LETTER Of Printing in Iceland XV. page 181 LETTER XVI. Of the Remains of Antiquity in Ice land 187 LETTER XVII. Of the Pillars of Bafalt; to which is fubjoined Mr. Banks's curious account of the island of Staffa 266 INTRODUCTION. TH HE accounts of Iceland, which have hitherto made their appearance in the English language, are of fuch nature, that it would betray ignorance or partiality to recommend them to the public as fatisfactory and faithful. The first writer of any known hiftory of Iceland in the prefent century, was John Anderffon, afterwards Burgomaster of Hamburgh, who undertook a voyage to this not much-frequented ifland in a Greenland fhip; but the anthenticity of his performance is far from being fuch as may be relied on with confidence. Niels Horrebow, a Danish astronomer, was fent to Iceland by the court of Denmark, on purpose to contradict, Anderffon's account he published fome obfervations on Iceland, but from a too great defire to please his employers, he fell into the opposite b error, error, and paints all his objects with a glow of colouring, that does not exactly correfpond with the truth. In Richer's Continuation of Rollin's History is a hiftory of Iceland, a most pitiful compilation, and full of the groffeft errors that ever difgraced the hiftorical page. Under the authority of the Royal Society of Sciences at Copenhagen, Eggert Olafsen and Biarne Povelfen, two men of learning, natives of Iceland, and refiding in the country, travelled all over that ifland, and gave, in two volumes in quarto, a faithful and ample account of all that deferves the attention of the learned and curious, illuftrated by numerous engravings: but though the performance is accurate and circumstantial, yet it is unfortunately clogged with repetitions, and the facts are recounted in fo tedious and uninterefting a manner, that it requires a moft phlegmatic temper, and a large fund of patience, to go through the whole of this work, for it is filled with a long and dull recital of events, methodized in the moft moft formal manner poffible. It can therefore by no means be thought fuperfluous, that Dr. Von Troil has fa voured the literary world with his intetéresting Letters on Iceland; a work which on account of its varied matter, and the great learning difplayed every where for the inftruction of the curious reader, deserves' the warmeft approbation of the public. Men of talents and learning will, we flatter ourselves, think highly of this prefent performance by Dr. Von Troil, though perhaps it may be fometimes a little deficient in point of language. The present tranflation has been made from the laft German edition, published by Meffrs. Troil and Bergman, with numerous additions and corrections; and tho' it is not oftentatiously recommended to the public for any elegance or accuracy of style, it may however be fafely stated as a faithful translation from the original, and a work of real merit and utility. |