dreffes himself in a cow's hide, upon which other men beat with sticks. He runs with all this noise round the house, which all the company quits in a counterfeited fright: the door is then hut. At Newyear's eve there is no great pleasure to be had out of doors in the Hebrides. They are fure foon to recover. from their terrour enough to folicit for re-admiffion; which, for the honour of poetry, is not to be obtained but by repeating a verse, with which those that are knowing and provident take care to be furnished.

Very near the houfe of Maclean ftands the castle of Col, which was the manfion of the laird, till the house was built. It is built upon a rock, as Mr. Bofwell remarked, that it might not be mined. It is very strong, and having been not long uninhabited, is yet in repair. On the wall was, not long ago, a stone with an infcription, importing, that if any man of the clan of Maclonich shall appear before this castle, though he come at midnight, with a man's head in his hand, he shall there find fafety and protection against all but the king.

This is an old Highland treaty, made upon a very memorable occafion. Maclean, the fon of John Gerves, who recovered Col, and conquered Barra, had obtained, it is said, from James the Second, a grant of the lands of Lochiel, forfeited, I fuppofe, by fome offence against the state.

Forfeited eftates were not in thofe days quietly refigned; Maclean, therefore, went with an armed force to feize his new poffeffions, and, I know not for what reafon, took his wife with him. The Camerons role in defence of their chief, and a battle

was

was fought at the head of Loch Ness, near the place where Fort Auguftus now ftands, in which Lochiel obtained the victory, and Maclean, with his followers, was defeated and destroyed.

The lady fell into the hands of the conquerors, and being found pregnant, was placed in the custody of Maclonich, one of a tribe or family branched from Cameron, with orders, if fhe brought a boy, to destroy him, if a girl, to spare her.

Maclonich's wife, who was with child likewife, had a girl about the same time at which lady Maclean brought a boy; and Maclonich, with more generofity to his captive, than fidelity to his truft, contrived that the children fhould be changed.

Maclean being thus preferved from death, in time recovered his original patrimony; and in gratitude to his friend, made his caftle a place of refuge to any of the clan that should think himfelf in danger; and as a proof of reciprocal confidence, Maclean took upon himself and his pofterity the care of educating the heir of Maclonich.

This story, like all other traditions of the Highlands, is variously related; but though fome circumftances are uncertain, the principal fact is true. Maclean undoubtedly owed his preservation to Maclonich; for the treaty between the two families has been strictly obferved: it did not fink into difufe and oblivion, but continued in its full force while the chieftains retained their power. I have read a demand of protection, made not more than thirty-feven years ago, for one of the Maclonichs, named Ewen Cameron, who had been acceffory to the death of Macmartin, and had been

banished

banished by Lochiel, his lord, for a certain term; at the expiration of which he returned married from France; but the Macmartins, not fatisfied with the punishment, when he attempted to fettle, ftill threatened him with vengeance. He therefore asked, and obtained, shelter in the ifle of Col.

The power of protection fubfifts no longer; but what the law permits is yet continued, and Maclean of Col now educates the heir of Maclonich.

There ftill remains in the islands, though it is paffing fast away, the custom of fosterage. A laird, a man of wealth and eminence, fends his child, either male or female, to a tackfman, or tenant, to be foftered. It is not always his own tenant, but fome diftant friend, that obtains this honour; for an honour fuch a truft is very reasonably thought. The terms of fofterage feem to vary in different islands. In Mull, the father fends with his child a certain number of cows, to which the fame number is added by the fofterer. The father appropriates a proportionable extent of ground, without rent, for their pafturage. If every cow brings a calf, half belongs to the fofterer, and half to the child; but if there be only one calf between two cows, it is the child's, and when the child returns to the parents, it is accompanied by all the cows given, both by the father and by the fofterer, with half of the increase of the stock by propagation. These beafts are confidered as a portion, and called Macalive cattle, of which the father has the produce, but is fuppofed not to have the full property, but to owe the fame number to the child, as a portion to the daughter, or a ftock for the fon.

Children

Children continue with the fofterer perhaps fix years, and cannot, where this is the practice, be confidered as burdenfome. The fofterer, if he gives four cows, receives likewife four, and has, while the child continues with him, grafs for eight without rent, with half the calves, and all the milk, for which he pays only four cows when he difmiffes his dalt, for that is the name for a foftered child.

Fofterage is, I believe, fometimes performed upon more liberal terms. Our friend, the young laird of Col, was foftered by Macfweyn of Griffipol. Macfweyn then lived a tenant to Sir James Macdonald in the isle of Sky; and therefore Col, whether he fent him cattle or not, could grant him no land. The dalt, however, at his return, brought back a confiderable number of Macalive cattle, and of the friendship fo formed there have been good effects. When Macdonald raised his rents, Macfweyn was, like other tenants, difcontented, and, refigning his farm, removed from Sky to Col, and was established at Griffipol.

Thefe obfervations we made by favour of the contrary wind that drove us to Col, an ifland not often vifited; for there is not much to amufe curiofity, or to attract avarice.

The ground has been hitherto, I believe, ufed chiefly for pafturage. In a diftrict, fuch as the eye can command, there is a general herdsman, who knows all the cattle of the neighbourhood, and whofe ftation is upon a hill, from which he furveys the lower grounds; and if one man's cattle invade another's grafs, drives them back to their own borders. But other means of profit begin to be found; kelp is gathered and

burnt,

burnt, and floops are loaded with the concreted afhes. Cultivation is likely to be improved by the skill and encouragement of the prefent heir, and the inhabitants of thofe obfcure vallies will partake of the general progrefs of life.

The rents of the parts which belong to the duke of Argyle, have been raised from fifty-five to one hundred and five pounds, whether from the land or the fea I cannot tell. The bounties of the fea have lately been fo great, that a farm in Southuift has rifen in ten from a rent of thirty pounds to one hundred and

years

eighty.

He who lives in Col, and finds himfelf condemned to folitary meals, and incommunicable reflection, will find the usefulness of that middle order of tacksmen, which fome who applaud their own wifdom are withing to deftroy. Without intelligence, man is not focial, he is only gregarious; and little intelligence will there be, where all are conftrained to daily labour, and every mind muft wait upon the hand.

After having liftened for fome days to the tempeft, and wandered about the island till our curiofity was fatisfied, we began to think about our departure. To leave Col in October was not very eafy. We however found a floop which lay on the coaft to carry kelp; and for a price which we thought levied upon our neceffities, the mafter agreed to carry us to Mull, whence we might readily pafs back to Scotland,

MUL L.

As we were to catch the first favourable breath, we spent the night not very elegantly nor pleasantly