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VON TROIL’S LETTERS ON ICELAND. 633
not fpeak of fuch fires without the moft decifive opinions. I will, however, referve a
further account of thefe extraordinary productions till my return home, when I flatter
myfelf I fhall be able to give you entire fatisfaction.
LETTER II.—To THE ROYAL LIBRARIAN MR. GJORWELL.
Of Iceland in general.
SIR, Utrecht, Jan. 22, 1773.
You are, no doubt, informed of the voyage Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander undertook
Jaft fummer to Iceland, as well as my having accompanied thefe gentlemen on that ex-
pedition. I need not tell you what reafons determined me to become one of their com-
pany. You can eafily conceive how many different circumftances might have per-
fuaded a curious Swede to vifit a country remarkable in fo many refpects ; I am per-
feétly fatisfied with my voyage, and can eafily convince you of it, by communicating to
you fome little account of what principally attracted our attention during its courfe.
We fet fail from London on the twelfth of July laft in a fhip, for which one hundred
pounds fterling were paid every month. Befides Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, and my-
felf, we had on board an aftronomer *, a lieutenant in the navy (a very worthy man,
his name is Gore, and deferves to be mentioned, as he is, as far as we know, the firft
who has failed three times round the world] ), together with a lieutenant, three draught{-
men, and two writers, who, with the feamen and fervants, made about forty people.
We firft landed on the Ifle of Wight, which is a little paradife, where we {pent two
days. Nature feems to have fpared none of her favours in embellifhing it; and I know
no place in it which does not prefent a pleafing view to the obferver. ‘The inhabitants
refemble their ifland; they live in a little community among themfelves; they are not
very rich, neither have they any beggars. They are generally cheerful, cleanly, and
obliging ; and there are but few inftances among them of any one marrying a perfon
who did not at that time refide or afterwards fettle on the ifland.
From thence we failed to Plymouth, where we faw the docks, magazines, and every
hing .belonging to them worthy of notice, and then proceeded towards St. George’s
annel.
We had intended to land on the Ifle of Man, as it is one of the few places where the
Runic charatters have been brought by the Danes, and the only one, except the north,
where fome of our old Runic {tones are found; but at fea we cannot always act ac-
cording to our pleafure: the wind obliged us to leave the Ifle of Man on our right,
and to continue our courfe to the weftern iflands of Scotland.
It is exceedingly pleafant to fail among thefe iflands, though not very fafe, without a
good wind and expert pilots: for in the firft cafe you muft depend upon the ebb and
; and in the fecond you are in continual danger on account of the great number
of rocks.
The nature of the country is fuch, that I do not wonder at its having given birth to
a Fingal, and an Offian. It is not the only place where we have {een heroes pros
* Dr. James Lind, of Edinburgh, who is well known by many memoirs inferted in the Philofophical
Tranfactions, and other ingenious publications.
+ Captain Dampier did it a long time before Mr. Gore, viz. Cowley and Dampier, 1683, 1684 ; Dam-
picr and Funnel, 1689, 1691 ; Woodes, Rogers, and Dampier, (708, 1711. If Lieutenant Gore and
Captain Charles Clerk return fafe home from the voyage they are now engaged in, they both will have
failed four times round the world.
VOL. Ie 4M duced
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