xvi Sir William Jackson Hooker . 
famine that threatened the Icelanders at the beginning of the 
war, when the activity of our cruisers intercepted their supplies 
of food from Denmark and Norway 1 , adding that Sir Joseph 
had obtained the release of Danish prisoners in England, and 
at his own expense furnished them with the means of living 
and returning to their homes. 
As may be taken for granted, under such circumstances 
every facility was given to the visitor for travelling to the 
most interesting places in the island, Thingewalla, the Geysers, 
Skalholt, Reykholt, &c., and for making collections and ob- 
servations on natural history. 
On August 6, H.M.S. Talbot anchored in Reikevik harbour, 
when her commander, the Hon. Captain Jones, promptly 
deposing and making a prisoner of Jorgensen, replaced Count 
Tramp in the governorship. 
On August 25, after bidding adieu to his kind friend the 
Stiftsamptman, who gave him a valuable collection of Ice- 
landic books, my father embarked on his return voyage in the 
Margaret and Anne, On this occasion the vessel carried 
besides the passengers and crew some Danish prisoners of war, 
and she was ordered by Captain Jones to sail in company with 
the Orion 2 , now a prize of the Talbot \ carrying Mr. Jorgensen 
and another party of Danish prisoners. The two ships left 
in the afternoon, but the Orion becoming suddenly becalmed 
could not proceed till the following day. The Margaret and 
Anne , on the other hand, being favoured by the wind, pursued 
her voyage till the morning of the 27th, when being twenty 
leagues from the land, in a dead calm, she was discovered to 
be on fire. Being loaded with oil and tallow, the progress of 
the flames was rapid ; smoke burst out at once from all the 
hatches, and to add to the horror of the situation, she did not 
1 Sir Joseph Banks being himself a Privy Councillor obtained an Order in 
Council, dated Feb. 10, 1810, strictly forbidding acts of hostility against the poor 
and defenceless colonies of the Danish dominion, and permitting them to trade 
with the parent-country, unmolested by British cruisers. 
2 The Orion was a Danish ship of war, that had brought Count Tramp to 
Iceland a few weeks before the arrival of the Margaret and Anne, which, in virtue 
of her letter of marque, had, under Jorgensen’s orders, seized her as a prize. 
