
 tations, and mock the missionaries as they patiently 
 read on. These wizards had made the people 
 believe that they had been in heaven, and on the 
 strength of this they actually charged Egede with 
 
 EGEDE TEACHING HIS PEOPLE TO PRAY. 
 
 lying, " for they had been there and had seen no traces 
 of God's Son, nor had they found the firmament so 
 out of repair as to be in danger of a dissolution," as 
 the Greenlanders always construed the doctrine of the 
 end of the world. This opposition on the part of the 
 
 3 i 
 
 ll: 
 
 ■1 ■ 
 
 ■ \ 
 
 \ 
 
68 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS 
 
 : i 
 
 I f; 
 
 angekoks and their disciples became so vindictive that 
 the Danish colonists felt it their duty to interfere for 
 the protection of Mr Egede. They forcibly ejected 
 the turbulent, and set sailors to preserve order in the 
 meetings ; but as that did not quite answer the 
 purpose, they announced that they would punish 
 with death the angekoks as imposters and seducers 
 of the people, so as to bring the natives under 
 discipline. 
 
 Here seemed to be an effective check upon these 
 unseemly scenes, and some of the p.incipal disturbers 
 became anxious to have the help and teaching of Mr. 
 ^^^Egede, especially in the matter of healing."^ 
 
 " Once, even, an angekok applied to him for this. 
 He reproved the man for his impostures and assured 
 him his child would die, (for it was in its last agonies) 
 but if he would call upon God with him and let the 
 child be baptised it might still go to heaven. The 
 man gave his assent to all that he said and earnestly 
 begged him to baptise the chiJd, which he accordingly 
 did, and after calling upon the name of God, the child 
 yielded up its spirit directly afterwards. And when 
 the family, according to custom, had howled awhile, 
 Mr. Egede was urged to carry the corpse to its burial, 
 because no one else wa^ counted worthy by its father. 
 Nay, after the interment, the m.an and his family 
 desired to be baptised also, but he declined doing it, 
 telling them that they as adults must first learn the 
 will of God." 
 
 One day when it was raining hard, they desired 
 the missionary to pray to his God, whom he described 
 as an almighty being, that He would send them 
 better weather, so that the water should not soak 
 
 I 
 
SUNSHINE AMD SHADOW. 
 
 69 
 
 through the skins of their tents. On another occasion, 
 when he desired their attention to most solemn sub- 
 jects, they simply danced around him howling and 
 drumming most hideously all the time. 
 
 It was at this time that one of the victims of an 
 angekok's superstitions came to Egede for help 
 and light, and was so convinced of the truth that 
 he returned to his village with some texts chalked 
 upon ? board, so that his friends might also be 
 converted. 
 
 The influence of the wizards or priests upon the 
 people was very strong, for they played upon the 
 superstitious curiosity of their dupes with stories of 
 incredible nonsense. Naturally the people were not 
 averse to discuss religious questions ; too ready were 
 they, in fact, to argue about the soul than to come 
 to close quarters and find salvation for themselves. 
 They had the characteristics of the Sadducees of the 
 past age and the present. 
 
 " The Greenlanders liked to hear that the soul did 
 not die with the body, that it would receive its body 
 again at the resurrection, without being subject any 
 more to sickness, and that friends and relations would 
 meet again. They were very anxious to hear all that 
 he told them of spiritual things, which gave him good 
 hopes. But when a subject had been related to them 
 several times over, and they could not take it in with 
 their gross and carnal minds, they grew tired, and 
 wanted to hear something else that was new, for they 
 imagined they believed already all that he had told 
 them. They were often displeased and petulant 
 when the weather was bad, and attributed it to the 
 reading and praying, because they supposed the air 
 
 1 1: 
 
 II J 
 
 i :■ 
 
 1 
 
 it 
 
 {I 
 
 11 
 
70 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNO VS. 
 
 to be irritated by this ; or they imputed it to their 
 giving credit to the missionary and not continuing to 
 conform so strictly to the prescriptions of their 
 angekoks in abstaining from certain meats and 
 employments. Therefore if they should listen to him 
 any more, his prayers must first procure them good 
 weather, an abundance of fish, birds, and seals, and 
 also cure their sick. If he desired them to pray, their 
 answer was, 'We do pray, but it signifies nothing.' 
 If he told them they should supplicate God chiefly 
 for His spiritual gifts, and for the happiness of life 
 everlasting, they replied, ' That we neither understand 
 nor desire ; we want nothing but healthy bodies and 
 seals to eat, and the angekoks can procure these for 
 us.' If he told them of the future judgment and 
 the eternal punishment in hell-fire, they refused 
 to hear anything of it, or they replied that their 
 angekoks knew hell better, and if it even was so 
 hot yet there was water enough in the sea to 
 quench it and make it tolerable to them ; yea, it 
 would make amends for the cold they had endured 
 upon earth. 
 
 " If he endeavoured to convince them of the 
 impositions of the angekoks, that they had never 
 seen any of them go either to heaven or hell 
 because they always chose darkness to rest their 
 legerdemain, then they retorted the question : 
 * Whether ever he had seen God of whom he spoke 
 so much ? * 
 
 V " It was extremely difficult to remove the mistaken 
 conceptions of these people, or to prevent their ^ 
 making a quite sinister use of every truth they heard ; J 
 for instance, that God was omnipresent, omnipotent, 
 
 a i: 
 
;] 
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW. 
 
 ;i 
 
 and benign, and that it was His pleasure to help all 
 that called upon Him in distress. And as for the 
 conception of the soul and its restoration they could 
 form no idea of it." 
 
 This statement of the mental condition of these 
 poor, ignorant Greenlanders indicates pretty clearly 
 the difficulties Egede had to contend with, and also 
 suggests that their attitude in 1725 is very little 
 different from the hostile position of the cavillers 
 and unbelievers of the more accomplished world of 
 our own day. 
 
 Having carefully instructed two Greenland boys, he 
 sent them home to Copenhagen in a passing ship. 
 One died on the voyage, but the other reached 
 Europe, and after a short stay returned to his native 
 land. This youth, whose name was Pock, when he 
 reached his friends in Greenland, had such wonders to 
 tell them of the grandeur and state of the royal 
 family of Denmark that he produced immense 
 excitement. This popularity, however, seems to have 
 turned his head, and he strangely lapsed again into 
 Greenland immoralities. 
 
 ( The desire on the part of the Danish Government 
 to establish colonies on the Greenland coast greatly 
 increased, and as a result Egede received, what was 
 not an unmixed benefit to him, a considerable but 
 not very select addition to his colony. Vessels of 
 war with cannon and soldiers began to show them- 
 selves in the offing, and from these landed working 
 men and their wives, who, however, in many cases, had 
 been recently liberated from the jails of their country 
 to settle at this place. Horses were brought with 
 them, and they began with a little too much zeal to 
 
 ; 
 
 i.'i 
 
 \-": 
 
 '■ ]' 
 
A 
 
 I- 
 
 : It 
 
 ;f 
 
 . 
 
 72 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 possess the land. To Egede, who had still the great 
 responsibility of being leader, and heard of all this, 
 anxieties only increased, and when a raging sickness 
 began to carry off the new-comers, and the horses died 
 for want of some one to look ..fter them, the soldiers 
 openly mutinied against their officers. Again poor 
 Egede was reproached for having brought them into 
 a land of desolation and misery, and his life was so 
 threatened that he is reported to have said that, while 
 able in perfect security to sleep in the tents of the 
 natives, he had to keep a watch and firearms by his 
 bed as a protection against his fellow Christians. 
 
 In truth, it must be confessed that the history of 
 this mission is a striking example of the impediment 
 which material force and authority is to the work of 
 the Gospel among the heathen. \^ad Egede been 
 left alone to prosecute his work at his own wish, with- 
 out being backed up by the military power and 
 embarrassed by commercial support, happy would 
 he have been.^The Greenlanders were terrified by 
 this show of force, and being compelled to associate 
 their minister with this warlike aggression of their 
 coasts, they retreated further inland or removed to 
 Disco Bay. Egede had now two fresh colleagues, Mr. 
 Olaus Lange and Mr. Harry Milzoug, his former 
 fellow-helper, Albert Top, having been compelled on 
 account of his health to return home, taking with him 
 young Paul Egede for education at the College of 
 Missions. 
 
 But this work, which seems specially remarkable 
 for its continual disappointments, was to sustain a still 
 greater shock in the death of King Frederick IV., who 
 had for so many years been its steadfast friend. 
 
 :■ 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 V 
 

 \ 
 
 ff/ 
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW. 
 
 73 
 
 When the new ruler, Christian VI. came to the throne, 
 his advisers drew his attention to the state of the 
 Greenland colonists, and urged him to abandon such 
 an unprofitable enterprise. The king seems to have 
 been nothing loath to relieve his kingdom of this 
 burden, and in 1731 a royal mandate was sent by- 
 ship to Good Hope and the other adjacent colonies, 
 commanding the people to pack up and return home. 
 There was certainly a provision which made it 
 optional in the case of Egede, but it was expressly 
 told him that if he did chose to remain, he must 
 expect no further supplies or support. Such a blow 
 as this, by which the fabric he had been steadily 
 building all these weary years was to be shattered 
 in a day, was almost too much for the faithful mis- 
 sionary. But he would not abandon his post. He 
 begged the men to stay behind, and pointed out that 
 leaving him defenceless would mean that the colony 
 would be either devastated by the natives, now by no 
 means friendly to the color ':ts as a trading community, 
 or the place would be captured by foreign adventurers, 
 to the loss of everything. Fortunately, the ship being 
 too small to carry all, ten sailors elected to stay with 
 him for the present, or until the next ship should 
 arrive. 
 
 Thus matters rested ; left practically alone, Egede 
 trained his second son to direct the trading and fish- 
 ing industry, while he struggled on, for three years, 
 getting occasionally some remnant of stores from 
 home, but always with the disagreeable warning that 
 nothing more would follow. Was ever a missionary's 
 faith and patience tried as this man's was ? Against 
 such depression his mind almost gave way ; he felt 
 
 if 
 
 I' 
 
 
 Y 
 
 
74 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 ■^1 
 
 he had toiled almost in vain. News came that the 
 colony of Nepisene had been devastated and all the 
 stores burnt. Added to his mental worry, a serious 
 disorder had laid hold of his chest, and to a great 
 extent he had not strength to go on his missionary 
 journeys, but was compelled to relegate the work of 
 teaching to his son. The sky was indeed gloomy and 
 the outlook despairing; had God forgotten to be 
 gracious ? The first streaks of dawn glimmered on 
 the horizon, and soon the harbinger of hope and con- 
 solation drew nigh. 
 
 " • O Father! not My will but Thine be done,' 
 
 So spake the Son. 
 Be this our charm, mellowing earth's ruder noise 
 
 Of griefs and joys, 
 
 That we may cling for ever to Thy breast 
 
 In perfect rest ! " 
 
 Keble. 
 
EGBDB WITH IPPEGAN IN A STORM. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE MORAVIANS COME. 
 
 Faith climbing higher can descry 
 The glimmering dawn beyond the gloom, 
 
 God's promise in the eastern sky, 
 Daybreak of hope o'er night of doom. 
 
 ON the morning of the 20th of May, 1733, a sail 
 was seen on the horizon. This was no extraor- 
 dinary event in itself, as from time to time ships 
 • of discovery and trade had been sighted passing 
 
 north of the little colony. This vessel, however, was 
 seen to head towards the land, and presently when the 
 boats went out to board her, it was found that she was 
 indeed a welcome guest to people who were in such 
 straits as Egede and his friends. A fresh supply of 
 much-needed stores formed her cargo, and the captain 
 was commissioned to give to Egede a letter from the 
 
 75 
 
 m 
 
 i^\:i 
 
76 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 w 
 
 \ 
 
 ,' 
 
 king of Denmark, assuring him of his pleasure in 
 noticing a revival of the Greenland trade, and, further, 
 stating that he had made a provision as regards the 
 Mission of Good Hope of four hundred pounds. This 
 was good news, but still more welcome was the king's 
 introduction of three brethren who had come out in 
 this ship to preach the Gospel to the heathen in 
 Greenland • Wb > v^ere these? Their names were 
 Christian "' " i Matthew Stach, and his brother 
 Christian Siach, *{.s>d they were the pioneer mission- 
 aries of the Moravia Brethren to the Greenlanders. 
 As these good men and their succesi jrs were destined 
 to carry on the work right up to the present day, it 
 will be interesting to review here the circumstances 
 which led to their coming thither 
 
 In the record of religious persecutions, the Church 
 of the Unitas Fratrum, or United Brethren, has an 
 ancient history of honourable suffering. Like the 
 Society of Friends, the early Methodists, and others 
 in our own day, they have endured as sheep in the 
 hands of wolves for their allegiance to the truths and 
 practice of the New Testament. The simplicity of their 
 character, their inoffensive disposition,their patient pro- 
 secution of duty in the face of danger and discourage- 
 ment, have indeed built up for the Brethren an everlast- 
 ing name. Their history reaches back into very early 
 days, and with the Waldenses they may be entitled to 
 the honour of having kept the faith on the Continent 
 of Europe in spite of pagan and popish persecution. 
 Perhaps they may claim to be the oldest Protestant 
 Church in existence, and before Huss began his refor- 
 mation, they had shined as a light in the dense darkness 
 of ignorance and superstition. Some of his disciples, 
 
THE MORAVIANS COME. 
 
 77 
 
 ■ t 
 
 associated by loyalty to Jesus Christ and detestation 
 of Romish error, banded themselves together on the 
 simple basis of Christian brotherhood, taking as thev 
 said, " the Bible as their creed, and the law of Chris 
 as their rule." But that fear of persecution which con- 
 tinually scatters the elect, drove the little band of 
 believers from their Moravian fields, and they gladly 
 found refuge in Poland, where Amos Comenius was 
 ordained their bishop. 
 
 Such a quiet, harmless, and law-abiding people 
 should have been better understoc a i appreciated, 
 but they were driven from place - pi i like danger- 
 ous conspirators, and their con*' m^ sufferings were 
 the direct result of that relentless atred of religious 
 light and freedom which stai t-ie record of the 
 Church of Rome. Before the voice of Luther had 
 thundered through that corrupt Church, these simple 
 disciples of a common Lord were witnessing for the 
 truth in Germany and elsewhere, and gladly suffer- 
 ing the spoiling of their goods and imprisonment of 
 their persons for the sake of Jesus Christ and His 
 Gospel. Dr. Brown has summed up their early history 
 admirably. 
 
 "After a variety of revolutions in their external 
 circumstances, the Churches of Bohemia obtained, 
 about the middle of the seventeenth century, an edict 
 from the Emperor of Germany, granting them a 
 toleration of their religion, and ratifying that import- 
 ant privilege under the imperial sanction. But this 
 was only like the still calm which often precedes a 
 storm. In 1672 an attempt was made by Government 
 to force on them the decree of the Council of Trent. 
 Being at length driven to despair by multiplied and 
 
 .1 li 
 
 II 
 
 ,! 
 
 v*^.. 
 
78 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 incessant oppressions, they rose in a ma js to defend 
 their religious liberties, but after the unfortunate 
 battle of Prague, in 1610, they were either compelled 
 to submit to the conqueror or were driven into exile 
 with the Elector Palatine, whom they had chosen for 
 their king. Numbers of them, indeed, were afterwards 
 allowed by the promise of pardon to return to their 
 country, but notwithstanding this promise some ot 
 them were perfidiously condemned to perpetual 
 imprisonment, and others to ignominious death. In 
 one day no fewer than seven-and-thirty of the principal 
 lords and defenders of the Bohemian faith were 
 beheaded on the scaflfold.** 
 
 The flames of persecution being once kindled 
 spread over the whole country and committed 
 terrible devastation among the miserable inhabitants. 
 By plunderings, by torturing, by executions, the 
 people were driven to the utmost extremities, and 
 many of them either renounced their religion or fled 
 the kingdom, leaving the whole of their property 
 behind them. But as these violent measures, instead 
 of reconciling the natives to the Church of Rome, 
 threatened to depopulate the country, the ministers 
 were now banished from Prague and the rest of the 
 kingdom, in the hope that the people, being deprived 
 of their spiritual guides, would submit the more 
 readily to the impositions of the Catholic priests. 
 Many of the exiles, however, hid themselves in caves 
 and in moun* ins, and from these fortresses visited 
 their desolate congregations ; but being detected in 
 these labours of love some of them were put to 
 death, and others finally expelled the kingdom. 
 A part of the nobility, however, still remained stead- 
 
e 
 
 e 
 
 THE MORAVIANS COME. 
 
 79 
 
 fast to their ancient faith, and encouraged the people 
 with the hope of regaining their Uberties, but after 
 having been drained of most of their wealth and 
 stripped of their estates, they were banished the 
 kingdom in 1627. Hundreds of noble and respectable 
 families now took refuge in neighbouring countries, 
 and though the common people v/ere carefully 
 watched to prevent their emigration, yet thousands 
 of them also fled into exile from the tyranny of 
 their oppressors. Many of these went into Silesia, 
 still greater numbers retired into Prussia and Poland, 
 but most of them escaped into Saxony and Upper 
 Lusatia, where from a variety of causes they were 
 soon lost among the general mass of the inhabitants ; 
 and though some of them formed particular con- 
 gregations and even founded new villages, yet their 
 posterity degenerated from the virtues of their 
 ancestors and conformed to the manners of the 
 people around them ; only a small number continued 
 steadfast in their ancient faith. 
 
 Thus fiercely the fury of persecution burned against 
 the Moravians, and the bones of the saints once 
 more whitened the mountains, while the cries of the 
 oppressed rose up to the throne of God. For a 
 time everything seemed against them, and a darkness 
 of Egyptian gloom covered the sky of their future. 
 Was God's arm shortened that it could not save 
 His own? Like the hunted Waldenses in their 
 Swiss valleys, like the brave Covenanters on their 
 Scottish heather, these witnesses, in diminishing 
 numbers but unquenchable fidelity, held on. Rome, 
 the abomination of desolation, defiling the holy place 
 of religious freedom, once more played her game too 
 
 ! 
 
 .^ 
 
 V 
 
8o 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 L 
 
 
 s 
 
 well, and the scattered disciples spread out to a wider 
 sphere. Then leaders and teacher? lelt instinctively 
 that God was going to lead them forth by some way 
 at pres' nt hid from their eyes, and they prayed and 
 watched for the open door of deliverance. 
 
 The grand old patriarch, George Jaeshke, hearing 
 the footfall of that reaper whom we call death by the 
 door of his chamber, gathered his children and grand- 
 children about his bed. God had given to him in his 
 old age a little Benjamin, and upon the head of this 
 seven years* old boy, the aged man laid his hand. 
 He besought his family to have faith in God and 
 believe that He would still deliver. He did not 
 disguise the fact that the times were dark and 
 depressing. 
 
 " It is true," said he, " our liberty is gone ; most of 
 our descendants give themselves up more and more 
 to a worldly mind and get entangled in the net of 
 Popery — yea, it would almost appear as if the 
 Brethren's cause was annihilated. But you, my dear 
 children, will live to see a great deliverance wrought 
 on behalf of the remnant of our flock, yet, whether it is 
 to take place here in Moravia, or whether you will have 
 to quit this Babel, I know not of a certainty ; this 
 I do know, that the time for it is not far distant, and 
 I feel inclined to believe that an emigration will be 
 undertaken into a land and to a place where you 
 may serve the Lord without fear, agreeably to His 
 holy Word. Be ready against that time whenever 
 it may come, and beware lest you be the last or ever 
 tarry behind; remember I have told it you before- 
 hand." 
 
 As the old saint passed away, his Ave grandsons, 
 
THE MORAVIANS COME. 
 
 8i 
 
 the brothers Neisser, took his words to heart, and 
 vowed that they would faithfully look forward to and 
 expedite all in their power this time of deliverance. 
 
 In the year 1722, as is now well known, Count 
 Zinzendorf, a pious nobleman, whose heart had 
 been touched by the sufferings of these people, offered 
 them an asylum on his estate in Upper Lusatia. 
 The mandate to help the saints seemed to have come 
 direct from God to this noble-hearted Christian, and 
 he entered into the details of this immigration of the 
 Moravians into his territory with all the zeal and 
 enthusiasm it demanded. He rose early 01.^ morning 
 and went forth praying that God would show hfm the 
 spot where the settlers should come. " I represented 
 in prayer, and with many tears to God," said he, *' the 
 distress and desire of these people, and entreated Him 
 to let His hand be with me and prevent the execution 
 of any plan if it were not pieasing in His eyes, adding 
 the following declaration to my petitions, In this 
 place I will build in Thy name the fit house" 
 
 The hill, upon the side of which the new settlement 
 was to be built, looked bare and desert-like enough to 
 the pioneers of the Exodus. " Where shall we find 
 bread in this wilderness?" said Augustin Neisser's 
 wife. "If ye will believe, you shall see the glory of 
 God in this place," was the reply. 
 
 Christian David, one of the leaders of the exiles, 
 struck his axe into a tree, exclaiming, " Here the 
 sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a 
 nest for herself, even thine altars, O Lord of 
 Hosts." 
 
 The little knot of persecuted ones sang together 
 
 their hymn of exile : — 
 
 F 
 
 
 1 
 
82 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 ! t' ?■ 
 
 " Blest is that day, when quitting home, 
 Far from my country I must roam, 
 
 Without a guide, a friend — 
 For God Himself ^'"^ be my guide, 
 His angel-guard for me provide ; 
 
 He can His own defend ; 
 And He '11 appoint for me a spot. 
 Where all my fears and cares forgot, 
 
 I shall enjoy sweet rest ; 
 As pants the hart for cooling brooks, 
 My soul with ardent longing looks 
 
 T' wards God, my Refuge blest." 
 
 They gathered together in straggling companies, 
 for the priestly Pharaoh with his hardened heart 
 would not let God's people go. Hampered with 
 their fetters, watched with cat-like vigilance by their 
 oppressors, robbed on the road, and often ending 
 their journey in beggary, they moved onwards to 
 their promised land. There in due time they founded 
 the colony of Herrnhut, or the Watch of the Lord. 
 Count Zinzendorf, to whom under God they owed 
 everything, was consecrated their bishop and head, 
 and the number over v/hich he had authority increased 
 to 600 souls. For several years they continued under 
 specially favourable circumstances to take advantage 
 of their new and restful home. But the sunshine of 
 prosperity is often, too often, the harbinger of trouble 
 and spiritual decline. They began to dispute with 
 each other on theological points of difference, and it 
 seemed as though Herrnhut would, indeed, degenerate 
 into a confusion of jarring sects. A strict statement 
 of belief was drawn up, and a serious secession, in 
 which many of the best and most influential of the 
 Brethren were implicated, seemed inevitable. They, 
 however, all with one consent gave themselves to 
 
THE MORAVIANS COME, 
 
 83 
 
 earnest prayer. For days and weeks the supplica- 
 tions continued, then in answer thereto, God opened 
 the windows of heaven and gave a blessing such 
 as is rarely known in the history of His; people. 
 Extraordinary results attended the preaching of the 
 Gospel. Not only were their halls crowded, but 
 hundreds fell down in penitence, and as many more 
 rose up to testify to the power of the Holy Ghost in 
 
 HERRNHUT ; OR, THF WATCH OF THE LORD. 
 
 their hearts ; and the direct result of this remark- 
 able revival was a new and absorbing desire to preach 
 the Gospel to the heathen. The missionary spirit, 
 which is the principal characteristic of the Moravian 
 Brethren, began then and there. 
 
 In 1 73 1, Count Zinzendorf attended the corona- 
 tion of Christian VI. at Copenhagen, and while there 
 witnessed the baptism of the Greenland boys who 
 had been sent home from Mr. Egede. Then he 
 
 , f 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 \ 
 
 I 
 j 
 
I \ 
 
 
 84 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 heard, with much regret, that the Government had 
 determined to relinquish their support of that mis- 
 sion. Meanwhile, there was great excitement at 
 Herrnhut. A negro, named Anthony, spoke openly 
 of the spiritual darkness of the slaves in the island 
 of St. Thomas, in the West Indies, and especially of 
 his sister there, who had begged him to send some 
 one who would teach her about Christ. Two of the 
 Brethren, Leonhard Dober and Tobias Leupold, 
 immediately volunteered to allow themselves to be sold 
 as slaves, to enable them to labour amongst these poor 
 lost ones. The quickened pulse of missionary energy 
 produced a holy ambition to go elsewhere with the 
 tidings of the Gospel, and on the return of Count 
 Zinzendorf with news of the Greenland Mission, it 
 was at once decided to send men thither. 
 
 Christian Stach and his brother, Matthew Stach, 
 volunteered to go, and Christian David, the first 
 ordained elder at Herrnhut, offered to accompany 
 them. They at once visited the king, and laid their 
 plans before him, and found especially a good friend 
 in his Lord of the Bedchamber, Count Pless. He 
 not only gave every advantage to the new mission- 
 aries, but wrote a letter of introduction to Mr. Egede 
 with his own hand. The ships were duly fitted with 
 every appliance for trade and other work of arranging 
 the settlement ; many of Count Pless*s friends also 
 came forward with pecuniary help and influential 
 support. One day he asked them how they pro- 
 posed to live in Greenland. " We intend," they 
 replied, " to build a house, and to cultivate the land 
 by the labour of our hands, that we may not be bur- 
 densome to any." To this he objected, as there was 
 
THE MORAVIANS COME. 
 
 85 
 
 no wood in the country to build with. " Then," they 
 replied, " we will dig into the earth and lodge there." 
 Pless was so struck by their self-denial that he 
 immediately gave them fifty dollars, and purchased 
 wood for them to take to Greenland. 
 
 How Matthew Stach received his call to go thither 
 shall be told in his own words. 
 
 " When T heard the first account of Greenland it 
 excited a desire in me to go thither ; yet, when I 
 reflected on my own incapacity and inexperience 
 (for I had been scarce two years in Herrnhut), I 
 could not venture to disclose it ; but when the written 
 proposal of the two Brethren to go to St. Thomas was 
 read publicly it stirred me up to it afresh. I was then 
 at work with Frederic Boehnish on the new burying- 
 ground, called the Hutberg. He was the first person 
 I acquainted with what passed in my mind, and I 
 found that he had been actuated on the same occa- 
 sion with the same desire to promote the salvation of 
 the heathen. We conversed with simplicity about it, 
 and perceived we had the greatest inclination to go 
 to Greenland ; but we knew not whether we ought to 
 look upon the propension that had taken place in us 
 as an impulse wrought by God, or whether we should 
 wait till a call was given us. But as we were both of 
 one mind, and confidently believed that our Saviour's 
 promise would be verified to us, ' If two of you shall 
 agree on earth, etc. ; ' thereiore we retired to the wood 
 just at hand, and kneeled down before Him, and 
 begged Him to clear up our minds on this important 
 affair, and to lead us in the right way. Upon this 
 our hearts were filled with an uncommon joy, and 
 we omitted no longer to lay our mind before the con- 
 
 I i 
 
86 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 gregation in writing, with perfect resignation which 
 tribe of heathens our call should be to, though we felt 
 the strongest tendency to the Greenlanders. The 
 letter was read in a public meeting, and was heard 
 with joy in the general. Yet some expressed their 
 surprise that it had such a great resemblance to the 
 writing of the two first-mentioned Brethren, and a few 
 even thought that we had compared notes with them, 
 or would mimic them. Very like this was the reason 
 that for a long time we neither received an answer, 
 nor were spoken to about it by the labourers of the 
 congregation. Only one of them said something to 
 me occasionally which might have left me but little 
 hope. Yet we were not frightened out of it by tins, 
 nor with the representations of the difficult voyage to 
 and manner of living in Greenland, which we heard 
 enough of by-and-by ; but we waited with trancuillity 
 to see whether our offer would be accepted or re;<y:ted. 
 After a considerable time, the Count Zini- aidori sent 
 for us, and asked us if v/e werr still of the same mind, 
 and when we answered hirri, " Yes,* and assured him 
 that we should like to go to Gi<:enland, he advised us 
 to consider over more the difficulty of our subsistence 
 there ; but added at the close that if we would venture 
 upon it in confidence on our Saviour, we might make 
 ready for the journey with his and the congregation's 
 blessing. We expected the time of our being dis- 
 patched with longing, and kept working on in our 
 outward calling. But another year passed before we 
 vvere dispatched. In the meantime, as Frederick 
 Bochnish was goie another long journey, Christian 
 Oa'^id go"; a desire to go with me to Greenland. 
 Qui' dismission did not last long ; only the last two 
 
THE MORAVIANS COMK 
 
 87 
 
 days the Count had some blessed interviews with me, 
 and gave me some instructions about the preservation 
 of my body and soul from evil, which were an abiding 
 blessing to me." 
 
 Thus it came about that the ship containing those 
 good men anchored off the colony of Mr, Egede, and 
 henceforth their fortunes will be intertwined with his 
 in dealing with the Greenland people. 
 
 :i 
 
 i>-^?^Tr^ 
 
I 
 
 ' ; 
 
 i ' 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 • I 
 
 EGKDE JOURNEYING IN A UMIAK, OR WOMAN'S BOAT. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PESTILENCE AND PATIENCE. 
 
 His course was glorious as the summer's sun 
 Wiien travelling in the greatness of his might, 
 
 A burning and a shining light he shone, 
 Then set to rise in everlasting light. 
 
 THE good ship Caritas (the Greek for Charity, 
 which was an appropriate name for such an 
 enterprise), on the loth of April, 1733, sailed 
 from Copenhagen with its first instalment of 
 Moravian missionaries for the Greenland field. When 
 they separated from their friends it was with many 
 83 
 
 \ 
 
 i I 
 
 ^ 
 
 
PESTILENCE AND PATIENCE. 
 
 89 
 
 I 
 
 f 
 
 1 
 
 ^ 
 
 good wishes and prayers, and the new enthusiasm 
 for foreign missions which was beating in the hearts 
 of the Brethren made all feel that this little freight of 
 souls, bearing the message of Divine love, was but the 
 beginning of great things for Greenland and the 
 world. 
 
 It had been the custom for some years in the little 
 colony of Herrnhut, before the commencement of 
 every year, to compile a little book with a text of 
 holy Scripture and verse for every day, and this 
 became not only the portion for private meditation, 
 but took precedence in the worship of the public 
 assembly. The verse for the lOth of April was most 
 appropriate, being Heb. xi. i, ** Faith is the substance 
 of things hoped for, the ^vidence of things not seen." 
 
 ** We view him where no eye can see, 
 With faith's perspective steadfastly." 
 
 Such was the encouragement these witnesses had, as, 
 setting sail, they left home and friends behind to 
 preach the unsearchable truths of the Gospel to the 
 heathen afar off. 
 
 For sometime they had fair weather, and passed 
 our own Shetland Isles ; but on the 6th of May a 
 violent storm broke out, the ice swept dangerously 
 over the sea, and they were driven back a consider- 
 able way. To make matters worse a total eclipse of 
 the sun took place, so that in the darkness they drifted 
 they knew not whither. In due time, however, they 
 entered the mouth of Balls River, and saw the shore 
 of Greenland for the first time ; and again taking to 
 their little book for the text of comfort and guidance, 
 they read, " The peace of God, which passeth all 
 
1 
 
 I 
 
 90 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds 
 through Christ Jesus " (Phil. iv. 7). " Let all our 
 senses be composed and quiet," was the comment 
 upon this helpful text. With these words in their 
 hearts, they prepared to land, and to meet the men 
 whom in Christ's name they came to save. 
 
 They hastened to Mr. Egede, and presented their 
 letters of introduction, and the welcome they re- 
 ceived from this good man who had been the pioneer 
 was warm and affectionate. Finding a place where 
 they might fix their settlement, they knelt down and 
 solemnly consecrated that spot of earth and them- 
 selves to the glory of God and the extension of His 
 kingdom. Then they built their house of stone and 
 earth, and purchased an old boat from the captain of 
 the ship for their fishing expeditions. Before the 
 ship sailed, they sat in their hut and wrote letters to 
 their friends at home, not knowing whether it might 
 not be the last as well as the first time . they would 
 be ab'e to write from their new home. Some of 
 these letters still remain, and, as giving an insight 
 into the character and simple faith of these people, 
 an extract deserves to be placed upon record here. 
 Says one : — 
 
 *' You may now very well address that saying to 
 
 us — 
 
 " * Should a man ever lose his road, 
 Let him ne'er lose his faith in God.* 
 
 Yes, here in truth the way is barred up. We retain 
 that for our daily lesson, ' Let all our senses be com- 
 posed and quiet' As to our persons, we are very 
 happy ; fbut our desire is to win soulsHiand we cannot 
 gratify it yet. But by God's grace we will not 
 
 . 
 
1 
 
 PESTILENCE AND PATIENCE. 
 
 91 
 
 despond, but keep the Lord's watch. When He 
 puts Himself in motion, we will move on with Him, 
 and will not swerve from His presence. Let but the 
 time for the heathen come, and the darkness in 
 Greenland must give way to the light ; the frigid 
 zone itself must kindle into a flame, and the ice-cold 
 hearts of the people must burn and melt. Because 
 we know our way is upright before the Lord, there- 
 fore our hearts are not dejected, but we live in cheer- 
 fulness and joy. 
 
 " We are open and manifest before the eyes of the 
 Lord. 'Tis true all men count us fools, especially 
 those who have been long in this country, and know 
 this people ; but still we rejoice and think when the 
 Breaker is come up before us there must be room to 
 tread and follow, though the appearance may be so 
 adverse. We hope to remain always in this mind ; 
 and even if we should effect nothing in Greenland, 
 we will render Him the honour due unto His name, 
 though it should be for nothing else but that we are 
 humbled and made low in our own eyes. But Jesus, 
 whose heart is replete with faithful love towards us 
 and the poor heathen, knows all our ways, and knew 
 them before we were born. Can any honour redound 
 from us to Him ? Our substance, life, and blood are 
 at His service. Through His death He has restored 
 life to us, has absolved us from our sins, reconciled us 
 with Himself, and has gathered a people that is His 
 property to show forth His praises. Oh, that the death 
 of our Lord Jesus may bring all men to life, and that 
 all might follow this faithful Shepherd ! " 
 
 Adversity came to them very soon ; they found 
 that it was difficult to catch fish, and in a storm they 
 
 m 
 
 [i^ 
 
92 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 I ! 
 
 lost their boat. The Greenlanders, too, were very shy 
 of them ; would not, indeed, talk to them on any sub- 
 ject, and to every entreaty gave the same answer — 
 that they wanted to know when they would go back 
 again. Mr. Egede gave them every assistance as 
 regards the language ; but the prospect seemed so 
 unfruitful that it appeared as if their use of it to any 
 purpose was very remote. 
 
 Then came an awful and unlooked-for visitation, 
 which proved, however, a hand to break down the 
 barrier between them and the natives. Two Green- 
 land children had been sent by Mr. Egede to Europe, 
 but their health being precarious, they had been sent 
 back for a time to their native country. One of them 
 a girl, died on the voyage ; but the boy, to all appear- 
 ance in good health, reached Greenland, and went to 
 visit his friends. There he fell ill, and it was soon 
 clear that he had brought home the fearful disease of 
 small-pox. Directly Mr. Egede heard of it, and had 
 seen the boy, he sent special messengers to warn the 
 people against mingling with the infected persons ; 
 but this they disregarded, and so the epidemic spread. 
 Wholly unacquainted with the disease, they soon be- 
 came mad with pain and horror ; many killed them- 
 selves, either with their knives, or by quenching their 
 fever and their life in wild plunging into the cold 
 sea. For a time the effect upon them was only to 
 harden their hearts. Says their chroniclers : — 
 
 " One man, whose son had died, stabbed his wife's 
 sister, in the mad presumption that she had bewitched 
 him to death. Nay, the Europeans had reason to 
 fear an assault (especially as a shallop, gone abroad 
 to trade, stayed out beyond its time), because the 
 
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PESTILENCE AND PATIENCE. 
 
 95 
 
 Greenlanders accused them as the cause of this pest, 
 and they were confirmed in it by the dream of an old 
 woman, that the Greenlander, Charles, who came back 
 from Copenhagen, would murder all his country- 
 people. A Greenlander came from a quite healthy 
 place to visit his sister at the colony ; before he set 
 foot on shore he thought he saw her apparition, 
 which so frightened him that he rowed back, fell 
 sick directly, and infected the people where he dwelt." 
 
 Though the natives were involved in so much misery, 
 and though death stared them in the face, they con- 
 tinued in their usual way of inattention and obduracy. 
 No reflection and no caution was to be thought of, 
 much less any concern about the present or future con- 
 dition of their souls. Nay, the living did not bewail, 
 as otherwise usual, the death of their nearest relations ; 
 the old people, indeed, cried to God in their distress 
 as well as they knew how ; but when, notwithstand- 
 ing, the evil grew worse, they uttered impatient, de- 
 sponding, very blasphemous speeches, would hear of 
 no patience or resignation to the will of God, nor 
 accept any admonition to commit themselves to the 
 faithful Shepherd, but died away in their unbelief. 
 
 One may easily imagine how Mr. Egede felt iti 
 this woful case. He did not sit still, but went con- 
 tinually about everywhere, sometimes alone, and 
 sometimes in the company of the Brethren, or sent 
 his son to instruct and comfort the poor people, and 
 to prepare them for death. They found in most 
 places nothing but empty and depopulated houses 
 and unburied dead, some within, and some without 
 the house, lying in the snow, which they covered with 
 stones. In one island they found only one girl ill, 
 
 ( 
 
96 
 
 AMID GREENLAND HNOWS. 
 
 ft 
 
 r 
 
 I :( 
 
 and her three little brothers. The father, having first 
 buried all the people in that place, laid himself and 
 his smallest sick child in a grave raised with stones, 
 and ordered the girl to cover him with skins and 
 stones, that he might not be devoured by the foxes 
 and ravens ; then she and the rest of the children were 
 to live on a couple of seals and some dried herrings 
 that were left till they could get to the Europeans. 
 Accordingly, Mr. Egede sent for them to his colony. 
 He lodged all the sick that fled to him, and the 
 Brethren followed his example. They laid as many 
 in their own rooms and sleeping chambers as they 
 would contain, and attended and nursed them as 
 well as they could, although the insufferable stench 
 of the sick and dying affected their own health very 
 much. Many a one was touched with a grateful 
 impression by such evident proofs of love, which were 
 more than they ever expected even from their own 
 countrymen, and one man, who had always derided 
 them, said to the minister before his end, "Thou 
 hast done for us what our own people would not do, 
 for thou hast fed us when we had nothing to eat ; 
 thou hast buried our dead, who would else have been 
 consumed by the dogs, foxes, and ravens ; thou hast 
 also instructed us in the knowledge of God, and hast 
 told us of a better life," 
 
 Surely such heroism and self-abnegation deserved 
 to be remembered. These noble men, infused with 
 the love of their Divine Master, went about as He 
 would have done among these unhappy sufferers 
 doing good. The soldier, who seeks " the bubble 
 reputation at the cannon's mouth," shows a courage 
 inferior to theirs, and yet for him is triumphant praise. 
 
PESTILENCE AND PATIENCE. 
 
 97 
 
 and perchance a statue in bronze. But the reward of 
 these Moravians is in Heaven. 
 
 When the plague was stayed, it was found that the 
 country was to a large extent depopulated. Only 
 eight had survived it on the shores of Balls River, 
 and Mr. Egede calculated that the dead were not less 
 than three thousand. The traders coming on the 
 coast some months afterwards found the huts empty, 
 and whole villages without a human being. The 
 new niissionaries had now little room for encourage- 
 ment. The country all round their settlement of New 
 Herrnhut, as they had called it, was cleared of 
 inhabitants by the ravages of this disease, and it is 
 not surprising that some counselled return. To 
 emphasise this advice, they found themselves upon 
 the brink of starvation, for their own fishing had so 
 utterly failed, and the Greenlanders would sell them 
 nothing except at exorbitant prices. Often after 
 exposure of days to the waves, they were compelled 
 to live upon the seaweed, and this brought upon them 
 an illness which for the time deprived them of the use 
 of their limbs. Indeed, had it not been for the kind- 
 ness of Mr. Egede and his devoted wife they must 
 have perished. This help, however, was necessarily 
 growing less, as their own settlement of Good Hope 
 was threatened with famine, and supplies were running 
 short. What should they do ? One of their letters 
 thus describes the situation in which they found 
 themselves : — 
 
 " We are at present in a school of faith, and see 
 
 not the least prospect before us. \_We can perceive no 
 
 trace of anything good among the heathens ; no, not 
 
 so much as a sigh, and the poor creatures find deatir] 
 
 G 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 ,ii' 
 
 ! 
 
 i\ 
 
 
k 
 
 i 
 
 98 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 where they should have found life. As for us, let us 
 look where we will, we see nothing in ourselves but 
 poverty and misery without and within. Without, 
 we find not the bodily strength and ability requisite 
 to stand it out in this land ; this is a gift to be yet 
 bestowed upon us from the hand of God. At present 
 we are severely handled by sickness, though we believe 
 that our constitutions will only be purged and sea- 
 soned by it, that we may be able to endure the more 
 in the service of the Lord. We acknowledge it also 
 as a peculiar kind Providence that our sickness was 
 to wait till we removed into our house. Within, 
 everything that could spring from human good-will, 
 even our alacrity to learn the language, is fallen away, 
 nothing but what grace has wrought abides by us. 
 . . . What gives us hope is, that God suffers His 
 children to pass through straits to the work in view, 
 and our joy is the remembering and being remembered 
 by the many children of God in Europe." 
 
 In their dire extremity God saved them from the 
 peril of death. One day, when exhausted and de- 
 spairing, a strange Greenlander, named Ippagen, 
 made his appearance, having come forty leagues 
 from the south, and told them how he had made his 
 way thither on purpose to supply them with food. 
 It came out that in one of their excursions some 
 months before they had showed some kindness to 
 this man in his native village, and he had gone in 
 search of them now, fearing they might be in want. 
 
 The fourth year of their stay had just been entered 
 upon when a ship was sighted, and the captain had 
 a letter from a friend in Amsterdam, who had sent 
 them a cask containing several stores of provisions. 
 
PESTILENCE AND PATIENCE. 
 
 99 
 
 This they felt to be an interposition of Providence, 
 for they were then at the very last pinch of poverty, 
 and had almost given up hope of hearing from Europe 
 after a silence of nearly two years. 
 
 Patience almost more than human was required in 
 dealing with t^e natives. Although exceedingly 
 ignorant, they were full of conceit of their own notions, 
 
 NEW HKKKNHUT. 
 
 (From ike orii^inal sketch in Crantz's " History of Greenland") 
 
 I. The Dwelling and Meeting-house. II. The right wing, cont.nining the School 
 room, Kitchen, Bake-house, and Well. III. The left wing, or the European Pro- 
 vision House and a Place for Wood. IV. The Garden. V. The Brook. VI. The 
 European Boat-house. VII. Greenland Houses. VIII. The Greenland Provision 
 House. IX. The Burj'ing-ground. 
 
 and ready at any time to argue the point with the 
 missionaries when the way of salvation was explained 
 to them. Sometimes they flippantly replied to their 
 inquiries by saying, " Oh yes, we believe it all," but it 
 was too evident that such a belief was extremely 
 superficial. One of the missionaries attempted on a 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
100 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 certain occasion to explain to a crowd of Esquimaux 
 the history of the creation, and continued until the 
 age of Abraham was reached, to which they all nodded 
 assent as usual. T" We believe it perfectly," they said. 
 But when the missionary had finished speaking they 
 began to recite to him the ridiculous fables and 
 legends of their gods and magicians, and asked him 
 whether he believed all that When he said no, giving 
 as an argument that it was inconsistent with reason 
 and common sense, they had their answer ready : " If 
 thou wilt not believe us upon our words, thou must 
 not desire us to believe what we cannot comprehend 
 upon thy word." Jj 
 
 So little fruit indeed was seen of their work, that 
 these faithful men begai^ to ask themselves whether 
 after all they were called to the work. They shrunk 
 from no danger or privation, having indeed endured 
 p« much as flesh and blood could stand hitherto, but 
 :hcir love for the souls of these heathens prompted the 
 inquiry whether it was not possible that God had 
 others who could become more successful than they. 
 To this end they held in their humble dwellings what 
 they called their hours of examination, between seven 
 and eight o'clock in the evening, " when each of them 
 should, as he should be inclined, and without restraint, 
 yet uprightly as before the eyes of God, and according 
 to the best of his knowledge, declare what had passed 
 in his soul throughout the day, what had come into 
 his mind to ask in prayer for himself, for his brethren, 
 for all the children of God in Christendom, and for 
 these heathens, and finally what hindrances or offences 
 had occurred to him in himself or from others. They 
 would at the same time remind, and if necessary. 
 
PESTILENCE AND PATIENCE. 
 
 lOI 
 
 admonish and reprove one another, would take this 
 from each other in love and amend, and then would 
 commit their wants to the Lord in fellowship, and 
 thus help to bear one another's burdens. This little 
 weekly gathering became a sort of class-meeting, and 
 in the midst of their trials and discouragements, they 
 found strength and hope in fellowship one with 
 another. \_Very seriously they drew up a Covenant, 
 and after weeks of prayer and meditation thereon, 
 they signed their names and bound themselves as 
 follows : — 
 
 " I. We will never forget that in a confidence resting 
 upon God our Saviour, in whom all the nations of the 
 earth shall be blessed, we came hither, not on the 
 principle of seeing but believing. 
 
 "II. The knowledge of Christ, how He effected on 
 His Cross the purification of our sins through His 
 blood, and is the cause and source of eternal salvation 
 to all them that believe, shall be the principal doctrine 
 among us, which we will confirm by our word and 
 walk, according to the ability God shall be pleased to 
 give us ; and by this we will endeavour to bring the 
 heathen to the obedience of faith. 
 
 "III. We will diligently endeavour to learn the 
 language, in love, patience, and hope. 
 
 " IV. We will own and value the grace of each other, 
 in honour prefer one another, and be subject to each 
 other in the fear of the Lord. 
 
 "V. We will steadfastly maintain brotherly discipline, 
 admonition, and correction, according to the rule of 
 Christ, and will withdraw from any one who doth not 
 walk according to the purity of the Gospel, and will 
 exclude him so long from the kiss of love and peace 1 
 
 \ 
 
102 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 (which we do now introduce as a token of our true 
 fellowship) till he humbles himself before God and the 
 brethren. 
 
 " VI. We will do our outward labour in the name of 
 the Lord, and if any one is negligent therein, we will 
 admonish him. 
 
 "VII. Yet we will not be anxious and say, 'What 
 shall we eat and what shall we drink, and wherewith- 
 all shall we be clothed ? ' but cast our care upon Him 
 who feeds the sparrows and clothes the flowers of the 
 field. Nevertheless, we will at the same time take 
 notice of the word of the Lord, ' In the sweat of thy 
 face shalt thou eat bread,' and that of the Apostle, 
 Acts XX. 34, * You yourselves know that these hands 
 have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that 
 were with me,' and again, 'I have shown you all 
 things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the 
 weak.' Upon this they received the Holy Sacrament, 
 by which their hearts were strengthened in a particular 
 manner in faith and love, and bound together in their 
 common call."^ 
 
 How much they needed this consecration and 
 increase of faith may be gathered from the fact that 
 with starvation staring them in the face, they were 
 continually being menaced by the hostile Grecnlanders, 
 who could not understand their patience, and mocked 
 contemptuously at their willingness to suffer. " Your 
 countrymen," said they, " are good-for-nothing people ; 
 be sure they have sent you nothing, and you will not 
 act wisely if you do not go back again." 
 
 Sometimes threatened with death if they did not 
 go, at other times robbed and scoffed at because they 
 stayed, the mettle of their spirit was sorely tried. 
 
 i 
 
6 ; 
 
 8 
 
 V 
 
jl 
 
 M 
 
 \ 
 
 f 
 
 PESTILENCE AND PATIENCE. 
 
 105 
 
 Y 
 
 But ti.w^ 4.ad the true missionary hearts, and were not 
 to be swerved from the path of duty. A scrap of a 
 letter written at this time is preserved, and this gives 
 us an insight into the heart of these heroes of the Cross. 
 
 " We commit our ways to the Lord. We do not 
 know what He intends to do with us, and as little do 
 we understand what His secret hand has been doing 
 among the heathen. So much we observe that more 
 trials await us, yea, we believe that the issue will be 
 truly glorious, and when He has exercised us enough, 
 and found us faithful to Him, and the call He has 
 given us, He will not fail to let us see His glory. Our 
 Bible hour is a particular blessing to our hearts in 
 these circumstances, and He grants us many a solution 
 in our affair. We feel that He is with us, and although 
 people that look at things present, and are insensible 
 to future things, can neither see nor comprehend 
 matters in the beginning, and look upon us simple 
 servants either as fools or conceited men, who only 
 want to begin something new and erect ourselves a 
 name, yet we firmly believe that He will in due time 
 prosper the work of our hands which is His work, and 
 make it manifest that He hath chosen and called us 
 to this labour. May only Jesus Christ who is yester- 
 day and to-day the same, never withhold His grace 
 from His poor and h-f^lpless creatures, but keep us 
 through His strength willing to ^erve the heathen at 
 His beck, and then in time all will issue to His praise." 
 
 Once more, and for the last time, we turn our eyes 
 from the Moravian Settlement at Herrnhut, to Hans 
 Egede and his colony. The ship which brought the 
 gifts from Amsterdam was setting sail homewards 
 again, and Egede, the pioneer worker for Christ in 
 
 I, 
 
:/ 
 
 io6 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 these snowy solitudes, reluctantly stepped on board 
 to go back. For fifteen years he had laboured 
 amongst these people, and spent his strength in a 
 service as devoted as any in the annals of a mission- 
 ary enterprise. He yearned for home. His faithful 
 wife, the loving partner of his sufferings, had sickened 
 and died in his arms, and the infirm and sorrowful 
 man prepared to take her precious remains to be 
 buried in her native land. "It is known to many," 
 said he, in speaking of her, " with what patience, nay, 
 v/ith what alacrity she put her shoulder with mine, to 
 bear her part of the labours and adversities we had to 
 endure, nay, how often she comforted and cheered up 
 my mind, when it was disheartened and depressed by 
 such reiterated obstacles and repulses." He gathered 
 the people -together, and preached his farewell sermon 
 from the text, " I said I have laboured in vain, I have 
 spent my strength for naught in vain, yet surely my 
 judgment is with the Lord and my work with my 
 God." [His farewell with the Brethren was very 
 affecting; he assured them again and again of his 
 sincere love for them, and prayed that whatever of 
 the blessing of the Lord he had experienced in the 
 work might, like the prophet's mantle, rest upon them 
 with power.]3 His heart was evidently very full, when 
 in a few words of broken utterance he commended 
 Greenland to their cau. " I wish you,*' he said, "the 
 divine blessing and assistance in your call and office, 
 and I cherish a lively hope that God will still bring 
 the work in Greenland, which I must now leave full 
 of heaviness, to a glorious issue." At the close he 
 baptised a littie Greenland boy, and with a sorrowful 
 spirit sailed away. Reaching Copenhagen, he laid 
 
i 'a 
 
 PESTILENCE AND PATIENCE. 
 
 107 
 
 his wife to rest in the quiet churchyard of St. 
 Nicholas, and devoted himself then to advocate the 
 cause which he had so much at heart, and to which 
 he had given his life. His strength, however, began 
 to fail, and his closing years were spent with his 
 daughter on the Island of Falster, where on the 5th of 
 November, 1758, he passed away, in the 73rd year of 
 his age. 
 
 I 
 
 " Suffice it if— my good and ill unreckoned, 
 
 And both forgiven through Thy abounding grace — 
 I find myself by hands familiar beckoned 
 Unto my fitting place. 
 
 " Some humble door among Thy many mansions, 
 
 Some sheltering shade where sin and strivings cease, 
 Where flows for ever through heaven's green expansions 
 The river of Thy peace. 
 
 * There from the music round about one stealing, 
 
 I fain would learn the new and holy song, 
 And find at last beneath Thy tree of healing 
 
 The life for which I long." 
 
 Whittier. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 m 
 
 HOW THE GREENLANDERS LIVE. 
 
 The sheep are bleating on the snowclad wold, 
 The night is darkening, and the tempests rave ; 
 
 What faithful shepherd will the lost enfold. 
 And save the wretched from a wintry grave ? 
 
 WHEN Egede landed in Greenland, he was, as 
 has been seen, disappointed with the tippear- 
 ance of the people who were to be his future 
 care. \^They were certainly not attractive 
 In the first place he noted their diminutive size, and 
 that their faces, with high cheekbones, small noses, 
 and tawny skine, displayed a very small share of 
 intelligence. They were evidently very stupid in 
 disposition, and a nearer acquaintance revealed that 
 they were dirty and repulsive in their habits of daily 
 life.^ Such a desirable custom as washing them- 
 selves is evidently little practised, and partly in 
 consequence of this and of the constant use of train- 
 oil, which they thickly smear over their faces and 
 bodies, they grow up from being white babies at the 
 beginning to become brown, sallow and unhealthy 
 io8 
 
HOW THE GREENLANDERS LIVE. 
 
 109 
 
 
 looking. And yet they are generally rather fat and 
 well made, and notwithstanding their ill looks, con- 
 sider themselves exceedingly handsome and well 
 bred. When they come in contact with Europeans 
 they are always ready to assume their own superi- 
 ority and say if the stranger is specially shy and 
 civil, "He is almost as well bred as we," or, ** He 
 begins to be a man, that is to be a Greenlander." 
 iSuch a self-conceit, of course, is not by any means 
 peculiar to the Arctic regions, but, at any rate, in the 
 matter of personal appearance it is seldom so little 
 justifiedT] They are rather a melancholy people, little 
 disposed to make friends, and contented with their 
 position in life and the simple round of work which 
 falls daily to their share. They lack perseverance, 
 and if a thing they take in hand does not soon turn 
 out well they cast it aside ; and yet as an exception in 
 their seal fishing they can display wonderful patience, 
 sitting for hours without sound or movement waiting 
 for their game. Their clothing is simple ; the outer 
 garment, made of the skin of reindeer or seal, and 
 shaped like a waggoner's smock, is put on over 
 their heads and fastened under their chins. The 
 other garments are also made from skins, and are 
 so joined together that neither the wet, snow nor 
 the cold east wind can penetrate. The only differ- 
 ence between the dress of the men and the women 
 is that the outer tunic or smock worn by the latter is 
 made pointed in front, and the mothers have a sort of 
 burnous across their shoulder, in which the baby very 
 happily spends its earliest days. They have all very 
 black, straight hair, which the men cut short except 
 a kind of fringe over their foreheads ; but the ladies 
 
 <l 
 
i 
 
 ill' 
 
 no 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 are very proud of their tresses, and are especially 
 vain of the manner in which they dress them. They 
 gather the hair up very tightly from all sides of their 
 head and then tie it up as a knot or tuft, the most 
 fashionable being the ladies who can arrange this tuft 
 up the highest. It is held together with a band of 
 sealskin coloured, the unmarried girls wearing red, 
 
 , GKKKNLANDERS' WINTER DWELLINGS. 
 
 the married women blue, the mothers green, the 
 widows black, and the very old women white. This 
 style of cultivating the hair is not altogether con- 
 ducive to its growth, however, as the extreme tight- 
 ness of the method renders the wearer bald long 
 before old age. 
 
 The men never wear beards, and pluck out every 
 
 :'^l 
 
 i 
 
 B 
 

 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 1^ 
 
 f 
 
 ' i A 
 
 .1 
 
 
 HOW THE GREENLANDERS LIVE. 
 
 Ill 
 
 scrap of hair which appears upon their face, while the 
 women think it a mark of beauty to have a black line, 
 made of thread and soot, drawn round their chins 
 and on their cheeks. 
 
 In the summer time they live in skin tents, but in 
 winter have more permanent residences, indeed, their 
 houses are made with skill. The illustration given of 
 one of these winter dwellings is admirably described 
 by Crantz, as follows : — 
 
 "These houses are ten fathoms in breadth, and 
 from four to twelve fathoms in length, according 
 as more or fewer live in them, and just so high as a 
 person can stand erect in. They are not built under- 
 ground as is commonly thought, but on some elevated 
 place and preferable on a steep rock, becauseiiJthe 
 melted snow-water will run off the better. They lay 
 great stones upon one another near a fathom broad, 
 and layers of earth and sods between them. On 
 these walls they rest the beam the length of the 
 house ; if one beam is not long enough they join two 
 or three, or even four together with leather straps, and 
 support them with posts. They lay rafters across 
 these and small wood again between the rafters. 
 All this they cover with bilberry bushes, then with 
 turf, and last of all, throw fine earth on the top. As 
 long as it freezes, these roofs hold pretty well, but 
 when the summer rains come, they fall mostly in, and 
 both roof and wall must be repaired again the ensuing 
 autumn. They never build far from the water, 
 because they must live from the sea, and the 
 entrance is towards the seaside. These houses have 
 neither door nor chimney. The use of both is 
 supplied by a vaulted passage made of stone and 
 
 ^ 
 
112 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 1 ■■ 
 
 y\ 
 
 earth two or three fathoms long, entering through the 
 middle of the house. It is so very low that it is 
 scarcely sufficient to stoop, but one must almost 
 creep in on hands and feet, especially where we 
 first step down into the passage both from within 
 and without. This long entry keeps off the wind 
 and cold excellently, and lets out the thick air, for 
 smoke they have none.' The walls are hung inside 
 with old, worn tent and boat skins, fastened with 
 nails made of the ribs of seals; this is to keep off 
 the damps. The roof is also covered with them 
 outside. 
 
 "From the middle of the house to the wall, the 
 whole length of the house, there is a raised floor or 
 broad bench, a foot high, made of boards and covered 
 with skins. This fioor is divided into several apart- 
 ments, resembling horses' stalls, by skins reaching 
 from the posts that support the roof to the wall. 
 Each family has each a separate stall, and the 
 number of families occupying one such house are 
 from three to ten. On these floors they sleep upon 
 pelts ; they also sit upon them all the day long, the 
 men foremost with their legs hanging down, the 
 women commonly cross-legged behind them in the 
 Turkish mode. The woman cooks and sews, and the 
 man carves his tackle and tools. On the front wall of 
 the house where the entry is, are several square 
 windows the size of two full feet, made out of seals' 
 guts and halibuts* maws, and sewed so neat and tight 
 that the wind and the snow is kept out and the 
 daylight let in. A bench runs along the windows 
 the whole length of the house ; on this the strangers 
 sit and sleep. 
 
/•■ 0-. 
 
 iLLtie'''' 
 
 GREENLAXDERS AND DOGS. 
 
 113 
 
 H 
 
now THE GREENLANDERS LIVE. 
 
 115 
 
 " By every post is a fire-place. They lay a block of 
 wood upon the ground, and upon that a flat stone ; on 
 the stone a low three-legged stool hewn out of one of 
 their French chalk or soft bastard marble about a foot 
 long; and formed almost like a half- moon, it stands in 
 an oval wooden bowl to receive the train-oil that runs 
 over. In this lamp filled with train of seals, they lay 
 on the right side some moss rubbed fine, instead of 
 cotton, which bT" *ns so bright, that the house is not 
 only sufficiently lighted with so many lamps, but 
 warmed too. But the chief article is still behind — viz., 
 that over this lamp a bastard marble kettle hangs by 
 four strings fastened to the roof, which kettle is a foot 
 long and half-a-foot broad, and shaped like a longish 
 box. In this they boil all their meat. Still over that 
 they fasten a wooden rack, on which they lay their 
 wet clothes and skins to dry." 
 
 It needs scarcely be said that the atmosphere of these 
 close, unventilated rooms is most unbearably offensive. 
 Their lamps are burning day and night, and it will be 
 easily imagined how much self-denial these devoted 
 missionaries exercised, when, during that awful plague 
 they crept into such dens to tend the sick and dying. 
 I And yet the chronicler adds, " in other respects we 
 are at a loss which to admire most, their excellently 
 contrived house-keeping, which they have comprised 
 within the smallest circle, their content and satisfaction 
 in poverty, in the midst of which they imagine they 
 are richer than we, or finally, their apparent order and 
 stillness in such a narrow crowded compass." "J 
 
 Their food consists almost entirely of seal flesh or dry 
 herrings, and as they generally make but one meal 
 a-day, they eat like gluttons, and take no thought for 
 
 
 m 
 
 '1 
 
Ii6 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 }l i 
 
 1 
 
 ? i 
 
 I ) 
 
 the morrow. When they can get it they feast inordin- 
 ately, but when the seals have withdrawn in the early 
 part of the year, they have no provisions in store, and 
 suffer hunger even unto death. Their drink, in the 
 days when Egede came, was water, and the sin of 
 drunkenness was unknown. They showed their 
 abhorrence of strong liquors, calling it by the very 
 apt name of mad-water, but after a time they tasted 
 brandy and got a craving for it, and exhibited the 
 usual degradation which follows its use. 
 
 " They have two kinds of boat, the kayak for the 
 men, sharp at head and stern like a weaver's shuttle, 
 and the umiak or women's boat, exclusively used by 
 them. In the use of the kayak the Greenlander is 
 very expert, and goes through a long training to 
 qualify himself for such a dangerous craft. The great 
 peril is of being overturned by the waves, and against 
 this he arms himself for learning to turn entirely over 
 in the water, his whole body being submerged under 
 the boat, and then regaining his position by a twist of 
 the oar. The experiment is a risky one, but when 
 proficient he can without fear meet any storm or 
 calamity at sea. 
 
 "The method of catching seals is attended with 
 some danger, especially the way most common in the 
 time of Egede, called the bladder style. The Green- 
 lander sets out in his kayak with both wind and sun 
 at his back, so that the seal may neither hear nor see 
 him. Immediately it is observed coming up to the 
 surface of the water for air, he throws his harpoon 
 with trained accuracy, the same being secured to the 
 kayak by a long line. When struck, the seal dives 
 down, and the man then disengages the end of the 
 
 I 
 
now THE GREENLANDERS LIVE. 
 
 117 
 
 rope, and ties a large bladder thereto, which for a few 
 moments is also dragged under the water by the 
 wounded seal. When it comes up again another 
 small harpoon is flung at its body, and thus in time it 
 dies and is dragged after the kayak homewards. In 
 this exercise the Greenlander is exposed to the most 
 and greatest danger of his life, which is probably the 
 reason why '■hey call this hunt or fishery, kamavok, 
 i.e., the extinciion, viz., of life. For if Ihe line should 
 entangle itself, as it easily may, in its sudden and 
 
 GREENLANDERS' HOUSE FOR THREE FAMILIES. 
 
 violent motion, or if it should catch hold of the kayak 
 or wind itself round the oar, or the hand, or even 
 the neck, as it sometimes does in windy weather, or 
 if the seal should turn suddenly to the other side of 
 the boat, it cannot be otherwise than that the kayak 
 must be overturned by the string and drawn down 
 under water. On such desperate occasions the poor 
 Greenlander stands in need of all the arts already 
 described to disentangle himselt from the string, and 
 
ii8 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 to raise himself up from under the water several times 
 successively, for he will be continually overturning 
 till he has quite disengaged himself from the line. 
 Nay, when he imagines himself to be out of danger 
 and comes too near the dying seal, it may still bite him 
 in the face or hand, and a female seal that has young, 
 instead of flying the field, will sometimes fly at the 
 Greenlander in the most vehement rage and do him 
 a mischief, or bite a hole in his kayak that he must 
 sink." 
 
 In their domestic life the Greenlanders were found 
 by the missionaries to have many admirable points of 
 character. Husband and wife live happily together 
 with very few jealousies or jars, and the affection 
 which they bestow upon their children is remarkable. 
 They are brought up vithout any severe discipline, 
 and are rarely reprimanded or chastised by their 
 parents. It must be said that they deserve this kind 
 treatment, for they give little trouble, and are satisfied 
 with their simple games, and early learn to be of 
 service in the fishing or housekeeping. They are 
 amenable to kind words, and as they grow up into 
 their teens expect to be placed upon equality as 
 friends ; and any attempt to force them against their 
 inclinations to do anything is met with a distinct 
 and abrupt " I will not." One of their drawbacks is 
 that when their parents or grand-parents get advanced 
 in years they show them scant respect. The women 
 have a hard time of it. After her twentieth year she 
 becomes a perfect slave in the house, ill clad and 
 worse fed. But for all their fear, labour, and vexation 
 of spirit, the women live to a greater age than the 
 men, who are generally prematurely aged by the 
 
now THE GREENLANDERS LIVE. 
 
 119 
 
 sufferings at sea ; and by the habit of almost starv- 
 ing and then giving way to gluttony, the male sex 
 rarely live beyond fifty years. But the women hold on 
 to life until seventy, eighty, or even older, and they 
 betake themselves to witchcraft, lying, and the like, 
 for the purpose of a livelihood. 
 
 Here is a good account of their domestic felicity 
 from an eye-witness : — 
 
 "Several different families with their children of 
 divers ages live in one house, so still, circumspect, and 
 peaceful that less disturbance is perceived than in 
 many a mansion where only two families dwell, that 
 are perhaps also near relatives. And should one of 
 them imagine himself injured by others, he only 
 removes to another house without saying a murmur- 
 ing word. They are glad to be assistant to each 
 other, and live in some respects in common, yet with- 
 out one's relying upon another's labours and growing 
 negligent and idle himself. If a man returns home 
 with provision in the evening, especially with a seal 
 in winter, which are then scarce and hard to be 
 caught, he gives a portion to all in the house, even the 
 poor widows, and invites some neighbours besides to 
 partake of his good cheer. But no one asks for any- 
 thing to eat, let him be as poor and hungry as he will, 
 nor is it necessary, because hospitality is practised all 
 over the country, both toward their acquaintance and 
 strangers. This custom is the more requisite and 
 laudable, because the different seasons and occupations 
 often call them many leagues from home, and they 
 cannot find everywhere time and opportunity to 
 catch what is necessary for their subsistence." 
 
 Although a serious race they have their merry 
 
\< 
 
 f ! 
 
 I, 
 
 
 t20 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 times, and are very fond of dancing. One of their 
 principal events is the sun feast, when they assemble 
 to the sound of a small drum made of whalebone and 
 a stretched whale's tongue. One man who tattoos on 
 the drum sings some song, leaping about in indescrib- 
 able antics all the while. At the end of each stanza 
 the people round the ring join in the chorus of 
 " Amna Ajah, Ajah, ah-ah ! " and the complete 
 cantata, which is in praise of the orb of day, runs 
 thus : — 
 
 " The welcome sun returns again, 
 Amna ajah, ajah, ah-hu ! 
 And brings us weather fine and fair, 
 Amna ajah, ajah, ah-hu 1 " 
 
 (IKEliNLAND LAMP. 
 
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 runs 
 
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 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 I 
 
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 1 
 
 THEIR RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 " As through the glimmering veil of early dawn 
 In outline blurred appears each flower and tree, 
 So sees the heathen, in his darkness bom, 
 Through brightening haze, the Christ that is to be." 
 
 IN order to thoroughly understand the work of 
 Egede and his successors in the Greenland 
 mission field, it will be necessary to know what 
 was the religion already possessed by the natives 
 before the Gospel came to their ears and understand- 
 ing. Previous to the missionaries coming, the common 
 report given by the sailors who had had intercourse 
 with the people was that they were gross and cruel 
 idolaters, worshipping the sun, and believing very 
 strongly in the devil. This notion of thfjir worship no 
 doubt arose from noticing their practice of standing in 
 crowds in certain places in the early morning to see 
 
 121 
 
122 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 the sun rise, not, however, as an act of adoration, but 
 in order that they might judge the coming weather. 
 In like manner the sailors had found altars of stone, 
 upon which were remains of fire and bones, and from 
 this slender evidence they assumed that the natives 
 had there sacrificed to the Evil One ! But a closer 
 acquaintance with the people by the missionaries soon 
 disclosed the fact that these were simply the places 
 where the Greenlanders dressed and cooked their 
 food, and that while, in common with all heathen 
 everywhere, they had a strong belief in the devil, there 
 was no trace of any worship to him being found. It 
 would be hardly just to speak of them as having no 
 religion because there was no public acknowledgment 
 of theif Deity and no places of worship, for they proved, 
 in many cases, to be a very intelligent and thoughtful 
 people, who, notwithstanding a sort of native stupidity, 
 were always willing to discuss and consider any new 
 views about the Divine Being and the future state. As 
 an instance of this the following may be cited : — " A 
 missionary once being in company with some bap- 
 tised Greenlanders, expressed his wonder how they 
 could formerly lead such a senseless life, void of reflec- 
 tion. Upon this one of them answered as follows : — 
 * It is true we were ignorant heathens and knew 
 nothing of a God or a Saviour, and indeed, who 
 should tell us of Him until you came? But thou 
 must not imagine that no Greenlander thinks about 
 these things. I myself have often thought. A kayak 
 with all its tackle and implements does not grow into 
 existence of itself, and must be made by the labour 
 and ingenuity of man, and one that does not under- 
 stand it v/ould directly spoil it. Now the meanest 
 
 ^y 
 
THEIR RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 1 23 
 
 O 
 
 bird has far more skill displayed in its structure than 
 the best kayak, and no man can make a bird. But 
 there is a still far greater art shown in the formation 
 of a man than of any other creature. Who was it 
 that made him 1* I bethought me he proceeded from 
 his parents and they from their parents. But some 
 must have been the first parents ; whence did they 
 come? Common report informs me they grew out 
 of the earth. But, if so, why does it not still happen 
 that man grows out of the earth ? And from whence 
 did this same earth itself, the sea, the sun, the moon, 
 and stars, arise into existence ? Certainly there must 
 be some Being who made all these things, a Being 
 that always was and can never cease to be. He must 
 be inexpressibly more mighty, knowing, and wise, 
 than the wisest man. He must be very good too, 
 because everything that He has made is good, useful, 
 and necessary for us. Ah ! did I but know Him, 
 how would I love and honour Him ? But who has 
 seen Him? Who has ever conversed with Him? 
 None of us poor men. Yet there may be men too 
 that know something of Him ; oh, could I but speak 
 with such! Therefore (said he), as soon as ever 
 I heard you speak of this great Being, I believed it 
 directly with all my heart, because I had so long 
 desired to hear it. ' " 
 
 Another added his testimony in these words: — 
 "A man is quite different from the beasts. The 
 brutes have no understanding, but they serve for food 
 to each other, and also for the use of man. But man 
 has an intelligent soul, is subject to no creature in the 
 world, and yet man is afraid of the future state. 
 Who is it that he is afraid of there ? That must be 
 
124 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 a great Spirit that has dominion over us. Oh, did we 
 but know Him ; oh, had we but Him for our friend." 
 Surely these were sincere seekers after God. Although 
 a few of the Greenlanders professed to believe in no 
 difference between the man and the beast as regards 
 the soul, the majority held a strong belief in the soul, 
 together with some strange notions relating thereto. 
 Thus, some believed that the soul increased or 
 decreased, and at will might leave the body with 
 apparent effect ; others held that every one had two 
 souls — viz , the shadow and the breath of man, and 
 that in the night season this volatile shadow escapes 
 and goes hunting, dancing, or travelling. This is 
 accounted for by the lively dreams of the Green- 
 landers. There were also traces amongst these 
 people of a belief in the transmigration of the soul, 
 especially in the case of deceased children, whose 
 souls are supposed to inhabit their surviving brothers 
 and sisters. 
 
 As regards their ideas of a future state, they have 
 a general impression that it will in any case be better 
 than the present. Crantz, in a very clear and 
 interesting manner, thus describes their belief in this 
 respect : — " As the Greenlanders acquire the most and 
 best of their sustenance from the bosom of the sea, 
 therefore, many or most of them place their elysium 
 in the abysses of the ocean or the bowels of the earth, 
 and think the deep cavities of the rocks are the 
 avenues leading thereto. There dwells Torngarsuk 
 and his mother, there a joyous summer is perpetual, 
 and a shining sun is obscured by no night, there is 
 the fair, limpid stream, an J an exuberance of fowls, 
 fishes, reindeer, and their beloved seals ; and these are 
 
THEIR RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 12$ 
 
 all to be caught without toil, nay, they are even 
 found in a great kettle boiling alive. But to these 
 seals none must approach but those that have been 
 dexterous and diligent at their work (for this is their 
 grand idea of virtue), that have performed great 
 exploits, have mastered many whales and seals, have 
 undergone great hardships, have been drowned in the 
 sea, or died in childbed. Hence it is obvious they had 
 formerly a tradition that good would be rewarded. 
 But to proceed, the disembodied soul does not enter 
 dancing into the elysium fields, but must spend five 
 whole days, and some say longer, in sliding down a 
 rugged rock which is thereby become full of blood 
 and gore. I cannot say whether the ground of this 
 fable was a notion of the purgation of the soul ; or 
 only in general that one is to ^a.ss/>er aspera adastra. 
 Those unfortunate souls that are obliged to perform 
 this rough journey in the cold winter, or in boisterous 
 weather, are peculiar objects of their pity, because 
 they may be easily destroyed on the road, which 
 destruction they call the second death, and describe 
 it as perfect extinction, and this is the most dreadful 
 consideration of all to them. Therefore, during these 
 fiv2 days or upwards, the surviving relatives must 
 abstain from certain meats and from all noisy work 
 (except the necessary fishing), that the soul may not 
 be disturbed in its perilous passage, or even perish. 
 Hence it might be supposed that their ancestors, 
 perhaps, offered some oblations for the departed souls 
 of their relations ; at least, this is quite discernible 
 that the stupid Greenlanders as well as the sensible 
 ancient heathens conceive a horror at the thoughts of 
 the entire annihilation of the soul. 
 
 < 
 
126 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 PiU 
 
 m 
 
 
 " Others, that are charmed with the beauty of the 
 celestial bodies, soar beyond the rainbow to the 
 loftiest sky to seek their paradise there ; and they 
 imagine the flight thither is so easy and rapid that 
 the soul rests the same evening in the mansion of the 
 moon, who was a Greenlander, and there it can dance 
 and play at ball with the rest of the souls ; for they 
 interpret the northern lights to be the dance of 
 sportive souls. There the souls are placed in tents 
 round a vast lake where fish and fowl abound. 
 When this lake overflows it rains upon the earth, but 
 should once the dam break there would be a general 
 deluge. 
 
 " But the first of the sects maintain that none but 
 the worthless, lazy wretches ascend up into the aerial 
 void and find there a great famine of all things, for 
 which reason the souls are exceedingly meagre, weak, 
 and languid, especially as they can have no repose on 
 account of the rapid rotation of the heavens ; that 
 wicked people and witches especially are to be 
 banished thither, and they will be so infested with 
 ravens that they will not be able to keep them off" 
 their hair. But the last sect think they know their 
 destiny better ; they shall associate with a group of 
 souls like themselves, and shall feed upon nothing 
 but seals' heads, which will never be consumed." 
 
 It is always curious to discover in lands which for 
 the first time become accessible to the outer world, 
 traces in their religious belief and doctrine of the 
 facts and teaching of Holy Scriptures. Traditions of 
 the creation, the flood, and the judgment to come, 
 are everywhere cropping up in the language and 
 religious thought of the people. When Egede went to 
 
THEIR RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 1 27 
 
 Greenlard he found that they called the first created 
 man, Kallak, who is reported to have sprung out of 
 the earth and that his wife sprung out of his thumb, 
 and that they became the first parents of the race. 
 The fall they ascribed to a saying of the woman, " Let 
 these die to make room for their posterity," and thus 
 
 1 
 
 SUMMER TUPICS OR TENTS. 
 
 death entered into the world. They have many 
 traditions of the flood, speaking of one man only 
 being saved from the general destruction, and that he 
 afterwards smote the ground with his stick and out 
 sprang a woman, who, like a second Eve, repeopled 
 
128 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 the world. And they point, as evidence of the flood, 
 to the sea-shells and bones of whales on the tops of 
 high mountains far inland. 
 
 Respecting the resurrection of the dead, Mr. Paul 
 Egede, who took up his father's work and deserves to 
 inherit some of his father's fame, discovered amongst 
 the Greenlanders a belief that in distant periods of 
 time all mankind will have ceased to live, and that '..6 
 earth will then be dashed to pieces and purified fom 
 the contamination of the dead by a vast flood of 
 water. Then shall blow a wind gathering the clean 
 washed dust together, and a more beautiful world will 
 replace the old. There will then be no more bare and 
 barren rocks but lovely fields overspread with verdure 
 and perpetual delights. The animals will be reani- 
 mated, but men, Pirksoma^ this is what they say is 
 their portion, "Then He that is above will breathe 
 upon them and they shall live," 
 
 Correctly speaking, the Greenlanders acknowledge 
 but one Deity, the good and great spirit Torngarsuk. 
 They do not credit him with the creation of all things, 
 but they know that after death they go to him and 
 become strong through his strength. He is their 
 superior or supreme god, just as Jupiter or Pluto 
 were regarded by the ancients, but they do not 
 render him any worship or special honour. It is 
 possible that in ages past a more definite creed was 
 accompanied by some sort of adoration and even 
 sacrifice, but if a Greenlander is seen setting apart 
 a piece of blubber or seal's flesh near a great stone, 
 he can give no other explanation of his action than 
 that his forefathers did the same to insure success in 
 their fishing. 
 
in 
 
 THEIR RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 1 29 
 
 They are, however, taught to believe in another 
 spirit who has no name, but is known as a malevolent 
 woman, a horrible Proserpine living in the infernal 
 regions under the sea. There, she is supposed to 
 exert great influence, holding the creatures of the 
 ocean in her thrall by a magic lamp. But she may 
 be conquered by the angekok, who, when calamities 
 come, is supposed to make a journey to her under 
 the guidance of his own particular familiar spirit. 
 The description of his passage thither is full of 
 fantastic horrors until he approaches the abyss or 
 awful vacuum, in front of which a wheel of ice revolves 
 with terrific rapidity. After that he has a conflict 
 with the goddess and destroys her enchantments 
 
 But the religion of these Greenlanders is embodied 
 in the influence of the angekoks or priests — perhaps a 
 better term would be magicians. Like the priests 
 everywhere they profess to stand between the great 
 spirit who can harm and the human victim. Their 
 assumption of power is most astounding, but the 
 poor, superstitious people dare not, even if they felt 
 they ought, oppose their wishes or discredit their 
 powers. Every angekok professes to have an attend- 
 ant spirit, and, like the mediums of a later day, are 
 constantly pretending to transmit messages from the 
 unseen to a gaping and credulous crowd. He reminds 
 che people that the air is full of apparitions of the 
 departed whom he alone can see, and one of Egede's 
 sons was told by a boy that on one occasion 
 he was playing with other boys in broad daylight 
 when he was taken hold of by his mother who had 
 been buried there and who said, " Do not be fright- 
 ened, I am thy mother and love thee, thou wilt live 
 
 I 
 
130 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 with strange people who will instruct thee concerning 
 Him who made heaven and earth." 
 
 Before a man can become an angekok, he has to 
 pass through a long and painful preparation, retiring 
 like the Indian holy men from all familiar sights and 
 sounds, there in his lonely hermitage to meditate and 
 call upon his god to send him a torngak, or familiar 
 spirit. When fully gratified, he allows himself to be 
 bound, and then in the dark goes off into a sort of 
 convulsion, during which his soul is supposed to make 
 the fateful journey to the shades. When it returns, 
 he utters shouts of joy, and like the Delphian oracle, 
 gives the message in such an obscure manner, that 
 any subsequent event will be made to fit the prophecy. 
 
 Such men of course formed the principal and 
 inveterate opposition to the missionaries.(^Egede took 
 great pains and made himself liable to great dangers, 
 in orler to expose their fraudulent practices?? But such 
 was the influence of the angekok, that it was difficult to 
 make the common folk believe that they were being 
 imposed upon. The historian of the time very fairly 
 sums up the character of these maj^icians. After 
 describing their extravagant claims, he goes on to 
 say: — 
 
 " This is so very coarse that the fraud betrays itself. 
 The missionaries have also pointed it out to the Green- 
 landers quite plainly on many occasions, but they 
 have never found any adequate ground to charge these 
 poor people with a real dealing with Satan. Neither 
 ought they all in a lump to be pronounced mere 
 jugglers. There are some sensible, ingenious persons 
 among them, though their number is but small ; others 
 are real phantasts, to whom something uncommon 
 
THEIR RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND SUPERSTITIONS. I31 
 
 may have happened ; but the most are bare-faced 
 deceivers. 
 
 " The sensible ones, whom we might call wise men, 
 or genuine angekoks (for the word implies almost as 
 much as a great and wise man), these, I say, have 
 acquired a certain knowledge of nature, partly from 
 the instructions of their predecessors, and partly 
 through their own reflections and experiences, from 
 which they may draw a pretty good conclusion of the 
 weather, or a good or bad fishery, and consequently 
 can advise people how to proceed in this and the 
 other case. Their regimen with the sick is the same ; 
 they mean no other but to cheer up the patient, 
 though legerdemain is the principal ingredient in the 
 cordial, and as long as they themselves have any hopes 
 of a recovery they will do their best to cure them, 
 mostly by a diet that indeed is not so very ridiculous 
 in many respects. And as their good understanding 
 and conduct raises them to much .epute, that others 
 regulate themselves by them, they may be character- 
 ised as the virtuosos, philosophers, physicians, and 
 moralists of the Greenlanders, as well as their deceivers. 
 
 "When Europeans talk solidly with such sooth- 
 sayers, they bring the apparitions or conversations 
 with the spirits, and all the prodigies connected with 
 it ; but they allege the traditions of their progenitors, 
 who, however, are affirmed to have had revelations, 
 and to have performed extraordinary cures, which 
 were mostly of the sympathetic kind. They confess 
 they were obliged to pretend certain visions, and to 
 make portentious gesticulations to raise their credit 
 among the simple people, and to give weight to their 
 prescriptions." 
 
'32 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 The Greenlanders are great believers in the efficacy 
 of amulets and charms. They generally are adorned 
 with mysterious relics, bits of old wood, stones, bones ; 
 or a piece of leather will answer the purpose. When 
 they go to the whale fishing, they must be all cleanly 
 dressed, and all the lamps in the tent must be extin- 
 guished. They fasten to their kayak a model of it, 
 with a little figure of a man holding a sword in his 
 hand, so that they may not be over-set, and the pos- 
 session of foxes' teeth and the talons of the eagle are 
 of special value against accident or sickness. One of 
 their curious burial customs, when committing to the 
 earth the body of a child, is to put a dog's head also 
 in the grave to lead the little spirit to the land of the 
 eternally blest. 
 
 And yet with all their ignorance and superstitions, 
 these poor Greenlanders in many cases lived righteous 
 lives, and acted in a manner which might well be 
 taken as an example by the more enlightened Christ- 
 ians in Europe. Their lack of knowledge and bondage 
 to false ideas of religion, made <-he heart of Egede 
 beat in true sympathy for them. In the British 
 Museum is an ancient little volume containing his 
 words, while still valiantly striving to win these 
 precious souls for his Master. In an address in which 
 he has been evidently pleading the cause so dear to 
 his heart, he uses words which may fitly close this 
 present chapter. 
 
 " The knowledge of God is undoubtedly that which 
 affords the greatest happiness to mankind, as the 
 want of it makes one the most wretched of all beings. 
 But who would dare to deny it if I should find out 
 somebody yet more wretched than they ? And such 
 
THEIR KELICIOUS IDEAS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 1 33 
 
 there are who have been blessed with a true know- 
 ledge of God, yet do nevertheless refuse Him that 
 obedience, which as our Creator and Master, and in 
 regard of our redemption and a thousand other 
 particular kindnesses. He has the best of titles to 
 demand, according as He requires it of us in His 
 Holy Word. If the life of the Greenlanders, which 
 we call poor and despicable, with respect to moral- 
 ity, be compared to that of the most pretended 
 Christians, I am afraid they will confound them in 
 the Day of Judgment. For though they have no 
 law, yet, by the light of nature, they do some of the 
 works of the law, as the Apostle says in Romans ii. 
 
 " What thoughts will any one harbour who seriously 
 considers the predominant passions, as greediness 
 after gain, covetousneas, unmeasured ambition, and 
 pride, sumptuous, voluptuous, and prodigal lives, every 
 hatred and mutual persecutions and innumerable 
 other vices and crimes of most Christians ? Can any 
 one help thinking that such evildoers (the remotest 
 from the life which is God alone) must be deemed the 
 most unhappy of all ? Whilst on the other hand, the 
 Greenlanders pass their lives, as I may say, in mutual 
 innocence and simplicity. Their desires do not 
 extend further than to necessary things ; pomp and 
 pride is unknown to them ; hatred, envy, and persecu- 
 tion never plagued them ; neither do they affect the 
 dominion one over another. In short, every one is 
 contented with his own state and condition, and is 
 not tormented with unnecessary cares. 
 
 " Is this not the greatest happiness in this life ? O 
 happy people ! What better things can one wish you 
 than what you already possess ? Have you no riches ? 
 
 1^ 
 
?A 
 
 
 134 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 yet poverty does not trouble you. Have you no 
 superfluity? yet you suffer no want. Is there no 
 pomp or pride to be seen among you? Neither is 
 there any slight or scorn to be met with. Is there no 
 nobility or rank among you ? Neither is there any 
 slavery or bondage. What is sweeter than liberty? 
 And what is happier than contentedness ? But one 
 thing is yet wanting. I mean the saving knowledge 
 of God, and His dear Son, Jesus Christ, in which 
 alone consists eternal life and happiness. And 
 this is what we offer you in preaching to you the 
 Holy Gospel ! Now God, who bade light to shine 
 forth in darkness, enlighten your hearts in the light of 
 the knowledge of God's glorious appearance through 
 Christ Jesus; may He deliver your souls from the 
 serving of the devil, and of sinful lusts as you are free 
 from corporeal bondage, to the end that you always 
 may be free with the Lord, both in soul and body. 
 Amen." 
 
u no 
 •e no 
 ler is 
 re no 
 
 any 
 erty? 
 
 one 
 
 edge 
 
 vhich 
 
 And 
 
 1 the 
 
 shine 
 
 i^htof 
 
 •ough 
 
 b the 
 
 e free 
 
 Iways 
 
 body. 
 
 ' 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE STORY OF KAJARNAK. 
 
 ** He touched his eyes and there was light, 
 He filled his heart with love Divine, 
 And all his powers v;ith new delight 
 And heavenly radiance do shine." 
 
 HITHERTO the work in Greenland, as far as 
 the Moravian Brethren were concerned, had 
 the disadvantage of being represented only 
 by men. The importance of a Christian 
 woman, who should undertake to bring her own sex 
 among the Greenlanders under the influence of the 
 Gospel, had been verified in the case of the devoted 
 wife of Hans Egede. What she had been to her 
 husband in the perilous and self-denying labour, to 
 which he had devoted his life, it would be difficult to 
 estimate. Her husband spoke very touchingly of her 
 character after her lamented death. Specially he 
 laid stress upon the patient faithfulness with which 
 she stood by him, when hard pressed and tried. 
 Referring to the time when they first came out, he 
 says, "Though friends and relations vehemently impor- 
 ts 
 
136 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 .■ 
 
 tuned her, that if she had any regard for her own, for 
 mine, or for our small children's temporal welfare, she 
 should dissuade and withstand me in this project, so 
 absurd and frantic in the eyes of all men ; yet, out of 
 love to God and me, she was induced to join heart 
 and hand with me in my undertaking, and like a 
 faithful Sarah, to go with her Abraham from her own 
 people and from her father's house, not to some 
 paradise, but to a strange and disagreeable heathen 
 land." Woman's work in the mission field is an ele- 
 ment of admitted value to-day, and it was highly 
 esteemed then, when one of the ships brought, as new 
 auxiliaries, the mother of Matthew Stach, a widow 
 of forty-five years, and her two daughters, Rosina, 
 aged twenty-two, and Anna, twelve, to the colony 
 of New Herrnhut. These new and welcome arrivals 
 soon set to work putting the domestic house in order, 
 which no doubt greatly required the touch of a 
 woman's hand. They then began to study the 
 language in earnest, and soon were able to speak to 
 the Greenland women in the settlement If they had 
 imagined, however, that the natives would be equally 
 pleased to receive them, they speedily found out their 
 mistake, for the Greenlanders seemed at that time to 
 persecute the Brethren with bitter animosity. They 
 taunted them for their poverty, and when in reply the 
 missionaries assured them that they had not come for 
 any outward advantages, for money, or food, or drink- 
 ing, but for their souls' sake, to teach them the will 
 of God, they shouted : " Illivse Ajokarsaromarpisiguttl^ 
 which meant, "Fine fellows, indeed, to be our teachers! 
 We know very well that you yourselves are ignorant, 
 and must learn your lesson off others." 
 
 j? 
 
 
 I 
 
 f/ 
 
^ 
 
 THE STORY OF KAJARNAK. 137 
 
 The Brethren, like the Society of Friends, met this 
 ill-usage with the policy of non-resistance. They 
 were indeed as sheep in the midst of wolves, and like 
 
 .) 
 
 t 
 
 % 
 
 MATTHEVV STACH. 
 
 the early Christians, when, beset by the pagan ferocity 
 of their day, they suffered humbly for Christ's sake. 
 Their assailants pelted them with stones, climbed 
 upon their backs, and offer.^d them every conceivable 
 
138 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 f 
 
 i 
 
 insult, and took delight in breaking everything with- 
 in reach in their dwellings; one night, indeed, they 
 had a very narrow escape of their lives. They had 
 taken shelter in their tent, and finding someone out- 
 side cutting the skins which curtained their retreat, 
 they hurried forth to find a number of Greenlanders 
 with naked knives in their hands. They were after- 
 wards told that the attack was an organised conspiracy 
 to take their lives while asleep. Complaints were 
 now made to the Factor of the Danish settlement of 
 Good Hope, who admonished the natives and \^ jirned 
 them of the consequences of their perfidy to the 
 Brethren at New Herrnhut. But, such a reception 
 was very disheartening, and their faith was sorely 
 tried. With meekness, enduring and bravely working 
 on, they seemed at times to be spending their strength 
 for naught. Then God would g^ant them a glint of 
 light, shining through the dark cloud of disappoint- 
 ment. Thus we find one of the Brethren, in his 
 letter home in the summer of 1736, gratefully recorded 
 this fact : — 
 
 ** On 4th May we went to the Sound to pierce cat- 
 fish with a prong, and pitched our tent adjoining to 
 four Greenland tents. But they soon decamped and 
 fled farther because they did not like our being there. 
 While we were fishing on the 7th, a perfectly strange 
 heathen, who arrived this spring fifty leagues off from 
 the South, came to us and desired to see our things. 
 We showed what things we had, supposing that he 
 wanted to barter some Greenland food for our iron 
 ware. But he remained quite still for a while. At 
 length he said he had been with the Pellesse (which is 
 their way of pronouncing the Danish word Praest or 
 
 
THE STORY OF KAJARNAK. 
 
 139 
 
 ' 
 
 4' 
 
 minister) who had told him wonderful things of Cne 
 that they said had made heaven and earth, and was 
 called Gud. Did we know anything about it ? If we 
 did we should tell him something more, because he 
 had forgot a great deal since. This made a deep 
 impression on us, and we told him as well as we 
 could of the creation of man and the intent thereof, of 
 the fall and corruption of nature, of the redemption 
 effected by Christ, of the resurrection of all men' and 
 eternal happiness or damnation. He listened very 
 attentively to all that was said, stayed at our evening 
 meeting, and slept all night in our tent. 
 
 " Now, dear brethren, this is the first Greenlander 
 that has come to inquire of us concerning God and 
 Divine things ; those in the neighbourhood have done 
 no such thing, though spiritual writings have been 
 read to them so many years. Therefore bring your 
 offerings and prayers before the Lord that He may 
 arise and build His Zion even on this desert." 
 
 The sparseness of results had caused some to lose 
 heart at home about the work, aiid a writer in 
 mockery applied to the Greenland Brethren the words 
 of the ancient poet : — 
 
 " Nos numeros fumus et fruges consumere nati." 
 
 It is related that when this taunt was seen by 
 Count Zinzendorf he spread the criticism before the 
 Lord as Hezekiah did his letter, and prayed earnestly 
 that He would remove the reproach from the Brethren 
 who were witnessing for the faith in Greenland. His 
 prayer was shortly answered in a remarkable con- 
 version. The Brethren in their work at New 
 Herrnhut had to contend with a difficulty which did 
 
 : 
 
140 
 
 AMID GREE>JLAND SNOWS. 
 
 % 
 
 51 
 
 not stand in the way of Egede. Many of the Green- 
 landers had for years lived near the Danish Settle- 
 ment at Balls River, and had heard the truths of the 
 Gospel so often that, instead of being wise unto 
 salvation, their teaching had made them harder. 
 They were ready enough to listen to any of the 
 stories out of the Bible, but when the personal 
 application came, and the missionaries urged upon 
 them the need of repentance and a saving knowledge 
 of Jesus Christ, they grew inattentive and began to 
 excuse themselves by saying that the truth was 
 beyond their comprehension. How remarkable is 
 the unity of unbelief as well as of faith in all ages, 
 will be seen by the following reply which these poor 
 Greenlanders gave, reasoning wh}' they should take 
 up and be satisfied with what we should call in our 
 enlightened day the Agnostic question as regards 
 religion. 
 
 " Show us the God you describe, then we will believe 
 in Him and serve Him? You represent 'Him too 
 sublime and incomprehensible ; how shall we come at 
 Him? Neither will He trouble Himself about us. 
 We have invoked Him when we had nothing to eat 
 or when we have been sick, but it is as if He would 
 not hear us. We think what you say of Him is not 
 true. Or if you know Him better than we, then do 
 you by your prayers obtain for us sufficient food, a 
 healthy body, and dry house, and that is all we desire 
 or v^'ant. Our soul is healthy already, and nothing is 
 wanting if we have but a sound body and enough to eat. 
 You are another sort of folk than we ; in your country 
 people may perhaps have diseased souls, and, indeed, 
 we see instances enough in those that come here that 
 
THE STORY OF KAJARNAK. 
 
 141 
 
 they are good for nothing ; they may stand in need 
 of a Saviour and of a Physician for the soul. Your 
 heaven and your spiritual joys and felicities may be 
 good enough for you, but this would be too tedious 
 for us. We must have seals, fishes, and birds. Our 
 soul can no more subsist without them than our 
 bodies. We shall not find these in your heaven, 
 therefore we will leave your heaven to you and the 
 worthless part of the Greenlanders ; but, as for us, we 
 will go down to Torngarsuk, where we shall find an 
 exuberance of everything without any trouble." 
 
 After five years' toil in the Greenland field, Christian 
 Stach returned to Europe to advocate the cause, and 
 the youngest of the remaining missionaries, Frederick 
 Boehnish, composed some verses descriptive of their 
 position and prospects. This poetry may not be 
 distinguished by any extraor Unary merit as a com- 
 position, but as it was written on the spot by one of 
 the workers, a few verses deserve to be rescued from 
 the oblivion of the past and find a place in these 
 pages. 
 
 " Here is a little company, 
 Who through Thy grace have chosen Thee, 
 Who count the tedious hours and days. 
 Till Thou diffuse Thy cheering rays ; 
 And bid us let these heathen know, 
 Thy grace, Thy choice, enfolds them too, 
 For Thou art He, the Scripture calls 
 The Saviour, promised unto souls. 
 
 i 
 
 \ 
 
 " On every side, their hearts are hard, 
 With locks and bolts secured and barred. 
 If we accost the hoary head, 
 He gives no ear to what is said ; 
 
::1 
 
 . i 
 
 142 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 Or tell the children of the star 
 That brought the wise men from afar, 
 To see the Child for heathens born, 
 They call the wise men fools in scorn. 
 
 " Yet certainly, 'twould be a shame 
 To see no more of that love's flame, 
 Which Jesus felt for every soul, 
 Here in this frigid, northern pole j 
 Particularly, since we stand 
 United in the Brethren's band. 
 O, my Immanuel, no land, 
 Can Thy grace at this hour withstand.'* 
 
 The confidence which is breathed in these lines was 
 soon to be justified, and the faithful few at New 
 Herrnhut would have cause to rejoice. And their 
 labours were not altogether in vain. The first con- 
 version was the result of a famine ; the seal fishing 
 had everywhere failed, and therefore the staple 
 support of the Greenlanders was taken away, so that 
 day after day crowds of famishing people gathered 
 at the door of the mission-house begging for bread. 
 This was given as freely as their limited supplies 
 would allow. Among these applicants was a Green- 
 lander named Mangek, who further asked permission 
 to live with the Brethren and he would give them in 
 exchange all the fish which he caught At first they 
 were suspicious of his sincerity and quite expected 
 to see him disappear some evening, possibly with 
 some of their provisions. But to their surprise and 
 joy he listened eagerly to their instruction, and it was 
 evident that God had begun a work of grace in his 
 heart. He would often speak to them of the love of 
 Jesus until the tears roiled down his cheeks. The 
 
 
THE STORY OF KAJARNAK. 
 
 143 
 
 Brethren rejoiced that in this stranger they w -^ now 
 able to recognise a veritable brother in the Lord. 
 But the conversion of Mangek was not so remark- 
 
 JOHIj[ BECK AND KAJARNAK. 
 
 able as that which shall now be recorded. One of 
 the missionaries who had come out from Europe with 
 Frederick Boehnish was John Beck, a man lull of grace 
 
144 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 
 m 
 
 and specially valuable in having rapidly acquired the 
 Greenland tongue. One evening he was sitting in 
 his hut patiently translating the Evangelists when 
 the place speedily filled with a number of Green- 
 landers from the south. They were curious to know 
 what was in the book upon the table. Beck read to 
 them some pas.jages out of the Bible referred to, and 
 after a few words of explanation asked them pointedly 
 whether they believed they had an immortal soul. 
 They answered " Yes, yes ; " and, in reply to another 
 question, they told him that when their bodies died 
 their souls would go up yonder or down in the 
 abyss — they could not say which. Questioned as to 
 the creation of the world, they told the missionary 
 that they had never heard and therefore they did not 
 know, but it must have been certainly the work of 
 a great and opulent Lord. Then John Beck felt his 
 heart greatly moved towards these simple inquirers, 
 and preached to them salvation by the blood of Jesus, 
 His words made a great impression, and amid pro- 
 found sihnce one of the company, Kajarnak by name, 
 stepped up to the table and in a voice trembling with 
 emotion asked, "How is that? Tell me that once 
 more, for I would fain be saved too." 
 
 No wonder that John Beck, in telling this incident 
 in one of his letters, adds, " These words, the like of 
 which I had never heard from a Greenlander before, 
 penetrated through my very marrow and bone, and 
 kindled my soul into such an ardour that I gave the 
 Greenlanders a general account of our Saviour's 
 whole life and death, and of the counsel of God for 
 our salvation, while the tears ran down my cheeks." 
 The effects of his words were varied ; some slipped 
 
 ■ 
 
THE STORY OF KAJARNAK. 
 
 H5 
 
 quietly away, while others waited with imploring words 
 that they, too, might be taught to pray and receive 
 a blessing from God. Kajarnak, especially, promised 
 to consider these things and come another night, 
 joined in the prayers with the Brethren, and next 
 day went away saying that he would now go to his 
 tent and tell his family, and particularly his little son, 
 what great things the Lord had done for him. " We 
 discern," is the comment of the missionary, " more and 
 more that Kajarnak has got a hook in his breast that 
 he will scarce lose again." 
 
 From this time he became a regular visitor at the 
 mission-house, and as a result of his testimony and 
 change of life his family or tent companions, nine in 
 number, were also brought to Christ ; and three whole 
 families of his friends came and pitched their tents 
 near the mission buildings, so that they also might 
 hear the word of life. Much of this affection for the 
 Brethren and the truths they taught did not appear 
 very lasting, however, as many of these natives went 
 away at the time of the reindeer hunt and did not 
 return. Poor Kajarnak was now left, almost without 
 the means of subsistence ; and much of the mocking 
 taunts which the Brethren had endured so meekly, 
 were now turned upon him. When they spoke 
 despisingly of the tiachers he earnestly replied, 
 " And yet I will stay with them and hear the words 
 of God which have now tasted so well to me." Ka- 
 jarnak did his utmost to restrain the Greenlanders 
 from their cruel customs and superstitions ; many of 
 them the Brethren had to witness, and were without 
 power to prevent them. An old woman had died, pre- 
 sumably, one night, and her son according to their 
 
 K 
 
146 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 custom tied her up in a skin. She began to cry out, 
 and three times he released her to see whether she 
 were really alive, and finally let her loose because the 
 missionary entreated him to do so ; but afterwards she 
 was bound again and buried alive. It was observed 
 that afterwards they made the sign of the cross on the 
 snow everywhere as they drew her along that her 
 spirit might not come back to disturb them. A 
 strange relic evidently of some old Christian tradi- 
 tion f^om the ancient colony of Northmen. 
 
 After careful preparation, for these Brethren were in 
 no hurry to make their converts profess too speedily, 
 Kajarnak and his family were admitted by the ordi- 
 nances of baptism into the Christian Church and fellow- 
 ship on Easter Day, 1739, and the scene is thus 
 briefly but strikingly described by the chronicler : — 
 
 "The minister first asked them before the whole 
 assembly the ground of the hope that was in them, 
 which they gave a simple account of, and promised 
 with their heart and tongue to renounce all heathen- 
 ism, to abide with their teachers, and to walk worthy 
 of the Gospel. Thus these four first fruits of the 
 Greenland natives were declared free from the powers 
 of darkness, and devoted to their lawful, proper Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Chrfst, during a powerful prayer 
 and imposition of hands, and thereupon were embodied 
 with the Christian Church by baptism into the name 
 of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
 
 Kajarnak received the name Samuel, his wife 
 Anna, his son Matthew, and his daughter Aima. An 
 amazing grace prevailed during the transactions, not 
 only in the hearts of those then baptised, whose tears 
 dropped like rain, but also of the beholders, who 
 
THE STORY OF KAJAKNAK. 
 
 t47 
 
 '.vished to be in like manner partakers of the same 
 blessing, with the hopes of which they were comforted, 
 after being exhorted to surrender up their hearts to 
 the Spirit of God. The word for the day was very 
 significant, being Ezek. xxxvii. 26, 27 and 28, " I will 
 make a covenant of peace with them ; it shall be an 
 everlasting covenant with them : and I will place them, 
 and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the 
 midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also 
 
 ■.* -■ . 
 
 ,rggir!TTr..'!f.:/::iy; 
 
 
 mi 
 
 tfi-'i' 
 
 
 ininlyf 
 
 f-ti»«; 
 
 XI<U' 
 
 tx try "T'-.niMi^J;/: 
 
 ran 
 
 
 '^IM» 
 
 JOHN beck's bible. 
 
 shall be with them : yea, I will be their God, and they 
 shall be my people. And the heathen shall know 
 that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary 
 shall be in the midst of them for evermore." 
 
 Scarcely had this solemn dedication taken place 
 when the event occurred which seemed for a time to 
 destroy the happiness of the new converts. News 
 came to the Mission that a band of murderers from 
 the north had killed the brother-in-law of Kajarnak. 
 
148 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 Under some deception they decoyed him into the sea 
 at Kangek, and stabbed him to death with their har- 
 poons. Not only so but they openly threatened to do 
 the same to Kajarnak, and any of those in the Mission 
 colony. Amid great consternation the ringleader of 
 the band and some of his followers were brought to 
 justice by the Europeans, and although he confessed 
 three other murders they exercised great clemency in 
 simply reading to him the twelve commandments, and 
 setting him free again with a warning. Kajarnak, 
 however, was greatly alarmed, and against the urgent 
 entreaties of his friends he insisted on leaving New 
 Herrnhut to conduct the brother of the murdered ma 
 in safety to the south. When he went they com- 
 mended him to God with many tears, and were grieved 
 to see that nearly all his people departed with him. 
 For a whole year he was absent, but during that time, 
 and on his return, he very earnestly testified among 
 his fellow Greenlanders what good things the Lord 
 had done for his soul. On one occasion when he was 
 invited by some natives to join in a dance at the sun 
 feast, when they welcome back the long lost sun, his 
 reply was : " I have now anotht/ kind of joy, because 
 another Sun, namely Jesus, is arisen in my heart. 
 Neither have I any time for it, for I must hasten to my 
 teachers, who will soon have a great festival to rejoice 
 that the Creator of all things was born into the world 
 as a poor child to redeem us." 
 
 They were astonished at his words, but tried a 
 second time to persuade him, seeing that he had been 
 in times past such a master of the art of dancing. But 
 he said ; " You should rather lay to heart what I have 
 told you, for I was quite in earnest." 
 
THE STORY OF KAJARNAK. 
 
 149 
 
 
 His useful and faithful witnessing was soon, how- 
 ever, to end. In the midst of his work he was taken 
 suddenly ill, the result of a severe cold. The Brethren 
 ceeing his condition hurried to his aid. Their diary 
 has the following entry thereupon : — " During our dis- 
 course he grew so faint he could neither hear nor see. 
 We prayed with him, and during the prayer he came 
 again to himself, and directly began himself to pray 
 in the midst of the most acute pains, so heartily 
 and confidently, that we and all the Greenlanders, 
 standing about him, were amazed. After that he 
 found some mitigation. He was again seized so 
 violently that his breathing was often quite stopped. 
 Yet amid the greatest agonies his carriage and mien 
 was composed and solid, and when his domestics 
 would talk to him about earthly affairs, he desired 
 them not to encumber his heart with such things, for 
 he had our Saviour constantly in his heart and mind. 
 When they once began to weep, he said : ' Don't be 
 grieved about me. Have you not often heard that 
 believers when they die go to our Saviour and par- 
 take of His eternal joy ? You know that I am the 
 first of you that was converted by our Saviour, and 
 now it is His will that I should be the first to go to 
 Him. If you are faithful to the end we shall see one 
 another again before the throne of the Lord, and 
 rejoice for ever at the grace He has conferred on us.* " 
 
 After only six days' illness he passed peacefully to 
 his rest, and four Greenland boys carried him to the 
 new burying-place of the colony, and by the grave 
 the whole company knelt, while one of them spoke 
 from the text, " I am the resurrection and the life." 
 
VIEW OF LICHTENFELS IN GREENLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 GOD*S WORK GOES ON. 
 
 " From duty's post, He beckoned to their rest 
 The weary workers, glad to seek repose ; 
 While others filled their place with quickened zeal, 
 And thus the fabric of His purpose rose." 
 
 IN the spring of the year, 1747, the little Christian 
 community at New Herrnhut built their first 
 church, the wooden framework of which, wrought 
 by loving hands at home, was carefully brought 
 from Europe. This, their first permanent place of 
 worship, proved invaluable, for they were now able to 
 gather within its walls quite three hundred persons. 
 To the natives it was a marvellous structure, for the 
 Greenland religion had no notion of public gatherings 
 for worship. yJThe missionaries aimed now to arrange 
 and consolidate their position, and utilise the native 
 workers who had been baptised, and who were showing 
 150 
 
god's work goes on. 
 
 151 
 
 i-7^ 
 
 both a desire and a fitness for helpfulness in the con- 
 version of others/^Jn this little church of believers, 
 whatever other things they had to contend with, pride 
 was scarcely a temptation, for all were alike poor, 
 and living from^ hand to mouth upon the hazardous 
 fishery on the coast. But theirs was the discipline of 
 suffering together, and the trials they bore produced 
 a spirit of fellowship and brotherly love. These 
 troubles were ever recurring. 
 
 The winters of 1752 and 1753 were terribly cold, 
 even for Greenland. The Danish settlement of 
 Egede's Minde (in memory of Egede) suffered much, 
 but the weather seems to have been still worse at 
 New Herrnhut. The oldest native could not re- 
 member such a time before. All the inlets were a 
 solid mass of ice, so that the kayaks could not float, 
 and for weeks the cold was so keen that the Green- 
 landers were afraid to venture from the shelter of 
 their houses of snow, lest they should be frozen to 
 death in the open. Then a fearful hurricane swept 
 over the district, carrying all before it like chaff ; and 
 in its wake followed a pestilence which laid low 
 hundreds of these afflicted people. 
 
 Still they bore their woes with the patience God 
 gives to men. The survivors went about with the 
 missionaries doing what they could for their fellows. 
 Extreme cold had driven the people to retreat to the 
 inmost part of their houses, and in one of these small 
 places fifteen were found piled one upon another to keep 
 themselves warm, and were so faint with hunger that 
 they could not speak to those who came to help them. 
 
 Through the death of so many adults at this time, 
 the Mission had to make some certain provision for 
 
\ 
 
 152 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 I ! 
 
 the orphan children, whom they cared for, and taught 
 useful trades as they grew up. These missionaries 
 were being gladdened by many cases of real conver- 
 sion. A notable case was that of a man named 
 Kainack, who, so far back as 1739, heard the good 
 news of a Saviour's love from the Brethren who were 
 then new to their work in the country. He was of 
 what is considered a noble family, that is to say 
 he could boast of a father, grandfather, and great- 
 grandfather who had been renowned seal catchers. 
 Though much impressed by what he had heard, he 
 was not prepared to risk his reputation by joining 
 what was the sect everywhere spoken against. For 
 in Greenland, as in Greece, and most places of re- 
 spectability elsewhere, a profession of Christianity, pure 
 and undefiled, was not fashionable. Kainack, to rid 
 his conscience of these prickings, rushed into a wild 
 and disgraceful manner of life. He was specially 
 bitter against the teachers of the religion which had 
 so unsettled him ; beat their converts when he could 
 get the chance, and on one occasion threatened the 
 missionaries with death by fire if they did not deliver 
 up to him a poor woman who had fled to them for 
 protection against his violence. However, it turned 
 out in the providence of God that this sam.e woman 
 was to be the means of his salvation. She became 
 his wife, brought him to the meetings, and he was 
 soundly converted to God. They were baptised to- 
 gether by the Brethren, and his next step was to bring 
 to the settlement his servants and relations to hear 
 the same Gospel, which in his own life and character 
 had proved such a saving power. They in turn were 
 so affected, that most of them presented themselves 
 
 i^i.'. 
 
 h::. 
 
 w 
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 in* 
 
 s 
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 P3 
 
 2! 
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 W 
 
 JO 
 
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 Hi 
 
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god's work goes on. 
 
 155 
 
 I 
 
 
 for baptism. Kainack lived a quiet and consistent 
 life, the old spirit of recklessness beinf, driven out of 
 him ; and when his death came suddenly, there was 
 great lamentatio.. as for a brother greatly beloved. 
 
 The Greenland Christians showed their sincerity by 
 a readiness to sympathise with their fellow-members 
 elsewhere. News came to New Herrnhut of the 
 destruction of the Brethren's settlement at Guaden- 
 hiitten, among the North American Indians. When 
 they were told in the church meeting of the sufferings 
 and poverty of the Indians they broke into loud weep- 
 ing, and rose up one after another to offer help. 
 "I have a fine reindeer skin," says one, "which I 
 will give." " And I," said another, " will send them 
 these warm boots," while a third offered a seal, his 
 sole treasure, as something for them both to eat and 
 burn. Everywhere there were signs of religious 
 awakening. 
 
 The missionaries now began to look further afield 
 to establish a second settlement. Matthew Stach, 
 who had retired to Copenhagen from the work to 
 spend his last years in peace, hearing of their need, 
 volunteered to go back to Greenland to help the 
 Brethren, and in 1758 came, with two brothers, to 
 Fisher's Bay, where they laid the foundations of 
 Lichtenfels, or " the Light of the Rock." Once more 
 the story of the hardships of pioneer work were 
 endured. An earthquake shook the ground, tempests 
 of drifting ice threatened the settlement with destruc- 
 tion, and one day about Christmas-time, when the sun 
 was shining in splendour, huge balls of fire flashed 
 through the air, and falling on the earth burned furiously 
 for some time. .This was hardly an acceptable place 
 
156 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 h' 
 
 to make a home in, one would affirm, and yet it 
 became a very Bethel as time passed on. Within a 
 year, two hundred persons had come to live there, 
 and the work of God wonderfully prospered. The 
 sailors who came to the trading station near, said that 
 the Greenlanders acted much more like Christians 
 than the Europeans at home. Here is a little peep 
 into one of their meetings, as seen through the tele- 
 scope of the chronicle of Crantz. 
 
 " Grace powerfully approved itself among them, and 
 preserved them in obedience, love and peace together. 
 
 " Everyone comes to it with eagerness of heart. In 
 .the evening meeting our dear Saviour was exceeding 
 near to us. When I had done speaking, some people 
 propounded several questions, the explication of 
 which, and the relation of many circumstances, took 
 up more time than the discourse itself. The text 
 was Acts xvii. 30 : * The times of this ignorance God 
 winked at ; but now commandeth all men everywhere 
 to repent' 
 
 "Some new hymns were also translated. When 
 they were made known, an uncommon desire to learn 
 them, and a blessed operation upon their hearts, was 
 visible. The most of them were taken out of the 
 meditations of the ever memorable Count Christian 
 Renatus de Zinzendorf, found after his happy departure, 
 such as, 'Though my poverty's unfathomable, etc.* 
 * My heart's inclination is a deep prostration at my 
 Saviour's pain, etc.,' and in particular the hymn, 
 
 " * The impression deep of what my Friend 
 Has done for me, for me, 
 How true to me his heart's inclined, 
 Be ever seen in me ! 
 
 I 
 
god's work goes on. 157 
 
 " * He knows that where I all my days 
 Through lonely places toss'd, 
 Still of that sweet Jesus likeness, 
 Nought thereby would be los^.' 
 
 "This last was of singular weight to the Green- 
 landers, and was often sung by them with wet eyes, 
 when they were obliged in the summer to be away 
 from their teachers, and to spend whole weeks, nay, 
 months, alone upon an island, or at least, with no 
 other company than that of heathens. In such cases it 
 is very certain that nothing but the continual remem- 
 brance of what God has bestowed upon us, and 
 the sweet wondrous deed which He performed '.i- 
 paying such a costly price for us, is able to pre- 
 serve a heart from indifference, levity, and being swept 
 away by the torrent of sin in the world." 
 
 If this was the happy state of the believers at 
 Lichtenfels, surely the effect of the Gospel upon the 
 unconverted was not less marked. Crantz, then on 
 a visit to Greenland for the purpose of writing his 
 history, witnessed with interest the spiritual struggle 
 going on in the hearts of the listeners. " It shocked 
 me," he said, "to see many of them pierced to the 
 heart, so that they trembled, snuffed and blew like ii 
 frightened deer, and, sometimes like a man in strong 
 convulsions, tugged their coat and boots in order to 
 stifle their convictions ; and as soon as the preaching 
 was over ran off in haste lest the subject should be 
 more closely applied to them." 
 
 The next extension of the work was the establishing 
 of Lichtenau, a more southern settlement, not far 
 from Cape Farewell ; the first Brethren to take charge 
 thereof being John Soerensen and Gottfried Grillich. 
 
158 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 IP: 
 
 The former after forty-nine years of faithful service 
 returned to Europe in his eightieth year, the other 
 remaining some time afterwards in the work. 
 
 Brother Brodersen, who acted as superintendent oi 
 the whole Mission, brou ];ht a printing press with him, 
 and struck off copies of portions of the Old Testament, 
 and also some hymns in the Greenland tongue. 
 
 That faithful missionary Frederick Boehnish, after 
 twenty-nine years of labour in the Greenland mission- 
 field, died on the 29th of July, 1763, and was the first 
 missionary whose body was committed to the earth 
 in that ountry. The following is an extract from 
 the rer'^rd of his las*- hours: — "On the 12th July, 
 attempting, in company with a Greenlander, to use 
 some exercise, and to take some fresh air in a field, 
 as he was descending from a rock, he was seized with 
 a 'dizziness, and falling down, was wounded in the 
 head. He was now obliged to talce to his bed. He 
 soon signified not only his desire, but likewise his full 
 assurance that he should soon go home ; he sighed 
 often to our Saviour, but was composed and happy, 
 though he could n.>t speak much. But in the night 
 of 1 6th July, he seemed to recover his vivacity and 
 speech, so as to be able to converse with his colleague, 
 who watched with him, about several matters. He 
 then called for his wife, who was also sick, and had 
 a hearty, meek, and humble conversation with her, 
 recommending her and their children to the care and 
 protection of the Lord, and at last laid his hand on 
 her, and his youngest son, lately born, and imparted 
 his blessing to them. We presented him some bread 
 and wine for refreshment ; this made him recollect 
 the great grace and favour of having administered 
 
god's work goes on. 
 
 159 
 
 the Sacrament to the believing Grecnlanders, and 
 at the same time, he most ardently implored our 
 Saviour's pardon for every omission in his office and 
 calling. And when his colleague put him in mind of 
 our Saviour's gentleness and tenderness, he replied, 
 ' Oh, yes ! that is true, so He has ever approved Him- 
 self to me.' From that time, he spent the remaining 
 moments in still conversations with his Lord, of which 
 we could understand some broken sentences. *Our 
 Saviour pays me frequent visits, and will soon fetch 
 me home.' 
 
 " 24th July, he received the Holy Sacrament for the 
 last time, and then lay mostly in a constant slumber 
 till 28th July, when he once more joined in singing 
 some verses, treating of the happiness of being with 
 the Lord. 
 
 " On the 29th July, he said with a broken voice, * My 
 dear Saviour is now come to take me home,' and at 
 four o'clock in the afternoon, the moment came when 
 he gave up his soul unto his faithful Creator and 
 Redeemer, during a happy departure — liturgy held 
 by the Brethren present — in the 54th year of his age, 
 twenty-nine years of which he had spent in the 
 service of the Greenland congregation, and twenty- 
 three in a contented and happy marriage, which had 
 been blessed with eight children." 
 
 So God buries His workmen, but His work goes on. 
 It was so in Greenland, for others came to fill the place 
 of the departed, and the work spread far and wide. 
 
 Some trouble was caused by a decision of the 
 Danish Government, that it was not favourable to 
 trade that so many Greenlanders should live in one 
 district, so the natives were distributed along the 
 
i6o 
 
 AMID GREENLAND SNOWS. 
 
 coast, which entailed much visitation, and a native 
 evangelist had to be told off to the special duty of 
 journeying to and fro among them. 
 
 The history of the work in Greenland, during 
 recent years, has been uneventful, but for a long time 
 the Danish Missionary Society and the Moravian 
 Brethren have been working together with consider- 
 able success. Christianity is everywhere in evidence ; 
 the old barbarities of heathenism are abolished, and 
 in their place, the sweeter manners and happier spirit 
 of the Kingdom of God are seen. Recent travellers 
 attest to the reality of the change. Much, doubtless, 
 remains to be done, for association with European 
 civilisation has not been an unmixed good. More 
 workers are still wanted, who will give themselves to 
 these people with the abundant Christ love which they 
 displayed, whose lives are portrayed in the fore- 
 going pages. ["And in God's good time, not day- 
 break only, but the full meridian glory of the Sun of 
 ^Righteousness will shine amid Greenland snows. ^ 
 
 THE END. 
 
 t 
 
 -.: 
 
 LOJUMER AND GILLIBS, PRINTBRS, KDJNBURCH. 
 
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 HEW SERIES OF SIXPENNY PICTURE-BOOKS. 
 
 Croum quarto. Fully Illustrated. Handsomely bound in paper hoards, with 
 design printed in Eight colours. 6d. each. 
 
 Under the Oak Tree : Pictures and Stories for Little 
 Ones. 
 
 Tibby*S Tates : A Picture Book for Little Peoplo. 
 
 DelUes* Seheeltime : Pictures and Stories in Prose 
 and Rhyme. 
 
 BIrdle'e Message : The Little Folks' Picture Book. 
 
 After SeheeL 
 
 Deggles? Detnga and Puaaiea* Weeing^i, 
 Little Snewdrop'a Bible Pietn ^e^Beek^ 
 
 This New Series of Picture Books surpasses, in 'Mence of illustration 
 and careful printing, all others at thi price. 
 
 \ HEW COLOURED SCRIPTURE PIGT ORE-BOOKS. 
 
 Beautifully printed in Chromo-Lithography. Size 8 J by 6 inches. Stiff 
 Paper Coloured Covers, with Cloth Backs, 6d. each. 
 
 Ceming to Jeaua : Texts, Verses, and Coloured 
 
 Pictures. 
 
 Tite Geod Shepherd S Texts, Verses, and Coloured 
 Pictures, , 
 
 ax 
 
-.-'^M't-., 
 
 {ft!* 0a/Qh. 
 
 . r •^f?^^'"-! 
 
 THE " BED DAVE " SERIES. 
 
 New and Enlarged Edition. Illustrated. Handsomely hound in cloth 
 
 hoards. 6d. each. 
 
 Left in Charge^ and other 
 Stories. 
 
 A Threefold Promise. 
 
 Two Utile Girls, and What 
 
 they Did. 
 The Four Young Musicians. 
 Joe and Sallys or, A Good 
 
 Deed and its Fruits. 
 
 The Island Hon%e. By F. M. 
 
 Holmes. 
 
 Chrlssy's Treasure. By 
 
 Jennie Perrett. 
 
 Puppy- Di:\g Tales. By various 
 
 Authors. 
 
 Mother's Boy. By M. B. Man- 
 
 A Great Mistake. By Jennie 
 Chappell. 
 
 From Hand to Hand. By C. 
 
 J. Hamilton. 
 That Boy Bob, By Jesse Page. 
 
 Buy Your Own Cherries^ 
 
 By J. W. Kirton, 
 
 Owen's Fortune. By Mrs. F. 
 
 ^Vest 
 Only Mlllys or, a Child's King- 
 dom. 
 
 Shad's Christmas GIftm 
 
 Greyollffe Abbey, 
 
 Red Daves or, What Wilt Thou 
 
 have Me to do. 
 
 Harry's Monkeys How it 
 
 Helped the Missionaries. 
 
 Snowdrops / or. Life from the 
 
 Dead. 
 
 Dick and his Donkey § or. 
 
 How to Pay the Rent. 
 
 Herbert's First Year lot 
 
 Bramford. 
 Ltk'^t In the Snowf or, The 
 
 Kentish Fisherman. 
 
 The Pearly Gates, 
 
 Jessie Dyson, 
 
 Maude's Visit to Sandy 
 
 beach. 
 Friendless Bob, and other 
 
 Stories. 
 
 Come Home, Mother, 
 Sybil and her Live Snow- 
 
 ball. 
 Only a Bunch of Cherries* 
 Daybreak. 
 Bright Ben : The Story of a 
 
 Mother's Boy. 
 
 
 4dm each. 
 
 THE TINT LIBRARY. 
 
 Books printed in large type. Cloth boards. 
 Chrlssie, and other 
 
 Uttie 
 
 Stories. 
 
 Harry Carlton's Holiday^ 
 A Uttie Loss and a Big 
 
 Find. 
 What a U >le Cripple Did, 
 Bobby, 
 Matty and Tom, 
 
 4i. each. 
 
 The Broken Window, 
 Madge's 
 
 Cure for 
 
 John 
 
 Belflshneftir 
 
 The Pedlar's Loan, 
 Letty Young's Trials, 
 Brave Boys, 
 Little Jem, the Hag Mer* 
 
 chant. 
 
 11 
 
'^ -.!• wvffl'nr' 
 
 4i# •aoli. 
 HEW FOUBPEHWY SERIES 
 
 oj Cloth-bound Books for the Young. With Coloured Frontispieces, 
 pages. Well Illustrated. Handsome Cloth Covers, ^d. each. 
 
 64 
 
 RontUd'9 Rmamon, 
 
 ShtMMloyif to SMrWm 
 
 A Bright idea. 
 
 Tfw Utti9 Woodman. 
 
 Jaoito titO MonifOYf and other 
 Stories. 
 
 Littio Dan, tito Orange 
 
 Boy. 
 
 GHEAP << PANSY" SERIES. 
 
 Poppy t or, School Days at Saint 
 Bride's. 
 
 Carrie and tite Cobbier. 
 Dandy Jim. 
 A Troubioeonte Trio. 
 Perry's Piigrintage. 
 NIta g or, Among the Brigands. 
 
 Imperial Svo. 64 
 Colours. 4d. each. 
 Tito Better Part. By Annie S. 
 
 Tito Houtielioid Angei. By 
 
 Madeline Leslie. 
 
 rHe strait Gate. By Annie 
 
 S. Swan. 
 
 lyiurit Deaborougit'a Vow. 
 
 By Annie S. Swan. 
 
 Her Saddest Biessing. 
 I¥iiss Prlsciiia Hunter, and 
 
 other Stories. 
 
 Wiid Bryonle. 
 
 Aviee 8 A Story of Imperial Rome. 
 
 A Young Girl's Wooing. 
 
 Spun from Faot. 
 
 A Sevenfoid Troubie. 
 
 From Different Stand' 
 
 points. 
 Titose Boys. 
 Four Giris at Chautau' 
 
 qua. 
 Ttte Cttautauqua Giris at 
 
 Home. 
 Ruth Ersicine's Crosses. 
 
 pages. Many Illustrations. Cover printed in Five 
 
 ,.1 
 
 Christie's Christmas. 
 Wise to Wing or, the Master 
 
 Hand. 
 
 Ester RIed. 
 Juiia Ried. 
 Ester Ried yet Speaiting. 
 
 An Endiess Chain. 
 Echoing and Re'Oohoing. 
 Cunning Woritmen. 
 Tip Lewis and His Lxintp. 
 The King's Daughter, \ 
 Wise and Otiterwise. j 
 Househoid Puxxies.) 
 The Randolphs. j 
 Linics in Reiteoca's Life, 
 interrupted. 
 The Pocitet IVieasure. 
 Littie Fishers and their 
 
 Nets. 
 A New Graft on the Family 
 
 Tree. 
 
 The IS^an of the House. 
 
 3d. each. 
 THE PRETTY GIFT- 
 BOOK SERIES. 
 
 With Coloured Frontispiece, 
 and Illustrations on every page. 
 Paper boards. Covers printed 
 in Five Colours and Varnished, 
 id. : Cloth hoards, \d. msk. 
 
 My Pretty Picture Book. 
 Birdie's Picture Boolr. 
 Bai»y*s Delight. 
 IWamma's Pretty Stories. 
 
 Tiny Tot's Treasures. 
 Papa's Present. 
 Pretty Bible Stories. 
 Baby's Bible Picture Book. 
 
 ^Z 
 

 w 
 
 
 -^i.'Ufe.tt 
 
 '.■V,"*,* 
 
 BOOKS BY CHA8. M. SHELDON, 
 
 Author of ** In His Steps," etc., etc. 
 
 OR. 
 
 WHAT WOULD JESUS DO? 
 
 (IN HIS STEPS.) 
 
 Cloth boards, gilt edges, as. 6d. ; cloth boards. 2s. ; paper boards, is. 6d. 
 
 Special Edition in art linen, is. 
 
 " No one can read It without realising liow far we are behind the great Bxample. 
 Pew will read it without being fired with the resolve to walk in His steps."— Rev. J. 
 CuFroRD, M.A., D.D 
 
 THE CRUCIFIXION OF PHILIP STRONG. 
 
 *loth boards, gilt edges, as. 6d. ; cloth boards, as. ; papsr boards, zs. 6d. 
 
 Special Edition in art linen, is. 
 
 A powerful story of self-abnegation and its fruits. 
 
 HIS BROTHERS KEEPER. 
 
 Cloth boards, gilt edges, as. 6d. ; cloth boards, as. ; paper boards, is. 6d. 
 
 Special Edition in art linen, is. 
 A stirring narrative on the great theme of Christian responsibility. 
 
 ROBERT HARDY'S SEVEN DAYS: 
 
 A Dream and Its Conseqaenoes. 
 
 i6o pages, cloth boards, is. 
 A sure energiser of vigorous Christian effort. 
 
 RICHARD BRUCE. 
 
 Cloth boards, gilt edges, as. 6d. ; cloth boards, as. ; paper boards, is. 6d. 
 
 Special Edition in art linen, is. 
 
 A story of earnest Christian effort for the good of others by word, deed, 
 and pen. 
 
 THE TWENTIETH DOOR. 
 
 Cloth boards, gilt edges, as. 6d. ; cloth boards, ?.s. ; paper boards, is. 6d. 
 
 Special Edition in art lineu, is. 
 
 MALCOLM KIRK. 
 
 234 pages, cloth boards, is. 
 A thrilling story of consecrated effort in a frontier settlement. 
 
 A Ckmp Edition of the above books, in paper covers for distribution, can also bt 
 
 had, price 6d. each. 
 
 8 &> 9, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 
 
DON, 
 
 . 'rr, 
 
 •6,' 
 
 9 
 
 rds, zs. 0d. 
 
 iat Bxampte. 
 pp."— Rav. J. 
 
 Is, Z8. 6d. 
 
 rds, IS. 6d. 
 iibility. 
 
 #1 
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 m 
 ■■.,fi 
 
 rds, zs. 6d. 
 vord, deed, 
 
 rds, zs. 6d. 
 
 ent. 
 
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