The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1974, Page 23

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
21
among his countrymen. He is now the
president of the Icelandic Synod in
Manitoba and North Dakota and the
editor of its official organ. A few years
ago I had the pleasure of visiting Jon
and Laura in their splendid home
alongside of their magnificent church
in Winnipeg.
I now want to add by way of self-
praise that through Jon Bjarnason, I
became so proficient in Icelandic that
when soon after my arrival in Copen-
hagen as United States minister the
Icelanders connected with the univer-
sity and others in that city gave me
a reception I was able, to the great and
agreeable surprise of my entertainers,
to respond to Prof. Finnur Jonsson’s
address in their own vernacular. Prof.
Jonsson in his address to me not sus-
pecting that I would understand Ice-
landic spoke in Danish.
MORE ABOUT THE ICELANDERS
I have already mentioned the Ice-
landers in Manitoba. How did they
get there? In most of what I have al-
ready stated I have intended to lead
up to the answer to this question. It
was largely with this end in view that
I introduced Lord Dufferin to my
readers. I have shown how deeply he
was intrested in Iceland, its people
and its history. I have given an ac-
count of Jon Olafsson’s and President
Grant’s abortive enterprise to get the
whole population of Iceland to em-
igrate to Alaska.
As stated, the Icelanders continued
to emigrate in increasing numbers
from year to year. But they had failed
to find a large body of unoccupied
land where they could settle together
and preserve their Icelandic language
and traditions and maintain schools,
churches and newspapers. I believe it
was sometime in the summer of 1878
that three middle-aged Icelanders
visited me to discuss this matter with
me. We considered North Dakota, the
Pacific coast and Texas, where suitable
large tracts of land might be available.
But the fact was that the Icelanders
had no money to buy even the cheap-
est land on the market. Then it sud-
denly occurred to me that Lord Duf-
ferin was Governor-General of Canada;
that in Canada there were large tracts
of unoccupied land; that Lord Duf-
ferin was a friend of the Icelanders
and that I knew him. I therfore sug-
gested that these three Icelanders
should go to Ottawa and find out
what Lord Dufferin might be able and
willing to do for them. I gave (them a
letter to the governor-general.
Lord Dufferin received them most
royally as if they had been ambassadors
from some foreign potentate. He enter-
tained them at the government man-
sion. His fertile mind soon found a
way. He selected a strip of land some
thirty miles in length and perhaps ten
miles in width on the west side of
Lake Winnipeg in the province of
Manitoba and in a message to the
Canadian parliament he recommended
that this strip of country be set aside
for an Icelandic settlement and that
the land be sold exclusively to Iceland-
ers and on very easy terms of pay-
ment. The recommendation was adopt-
ed with alacrity by the parliament.
Here the Icelanders would find a
climate not unlike what they had been
accustomed to in their native land;
they would fin da soil immensly more
generous than that of Iceland, and be-