Denna del baseras i hög grad på boken A tour through Sweden, Swedish-Lapland, Finland and Denmark. In a series of letters, illustrated with Engravings: by Matthew Consett, esq. (1789)
A TOUR THROUGH LAPLAND. LETTER XXVII.
Boken kan laddas ned här: https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/69463
Igfund, 3. July. (1786) f = s
We fet out early in the morning from Sunval (Sundsvall/ PE anm) and
arrived the fame evening at Igfund where we had
been fo hofpitably entertained on our road to Tornao.
The fame Gentleman politely received us again and we
flept at his houfe.
Så börjar den del som beskriver hur man kom i kontakt med hälsingesamerna Anna och Sigrid Jönsdotter och deras far. Viktigt att veta är att dessa engelska kolmagnater och ungherrar, resenärerna kapten Consett, Sir Henry St. George Liddell och John Bowes, hade fått uppfattningen att de unga kvinnorna (som genomgående kallas girls hos Consett) faktiskt skulle ha kommit från ”Jockmo” (antagligen avses Jokkmokk) lappmark; emedan det inte finns någonting som tyder på att deras ursprung vore annat än från södra Norrland, eventuellt Dalarna i några släktgrenar.
Trodde herrar Consett & co att Iggesund (Igsund) låg i Lappland?
”Lapland girls” betyder dock ”samiska flickor”, där kan vi jämföra med t ex Clarke 1799 – det ordanvändandet är exempellöst vanligt, rent legio i engelskspråkiga sammanhang. Sannolikt har man inte velat ta ur dessa herrar illusionen att de träffat tvättäka samer från Lappland. Vi har gjort en grundlig släktforskning och som sagt finns inte minst teckan som pekar på nordligare ursprung än Bergs socken i sydligaste Jämtland, där Sigrid och Annas mor Cecilia Jons- eller Jonasdotter föddes 1722 av föräldrar med stark koppling till Dellenbygden och eventuellt någon härkomst från centrala eller östra Dalarna och med rörelsemönster främst i södra Hälsingland men understundom även som sagt i sydligaste Jämtland och i västra Medelpad. Det här är före sockenlappsperioden. Efter att denna era inletts hamnar morföräldrarna Jonas och Sigrid i Forsa socken (numera Hudiksvall) som sockenlappar, oklart när men troligen något år runt 1740.
Historien fortsätter:
From the neighbourhood of this place were the two
Lapland Girls taken, who are intended by Sir H. G. L.
to be fent to England, to fulfil a particular Engagement
which he had made. As it is my intention afterwards to
write you a full account of thefe females, I fhall pafs over
the fubject. At prefent. It will then be in my power to inform you,
how they performed their Journey and Voyage,
how they were received and treated in England, and by
what means they returned to their native country.
Certain it is, we had no difficulty in perfuading them to undertake
this Enterprize. They immediately accepted our offers and relied
with the greateft confidence on our profeffions.
As their minds were entirely uncorrupted by
the Influence of foreign Intercourfe, as they had never
travelled beyond their native mountains, as their return
was at leaft uncertain, it is very remarkable that they
fhould fo eafily be prevailed upon to leave their friends
and connexions, their Huts and their flocks, to undertake
a dangerous, or at leaft a tedious, Journey and Voyage,
to vifit a country of which they were ignorant, and refide
among a People whcfe manners and cuftoms they could
not know. This probably may in forne meafure be accounted
for from the poverty oftheir own country. Yet
flill wc find in the Hiftory of the human race, an Inclination deeply
rooted and ftrong, towards our native home.
There is fomething in the very word Home that fills us
within expreffible affeftion. And if, according to the old
Englifh Maxim, it be everfo homely, flill our wants and
our wifhes center there. Consett 1789
Sedan rör man sig i rätt snabb tack söderut via såväl Falun – Avesta – Sala,
en vanlig rutt inte minst för resenärer som hade koppling till industrialismen.
Consett bygger för att senare i boken berätta om de samiska ”flickorna”.
Kort passage från Stockholm:
In Stockholm, as in other cold countries, the cuftom of
drinking Spirits prevails rather too much. Even Ladies,
who by no means deferve an improper Epithet, comply
with this pernicious cuftom. It is ufual in this country,
previous to dinner, for the company to aflemble ‘round
the Side-board, and to regale themfelves with bread, butter, cheefe,
or any thing of that nature, which preface is regularly followed in both fexes by a bumper of brandy.
This cuftom in the fair fex reminds me of a fet of Rules
which I have feen for the regulation’of a Ruffian Affembly. It concludes with this remarkable Injunction—
” N. B. Ladies are not to be drunk before ten o clock.”
Emot slutet av boken kommer redogörelsen för de samiska kvinnorna och åtagandena:
LETTER XLI.
I made you a promife, that before I concluded my corrcfpondence, I would fend you fome account of the
two female Adventurers that accompanied us from Lapland. It is now my Intention to give you that Intelligence.
The motives which induced Sir H. G. L. to bring them fo
very far from their native home are fufficiently known.
His Humanity and particular Attcntion to them when in
England, his great care that they fhould meet with no accident in their return,
and the comparative opulence with which he fent them back to their native mountains,
do credit to that heart which planned the whole Journey.
Many unfair and uncharitable cenfures, I know, have been
thrown upon thefe innocent Laplanders. The voice of
bufy (busy) rumour is not often filent upon fuch fubjects.
An eafy (easy) conflitutional temper, joined to good Health and good Spirits,
is very apt to be mif-interpreted by the morose
and cenfon That this was the only foundation for
any reflections upon the Lapland Girls, I dare venture
to affirm. It is therefore cruel Malevolence to attempt to
depreciate Innocence from mere Sufpicion.
We firft met with our two female Travellers at Igfund,
a fmall Town, the Property of Clas Grill, Knight of the
Order of Vafa, and chief Director of the Swedifh Eaft India Company.
Their names are Sigree and Anea, and they are natives of Jockmo Lapmark.
With refpect to their perfons, they are low in ftature with broad features like the reft of their country-women. We muft not, however, meafure the Beauty of a Laplander by the ftandard of other countries. Cuftom, in many refpecfs anfwers the purpofe of a more perfect model. And there is no doubt but a
Laplander or a Negro would prefer the fubftantial Beauties of the one or the fable charms of the other, to the Alabafter Skin or glowing tints of the moft celebrated Englifh Belle. That you may have fome Idea, however, both of their Likenefs, Drefs and Perfons, a drawing taken
in England will accompany this Letter.
”We first met with our two female Travellers at Igsund, a small Town, the Property of Clas Grill, Knight of the Order of Vasa, — chief Director of the Swedish East India Company. Their names are Sigree and Anea, and they are natives of Jockmo Lapmark.”
The female Laplanders, with three more as companions,
walked on foot with the five Reindeer near fix
hundred miles by land before they reached Gottenburg,
where we met them, and embarked altogether for England.
Sex ska dock renarna, minst, ha varit till antalet. Men här slutar vi för denna gång.
I NÄSTA DEL: Varför gjordes denna resa? En titt på bakgrunden.
I SISTA DELEN: Hur gick det sedan för Sigrid och Anna Jönsdotter, och hur var deras liv före brittiska resan?
SouthSaamiHistory 
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