Trafika Europe 1 - Northern Idyll

Farther out lay the three-masted schooner Havfruen . They had had a good wind from Copenhagen. The first day they beat to windward, but after they were free of Skagerrak, the wind blew from the south and southeast. For seven days they traveled with full sails, and at midnight they dropped anchor at Tórshavn’s harbor. Finally, the trunks were unloaded and the passenger turned to Tóvó. At that, the amusement left the boy’s eyes; the passenger saw that this laughter prone person was a six year old who had come out to Vippan to watch. The passenger’s gaze was friendly, albeit searching. He took an orange from his coat pocket and handed the boy the odd reddish-yellow object. Tóvó didn’t know Danish, but he understood enough to know that an orange was something you could eat. It had been only two weeks since the newspapers in the Danish capital had published an account of the measles epidemic ravaging the Faroe Islands. The article first appeared in Fædrelandet on June 17, 1846, and even though it was uncredited, one could guess that Dr. Napoleon was the author; or that, inspired by Dr. Napoleon, it had been written by Niels C. Winther, or Doffa, as his friends called him. Berlingske Tidende reprinted the article and the news was deemed so alarming that the Rentekammer Manicus and Panum

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