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REGNARD’S JOURNEY TO LAPLAND. 175
fome think that they can avoid attendance on fermon, by ftating that they were there
laft year ; and others fuppofe they have a legitimate excufe in abfenting themfelves,
when they fay, that they belong to another church, which they have already attended.
This clearly fhows, that they are only Chriftians by means of force, and that they
never give any evidences of their religion, except when forced to do fo.
We were employed during the remainder of this day, and all the morning of
Tuefday, in cutting on a ftone, lafting memorials, which fhould inform pofterity,
that three Frenchmen had continued to travel, till they could go no farther ; and that,
notwithftanding the difficulties which they had encountered, and which had frightened
many others, and that they had come to erect a trophy at the end of the world,
materials having been rather wanting for their further toil, than courage to endure it.
The infcription was the following :
Gallia nos genuit ; vidit nos Africa ; Gangem
Haufimus, Europamque oculis luftravimus omnem ;
Cafibus et variis a€ti terraque marique,
Hic tandem ftetimus, nobis ubi defuit orbis.
De Fercourt, De Corberon, Regnard.
18 Augulti, 1681.
‘* Gaul begot us; Africa has beheld us; We have explored the Ganges, and
** travelled over all Europe, having been expofed to various accidents, both by fea and
** Jand, here at length have we arrived, at the fartheft boundary of the world.”
De Fercourt, De Corberon, Regnard.
18th day of Auguft, 1681.
We cut out thefe verfes upon ftone and upon wood ; and though the fpot on which
we were, was not the belt place to put them, we left thofe which we had engraven on
the wood and they were placed in the church above the altar. We carried the others
with us to place them at the end of the lake of Tornotrefch from whence the Frozen
Ocean can be feen, and where the world terminates.
When the Laplanders who were employed in conduéting us, and in fhowing us the
road, had returned from where they had been fent, to purchafe fome little provifions,
confifting of feven or eight cheefes of the rein-deer, and fome dried fifh, we left the
priefts at five o’clock in the evening, and ftopt, for the purpofe of fleeping, at an
impetuous torrent, which they call Vaccho, where we arrived an hour after midnight.
We had the pleafure, during the whole road, to behold the rifing and the fetting of
fun at the fame time. The fun fet to-day at eleven o’clock, and rofe at two, whilft it
remained, during the whole as clearas at noon-day. But when the days are longeft,
that is, three weeks before Saint John, and three weeks after, the fun is conftantly in
fight, during this period, without touching, in the loweft parts of his courfe, the tops of
the higheft mountains. He is alfo, during the fhorteft days in winter, two entire
months, without being vifible; and at Candlemas, the people afcend to the tops of
the higheft mountains, for the purpofe of obferving him to peep forth for an inf{tant.
_ Night, however, does not conftantly endure, as, at mid-day, a little glimmering light
breaks forth which continues about two hours. The Laplanders, by the affiftance of
this light, and the reflection of the fnow, with which the whole earth is covered, take
this time to go to the chafe, and to fifh, which they never leave off, although the rivers
and the lakes are completely frozen, and, in fome places, as thick as the length of a
pike ;
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