90 Freminville'g Voyage to the North Pole* 



These extraordinary phenomena are of frequent occurrence, 

 and they change, in some measure, the face of nature, and the 

 general aspect of the coasts of the country. It does not ap- 

 pear, however, that they impede the progress of navigation j 

 the shores are every where steep, the anchorage good, and 

 the bottom is generally of volcanic gravel, or pebbles, and 

 broken shells ; and often the two substances are found united. 

 There are on the coasts a number of deep bays, where ships 

 may ride in perfect security, covered by the high lands that 

 encircle them. 



The general population of the island at present is about 

 40,000 souls ; formerly it amounted to 60,000 ; but the scurvy, 

 and especially the small-pox, which proved very fataj in 1707 

 and 1708, have greatly diminished the population, and are still 

 very destructive. The governor-general, Van Tramp, who came 

 to pay us a visit at Patrix Fiord, informed us that every year 

 the number of deaths exceeded that of the births. In time, per- 

 haps, the inhabitants of this country, who, besides, are addicted 

 to insalubrious modes of living, will insensibly become extinct. 



Iceland, subject to the crown of Denmark from the 13th 

 century,* is rather an expensive charge than a profitable pos- 

 session ; the king only receives from jit 140,000 francs per 

 annum, and the whole of this scanty revenue is absorbed in 

 the charges of the governor, of the bailiffs, and ecclesiastics, 

 with the provisions and other expences of their household. 



Notwithstanding its poverty, this country allured the cupi- 

 dity of some Barbary corsairs, who, in 1626, landed here and 

 carried off a number of the wretched inhabitants, whom they 

 made slaves of. They were again visited in 1687, by other 

 pirates, who practised the most horrid cruelties on the unfor- 

 tunate natives, totally bereft of all means of defence. 



These two examples are on record, yet the King of Den- 

 mark does not keep here any military force, nor hate the Ice- 

 landers arms of any description .; a gun, with powder and 

 shot, is an object of curiosity, almost as much as with the in- 

 habitants of the South-Sea Islands. We had pressing solici- 

 tations to indulge such curiosity, but it was only to expend 

 in the chace ; their peaceable character not suffering them to 

 think of any other mode of application* 



Of all other people, the Icelanders are, perhaps, those who 

 have retained the primitive patriarchal manners in the greatest 

 purity ; they are good, loyal, hospitable, and unacquainted 

 with any of those violent passions which, in other parts of the 



* It was in the year 1261 that the Icelanders voluntarily submitted to 

 Ilaquin, King of Norway. 



