The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1892-01-26
Tho Girl from East Greenland.

Young woman who Is lecturing In New
England this winter tells q remarkable
story OF her origin and adventures.
She makes the interesting assertion that
she is IN Eskimo from the east coast OF
Greenland. When she was a very young
girl. sheltered by stone hut and nour-
ished on fish and blubber. some ship
wrecked Iceland sailors were thrown upon
the coast. A little later. when she was
fifteen years Of age. three native families,
including her own. Joined the shipwrecked
sailors in sledge journey across the ice Of
Denmark Strait to Iceland. where they
safely arrived In that civilized land this
Eskimo girl was educated. and few years
ago she went with party OF emigrants to
Manitoba and subsequently removed to tho
United States.
II is very pretty story. The incidents
OF that remarkable sledge journey are
thrilling. The narrative Of q young girls
life among her savage relatives is OF alb
surbing interest. There she was cut off
from oil the world for her people were far
more inaccessible than the Eskimos within
800 miles OF tho North Pole. among whom
PEARY is now wintering: and this young
woman. lifted BY happy fortune from
that ice-bound and isolated coast to the
proud eminence of the New England lecture
platform. is an edifying spectacle. Any
body who pins his faith to the plain. unvar-
nished tale OF this public speaker certainly
gets his moneys worth.
To be sure. the young woman does not
fill the popular conception of the typical
Eskimo. Her hair Is light and her COM
plexion is fair. She Is Of very diminutive
stature. but that is more characteristic Of
West than of East Greenlanders. who have
the advantage OF their Western relatives In
point Of height. There is one thing de-
cidedly more remarkable than her story,
the world long ago.
II there Is ono thing the geographers and
anthropologists have been curious about. it
has been the East Greenlanders. though we
have known little about them for many
years. Two men told us all We knew OF
them until those natives living nearest to
Cape Farewell began to sledge around the
south end OF the big island and trade at
| the west coast settlements. In 1929 80
| Capt. GRAAH OF the Danish navy found
about 500 natives on the southeast coast
Six years earlier. Capt. CLAvERING. who
touched the east coast In latitude 74o, met
some Eskimos and said he thought they
must have come from the north. though nc
trace Of natives was found many years
later. by the KoLDEwEY expedition north OF
that point; and after tho East Greenlanders
had begun to visit the west coast. Capt
HOLM In 1S84-S5 found about 200 natives q
| little north Of latitude $50. The world had
never heard Of them before. and the story
OF HoLM's studies among these isolated
people. nearly all OF whom he photographed
is among the most interesting narratives
OF discovery Of the past ten years.
We had really known very little Of the
East Greenlanders until HOLM told US about
them; and II the particular specimen who
has been entertaining down East audiences
can convince the learned that she actually
halls from that part OF the world. she will
find the doors Of the most scientific society
open to her. 1t Is high time. too. that the
facts about her long journey over the frozer
Arctic Ocean should be heralded abroad tx
confute those geographers who believe tina,
the sea is never frozen over between Green.
land and Iceland. and that. moreover, II
would be about as easy to sledgt
over the housetops OF this city as
over the terribly rough ice that for most OF
the year Is packed against the East Green
land coast. The crew Of the Hansa woulc
like to meet this young woman. They
drifted down the coast which she claims as
her birthplace all one winter on an inhos
pltable ice foe. The current flowing soutl
through Denmark Strait was. they said. tot
rapid to permit the forming OF an Ice bridge
and when In January they approached thu
coast Of Greenland and were eager to plac,
something stable beneath their feet again
they found the land was unattainable be-
cause the broken Ice along the shore coult
not be crossed.
Allow years ago some Zulu warriors mad,
their advent on these shores at Bower,
museum. 1t Is well known that the Zulus
have peculiar click In their speech whlcl
some Europeans fail to acquire after years
Of residence In Zululand. Tho trouble will
these Bowery Znliis Was that they couldn'