the real reason,
"because I like it," given; and all these excuses and reasons must be
regarded as implying some lingering sense of shame at the act, and as
forming part of "the homage that vice always pays to virtue."--ED.

{22} The sailors call those waves "Spanish" which, coming from the west,
distinguish themselves by their size.

{23} These islands form a rocky group, only one of which is inhabited,
lying about fifteen miles from the coast. They are said to derive their
name from some natives of Ireland, called West-men, who visited Iceland
shortly after its discovery by the Norwegians. In this there is nothing
improbable, for we know that during the ninth and tenth centuries the
Danes and Normans, called Easterlings, made many descents on the Irish
coast; and one Norwegian chief is reported to have assumed sovereign
power in Ireland about the year 866, though he was afterwards deposed,
and flung into a lough, where he was drowned: rather an ignominious death
for a "sea-king."--ED.

{24} This work, which Madame Pfeiffer does not praise too highly, was
first published in 1810. After passing through two editions, it was
reprinted in 1841, at a cheap price, in the valuable people's editions of
standard works, published by Messrs. Chambers of Edinburgh.

{25} It is related of Ingold that he carried with him on his voyage the
door of his former house in Ireland, and that when he approached the
coast he cast it into the sea, watching the point of land which it
touched; and on that land he fixed his future home. This land is the
same on which the town of Reikjavik now stands. These old sea-kings,
like the men of Athens, were "in all things too superstitious."--ED.

{26} These sea-rovers, that were to the nations of Europe during the
middle ages what the Danes, Norwegians, and other northmen were at an
earlier period, enjoyed at this time the full flow of their lawless
prosperity. Their insolence and power were so great that many nations,
our own included, were glad to purchase, by a yearly payment, exemption
from the attacks of these sea-rovers. The Americans paid this tribute so
late as 1815. The unfortunate Icelanders who were carried off in the
seventeenth century nearly all died as captives in Algiers. At the end
of ten years they were liberated; but of the four hundred only
thirty-seven were alive when the joyful intelligence reached the place of
their captivity; and of these twenty-four died before