I must here beg leave to observe that,
though I would be far from questioning the
good intentions and the sincerity of the
count, or the correctness of his statements,
still, admitting them to be strictly true,
some strange neglect had certainly taken
place; for the convention had not been
printed at the period of our arrival, though
five days had elapsed from its signature, the
half of which would have been sufficient for
the purpose, even supposing it to have been
sent by land; and, what is of most consequence,
but is omitted in his narrative, a
proclamation had been dispersed over the
equally treacherous and shameful. They have, under
the mask of hypocrisy, stolen into his country, to rob
him of his fleet, and to plunder his kingdom, which was
o f all in Europe the most happy, owing to nearly an
hundred years’ peace. They have captured a number
of Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic merchant-ships.
With violence and treachery have they provoked the Well-
merited hatred of our nation, and roused us to arms, in
defence of our king, our country, and our liberty. They
have surrounded our coasts with ships of war, to
destroy our commerce, and to prevent all importation
of the most common necessaries into our countries,
thereby to the utmost of their power causing misery
country, and was found by us still posted up
in the town, forbidding any native to trade
with the English, under pain of death. ^This
proclamation had been printed during the
absence of the count, but kept in a chest till
his arrival, and was certainly issued by his
special direction.
While things were O in this state in Iceland,J
Mr. Phelps had been planning a second expedition,
prepared with more care than the
former, and upon a more extensive scale,
with the hope of accomplishing his favorite
project, and of repairing the losses he had
sustained. He therefore, early in the summer,
got ready in London the Margaret and
Anne, a fine ship carrying ten guns, provided
with a letter of marque, and loaded
with a cargo of such articles as had been
pointed out by Mr. Savigniac as most likely
to be saleable, and he, at the same time, dispatched
the Flora, a brig, with grain for the
use of the island. So much had he this object
at heart, that he determined himself to
sail in the former of these vessels, to avoid
all mistakes, and see that nothing might
interrupt the harmony he hoped to find