PREFACE.
T h e interesting Letters on Iceland, published
by the Archbishop Von Troil, had inspired
me at an early age with an ardent desire
to visit that most singular country, to see its
voleanic mountains and its boiling springs,
unequalled by any in the known world. The
small degree of intercourse, however, that
existed between England and so obscure a
part of the globe, and, what appeared a still
greater impediment, the unfriendly disposition
exhibited by the Danish government
towards our nation, scarcely allowed even an
hope to be entertained that an opportunity of
gratifying such a wish would present itself,
till, in the spring of the year I8O9, Sir Joseph
Banks most unexpectedly proposed to me,
as a compensation for my not having it in
b
