172 TRAVEL, ADVENTUKE, AND SPOET. 



he wants it for an advanced post, a barrier, a citadel, or 

 a "garden of herbs," and straightway it becomes his. 



Thus has it fared with the poor Alanders. The 

 very position which seemed to promise privacy and 

 impunity, has brought upon them again and again 

 the presence of war, and provoked the disturbance of 

 their primitive state, by more than ordinary vicis- 

 situdes and transitions. Once a kingdom so says 

 tradition the sovereignty, perhaps, of some northern 

 erl or viking, whose ships found a snug refuge in 

 its numerous coves and fiords; then, following the 

 fortunes of its neighbour Finland, a dependency of 

 Sweden, or rather a unit in its federation of races ; 

 then overrun by Eussian soldiers, converted into a 

 military station, and placed under the rule of a nation 

 alien in sympathies, laws, and blood, this little 

 island aggregation becomes at last the scene of a war 

 in which neither its interest nor its patriotism is in- 

 volved. Eussia was only an invader ; England and 

 France were strangers, known only through some 

 vague idea of power or wealth. 



The rule of Sweden seems to have been mild and 

 easy. Under it the Alanders lived their simple lives 

 in peace and content. The natural character of their 

 country compelled a primitive state of society, and 

 favoured a pastoral life. There was no inlet, no out- 

 let for the tide of civilisation. There was not only 

 the natural island separation, but the group was so 

 intersected and dissected by water, and each islet was 



