The greater number of the slaves I saw here were not confined for
life. Their labour is not hard; and they work in the open air,
which prevents their constitutions from suffering by imprisonment.
Still, as they are allowed to associate together, and boast of their
dexterity, not only to each other but to the soldiers around them,
in the garrison; they commonly, it is natural to conclude, go out
more confirmed and more expert knaves than when they entered.

It is not necessary to trace the origin of the association of ideas
which led me to think that the stars and gold keys, which surrounded
me the evening before, disgraced the wearers as much as the fetters
I was viewing--perhaps more. I even began to investigate the
reason, which led me to suspect that the former produced the latter.

The Norwegians are extravagantly fond of courtly distinction, and of
titles, though they have no immunities annexed to them, and are
easily purchased. The proprietors of mines have many privileges:
they are almost exempt from taxes, and the peasantry born on their
estates, as well as those on the counts', are not born soldiers or
sailors.

One distinction, or rather trophy of nobility, which I might have
occurred to the Hottentots, amused me; it was a bunch of hog's
bristles placed on the horses' heads, surmounting that part of the
harness to which a round piece of brass often dangles, fatiguing the
eye with its idle motion.

From the fortress I returned to my lodging, and quickly was taken
out of town to be shown a pretty villa, and English garden. To a
Norwegian both might have been objects of curiosity; and of use, by