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 l>ad
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 a'l 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 Fitci, published by the Etatsroed,
has already been noticed at page 46