The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.2004, Qupperneq 37

Vol. 58 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
131
go about this business with a great amount
of carefulness. It is , by the way, a true
blessing for us to get this fish because now
everyone has enough to eat, and many pre-
serve the fish by salting it or drying it -
keeping it for the time to come. At the time
when we started to catch the fish we were
just about running out of food, just about
having to start to eat wheat and beans
which we had intended to use as seed, but
now I hope that these things don't have to
be spent.
Since early April the weather has been
calm, usually the sky has been clear and the
sun has been shining. It has been warm
during the day and there has been slight
frost at night. By early spring the snow
started to melt, but the soil is now quite dry
yet. Soon, however, we shall start to burn
wood piles on the newly cleared land and
begin sowing in this land in this week and
throughout the month. We are going to
sow: wheat, beans, and potatoes and vari-
ous kinds of vegetables.
Red River is clear of ice, but Lake
Winnipeg is still covered with ice. Most
think that this ice is not going to disappear
until late this month.
The cold was often severe here last
winter, some days it was even 45 below
zero. I found it more tolerable, however,
than the cold in Ontario. We had storms
only rarely.
In addition to the $10,000 which the
Government granted us last summer
($7,500 as a loan, but $2,500 as grants for
the journey, not to be payed back) it has
now lent us $5,000 in the form of food,
seed, and utensils. Most of this loan has
reached us by now.
Please, pardon my handwriting. I
would love to hear from you or from Rev.
Jon - but I suppose that he is constantly
busy writing other things. What news can
you tell of Jon Olafsson and his Alaska
expedition. I wish you and your husband
all the best.
Your friend,
Fr. Fridriksson
Letter #11
Gimli, Nov 27, 1876
Dear Friend: (apparently Laura
Pjetursdottir)
Finally, I am going to thank you for
the letter which you wrote to me last sum-
mer, which I received long ago. I have no
excuse for not answering you except my
carelessness and laziness, neither of which
can be regarded as an excuse - but I
assumed that H. Briem, Sigtryggur, and
Pall would tell you all the news from this
colony. But finally I am writing, and
unfortunately I have to tell you bad news -
namely that the colony has been struck by
smallpox. At first we thought that it had
been brought here by a young boy who
had been ill with smallpox, and who had
been hospitalized in Quebec, but later it
appeared that the illness had already
reached the colony before this boy came.
A man here had been ill with smallpox. It
is most likely that he became infected on
some ship or another on which he was trav-
eling, or he might have become infected by
clothing which he bought and which might
have been contaminated before he bought
it. The disease spread slowly at first, and
therefore we had no idea that it could be
smallpox, but some 3 weeks ago it began to
spread rapidly. Then we sent for a doctor
who arrived in a few days. He maintains
that this disease is, in fact, smallpox disease
and it seems, in fact, pretty obvious. All are
not equally hard hit by the illness. Those
who have recently been vaccinated only
j 3050 Portage Ave.
Winnipeg, MB R3K 0Y1
Ph: (204) 983-4501
/ Fax: (204) 983-4728
f www.johnharvard.com
John Harvard, MP
harleswood St. James-Assiniboia
Chair, Northern &
Western Caucus
Room 774 Confederation Bldg. • Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Ph: (613) 995-5609 • Fax: (613) 992-3199
harvaj@parl.gc.ca