Page:Journal of a Voyage to Greenland, in the Year 1821.djvu/202

150 in 1721, and a capital of ten thousand rix-dollars was raised for that purpose.

The new established company fitted out three ships for Greenland, and the indefatigable Egede was sent thither as missionary, furnished with three hundred guilders by the society for propagating the gospel at Copenhagen. It was not without great danger and difficulty, that the single ship which had the missionary on board, at length arrived Baal's river, on the west side of Greenland, and wintered in an island there. M. Egede and forty men that remained with him, immediately set about building a house, in which the natives readily assisted them. The new colony, thus commenced, was from year to year carefully supplied with necessaries by the company; but the trade carried on with Greenland brought in no great profit. In the mean time, the missionary employed his time in learning the Greenland language, and by his liberality and suavity of manners so endeared himself to the inhabitants, that the respect they showed him in some particulars far exceeded his wishes, for they entertained such an exalted idea of his piety and virtue, that all the sick flocked about him imploring him to heal them, being persuaded that his breathing on them would restore them to health. His Danish majesty, in 1728, caused horses to be transported to New Greenland, in hopes that the settlers might thereby travel over land to Eastern or Old Greenland. Lieutenant Richards, in a ship which had wintered near the new Danish colony, also attempted