Page:A description of Greenland.djvu/49

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of Greenland.
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dern Greenlanders, as they entertain no Correſpondence with thoſe Parts; either being hindered by the Ice, which renders them altogether inacceſſible; or elſe for fear the Inhabitants of that Country might kill and devour them; for they repreſent them as a cruel, barbarous and inhuman Nation, that deſtroy and eat all Foreigners that fall into their Hands. Yet this notwithſtanding, if we may believe the Relation of thoſe Adventurers, who have coaſted a great Part of the Eaſtern Shore; there is no other fort of Inhabitants found on this, than on the Weſtern Side. But how it comes to paſs, that the Eaſtern Diſtrict, which was ſo well ſettled with Norway and Iceland Colonies, that it contained 12 large Pariſhes, and 190 Villages, beſides one Biſhop's See and two Convents, and flouriſhed till the Year 1540; at laſt has been deſtroyed and laid waſte, is what I can't conceive. That ſome are of Opinion, that the black Plague, ſo call'd, which ravaged the Northern Countries in the Year 1348, alſo reach'd Greenland, and made its Havock among its
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Eaſtern