In the expedition to Greenland, which was undertaken in the year 1636, the natives upon the western coast, who had some traffic with the Danes, were asked, whether there were any inhabitants like themselves beyond the mountains which were seen in the distance. The savages replied by signs, that there were more people beyond the mountains than there were hairs on their heads; and that they were men of large stature, with great bows and arrows, who destroyed every body that came in their way. The knowledge which the Danes have at any period acquired respecting the people or the products of Greenland, never extended beyond a narrow slip of territory along the coast. They knew nothing of the remote interior of the country from actual observation; and their settlements occupied only a very small comparative portion of the whole. Much is still left to be explored; but the nature of the country itself opposes such an accumulation of obstacles to the research of the traveller, that they are not soon likely to be overcome. More, however, of the coast will probably soon be discovered than has ever previously been explored; or, if explored, it has at least been concealed for many centuries. When the enterprizing spirit of an English navigator is directed to that quarter of the world, we feel a firm confidence, that nothing will be left untried, which skill or courage can effect, to extend our acquaintance with these Northern regions, and to make valuable additions to our present stock of information respecting the countries in the more immediate vicinity of the North Pole. SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF HANS EGEDE. The Author of the present Volume was born in Denmark, on the 31st of January, in the year 1686. He was educated for the Christian ministry, and became pastor to a congregation at Vogen, in Norway, and appears for some time to have exercised the same functions at Drontheim, in that kingdom. In an early period of his ministry he was seized with a strong desire of making himself acquainted with the fate of the Norwegian families who had formerly been settled in Greenland, and of whom no intelligence had been received for several centuries. All the inquiries which he could make led to the conclusion, that that part of the coast where these settlements had formerly existed had been rendered inaccessible by the ice; and that the ancient settlers had been destroyed either by the effects of the climate or the hostility of the natives. But these unfavourable representations did not repress the ardour of Egede to embark in this perilous undertaking; and either to discover the old Norwegian settlements, or to form a new one, and to devote his life to the instruction of the barbarous and uncivilized Greenlanders in the salutary truths of the Christian doctrine.