In the morning we found ourselves under the Isle of Col, where we landed;
and passed the first day and night with Captain Maclean, a gentleman who
has lived some time in the East Indies; but having dethroned no Nabob, is
not too rich to settle in own country.
Next day the wind was fair, and we might have had an easy passage to
Mull; but having, contrarily to our own intention, landed upon a new
Island, we would not leave it wholly unexamined. We therefore suffered
the vessel to depart without us, and trusted the skies for another wind.
Mr. Maclean of Col, having a very numerous family, has, for some time
past, resided at Aberdeen, that he may superintend their education, and
leaves the young gentleman, our friend, to govern his dominions, with the
full power of a Highland Chief. By the absence of the Laird's family,
our entertainment was made more difficult, because the house was in a
great degree disfurnished; but young Col's kindness and activity supplied
all defects, and procured us more than sufficient accommodation.
Here I first mounted a little Highland steed; and if there had been many
spectators, should have been somewhat ashamed of my figure in the march.
The horses of the Islands, as of other barren countries, are very low:
they are indeed musculous 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 Grissipol, but called
by the way on Mr. Hector Maclean, the Minister of Col, whom we found in a
hut, that is, a house of only one floor, but with windows and chimney,
and not inelegantly furnished. Mr. Maclean has the reputation of great
learning: he is seventy-seven years old, but not infirm, with a look of
venerable dignity, excelling what I remember in any other man.
His conversation was not unsuitable to his appearance. I lost some of
his good-will, by treating a heretical writer with more regard than, in
his opinion, a heretick could deserve. I honoured his orthodoxy, and did
not much censure his asperity. A man who has settled his opinions, does
not love to have the tranquillity of his conviction disturbed; and at
seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.
Mention was made of the Earse translation of the New Testament, which has
been lately published, and of which the learned Mr. Macqueen of Sky spoke
with commendation; but Mr. Maclean said he did not use it, because he
could make the text more intelligible to his auditors by an extemporary
version. From this I inferred, that the language of the translation was
not the language of the Isle of Col.
He has no publick edifice for the exercise of his ministry; 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 worship that is
now granted to the inhabitants of the Island, some of whom must travel
thither perhaps ten miles. Two chapels were erected by their ancestors,
of which I saw the skeletons, which now stand faithful witnesses of the
triumph of the Reformation.
The want of churches is not the only impediment to piety: there is
likewise a want of Ministers. A parish often contains more Islands than
one; and each Island can have the Minister only in its own turn. At
Raasa they had, I think, a right to service only every third Sunday. All
the provision made by the present ecclesiastical constitution, for the
inhabitants of about a hundred square miles, is a prayer and sermon in a
little room, once in three weeks: and even this parsimonious distribution
is at the mercy of the weather; and in those Islands where the Minister
does not reside, it is impossible to tell how many weeks or months may
pass without any publick exercise of religion.