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course of last summer had proceeded thither, and only
07ie Danish vessel took in a cargo of salt from Liverpool,
which vessel was wrecked on the coast of Iceland. Disappointed
in the hope of procuring a conveyance from
England, I requested my father to write to Sir Henry
Watkins 'Williams W'ynn, our Envoy Extraordinary and
IMinister at the Court of Copenhagen, for information
as to the probability of a certain conveyance from
thence.
The answer of His Excellency was exceedingly kind ;
he regretted that I was not myself the bearer of the
letter, as he might then have procured me a passage in
a Danish ship of the line, about to proceed to Iceland
with Prince Frederick and his suite, though he could
not have ensured me a conveyance back, as a corvette
only would be sent in the autumn to bring back the
Prince to his destination, and that he apprehended it
would be too small to afford accommodation. He was
kind enough also to refer me to a quarter most likely to
give information, and sent me two letters of introduction
to residents on the island.
In the mean time, however, Mr. Smith, whose acquaintance
I was so fortunate to make in Norway the preceding
year, had the kindness, wuthout being aware of
my intention to visit Iceland, to offer me a passage in a
beautiful yacht called the Flower of Yarrow,” belonging
to the Royal Yacht Club, of which he is a
member. He had purchased her from the Duke of
Buccleuch, and proposed to make his first voyage to
Tronyem, there to receive on board Mr. Broder
Knudtzon, one of the most respectable gentlemen in
that place, and a member of the Storthing; from thence
to sail to Iceland, and, after visiting that island, to convey
him to England, and ultimately to the Mediterranean.
I was of course delighted with such an eligible and unlooked
for piece of good fortune, made my preparations
accordingly without loss of time, and arranged with Mr.
Smith to join the yacht at Liverpool.
I did not flatter myself that I should be able to collect
much additional information respecting this most extraordinary
island, which had been visited by some, though
not many, of the most intelligent among our countrymen
; but it would at least be something to have the
opportunity of comparing the accounts of preceding travellers,
which have been but “ short and far between,”
with the present state of its inhabitants, and more particularly
the descriptions of those singular boiling fountains
known by the name of the Geysers. To witness
the ebullitions and the eruptions of these wmuld be ample
compensation for any inconvenience I might suffer, and I
apprehended none in a well-built and wmll-found yacht.
Of the numerous works that have been published on
Iceland, of which the catalogue contained in the English
translation of Dr. Von Troiks letters amount to one hundred
and twenty, few are known to the English reader; the
greater number being in the Danish, Swedish, German,
or Icelandic languages—some few in Latin.
To our immortal Bard, however, who appears to have