Egbert, Saint, was born in the 7th century. He was a monk in the convent of Rathmelsing, and in 644, when seized with the plague, he made a vow that, in case of recovery, he would leave his country and preach the Gospel among the pagans. He accordingly set out as a missionary for Germany, but was by a tempest compelled to return. He then took up his aliode among the monks of the island of Hy, from where he sent as missionaries to Fricsland, first, the learned monk Wictbert, and, when this one returned after two years of fruitless labor, twelve Anglo-Sax- ons. Egbert had a prominent share in kindling that remarkable missionary zeal which distinguished the Anglo-Saxons in the 8th century. He introduced, in 716, into the monastery of Hy the Roman manner of celebrating Easter, and the Roman tonsure. He died in 729.— Beda, Hist. Eccl. Angl. iii, 27; v, 10, 11, 23; Herzog, Real-Encykl. iii, 658. (A, J. S.)
Egede, Hans, an eminent Danish misi^ionary, called the "apostle of Greenland," was 1 orn at Har- stadt, Norway (which at that time belonged to Den- mark), Jan. 31, 1686, and became pastor at Drontheim in 1707. , Here he conceived the jn-oject of a mission to Greenland, having derived from a history of Nor- way the impression that formerlj- there had been Chris- tians in Greenland, where now there were only hea- thens. " Egede, after receiving some suggestions to this effect from a friend in Bergen, became so enthusi- astic on the subject that he wrote to the bishops of Bergen and Drontheim in 1710, proposing an expedi- tion to convert the Greenlanders ; and on its striking him that such a recommendation would come with an ill grace from one who did not offer to undertake it himself, he made the offer, supposing, however, as he himself tells us, that as it was war-time, and the expe- dition would require some money, the proposal would not be accepted. He received in replj'' a strange let- ter from the bishop of Drontheim, Krog, in which the prelate suggested that ' Greenland was undoubtedly a part of America, and could not be very far from Cuba and Hispaniola, ■where there was found such abun- dance of gold ;' concluding that it was verj' likely that those who went to Greenland would bring home 'in- credible riches.' Egede had made this offer,- ver}' oddly, without acquainting his wife ; and as soon as she became aware of it, by the receipt of the bishop's I letters, she, with her mother and his mother, assailed Egede with such strong remonstrances, that, he saj's in his own account, he was quite conquered, and re- pulsed his folly with a promise to remain in the land which 'God had placed him in" " (^Eng. Cyclop.'). Soon after, his wife, however, gave her consent. In 1717 he threw up his benefice at Vaagen, and went with his family to Bergen, endeavoring to found a company to trade with Greenland. The merchants did not re- ceive this project favorably, and Egede determined to lay his plans before the king at Copenhagen. " Fred-
EGEDE
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erick IV of Denmark, wlio had already, in 1714, found- ed a eollcKe for the propaj^ation of tlie Gospel, sent Egede back to Bergen with his approbation ; a com- pany was formed, to which Egede put down his name for the lirst subscription of ^.00 dollars, and finalh', on May 3, 1721, a sliip called ' Haabet,' or ' The Hojje,' set sail' for Greenland, with forty -six souls on board, in- cluding Egede and his family. On the 3d of July, af- t2T a dangerous voyage, they set foot on shore at Baals- revier, on the western coast, and were, on the whole, hospitably received by the natives. The very appear- ance of the Greenlanders at once put a negative on the supposition that they were descended from the North- men, and their language, which it was now the mis- sionary's business to learn, was found to be entirely of a dift'Jrent kind, being, in fact, nearly related to that spoken by the Esquimaux of Labrador. The climate and the "soil were both harsher and ruder than the Korweginns had expected, and the only circumstance that was in their favor was the character of the inhab- itants, which, though at first excessively phlegmatic, so as to give the idea that their feelings had been frozen, was neither cruel, nor, as was found bj' further experience, unadapted to receive religious impressions. For some years the mission had a hard battle for life. The settlers, unable to obtain sufficient food by fishing and the chase, were entirely dependent on the supply of provisions sent them by annual store-ships from Denmark, and wiien this supply was delaved, were re- duced to short rations and the dread of starvation. On one occasion even Egede's courage gave way, and he had made up his mind to abandon the mission and return to Europe unless the provisions arrived within fourteen days. His wife alone opposed the resolution, and refused to pack up, persisting in predicting that the store-ship would arrive in time ; and, ere the time had elapsed, the ships, which liad missed the coast, found their waj-, and brought tidings that, rather than give up the attempt to Christianize Greenland, the king had ordered a lottery in favor of it, and, on the lottery's failing, had imposed a special tax on Denmark and Norway under the name of the Greenland Assess- ment. In 1727 the Bergen company for trading with Greenland was dissolved, from the losses it had sus- tained, and the Danish government then resolved on founding a colony in Greenland, and sent in 1728 a ship of war, with a body of soldiers under the com- mand of a Major Paars. The soldiers grew mutinous when they saw to what a country they had been sent, and Egede found his life in more danger from his coun- trymen than it Iiad ever been from the natives. The death of king Frederick IV, in 1731, occasioned a change of affairs. The new king. Christian IV, deter- mined to bi'ealv up the colonj^ and recall all his sub- jects from Greenland, with tlie exception of such as chose to remain of their own free-will, to whom he gave directions that provisions were to be allowed for one year, but that thej' were to be led to expect no further sujiply. Egede had then l>ecn ten years in Greenland, and his labors were beginning to bear fruit. His eldest son Paul, who was a boj' of twelve when the}' landed, had l)een of much assistance in learning the language and in other ways; his wife and the younger children had aided greatly in producing a fa- vorable eft'oct on the natives, who had seen no Euro- peans t)efore except tlie crews of the Dutch trading- vessels. Tlie angelvoks, or conjurors, who might al- most be called the priests of the native religion, had been awed, some into respect and others into silence, by tlie mildness and active benevolence of the foreign auLtekok ; the natives had seen with wonder the inter- est lie took in their welfare, and, if they refused to l)e- lieve tlie new doctrines themselves, had not forbidden them to tlu'ir chililren, of whom Egede had a hundred and fifty l)aiitized. The elder Greenlanders, when Egede told tlicn"! of the cITica'cj' of prayer, asked him to pray that there should be no winter ; and when he