Next morning we started before 6 o'clock, and when we had rowed fourteen English miles put into a little village, Ielsom. We were all strangers in the place, and Friends and their principles unknown. Our friend Endré Dahl had a pointing that we should try for a meeting, which was appointed for 2 o'clock. After waiting till 3, only one or two persons came, and we had a consultation whether we should proceed on our voyage, but concluded it safer to go in and sit down. When we were seated (I may say in faith), first one and then another came in, till the large room and passage were filled, and a number were outside under the windows. It was quite a remarkable meeting, and we were well satisfied in having exercised patience as well as a little faith. We were informed that it was the custom of the place not to attend any appointed meeting till an hour after the time named.
We arrived at Sand about 9 o'clock, after hard rowing, the tide being against us. Sand is beautifully placed at an opening in the rocks, at the mouth of a river where salmon-fishing is good. As soon as we landed, our ship's company made the object of our journey known, when a serious-looking man immediately offered to go about six miles to inform a person who he knew would like to attend. Two individuals in this place have for some time been in the practice of holding a silent meeting for worship; they had no knowledge of Friends, nor Friends of them.
Fixing the meeting for the First-day evening, John Yeardley and his companions pursued their way the next morning, which was Seventh-day, to Sävde, situated at the head of the fiord, and consequently the extreme point of their voyage. Before starting they went a little way up the Sand river, to view one of the grand Norwegian waterfalls, and also to see how the salmon-fishery is conducted.
A hamper of about six feet in diameter, and the same height, made by the fisherman of the roughest wicker-work, is placed in a side stream of the rock, in the bed of the river. The anxiety of the salmon to mount up the stream is so great, that he forces himself through a hole into the hamper, as the easiest way of advancing upwards, from which position he cannot again escape. In this manner, in a favorable season, sixty-three salmon have been caught in one night in a single basket. It is a source of wealth to the little town of Sand.
At Sävde they held a meeting on First-day morning.
We reached the head of the fiord, writes John Yeardley by 12 o'clock, and found but poor accommodation. We three had one room with three beds; Endré Dahl with his willing-hearted and contented men lodged in a barn on straw. There was time enough to arrange for a meeting in the morning, and we applied for a room at the inn; but a little knot of illiberal Haugeans [followers of Hauge], or Saints, as they call themselves, persuaded our landlord not to let us meet in his house. But we obtained better accommodation under the rocks in a house containing two rooms connected by a passage, and, seating ourselves in the centre, could be well heard by those outside the door. We had a good meeting.
Returning to Sand, he continues:--
The wind being against us, the men had to work very hard at the oar to bring us in time for the meeting appointed for 6 o'clock at Sand. Some of the Friends from near Sävde accompanied us in their small boat; and some from Sand had gone many miles to attend the meeting at Sävde, and returned to the one at Sand. Their zeal is great and their love fervent. This was a very crowded meeting, and proved a satisfactory time. We found here a few of the Saints, but of a more liberal cast; they expressed great grief that their brethren at the head of the fiord had refused the peaceable messengers of the gospel from a far country a house in which to meet. This unwelcome news had reached them long before our arrival.
At a later date, John Yeardley relates an occurrence which happened at Sand, worthy of note in itself, and which must have been not a little confirmatory of his faith. It came to his knowledge after his return to Stavanger.
When we were at Sand, one of the Friends who joins in holding the silent meeting invited several of our ship's company to his house; but the man's wife was so exasperated that she drove them away, saying she would not have such folks under her roof. She had confounded the principles of Friends with those of some wild persons who had gone about the country spreading ranterism, and giving the people the idea that they were of our Society. It was in vain to reason with her, and the husband, for the sake of peace, mildly consented to let the Friends withdraw. However, she attended our public meeting, where the gospel doctrine of our Society was pretty fully illustrated; and I felt constrained also to preach on the unreasonableness of persecution for conscience' sake, either by the government, private persons, or families. Conviction seized her heart, and she became broken to pieces. After the meeting she sought up the Friends whom she had driven from her house, and told them she could not be happy unless they would give her a proof of forgiveness by taking up their abode in her family so long as they might remain in the place. Several of them accepted the invitation, which gave them an opportunity for free and satisfactory conversation.