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Of the other Islands, and Jutland.
IT would be tedious to the Reader to account all the contradictions that are to be met with, in the description of these Countries. I shall begin with Sealand, where he says, there are few Meadows, and yet no want of good Hay; p. 8. that the air is but indifferent, and yet there are no colds: p. 8, 9. That the Cattle is lean p. 10. because their feeding, when in the
house, is partly Hay, and partly Brewers Grains and Roots, &c. p. 10. So having gi∣ven an Account of the miserable state of Sealand, he proceeds to set forth that of the other Islands in this manner.
Funen has plenty of Corn, Hogs, Woods, &c. p. 27. and yet has nothing for the Merchants to export but a few Horses.
As it is certain and notorious, that abundance of Corn, Bacon, and other Commodities are sent from thence to Holland, Norway, and other places, so it is as certain like wise that these things must go to Holland or Norway from this Island by Land-carriage, unless the Author will give them leave to be exported. What does he think of the Apples, which year∣ly are the sole Lading of several Ships.
Their Cyder, and their Mead, (which is the best in the World) is likewise carry'd abroad; and more especially a sort of Wheat, call'd in Danish, Boghuede, in Latin, Fagopyrus, (of which the Danes make their so much talkt of Grout, that resembles the English Hasty-Pudding) which is in very great plenty throughout the whole Island. Now it cannot possibly en∣ter into my head, that the people who
have Corn, Bacon, Apples, Cyder, Mead, and Boghuede to be exported, should have only a few Horses to be exported.
The chief Town is Odensee, formerly a flourishing little City, but now fallen to decay, p. 27. It is not so flourishing now as when the King resided there, but it is in a very good condition still. He takes no notice of several other good Towns that are in the Island, as Nyborg, Assens, Middlefart, &c. which are all bigger than St. Albans; I suppose that he might make his Reader imagine that nothing but Villages were to be found in Dan∣mark, except those few Towns he men∣tions.
This Island is oblig'd to him for de∣claring the true name of its Stifts-Ampt, or chief Governour, which is Mr. Winterfelt: whereas in Laaland and Jutland he is mistaken in the Names; and has given us none of those in Sealand, whither for want of Information, or other more prevailing Reasons, he can best inform his Reader.
Laaland has met with better quar∣ter from this Author than other places, and is commended for its plen∣ty of Corn; however he has forgot
the great abundance of extraordinary good Pease which grow there, and for which it is famous. I hope it is no reflection upon Copenhagen that it is supply'd with Wheat from thence, p. 28. and it may the rather be excused, be∣cause the Dutch, in the midst of their Plenty and Liberty, come hither for it too. So London is at present sup∣ply'd from the North, as Rome here∣tofore from Sicily and Egypt. He is mistaken in the Governours name, which is Mr. Gior; and this small er∣ror is the more to be taken notice of, because he says he resided a long time in England, in a publick Character, and so probably his name might be the better known there.
Nor is he less mistaken in the name of another person, which if he were any ways inquisitive he might have known; for he places Monsieur Edmund Scheel among the Stifts Ampts of Jutland: this I suppose he does only to let his Coun∣try men see, that they need not go so far as Danmark to find out his errors: For Monsieur Scheel, a Person consider∣able for his Parts, Learning, and the Characters he has sustain'd at home, and
in Foreign Courts besides that of England, where he lately rended at Envoy Ex∣traordinary; in that very Memorial he gave in to the King of England about this Authors account, has wrote his Christian name Magnus, as he doth without any abbreviation upon all oc∣casions. After having named three Stifts Ampts in Jutland, an &c. comes in for the fourth. Which the Author upon the least inquiry, might have found to be Mr. Mejercrone, now the King of Dan∣mark's Envoy at the French Court. The four principal Governments which he has not mentioned, are called Ribe, Aarhus, Wiborg, and Aalborg.
It contradicts it felt that Jutland wants good Sea-ports towards the Ocean, p. 30. and yet the Hollanders transport a great quantity of Cows and Oxen from thence; which makes it unnecessary to repeat the Sea-towns mentioned else∣where, besides which there are several o∣thers by the Western Islands, Silt, ••isler, and Ro••me, near the Cities of Ribe and Tonder, where the Hollander's Smacks and Oxen-Ships (as they call them) enter without difficulty, and so export those Commodities; which though the writer
calls Lean Cow's and Oxen, p. 3••. yet they are not so in themselves, but only in regard of that extraordinary bigness they grow to, when they come into the Dutch Soil. Otherwise the Cattle of Jutland, as of most part of Denmark, is not of the smallest, though it be left in its own Country, Nor need the In∣habitants of this plentiful Province desire any fatter Beef, than what they can have when they please at home.
Jutland also affords Corn, not only in∣sufficient quantity for the use of its own people, p. 30. but in such a superabundance that all the want of Norway in this case is yearly supply'd, in the greatest measure from this Province; neither can this chuse but be a vast quantity, considering the many Populous Sea. Towns lying all along upon the shores of that Country, Nay, in the very Year 1692. in which this Author pretends to describe this Country, there was such a crop reaped there, that it was upon fre∣quent desires allowed to the Hollanders by the King of Danmark, to export no less then 30 thousand barrels of Corn, (each Danish barrel containing four Bushels) besides what privately under
this permission was stolen out, and all besides the necessary provisions for Norway. Let now the Reader judge, if no more can be said of Jutland's fertility, than that it affords Corn in suffi∣cient quantity for the use of its own People.
But what's the reason of this plenty, and fertility? does it proceed from the goodness of the Soil, and the Indu∣stry of the Inhabitants? or from any Natural, Moral, or else some Political Account? why indeed the Reason that they have so many Oxen to sell, is because the King keeps his Court far from thence: Procul a Jove Procul a Fulmine, p. 30. says our Author. Corn, grows in any Country, where the Farmer is careful, and the Soil agreeable: and where the meadows produce good grass, there will be good cattle, and this Na∣ture will do whither it be in Monarchys or Commonwealth.
I have reserved the Island of Amack, or Amager in Danish to conclude with, because it is the Authors darling.
This Island, as he says, p. 28, 29. is very plentiful, and therefore commonly called the Kitchen Garden of Copenhagen, but
the Inhabitant's are not all of them North Hollanders, there is but one Pa••ish and Village, which is called the Hol∣lander's Village; the rest of the people, although they wear a singular dress, to show their primitive Extraction, yet in every thing else they are ••anes, so that their not mixing with that Nation, p. 29. is a meer fable. But hence arises a great consternation in our Author, it is to be fear'd that these North Hollanders by de••rees, will be treated ••e the other Subjects of Danmark. My heart really bleeds, upon the contemplation of these poor North-Hollanders, for they seem perfectly to have been trapan••'d, or as one may say, kidnapt into Den∣mark. I warrant they had Letter upon Letter, Invitation upon Invitation, before they could leave their own Country, and especially considering what they were, persons of fashion and credit; Gardners and Dairy∣Maids.
Now 'tis very hard, that a free people bred in a Commonwealth, as North Holland is, where they lye under no Impositions, have no Excises,
should be betrayed into a Country, where there is a necessity of their pay∣ing Taxes, that they should be re∣duced to powdered Beef, and stubble Geese, like common Danes; whereas at home, in the seat of Liberty, they could have Regaled themselves and Families, with a Red herring one day, White-herring another, and Pickled∣herring a third, for greater change and delicacy.