and familiar as common pigeons. They make an
incessant noise; and in summer, when it is almost one continued day for
three months, they are only silent for about four hours in the twenty-four,
and this silence serves to warn the inhabitants of the proper time of going
to rest. In the early part of the spring, there arrived an amazing quantity
of wild geese, which made their nests on the island, and even sometimes
close to the walls of the houses. These birds are so very tame, that when
the mistress of the house goes to take some eggs from the nest, the goose
walks slowly away, and waits patiently till the woman has taken what she
wants; and when the woman goes away, the goose immediately returns to her
nest.

In the month of May, the inhabitants of Rostoe began to prepare for their
voyage to Bergen, and were willing also to take the strangers along with
them. Some days before their departure, the intelligence of their being at
Rostoe reached the wife of the governor over all these islands; and, her
husband being absent, she sent her chaplain to Quirini with a present of
sixty stockfish, three large flat loaves of rye-bread and a cake: And at
the same time desired him to be informed, that she was told the islanders
had not used them well, and if he would say in what point they had been
wronged, instant satisfaction should be afforded; it was also strongly
recommended by that lady to the inhabitants, to give them good treatment,
and to take them over to Bergen along with themselves. The strangers
returned their sincere thanks to the lady for the interest she took in
their welfare, and gave their full testimony, not only to the innocence of
their hosts in regard to what had been alleged, but spoke of the kind
reception they had experienced in the highest terms. As Quirini still had
remaining a rosary of amber beads which he had brought from St Jago in
Gallicia, he took the liberty of sending them to this lady, and requested
her to use them in praying to God for their safe return into their own
country.

When the time of their departure was come, the people of Rostoe, by the
advice of their priest, forced them to pay two crowns for each month of
their residence or seven crowns each; and as they had not sufficient cash
for this purpose, they gave, besides money, six silver cups, six forks, and
six spoons, with some other articles of small value, which they had saved
from the wreck, as girdles and rings. The greater part of t