182 
VOYAGE TO GREENLAND, 
^reat chance of our being obliged to land in Ice- 
land, to replenish our fuel. This communication 
afforded me considerable satisfaction, as it would 
enable me to accomplish the strong wish which I 
had formed, of visiting a country so distinguished 
for its celebrated volcanoes and basaltic pillars. 
I longed to examine, on the spot, the tremendous 
effects which are there produced upon the surface 
of the ground, by the contention of the elements 
beneath its foundations, and to behold those scenes 
unrivalled in nature, where lofty columns of boiling 
water are jetted from caldrons heated by subterra- 
neous fires ; my object was also in some measure 
to witness the happiness of a race of people, who, 
although living in a most remote country under the 
greatest privations, are so warmly attached to their 
native land, that they rank themselves among the 
most blessed people of the earth ; and agree with 
their old proverb that ; Istand on hinn besta land sem 
solinn skinnar uppa, “ Iceland is the best land on 
which the sun shines.” This simple race afford a 
fine moral lesson to every country, and a censure 
on those dissatisfied creatures, who are living in 
the land of liberty, gifted with the bounties of Pro- 
vidence, even the choicest fruits of the earth, and 
who yet are not contented. 
The island of Iceland had the honour of giving 
birth to the discoverer of Old Greenland. Eric 
Rande, or, Eric the Red, (so called from the colour 
of his hair), about the year 892, set sail from Sna- 
faldes on an expedition to the westward, and fell in 
