ever we roved, we were pleased to see the reverence with which his fubjects regarded him. He did not endeavour to dazzle them by any magnificence of dress: his only diftinction was a feather in his bonnet; but as foon as he appeared, they forfook their work and clustered about him: he took them by the hand, and they feemed mutually delighted. He has the proper difpofition of a Chieftain, and feems defirous to continue the cuftoms of his house. The bagpiper played regularly, when dinner was ferved, whofe person and dress made a good appearance; and he brought no difgrace upon the family of Rankin, which has long fupplied the Lairds of Col with hereditary mufick.

The tacksmen of Col feem to live with less dignity and convenience than thofe of Sky; where they had good houses, and tables not only plentiful, but delicate.. In Col only two houfes pay the window tax; for only two have fix windows, which, I fuppofe, are the Laird's and Mr Macfweyn's.

The rents have, till within feven years, been paid in kind, but the tenants finding that cattle and corn varied in their price, defired for the future to give their landlord money; which, not having yet arrived at the philofophy of commerce, they confider as being every year of the fame value.

nure.

We were told of a particular mode of underteThe Tackfman admits fome of his inferior -neighbours to the cultivation of his grounds, on condition

condition that performing all the work, and giving a third part of the feed, they fhall keep a certain number of cows, theep, and goats, and reap a third part of the harveft. Thus by lefs than the tillage of two acres they pay the rent of one.

There are tenants below the rank of Tackfmen, that have got smaller tenants under them; for in every place, where money is not the general equivalent, there must be some whose labour is immediately paid by daily food.

A country that has no money, is by no means convenient for beggars, both because fuch countries are commonly poor, and becaufe charity requires fome trouble and fome thought. A penny is eafily given upon the first impulfe of compaffion, or impatience of importunity; but few will deliberately fearch their cupboards or their granaries to find out fomething to give. A penny is likewise easily fpent; but victuals, if they are unprepared, require houfe-room, and fire, and utenfils, which the beggar knows not where to find.

Yet beggars there fometimes are, who wander from ifland to Ifland. We had, in our paffage to Mull, the company of a woman and her child, who had exhausted the charity. of Col. The arrival of a beggar on an Island is accounted a sinistrous event. Every body confiders that he shall have the lefs for what he gives away. Their alms, I believe, is generally oat-meal.

Near to Col is another Ifland called Tireye, emi

nent

nent for its fertility. Though it has but half the extent of Rum, it fo well peopled, that there have appeared, not long ago, nine hundred and fourteen at a funeral. The plenty of this ifland enticed beggars to it, who feemed fo burdenfome to the inhabitants, that a formal compact was drawn up, by which they obliged themselves to grant no more relief to cafual wanderers, because they had among them an indigent woman of high birth, whom they confidered as entitled to all that they could fpare. I have read the ftipulation, which was indited with juridical formality, but was never made valid by regular fubfcription.

If the inhabitants of Col have nothing to give, it is not that they are oppreffed by their landlord their leafes feem to be very profitable. One farmer, who pays only feven pounds a year, has main-tained feven daughters and three fons, of whom the eldest is educated at Aberdeen for the miniftry; and now, at every vacation, opens a school in Col.

Life is here, in fome refpects, improved beyond the condition of fome other Islands. In Sky what is wanted can only be bought, as the arrival of fome wandering pedlar may afford an opportunity; but in Col there is a ftanding fhop, and in Mull there are two. A fhop in the Iflands, as in other places of little frequentation, is a repofitory. of every thing requifite for common use. Mr Bofwell's journal was filled, and he bought fome pa

per

per in Col. To a man that ranges the streets of London, where he is tempted to contrive wants for the pleasure of fupplying them, a fhop affords no image worthy, of attention; but in an Island, it turns the balance of existence between good and. evil. To live in perpetual want of little things, is a ftate not indeed of torture, but of constant vexa-tion. I have in Sky had fome difficulty to find ink for a letter; and if a woman breaks her needle, the work is at a stop.

As it is,, the Iflanders are obliged to content themselves with fuccedaneous means for many common purposes. I have feen the chief man of a very wide district riding with a halter for a bridle, and governing his hobby with a wooden curb.

The people of Col, however, do not want dexterity to fupply, fome of their neceflities. Several arts which make trades, and demand apprenticefhips in great cities, are here the practices of daily economy. In every house candles are made, both moulded and dipped. Their wicks are small shreds of linen cloth. They all know how to extract. from the Cuddy, oil for their lamps. They all tan skins, and make brogues.

As we travelled through Sky, we faw many cota tages, but they very frequently stood fingle on the naked ground. In Col, where the hills opened a place convenient for habitation, we found a petty village, of which every hut had a little garden adjoining; thus they made an appearance of focial com

merce and mutual offices, and of fome attention to convenience and future fupply. There is not in the Western Ilands any collection of buildings that can make pretenfions to be called a town, except in the Ifle of Lewis, which I have not feen.

If Lewis is diftinguished by a town, Col has also fomething peculiar. The young Laird has attempted what no islander perhaps ever thought on. He has begun a road capable of a wheel-carriage. He has carried it about a mile, and will continue it by annual elongation from his houfe to the har Bour..

Of taxes here is no reafon for complaining; they are paid by a very eafy compofition. The malttax for Col is twenty fhillings. Whisky is very plentiful: there are feveral ftills in the Ifland, and more is made than the inhabitants confume.

The great bufinefs of infular policy is now to keep the people in their own country. As the world has been let in upon them, they have heard? of happier climates, and lefs arbitrary government ;; and if they are difgufted, have emiffaries among them ready to offer them land and houses, as a reward for deferting their Chief and clan.. Many have departed both from the main of Scotland, and from the Iflands; and all that go may be confidered as: fubjects loft to the British crown; for a nation fcattered in the boundlefs regions of America, refembles rays diverging from a focus. All the rays remain, but the heat is gone. Their power confifted