As regards the second, I am by no means so sure that my curiosity will ever be gratified.
In my opinion this enigmatical personage has an all important reason for hiding his origin, and I am afraid there is no indication by which I can gauge his nationality.

If the Count d'Artigas speaks English fluently--and I was able to assure myself of that fact during his visit to Pavilion No.

17,--he pronounces it with a harsh, vibrating accent, which is not to be found among the peoples of northern latitudes.

I do not remember ever to have heard anything like it in the course of my travels either in the Old or New World--unless it be the harshness characteristic of the idioms in use among the Malays.
And, in truth, with his olive, verging on copper-tinted skin, his jet-black, crinkly hair, his piercing, deep-set, restless eyes, his square shoulders and marked muscular development, it is by no means unlikely that he belongs to one of the extreme Eastern races.
I believe this name of d'Artigas is an assumed one, and his title of Count likewise.

If his schooner bears a Norwegian name, he at any rate is not of Scandinavian origin.