A Description of Greenland/Dedication
To His Most Serene
ROYAL HIGHNESS
FRIDERICK,
Hereditary PRINCE, Successor to the Crown of
Denmark and Norway.
As I took the Freedom most humbly to address to the King Your Royal Father an Account of the Greenland Mission's Beginning and Propagation, which his Majesty with so glorious a Zeal protects and encourages; so likewise, with the same most humble Submission, I presume to offer to Your most Serene Royal Highness this present Survey, or Natural History of Greenland; endeavouring by this means to insinuate and recommend to Your Royal Highness's Favour and Protection, so pious an Undertaking; because the poor Greenlanders have a Right to claim your Protection, as well as the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway; and are in Hopes of enjoying, one Day, the greatest Blessings under Your happy Reign.
This little Work cannot fail of a gracious Reception from Your Royal Highness, as it aims only at, and is calculated for, the Honour of God, and Your Royal Family's Exaltation. The last of which wholly depends on, and necessarily follows the first; for when the poor Greenlanders shall have learned to know and worship God, as their Creator and Redeemer, then they will likewise learn to acknowledge and honour a Christian Sovereign as their King and Ruler, through whose most Christian Care and Beneficience they have been brought to the Knowledge of Salvation.
May the Kingdom of God daily encrease, and be spread far and wide, under the Government of Your Royal House! May the Word of God run swiftly, under the Sway of its Scepter, as it doth in the East, so also now in the coldest North. That it may please Almighty God to make Your Royal Highness's Name as the Name of the great and mighty Ones upon Earth; that he may establish, and powerfully support the Royal Hereditary Throne, and place You as a Blessing before his Face to all Eternity, are the hearty Wishes and Prayers of,
July 20,
1741.
HANS EGEDE.