GREENLAND is the most northern country of the wes tern hemisphere of the globe. It reaches as far as the land is discovered, from Cape Farewell, in Latitude 59° 30' to the 78th degree of North Latitude. Its eastern coast runs north-east towards Spitzbergen, and is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean. Its western coast has a northwest direction, and is bounded by Davis Straits and Baffin's Bay. Its southern coast is very narrow, not occupying one de gree. The borders of its northern coast are entirely un known. The eastern coast is commonly called East Green land, and Osterbygd by the old Icelanders, and Norwegi ans; the western, West Greenland, and Westerbygd ; bygd signifying, in the old Icelandic language, settlement. From the date of its recovery, the former is called Old Greenland, the latter New Greenland. The whale fishers, speaking of Greenland, include under this name the islands of Spitzbergen, so called from the many sharp-pointed mountains with which it abounds, and they call the whole west side Davis Strait. The Danes further divide the west coast into South Greenland, a distance from 59° 30' to the 68th degree, and into North Greenland from the 68th degree to the most northern point. That Greenland joins the continent of America on the end of Baffin's Bay, is nearly ascertained.
The discovery of Greenland between the years 830 and 835, is mentioned in the chronicle of Snorre Sturleson, a learned Icelander, who wrote about the years 1212, or 1215. Another Danish writer, Claudius Christofferson, places the discovery in the year 770. An Icelander, Eric Raude, or Eric the Red, so called from his red hair, hav ing killed another powerful chief of that land, was obliged to quit the country, and determined to make a voyage of discovery, a practice very common at that time. Soon af ter he set sail, he reached the point of a cape on the conti nent of Greenland, which cape he called Heriolfsnxs, in commemoration of one of his ancestors. Turning from this to the south-west, he entered a very large inlet, which he called Eric's Sound, probably the sound called by the natives Ikareseksoak, which separates Cape Farewell from the continent of Greenland; he then stopped and remained on an island in the vicinity of it. The following summer he explored the. continent, and returned in the third year to Iceland, where he boasted very much of the fertility of the new country which he had discovered, to which he gave the name Greenland, hoping thereby to induce a great ma ny people to follow him. Of 25 vessels which set out
with him for Greenland, only fourteen arrived safe. These settlers were soon followed by others, both from Iceland and Norway, and their number in a very short time in creased so much, that they occupied part of the east and west coast of Greenland. Eric Raude and his sons Leif and Thorstein afterwards made excursions from time to time to the opposite side of Davis Strait, or the North American coast, and founded colonies there, to which they gave the name of Winlandia. In the year 999, Leif made a voyage to Norway, and was persuaded by King Trygge gon to embrace the Christian religion ; he took priests with him to Greenland, for the conversion of his countrymen; and his father, Eric Raude, with many of the people, went over to the Christian faith, and there was afterwards estab lished a bishopric, and a great number of churches. The old Icelandic and Danish writers tell us, that there existed 12 parishes on the east coast of Greenland, containing 190 villages ; and four parishes, containing 100 villages, on the western coast. The last bishop Andrew was sent there in 1408, and after that year Greenland was no more thought of for a very long time.
Amongst the foreign travellers who visited the coast of Greenland very early, about the years 1379 and 1380, were the Venetian noblemen Antonio and Nicole, Zeno, to whom we are indebted for the first map of Greenland, publish ed, with a description of their voyage, by Francesco Mar colin, at Venice, in 1558. From the year 1408, all inter course was cut off, and all knowledge of Greenland has been buried in oblivion. Previous to that time the Esqui maux, now called Greenlanders, began to shew them selves on the western coast. It cannot now be ascertained whether these Esquimaux, harassing incessantly the Ice landic and Norwegian settlers, have at length prevailed against them, and extirpated the whole race. Some sup pose that the plague, called the black death, which de vastated the north of Europe, from the year 1402 to 1404, reached this land, and carried off' a great number of the settlers, so that, by their diminution, they were weakened to such a degree, that at last it became an easy matter for the Esquimaux, (called SkrxIlingers by the settlers) to make war upon them, and to extirpate them. In this forgotten and neglected state Greenland still remained, un til the beginning of the 16th century, when a new spirit burst forth in Europe, to explore the unknown regions of the earth.