He upbraided
Hugh, both with disloyalty and ingratitude; but told the rest, that
he considered them as men deluded and misinformed. Hugh was sworn
to fidelity, and dismissed with his companions; but he was not
generous enough to be reclaimed by lenity; and finding no longer
any countenance among the gentlemen, endeavoured to execute the
same design by meaner hands. In this practice he was detected,
taken to Macdonald's castle, and imprisoned in the dungeon. When
he was hungry, they let down a plentiful meal of salted meat; and
when, after his repast, he called for drink, conveyed to him a
covered cup, which, when he lifted the lid, he found empty. From
that time they visited him no more, but left him to perish in
solitude and darkness.
We were then told of a cavern by the sea-side, remarkable for the
powerful reverberation of sounds. After dinner we took a boat, to
explore this curious cavity. The boatmen, who seemed to be of a
rank above that of common drudges, inquired who the strangers were,
and being told we came one from Scotland, and the other from
England, asked if the Englishman could recount a long genealogy.
What answer was given them, the conversation being in Erse, I was
not much inclined to examine.
They expected no good event of the voyage; for one of them declared
that he heard the cry of an English ghost. This omen I was not
told till after our return, and therefore cannot claim the dignity
of despising it.
The sea was smooth. We never left the shore, and came without any
disaster to the cavern, which we found rugged and misshapen, about
one hundred and eighty feet long, thirty wide in the broadest part,
and in the loftiest, as we guessed, about thirty high. It was now
dry, but at high water the sea rises in it near six feet. Here I
saw what I had never seen before, limpets and mussels in their
natural state. But, as a new testimony to the veracity of common
fame, here was no echo to be heard.
We then walked through a natural arch in the rock, which might have
pleased us by its novelty, had the stones, which incumbered our
feet, given us leisure to consider it. We were shown the gummy
seed of the kelp, that fastens itself to a stone, from which it
grows into a strong stalk.
In our return, we found a little boy upon the point of rock,
catching with his angle, a supper for the family. We rowed up to
him, and borrowed his rod, with which Mr. Boswell caught a cuddy.
The cuddy is a fish of which I know not the philosophical name. It
is not much bigger than a gudgeon, but is of great use in these
Islands, as it affords the lower people both food, and oil for
their lamps.
