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A57454
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An account of Sueden together with an extract of the history of that kingdom.
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Robinson, John, 1650-1723.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing R1690; ESTC R12230
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47,457
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212
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and become Grayish but Hares turn white as Snow Fowl both Wild and Tame are very plentiful and good in their kind except Sea-Fowl which feed and taste of Fish The most common are Orras and Keders the former of the bigness of a Hen the other of a Turky as also Partridges and a Bird somewhat resembling them called Yerpers There are taken in Winter great numbers of small Birds as Thrushes Blackbirds and Sydenscwans the last of the bigness of Veldefares but better meat supposed to come from Lapland or yet farther North and have their Name from the beautifulness of their Feathers some of which are tipt at the point with Scarlet Pigeons there are those of the Woods very rare because of the Hawks and of the House-Pigeons none but what are kept tame because their Food is scarce and the danger of the Hawks great if they go abroad Eagles Hawks and other rapacious Fowl abound most in the Northern and Desart parts whither Nature seems to call them as may be gathered from a Story credibly related of a large Hawk shot some years ago in the Northern Parts of Finland which had on one Leg a small Plate of Gold with this Inscription Ie Suis au Roy on the other one of Silver with these words Duc de Chevereuse me garde The chiefest Lakes in Sueden are the Vetter the Wenner and Maeler the first in Ostrogothia remarkable for its foretelling of Storms by a continual Thundering Noise the day before in that Quarter whence they arise as also for the sudden breaking of the Ice upon it which sometimes surprizes Travellers and in half an hour becomes Navigable For its great depth in some places above 300 Fathom tho no part of the Baltick Sea exceed 50 it supplies the River Motala which runs through Norcopingh where it has a Fall of about 30 Foot and some Winters is so choak'd up with Ice that for many hours no Water passes The second is in Westrogothia from which issues the River Elve that falling down a Rock near Sixty Foot passes by Gottenburgh The third empties its self at Stockholm furnishing one side of the Town with Fresh Water as the Sea does the other with Salt These and abundance of other Lakes whereof many like Ponds have no Vents and are called Inn-Seas are not ill stored with variety of Fish Salmon Pikes Perch Tench Trouts Eels and many other sorts unknown elsewhere of which the most plentiful is the Streamling a Fish less than a Pilcher taken in great quantities and salted in Barrels and distributed over all the Countrey Besides the North-Bottom or Bay that separates Sueden and Finland abounds with Seals of which a considerable Quantity of Train Oyl is made and exported and in the Lakes in Finland are vast quantities of Pikes which being taken are salted dry'd and sold at very cheap Rates These Lakes are of great use for the convenience of Carriages both in Summer by Boats and by Sleds in Winter and among them and on the Sea-Coasts are almost innumerable Islands of different Sizes whereof there are in Sueden above 6000 that are Inhabited the rest are either bare Rocks or covered with Wood Gotland Oland and Aland are Isles of large Extent one being Sixty miles long and the others little less Their Woods and vast Forests overspread much of the Country and are for the most part of Pines Fir Beech Birch Alder Juniper and some Oak especially in the Province of Bleaking the Trees growing in most places so close together and lying to rot where they fall that the Woods are scarce passable These afford a plentiful and cheap firing and being generally very straight and tall are easily convertible into Timber fit for all uses In the parts near the Mines the Woods are much destroyed but that want is so well supplied from distant places by the convenience of Rivers and Winter-Carriages that they have Charcoal above six times as cheap as it is in England tho indeed it is not half so good Of Mines in Sueden there is one of Silver into which Workmen are let down in Baskets to the first Floor which is 105 Fathom under ground the Roof there is as high as a Church supported by vast Arches of Oar thence the Descent is by Ladders or Baskets to the lowest Mine above forty Fathom where they now Work They have no Records so ancient as the first Discovery either of this or the Copper Mine which must needs have been the work of many Ages the Oar seldom yields above 4 per Cent. and requires great pains to Refine it they are also at the charge of a Water-Mill to drain the Mine and have the benefit of another that draws up the Oar. It yearly produces about Twenty thousand Crowns of Fine Silver of which the King has the Pre-emption paying one fourth less than the real Value The Copper-Mine is about eighty Fathom deep of great extent but subject to damage by the falling in of the Roof yet that is sometimes recompenced by the abundance of Oar that the ruined Pillars yield tho most commonly the loss in that Case is very great the occasion of which falls is attributed to the throwing the Earth and Stones brought out upon the Ground over the Mine by which the Pillars become overcharged and give way and the reason of this is said to be that the profit arising to those that are concerned is so little that they are not able to work it off as they ought and unless the King abates considerable part of the Profit arising to the Crown from this Mine 't is believed it will in few years be at a stand especially if the designs of making Copper that are on foot elsewhere do take any tolerable effect The Copper yearly made out of this Mine amounts to the value of about Two hundred thousand pounds of which the King has a fourth part not by way of Preemption but in kind besides that upon the remainder he has a Custom of 25 per Cent. when it is exported unwrought Lately a Gentleman of Italy came to Sueden with Proposals to make Copper a shorter and cheaper way than has hitherto been practised as to make that in five Days which before required three Weeks and with one fifth part of the Charcoal and with fewer hands The Bargain was made and his Reward agreed to be a Hundred thousand Crowns the first Proof he made succeeded to admiration but when he came to work in earnest and had got his new-invented Ovens built to his mind the Miners as he complained pickt out the very worst Oar and were otherwise so envious and untractable that he failed of success and lost his Reward and not without difficulty obtained leave to buy Oar and practice his Invention at his own Charge as he now does Iron-Mines and Forges are in great numbers especially towards the Mountainous parts where they have the convenience of Water-falls to turn their Mills From these besides supplying the Country
Care and great Wonders are expected from it but doubtless there is much more in their Imaginations than will ever be found in the Effect It is also found the King's Interest to keep the Nobility and Gentry very low In Matters of Religion his Majesty has no other Interest than to maintain the present Establishment and keep the Clergy to the due Performance of their Duty which admits of little or no difficulty In general the chief Domestick Interest of the King of Sueden is to preserve the Government in its present State and secure it such to his Successors it being constituted so much to the Advantage of the Royal Family that in that regard it can hardly be bettered by any Change In relation to Foreign Affairs it is apparently the Interest of Sueden to avoid all offensive War as being already in the quiet Possession of as many conquer'd Provinces on all sides as it can well defend tho' more would not displease them if they could be got with safety to maintain a good Correspondence with Moscovy by a due Observation of the Treaty lately concluded and endeavour to end the Point of Separation of the Limits which is the only Matter that can be like to create Trouble on that side with Poland Sueden has little occasion of difference or reason to apprehend any Quarrel neither does it seem the Interest of Sueden to aim at any further Enlargements in Germany but rather to use all good Offices to preserve the Treaty of Munster as the Foundation of its Right to Pomerania and Bremen which Provinces are of such Importance to Sueden as rendring it much more considerable to all Europe than it would otherwise be that they will never be parted with so long as Sueden is able to defend them The Intercourse with Denmark has seldom been friendly nor have there ever wanted Grounds of Quarrels when the Conjunctures were favourable tho' at present Sueden seems to have little occasion of Misintelligence with that Crown unless on the account of the State of Affairs abroad and the several Interests they have to mind therein their Agreement in Point of Trade seems to cement them but their Emulation in regard of a Mediation and in other Points is as likely to keep them at a distance nor is it at all probable they ever will or can so far surmount their mutual Distrusts as actually to take part on the same side But in regard of their own Affairs Sueden has gained so much from Denmark already and the Interest of the Trading part of Europe is so much concern'd to hinder it from getting more that being also inferior to Denmark by Sea it is not probable it will in many Years have any design of enlarging its Territories farther on that side tho' it has undoubtedly a longing Desire to Norway which would make it the sole Master of all Naval Stores And Denmark is so much weaker at Land that Sueden has no reason to apprehend it unless Domestick Confusions do happen which in all times Denmark has been ready to foment and has frequently profited by them and it is not very improbable but it may in not many Years have an opportunity of doing so again for which reason especially it is the Interest of Sueden to carry fair and live at peace with Denmark In Point of Alliances the less Sueden can depend upon its Neighbours the more careful it has been to entertain Friendship further from home especially with France which first began about 150 Years ago between Francis the First and Gustavus the First and subsisted till of late Years that the Emperor's Party was thought more agreeable to the Nation 's Interest which it has accordingly espoused The Friendship of England or Holland or both has ever been accounted indispensibly necessary to Sueden in regard of its Weakness by Sea neither has Sueden hitherto engaged in any War where both those Nations were Parties and if such a Case should happen 't is not to be doubted but Sueden would use all possible means to obtain a Peace for that the Country cannot subsist without a quick Vent of its own Commodities and continual Supplies of such Necessaries as it must receive from abroad of which it is very unusual to make any Provision before-hand or lay up greater Stores than what one Winter consumes CHAP. XVII An Extract of the History of Sueden THE Original of the Suedish Nations which their Historians ascribe to Magog Son of Iaphet whose Expedition thither they placed in the Year 88 after the Flood is built upon such uncertain Conjectures as neither deserves to be mention'd nor credited any more than the Names of the Kings supposed to succeed him invented by the Writers to fill up the Vacuities of those dark Times of which other Countries more likely to have been first planted can give so little account therefore tho' the Country might possibly have been early inhabited yet nothing of certainty can be known of it till the coming of Othinus or Woden who was driven out of Asia by Pompey the Great about Sixty Years before the Birth of Christ. From this Woden who as their Histories report conquer'd Moscovy Saxony Sueden Denmark and Norway all Northern Nations have been ambitious to derive their Extraction with him the Heathenish Religion that afterwards prevail'd in the North Witchcraft and other like Arts were brought in as also the Custom of raising great heaps of Earth upon the Graves of Persons of Note and Engraving of Funeral Inscriptions upon Rocks and Stones which yet remain in all Parts of the Country To Woden after his Death Divine Honours were paid as the God of War and as the two first Days of the Week were named after the Sun and Moon and Tuesday after T is or Disa an ancient Idol so Wednesday had its Name from him as Thursday from Thor and Friday from Frigga which three last were long the chief Objects of the Northern Idolatry The Succession of the Kings after Woden is full of confusion the Nation being sometimes parcell'd into several little Kingdoms sometimes into two Sueden and Gothia often subject to Denmark or Norway and sometimes Master of those Countries as also of others more distant where the Goths that forsook their Native Soil happened to plant themselves but when or on what particular occasions they made those Migrations is not certainly known nor how long they had been abroad when they first began to infest the Roman Empire about 300 Years after Christ. That the Saxons who were called into England about the Year 450 were originally a Colony of Goths is conjectured from the Agreement of their Language Laws and Customs But that the Suedes and Goths joyned with the Danes and Norwegians in their Invasion of England about the Year 800 we are assured from our own Historians that expresly mention them with the Character of Barbarous and Pagan Nations as they then were and the same may be concluded from the many Saxon Coyns that