Abstract
This chapter engages with Cranz’s chapter on the Labrador Inuit in the continuation of the Historie von Grönland, the 1770 Fortsetzung der Historie von Grönland.
Cranz’s chapter is predominantly based upon Jens Haven’s writings about the Labrador coast and its inhabitants which he compiled during his 1764 reconnaissance journey; after two additional Moravian exploration voyages to Labrador in 1765 and 1770, the first Moravian mission station on that coast would be established in 1771 (“Nain”). Haven completed his Labrador manuscripts in London just as Cranz was finishing his 1765 edition. Cranz’s motive for including chapter 21 (Appendix) in his Fortsetzung was to reveal that the Labrador Inuit and the Greenlanders were basically the same people, in order that the Moravians could vie for access to the Labrador Inuit. Olsthoorn, however, uses the same sources in a counter-argument to highlight some of the differences and thus demonstrate that these two peoples, despite their shared cultural and linguistic roots, were actually not the same. Her work also underscores the notion that Cranz’s book and subsequent Moravian writings contributed to the construction of an Arctic world and peoples and placed Greenland and Labrador within the conceptual framework of the Atlantic world.
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Notes
- 1.
Cranz (1765); Cranz (1770), section IV/Appendix [Anmerkungen und Zusätze], chapter 12, 288. Reference to the newspaper in German: “wie sie in einem gewissen gelehrten Zeitungs-Blat genant wird.” NB. The author of this chapter used the reprint version of the Historie von Grönland, which includes all three parts in two volumes; see Cranz (1995).
- 2.
Cranz (1770), section IV/Appendix, 309–314; Unity Archives Herrnhut, Germany [hereafter cited as UA], R.15.K.a.4.5, 14–29, Jens Havens Anmerkungen über die Labrador-Küste, November 15, 1764. Cranz used the journal of the brethren’s 1765 exploration voyage to Labrador to corroborate preliminary assumptions. See: UA, R.15.K.a.5.2.b., Journal der Brüder Hill, Haven, Drachardt, Schloezer 1765 [Journal HHDS]; Cranz (1995) Fortsetzung, section IV/Appendix, p. 288.
- 3.
Cranz’s description of plants, animals and minerals in Labrador falls outside the scope of this chapter.
- 4.
- 5.
Palliser was governor of Newfoundland and Labrador from 1764 to 1768.
- 6.
UA, MDF 1807.1, Jens Haven’s Journey to Labrador from 15 July to 22 September.
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
In their manuscripts Moravians refer to the Labrador Inuit as “Eskimos” in order to distinguish them from the Greenlanders.
- 10.
Cranz (1995), 331 (footnote); cf. Cranz (1995), Fortsetzung, section IV/Appendix, 337. Cranz ultimately considers “Karalit” as a term of self-designation for Greenlanders and Labrador Inuit as a nation, in addition to the usual term “Innuit,” which they use among themselves. See also: Rollmann (2008); Sonne (2017), p. 4.
- 11.
UA, R.15.K.a.4.5, Haven, p. 15.
- 12.
UA, R.15.K.a.4.5, Haven, pp. 15–16. The last observation refers to his experience upon his arrival in Quirpon on 4 September. Note that fear of foreigners was not characteristic of the Greenlanders, who according to Cranz felt superior to, and even made fun of Europeans; see Cranz (1995), pp. 180, 223, 226.
- 13.
“Ob solches aus unschuldige Liebe gescha [sic], kan ich nicht sagen.” UA, R.15.K.a.4.5, Haven, p. 16. Haven omits the other option.
- 14.
UA, R.15.K.a.5.2.a: Haven’s 1764 Diary, p. 40. Erhardt had made a similar experience in 1752; see UA, R.15.K.a.5.1, Erhardt’s journal, 3 August/23 July (Gregorian/Julian calendar) 1752, p. 17.
- 15.
UA, R.15.K.a.4.5, Haven, p. 19.
- 16.
UA, R.15.K.a.5.1, Erhardt’s journal, 1 August/21 July 1752, p. 16; 3 August/23 July 1752, p. 17.
- 17.
Olsthoorn (2010), pp. 24–25; UA, R.15.K.a.5.4, Auszug aus J. Havens Aufsatz von seinen Rekognoszierungsreisen und Aufenthalt in Labrador 1764–1784 [Excerpt from J. Haven’s account of his exploration voyages and stay in Labrador 1764–1784], pp. 228–30.
- 18.
UA, R.15.K.a.5.5, J. Havens Rekognoszierungsreise 1770, 7 August 1770, p. 351; Olsthoorn (2010), p. 150.
- 19.
UA, R.15.K.a.4.5, Haven, p. 19.
- 20.
Cranz does not refer to the “Amaut” for this purpose: a pelt wide at the back and held together by a leather belt above the hips to prevent the (mostly naked) child from falling through. See Cranz (1995), p. 184. The Nain diary of 19 January 1773 confirms the use of this traditional Inuit parka (Amauti) in Labrador as well. See UA, R.15.K.b.4.a, Diarien von Nain, 1771–1781.
- 21.
Kaplan and Woollett (2000), pp. 352, 356.
- 22.
During the missionaries’ exploration journey of 1770, Haven had the opportunity to see two winter houses in Comfort Harbour. He indicates that the platforms were separated from each other by upstanding wood; see UA, R.15.K.a.5.5, Haven’s exploration voyage, 24 July, p. 329.
- 23.
UA, R.15.K.a.4.5, Haven, p. 27.
- 24.
UA, R.15.K.a.4.5, Haven, p. 16.
- 25.
UA, R.15.K.a.5.2.b, Journal HHDS, 12 September 1765, p. 158.
- 26.
UA, R.15.K.a.5.2.b, Journal HHDS, 27 August 1765, p. 115; the Nain Diary of 12 May 1773 notes though that Tuglauvina and Mikak were sitting on the platform [Pritsche] in their tent. UA, R.15.K.b.4.a, Diarien von Nain 1771–1781.
- 27.
UA, R.15.K.a.5.2.b, Journal HHDS, 3 August 1765, p. 130. Inuit fixed the hides of their tents with stones (ibid., 20 September 1765, 167). Brother Christian Andreas Schloezer (1738–1769), born in Buchsweiler (Alsace), was the scientist on the 1765 expedition. He listed plants, minerals and animals in Newfoundland and Labrador. In his description of the flora and fauna, he refers to Cranz’s Historie von Grönland. See UA, R.15.K.a.5.2.b, Journal HHDS, 6 August 1765, p. 133; UA, NB.VII.R.2.40 Observata ex Regno minerali & vegetabili in Terra Labrador & propter propinquitatem in Insula Nova Terra.; UA, R.28.39 Regnum animale.
- 28.
UA, R.15.K.a.5.2.b, Journal HHDS, 27 August 1765, p. 113.
- 29.
UA, R.15.K.a.5.2.b, Journal HHDS, 8 August 1765, p. 86; UA, R.15.K.a.5.2.b, Journal HHDS, 12 September 1765, p. 156; UA, R.15.K.a.5.2.a, Haven’s Diary, p. 39.
- 30.
By “rentlich,” he probably means “reinlich.”
- 31.
Weichstein (literal translation: “soft stone”) is the German term for soapstone. See Rollmann (2013), p. 161.
- 32.
UA, R.15.K.a.4.5, Haven, pp. 20 and 16.
- 33.
Palliser promised the Inuit that English ships would yearly bring the trade goods they longed for to Labrador. See UA, R.15.K.a.5.2.b, Journal HHDS, 21 August 1765, p. 98.
- 34.
UA, R.15.K.a.4.5, Haven, pp. 19–20.
- 35.
Egede (1818), p. 109.
- 36.
Hawkes (1916), p. 72.
- 37.
Hawkes (1916), p. 73.
- 38.
Cranz (1995), p. 199.
- 39.
UA, R.15.K.a.5.1, Erhardt’s journal, 16 August/5 August 1752, p. 22; Cranz (1995), p. 276.
- 40.
UA, R.15.K.a.4.5, Haven, pp. 16, 28–29.
- 41.
UA, R.15.K.a.5.2.b, Journal HHDS, 12 September 1765, pp. 158–59.
- 42.
The 1765 diary notes, that on 30 August at daybreak, twenty kayaks appeared and one women’s boat which, just as the Greenlanders’ boats, was covered with skins. See UA, R.15.K.a.5.2.b, Journal HHDS, p. 118.
- 43.
Without this explanation, Jens Haven’s 1764 petition for 4 x 100,000 acres at four different places in Labrador had made the Moravians suspicious in the eyes of the British. See Olsthoorn (2010), pp. 28, 86.
- 44.
Cranz (1995) p. 254.
- 45.
- 46.
Cranz (1995), pp. 257–77.
- 47.
Cranz (1995), pp. 268–74.
- 48.
Cranz (1995), pp. 275–76.
- 49.
UA, R.15.K.a.4.5, Haven, p. 18.
- 50.
Cranz (1995), p. 233.
- 51.
“…, because you, many men, have no leaders among you. Each one of you says, he is the leader in the land, …” […, darum, daß ihr, viele Herren, keine Oberherre über euch hat. Ein jeder von euch sagt, er ist Herre im Lande, …]. See UA, R.15.K.a.5.6, Chr. Drachardt, reconnaissance journey, 18 July 1770, p. 392; Taylor (1974), p. 88.
- 52.
- 53.
Kaplan and Woollett (2000), p. 352.
- 54.
UA, R.15.K.a.5.1, Erhardt’s Journal, 29 July/18 July 1752, p. 14.
- 55.
Cranz (1995), p. 234; UA, R.15.K.b.4.a: Nain Diaries, 9 March 1773, 21 January 1775, and 2 May 1775.
- 56.
Cranz (1995), p. 272.
- 57.
Laugrand and Oosten (2010), pp. 115–16.
- 58.
Cranz mentions Torngarsuk in Cranz (1995), pp. 258 and 263; information on the Inuit spirit world in Labrador must be gleaned from Cranz’s description of the brethren’s reconnaissance voyage of 1765. See Cranz (1995), Fortsetzung, section IV/Appendix, chapter 16, and Fortsetzung, section IV/Appendix, chapters 23 and 24.
- 59.
UA, R.15.K.a.4.5, Haven, pp. 18–19; polygamy in Labrador is addressed in Cranz, Fortsetzung, section IV/Appendix, chapter 25.
- 60.
Cranz (1995), pp. 209–10.
- 61.
UA, R.15.J.a.2.a, Christian Stachs Diarium 1733–1738, 6 May 1735, p. 281; Israel (1969), p. 29.
- 62.
UA, R.15.K.a.4.5, Haven, p. 17.
- 63.
UA, R.15.K.a.5.2.b, Journal HHDS, 21 September 1765, pp. 168–70. Drachardt also noted that on the basis of Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) the Labrador dialect (Inuttut) could be learned within two to three years, if one paid special attention to the deviant accent and pronunciation (ibid., 169–70).
- 64.
“ihren eigen Sprage”. UA, R.15.K.a.4.5, Haven, p. 17.
- 65.
“nicht[s] mehr, ich wel nicht”. UA, R.15.K.a.4.5, Haven, p. 18.
- 66.
Cranz (1995) Fortsetzung, section IV/Appendix, chapter 21, 313.
- 67.
This assumption added to Haven’s hope that northern Labrador Inuit might have maintained their traditional way of life.
- 68.
At the time of the establishment of Nain (1771) the size of the Inuit population on the Labrador coast was still unknown, but two years later Jens Haven estimated the maximum total number of Inuit on the Labrador coast, presumably including the Ungava peninsula, at about 3000, with 1340 of them south of Nachvak—the area of Haven’s travels. See Taylor (1974), p. 10.
- 69.
A comprehensive study on the early history of anthropology can be found in Vermeulen (2015).
- 70.
UA, R.15.K.a.5.2.b, Journal HHDS, 18 August 1765, p. 94.
- 71.
Cranz (1995), Fortsetzung, section IV/Appendix, chapter 28, p. 338.
- 72.
“On their land” in German: “hier auf euren Inseln.” See UA, R.15.K.a.5.2.b, Journal HHDS, 21 August 1765, p. 97; Olsthoorn (2010), p. 141.
- 73.
Olsthoorn (2010), pp. 28–29, 83–89.
- 74.
- 75.
Mason (2001), pp. 41–46.
- 76.
SFG: Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel among the Heathen; Jensz (2012), pp. 461, 462, 465–66.
- 77.
Karpik was baptized on 3 April 1769. He died of smallpox one day later. See Rollmann (2017), pp. 195–222.
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Acknowledgements
I want to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions for improvement and particularly Hans Rollmann (MUN) and Olaf Nippe (Moravian Archives Herrnhut) for their efforts to supply additional information. Thanks go also to the editors for their invitation to contribute to this volume. Any remaining errors are mine.
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Olsthoorn, T. (2021). Cranz’s Greenland as a Stepping Stone to Labrador: Tracing the Profile of the Inuit. In: Jensz, F., Petterson, C. (eds) Legacies of David Cranz's 'Historie von Grönland' (1765). Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63998-3_11
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