Martin Forbisher, or Frobisher, was, in the year 1576, the first that navigated this coast, and called it Meta In cognita. A sound which, according to him, divided that continent, was called Forbisher Strait. He was sent out again by Queen Elizabeth, in the year 1578 ; but he lost two of his vessels, and could find neither the sound nor the land. The Forbisher Strait is marked on all charts of Greenland, but it does not exist anywhere on the whole coast.
John Davis followed the same course, in the year 1585, and discovered that strait which now bears his name, viz. Davis Strait, which reaches to the 70th degree. Some public-spirited gentlemen sent. out Robert Bylot as captain, and William Baffin as pilot, with the ship Discovery, in the year 1616: they reached Davis Strait, and advanced as far as the 30'.
The Danish government, animated by these discoveries, began also to think of their lost Greenland, or the Oster bygd, (eastern settlements,) and during the reigns of seven kings, spent considerable sums upon it, but without suc cess ; the eastern coast having become inaccessible by the floating ice. Finally, in the reign of Frederic the Fourth, Hans Egede, a clergyman from Vogen, in the North of Norway, animated by a religious enthusiasm, offered him sell for the conversion of the Greenlanders, and, accom panied by his wife and children, left his office, and his na tive country. He was furnished by the Danish govern ment with two vessels ; and, being provided with the neces sary stores, he embarked on the 20 of May, in the year 1721, and, after struggling with many dangers, landed on the 3d of July, at Baal's river, in 5' of N. Lat. The Greenlanders did not like their new guests ; but, by de grees, they were influenced, by friendly treatment and pre sents, to entertain those who visited them. The trade had a very poor appearance in the beginning, but all succeed ed very well in the course of three years. From time to time, the establishments both for the mission and the trade were increased, and Mr Egede built the first European house in Baal's river, calling the settlement, metaphori cally, Gotthaab (Good Hope.) The three first missionaries of the German Unitas Fratrum, or the Moravian Brethren, were sent out in the year 1733 They established their first settlement in the vicinity of that of Mr Egede, and gave to it the metaphorical name New Herrnhut, their first settlement in Germany being called Herrnhut, that is, pro tected by our Lord.
The Danish government were not discouraged by the unpromising appearance of the missions and the colonies, but made ample provision for upholding and extending them, and formed permanent settlements for the best pos sible cultivation of the land. and soldiers were sent over to Greenland, that the settlers, by their aid, might travel over land to the east coast, or the lost Greenland ; but the icy vallies, and glaciers crossing the interior of the country, were found impassable ; the horses perished, and all those endeavours proved abortive. The only possible way to come there, would be with Greenlandish leather boats, which are easily transportable over the floating ice, travelling round Cape Farewell, and never losing sight of the coast. But the reports of the Greenlanders, who dwell in the most southern part of the country, give sufficient reason to suppose, that none of the old settlers will be found there ; it being probable, that a coast incessantly sur rounded by ice fields, which have lain there from time immemorial, and increase every year, as is ascertained by the whale-fishers, who go to Spitzbergcn, will be now much colder than it was some centuries ago, when the sea was still open for sailing from Iceland and Norway, and free from floating ice during the whole summer.
The colonies and settlements existing at this time on the whole coast of West Greenland, in a line from south to north-west, are, I. Xennortelik, or Bear-island, lying on the east of the promontory of Cape Farewell, The Greenlanders, who live on the remotest places in the south, come there, if the floating ice permits it, with their articles of trade, such as the skins of the blue and white fox, and of the white bear. The island is only inhabited by one Greenlandish family. • • 2. Lichtenau, the most southern establishment of the Moravian Brethren, lying in the Firth Agluitsok, in the 60° 34' of latitude.