ICELANDIC REVOLUTION. 3H 
countrymen was of a nature but ill calculated to 
impress them with favorable sentiments towards 
us; for, benevolent as were the intentions of our 
government, no pubhc notification had been made 
of them, and they were consequently of no avail 
in preventing the depredations of our privateers ; 
one of which, in 1808, under the command of 
Captain Gilpin, came to the island, and landed 
an armed force, which took away from the public 
chest upwards of thirty thousand rix-dollars that 
were appropriated to the maintenance of the 
schools and the poor. 
Far different from this was the object of Mr. 
Phelps, an eminent and honorable merchant in 
London, who, having accidentally learned from 
Mr. Jorgensen that a large quantity of Icelandic 
produce, and particularly of tallow, was lying 
ready for exportation in the ports of that island, 
conceived the project of opening a direct commu¬ 
nication, likely to prove equally beneficial to 
both parties; and, without delay, freighted a ves¬ 
sel called the Clarence, at Liverpool, for the pur¬ 
pose, in doing which, to avoid all possible cause 
for umbrage, he, according to Mr. Jorgensen, 
applied to government for permission to export 
no other articles but such as were absolutely ne¬ 
cessary for the subsistence of the inhabitants, as 
barley-meal, potatoes, and salt, with a very 
