to find them here: for a hearty welcome I was fully prepared; it was no more than I had every where experienced; but those only who have been long exposed to the accents of a language, with the meaning of which they are wholly unacquainted, can conceive how sweet such a welcome sounds, when given me, as here by the Etatsroed, in my native tongue. We entered by a long passage, with a boarded floor and wainscotted walls, and, after crossing another smaller one, arrived at the library, a room of moderate size, well stored with books; adjoining to which was the parlor, which, if I recollect right, had stuccoed walls, painted of a blue color, and a boarded roof and floor. A Danish sofa and other good furniture much resembled such as we have in England, and some ordinary prints, among them one of the Emperor of the French and by the side of it another of the Hero of Trafalgar, served to decorate the walls. Shortly after our arrival, rum with white wine and Norway biscuit were handed round, and, as there was but little time before dinner, we amused ourselves in the library, where I was shewn several valuable and interesting

works, relating to the ancient history of the island, as well in manuscript as in print. There were here, also, many of the Latin and Greek classics, and of the most esteemed authors in the German, French, Swedish, and Danish languages, besides, what gratified me more than any thing else, a considerable number of our best English poets. Here, too, I was shewn a translation of Milton's Paradise Lost into Icelandic verse, the performance of a priest who had lived in the eastern part of the island, but whose name I cannot now remember. The Etatsroed, who was capable of reading the original, did not express himself at all satisfied with the translation, and I have no doubt of his being a competent judge of the subject, having himself, with much eclat, turned into Icelandic poetry Pope's Essay on Man and Universal Prayer; to the liberal sentiments inculcated in the latter of which he was so much attached, as to have it sometimes sung in his church. How happy should I have been to have had the opportunity of shewing to my countrymen, on my return, the numerous publications, principally historical, for which I was indebted

to the liberality of this learned and noble author; but, though unfortunately deprived of this satisfaction, I record, with infinite pleasure, my obligations to him, not only for these, but for various other books which I could not elsewhere have procured. *Two of the works that have come from the pen of the Etatsroed deserve particular mention: the titles, indeed, have altogether escaped my memory, but, if I am not mistaken, one of them was written in the Danish, the other in the Icelandic language, and both treated of the most remarkable occurrences that had taken place in the later history of the country, among which it was peculiarly gratifying to me, as an Englishman, to find, while the author was himself translating some portions to me, how earnestly and how completely con amore he bears testimony to the noble and generous conduct of Sir Joseph Banks, impressing, in the strongest terms, upon the minds of his countrymen a sense

* These are in all probability two of the Etatsroed's publications mentioned by Dr. Holland: the one entitled Iceland in the 18th Century; the other a translation of the same into Danish, with additions. The former was printed in 1806, the latter in 1808.

of the obligations they owe to him for the unexampled assistance which he afforded to such Icelanders, as had, in the beginning of the present war, been made prisoners in Danish vessels; constantly striving with the utmost zeal to procure their release, and supplying, with unbounded liberality, their pecuniary wants. I must, however, do the Icelanders the justice to say, that there is no need of the assistance of the press to excite a stronger feeling of gratitude on their part, for the benefits that have been conferred upon them by this exalted character; for the eager inquiries that were in every place made after his welfare, by the aged, who still remember his person, and by the young, who know him from the anecdotes told by their fathers and their grandfathers, were a convincing proof of the esteem and veneration they entertain for him: so that, not unfrequently, while wandering over the wastes of Iceland, my heart has glowed, and I have felt a pride, that I should have been ashamed to dissemble, at being able to call such a man my patron and my friend. A short history of the esculent Fuci, published by the Etatsroed, has already been noticed at page 46

of this journal. Music, also, claimed a considerable share of the attention, not only of himself, but of all the family at Inderholme, and a large Danish organ occupied a portion of one side of the room. On my expressing a wish to hear some Icelandic music, the whole family came into the library, and, with their voices, accompanied his performance of several sacred airs. I was next entertained with Danish and Icelandic songs, by the Etatsroed's daughter, which she accompanied with tunes upon the Lang-spel. This instrument has long been growing into disuse, so that it is now become of extremely rare occurrence, and very few of the natives indeed, excepting the Etatsroed and his family, are capable of performing upon it with any degree of skill. It consists of a narrow deal box, about three feet long, with a wider semi-circular extremity, in which are the sound holes. Three brass wires, or sometimes five, are extended the whole length of this box, and tightened or slackened by means of small wooden pegs, as in our common violin. It is usually played upon with a bow of horse-hair, the instrument itself