Seemingly based off John White's watercolours of Inuit, this is a 1578 depiction of the Inuit abducted by Martin Frobisher on his voyage that same year to Baffin Island. All three of the Inuit died soon after their arrival in England.
Featured on PDR in the essay The Orkney Finnmen Legends: From Early Modern Science to Modern Myth
At the end of the 17th century there appeared the first noting of a mysterious kayak-paddling “Finnman” seen in Orkney waters. Jonathan Westaway explores the subsequent explanations and how early modern science’s fascination with unfamiliar objects, and the “out-of-place” in general, helped conjure the idea of an Inuit presence in the region and, in turn, a new chapter of Scottish folklore.
Also appearing in the essay…
The Inuit Abducted by Martin Frobisher
Date
1578
