Thursday, This morning we had rain and
squalls. After breakfast the priest
came down, and begged that he might be
allowed to accompany me to the Geysers ;
but this I could by no means consent to, as it
was my full intention to proceed to Hecla,
and to return by another route. He insisted,
however, upon conducting me some way on
my road, and especially across a river, which
relations; full of wrath and revenge, extremely lascivious
and vicious, and errant thieves and cheats. What,
then, can be expected from a people that have no awe
or check, and live in an unbridled licentiousness, without
any restraint ashore and at sea, frequent opportunities
unobserved, and consequently unpunishable, and
continually indulging themselves in the filthy sin of
drunkenness ? ”—These absurd falsities are scarcely deserving
of refutation. Were such conduct, as is here
mentioned, really to exist, it could not but be productive
of the most serious consequences to the nation :
the prison-houses would be filled with persons, who
would have been gradually led on to commit the worst
of crimes. Yet, that such is not the case in Iceland,
may be believed, when it is known that there is only one
prison for 48,000 inhabitants, and that, on our arrival,
which was a little previous to a sitting of the court
of justice, there was only one criminal.in it (and even this
was more than had been the case for a long time), and
five or six persons confined for small offences.
he called Brueraa, and which, owing to the
late wet weather, he thought might probably
be too deep to cross to-day. He accordingly
went to his wardrobe in the church, dressed
ttimself in his best clothes, and was ready to
start with us. We continued our journey
along the foot of a barren mountain, at no
great distance from the marshes. Here and
there, indeed, we met with a few stunted
birch-trees, but no plants that I had not seen,
elsewhere. Leaving the mountain, and crossing
a disagreeable swamp, we, in about two or
three hours, arrived at the most fordable part
of the Brueraa. There was already a party of
horsemen there, resting their horses a little, to
prepare them for the fatigue of passing through
this stream, the bottom of which is exceedingly
rocky, and the river itself both wide
and deep, but at this time considered fordable.
The packages of fish, wool, &c., were carefully
fixed by ropes to the top of the horses
backs, so that they might be as little exposed
to the water as possible; and the horses,
being then tied in a line one behind the
other, all reached the opposite shore in safety,
though the smaller ones were compelled
to swim. A foal, which was fastened by