thought upon interrogating themfelves; fo that if they do not know what they tell to be true, they likewise do not diftinctly perceive it to be false.

Mr. Bofwell was very diligent in his enquiries; and the refult of his investigations was, that the answer to the fecond question was commonly fuch as nullified the answer to the firft.

We were a while told, that they had an old translation of the fcriptures; and told it till it would appear obftinacy to enquire again. Yet by continued accumulation of queftions we found, that the translation meant, if any meaning there were, was nothing else than the Irish Bible.

We heard of manufcripts that were, or that had been, in the hands of fomebody's father, or grandfather; but at laft we had no reason to believe they were other than Irish. Martin mentions Irish, bút never any Earfe manufcripts, to be found in the islands in his time.

I fuppofe my opinion of the poems of Offian is already discovered. I believe they never exifted in any other form than that which we have feen. The editor, or author, never could fhew the original; nor can it be fhewn by any other; to revenge reasonable incredulity, by refufing evidence, is a degree of infolence, with which the world is not yet acquainted; and stubborn audacity is the laft refuge of guilt. It would be easy to fhew it if he had it; but whence. could it be had? It is too long to be remembered, and the language formerly had nothing written. He has doubtlefs inferted names that circulate in popular ftories, and may have tranflated fome wandering 哈 ballads,

ballads, if any can be found; and the names, and fome of the images, being recollected, make an inaccurate auditor imagine, by the help of Caledonian bigotry, that he has formerly heard the whole.

I asked a very learned minister in Sky, who had ufed all arts to make me believe the genuineness of the book, whether at last he believed it himself? but he would not answer. He wifhed me to be deceived, for the honour of his country; but would not directly and formally deceive me. Yet has this man's teftimony been publickly produced, as of one that held Fingal to be the work of Offian.

It is faid, that fome men of integrity profefs to have heard parts of it, but they all heard them when they were boys; and it was never faid that any of them could recite fix lines. They remember names, and perhaps fome proverbial fentiments; and having no diftinct ideas, coin a resemblance without an original. The perfuafion of the Scots, however, is far from univerfal; and in a queftion fo capable of proof, why fhould doubt be fuffered to continue? The editor has been heard to fay, that part of the poem was received by him, in the Saxon character. He has then found, by fome peculiar fortune, an unwritten language, written in a character which the natives probably never beheld.

I have yet fuppofed no imposture but in the publisher; yet I am far from certainty, that fome tranflations have not been lately made, that may now be obtruded as parts of the original work. Credulity on one part is a ftrong temptation to deceit on the other, efpecially to deceit of which no perfonal injury is

the confequence, and which flatters the author with his own ingenuity. The Scots have fomething to plead for their easy reception of an improbable fiction: they are feduced by their fondness for their supposed ancestors. A Scotchman must be a very sturdy moralift, who does not love Scotland better than truth; he will always love it better than enquiry: and if falsehood flatters his vanity, will not be very diligent to detect it. Neither ought the English to be much influenced by Scotch authority; for of the paft and prefent ftate of the whole Earfe nation, the Lowlanders are at least as ignorant as ourselves. To be ignorant is painful; but it is dangerous to quiet our uneafinefs by the delufive opiate of hafty perfuafion.

But this is the age in which those who could not read, have been supposed to write; in which the giants of antiquated romance have been exhibited as realities. If we know little of the ancient Highlanders, let us not fill the vacuity with Offian. If we have not fearched the Magellanick regions, let us however forbear to people them with Patagons.

Having waited fome days at Armidel, we were flattered at last with a wind that promised to convey us to Mull. We went on board a boat that was taking in kelp, and left the ifle of Sky behind us. We were doomed to experience, like others, the danger of trufting to the wind, which blew against us, in a fhort time, with fuch violence, that we, being no feasoned failors, were willing to call it a tempeft. I was feafick, and lay down. Mr. Bofwell kept the deck. The mafter knew not well whither to go; and our difficulties might perhaps have filled a very pathetick

page,

rage, had not Mr. Maclean of Col, who, with every other qualification which infular life requires, is a very active and skilful mariner, piloted us fafe into his own harbour.

COL.

In the morning we found ourfelves under the inle of Col, where we landed; and paffed the firft day and night with captain Maclean, a gentleman who has lived fome time in the East Indies, but having dethroned no Nabob, is not too rich to settle in his own country.

Next day the wind was fair, and we might have had an eafy paffage to Mull; but having, contrarily to our own intention, landed upon a new island, we would not leave it wholly unexamined. We therefore fuffered the veffel to depart without us, and trufted the skies for an other wind.

Mr. Maclean of Col, having a very numerous family, has, for fome time past, refided at Aberdeen, that he may fuperintend their education, and leaves the young gentleman, our friend, to govern his dominions, with the full power of a Highland chief. By the abfence of the laird's family, our entertainment was made more difficult, becaufe the houfe was in a great degree dif furnished; but young Col's kindness and activity supplied all defects, and procured us more than fufficient accommodation.

Here I first mounted a little Highland fteed; and if there had been many fpectators, fhould have been fomewhat ashamed of my figure in the march. The horfes of the islands, as of other barren countries,

are very low: they are indeed mufculous and strong, beyond what their size gives reason for expecting; but a bulky man upon one of their backs makes a very disproportionate appearance.

From the habitation of captain Maclean we went to Griffipol, but called by the way on Mr. Hector Maclean, the minifter of Col, whom we found in a hut, that is, a houfe of only one floor, but with windows and chimney, and not inelegantly furnished. Mr. Maclean has the reputation of great learning: he is feventy-feven years old, but not infirm, with a look of venerable dignity excelling what I remember in any other man.

His converfation was not unfuitable to his appearance. I loft fome of his good-will, by treating a he retical writer with more regard than, in his opinion, a heretick could deferve. I honoured his orthodoxy, and did not much cenfure his afperity. A man who has fettled his opinions, does not love to have the tran quillity of his conviction disturbed; and at seventyfeven it is time to be in earnest,

Mention was made of the Earfe tranflation of the New Testament, which has been lately published, and of which the learned Mr. Macqueen of Sky spoke with commendation; but Mr. Maclean faid, he did not use it, because he could make the text more intelligible to his auditors by an extemporary verfion. From this I inferred, that the language of the tranflation was not the language of the ifle of Col.

He has no publick edifice for the exercise of his miniftry; and can officiate to no greater number than a room can contain; and the room of a hut is not very large. This is all the opportunity of wor、