Page:A description of Greenland.djvu/42

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16
The Natural Hiſtory

Heart, and ſending his Boat on Shore, went to the next Houſe, which ſeem'd but very ſmall and mean. Here he found all the Accoutrements, neceſſary to fit out a Fiſhing-Boat; he ſaw alſo a Fiſhing-Booth, or ſmall Hut, made up of Stones, to dry Fiſh therein, as it is cuſtomary in Iceland. There laid a dead Body of a Man, extended upon the Ground, with his Face downwards; a Cap ſewed together on his Head; the reſt of his Cloathing was made partly of coarſe Cloth, and partly of Seal-Skin; an old ruſtly Knife was found at his Side, which the Captain took, in order to ſhew it to his Friends at his Return home to Iceland, to ſerve for a Token of what he had ſeen. 'Tis further ſaid, that this Commander was three times by Streſs of Weather driven upon the Coaſts of Greenland, by which he obtained the Surname of Greenlander.

This Relation can be no more than of a Hundred Years ſtanding, as Theodore Torlack affirms; becauſe the abovementioned Annals, in which we read it, were com-

poſed