The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II

by A. E. Nordenskiöld

We sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar on the 9th March, and anchored in the harbour of Lisbon on the 11th March at 2 P.M. The following day we made an excursion to the beautiful palace of Cintra, situated about five Portuguese miles from the capital. On Saturday we were received in audience by the King, Dom Luiz, of Portugal, who, a seaman himself, appeared to take a great interest in the voyage of the Vega. Later in the day the Swedish minister in Lisbon gave a dinner, to which were invited the President of the Portuguese Council, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the members of the Diplomatic Corps, and others, ending in the evening with a grand reception. On Monday the 15th we were present by special invitation at a meeting of the Geographical Society, at which the newly-returned African travellers, BRITO-CAPELLO and IVEN, gave addresses. Here I had besides the great pleasure of meeting the famous African traveller, Major SERPA PINTO. The King at the same time honoured us with decorations, and at its meeting on the 10th March the Portuguese Chamber of Deputies resolved, on the motion of the Deputies ENNES and ALFREDO, to express its welcome and good wishes in a congratulatory address to the Vega men.

We weighed anchor again on the 15th March. We were favoured at first with a fresh breeze and made rapid progress, but at the entrance to the Channel we met with a steady head-wind, so that it was not until the evening of the 25th March, considerably later than we had counted on, that we could anchor in the harbour of Falmouth, not, as was first intended, in that of Portsmouth. We thus missed some preparations which had been made at the latter place to welcome us to the land which stands first in the line of those that have sent out explorers to the Polar Seas. We besides missed a banquet which the Royal Geographical Society had arranged in honour of the Vega expedition, at which the Prince of Wales was to have presided, and which now, in the midst of the Easter holidays and a keenly-contested parliamentary election, could not be held.[393] Our stay in England, at all events, was exceedingly

pleasant. Palander and I travelled on the night before Good Friday to London, where we were received at the railway station by the Swedish minister, Count PIPER, and a large number of our countrymen living in London. Count Piper carried me to my future host, the distinguished Secretary of the Geographical Society and famous Arctician and geographical writer, CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, who did everything to make my stay in London as pleasant and instructive as possible. Saturday was spent in paying visits. On Easter Sunday Consul-General RICHTER gave a lunch in the Continental Hotel, to which a considerable number of Scandinavians and Englishmen were invited. The same evening we dined with the famous Arctic traveller, Sir ALLEN YOUNG. On Monday we were invited by the Earl of NORTHBROOK, President of the Geographical Society,[394] to his country seat, Stratton, near Winchester. Here we saw the way—an exceedingly quiet one—in which an English parliamentary election goes on. The same day we paid a visit to Mr. SPOTTISWOODE, the President of the Royal Society, at his magnificent country seat, in the neighbourhood of London. Here I saw several instructive experiments with very large machines for the production of light by electric discharges in highly rarified air. Wednesday the 31st, grand dinner at the Swedish minister's, and in the evening of the same day a Scandinavian fête in the Freemasons' Hall, at which there were great rejoicings according to old northern usages.

We started for Paris on the night before the 1st April. We went by Boulogne-sur-Mer, whose Chamber of Commerce had invited us to a fête to celebrate the first landing of the Vega men on the soil of France after the North-east Passage was achieved. Several of the authorities of the town and Dr. HAMY, a delegate from the Geographical Society of Paris met us in the waiting-room at the station. Here a breakfast had been arranged, in the course of which we were presented to a number of eminent persons of the place, with whom we afterwards passed the greater part of the day in the most agreeable way. After making several excursions in the neighbourhood of the town and paying the necessary official visits, we partook of a festive dinner arranged by the municipality. From Boulogne we travelled by night to Paris, arriving there on the 2nd April at 7 A. M.

Notwithstanding the early morning hour we were received here at the station in a festive way by the Swedish-Norwegian minister and the personnel of the Legation, a deputation from the Geographical Society of Paris, and a considerable number of the members of the Scandinavian colony in the capital of France. The famous Madagascar traveller, GRANDIDIER, President of the Geographical Society's Central Committee, welcomed us, with lively expressions of assent from the surrounding crowd. We were invited during our stay in the city to live with our countryman, A. NOBEL, in a very comfortable villa belonging to him, Rue Malakoff, No. 53, and I cannot sufficiently commend the liberal way in which he here discharged the duties of a host and assisted us during our stay in Paris, which, though very agreeable and honouring to us, demanded an extraordinary amount of exertion.

Our reception in Paris was magnificent, and it appeared as if the metropolis of the world wished to show by the way in which she honoured a feat of navigation that it is not without reason that she bears on her shield a vessel surrounded by swelling billows. It is a pleasant duty for me here to offer my thanks for all the goodwill we, during those memorable days, enjoyed on the part of the President of the Republic, of Admiral LA RONCIÈRE LE NOURY, President of the Geographical Society, his colleague, M. HECHT, M. MAUNOIR, the Secretary of the Society, M. QUATREFAGE, and M. DAUBRÉE, members of the Institute, not to forget many other Frenchmen and Scandinavians. Among the fêtes of Paris I must confine myself to an enumeration of the principal ones.

Friday, the 2nd April. Public séance de réception by the Geographical Society in the Cirque des Champs Elysée in the presence of a very large and select audience. Admiral La Roncière delivered the speech on this occasion, which I replied to by giving a pretty full account of the Swedish Arctic expeditions, on which the President handed me the large gold medal of the Society "as a proof of the interest which the public and the geographers of France take in the voyage of the Vega." Dined the same day with the Swedish-Norwegian minister, SIBBERN.—Saturday the 3rd. Invitation to a festive meeting of delegates from twenty-eight learned societies in France in the amphitheatre of the Sorbonne.[395] We were greeted by the Minister of Education in a masterly and eloquent speech, after which he conferred upon us, on the part of the Republic, Commander's and Officer's Insignia of the French Legion of Honour. "A reward," as the Minister of the Republic expressed himself, "for the blood of the brave and the sleepless nights of the learned." After that an official dinner and reception by M. Jules Ferry.—On Sunday the 4th, an address was presented from the Scandinavian Union, under the presidency of Herr Fortmeijer. In the evening a brilliant entertainment on a large scale given by the Scandinavian Union in the Hotel Continental. Among those present may be mentioned Prince OSCAR of Sweden, the President of the Fête Committee, Herr JENSEN, Fru KRISTINA NILSON-ROUZEAUD the Danish minister, the Swedish embassy, members of the Russian embassy, a large number of Scandinavian artists, many of the principal representatives of the French and foreign press, and lastly, what ought perhaps to have been mentioned first, a flower-garden of ladies, of which every dweller in the north might feel proud.—Monday the 5th. Meeting of the Institute in its well-known hall, with speeches of welcome. Hence we were conducted to a grand festive reception, arranged beforehand to the minutest details by the Municipal Council, in "la Salle des États," situated in that part of the Tuileries where the Geographical Congress was held in 1878. The hall and the ascent to it were richly ornamented with French tri-colours and Swedish flags, beautiful Gobelins, and living plants. A number of speeches were made, after which the President of the Municipal Council, on the part of the City of Paris, presented to me a large, artistically executed medal as a memorial of the voyage of the Vega[396]. In the evening a grand dinner was given by the Société de Géographie, with several eloquent speeches for King Oscar (General Pittie), for President Grévy, for the prosperity of France (Prince Oscar), for the Vega expedition (M. Quatrefage), and so on.—Tuesday the 6th. Dinner given by the President of the Republic, M. Grévy, to Prince Oscar and the Vega men then in Paris.—Wednesday the 7th. Dinner given to a numerous and select company of French savants by the then President of the Geographical Society and of the Institute, M. A. Daubrée.—Thursday the 8th. Dinner to a small circle at Victor Hugo's house, where the elderly poet and youthful-minded enthusiast in very warm, and I need not say eloquent, words congratulated me on the accomplishment of my task. Reception there the same evening.

Here ended our visit to the capital of France. Thoroughly exhausted, but bringing with us memories which shall never pass away, we travelled the following day to Vlissingen, whither the Vega had gone from Falmouth, under the command of Brusewitz. We had been compelled to decline warm and hearty invitations to Holland and Belgium from want of time and strength to take part in any more festivities. The anchor was weighed immediately after we came on board, and the course shaped for Copenhagen. At noon on the 15th we passed Helsingborg, which was richly ornamented with flags for the occasion. Already at Kullaberg we had been met by the steamer H. P. Prior, with Lund students on board, and eight other steamers with deputations of welcome and enthusiasts for the voyage of the Vega, from Copenhagen, Malmö, Helsingborg, and Elsinore. The number of passengers was stated to be 1,500, including a number of ladies. Songs were sung, speeches made, fireworks let off, &c. At night we lay at anchor in the outer road of Copenhagen, so that it was not until the following forenoon that we steamed into the harbour, saluting the fort with nine shots of our little cannon, and saluted in turn by as many. While the Vega was sailing into the harbour, and after she had anchored, there came on board the Swedish Minister, Baron BECK-FRIIS, the Swedish consul-general EVERLÖF, the representatives of the University, of the merchants, and of the Geographical Society under the presidency of the former President of the Council, Count HOLSTEIN-HOLSTEINBORG, to bring us a welcome from the corporations they represented, and accompany us to the Toldbod, where we were received by the President-in-chief, the Presidents of the Communal Authority, and the Bourse, and the Swedish Unions of Copenhagen. We then drove through the festively ornamented city, saluted by resounding hurrahs, from a countless throng of human beings, to the Hôtel d'Angleterre, where apartments had been prepared for us. On the 17th a fête was given by the Geographical Society in the Casino Hall, which was attended by the King, the Crown Prince, and Prince John of Glücksborg, and nearly all the distinguished men of Copenhagen in the fields of science, business, and politics. The speech of the fête was delivered by Professor ERSLEV. Thereafter a gay and lively banquet was given, at which the Crown Prince of Denmark presided.