Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1970, Page 13

The English Letters of Pastor Schrøter
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from a population of 7,880. Schrøter later speaks of several
Faroemen who volunteered for service in the army or navy.
There seem to have been about three volunteers in the navy,
and ten in the army, including one officer, Lieutenant Bærent-
sen of Sund. The letters do not tell of any Faroemen killed or
injured, though one was taken prisoner after the destruction
of the warship Christian VIII. Within a few months, his
parents got a letter from him with the news that he was being
quite well treated.
Always uppermost in the old priest’s mind was, however,
the development of the Faroese economy. Dry statistics will
easily show how the twenty years covered by the correspon-
dence were vital for the development of the Faroese fishery,
and important, too, for Faroese agriculture. Indeed, Schrøter
himself provides plenty of statistics, for both he and Tre-
velyan liked them — but he also gives us a human angle on the
developments. We learn who made the experiments and what
feelings they had about the new age.
Schrøter was an enthusiast for an increase in the Faroese
population and for a corresponding increase in cultivation.
In his very first letter he tells Trevelyan that if four times as
much land were to be cultivated, Faroe would be happier with
20,000 inhabitants and free trade, than then with 6,500. In a
letter of 20th September 1836, he speaks with pride of how
much land round Tórshavn had been brought under culti-
vation since Trevelyan’s 1821 visit:
If you could see the territory around Thorshaven, I am
convinced you would find upwards of 100 acres English
now better cultivated than the former infield of the King’s
farm; and for all that, the sheep are more numerous and
fatter.
In July 1847, he remarks on the change in the physical
appearance of the area round the town: