A Description of Greenland
Showing
THE NATURAL HISTORY, SITUATION, BOUNDARIES, AND
FACE OF THE COUNTRY;
THE NATURE OF THE SOIL;
THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE OLD NORWEGIAN COLONIES;
THE ANCIENT AND MODERN INHABITANTS;
THEIR GENIUS AND WAY OF LIFE, AND PRODUCE
OF THE SOIL;
THEIR PLANTS, BEASTS, FISHES, &C.
B Y H A N S E G E D E,
MISSIONARY IN THAT COUNTRY FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS.
TRANSLATED FROM THE DANISH.
TO
HIS MOST SERENE ROYAL HIGHNESS
F R E D E R I C K,
HEREDITARY PRINCE, SUCCESSOR TO THE
CROWN OF DENMARK AND NORWAY.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MOST SERENE
ROYAL HIGHNESS,
As I took the freedom most humbly to address to the King your Royal Father an account of the Greenland Mission’s beginning and propagation, which his Majesty with so glorious a zeal protects and encourages; so likewise, with the same most humble submission, I presume to offer to your most Serene Royal Highness this present survey or Natural History of Greenland; endeavouring by this means to insinuate and recommend to your Royal Highness’s favour and protection so pious an undertaking; because the poor Greenlanders have a right to claim your protection, as well as the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, and are in hopes of enjoying, one day, the greatest blessings under your happy reign.
This little Work cannot fail of a gracious reception from your Royal Highness, as it aims only at, and is calculated for, the honour of God and your Royal Family’s exaltation; the last of which wholly depends on and necessarily follows the first; for when the poor Greenlanders shall have learned to know and worship God as their Creator and Redeemer, then they will likewise learn to acknowledge and honour a Christian Sovereign as their king and ruler, through whose most Christian care and beneficence they have been brought to the knowledge of Salvation.
May the Kingdom of God daily increase, and be spread far and wide, under the government of your Royal House. May the word of God run swiftly under the sway of its sceptre, as it doth in the East, so also now in the coldest North.
That it may please Almighty God to make your Royal Highness’s name as the name of the great and mighty ones upon Earth; that he may establish and powerfully support the Royal Hereditary Throne, and place you as a blessing before his face to all eternity, are the hearty wishes and prayers of
Your Serene Royal Highness’s
most obedient,
most humble,
and most devoted
Subject and Servant,
H A N S E G E D E.
Copenhagen,
July 20, 1741.