charge, hoping for more favorable times, while
Mr. Jorgensen returned to England with
the Clarence in ballast, having previously
restored the Danish brig to her owners.
The governor, Count Tramp, who had
been absent at Copenhagen during these
transactions, was apprised of them on his
return to Iceland on the 6th of June, 1809,
and he observes, upon the subject, in his
statement, that, “ mortified as he felt at a
convention of this kind, concluded with an
armament unauthorised to enforce it; yet,
nevertheless, acknowledging the sacredness
of contracts, he had no idea of curtailing in
any respect the rights thereby granted to
British subjects, though Mr. Savigniac him-
self, by acting contrary to the convention,
had long since given him sufficient cause to
have dissolved it.”—In the early part of the
same month, Captain Nott, of his majesty’s
sloop of war the Rover, arrived in the country,
and an opportunity was thus offered
to Count Tramp, as well to prove the sincerity
of his intentions, as to render the
most essential service possible to Iceland, by
fixing all matters in dispute upon a permanent
basis with an officer whom he looked
upon as no less qualified to enter into ;in
agreement than able to enforce the observance
of it
On the l6th of June a convention was
accordingly concluded between Captain Nott
and Count Tramp, by which it was stipulated
that British subjects should have a free
trade on the island during the war, but that
they should be subject at the same time to
Danish laws. The governor proceeds in his
* The feelings o f the governor I cannot express better
than in his own words* “ I must beg leave to remark
that, from the existing warlike relations, I did not
view with indifference the arrival of an armed force
belonging to his British Majesty, with the objects of
which in these parts I was unacquainted, and the
peaceable proceedings of which no convention secured.
My duty, therefore, imposed upon me to take every
possible means of precaution; but, having been assured
that Captain Nott was far from intending any hostility
against the country, I could not but wish, under the
existing circumstances, that a compact entered into
with a man acting under public authority should
establish a firm and understood relation between the
inhabitants of Iceland and those British subjects who
were settled there already, or who might come hereafter
for the purposes of trade.”
VOL. II. C