To the Right Honourable CHARLES MONTAGUE, Esq., Chancellor of His Majesty's Exchequer, President to the Royal Society, &c.

MEN are generally delighted with novelty, and what is represented under that plausible invitation seldom fails of meeting with acceptance. If we hear at any time a description of some remote corner in the Indies cried in our streets, we presently conclude we may have some divertisement in reading of it; when in the meantime, there are a thousand things nearer us that may engage our thoughts to better purposes, and the knowledge of which may serve more to promote our true interest, and the history of Nature. It is a piece of weakness and folly merely to value things because of their distance from the place where we are born: thus men have travelled far enough in the search of foreign plants and animals, and yet continue strangers to those produced in their own natural climate. Therefore I presume that this following relation will not prove unprofitable or displeasing, unless the great advantages of truth and unaffected plainness may do it a prejudice, in the opinion of such as are more nice and childish than solid and judicious.

The ingenious author of this treatise is a person whose candor and integrity guard him against all affectation and vanity; and his great desire to propagate the natural history of the Isles of Scotland, makes him relate, without any disguise, the several particulars that fell under his accurate observation. He was prompted by a generous curiosity to undertake a voyage through several isles to St. Kilda (the particular account whereof you have in the following treatise) and that in an open boat, to the almost manifest hazard of his life, since the seas and tides in those rocky islands are more inconstant and raging than in most other places. There is nothing related in the following account, but what he vouches to be true, either from his own particular observation, or else from the constant and harmonious testimony that was given him by the inhabitants; and they are a sort of people so plain, and so little inclined to impose upon mankind, that perhaps no place in the world at this day, knows such instances of true primitive honour and simplicity, a people who abhor lying tricks and artifices, as they do the most poisonous plants, or devouring animals.

The Author, perhaps, might have put these papers into the hands of some who were capable of giving them the politest turns of phrase, and of making some pretty excursions upon several passages in them; but he thought the intelligent and philosophick part of mankind would value the truth more in such accounts, than anything that can be borrowed from art, or the advantages of more refined language; and such do contemplate the books of Nature with so much diligence and application that they may admire the original spring of power and wisdom, that first set Nature itself in motion, and preserves its regular course in all its wonderful and various phenomena; and therefore it may reasonably be hoped, that the meanness of its dress will not be made use of as any considerable objection against this preliminary essay.

He himself was born in one of the most spacious and fertile isles in the West of Scotland; and besides his liberal education at the University, had the advantage of seeing foreign places, and the honour of conversing with some of the Royal Society, who raised his natural curiosity to survey the isles of Scotland more exactly than any other; in prosecution of which design he has already brought along with him several curious productions of Nature, both rare and beautiful in their kind, which were never seen nor known here before; and, perhaps, there be few that have the same advantages of doing it to purpose, he being generally acquainted with most of the better sort, and nearly concerned in such as would very willingly encourage endeavours of this and the like nature.

(Insert birds on pg. 400 here)

THE CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. ----- The Motives for the Voyage: Signs of a Storm: The Changes of the Wind: The Consequence of their Change: The Flight of the Fowls: How serving the Natives as well as a Compass: A Fight betwixt Two Solan Geese: The way the Inhabitants walk among the Rocks: The Manner of Landing: The Number of Eggs consumed in Three Weeks: Various Names of the Isle: Latitude, Climate, Seasons, Length and Breadth of it: The Bay: Force of the Sea: Four Arches, or Vaults: Chrystal, how it grows: A Female Warrior's House: Fountains: Marks on the Cattel, &c., Fishes, Baits: Amphibia. p. 403.

CHAPTER II. ----- Of the inferior Isles and Rocks, their Product: Solan Geese, how Killed: A branch of the Officer's Salary, Staller-house, Pyramids: Policy of the Inhabitants: An Earthquake: A Fountain: The taking away, or leaving the Eggs in the Nests by the Inhabitants, advances or retards the hatching of the Fowls by the space of Eighteen Days, sooner or later: Our progress to Borera: Every Solan Goose catch'd, is presently mark'd on the Foot by the Owner: Of Eddies: Tides: Land and Sea-Fowls, their description, various Properties, Seasons for their coming, and going away: Their Prognosticks of Winds, Storms, Calms, &c.: Barren Tribe of Solan Geese: The Solan Geese's Centinels: Fulmar Oyl, its properties: Eggs, their various Properties and Effects. p. 418.

CHAPTER III. ----- Of the Inhabitants. Their Pedigree: Complection: Strength: Diseases: Cures: Plants: Religion: Notion of Spirits. Festivals: Anniversary Cavalcade: Chappels: Crucifix; Lots: Marriage: Baptism. Proprietor: Omer: Cubit: Envoy, his salary, Entry. Steward's Retinue: His Residence: How far Limited. Tributary Cake. Mutton furnished by the Officer to the Steward every Sunday. Number of the Inhabitants: Their Kiln by turns. The Officer: His Precedence: Notion of Honour: The Danger attending this Notion. Dexterity in Climbing. Language. Habit. Burials. Ale, how Brewed. Fowls preserved. A Calculation of the Solan Geese consumed by the Inhabitants last Year. Five hundred Stone-Pyramids for several uses. The Inhabitants' Food. Great lovers of Tobacco. Their Boat, how nicely divided. Fire-Penny: Pot-Penny. No Money used here. The Rock-Fowl: How presented by a Lover to his Mistress. The Mistress-Stone. Notions of all Foreign Objects. Divertisements. p. 436.

An Account of one Roderick, supposed to have had Conversation with a Familiar Spirit, and pretending to be sent by St. John the Baptist with New Revelations and Discoveries. p. 466.

A Voyage to St. Kilda, etc.

A LATE VOYAGE TO ST KILDA CHAPTER I

CHAPTER I. ----- The Motives for the Voyage: Signs of a Storm: the Changes of the Wind: The Consequence of their Change: The Flight of the Fowls: How serving the Natives as well as a Compass: A Fight betwixt two Solan Geese: The way the Inhabitants walk among the Rocks: The manner of landing: The Number of Eggs consumed in Three Weeks: Various names of the Isle: Latitude, Climate, Seasons, Length and Breadth of it: the Bay: Force of the Sea: Four Arches or Vaults: Chrystal, how it grows: a Female Warrior's House: Fountains: Marks on the Cattel, &c., Fishes, Baits: Amphibia.

THE various relations concerning St. Kilda, given by those of the Western Isles, and continent, induc'd me to a narrow enquiry about it: for this end I applied myself to the present steward, who by his description, and the products of the island which were brought to me, together with a natural impulse of curiosity, form'd such an idea of it in my mind, that I determin'd to satisfy my self with the first occasion I had of going thither; it being never hitherto describ'd to any purpose, the accounts which are given by Buchanan and Sir Robert Murray, being but relations from second and third hands neither of them ever having the opportunity of being upon the place; which I attempted several times to visit, but in vain; until last summer, the Laird of Mack-Leod heartily recommending the care of the inhabitants of St. Kilda to Mr John Campbel, minister of Harries, who accordingly went to St. Kilda. This occasion I cheerfully embrac'd; and accordingly we embark'd at the Isle Esay in Harries the 29th. of May, at six in the afternoon, 1697, the wind at S.E.

We had the curiosity after three weeks residence, to make a calcule of the number of eggs bestowed upon those of our boat, and the Stewart's birlin, or galley, the whole amounted to sixteen thousand eggs; and without all doubt the inhabitants, who were treble our number, consumed many more eggs and fowls than we could. From this it is easy to imagine, that a vast number of fowls must resort here all summer, which is yet the more probable if it be considered; that every fowl lays but one egg at a time, if allowed to hatch.

The inhabitants live together in a little village, which carries all the signs of an extream poverty; the houses are of a low form, having all the doors to the north-east, both on purpose to secure them from the shocks of the tempest of the south-west winds. The walls of their houses are rudely built of stone, the short couples joining at the ends of the roof, upon whose sides small ribs of wood are laid, these being covered with straw; the whole secured by ropes made of twisted heath, the extremity of which on each side is poised with stone to preserve the thatch from being blown away by the winds. This little village is seated in a valley surrounded with four mountains, which serve as so many ramparts of defence, and are amphitheatres, from whence a fair prospect of the ocean and isles is to be seen in a fair day.

This isle is by the inhabitants called Hirt, and likewise by all the Western Islanders; Buchanan calls it Hirta; Sir John Narbrough, and all seamen call it St. Kilda; and in sea maps St. Kilder, particularly in a Dutch sea map from Ireland to Zeland, published at Amsterdam by Peter Goas in the year, 1663, wherein the isle of St. Kilda is placed due west betwixt fifty and sixty miles from the middle of the Lewis, and the isle answers directly to the fifty-eighth degree of northern latitude, as marked upon the ends of the map, and from it lies Rokol, a small rock sixty leagues to the westward of St. Kilda; the inhabitants of this place call it Rokabarra; this map contains the soundings of some places near St. Kilda; these not exceeding twenty or thirty fathom, it contains only the larger isle and a part of the lesser isles; this island is also called St. Kilda, by a company of French and Spaniards, who lost their ship at Rokol in the year 1686, which they nam'd to the inhabitants of St. Kilda, whose latitude is fifty-seven degrees and three minutes.

The air here is sharp and wholesome; the hills are often covered with ambient white mists, which in winter are forerunners of snow, if they continue on the tops of the hills; and in summer, if only on the tops of the hills, they prognosticate rain; and when they descend to the valleys it is a prognostick of excessive heat. The night here about the time of the summer solstice exceeds not an hour in length, especially if the season is fair, then the sun disappears but for a short space, the reflex from the sea being all the time visible; the harvest and winter are liable to great winds and rain, the south-west wind annoying them more than any other; it is commonly observed to blow from the west for the most part of, if not all July.

St. Kilda is two miles long from east to west; from south to north one mile in breadth; five miles in circumference, and is naturally fenc'd with one continued face of a rock of great height, except a part of the bay, which lies to the south-east, and is generally well fenced with a raging sea. This bay is one half mile in length, and another in breadth; it is not ordinary for any vessels to anchor within this bay, in case of a storm, for this might endanger them, therefore they drop anchor without at the entry, judging it the securest place: the only place for landing here, is on the north side of this bay, upon a rock with a little declination, which is slippery, being cloathed with several sorts of sea-weeds; these, together with a raging sea, render the place more inaccessible, it being seldom without a raging sea, except under favour of a neap-tide, a north-east or west wind, or with a perfect calm; when these circumstances concur, the birlin or boat is brougt to the side of the rock, upon which all the inhabitants of both sexes are ready to join their united force to hale her through this rock, having for this end a rope assent to the fore-part; a competent number of them are also employed on each side; both these are determined by a cryer, who is employed on purpose to warn them all at the same minute, and he ceases when he finds it convenient to give them a breathing.

At the head of the bay there's a plain sand, which is only to be seen in summer, the winter-sea washing it off the stones; there is no landing upon this place with safety, which the steward has learn'd to his cost. There is a little bay on the west side of this isle, all fac'd with an iron-colour'd rock; some vessels take shelter here, when the wind is at south or north-east; there is a place of the rock here on the south-side the rivulet, where you may land, if a neap-tide or calm offer. The sea is very impetuous everywhere about this isle; they shewed me big stones which were lately removed out of their place and cast into the Gallies Dock; I measured some of them which were in length seven, others eight foot and three or four broad.

There is a little old ruinous fort on the south part of the south-east bay, called the Down. It is evident from what hath been already said, that this place may be reckoned among the strongest forts (whether natural or artificial) in the world; Nature has provided the place with store of ammunition for acting on the defensive; that is, a heap of loose stones in the top of the hill Oterveaul, directly above the landing-place; it is very easy to discharge vollies of this ammunition directly upon the place of landing, and that from a great height almost perpendicular; this I myself had occasion to demonstrate, having for my diversion put it in practice, to the great satisfaction of the inhabitants, to whom this defence never occurred hitherto. They are resolved to make use of this for the future, to keep off the Lowlanders, against whom of late they have conceived prejudices. A few hands may be capable of resisting some hundreds, if the above-mentioned weapons be but made use of. Those four mountains are fac'd on that side which regards the sea, with rocks of extraordinary height; the hill Conager on the north side, is about two hundred fathom height, perpendicularly above the sea.

There are round this isle four arches or vaults, through which the sea passes, as doth the day-light from either side, which is visible to any, though at a good distance; some of them representing a large gate: two of these look to the south, and two north-west; that on the point of the west bay is six fathom high above water, four in breadth, fifty paces in length, the top two fathom thick, and very strong, the cattle feeding upon it.

There are several veins of different stone to be seen in the rocks of the south-east bay; upon the north side of this rock is one as it were cut out by Nature, resembling a tarras-walk. The chrystal grows under the rock at the landing-place; this rock must be pierc'd a foot or two deep, before the chrystal can be had from the bed of sand where it lies; the water at the bottom is of a black colour; the largest piece is not above four inches long, and about two in diameter, each piece sexangular.

Upon the west side of this isle there is a valley with a declination towards the sea, having a rivulet running through the middle of it, on each side of which is an ascent of half a mile; all which piece of ground is call'd by the inhabitants, The Female Warrior's Glen: This Amazon is famous in their traditions: her house or dairy of stone is yet extant; some of the inhabitants dwell in it all summer, though it be some hundred years old; the whole is built of stone, without any wood, lime, earth, or mortar to cement it, and is built in form of a circle pyramid-wise towards the top, having a vent in it, the fire being always in the centre of the floor; the stones are long and thin, which supplies the defect of wood; the body of this house contains not above nine persons sitting; there are three beds or low vaults that go off the side of the wall, a pillar betwixt each bed, which contains five men apiece; at the entry to one of these low vaults is a stone standing upon one end fix'd; upon this they say she ordinarily laid her helmet; there are two stones on the other side, upon which she is reported to have laid her sword: she is said to have been much addicted to hunting, and that in her time all the space betwixt this isle and that of Harries, was one continued tract of dry land. There was some years ago a pair of large deers-horns found in the top of Oterveaul Hill, almost a foot under ground; and there was likewise a wooden dish full of deer's grease found in the same hill under ground. 'Tis also said of this warrior, that she let loose her greyhounds after the deer in St. Kilda, making their course towards the opposite isles. There are several traditions of this famous Amazon, with which I will not further trouble the reader.

In this isle there are plenty of excellent fountains or springs; that near the female warrior's house is reputed to be the best, the name of it, Toubir-nim-buey, importing no less than the well of qualities or virtues; it runneth from east to west, being sixty paces ascent above the sea: I drank of it twice, an English quart at each time; it is very clear, exceeding cold, light, and diuretick; I was not able to hold my hands in it above a few minutes, in regard of its coldness; the inhabitants of Harries find it effectual against windy-chollicks, gravel, head-aches; this well hath a cover of stone.

There is a large well near the town, called St. Kilder's Well; from which the island is suppos'd to derive its name; this water is not inferior to that above-mentioned; it runneth to the south-east from the north-west.

There is another well within half a mile of this, nam'd after one Conirdan, an hundred paces above the sea, and runneth from north-west towards the southeast, having a stone cover.

Within twelve paces of this is a little and excellent fountain, which those of Harries and St. Kilda, will needs call by the Author's name, and were then resolved to give it a cover of stone, such as is above describ'd.

There is a celebrated well issuing out of the face of a rock on the north-side of the east bay, called by the inhabitants and others, The Well of Youth, but is only accessible by the inhabitants, no stranger daring to climb the steep rock; the water of it is received, as it falls, into the sea; it runs towards the south-east. The taste of the water of those wells was so pleasant, that for several weeks after, the best fountains in the adjacent isles did not relish with me. There is a rivulet runneth close by the town, and another larger beyond Kilder's Well; this last serves for washing linnen, which it doth as well without soap, as other water does with it; of this we had experience, which was a confirmation of what had been reported to us concerning this water: we searched if in the brinks we could discover any fuller's-earth, but found none; we discovered some pieces of iron-ore in several places of it; this rivulet drops from the mossy ground in the top of the hills.

The whole island is one hard rock, form'd into four high mountains, three of which are in the middle; all thinly covered with black or brown earth, not above a foot, some places half a foot deep, except the top of the hills, where it is above three foot deep, and affords them good turf; the grass is very short but kindly, producing plenty of milk; the number of sheep commonly maintained in St. Kilda, and the two adjacent isles, does not exceed two thousand and generally they are speckled, some white, some philamort, and are of an ordinary size; they do not resemble goats in anything, as Buchanan was informed, except in their horns, which are extraordinary large, particularly those in the lesser isles.

The number of horses exceeds not eighteen, all of a red colour, very low, and smooth skinn'd, being only employ'd in carrying their turf and corn, and at the anniversary cavalcade, of which hereafter. The cows that are about ninety head, small and great, all of them having their foreheads white and black, which is discernible at a great distance, are of a low stature, but fat and sweet beef; the dogs, cats, and all the sea-fowls of this isle are speckled.

The soil is very grateful to the labourer, producing ordinarily sixteen, eighteen, or twenty fold sometimes; their grain is only bear, and some oats; the barley is the largest produced in all the Western Isles; they use no plough but a kind of crooked spade; their harrows are of wood, as are the teeth in the front also, and all the rest supplied only with long tangles of seaware tied to the harrow by the small ends; the roots hanging loose behind, scatter the clods broken by the wooden teeth; this they are forced to use for want of wood. Their arable land is very nicely parted into ten divisions, and these into subdivisions, each division distinguished by the name of some deceased man or woman, who were natives of the place; there is one spot called multa terra, another multus agris. The chief ingredient in their composts is ashes of turf mixed with straw; with these they mix their urine, which by experience they find to have much of the vegetable nitre; they do not preserve it in quantities as elsewhere, but convey it immediately from the fountain to the ashes, which by daily practice they find most advantageous; they join also the bones, wings, and entrails of their sea-fowls to their straw; they sow very thick, and have a proportionable growth; they pluck all their bear by the roots in handfuls, both for the sake of their houses, which they thatch with it, and their cows which they take in during the winter; the corn produced by this compost is perfectly free of any kind of weeds; it produces much sorrel where the compost reaches.

The coast of St. Kilda, and the lesser isles, are plentifully furnished with variety of fishes, as cod, ling, mackarell, congars, braziers, turbat, graylords, sythes; these last two are the same kind, only differing in bigness, some call them black mouths; they are large as any salmon, and somewhat longer; there are also laiths, podloes, herring, and many more; most of these are fished by the inhabitants upon the rock, for they have neither nets nor long lines. Their common bait is the limpets or patellæ, being parboil'd; they use likewise the fowl called by them bowger, its flesh raw, which the fish near the lesser isles catch greedily; sometimes they use the bowger's flesh, and the limpets patellæ at the same time upon one hook, and this proves successful also. In the month of July a considerable quantity of mackarell run themselves ashore, but always with a spring-tide. The amphibia seen here, are the otters and seals; this latter the inhabitants reckon very good meat; there is no sort of trees, no, not the least shrub grows here, nor ever a bee seen at any time.

A LATE VOYAGE TO ST. KILDA CHAPTER II

CHAPTER II. ---- Of the Inferior Isles and Rocks, their Product. Solan Geese, how Killed. A branch of the Oficer's Salary, Staller-house, Pyramids. Policy of the Inhabitants. An Earthquake. A Fountain. The taking away, or leaving the Eggs in the Nests by the Inhabitants, advances or retards the hatching of the Fowls by the space of Eighteen Days, sooner or later. Our progress to Borera. Every Solan Goose catch'd, is presently mark'd on the Foot by the Owner. Of Eddies. Tides. Land and Sea-Fowls, their description, various Properties, Seasons for their coming, and going away; Their Prognosticks of Winds, Storms, Calms, &c. Barren Tribe of Solan Geese. The Solan Geese's Sentinels. Fulmar Oyl, its properties. Eggs, their various Properties and Effects.

LEVINIS, a rock about fourteen paces high, and thirty in circumference, narrower at the top; it stands about half a league to the south-east bay, and is not covered with any kind of earth or grass; it hath a spring of fresh water issuing out at the side; this rock, by an ancient custom, belongs to the galley's crew, but the above-mentioned allowance disposes them to undervalue it. Betwixt the west point of St. Kilda, and the Isle Soa, is the famous rock Stack-donn, i.e. as much, in their language, as a mischievous rock, for it hath prov'd so to some of their number, who perished in attempting to climb it; it is much of the form and height of a steeple; there is a very great dexterity, and it is reckoned no small gallantry to climb this rock, especially that part of it called the Thumb, which is so little, that of all the parts of a man's body, the thumb only can lay hold on it, and that must be only for the space of one minute; during which time his feet have no support, nor any part of his body touch the stone, except the thumb, at which minute he must jump by the help of his thumb, and the agility of his body concurring to raise him higher at the same time, to a sharp point of the rock, which when he has got hold of, puts him above danger, and having a rope about his middle, that he casts down to the boat, by the help of which he carries up as many persons as are designed for fowling at this time; the foreman, or principal climber, has the reward of four fowls bestowed upon him above his proportion; and, perhaps, one might think four thousand too little to compensate so great a danger as this man incurs; he has this advantage by it, that he is recorded among their greatest heroes; as are all the foremen who lead the van in getting up this mischievous rock.

Within pistol-shot from this place is the Isle Soa; a mile and an half in circumference, but contracted narrower toward the top, being a full half mile in difficult ascent all round, most of it bare rock, some parts of it covered with grass, but dangerous to ascend; the landing is also very hazardous, both in regard of the raging sea, and the rock that must be climb'd; yet the inhabitants are accustomed to carry burthens both up it and down, and of this I was once a witness. There is scarce any landing here, except in one place, and that under favour of a west wind and neap-tide; the waves upon the rock discover when it is accessible; if they appear white from St. Kilda, the inhabitants do not so much as offer to launch out their boat, in order to land in Soa, or any other isle or rock, though their lives were at the stake: this little isle is furnished with an excellent spring; the grass, being very sweet, feeds five hundred sheep, each of them having generally two or three lambs at a birth, and every lamb being so fruitful, that it brings forth a lamb before itself is a year old. The same is also observed of lambs in the little isles adjacent to the isles of Harries and North-Uist. The sheep in this isle Soa are never milk'd, which disposes them to be the more prolifick: there are none to catch them but the inhabitants, whom I have seen pursue the sheep nimbly down the steep descent, with as great freedom as if it had been a plain field.

This isle abounds with infinite numbers of fowls, as fulmar, lavy, falk, bowger, &c.

There was a cock-boat some two years ago came from a ship for water, being favoured by a perfect calm; the men discerned an infinite number of eggs upon the rocks, which charm'd them to venture near the place, and at last purchased a competent number of them; so careful was one of the seamen as to put them into his breeches, which he put off on purpose for this use; some of the inhabitants of St. Kilda happened to be in the isle that day; a parcel of them were spectators of this diversion, and were offended at it, being done without their consent, therefore they

devised an expedient, which at once robb'd the sea-men of their eggs and breeches; and 'twas thus; they found a few loose stones in the superficies of the rock, some of which they let fall down perpendicularly above the seamen, the terror of which obliged them quickly to remove, abandoning both breeches and eggs for their safety; and those tarpawlin breeches were no small ornament there, where all wore girded plaids.

The isle Borera lies near half a league from Stack-Ly, to the north-east of it, being in circumference one mile and an half; it feeds about four hundred sheep per annum, and would feed more, did not the solan geese pluck a large share of the grass for their nests.

This isle is very high and all rock, being inaccessible except in a calm, and there is only one place for landing, looking to the south: in the west end of this isle is Stallir-House, which is much larger than that of the female warrior in St. Kilda, but of the same model in all respects; it is all green without like a little hill; the inhabitants there have a tradition that it was built by one Stallir, who was a devout hermit of St. Kilda; and had he travelled the universe he could scarcely have found a more solitary place for a monastick life.

There are about forty stone pyramids in this isle, for drying and preserving their fowls, &c. These little houses are all of loose stones, and seen at some distance; there is also here a very surprizing number of fowls, the grass as well as the rocks filled with them. The solan geese possess it for the most part; they are always masters where-ever they come, and have already banished several species of fowls from this isle.

There was an earthquake here in the year 1686, which lasted but a few minutes; it was very amazing to the poor people, who never felt any such commotion before, or since.

To the west of Borera lies the rock Stack-Narmin, within pistol-shot; this rock is half a mile in circumference, and is as inaccessible as any the above-mentioned; there is a possibility of landing only in two places, and that but in a perfect calm neither, and after landing the danger in climbing it is very great. The rock has not any earth or grass to cover it, and hath a fountain of good water issuing out above the middle of it, which runneth easterly: this rock abounds with solan geese and other fowls; here are several stone pyramids, as well for lodging the inhabitants that attend the seasons of the solan geese, as for those that preserve and dry them and other fowls, &c. The sea rises and rages extraordinarily upon this rock: we had the curiosity, being invited by a fair day, to visit it for pleasure, but it was very hazardous to us; the waves from under our boat rebounding from off the rock, and mounting over our heads wet us all, so that we durst not venture to land, though men with ropes were sent before us; and we thought it hazard great enough to be near this rock; the wind blew fresh, so that we had much difficulty to fetch St. Kilda again; I remember they brought 800 of the preceding year's solan geese dried in their pyramids; after our landing, the geese being cast together in one heap upon the ground, the owners fell to share out each man his own, at which I was a little surprised, they being all of a tribe; but having found upon enquiry that every goose carried a distinguishing mark on the foot, peculiar to the owner, I was then satisfied in this piece of singularity.

There is a violent current, whether ebb or flood, upon all the coasts of St. Kilda, lesser isles and rocks. It is observed to be more impetuous with spring than neap-tides; there are eddies on all the coasts, except at a sharp point where the tides keep their due course; the ebb southerly, and flood northerly.

A s.e. moon causeth high tide; the spring-tides are always at the full and new moon, the two days following they are higher, and from that time decrease until the increase of the moon again, with which it rises gradually till the second after the full moon. This observation the seamen find to hold true betwixt the Mule of Kantyre, and the Farrow Head in Strathnaver.

The land-fowls produced here are hawks extraordinary good, eagles, plovers, crows, wrens, stonechaker, craker, cuckoo; this last being very rarely seen here, and that upon extraordinary occasions, such as the death, of the proprietor Mack-Leod, the steward's death, or the arrival of some notable stranger. I was not able to forbear laughing at this relation, as founded upon no reason but fancy; which I no sooner express'd, than the inhabitants wondred at my incredulity, saying, that all their ancestors for a series of several ages had remarked this observation to prove true, and for a further confirmation, appealed to the present steward,whether he had not known this observation to have been true, both in his own and his father's time, who was also steward before him; and after a particular enquiry upon the whole, he told me, that both in his own and father's life-time the truth of this observation has been constantly believed, and that several of the inhabitants now living have observed the cuckoo to have appeared after the death of the two last proprietors, and the two last stewards, and also before the arrival of strangers several times; it was taken notice of this year before our arrival, which they ascribe to my coming here, as the only stranger; the minister having been there before.

The sea-fowls are, first, Gairfowl, being the stateliest, as well as the largest of all the fowls here, and above the size of a solan goose, of a black colour, red about the eyes, a large white spot under each eye, a long broad bill; stands stately, its whole body erected, its wings short, it flyeth not at all, lays its egg upon the bare rock, which, if taken away, it lays no more for that year; it is palmypes, or whole-footed, and has the hatching spot upon its breast, i.e., a bare spot from which the feathers have fallen off with the heat in hatching; its egg is twice as big as that of a solan goose, and is variously spotted, black, green, and dark; it comes without regard to any wind, appears the first of May, and goes away about the middle of June.

The solan geese are always the surest sign of herrings, for where-ever the one is seen, the other is always not far off. There is a tribe of barren solan geese which have no nests, and sit upon the bare rock; these are not the young fowls of an year old, whose dark colour would soon distinguish them, but old ones, in all things like the rest; these have a province, as it were, allotted to them, and are in a separated state from the others, having a rock two hundred paces distant from all other; neither do they meddle with, or approach to those hatching, or any other fowls; they sympathise and fish together; this being told me by the inhabitants, was afterwards confirmed to me several times by my own observation.

The solan geese have always some of their number that keep centinel in the night-time, and if they are surprized, (as it often happens) all that flock are taken one after another; but if the centinel be awake at the approach of the creeping fowlers, and hear a noise, it cries softly, grog, grog, at which the flock move not; but if this centinel see or hear the fowler approaching, it cries quickly, bir, bir, which would seem to import danger, since immediately after, all the tribe take wing, leaving the fowler empty on the rock, to return home re infecta, all its labour for that night being spent in vain. Here is a large field of diversion for Apollonius Tyanæus, who is said to have travelled many kingdoms over, to learn the language of beasts and birds.

Besides this way of stealing upon them in the night-time, they are also catched in common gins of horse-hair, from which they do struggle less to extricate themselves than any other fowl, notwithstanding their bigness and strength; they are also caught in the herring loches with a board set on purpose to float above water, upon it a herring is fixed, which the goose perceiving, flies up to a competent height, until it finds itself making a strait line above the fish, and then bending its course perpendicularly piercing the air, as an arrow from a bow, hits the board, into which it runs its bill with all its force irrecoverably, where it is unfortunately taken. The solan goose comes about the middle of March with a south-west wind, warm snow, or rain, and goes away, according as the inhabitants determined the time, i.e., the taking away, or leaving its egg, whether at the first, second, or third time it lays.

The fulmar is a sure prognosticator of the west wind; if it comes to land, there is no west wind to be expected for some time, but if it keeps at sea, or goes to sea from the land, whether the wind blow from the south, north, or east, or whether it is a perfect calm, its keeping the sea is always a certain presage of an approaching west wind; from this quarter it is observed to return with its prey; its egg is large as that of a solan goose, white in colour, sharp at one end, somewhat blunt at the other.

The scraber, so called in St. Kilda; in the Farn Islands, puffinet; in Holland, the Greenland dove; its bill small, sharp pointed, a little crooked at the end, and prominent; it is as large as a pigeon, its whole body being black, except a white spot on each wing; its egg grey, sharp at one end, blunt at the other.

It comes in the month of March, and in the nighttime, without regard to any winds; it's always invisible, except in the night, being all day either abroad at fishing, or all the day under ground upon its nest, which it digs very far under ground, from whence it never comes in day-light; it picks its food out of the live whale, with which, they say, it uses sorrel, and both are found in its nest. The young puffin is fat as the young fulmar, and goes away in August if its first egg be spar'd.

The lavy, so called by the inhabitants of St. Kilda; by the Welch, a guillem; it comes near to the bigness of a duck; its head, upper-side of the neck all downwards of a dark brown, and white breast, the bill strait and sharp pointed; the upper chop hangs over the lower; its feet and claws are black

Its egg in bigness is near to that of a goose egg, sharp at one end, and blunt at the other; the colour of it is prettily mix'd with green and black; others of them are of a pale colour, with red and brown streaks; but this last is very rare; this egg for ordinary food is by the inhabitants, and others, preferred above all the eggs had here: This fowl comes with a south-west wind, if fair, the twentieth of February; the time of its going away depends upon the inhabitants taking or leaving its first, second, or third egg: if it stays upon land for the space of three days without intermission, it is a sign of southerly wind and fair weather; but if it goes to sea before the third expire, it is then a sign of a storm.

The bird, by the inhabitants called the falk, the rasor-bill in the West of England, the awk in the North, the murre in Cornwall; alca hoeri. It is a size less than the lavy; its head, neck, back, and tail, are black; the inside to the middle of the throat, white; the throat under the chin of a dusky black; beyond the nostrils in the upper mandible, or jaw there is a furrow deeper than that in the coulter-neb, the upper chop crooked at the end, and hangs over the lower, both having transverse furrows. It lays its egg in May, its young take wing the middle of July, if the inhabitants do not determine its stay longer, by taking the egg; which in bigness is next to the lavy, or guillem egg, and is variously spotted, sharp at one end, and blunt at the other.

The bouger, by those in St. Kilda so called; coulter-neb by those in the Farn Islands; and in Cornwall, pope; it is of the size of a pidgeon, its bill is short, broad, and compressed sidewise, contrary to the bills of ducks, of a triangular figure, and ending in a sharp point, the upper mandible, or jaw, arcuate and crooked at the point; the nostrils are long holes produced by the aperture of the mouth; the bill is of two colours; near the head, of an ash colour, and red towards the point; the feet are yellow, the claws of a dark blue; all the back black, breast and belly white. They breed in holes under ground, and come with a south-west wind about the twenty-second of March, lay their egg the twenty-second of April, and produce the fowl the twenty-second of May, if their first egg be not taken away; it is sharp at one end, and blunt on the other.

The assilag is as large as a lint-white; black bill, wide nostrils at the upper part, crooked at the point like the fulmar's bill: it comes about the twenty-second of March, without any regard to winds, lays its egg about the twentieth of May, and produces the fowl towards the middle of October, then goes away about the end of November.

There are three sorts of sea-malls here, the first of a grey colour, in proportion near to a goose: the second sort of malls are considerably less, and of a grey colour; and the third sort is a white mall, less than a tame duck; the inhabitants call it reddag; it comes the fifteenth of April with a south-west wind, lays its egg about the middle of May, and goes away in the month of August.

The tirma, or sea-pie, by the inhabitants call'd trilichan, comes in May, goes away in August; if it comes the beginning of May, it is a sign of a good summer; if later, the contrary is observed. This fowl is cloven-footed, and consequently swims not.

It is observed of all the sea-fowls here, that they are fatter in time of hatching than at other times, the solan geese excepted.

Every fowl lays an egg three different times (except the gair-fowl and fulmar, which lay but once); if the first or second egg be taken away, every fowl lays but one other egg that year, except the sea-malls, and they ordinarily lay the third egg, whether the first and second eggs be taken away, or no.

The inhabitants observe, that when the April moon goes far in May, the fowls are ten or twelve days later in laying their eggs, than ordinarily they use to be.

The inhabitants likewise say, that of these fowls, there first come over some spies, or harbingers, especially of the solan geese, tow'ring about the islands where their nests are, and that when they have made a review thereof they fly away, and in two or three days after, the whole tribe are seen coming. Whither the fowls fly, and where they spend their winter, the inhabitants are utterly ignorant of.

The eggs are found to be of an astringent and windy quality to strangers, but, it seems, are not so to the inhabitants, who are used to eat them from the nest. Our men upon their arrival eating greedily of them became costive and feverish, some had the hemorrhoid veins swell'd; Mr Campbel and I were at no small trouble before we could reduce them to their ordinary temper; we ordered a glister for them made of the roots of sedges, fresh butter, and salt, which, being administered, had its wished-for effect; the inhabitants reckoned this an extraordinary performance, being, it seems, the first of this kind they ever had occasion to hear of.

They preserve their eggs commonly in their stone pyramids, scattering the burnt ashes of turf under and about them, to defend them from the air, dryness being their only preservative, and moisture their corruption; they preserve them six, seven, or eight months, as abovesaid; and then they become appetizing and loosening, especially those that begin to turn.

That such a great number of wild fowls are so tame, as to be easily taken by the rods and gins, is not to be much admired by any who will be at the pains to consider the reason, which is the great inclination of propagating their species; so powerful is that org or natural affection for their off-spring, that they chuse rather to die upon the egg, or fowl, than escape with their own lives, (which they could do in a minute) and leave either of these to be destroyed.

It deserves our consideration to reflect seriously upon the natural propensity and sagacity of these animals in their kind; which if compared with many rational creatures, do far outstrip them, and justly obey the prescript of their natures, by living up unto that instinct that Providence has given them.

A LATE VOYAGE TO ST. KILDA CHAPTER III

CHAPTER III. ----- Of the Inhabitants. Their Pedigree: Completion: Strength: Diseases: Cures: Plants: Religion: Notion of Spirits. Festivals: Anniversary Cavalcade: Chappels: Crucifix: Lots: Marriage: Baptism. Proprietor: Omer: Cubit: Envoy, his Salary, Entry. Steward's Retinue: His Residence: How far Limited. Tributary Cake. Mutton furnished by the Officer to the Steward every Sunday. Number of the Inhabitants: Their Kiln by turns. The Officer: His Precedence: Notion of Honour: The danger attending his Notion. Dexterity in Climbing. Language. Habit. Burials. Ale, how Brewed. Fowls preserved. A Calculation of the Solan Geese consumed by the Inhabitants last year. Five hundred Stone-Pyramids for several uses. The Inhabitants' Food. Great lovers of Tobacco. Their Boat, how nicely divided. Fire-Penny: Pot-Penny. No Money used here. The Rock-Fowl: How presented by a Lover to his Mistress. The Mistress-Stone. Notions of all Foreign Objects. Divertisements.

THE inhabitants of this isle are originally descended of those of the adjacent isles, Lewis, Harries, South and North Uist, Skiy: both sexes are naturally very grave, of a fair completion; such as are not fair are natives only for an age or two; but their off-spring proves fairer than themselves.

There are several of them would be reckoned among beauties of the first rank, were they upon a level with others in their dress.

Both men and women are well proportioned, nothing differing from those of the isles and continent. The present generation comes short of the last in strength and longevity. They shew'd us huge big stones carried by the fathers of some of the inhabtants now living; any of which is a burthen too heavy for any two of the present inhabitants to raise from the ground; and this change is all within the compass of forty years. But notwithstanding this, any one inhabiting St. Kilda, is always reputed stronger than two of the inhabitants belonging to the Isle of Harries, or the adjacent isles. Those of St. Kilda have generally but very thin beards, and those too do not appear till they arrive at the age of thirty, and in some not till after thirty-five; they have all but a few hairs upon the upper lip, and point of the chin.

Both sexes have a lisp, but more especially the women, neither of the two pronouncing the letters, d, g, or r. I remember a story of a craker that lisped (two years ago), the boys of the place took notice of, and were pleased to hear him, and to ape his cry; one of the steward's men beholding them, enquired the meaning of their noise, which he told them was ridiculous; they return'd answer, that it was worth his while to behold the sport of a lisping craker, whom they aped; but the man replied, that they played the fool, for the craker diverted himself in lisping after them, and charged them with that imperfection; the boys no sooner heard this, but away they ran, and left the craker to cry and lisp as he pleased.

There are some of both sexes who have a genius for poetry, and are great admirers of musick; the trump or Jewish harp is all the musical instrument they have, which disposes them to dance mightily. Their sight is extraordinary good, and they can discern things at a great distance; they have very good memories, and are resolute in their undertakings, chaste and honest, and the men reputed jealous of their wives. They argue closely, and with less passion than other islanders, or those inhabiting the highlands on the continent.

They are reputed very cunning, and there is scarce any circumventing of them in trafffick and bartering; the voice of one is the voice of all the rest, they being all of a piece, their common interest uniting them firmly together. They marry very young, the women at about thirteen or fourteen years of age; and are nice in examining the degrees of consanguinity before they marry. They give suck to their children for the space of two years. The most ancient person among them at present, is not above eighty years of age.

Providence is very favourable to them in this, that they are not infested with several diseases which are so predominant in the other parts of the world; the distemper that most prevails here, is a spotted fever, and that too confin'd to one tribe, to whom this disease is, as it were, become hereditary; others are liable to fluxes, fevers, stitches, the spleen; for all which they have but very few remedies; to get away their stitches, they commonly lie upon a warm hearth, with the side affected downwards; this they look upon to be almost infallible for dispelling the humor, or wind, that torments them. The smallpox hath not been heard of in this place for several ages, except in one instance, of two of the steward's retinue, who not having been well recovered of it, upon their arrival here, infected one man only.

The plants produced here, are lapathum vulgare, the common dock, scurvy-grass round, being large as the palm of the hand, mille-foil, bursa pastoris, silver-weed, or argentine, plantine, sage, chicken-weed; sorrel, long, or the common sorrel; all-hail, or siderites, the sea-pinck, tormentil, the scurf upon the stones, which has a drying and healing quality, and is likewise used for dying. The inhabitants are ignorant of the virtues of these herbs; they never had a potion of physick given them in their lives, nor know any thing of phlebotomy; a physician could not expect his bread in this commonwealth.

They have generally good voices, and sound lungs; to this the solan goose egg supp'd raw doth not a little contribute; they are seldom troubled with a cough, except at the steward's landing; which is no less rare, than firmly believed by the inhabitants of the adjacent isles.

Some thirteen years ago the leprosy broke out among them, and some of their number died by it; there are two families at present labouring under this disease. The symptoms of it are, their feet begin to fail, their appetite declines, their faces become too red, and break out in pimples, they get a hoarseness, and their hair falls off from their heads, the crown of it exculcerates and blisters, and lastly, their beards grow thinner than ordinary.

This disease may in a large measure be ascribed to their gross feeding, and that on those fat fowls, as the fulmar and the solan geese; the latter of which they keep for the space of a whole year, without salt or pepper to preserve them; these they eat roasted or boiled.

One of these lepers, being with me one day at the fulmar-rock, importuned me to give him a remedy for his disease; I began to chide him for his ill diet in feeding so grosly; but finding the poor fellow ready and implicitly disposed to do whatever I should enjoin, I bid him take example from the fulmar, who, they say, feeds sometimes on sorrel; this was a very surprizing advice to him, but when he considered that the fulmar required sorrel to qualify the whale, he was the sooner persuaded that his giben and goose might require the same; I advised him further, to abstain from the giben and fat fowls, which was no small trouble to him, for he loved them exceedingly; I obliged him likewise to mount the hill Conager, a mile in height, once every morning and evening, and he was very careful to comply with those injunctions for the space of three days; in which short time he made some advances towards recovering his almost lost speech and appetite; for his throat was well nigh quite stopp'd up; he continued this practice a week longer, by which means he mended very considerably; and I left him fully resolved to proceed in this practice, until he was perfectly restored to his former state of health. I had the occasion to observe another of these lepers rave for some minutes, and when he was recovered to his right mind, he wrought at his ordinary employment.

The inhabitants are Christians, much of the primitive temper, neither inclined to enthusiasm nor to popery. They swear not the common oaths that prevail in the world; when they refuse or deny to give what is asked of them, they do it with a strong asseveration,which they express emphatically enough in their language to this purpose, You are no more to have it, than that if God had forbid it; and thus they express the highest degree of passion. They do not so much as name the devil once in their lifetimes.

They leave off working after twelve of the clock on Saturday, as being an ancient custom delivered down to them from their ancestors, and go no more to it till Monday morning. They believe in God the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost; and a state of future happiness and misery, and that all events, whether good or bad, are determined by God. They use a set form of prayer at the poising of their sails: they lie down, rise, and begin their labours in the name of God. They have a notion, that spirits are embodied; these they fancy to be locally in rocks, hills, and where-ever they list in an instant.

There are three chappels in this isle, each of them with one end towards the east, the other towards the west; the altar always placed at the east end; the first of these is called Christ Chappel, near the village; it is covered and thatched after the same manner with their houses; there is a brazen crucifix lies upon the altar, not exceeding a foot in length, the body is compleatly done, distended, and having a crown on, all in the crucified posture; they have it in great reverence, though they pay no kind of adoration or worship to it, nor do they either handle or see it, except upon the occasions of marriage, and swearing decisive oaths, which puts an end to all strife, and both these ceremonies are publickly performed. The church-yard is about an hundred paces in circumference, and is fenced in with a little stone wall, within which they bury their dead; they take care to keep the church-yard perfectly clean, void of any kind of nastiness, and their cattel have no access to it. The inhabitants, young and old, come to the church-yard every Sunday morning, the Chappel not being capacious enough to receive them; here they devoutly say the Lord's prayer, Creed, and Ten Commandments.

The inhabitants had occasion to skew great kindness to a boat's crew that was driven from the opposite isle South Uist, whither they themselves were driven afterwards, and where they were treated with no less civility and kindness than the above-mentioned had been by them: so that it may be said of them with great justice, that their charity is as extensive as the occasions of it.

The second of these chappels bears the name of St. Columba, the third of St. Brianan; both built after the manner of Christ's Chappel; having churchyards belonging to them, and they are a quarter of a mile distance betwixt each chappel.

They told me of a ship that dropp'd anchor in the mouth of the bay the preceeding year, and that the Lowlanders aboard her were not Christians; I enquired if their interpreter, who they said spoke bad Irish, had owned this to be a truth, they answered, not; but that they knew this by their practices, and that in these three particulars; the first was the working upon Sunday, carrying several boats full of stones aboard for ballast; the second was the taking away some of their cows without any return for them, except a few Irish copper pieces; and the third was, the attempt made by them to ravish their women, a practice altogether unknown in St. Kilda, where there has not been one instance of fornication or adultery for many ages before this time; I remember they told me, that the bribe offered for debauching the poor women, was a piece of broad money, than which there could be nothing less charming in a place where inhabitants cannot distinguish a guinea from a sixpence.

Their marriages are celebrated after the following manner; when any two of them have agreed to take one another for man and wife, the officer who presides over them, summons all the inhabitants of both sexes to Christ's Chappel, where being assembled, he enquires publickly if there be any lawful impediment why these parties should not be joined in the bond of matrimony? And if there be no objection to the contrary, he then enquires of the parties if they are resolved to live together in weal and woe, etc. After their assent, he declares them married persons, and then desires them to ratify this their solemn promise in the presence of God and the people, in order to which the crucifix is tender'd to them, and both put their right hands upon it, as the ceremony by which they swear fidelity one to another during their lifetime.

Mr. Campbel, the minister, married in this manner fifteen pair of the inhabitants on the seventeenth of June, who immediately after marriage, join'd in a country dance, having only a bagpipe for their musics, which pleased them exceedingly.

They baptize in the following manner; the parent calls in the officer, or any of his neighbours to baptize his child, and another to be sponsor; he that performs the minister's part being told what the child's name is to be, says, A .B. I baptize thee to your father and your mother, in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; then the sponsor takes the child in his arms, as both his wife as godmother, and ever after this there is a friendship between the parent and the sponsor, which is esteemed so sacred and inviolable, that no accident, how cross so-ever, is able to set them at variance; and it reconciles such as have been at enmity formerly.

This isle belongs in property to the Laird of Mack-Leod, head of one of the ancientest families of Scotland; it is never farmed, but mostly commonly bestowed upon some favourite, one of his friends or followers, who is called steward of the isle. The present steward's name is Alexander Mack-Leod, who pays yearly to his master an acknowledgment of the various products of this isle. This steward visits St. Kilda every summer, and upon his arrival he and his retinue have all the milk in the isle bestowed on them in a treat; there is another bestowed on them upon St. Columba's Day, the fifteenth of June; we had a share of this second treat. The steward's retinue consist of forty, fifty, or sixty persons, and among them, perhaps the most meagre in the parish are carried thither to be recruited with good chear; but this retinue is now retrenched, as also some of their ancient and unreasonable exactions.

This officer as such, is obliged to adjust the repective proportions of lands, grass, and rocks, and what else could be claimed by virtue of the last tack, or lease, which is never longer than for three years, condescended to by the steward; nay, he is obliged always to dispute with the steward for what is due to any of them, and never to give over until he has obtained his demand, or put the steward into such a passion, that he gives the officer at least three strokes with his cudgel over the crown of his head; after these three strokes he has done the utmost that is required of him by their ancient customs. I enquired of the officer (who told me this passage) what if the steward give him but one blow over the crown, he answered, that the inhabitants would not be satisfied if he did not so far plead as to irritate the steward to give both a second and a third blow; I had the farther curiosity to enquire of the steward himself if he was wont to treat the officer in this manner; who answered, that it was an ancient custom, which in his short time he had not had occasion to practice, but if he should, he would not confine himself to the number of three blows, if the officer should prove indiscreet.

The steward bestows some acres of land upon the officer for serving him and the inhabitants; he gives him likewise the bonnet worn by himself upon his going out of the island; the steward's wife leaves with the officer's wife the kerch, or head-dress worn by herself, and she bestows likewise upon her an ounce of indigo. The steward has a large cake of barly presented to him by an officer at every meal, and it must be made so large as shall be sufficient to satisfy three men at a time, and by way of eminence it is baked in the form of a triangle, and furrowed twice round; the officer is likewise obliged to furnish the steward with mutton, or beef, to his dinner every Sunday during his residence in the island.

Notwithstanding these reciprocal acts of kindness, this officer must be allowed to go in quality of an envoy to Mack-Leod against the steward, upon extraordinary occasions, if the commonwealth have any grievances to redress, as that of the amir now depending; but the commission given him is limited, the whole boat's crew being joined in commission with him, and are a check upon him, lest his dependance upon the steward might be apt to bias him; he makes his entry very submissively, taking off his bonnet at a great distance when he appears in Mack-Leod's presence, bowing his head and hand low near to the ground, his retinue doing the like behind him one after another, making, as it were, a chain; this being their manner of walking both at home and abroad, for they walk not a-breast as others do; and in making their purchase among the rocks, one leads the van, and the rest follow.

The number of people inhabiting this isle at present, is about one hundred and eighty, who in the steward's absence are governed by one Donald Mack-Gill-Colm, as their Meijre, which imports an officer; this officer was anciently chosen, or at least approved of by the people, before the steward settled him in his office, but now the stewards have the nomination of him absolutely; he is president over them in all their debates, takes care that the lots be managed impartially, that none to whose share they fall may have cause to repine, whether it be for the steward's service, or that of the commonwealths; the use of the lots, together with the crucifix, do mightily contribute to their peace and quiet, keeping every one within his proper bounds. It must needs be a very odd case indeed that falls not within the compass of either of these two to determine; when any case happens which does not fall under the decision of lots, and it is capable of being decided only by the oath of the parties, then the crucifix must determine the matter; and if it should prove to be a case of the highest importance, any of them is at liberty to refer it to his neighbour's oath, without any suspicion of perjury, provided the ceremony of touching the crucifix with their right hand be observed; and this is always publickly performed.

If any man is guilty of beating his neighbour, he is liable to a fine not exceeding the value of two shillings sterling; if any has beat his neighbour so as to draw blood from him; he is liable to a fine, but it must not exceed four shillings and sixpence; these crimes are complained of by the officer to the steward upon his arrival, who either exacts the whole, or dispences with the fines, as he judges convenient for their future quiet and peace.

They have only one common kiln, which serves them all by turns, as the lots fall to their share; he whose lot happens to be last does not resent it at all.

The officer by virtue of his place, is obliged through a point of honour to be the first that lands in the lesser isles and rocks, from whence they carry their fowls and eggs, and not within some trouble too. This notion of honour exposes him to frequent dangers; and, perhaps, it may not be unpleasant to describe it as I have seen it practised; and 'tis thus; when they have come as near to the rock as they think may consist with the safety of the boat, which is not a little tossed by the raging of the sea, those whose turn then it is, are employed with poles to keep off the boat, that is in great danger, in regard of the violence of the waves beating upon the rock, and they are to watch the opportunity of the calmest wave; upon the first appearance of which, the officer jumps out upon the rock; if there be any apparent danger, he ties a rope about his middle, with one end of it fastened to the boat; if he has landed safe, he then fixes his feet in a secure place, and by the assistance of this rope draws up all the crew to him, except those whose turn it is to look after the boat; but if in jumping out he falls into the sea, (as his fortune is so to do sometimes) then he is drawn into the boat again by that part of the rope that is so fastened to it, and the next then whose turn it is must try his fortune, the officer after his fall being supposed to be sufficiently fatigu'd, so that he is not obliged to adventure his person again to a second hazard upon this occasion, especially he being exposed to the greatest danger that offers upon their landing when they return back again to the isle, where the sea often rages, he being obliged then by virtue of his office to stay in the boat, after the whole crew are landed, where he must continue employing his pole, until the boat be either brought safe to land, or else split upon the rocks.

They furnish themselves with ropes to carry them through the more inaccessible rocks; of these ropes there are only three in the whole island, each of them twenty-four fathoms in length; and they are either knit together and lengthned by tying the one to the other, or used separately as occasion requires; the chief thing upon which the strength of these ropes depends, is cows hides salted,and cut out in one long piece, this they twist round the ordinary rope of hemp, which secures it from being cut by the rocks; they join sometimes at the lower end two ropes, one of which they tie about the middle of one climber, and another about the middle of another, that these may assist one another in case of a fall; but the misfortune is, that sometimes the one happens to pull down the other, and so both fall into the sea; but if they escape (as they do commonly of late) they get an incredible number of eggs and fowls.

The ropes belong to the commonwealth, and are not to be used without the general consent of all; the lots determine the time, place, and persons for using them, they get together in three days a much greater number of fowls and eggs than their boat is able to carry away, and therefore what is over and above they leave behind in their stone-pyramids: they catch their fowls with gins made of horse-hair, these are tied to the end of their fishing-rods, with which the fowlers creep through the rocks indiscernably, putting the noose over their heads about their necks, and so draw them instantly; they use likewise hair gins which they set upon plain rocks, both the ends fastened by a stone, and so catch forty or fifty a day with them.

The inhabitants, I must tell you, run no small danger in the quest of the fowls and eggs, insomuch that I fear it would be thought an hyperbole to relate the inaccessibleness, steepness, and height, of those formidable rocks which they venture to climb. I my self have seen some of them climb up the corner of a rock with their backs to it, making use only of their heels and elbows, without any other assistance; and they have this way acquired a dexterity in climbing beyond any I ever yet saw; necessity has made them apply themselves to this, and custom has perfected them in it; so that it is become familiar to them almost from their cradles, the young boys of three years old being to climb the walls of their houses: their frequent discourses of climbing, together with the fatal end of several in the exercise of it, is the same to them, as that of fighting and killing is with soldiers, and so is become as familiar and less formidable to them, than otherwise certainly it would be. I saw two young men, to whose share the lots fell in June last, for taking the nest of a hawk (which was in a high rock above the sea) bringing home the hawks in a few minutes, without any assistance at all.

Their dogs are likewise very dexterous in climbing and bringing out from their holes those fowls which build their nests far under-ground, such as the scraber, puffinet, &c., which they carry in their teeth to their masters, leting them fall upon the ground before them, though asleep.

The inhabitants speak the Irish tongue only; they express themselves slowly but pertinently; and have the same language with those of Harries and other isles, who retain the Irish in its purity.

Their habit anciently was of sheepskins, which has been wore by several of the inhabitants now living; the men at this day wear a short doublet reaching to their waste, about that a double plait of plad, both ends join'd together with the bone of a fulmar; this plad reaches no further than their knees, and is above the haunches girt about with a belt of leather; they wear short caps of the same colour and shape with the capuchins, but shorter; and on Sundays they wear bonnets; some of late have got breeches, and they are wide and open at the knees; they wear cloth stocking and go without shoes in the summer-time; their leather is dress'd with the roots of tormentil.

The women wear upon their heads a linnen dress, strait before, and drawing to a small point behind below the shoulders, a foot and an half in length, and a lock of about sixty hairs hanging down each cheek, reaching to their breasts, the lower end tied with a knot; their plad, which is the upper garment, is fastened upon their breasts with a large round buckle of brass in form of a circle; the buckle anciently worn by the steward's wives were of silver, but the present steward's wife makes no use of either this dress or buckle. The women inhabiting this isle wear no shoes nor stocking in the summer-time; the only and ordinary shoes they wear, are made of the necks of solan geese, which they cut above the eyes, the crown of the head serves for the heel, the whole skin being cut close at the breast, which end being sowed, the foot enter into it, as into a piece of narrow stockin this shoe doth not wear above five days, and if the down side be next the ground, then not above three or four days; but, however, there is plenty of them; some thousands being catch'd, or, as they term it, stolen every March.

Both sexes wear course flannel shirts, which they put off when they go to bed; they thicken their cloaths upon flakes, or mats of hay twisted and woven together in small ropes; they work hard at this employment, first making use of their hands, and at last of their feet; and when they are at this work, they commonly sing all the time, one of their number acting the part of a prime chantress, whom all the rest follow and obey.

They put the faces of their dead towards the east when they bury them, and bewail the death of their relations excessively, and upon those occasions make doleful songs, which they call laments. Upon the news of the late Mack-Leod's death, they abandoned their houses, mourning two days in the field; they kill a cow, or sheep, before the interment, but if it be in the spring, this ceremony then is delayed, because the cattel are at that time poor and lean, but, however, they are to be kill'd as soon as ever they become fat.

Their ordinary food is barly and some oat-bread baked with water; they eat all the fowls, already described, being dried in their stone-houses, without any salt or spice to preserve them; and all their beef and mutton is eaten fresh, after the same manner they use the giben, or fat of their fowls; this giben is by daily experience found to be a sovereign remedy for the healing of green wounds; it cured a cancer in an inhabitant of the isle of Lewis, and a fistula in one Nicholson of Sky, in St. Maries Parish; this was performed by John Mack-Lean, chirurgeon there: they boil the sea-plants, dulse, and slake, melting the giben upon them instead of butter, and upon the roots of silver-weed and dock boiled, and also with their scurvy-grass stoved, which is very purgative, and here it is of an extraordinary breadth. They use this giben with their fish, and it is become the common vehicle that conveys all their food down their throats. They are undone for want of salt, of which as yet they are but little sensible; they use no set times for their meals, but are determined purely by their appetites.

They use only the ashes of sea-ware for salting their cheese, and the shortest (which grows in the rocks) is only used by them, that being reckoned the mildest.

Their drink is water, or whey, commonly: they brew ale but rarely, using the juice of nettle-roots, which they put in a dish with a little barley-meal dough; these sowens (i.e., flummery) being blended together, produce good yest, which puts their wort into a ferment, and makes good ale, so that when they drink plentifully of it, it disposes them to dance merrily.

They preserve the solan geese in their pyramids for the space of a year, flitting them in the back, for they have no salt to keep them with. They have built above five hundred stone pyramids for their fowls, eggs, &c.

We made particular enquiry after the number of solon geese consumed by each family the year before we came here, and it amounted to twenty-two thousand six hundred in the whole island, which they said was less than they ordinarily did, a great many being lost by the badness of the season, and the great current into which they must be thrown when they take them, the rock being of such an extraordinary height that they cannot reach the boat.

There is one boat sixteen cubits long, which serves the whole commonwealth; it is very curiously divided into apartments proportionable to their lands and rocks; every individual has his space distinguished to an hair's breadth, which his neighbour cannot encroach so much as to lay an egg upon it.

Every partner in summer provides a large turf to cover his space of the boat, thereby defending it from the violence of the sun, which (in its meridian height) reflects most vehemently from the sea, and rock, upon which the boat lies; at the drawing of it up, both sexes are employed pulling a long rope at the fore-end; they are determined in uniting their strength, by the cryer, who is therefore excepted from being obliged to draw the boat.

There is but one steel and tinder-box in all this commonwealth; the owner whereof fails not upon every occasion of striking fire in the lesser isles, to go thither, and exact three eggs, or one of the lesser fowls from each man as a reward for his service; this by them is called the fire-penny, and this capitation is very uneasy to them; I bid them try their chrystal with their knives, which when they saw it did strike fire, they were not a little astonished, admiring at the strangeness of the thing, and at the same time accusing their own ignorance, considering the quantity of chrystal growing under the rock of their coast. This discovery has delivered them from the fire-penny tax, and so they are no longer liable to it.

They have likewise a pot-penny tax, which is exacted in the same manner as the fire-penny was, but is much more reasonable; for the pot is carried to the inferior isles for the publick use; and is in hazard of being broken; so that the owners may justly exact upon this score, since any may venture his pot when he pleases. When they have bestowed some hours in fowling about the rocks, and caught a competent number, they sit down near the face of it to refresh themselves, and in the mean time, they single out the fattest of their fowls, plucking them bare, which they carry home to their wives, or mistresses, as a great present, and it is always accepted very kindly from them, and could not otherwise be, without great ingratitude, seeing these men ordinarily expose themselves to very great danger, if not hazard their lives, to procure those presents for them.

In the face of the rock, south from the town, is the famous stone, known by the name of the mistress-stone; it resembles a door exactly; and is in the very front of this rock, which is twenty or thirty fathom perpendicular in height, the figure of it being discernable about the distance of a mile; upon the lintel of this door, every bachelor-wooer is by an ancient custom obliged in honour to give a specimen of his affection for the love of his mistress, and it is thus; he is to stand on his left foot, having the one half of of his sole over the rock, and then he draws the right foot further out to the left, and in this posture bowing, he puts both his fists further out to the right foot; and then after he has performed this, he has acquired no small reputation, being always after it accounted worthy of the finest mistress in the world: they firmly believe that this achievement is always attended with the desired success.

This being the custom of the place, one of the inhabitants very gravely desired me to let him know the time limited by me for trying of this piece of gallantry before I design'd to leave the place, that he might attend me; I told him this performance would have a quite contrary effect upon me, by robbing me both of my life and mistress at the same moment; but he was of a contrary opinion, and insisted on the good fortune attending it; but I must confess all his arguments were too weak to make me attempt the experiment.

They take their measures in going to the lesser islands from the appearance of the Heavens; for when it is clear or cloudy in such a quarter, it is a prognostick of wind or fair weather; and when the waves are high on the east point of the bay, it is an infallible sign of a storm, especially if they appear very white, even though the weather be at that time calm.

If the waves in the bay make a noise as they break before they beat upon the shoar,it is also an infallible forerunner of a west wind; if a black cloud appears above the south side of the bay, a south wind follows some hours afterwards. It is observed of the sea betwixt St. Kilda and the isles Lewis, Harries, &c., that it rages more with a north wind, than when it blows from any other quarter. And it is likewise observed to be less raging with the south wind than any other.

They know the time of the day by the motion of the sun from one hill or rock to another; upon either of these the sun is observed to appear at different times; and when the sun doth not appear, they measure the day by the ebbing and flowing of the sea, which they can tell exactly, though they should not see the shoar for some days together; their knowledge of the tides depends upon the changes of the moon, which they likewise observe, and are very nice in it.

They use for their diversion short clubs and balls of wood; the sand is a fair field for this sport and exercise, in which they take great pleasure and are very nimble at it; they play for some eggs, fowls, hooks, or tobacco; and so eager are they for victory, that they strip themselves to their shirts to obtain it; they use swimming and diving, and are very expert in both.

The women have their assemblies in the middle of the village, where they discourse of their affairs, but in the mean time employing their distaff, and spinning in order to make their blankets; they sing and jest for diversion, and in their way, understand poetry, and makes rhimes in their language. Both men and women are very courteous; as often as they passed by us every day, they saluted us with their ordinary compliment of "God save you "; each of them making their respective courtesies.

Both sexes have a great inclination to novelty; and, perhaps, anything may be thought new with them that is but different from their way of managing land, cattel, fowls, etc. A parcel of them were always attending the minister and me, admiring our habit, behaviour; and, in a word, all that we did or said was wonderful in their esteem; but above all, writing was the most astonishing to them; they cannot conceive how it is possible for any mortal to express the conceptions of his mind in such black characters upon white paper. After they had with admiration argued upon this subject, I told them, that within the compass of two years or less, if they pleased, they might easily be taught to read and write, but they were not of the opinion that either of them could be obtained, at least by them, in an age.

The officer in his embassy in July last, travelled so far as to land on the continent next to Sky, and it was a long journey for a native of St. Kilda so to do, for scarce any of the inhabitants ever had the opportunity of travelling so great a way into the world.

They observed many wonderful things in the course of their travels; but they have a notion that MackLeod's family is equivalent to that of an Imperial Court, and believe the king to be only superior to him: they say his lady wore such a strange Lowland dress, that it was impossible for them to describe it; they admired glass windows hugely, and a looking-glass to them was a prodigy; they were amazed when they saw cloth hangings upon a thick wall of stone and lime, and condemn'd it as a thing very vain and superfluous.

They reckon the year, quarter, and month, as generally is done all Britain over. They compute the several periods of time by the lives of the proprietors and stewards, of whose greatest actions they have a tradition, of which they discourse with as great satisfaction, as any historian reflecting on the Cæsars, or greatest generals in the world.

They account riding one of the greatest pieces of grandeur here upon earth, and told me with a strange admiration, that Mack-Leod did not travel on foot, as they supposed all other men did, and that they had seen several horses kept on purpose by him for riding.

One of their number landing in the isle of Harries, enquired who was the proprietor of those lands? They told him, that it was Mack-Leod, which did not a little raise his opinion of him; this man afterwards, when he was in the isle of Sky, and had travelled some miles there, one day standing upon an eminence, and looking round about him, he fancied he saw a great part of the world, and then enquired to whom those lands did belong, and when one of the company had acquainted him, that Mack-Leod was master of those lands also, the St. Kilda man lifting up his eyes and hands to Heaven, cried out with admiration, "O Mighty Prince, who art Master of such vast territories!" This he express'd so emphatically in the Irish language, that the saying from that time became a proverb whenever any body would express a greatness and plenitude of power.

One of the things they wondered most at, was the growth of trees; they thought the beauty of the leaves and branches admirable, and how they grew to such a height above plants, was far above their conception: one of them marvelling at it, told me, that the trees pulled him back as he travelled through the woods: they resolved once to carry some few of them on their backs to their boats, and so to take them to St. Kilda, but upon second thoughts, the length of the journey, being through the greatest part of the isle of Sky, deterr'd them from this undertaking, for though they excell others in strength, yet they are very bad travellers on foot, they being but little used to it.

One of their number having travelled in the Isle of Sky, to the south part of it, thought this a prodigious journey; and seeing in the opposite continent the shire of Inverness, divided from Sky only by a narrow sea, enquired of the company, if that was the border of England.

One of the St. Kilda men, after he had taken a pretty large dose of aqua-vitæ, and was become very heavy with it, as he was falling into a sleep, and fancying it was to have been his last, express'd to his companions the great satisfaction he had in meeting with such an easy passage out of this world; "for," said he, "it is attended with no kind of pain." In short, their opinion of foreign objects is as remote from the ordinary sentiments of other mankind, as they are themselves from all foreign converse.

I must not omit acquainting the reader, that the account given of the seamens rudeness to the inhabitants, has created great prejudices in them against seamen in general; and though I endeavoured to bring them into some good opinion of them, it will not be, I hope, improper here to deliver the terms upon which the inhabitants are resolved to receive strangers, and no otherwise; they will not admit of any number exceeding ten, and those too must be unarmed, for else the inhabitants will oppose them with all their might; but if any number of them, not exceeding that abovesaid, come peaceably, and with good designs, they may expect water and fire gratis, and what else the place affords, at the easiest rates in the world.

"The inhabitants of St. Kilda, are much happier than the generality of mankind, as being almost the only people in the world who feel the sweetness of true liberty: what the condition of the people in the Golden Age is feign'd by the poets to be, that theirs really is, I mean, in innocency and simplicity, purity, mutual love and cordial friendship, free from solicitous cares, and anxious covetousness; from envy, deceit, and dissimulation; from ambition and pride, and the consequences that attend them. They are altogether ignorant of the vices of foreigners, and governed by the dictates of reason and Christianity, as it was first delivered to them by those heroick souls whose zeal moved them to undergo danger and trouble to plant religion here in one of the remotest corners of the world.

There is this only wanting to make them the happiest people in this habitable globe, viz., that they themselves do not know how happy they are, and how much they are above the avarice and slavery of the rest of mankind. Their way of living makes them condemn gold and silver, as below the dignity of human nature; they live by the munificence of Heaven; and have no designs upon one another, but such as are purely suggested by justice and benevolence."

There being about thirty of the inhabitants one day together in the Isle Soa, they espied a man with a grey coat and plad, in a shirt, floating on the sea upon his belly, and saw likewise a mall pecking at his neck; this vision continued above a quarter of an hour, and then disappeared; but shortly after, one of the spectators chanc'd to fall into the sea, and being drowned, resembled the forewarning vision in all things, and the mall was also seen upon his neck; this was told me by the steward some years before, and afterwards was confirmed to me by such as were themselves eyewitnesses of it.

A Late Voyage To St Kilda Roderick the Impostor

None of the inhabitants pretended to the second sight, except Roderick the Impostor, and one woman, and she told her neighbours that she saw, some weeks before our coming, a boat (different from that of the steward) with some strangers in it, drawing near to their isle.

An Account of one Roderick, supposed to have had Conversation with a Familiar Spirit, and pretending to be sent by St. John the Baptist with New Revelations and Discoveries.

AFTER our landing, the minister and I (according to our first resolution) examined the inhabitants apart by themselves concerning the new pretended religion delivered to them by their false prophet.

All of them, young as well as old, both men and women, unanimously agreed in this following account; they did heartily congratulate the minister's arrival, and at the same time declared their abhorrence of the impostor's delusions, and with repeated instances begg'd for the Lord's sake that he might be for ever removed out of the isle.

This impostor is a comely-well-proportioned fellow, red-hair'd, and exceeding all the inhabitants of St. Kilda in strength, climbing, &c. He is illiterate, and under the same circumstances with his companions, for he had not so much as the advantage of ever seeing any of the Western Isles; all his converse being only with the steward's retinue, who were as ignorant of letters as himself.

In the eighteenth year of his age, he took the liberty of going to fish on a Sunday, (a practice altogether unknown in St. Kilda); and he asserts, that in his return homeward, a man in Lowland dress, i.e., a cloak and hat, appeared to him upon the road; at this unexpected meeting, Roderick falls flat on the ground in great disorder; upon which this man desired him not to be surprized at his presence, for he was John the Baptist immediately come from Heaven with good tidings to the inhabitants of that place, who had been for a long time kept in ignorance and error; that he had commission to instruct Roderick in the laws of Heaven for the edification of his neighbours: Roderick answered, that he was no way qualified for so great a charge; the pretended John Baptist desired him to be of good courage, for he would instantly make him capable for his mission, and then delivered to him the following scheme, in which he so mixed the laudable customs of the church with his own diabolical inventions, that it became impossible for so ignorant a people as they, to distinguish the one from the other.

The first and principal command which he imposed upon them, was that of the Friday's fast, which he enjoined to be observed with such strictness, as not to allow one of them to taste any kind of food before night, no, not so much as a snuff of tobacco, which they love dearly; this bare fast, without any religious exercise attending it, was the first badge and cognizance of his followers. He persuaded the peoples that some of their deceased neighbours were nominated saints in heaven, and advocates for them here who surviv'd; he told, every one had his respective advocate; the anniversary of every saint was to be commemorated by every person under whose tutelage they were reputed to be. And this was observed by treating the neighbours with a liberal entertainment of beef or mutton, fowls, &c., the impostor himself being always the chief guest at the feast; where a share of the entertainment was punctually sent to his wife and children; the number of sheep ordinarily consumed on these occasions, was proportionable to the ability of him that bestowed them.

He imposed likewise several penances which they were obliged to submit to, under the pain of being expelled from the society of his fraternity in worship, which he pretended to be founded upon no less authority than that of St. John the Baptist's, and threatened to inflict the saddest judgments upon those as should prove refractory, and not obey his injunctions.

The ordinary penances he laid upon them, were to make them stand in cold water (without regard to the season, whether frost or otherwise) during his pleasure; and if there were any more of them upon whom this severity was to be inflicted, they were to pour cold water upon one another's heads until they had satisfied his tyrannical humour. This diabolical severity was evidence enough, that he was sent by him who is the father of lies, and was a murtherer from the beginning.

He commanded that every family should slay a sheep upon the threshold of their doors, but a knife must not so much as touch it, he would have them only make use of their crooked spades for their instruments to kill them with; for which, if duly considered, there is nothing more improper, the edge with which he commanded the sheep's neck to be cut being almost half an inch thick. Now this was to be done in the evening, and if either young or old had tasted a bit of the meat of it that night, the equivalent number of sheep were to be slain the following day, after the former manner.

He forbid the use of the Lord's Prayer, Creed, and Ten Commandments, and instead of them prescribed diabolical forms of his own. His prayers and rhapsodical forms were often blended with the names of God, our Blessed Saviour; and the Immaculate Virgin; he used the Irish word, phersichin, i.e. verses, which is not known in St. Kilda, nor in the north-west isles, except to such as can read the Irish tongue. But that which seems to bemost surprising in his obscure prayers was his mentioning of ELI, with the character of our preserver. He used several unintelligible words in his prayers, of which he could not tell the meaning himself; saying only, that he had received them implicitly from St. John Baptist and delivered them before his hearers without any explication.

He taught the women a devout hymn, which he called the Virgin Mary's, as sent from her; this hymn was never delivered in publick, but always in a private house, or some remote place where no eye could see them but that of Heaven; he persuaded the innocent women that it was of such merit and efficacy that any one who was able to repeat it by heart, would not die in child-bearing: and every woman paid a sheep to the impostor for teaching her this hymn.

The place and manner of teaching this hymn afforded him a fair opportunity of debauching the simple women; and this some of their number acknowledged to the minister and me upon examination.

He prescribed to all his auditory, long rhimes, which he called psalms; these he ordinarily sung at his rhapsodical preachments.

He endeavoured to alter the common way of burying, which was by placing the faces of the dead to the east, and would have persuaded them to place them to the south, and that he might prevail the more with them so to do, he placed the bodies of those of his own family who happened to die, facing the south; yet the inhabitants would not follow his example in this, but continued in their former practice.

He persuaded the women, that if in all things they complied with his new revelation, they should be undoubtedly carried to Heaven; and that in their journey thither they were to pass through the firmament riding upon white horses. These and many more ridiculous things he imposed upon the people, of which this is but an abstract.

This unhappy fellow to consecrate his enterprize, pitched upon a little rising spot of ground, which he called John the Baptist's Bush; upon which he said these oracles were delivered by John Baptist to him. And this bush was from that time forward believed to be holy ground, and must not be any further trod upon by any of their cattel, and if by chance one of them happen to touch it, it must be forthwith slain and eaten by Roderick and the owners; and if any proved refractory, and were resolved to spare their cattel a most dreadful combination was issued out against them, of being thence-forward excluded from any further fellowship with him, until they should acknowledge their faults, and comply with his luxurious desires, which to disobey he made them believe was damnable. It was reckoned meritorious if any body had revealed who had transgressed the orders given by him.

This impostor continued for the space of several years, without controul, to delude these poor innocent well-meaning people, until at last his villainous design upon the women was found out, I mean, that he intended to accomplish under the mask of the devout hymn that he taught them, and was first discovered by the officer's wife, who by the impostor was first proselyted to his false doctrines, and after that he would have debauched her from her conjugal fidelity. This woman was so heroically virtuous, as to communicate his lewd design to her husband, who ordered the matter so as to be in another room hard by at the same time he supposed Roderick would be coming; there he stays until this letcher began to caress his wife, and then he thought himself obliged seasonably to appear for her rescue, and boldly reproved the impostor for his wicked practices, which were so widely contrary to his profession, and that upon the whole it appeared he had no true mission.

The impostor was very much surprized at this unexpected and fatal disappointment, which put him into an extream disorder, insomuch that he asked the officer's pardon, acknowledging his crime, and promising never to attempt the like again. The officer continued to upbraid him; telling him to his face, that he was set on by the devil; that innocence and chastity were always the effects of true religion, and that the contrary practices were countenanced by false prophets; and that now they needed no other proof of his being a notorious deceiver: however the impostor being had in great reputation, prevailed with the officer to patch up a friendship with him, who for the continuance of it, condescended to be the impostor's gossip, i.e., sponsor at the baptism of one of his children; of which ceremony there is an account already given: when there is no opportunity of being sponsor to one another, and it is necessary to enter into bonds of friendship at baptism; the inhabitants of the Western Isles, supplied this ceremony by tasting a drop of each other's blood.

Notwithstanding this friendship thus patch'd up between these two, the impostor's miscarriages got air, which administered occasion to the most thinking among them, to doubt very much of his mission; his father, who was reputed a very honest man, told him frequently, that he was a deceiver, and would come to a fatal end. This impostor prophesied that one of the inhabitants (whose name I have forgotten) was to be killed in a battel in the Isle of Harries, within a limited space of time; this poor unthinking man relying so much on one whom he thought an infallible oracle, ventured more desperately on the rock than ever before, fancying he could not fall, but it happened that he tumbled over and was drowned, at which the inhabitants were surprized; however the impostor continued in the exercise of his pretended mission.

One of the inhabitants called Muldonich, alias Lewis, Cousin-German to the impostor, had an ewe which brought forth three lambs at once, they were seen to feed upon the bush pretended to be sacred, but Lewis would not comply with the order for killing the sheep, and had the boldness to aver, that it was an unreasonable piece of worship to destroy so many cattel and deprive the owners of their use, adding withal, that he never heard any such thing practised in any of the Western Isles upon a religious account. The impostor insisted upon the heavenly command, which was to be observed by all his followers, adding the dreadful threatning against such as proved disobedient thereto; but Lewis would by no means be prevailed upon, chusing rather to be excluded from the pretended worship; than to kill his sheep.

The simple people looked for no less than a speedy judgment to befall this recusant, but when nothing ensued upon his disobedience, all of them began to have a less veneration for the impostor than before; nay, some said privately, that they might as well have ventured to run the same risque with Lewis, for the preservation of their cattel.

Notwithstanding all this villainy, the impostor continued to maintain his authority, until one night (for it was always at night that he kept his pretended religious meetings) by a special providence, a boy of the Isle of Harries, called John (who had staid with his father a year in St. Kilda, and was employed in mending of their boat) happened to go into the house where Roderick was preaching after his usual manner; the boy lurked in the dark, and gave his father an account of what he had heard, so far as he could remember; all which the boy's father communicated to the steward upon his arrival, who being highly concerned at the relation given him, carried Roderick along with him to the Isle of Sky before the late MacLeod,who being informed of this fellow's impostures, did forbid him from that time forward to preach any more on pain of death.

This was a great mortification, as well as disappointment to the impostor, who was possessed with a fancy, that Mack-Leod would hear him preach, and expected no less than to persuade him to become one of his proselytes, as he has since confessed.

The impostor asserts, that every night after he had assembled the people, he heard a voice without saying, "Come you out"; which when he heard he had no power to stay within; and that after his going forth, John Baptist did meet him, and instructed him what he should say to the people at that particular meeting. He says, that John the Baptist used only to repeat the discourse to him once, of all which the impostor owns he could scarcely remember one sentence, and therefore he enquired of John the Baptist how he should behave himself in this case; and that John the Baptist returned this answer, "Go, you have it," which the impostor believing, was upon his return able to deliver fluently all that he had heard, and would continue (after this his way of preaching) for several hours together, until he had lull'd most of his hearers asleep.

When the above-mentioned earthquake was over, one of the inhabitants enquired of the impostor with admiration, how the rock was made to tremble? He answered, that it was the effect of pleasant musick played by a devout saint in a church under ground; his neighbour owned his love for musick, but heartily wished never to hear any more of this kind, which carried so great terror along with it.

The impostor owned the truth of all this account, first to the minister and me, and then he did the same publickly after divine service, in the presence of all the inhabitants, and such as were come to that place from the Isle of Harries. The minister and congregation jointly prayed for repentance and pardon to this poor wretch, which when ended, we carried him and all the inhabitants to the bush pretended to be sacred; he himself leading the van, was commanded to raze to the ground a part of that wall which he had ordered to be built round the said bush (which otherwise would in a time have proved such a purgatory, as might have robb'd them of all their goods) which he and the inhabitants did in the space of an hour, we made them scatter the stones up and down in the field, lest their posterity might see such a monument of folly and ignorance. We reproved the credulous people for complying implicitly with such follies and delusions as were delivered to them by the impostor; and all of them with one voice answered, that what they did was unaccountable; but seeing one of their own number and stamp in all respects, endued, as they fancied, with a powerful faculty of preaching so fluently and frequently, and pretending to converse with John the Baptist, they were induc'd to believe his mission from heaven, and therefore complied with his commands without dispute, and the rather, because he did not change their laws of neighborhood.

They do now regret their wand'ring, and hope that God may pardon their error, since what they did was with a design (though a mistaken one) to serve Him.

They are now overjoyed to find themselves undeceived, and the light of the Gospel restored to them, as it was at first delivered to their ancestors by the first Christian monks, who had gone thither to instruct them.

This impostor is a poet, and also endued with that rare faculty of enjoying the second sight, which makes it the more probable that he was haunted by a familiar spirit. It hath been observed of him, before his imposture was discovered, that so often as he was employed by the steward to go to, or return from Harries, they were always exposed to the greatest dangers by violent storms, being at one time driven fifty leagues to the north-east, and by special providence were at last cast upon the little Isle Rona, twenty leagues north-east of Lewis; the steward's wife, and all his crew making their reflections upon these dangers since the discovery of his imposture, could never be prevailed upon to receive him again into their boat. They often entreated Mr. Campbel and me not to admit him into our boat, but we did not yield to these fears, for we received and brought him along with us, and afterwards delivered him to the steward's servants in the Isle of Pabby in Harries, where he remains still in custody in order to his trial.