the westmans.—their extreme difficulty of access.—how they became peopled.—heimaey.—kaufstathir and ofanleyte.—sheep-hoisting.—egg-gathering.—dreadful mortality among the children.—the ginklofi.—gentleman john.—the algerine pirates.—dreadful sufferings of the islanders.
rising abruptly from the sea to a height of 916 feet, the small westman islands are no less picturesque than difficult of access. many a traveller while sailing along the south coast of iceland has admired their towering rock-walls, but no modern tourist has ever landed there. for so stormy a sea rolls between them and the mainland, and so violent are the currents, which the slightest wind brings forth in the narrow channels of the archipelago, that a landing can be effected only when the weather is perfectly calm. the drifanda foss, a cascade on the opposite mainland, rushing from the brow of the eyafyalla range in a column of some 800 or 900 feet in height, is a sort of barometer, which decides whether a boat can put off with a prospect of gaining the westmans. in stormy weather the wind eddying among the cliffs converts the fall, though considerable, into a cloud of spray, which is dissipated in the atmosphere, so that no cascade is visible from the beach. in calm weather the column is intact, and if it remains so two days in succession, then the sea is usually calm enough to allow boats to land, and they venture out. as the icelanders, through stormy weather, are frequently cut off from europe, so the inhabitants of the westmans are still more frequently cut off from iceland, and it is seldom more than once a year that the mails are landed direct. the few letters from denmark (for the correspondence is in all probability not very active) are landed in iceland at reykjavik, and thence forwarded to the islands by boat, as chance may offer, for, during the whole winter and the greater part115 of the summer, communication is impossible. it will now be understood why tourists are so little inclined to visit the westmans, despite the magnificence of their coast scenery, for who has the patience to tarry in a miserable hut on the opposite mainland till the cascade informs him that they are accessible, or is inclined to run the risk of being detained by a sudden change of the weather for weeks or even months on these solitary rocks?
mr. ross browne thus describes the general aspect of the coast of iceland: “nothing could surpass the desolate grandeur of the coast as we approached the point of reykjaness. it was of an almost infernal blackness. the whole country seemed uptorn, rifted, shattered, and scattered about in a vast chaos of ruin. huge cliffs of lava split down to their bases toppled over the surf. rocks of every conceivable shape, scorched and blasted with fire, wrested from the main and hurled into the sea, battled with the waves, their black scraggy points piercing the mist like giant hands upthrown to smite or sink in a fierce death-struggle. the wild havoc wrought in the conflict of elements was appalling. birds screamed over the fearful wreck of matter. the surf from the inrolling waves broke against the charred and shattered desert of ruin with a terrific roar. columns of spray shot up over the blackened fragments of lava, while in every opening the lashed waters, discolored by the collision, seethed and surged as in a huge caldron.”
63. westman isles.
of the westman islands, he says: “towards noon we made the westman isles, a small rocky group some ten miles distant from the main island. a fishing and trading establishment, owned by a company of danes, is located116 on one of these islands. the arcturus touches twice a year to deliver and receive a mail. on the occasion of our visit, a boat came out with a hardy-looking crew of danes to receive the mail-bag. it was doubtless a matter of great rejoicing to them to obtain news from home. i had barely time to make a rough outline of the islands as we lay off the settlement. the chief interest attached to the westman group is, that it is supposed to have been visited by columbus in 1477, fifteen years prior to his voyage of discovery to the shores of america.”
the puffin, or the screeching sea-mew, seem the only inhabitants for which nature has fitted the westmans, and yet they have a history which leads us back to the times when iceland itself first became known to man.
about 875, a few years after ingolfr followed his household gods to reykjavik, a norwegian pirate, perchance one of the associates of that historical personage, landed on the coast of ireland, attacked with fire and sword the defenseless population, captured forty or fifty persons, men, women, and children, and carried them off as slaves. the passage must have been any thing but pleasant, for it gave the hibernians such a foretaste of the wretchedness that awaited them in iceland, their future abode, that, taking courage from despair, they rose on their captors, threw them overboard, and went ashore on the first land they met with.
a day of rare serenity must have witnessed their arrival on the westmans, a spot which of all others seemed most unlikely to become their home. why they remained there, is a secret of the past; most likely they had no other alternative, and freedom on a rock was, at all events, better than slavery under a cruel viking.
thus these weather-beaten islets were first peopled by men from the west, whence they derive their name, and it is supposed that the present inhabitants are the descendants of those children of erin. no one will be inclined to envy them the heritage bequeathed to them by their fathers.
the westmans are fourteen in number; but of these only one, called heimaey, or home island, is inhabited. it is fifteen miles from the coast of iceland, and forty-five from hecla. though larger than all the others put together, its entire surface is not more than ten square miles. it is almost surrounded with high basaltic cliffs, and an otherwise iron-bound shore; its interior is covered with black ashy-looking cones, bearing undoubted evidence of volcanic action; in fact, the harbor, which lies on its north-east side, and is only accessible to small craft, is formed out of an old crater, into which the sea has worn an entrance. the inhabitants are located in two villages; kaufstathir, on a little grassy knoll near the landing-place, and ofanleyte, on the grassy platform of the island. only three of the other islets produce any vegetation or pasturage, and it is said that on one of these the sheep are hoisted with a rope out of the boats by an islander, who, at the risk of his neck, has climbed to the top of the precipitous rock. the others are mere naked cliffs or basaltic pillars, the abode of innumerable sea-birds, which, when accessible, are a precious resource to the islanders. for, as may well be supposed, the scanty grass lands afford nourishment but to a few cows and sheep; and as the unruly waters too often prevent117 their fishing-boats from putting to sea, they depend in a great measure for their subsistence upon the sea-birds, in whose capture they exhibit wonderful courage and skill. in the egg-season they go to the top of the cliff, and, putting a rope round a man’s waist, let him down the side of the perpendicular rock, one, two, or three hundred feet; on arriving at the long, narrow, horizontal shelves, he proceeds to fill a large bag with the brittle treasures deposited by the birds. when his bag is full, he and his eggs are drawn to the top by his companions. if the rope breaks, or is cut off by the sharp corners of the rock, which, however, happens but seldom, nothing can save the luckless fowler, who is either precipitated into the sea, or dashed to pieces on the rocks below.
64. home of sea-birds.
at a later period in the season they go and get the young birds, and then they have often desperate battles with the old ones, who will not give up fighting for their offspring till their necks are broken, or their brains knocked out with a club. where the cliffs are not accessible from the top, they go round the bottom in boats, and show a wonderful agility and daring in scaling the most terrible precipices.
in summer they get the eggs and the fresh meat of the young birds, which they also salt for the winter. the feathers form their chief article of export, besides dried and salted codfish, and with these they procure their few necessaries and luxuries, consisting principally of clothing, tobacco and snuff, spirits, fish-hooks and lines, and salt. as there is no peat on these islands, nor dried fish-bones in sufficient quantity, they also make use of the tough old sea-birds as fuel. for this purpose they split them open, and dry them on the rocks.
the westmans form a separate syssel, or county, and they have a church, and usually two clergymen. their church was rebuilt of stone, at the expense of the danish government, in 1774, and is said to be one of the best in iceland.118 unfortunately the two clergymen to whom the spiritual care of the islanders is confided seem to have but a very indifferent flock, for their neighbors on the mainland give rather a bad character to the inhabitants of heimaey, describing them as great sluggards and drunkards.
the population, which was formerly more considerable, amounts to about 200 souls, but even this is more than might be expected from the dreadful mortality which reigns among the children. the eggs and the oily flesh of sea-birds furnish a miserable food for infants, particularly when weaned, as is here customary, at a very early age; but the poor islanders have nothing else to give them, except some fish, and a very insufficient quantity of cow’s or sheep’s milk. this unhealthy diet, along with the boisterous air, gives rise to an incurable infantile disease, called ginklofi (tetanus). its first symptoms are squinting and rolling of the eyes, the muscles of the back are seized with incipient cramps and become stiff. after a day or two lock-jaw takes place, the back is bent like a bow, either backward or forward. the lock-jaw prevents swallowing, and the cramps become more frequent and prolonged until death closes the scene. the same disease is said to decimate the children on st. kilda in consequence of a similar mode of life.
the only means of preserving the infants of heimaey from the ginklofi, is to send them as soon as possible to the mainland to be reared, and thus a long continuance of bad weather is a death-warrant to many.
who would suppose that the westman islanders, doubly guarded by their poverty and almost inaccessible cliffs, could ever have become the prey of freebooters? and yet they have been twice attacked and pillaged, and well-nigh exterminated by sea-rovers.
i have already mentioned, in a previous chapter, that before the discovery of the banks of newfoundland, the english cod-fishers used to resort in great numbers to the coasts of iceland, where some of them—now and then—appeared also in the more questionable character of corsairs. one of these worthies, who, like paul clifford, or captain macheath, so effectually united the suaviter in modo with the fortiter in re, as to have merited the name of “gentleman john,” came to the westmans in 1614 and set the church on fire, after having previously removed the little that was worth taking. after this exploit he returned to great britain, but king james i. had him hung, and ordered the church ornaments which he had robbed to be restored to the poor islanders. it was, however, written in the book of fate that they were not to enjoy them long, for in 1627, a vessel of algerine pirates, after plundering several places on the eastern and southern coasts of iceland, fell like a thunderbolt on heimaey. these miscreants, compared with whom john was a “gentleman” indeed, cut down every man who ventured to oppose them, plundered and burnt the new-built church, and every hovel of the place, and carried away about 400 prisoners—men, women, and children. one of the two clergymen of the island, jon torsteinson, was murdered at the time. this learned and pious man had translated the psalms of david and the book of genesis into icelandic verse, and is spoken of as the “martyr” in the history of the land. the other clergyman, olaf egilson,119 with his wife and children, and the rest of the prisoners, was sold into slavery in algiers. the account of his sufferings and privations, which he wrote in the icelandic language, was afterwards translated and published in danish.
it was not until 1636, nine years after their capture, that the unfortunate heimaeyers were released, and then only by being ransomed by the king of denmark. such was the misery they had endured from their barbarous taskmasters, that only thirty-seven of the whole number survived, and of these but thirteen lived to return to their native island.
