The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-07-17
TWO LoNG-LosT COLONIES.
The Strange Disappearance of the Morse
Settlers Of 9S7 I'm Greenland.

1nC ntbl4AS Jul VI cCNcIdl AICtlC c4ptQl-
tons has recalled the mysterious disappear
ance of the Norwegian and Danish colonies
which first planted on the east and west
coasts of Greenland about the year A. ID.
1000, thrived apart for centuries and
vanished forever in the middle of the
fifteenth century. The popular story is that
the Norsemen settled in Greenland in 9S7.
A Danish colony took possession of the west
shore and Norwegian colony of the east
shore of the peninsula. They were seper-
ated by desert tract eighty miles in width,
but kept up communications with each other
in summer canoes and in winter by deer and
dog trains. They sustained themselves by
hunting and fishing, and, later on, by rails
ing cattle, the pastursge of Greenland being
at that time luxuriant In 1850 the Danish
colony was beset by Esquimaux and broken
up, and the last that was heard of either set
tlement wasin 1925. In las Pope Nicholas V,
in aletter to the English court stated that the
colonists had been attacked by fleet of saw
ages and murdered TO man, but be did not
vouch for the accuracy Of his information.
In 1922 Captain Scoresby discovered huts
containing hunting gear and household uten-
sis of Morse pattern on the west coast, and
claimed that these had been the dwellings OF
the lost colonists. The popular idea at that
time was that a settlement of the descend
ants of these Norsemen existed in some terra
incognita far beyond the ice field and near
the pole; and Lieutenant Frederick Schwat-
ka, who sailed for the Arctic seas last month,
was credited in Washington dispatch the
other day with saying that the grandest un-
dertaking of the present age would be to
strive to reach that isolated colony"
In some OF the old recodrs of the Recollet
fathers in this city which were sent to Paris
In 1903 frequent mention was made of le-
gends and traditions touching this Morse
colony. The first of the Recollets landed in
Canada in of ChaDanlainfS qhipo in 1914
nearly two centuriesGafter the Greenland col
ony disappeared. Others rapidly followed
them. and in 1882 one of the missionary
fathers Fatherde Maurine, sailed to the west
shore of Newfoundland, where he found sew
eral camps of Esqumaux, who were winter
ing there. He learned from them-it was an
Esquimaux tradition-that at one time in
the remote ages, as he expressed 1t, men of
the stature and mien of French sailors lived
in peace and amity with their forefatL-
ers. There were hundreds of them, and
sometimes they took ship and sailed away to
the southeast, returning after many days
with companions who settled with them.
After countless years these strangers divided
themselves into two bodies, one going TO the
west and the other to the east shore. From
that time forth their nature seemed changed,
and they attacked and murdered one another.
One winter il was dark for four months, and
the cold was so intense that even the Esqui-
maux persisted in their abOdes Fearing that
the strife of the strange people had enraged
the god OF the wind and sea- the Esquimaux
fed while II was yet dark to the southwark;
and when the darkness passed away they
sailed in fright to a lonely island, where they
dwelt for many years. On their return they
found the face OF the earth changed. Vast
ice fields covered the pasture lands where
the strangers had dwelt, and the whole re-
gion was desolate The strangers houses
were buried beneath mountains of ice, and
no living thing was to be seen but the bear
and the walrus.
Father Paul Raguehed, the celebrated Jes-
nit. whose reports to his superiors in France
contain much trustworthy information con-
corning New France, and who figured con-
spicuously under the regime of NJ. De Allie
/ boust towards the close of the seventeenth
century, relates at second hand an italian
tradition closely resembling that current
among the Esquimaux. But perhaps the
/ most important story is that told by the
| Jesuit Malligeye. In 1913, accompanied by
several Hurons, he advanced along the north
shore of the gulf and penetrated into Labra-
! dor Eighty days journey inland he came
/ upon a solitary band of savages who spoke
/ the Huron tongue with difficulty. From the
! chief and medicine men he learned that they
were the descendants of q party of HuTons
/ who had fled from an intertribal war not
| through coWardice, but because they had
/ taken wives from the band which the HUI
rons had attacked. Their fathers had met
/ with EsQuimaux, and the two peoples had
/ been blended into one. They bad preserved
their language to some extent, but the Is
quimaux tongue was more familiar to them
! than the Huron. They were rich in EsQui-
maux traditions, and these they had illus
trated by rude paintings on wood and stone.
They interpreted many OF these hieroglyph-
les for Father Melligeye, the principal one,
] rryhf nj q hundred un
tablets, having reference, beyond doubt. TO
the Morse colony. 1t ran thus: Far back in
the past, when the Esquimaux thought they
were the only people on the earth. and that
/ the world was bounded by their familiar
! shores, a fleet of strangers landed and took
/ possession of beautiful country where
/ the grass was always green. They built
! houses of wood and stones, and had focks
and herds which their women watched
while the men were. fishing Other fleets
/ came after them, and the EsQuimaux
I thought this new raceswas sent to drive them
into the sea; but the strangers were kind
in manner, though wild in aspect, with
red. flowing hair. They prospered and
| grew in numbers, and took wives
from among the Esquimaux. One day, after
moons without number had passed, the north
/ wind became hot and sultry- 1t was like the
breath of fire for many days, and then a
booming and laundering noise was heard to
/ the north, and the crash shook the heavens
and made the rocks tremble. This continued
( for long time. and the north wind began to
grow cooler and cooler, until at length men
died by the fire from cold. The Esquimaux
knew then that the ice fields of the
north had broken loose Their
traditions told them that and they fastened
| to the shore with their wives and children
and sailed TO an island to the northwest.
The strangers Knocked them as they left.
Many, many years after this the Esquimaux
returned only to find that the ice had over
wbelmed the strangers and swept the mea-
dows and even the streams into the sea,
leaving nothing behind but naked rocks and
huge mountains. From that time forth the
land was cold and dreary.
These traditions, qusntum valeant, account
very satisfactorily for the sudden disappear
ance OF the Norsemen; hut ii is just possible
that Lieutenant Schwatka may set them at
naught by the discovery of Morse monarchy
or republic beneath the pole.
Human Flesh as Food and Medicine.
London Telegraph