In the early years of emigration, immigrants tried to paint as accurate a picture of the new environment as they could. Some had a tendency to exaggerate and beautify the new environment too much in the opinion of others or paint a dark and unfair picture. The letters sent home to friends and family were often discussed and often read by more than one person. Authors rarely expected their letters to end up on the pages of Icelandic newspapers, but that was often the case. Editors were either very neutral, perhaps neither for nor against emigration, but some wanted to find as much fault with the West and then a letter was published with negative reports. Þorleifur Joakimsson thought it was right to search letters of the immigrants that he thought gave a correct picture of reality. He wrote in “Continuation of the History of the Settlement of New Iceland” (Framhald á Landnámssögu Nýja Íslands) when he discusses Benedikt Arason. In the fall of 1876, Benedikt wrote a letter to Iceland. The man to whom the letter was sent had it printed in Nordanfari, and it is reprinted here.
A Letter from New Iceland. Since the letter that follows here is written by an intelligent and reliable person and also carries with it the fact that it is freer from bias and cover-up than some others that come from the west, I think it is appropriate, Mr. Editor, that you would do well to allow the readers of Nordanfari to see it, especially for the consideration of those who may now be thinking about emigration. J.H.
“Gimli, 15 September 1876
Immigrants from home came here, the first group in the middle of last August, and then the days after that; there were a lot of visitors here. I live six English miles south of Gimli. Most of the people were tired and unwell from the journey, and now around or over 60 of the group have died, most of them children in their first and second year. Kristján Sigurðsson from Little Reykjavík, who was said to have started out sick, got to Winnipeg and died there; a certain Pálmi, an old man (homeopath) (probably Pálmi Jónsson from Daðastaðir in Skagafjörður. Insert: JTh), fell out of a flatboat one night and drowned, a young man from the South also drowned and both of them in the Red River. One man who had come to Gimli found a root, which he thought was a honeysuckle root, ate a lot of it and died quickly afterwards (It was Jón Þorkelsson from Klúku in Hjaltastaðaþinghá). About 1,200 Icelanders have now arrived here from home during the summer, and I think that may be to many, as some of these people are now rather unhappy, as everyone can expect, especially at first. I now know, according to what the immigrants say, that some people have exaggerated in their letters from here to Iceland. I don’t know what those back home think, who encourage people to emigrate, and are then subjected to the curses of those who feel they have been cheated. I now think it’s best to let emigration stop for 2-3 years and see how those who have arrived will do. Family members, who care about the life and health of their children (I mean children under 8 years old) and old people, especially those who have lived in good conditions as much as possible at home, should think carefully before they decide to move here. It is possible that some of them will miss their horses and sheep and will not adapt to life here, which must always be very different from what is at home. Young people full-grown, free and adaptable have much better chance.
If you have heard who wrote the article in the 20th issue of Norðlingur, then tell him that I am asking him to never write such nonsense in newspapers again. It does more to encourage emigration than calm men, when people at home in Iceland, complete strangers to the circumstances here accept such writings as facts ; what will they trust in, who are they acquainted with here? Report of Mr. Jón Taylor’s, is admittedly too elegant, but I don’t think anything said there can’t happen; for example, there is a lot of hay in some lands, but none at all in others, and some are almost uninhabitable because of the rains and weeds. I don’t think there will be good farming here while people don’t have the ability to plow the ground; but nevertheless I have seen beautiful wheat here, which was sown in unplowed ground and only torn off with a harrow; strawberries have sprouted well in some places and other vegetables the same, but others very unevenly and some have almost become useless because the land was so wet this spring that fire could not run through the roots, and the wild grass suffocated what was sown or reduced the growth of it.
There are three main disadvantages here which are: long and cold winter, too wet land and flies. The last winter started here at the beginning of November, there were often snowstorms but never great, there was hardly a frost-free moment during the last days of March; with April came the warmest and best spring season and on Wednesday, the last in winter (April 19), there was the greatest thunderstorm and warmth here, and then there was almost no snow; the coldest was February 4, 37 degrees celsius and frost often came at 30 degrees; at the beginning of May, the north-west made a cold spell for a few days and once the ground turned gray, then it was a good time until the end of the month: at the beginning of the month of June, a cold drizzle came, but it warmed up quickly again; but until now the summer has been rainy, so it has been bad to dry hay as in a dry summer at home.
I am in a house with my siblings, Skapti and Gudný; we have 4 cows and 2 oxen; the cows cost 42 dollars each, and the oxen the same; we use them to haul the hay home on a sled; we started haying on August 2nd and stopped yesterday; one week passed with good weather; we have hayed close to what would have been for 200 horses in Iceland. In the last few days before the ice left the lake this spring, we had a great catch of fish; after that, they were allowed to spawn, we had to stop fishing, because it was impossible to protect the fish beds from damage; then the catch started to decrease and became very small in the middle of summer, until a few days ago it started to be fishy, and I caught quite a lot, but many others have caught little: no whitefish have been seen this autumn, but there is hope every day.
Since you challenge me to tell you from here about the quality of the country, the fate of Icelanders, finally the testimony of Sigtryggur Jónasson, I find it difficult to write about it. You have the best description of the quality of the country in the publication New Iceland, taking into account what I have discussed above. In the interest of Icelanders, it is worth saying that the administration lent those of us who came last year, 15,000 dollars; because of that you see that people are in debt, both me and others. In a letter that came from Gimli and is printed in Norðanfari no. 23-24 and 25-26 (see page 52) i.e., is a good and correct testimony by Sigtr. Jónasson, so I don’t pretend to be able to add or subtract anything. What in the mentioned article in the 20th page of Norðanfari is directed at him and the others who ecplored this region over a year ago, is completely unfounded and wrong.”
English version by Thor group.