Whether Macneil
Detained Col, When The Widow Was Dead, Or Whether She Lived So Long
As To Make Her Heirs Impatient, Is Perhaps Not Now Known.
The
younger son, called John Gerves, or John the Giant, a man of great
strength who was then in Ireland, either for safety, or for
education, dreamed of recovering his inheritance; and getting some
adventurers together, which, in those unsettled times, was not hard
to do, invaded Col.
He was driven away, but was not discouraged,
and collecting new followers, in three years came again with fifty
men. In his way he stopped at Artorinish in Morvern, where his
uncle was prisoner to Macleod, and was then with his enemies in a
tent. Maclean took with him only one servant, whom he ordered to
stay at the outside; and where he should see the tent pressed
outwards, to strike with his dirk, it being the intention of
Maclean, as any man provoked him, to lay hands upon him, and push
him back. He entered the tent alone, with his Lochabar-axe in his
hand, and struck such terror into the whole assembly, that they
dismissed his uncle.
When he landed at Col, he saw the sentinel, who kept watch towards
the sea, running off to Grissipol, to give Macneil, who was there
with a hundred and twenty men, an account of the invasion. He told
Macgill, one of his followers, that if he intercepted that
dangerous intelligence, by catching the courier, he would give him
certain lands in Mull. Upon this promise, Macgill pursued the
messenger, and either killed, or stopped him; and his posterity,
till very lately, held the lands in Mull.
The alarm being thus prevented, he came unexpectedly upon Macneil.
Chiefs were in those days never wholly unprovided for an enemy. A
fight ensued, in which one of their followers is said to have given
an extraordinary proof of activity, by bounding backwards over the
brook of Grissipol. Macneil being killed, and many of his clan
destroyed, Maclean took possession of the Island, which the
Macneils attempted to conquer by another invasion, but were
defeated and repulsed.
Maclean, in his turn, invaded the estate of the Macneils, took the
castle of Brecacig, and conquered the Isle of Barra, which he held
for seven years, and then restored it to the heirs.
CASTLE OF COL
From Grissipol, Mr. Maclean conducted us to his father's seat; a
neat new house, erected near the old castle, I think, by the last
proprietor. Here we were allowed to take our station, and lived
very commodiously, while we waited for moderate weather and a fair
wind, which we did not so soon obtain, but we had time to get some
information of the present state of Col, partly by inquiry, and
partly by occasional excursions.
Col is computed to be thirteen miles in length, and three in
breadth. Both the ends are the property of the Duke of Argyle, but
the middle belongs to Maclean, who is called Col, as the only
Laird.
Col is not properly rocky; it is rather one continued rock, of a
surface much diversified with protuberances, and covered with a
thin layer of earth, which is often broken, and discovers the
stone. Such a soil is not for plants that strike deep roots; and
perhaps in the whole Island nothing has ever yet grown to the
height of a table. The uncultivated parts are clothed with heath,
among which industry has interspersed spots of grass and corn; but
no attempt has yet been made to raise a tree. Young Col, who has a
very laudable desire of improving his patrimony, purposes some time
to plant an orchard; which, if it be sheltered by a wall, may
perhaps succeed. He has introduced the culture of turnips, of
which he has a field, where the whole work was performed by his own
hand. His intention is to provide food for his cattle in the
winter. This innovation was considered by Mr. Macsweyn as the idle
project of a young head, heated with English fancies; but he has
now found that turnips will really grow, and that hungry sheep and
cows will really eat them.
By such acquisitions as these, the Hebrides may in time rise above
their annual distress. Wherever heath will grow, there is reason
to think something better may draw nourishment; and by trying the
production of other places, plants will be found suitable to every
soil.
Col has many lochs, some of which have trouts and eels, and others
have never yet been stocked; another proof of the negligence of the
Islanders, who might take fish in the inland waters, when they
cannot go to sea.
Their quadrupeds are horses, cows, sheep, and goats. They have
neither deer, hares, nor rabbits. They have no vermin, except
rats, which have been lately brought thither by sea, as to other
places; and are free from serpents, frogs, and toads.
The harvest in Col, and in Lewis, is ripe sooner than in Sky; and
the winter in Col is never cold, but very tempestuous. I know not
that I ever heard the wind so loud in any other place; and Mr.
Boswell observed, that its noise was all its own, for there were no
trees to increase it.
Noise is not the worst effect of the tempests; for they have thrown
the sand from the shore over a considerable part of the land; and
it is said still to encroach and destroy more and more pasture; but
I am not of opinion, that by any surveys or landmarks, its limits
have been ever fixed, or its progression ascertained. If one man
has confidence enough to say, that it advances, nobody can bring
any proof to support him in denying it. The reason why it is not
spread to a greater extent, seems to be, that the wind and rain
come almost together, and that it is made close and heavy by the
wet before the storms can put it in motion.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 42 of 56
Words from 41774 to 42781
of 56696
