To leave Col in October was not very
easy. We however found a sloop which lay on the coast to carry
kelp; and for a price which we thought levied upon our necessities,
the master agreed to carry us to Mull, whence we might readily pass
back to Scotland.
MULL
As we were to catch the first favourable breath, we spent the night
not very elegantly nor pleasantly in the vessel, and were landed
next day at Tobor Morar, a port in Mull, which appears to an
unexperienced eye formed for the security of ships; for its mouth
is closed by a small island, which admits them through narrow
channels into a bason sufficiently capacious. They are indeed safe
from the sea, but there is a hollow between the mountains, through
which the wind issues from the land with very mischievous violence.
There was no danger while we were there, and we found several other
vessels at anchor; so that the port had a very commercial
appearance.
The young Laird of Col, who had determined not to let us lose his
company, while there was any difficulty remaining, came over with
us. His influence soon appeared; for he procured us horses, and
conducted us to the house of Doctor Maclean, where we found very
kind entertainment, and very pleasing conversation. Miss Maclean,
who was born, and had been bred at Glasgow, having removed with her
father to Mull, added to other qualifications, a great knowledge of
the Earse language, which she had not learned in her childhood, but
gained by study, and was the only interpreter of Earse poetry that
I could ever find.
The Isle of Mull is perhaps in extent the third of the Hebrides.
It is not broken by waters, nor shot into promontories, but is a
solid and compact mass, of breadth nearly equal to its length. Of
the dimensions of the larger Islands, there is no knowledge
approaching to exactness. I am willing to estimate it as
containing about three hundred square miles.
Mull had suffered like Sky by the black winter of seventy-one, in
which, contrary to all experience, a continued frost detained the
snow eight weeks upon the ground. Against a calamity never known,
no provision had been made, and the people could only pine in
helpless misery. One tenant was mentioned, whose cattle perished
to the value of three hundred pounds; a loss which probably more
than the life of man is necessary to repair. In countries like
these, the descriptions of famine become intelligible. Where by
vigorous and artful cultivation of a soil naturally fertile, there
is commonly a superfluous growth both of grain and grass; where the
fields are crowded with cattle; and where every hand is able to
attract wealth from a distance, by making something that promotes
ease, or gratifies vanity, a dear year produces only a comparative
want, which is rather seen than felt, and which terminates commonly
in no worse effect, than that of condemning the lower orders of the
community to sacrifice a little luxury to convenience, or at most a
little convenience to necessity.
But where the climate is unkind, and the ground penurious, so that
the most fruitful years will produce only enough to maintain
themselves; where life unimproved, and unadorned, fades into
something little more than naked existence, and every one is busy
for himself, without any arts by which the pleasure of others may
be increased; if to the daily burden of distress any additional
weight be added, nothing remains but to despair and die. In Mull
the disappointment of a harvest, or a murrain among the cattle,
cuts off the regular provision; and they who have no manufactures
can purchase no part of the superfluities of other countries. The
consequence of a bad season is here not scarcity, but emptiness;
and they whose plenty, was barely a supply of natural and present
need, when that slender stock fails, must perish with hunger.
All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better
countries, he may learn to improve his own, and if fortune carries
him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.
Mr. Boswell's curiosity strongly impelled him to survey Iona, or
Icolmkil, which was to the early ages the great school of Theology,
and is supposed to have been the place of sepulture for the ancient
kings. I, though less eager, did not oppose him.
That we might perform this expedition, it was necessary to traverse
a great part of Mull. We passed a day at Dr. Maclean's, and could
have been well contented to stay longer. But Col provided us
horses, and we pursued our journey. This was a day of
inconvenience, for the country is very rough, and my horse was but
little. We travelled many hours through a tract, black and barren,
in which, however, there were the reliques of humanity; for we
found a ruined chapel in our way.
It is natural, in traversing this gloom of desolation, to inquire,
whether something may not be done to give nature a more cheerful
face, and whether those hills and moors that afford heath cannot
with a little care and labour bear something better? The first
thought that occurs is to cover them with trees, for that in many
of these naked regions trees will grow, is evident, because stumps
and roots are yet remaining; and the speculatist hastily proceeds
to censure that negligence and laziness that has omitted for so
long a time so easy an improvement.
To drop seeds into the ground, and attend their growth, requires
little labour and no skill. He who remembers that all the woods,
by which the wants of man have been supplied from the Deluge till
now, were self-sown, will not easily be persuaded to think all the
art and preparation necessary, which the Georgick writers prescribe
to planters.
