The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1878-07-20
LONG LOST COLONIES.
The Disappearance of the Morse Settlers of
Greenland A D. 987.
VIII Their Descendants he Found Beyou
the lee FIelds Near the Pole?
Correspondence Of the New York


QUEBEC, July 2-1hc fitting out Of several
Arctic expeditions has recalled the mysterious
disappearance of the Norwegian and Danish
colonies which, first planted on the east and
west coasts Of Greenland about the year A. D.
1000, thrived apace tor four centuries and van.
ishcd forever in the middle Of the fifteenth cen
fury. The popular story is that the Norsemcn
settled in Greenland in 9s1 \ Danish colony
took possession of The west shore and Nor.
wesian colony of the east shore of the PENN.
sula. They were separated hv desert tract
eighty miles in width but kept up cOmmuni.
cation with each other in summer bv canoes
and in winter by deer and dog trains They
sustained themselves by hunting and fishing.
and later on 10y raising cattle the paSturagc of
/ Greenland beng at that time luXuriant In
1850 the Danish colony was besct by Esqui.
mauN and broken up, and the last that was
! heard OF either settlement was in 1926 In
! l4iS Pope Nicholas Y. IN a letter to the En-.
glsh court stated that the colonisis had
been attacked 10y II fleet of sayages and muir
accuracy of his information. In 1899 Capt.
Scoresby discovered huts containing hunting
gear and household utensils 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 Il settlement
of the descendants of these Norsemen existed
in some terra inc0gaitd far beyond the ice
fields and near the pole; and Lieut. Frederick
Schwatka, who sailed for the Arctic seas last
month, was credited in a Washington dispatch
the other day with saying that "the grandest
undertaking of the present age would be to
strive to reach that isolated colony"
In some of the old records OF the Recollct
Fatkcrs which were sent 10 Paris in
lI59 frequent mention was made OF legends
and traditions touching this Morse COLONY
The first of the Recollets landed In Canada in
one OF Champlains ships in 1915, nearly two
centuries after the Greenland colony disap.
pCared. Others rapidly followed them, and in
1852 one OF the missionary fathers Father de
Naurinc, sailed to the west shore of Ncwiound.
land, where he found several camps of Esaui
maux, who were wintcrng there. lie learned
from them-it was an ESquimauN tradition
that at one time IN the remote ages as he cN-
presses IT, men at the stature and mien of
French sailors lived IN peace and amity with
thelr lorciathers. 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
tilAt tlme lorth Their nature seemed changed
and they attacked and murdered one another.
One winter II was dark for tour months, and
the cold was so intense that even the Esaui
maux persisted IN their abodes. Fearing that
the strife of the strange people had enraged
the god of the wind the Esquimanx lied
while il was yet dark To the southwark: and
when the darkness passed away they sailed in
fright 10 lonely island, where they dwelt for
many years. On their return they found the
face Of the earth changed Vast ice.fields Gov
cred the pasture lands where the strangers had
dwelt, and the whole region was deSolate. The
strangers houses were buried beneath noun |
ialns oil ice, and no living thing was to be seen
but the bear and the walrus.
Father Paul Ragueneau, the celebrated Je- |
suit, whose reports TO his superiors in France |
contain much trustworthy information con. |
corning New France. and who figured con
'plcuously under the regime Of NJ DE Aille.l