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.
