CHAPTER IV.
NORWAY IN THE PAST AND THE PRESENT.
“Clear away the first cutter!” shouted the first lieutenant of the Young America, from whose deck the catastrophe to the second cutter had been observed.
“All the first cutters!” piped the boatswain, with an energy inspired by the stirring occasion.
“That was very carelessly done,” said Mr. Lowington, whose attention had been called to the scene.
“The steamer ran within a couple of rods of the island,” added Captain Cumberland. “I saw the fourth lieutenant order the boat to shove off; I suppose he did it to prevent the swash of the steamer from grinding the cutter on the rocks.”
“What is he doing among those rocks?” asked the principal.
“I don’t know, sir. He landed Mr. Mapps and the doctor, and was ordered to wait for them. I don’t see why he went over to that island.”
The second lieutenant was directed to take charge of the first cutter; Peaks, the adult boatswain, and Bitts, the carpenter, were ordered to go also, to render any assistance which might be required in succoring the stove boat. The cutter shoved off, her twelve oars struck the water together, and the crew gave way with an energy which caused their oars to bend like twigs, while the barge leaped through the water as though it was some monster of the deep goaded to his utmost to escape the wrath of a more potent pursuer.
“With a will, my lads!” shouted the coxswain. “Steady! Keep the stroke, but use your muscle!”
“There’s a job for you, Bitts,” said the boatswain, as the Norwegian took the second cutter in tow.
“And a heavy job it will be, too,” replied Bitts. “I wonder there is anything left of the boat.”
“The steamer stopped her wheels, and backed some time before she struck, or there would not have been much left of the boat, or her crew,” added Peaks. “Thank God, the boys are all safe.”
“It’s a lucky escape for them.”
“So it was; and we needn’t say anything about the boat.”
“The steamer is going ahead,” said the carpenter.
“No matter for that, so long as the boys are all safe,” replied Peaks.
The people in the steamer seemed to take no notice of the first cutter, appearing not to understand that it had come out for the wrecked crew. But as the boat pulled towards her, she cast off the cutter in tow.
“Steamer, ahoy!” shouted Norwood, the second lieutenant, as he saw the cutter cast adrift.
She made no reply, but hoisted a flag, on which appeared the word “Post,” with something else which none in the first cutter could understand.
“She’s a mail boat,” said the boatswain; “and I suppose she intends to say she is in a hurry.”
“Does she mean to carry off the crew of that boat?” demanded the second lieutenant, not a little vexed at the conduct of the Norwegians.
“She will not carry them far,” suggested Dunlap, the coxswain.
“She may take them to Bergen.”
“I think not, sir. If she is a mail steamer, she stops at all the ports on the coast. I don’t think she will carry them far. Very likely they will be sent back, on some other steamer, before night,” added Dunlap, who had studied the coast of Norway more carefully than the lieutenant in command.
“First cutter, ahoy!” shouted De Forrest, on the island.
“On shore!” replied Norwood. “We can’t catch the steamer—that is certain; steer for the island, coxswain.”
The first cutter ran up to the rocky island, and as soon as the bow touched the rocks, De Forrest leaped into the fore-sheets. He was nervous and excited, feeling, perhaps, that he had failed in his duty, and was, therefore, responsible for the accident to the second cutter. From feeling that he had circumvented his crew in carrying out some unexplained trick, he realized that he had led them into a trap, from which they had narrowly escaped with their lives.
“What are you doing on this island, De Forrest?” asked Norwood, as the discomfited officer took his place in the stern-sheets, and the boat shoved off again.
The second lieutenant declared that he had come over to the island to prevent his crew from running away, or from carrying out some trick whose existence he suspected, but whose nature he could not comprehend.
“Sanford wanted I should go ashore at the town, and offered to look out for the crew while I did so,” he continued. “Of course I wouldn’t leave my crew; but I told them that half of them might go on shore and take a walk. None of them wanted to go, and then I was satisfied they were up to something. I went on the island for the sole purpose of watching them. I wanted to know what their plan was.”
“Well, what did you discover?”
“Nothing at all. I saw that steamer coming, and I ordered Sanford to shove off, so that her swash should not damage the boat.”
“I don’t believe they intended to play any trick,” added Norwood. “You are too suspicious, De Forrest.”
“Perhaps I am; but fellows that have been at sea for a month are rather glad of a chance to stretch their legs on shore. They wouldn’t do so, when I told them they might; and I don’t believe such a thing was ever heard of before. Besides, they all looked as though they were up to something, and just as though they had a big secret in their heads.”
“Perhaps you were right, but I don’t believe you were,” said Norwood, too bluntly for good manners, and too bluntly for the harmony of the officers’ mess.
“I suppose I am responsible for the smashing of the second cutter, but I was trying to do my duty,” replied De Forrest, vexed at the implied censure of his superior.
“If you had staid at the pier this could not have happened.”
“But something else might have happened; and if my crew had run away, I should have been blamed just as much,” growled the second lieutenant.
“You were too sharp for your own good—that is all. But I don’t mean to blame you, De Forrest,” said Norwood, with a patronizing smile. “Perhaps I should have done the same thing if I had been in your place.”
“Stand by to lay on your oars!” shouted the coxswain, as the boat approached the water-logged second cutter. “Oars!”
The crew stopped pulling, and levelled their oars.
“In, bows! Stand by the boat-hooks!” continued the coxswain; and the two forward oarsmen grasped the boat-hooks, and took their station in the fore-sheets. “Hold water.” And the ten oars dropped into the water as one, checking the onward progress of the cutter.
The bowmen fastened to the second cutter, and recovering her painter, passed it astern to the coxswain, who made it fast to a ring on the stern-board. By this time the steamer, with the luckless crew of the stove boat, had disappeared behind an island. The first cutter pulled back to the ship, and De Forrest immediately reported to the first lieutenant, and explained his conduct in presence of the principal and the captain. He detailed his reasons for supposing his crew intended to run away, or to play some trick upon him.
“I think you have done all that a careful and vigilant officer could, De Forrest; and so far as I can see, you are free from blame,” replied Mr. Lowington.
The fourth lieutenant glanced at Norwood.
“Just what I said,” added the latter, in a low tone.
“If you made any mistake, it was in leaving your boat at the island,” continued the principal.
“Just exactly my sentiments,” whispered Norwood. “I don’t blame the fourth lieutenant, but I shouldn’t have done just as he did.”
“Where is that steamer bound?” asked Mr. Lowington of the pilot, who had not yet left the ship, and was really waiting to be invited to supper.
“To Christiania, sir,” replied the pilot, who, like all of his class on the coast of Norway, spoke a little English.
“Where does she stop next?”
“At Lillesand.”
“How far is that?”
“About two miles.”
“Two miles! Why, it is farther than that to the sea,” exclaimed Mr. Lowington.
“He means Norwegian miles,” suggested one of the instructors, who was listening with interest to the conversation.
“True; I did not think of that. A Norwegian mile is about seven English miles. It is fourteen miles, then, to Lillesand.”
With the assistance of Professor Badois, who acted as interpreter, the pilot explained that the steamer which had just left was several hours late, and would go that night to Frederiksværn, where the steamers from Bergen and Christiania made connections with the boat for Gottenburg and Copenhagen. The Christiania steamer would reach Christiansand the next evening, and the boys who had been carried away could return in her.
“Why did she carry them off? It would not have taken five minutes to land them,” added the principal.
“She was very late, and her passengers for Gottenburg and Copenhagen would lose the steamer at Frederiksværn if she does not arrive in season,” the pilot explained through Professor Badois.
But Mr. Lowington was so grateful that the crew of the second cutter had all escaped with their lives, that he was not disposed to be very critical over the conduct of the Norwegian steamer. The boys were safe, and would return the next night at farthest. The accident was talked about, during the rest of the day, on board of all the vessels of the squadron. The officers and seamen on board of the ship had witnessed the accident, and had seen all the crew of the second cutter go over the bows of the steamer. They had not observed, in the excitement of the moment, that ten, instead of nine, had left the wrecked boat; and as Ole Amundsen was dressed precisely like the crew, his presence in the cutter was not even suspected.
The first cutter was sent to the town for Dr. Winstock and Mr. Mapps, and in an hour or two the excitement had entirely subsided. The routine of the ship went on as before, and as there was little work to be done, the absentees were hardly missed.
At half past eight the next morning, the signal, “All hands, attend lecture,” was flying on board of the Young America. The boats from the Josephine and the Tritonia came alongside the ship, bringing all the officers and crews of those vessels. Paul Kendall and lady, and their friends, were brought off from the shore; Shuffles and his wife also appeared, and a further delegation from each of the yachts asked admission to the ship to hear the lecture, or rather to attend the exercise in geography and history, for the occasion was even less formal than on the first cruise of the ship. The steerage was crowded, after the boatswain had piped the call, and Mr. Mapps was doubtless duly flattered by the number of his audience. On the foremast hung a large map of Sweden and Norway.
“If you please, young gentlemen, we will begin with Scandinavia,” said the professor, taking his place near the foremast, with the pointer in his hand. “What was Scandinavia?”
“The ancient name of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark,” replied one of the students.
“The barbarous tribes from the northern part of Europe at different times invaded the southern sections, conquering various other tribes, occupying their territory, and thus mingling with all the people from whom originated the present nations of Europe. Thus, in remote ages, the Scandinavians, among others, by their conquests and their emigration, have contributed largely to the modern elements of society. With this explanation we will look at Scandinavia in detail, beginning with Norway. Between what degrees of latitude does it lie?”
“Between forty and ninety,” replied an enthusiastic youth.
“True—quite right; and a safe answer. If you had said between one and ninety, the answer would have been just as good for any other country as for Norway. I would like to have the jacket fit a little closer.”
“Between fifty-eight and seventy-one, north,” answered one who was better posted.
“Exactly right; about the same latitude as Greenland, and our newly-acquired Alaska. Our ship is anchored in the same parallel as the northern part of Labrador, and one degree south of the southern point of Greenland. But it is not as ‘cold as Greenland, here,’ the temperature being some twelve degrees milder, because the warm waters of the Gulf Stream are discharged upon its shores. You know its boundaries. It is one thousand and eighty miles from the Naze to the North Cape, and varies from forty to two hundred and seventy miles in width. How many square miles has it?”
“One hundred and twenty-three thousand square miles.”
“Or a little larger than the six New England States, New York, and New Jersey united. The country is mountainous, and abounds in picturesque scenery. Precipices, cataracts, and rushing torrents are very numerous in the central and northern parts. The Vöringfos is a waterfall, and the Rjukanfos, near the central part, are cataracts of about nine hundred feet perpendicular descent; but of course the volume of water is not very large. The highest mountains are between eight and nine thousand feet high. Norway has an abundance of rivers, but none of them are very long. The coast, as you have seen, is fringed with islands, which, with the numerous indentations, form a vast number of bays, straits, channels, and sounds, which are called fjords here. One of the principal of these is Christiania Fjord, which you will ascend in a few days. The country also abounds in lakes, which, as in most mountainous regions, are very narrow, being simply the widenings of the rivers. The largest of these is Miösen Lake, fifty-five miles long, and from one to twelve wide.
“The soil is not very good, and the Norwegians are not progressive farmers. They cling to the methods of their sires, and modern improvements find but little favor among them. The winter is long, and the summer short; but by a provision of provident nature, the crops mature more rapidly than in some of the southern climes, as grain has been reaped six weeks after it was sowed. The principal crops are the grains; but the supply is not equal to the demand, and considerable importations are received from Denmark and Russia. In the south the farmers devote themselves to stock-raising, while in the north the Lapps derive nearly all the comforts of life from the reindeer, the care of which is their chief industry.
“The extensive product of pine and fir have created a vast trade in lumber, which constitutes three fourths of the exports to the United Kingdom, and a considerable portion of the inhabitants in the wooded districts are employed in cutting, sawing, and sending to market the wealth of the forests. Next in importance to this are the fisheries, which yield about five million dollars a year. Cod, haddock, and herring are cured for exportation, and are an important source of revenue. Besides these, the roe of the cod is sent to France, Italy, and Spain, as bait for sardines. Norway supplies London with lobsters. Norway iron, as well as Swedish, is very celebrated; but the mines are poorly managed, as are those of copper and silver.
“The kingdom of Norway is divided into eighteen provinces, which are called Amts. Its population, in 1865, was one million seven hundred thousand, showing an increase of about two hundred thousand in ten years. The government is a constitutional monarchy.”
“I thought it was a part of Sweden,” said one of the students.
“Not at all. The King of Sweden is also the King of Norway; but each country has its own independent and separate government. Each has its own legislature, makes its own laws, and raises and expends its own revenues. The king exercises his functions as ruler over both kingdoms through a council of state, composed of an equal number of Swedes and Norwegians, whose duty it is to advise the sovereign, and, in accordance with a peculiar feature of monarchy, to take the responsibility when any blunder is made; for “the king can do no wrong.” If anything is wrong, some one else did it. Having the same king, who rules over each nation separately, is the only connection between Norway and Sweden. The former pays about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars of his civil list, and he is obliged to reside in Norway during a small portion of each year.
“The constitution of Norway is one of the most democratic in Europe. The legislative and part of the executive power is vested in the Storthing, which means the ‘great court,’ composed of the representatives of the people. The king has but little power, though he has a limited veto upon the acts passed by the legislative body. He can create no order of nobility, or grant any titles or dignities. The members of the Storthing are elected indirectly by the people; and when they assemble, they divide themselves into two houses, corresponding to our Senate and House of Representatives. All acts must pass both chambers, and in case of disagreement, the two bodies come together, and discuss the subject.
“The religion of Norway is Lutheran, and few of any other sect are to be found; formerly, no other was tolerated, but now religious freedom prevails, though Jesuits and monks of any order are sternly excluded. The clergy, who are generally very well educated, have an average income of about a thousand dollars a year, and I think are better paid than even in our own country. The people are well instructed, and one who cannot read and write is seldom found.
“The early history of Norway is that of most of the countries of Europe—a powerful chief subjugated his neighbors, and united the tribes into a nation. Harold the Fair-haired, whose father had conquered the southern part of the country, fell in love with Gyda, the daughter of a petty king, who refused to wed him till he had absolute sway over the entire country. Pleased with the lady’s spirit, he vowed never to cut or comb his hair till all Norway lay at his feet. It appears that he eventually had occasion for his barber’s services, and wedded the lady. This was in the ninth century; and the victories of Harold drove many of the Norsemen, or Northmen, to seek their fortunes in other lands. They discovered and colonized Greenland and Iceland, and even established settlements on the continental portion of North America. Traces of them have been found on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and some claim that they founded settlements farther south. They figure largely in the early history of England and Scotland, and even carried their piratical arms into Russia, Flanders, France, Italy, and other territories.
“A son of Harold, who had been educated in England, brought Christianity into Norway; but, it was three centuries before the new faith had established itself. Like the Hindoos, Greeks, and Romans, the ancient Scandinavians had a mythology, upon which their religion was based. They believed that in the beginning all was chaos, in which was a fountain that sent forth twelve rivers. These streams flowed so far from their source that the waters froze, and the ice, defying the modern law of nature, sank till the fathomless deep was filled up. Far south of the world of mist, in which this miracle was wrought, was a world of fire and light, whence proceeded a hot wind that melted the ice, from the drops of which came the ice-giant, whose name was Ymir, and from whom proceeded a race of ice-giants. From the wedding of the ice and heat of the two extremes of the world came a cow, from which ran four streams of milk, the food of the ice-giants. While this wonderful beast was licking the salt stones in the ice, which formed her diet, a quantity of human hair grew out of them, and the next day a human head was developed, and then appeared a whole man. Bör, the son of this man, married a daughter of one of the ice-giants, and they had three children, the oldest of whom was Odin, who became the rulers of heaven and earth, because they were all good, while the children of Ymir, the ice-giant, were evil. Then, as now, the Good and the Evil were at war. Finally the ice-giant was slain, and being thrown into space, the world was created from his body; his blood forming the sea and the rivers; his flesh the earth; his hair the grass; his bones the rocks; his teeth and broken jaws the stones; and of his head the heavens, at the four ends of which were placed four dwarfs, called North, South, East, and West. Of this giant’s brains, thrown into the air, they formed the clouds, while of the sparks from the land of fire were made the stars.
“As the sons of Bör, who, you must remember, were the gods of heaven and earth, were walking on the shore of the sea, they discovered two blocks, whereof they created a man and a woman. Odin gave them life and souls, while his brothers endowed them with other human faculties and powers. Odin was the Jupiter, the chief, of the northern gods. He is the god of song and of war, and was the inventor of the Runic characters, or alphabet. He was the ruler of Valhalla, the home of heroes slain in battle. There is much more that is curious and interesting in the mythology of the Scandinavians, which I must ask you to read for yourselves.
“Olaf II. propagated Christianity with fire and sword. He demolished the temples of paganism, and founded Trondhjem, or Drontheim, as it is called on our maps. His successor, St. Olaf, followed his example, till his cruelty excited a rebellion, and Canute the Great, of Denmark, landing in Norway, was elected king. Olaf fled into Sweden, where he organized an army, and attempted to recover his throne; but he was defeated and slain in a battle near Trondhjem. His body was found, a few years later, in a perfect state of preservation, which was regarded as a miracle, and Olaf was canonized as a saint. His remains are said to have wrought many miracles, and up to the time of the Reformation, thousands of pilgrims annually visited his shrine at Trondhjem. Even in London churches were dedicated to this saint.
“Canute gave Norway to his son Sweyn, who, upon the death of his father, was dispossessed of the throne by Magnus I., the son of St. Olaf. He was succeeded by Harold III., a great warrior, who founded Osloe, now Christiania. After Olaf III. and Magnus III. came Sigurd, who, in 1107, made a pilgrimage of four years to Jerusalem, with a fleet of sixty vessels, and distinguished himself in the holy wars. His death was followed by civil dissensions, until Hako IV. obtained the throne. He lost his life in an attempt to retain the Hebrides Islands, claimed by Scotland. Then war with Denmark, the monopoly of trade by the Hanse towns, and a fearful plague, which depopulated whole sections, produced a decline in the national prosperity of Norway. Hako VI., who died in 1380, had married the daughter of the King of Denmark, and the crown of Norway descended to his son, Olaf III., of Denmark, in whom the sovereignties of Norway and Denmark were united. Olaf was succeeded by his mother Margaret, celebrated in history as ‘the Semiramis of the North.’ She conquered Sweden, and annexed it to her own dominions. By the ‘Union of Calmar,’ signed by the principal nobles and prelates of the three Scandinavian kingdoms, the three crowns were united in one person, the subjects of each to have equal rights. This compact was disregarded, and Norway was hopelessly oppressed by the ruler. The Union, however, continued till 1623; but Norway was subject to Denmark till 1814.
“When the allied powers of Europe, which were engaged in putting down the first Napoleon, rearranged the map of Europe, the destiny of Norway was changed. Russia wanted Finland, and she offered Norway in compensation for it to Sweden, with the further condition that Bernadotte should join the allies. He accepted the terms, and the King of Denmark was compelled, by force of arms, to cede Norway to Sweden. The Norwegians would not submit to the change, and declared their independence. Prince Christian, of Denmark, who was then governor general of Norway, called a convention of the people at Eidsvold, and a new constitution was framed, and the prince elected King of Norway. Bernadotte invaded Norway with a Swedish army, while the allies blockaded the coast. Resistance was hopeless, and as Sweden offered favorable terms, Christian abdicated, and an arrangement was immediately effected. The constitution was accepted by the king, and Norway became an independent nation, united to Sweden under one king. Bernadotte became King of Sweden and Norway under the title of Charles XIV., John. He refused the Norwegians a separate national flag; but when he attempted to alter the constitution to suit his own views, the Storthing resolutely and successfully resisted his interference. This body abolished titles of nobility—an act which the king vetoed; but three successive Storthings passed the law, and thus, by the constitution, made it valid in spite of the veto. The Norwegians were not to be intimidated even by the appearance of a military force, and have ever been jealous to the last degree of their rights and privileges as a nation.
“Bernadotte was succeeded by his son Oscar I., who gave the Norwegians a separate national flag; and he flattered the vanity of the people by allowing himself to be styled the ‘King of Norway and Sweden’ in all public acts relating to Norway, instead of ‘Sweden and Norway.’ In 1859, Oscar was succeeded by his son Charles XV., who is now the King of Sweden and Norway. In the history of Denmark and Sweden, more will be said of this kingdom.
“In French, Norway is Norvège; in German, Norwegen; in Spanish, Noruega; and Norge in the Scandinavian languages. Now, I dare say you would like to visit the shore.”
The professor closed his remarks, and the several boatswains piped away their crews.