In this last expedition to Greenland the Danes secured and carried off two of the natives before they left the coast. When they had reached the open sea, the Danes released these captives from their bonds, when, finding themselves free from restraint, the love of liberty prevailed over every other sentiment, and they plunged into the waves in order to regain their native shore. But that shore was too remote for them to reach, and they perished in the vain attempt. It is pleasant to contemplate that sentiment, which attaches us to our native land, operating alike in all regions and climes, and attaching the human being to a country of almost invincible sterility and perpetual frost, as well as to one where there are the richest products and the most genial seasons. In the year 1654 a ship was sent to Greenland, under the command of David Nelles, the success of which terminated in carrying off three native women from the open part of the Eastern coast. The last voyage, which was not more successful than the preceding, was made in the year 1670. This expedition was fitted out by order of Christian V, and was commanded by Captain Otto Axelson; but Crantz[19] says, “We have no account of its issue;” and, according to Torfæus, Axelson never returned to tell what he had seen. None of the expeditions which have sailed from Denmark, or other countries, have been successful in recovering the knowledge of that part of the Eastern coast which was peopled by settlers from Iceland and Norway, and is denominated Old Greenland. In the account which the Icelandic Chronicle gives of the ancient route, it is stated, that half way between Iceland and Greenland there was a cluster of little islands, or rocks, called Gondebiurne Skeer, which were inhabited by bears. The drifting ice has probably collected round these islands, and been so petrified by successive accumulations as to become impenetrable to the sun. Peyrere, whose account of Greenland has been generally followed in this Introduction, tells us, that he was once inclined to believe, that Godske Lindenau had actually reached the coast of Old Greenland in his first voyage, and that the savages whom he carried off were descendants of the first Norwegian settlers, whose remains have been so anxiously sought. But this impression was effaced by the information of many persons who had seen these savages at Copenhagen, and who assured him, that they had not the smallest resemblance to the Danes or Norwegians in their language and manners, and that the Danes and Norwegians could not understand a word that these native Greenlanders uttered.