Macleod landed upon Egg, and demanded the offenders; but
the inhabitants refusing to surrender them, retreated to a cavern,
into which they thought their enemies unlikely to follow them.
Macleod choked them with smoke, and left them lying dead by
families as they stood.
Here the violence of the weather confined us for some time, not at
all to our discontent or inconvenience. We would indeed very
willingly have visited the Islands, which might be seen from the
house scattered in the sea, and I was particularly desirous to have
viewed Isay; but the storms did not permit us to launch a boat, and
we were condemned to listen in idleness to the wind, except when we
were better engaged by listening to the ladies.
We had here more wind than waves, and suffered the severity of a
tempest, without enjoying its magnificence. The sea being broken
by the multitude of islands, does not roar with so much noise, nor
beat the shore with such foamy violence, as I have remarked on the
coast of Sussex. Though, while I was in the Hebrides, the wind was
extremely turbulent, I never saw very high billows.
The country about Dunvegan is rough and barren. There are no
trees, except in the orchard, which is a low sheltered spot
surrounded with a wall.
