They certainly
were never put into their present places by human strength or
skill; and though an earthquake might have broken off the lower
stone, and rolled it into the valley, no account can be given of
the other, which lies on the hill, unless, which I forgot to
examine, there be still near it some higher rock, from which it
might be torn. All nations have a tradition, that their earliest
ancestors were giants, and these stones are said to have been
thrown up and down by a giant and his mistress. There are so many
more important things, of which human knowledge can give no
account, that it may be forgiven us, if we speculate no longer on
two stones in Col.
This Island is very populous. About nine-and-twenty years ago, the
fencible men of Col were reckoned one hundred and forty, which is
the sixth of eight hundred and forty; and probably some contrived
to be left out of the list. The Minister told us, that a few years
ago the inhabitants were eight hundred, between the ages of seven
and of seventy. Round numbers are seldom exact. But in this case
the authority is good, and the errour likely to be little. If to
the eight hundred be added what the laws of computation require,
they will be increased to at least a thousand; and if the
dimensions of the country have been accurately related, every mile
maintains more than twenty-five.
This proportion of habitation is greater than the appearance of the
country seems to admit; for wherever the eye wanders, it sees much
waste and little cultivation. I am more inclined to extend the
land, of which no measure has ever been taken, than to diminish the
people, who have been really numbered. Let it be supposed, that a
computed mile contains a mile and a half, as was commonly found
true in the mensuration of the English roads, and we shall then
allot nearly twelve to a mile, which agrees much better with ocular
observation.
Here, as in Sky, and other Islands, are the Laird, the Tacksmen,
and the under tenants.
Mr. Maclean, the Laird, has very extensive possessions, being
proprietor, not only of far the greater part of Col, but of the
extensive Island of Rum, and a very considerable territory in Mull.
Rum is one of the larger Islands, almost square, and therefore of
great capacity in proportion to its sides. By the usual method of
estimating computed extent, it may contain more than a hundred and
twenty square miles.
It originally belonged to Clanronald, and was purchased by Col;
who, in some dispute about the bargain, made Clanronald prisoner,
and kept him nine months in confinement. Its owner represents it
as mountainous, rugged, and barren. In the hills there are red
deer. The horses are very small, but of a breed eminent for
beauty. Col, not long ago, bought one of them from a tenant; who
told him, that as he was of a shape uncommonly elegant, he could
not sell him but at a high price; and that whoever had him should
pay a guinea and a half.
There are said to be in Barra a race of horses yet smaller, of
which the highest is not above thirty-six inches.
The rent of Rum is not great. Mr. Maclean declared, that he should
be very rich, if he could set his land at two-pence halfpenny an
acre. The inhabitants are fifty-eight families, who continued
Papists for some time after the Laird became a Protestant. Their
adherence to their old religion was strengthened by the countenance
of the Laird's sister, a zealous Romanist, till one Sunday, as they
were going to mass under the conduct of their patroness, Maclean
met them on the way, gave one of them a blow on the head with a
yellow stick, I suppose a cane, for which the Earse had no name,
and drove them to the kirk, from which they have never since
departed. Since the use of this method of conversion, the
inhabitants of Egg and Canna, who continue Papists, call the
Protestantism of Rum, the religion of the Yellow Stick.
The only Popish Islands are Egg and Canna. Egg is the principal
Island of a parish, in which, though he has no congregation, the
Protestant Minister resides. I have heard of nothing curious in
it, but the cave in which a former generation of the Islanders were
smothered by Macleod.
If we had travelled with more leisure, it had not been fit to have
neglected the Popish Islands. Popery is favourable to ceremony;
and among ignorant nations, ceremony is the only preservative of
tradition. Since protestantism was extended to the savage parts of
Scotland, it has perhaps been one of the chief labours of the
Ministers to abolish stated observances, because they continued the
remembrance of the former religion. We therefore who came to hear
old traditions, and see antiquated manners, should probably have
found them amongst the Papists.
Canna, the other Popish Island, belongs to Clanronald. It is said
not to comprise more than twelve miles of land, and yet maintains
as many inhabitants as Rum.
We were at Col under the protection of the young Laird, without any
of the distresses, which Mr. Pennant, in a fit of simple credulity,
seems to think almost worthy of an elegy by Ossian. Wherever we
roved, we were pleased to see the reverence with which his subjects
regarded him. He did not endeavour to dazzle them by any
magnificence of dress:
