THIS country is amazingly wild, especially towards the mountains, which are heaped upon the backs of one another, making a moft ftupendous appearance of savage nature, with hardly any figns of cultivation, or even of population. All is fublimity, filence, and folitude. The people live together in glens or bottoms, where they are fheltered from the cold and forms of winter: But there is a margin of plain ground fpread along the fea-fide, which is well inhabited and improved by the arts of husbandry; and this I take to be one of the most agreeable tracts of the whole ifland; the fea not only keeps it warm, and fupplies it with fifh, but affords one of the moft ravishing profpects in the whole world; I mean the appearance of the Hebrides, or Weftern Iflands, to the number of three hundred, scattered as far as the eye can reach, in the most agreeable confufion. As the foil and climate of the Highlands are but ill adapted to the cultivation of corn, the people apply themselves chiefly to the breeding and feeding of black cattle, which turn to good account. Those animals run wild all the winter, without any shelter or fubfiftence, but what they can find among the heath. When the fnow lies fo deep and hard, that they cannot penetrate to the roots of the grafs, they make a diurnal progress, guided by a fure instinct, to the fea-fide at low water, where they feed on the alga marina, and other plants that grow on the beach.

PERHAPS this branch of husbandry, which requires very little attendance and labour, is one of the principal caufes of that idlenefs and want of induftry which diftinguishes thefe mountaineers in their own countryWhen they come forth into the world, they become as diligent and alert as any people upon earth. They are undoubtedly a very diftinct fpecies from their fellowfubjects of the Lowlands, against whom they indulge an ancient fpirit of animofity; and this difference is very difcernible even among perfons of family and education. The Lowlanders are generally cool and circumfpect, the Highlanders fiery and ferocious; but this violence of their paffions ferves only to inflame the zeal of their devotion to ftrangers, which is truly enthufiaftic.

WE proceeded about twenty miles beyond Inverary, to the house of a gentleman, a friend of our conductor, where we ftaid a few days, and were feasted in such a manner, that I began to dread the confequence to my conftitution.

NOTWITHSTANDING the folitude that prevails among thefe mountains, there is no want of people in the Highlands. I am credibly informed, that the Duke of Argyle can affemble five thousand men in arms, of his own clan and furname, which is Campbell; and there is befides a tribe of the fame appellation, whofe chief is the Earl of Breadalbane. The M'Donalds are as numerous, and remarkably warlike: The Camerons, McLeods, Frafers, Grants, M'Kenzies, M Kays, MPherfons, M'Intothes, are powerful clans; fo that, if all the Highlanders, including the inhabitants of the Ifles, were united, they could bring into the field an army of forty thousand fighting men, capable of undertaking the moit dangerous enterprize. We have lived to fee four thou fand of them, without difcipline, throw the whole kingdom of Great Britain into confufion. They attacked and defeated two armies of regular troops accustomed to fervice. They penetrated into the centre of England; and afterwards marched back with deliberation, in the face of two other armies, through an enemy's country, where every precaution was taken to cut off their retreat. I know not any other people in Europe, who, without the ufe or knowledge of arms, will attack regular forces fword in hand, if their chief will head them in battle. When difciplined, they cannot fail of being excellent foldiers. They do not walk like the generality of mankind, but trot and bounce like deer, as if they moved upon fprings. They greatly excel the Lowlanders in all the exercifes that require agility; they are incredibly abftemious, and patient of hunger and fatigue; fo fteeled against the weather, that, in travelling, even when the ground is covered with fnow, they never look for a house, or any other shelter but their plaid, in which they wrap themselves up, and go to fleep under the cope of heaven. Such people, in quality of foldiers, must be invincible, when the bufihefs is to perform quick marches in a difficult country,

to ftrike fudden ftrokes, beat up the enemy's quarters, harafs their cavalry, and perform expeditions without the formality of magazines, baggage, forage, and artillery. The chieftainfhip of the Highlanders is a very dangerous influence operating at the extremity of the island, where the eyes and hands of government cannot be fuppofed to fee and act with precision and vigour. In order to break the force of clanship, administration has always practifed the political maxim, Divide et impera. The legiflature hath not only difarmed thefe mountaineers, but alfo deprived them of their ancient garb, which contributed in a great measure to keep up their military fpirit; and their flavish tenures are all diffolved by act of parliament; fo that they are at prefent as free and independent of their chiefs as the law can make them: But the original attachment ftill remains, and is founded on fomething prior to the feudal fyftem, about which the writers of this age have made fuch a pother, as if it was a new discovery, like the Copernican fyftem. Every peculiarity of policy, cuftom, and even temperament, is affectedly traced to this origin, as if the feudal constitution had not been common to almoft all the natives of Europe. For my part, I expect to fee the use of trunk-hofe and buttered ale afcribed to the influence of the feudal fyftem. The connection between the clans and their chiefs is without all doubt patriarchal. It is founded on hereditary regard and affection, cherished through a long fucceffion of ages. The clan confider the chief as their father, they bear his name, they believe themfelves defcended from his family, and they obey him as their lord, with all the ardour of filial love and veneration; while he, on his part, exerts a paternal authority, commanding, chaftifing, rewarding, protecting, and maintaining them as his own children. If the legiflature would entirely deftroy this connection, it must compel the Highlanders to change their habitation and their names. Even this experiment has been formerly tried without fuccefs-In the reign of James VI. a battle was fought within a few short miles of this place, between two clans, the McGregors and the Colquhouns, in which the latter were defeated: The laird of McGregor made fuch a barbarous ufe of

his victory, that he was forfeited and outlawed by act of parliament: His lands were given to the family of Montrofe, and his clan were obliged to change their name. They obeyed fo far, as to call themselves feverally Campbell, Graham, or Drummond, the furnames of the families of Argyle, Montrofe, and Perth, that they might enjoy the protection of those houses; but they ftill added M'Gregor to their new appellation; and as their chief was deprived of his eftate, they robbed and plundered for his fubfiftence.-Mr Cameron of Lochiel, the chief of that clan, whose father was attainted for having been concerned in the last rebellion, returning from France, in obedience to a proclamation and act of parliament paffed at the beginning of the late war, paid a vifit to his own country, and hired a farm in the neighbourhood of his father's houfe, which had been burnt to the ground. The clan, though ruined and fcattered, no fooner heard of his arrival, than they flocked to him from all quarters, to welcome his return, and in a few days stocked his farm with seven hundred black cattle, which they had faved in the general wreck of their affairs: But their beloved chief, who was a promifing youth, did not live to enjoy the fruits of their fi delity and attachment.

THE most effectual method I know to weaken, and at length destroy this influence, is to employ the commonalty in fuch a manner as to give them a taste of property and independence-In vain the government grants them advantageous leafes on the forfeited eftates, if they have no property to profecute the means of improvement-The fea is an inexhauftible fund of riches; but the fishery cannot be carried on without veffels, cafks, falt, lines, nets, and other tackle. I converfed with a fenfible man of this country, who, from a real fpirit of patriotism, had set up a fishery on the coast, and a manufacture of coarse linen, for the employment of the poor Highlanders. Cod is here in such plenty, that he told me he had feen feven hundred taken on one line, at one haul. It must be obferved, however, that the line was of immenfe length, and had two thoufand hooks, baited with inuffels; but the fish was fo fuperior to the cod caught on the banks of NewfoundVOL. VI. O o

land, that his correfpondent at Lisbon fold them imme diately at his own price, although Lent was juft over when they arrived, and the people might be fuppofed quite cloyed with this kind of diet.-His linen manufacture was likewife in a profperous way; when, the late war intervening, all his beft hands were preffed into the fervice.

IT cannot be expected, that the gentlemen of this country fhould execute commercial fchemes to render their vaffals independent; nor indeed are fuch schemes fuited to their way of life and inclination: But a company of merchants might, with proper management, turn to good account a fishery established in this part of Scotland-Our people have a ftrange itch to colonize America, when the uncultivated parts of our own island might be fettled to greater advantage.

AFTER having rambled through the mountains and glens of Argyle, we vifited the adjacent islands of Ifla, Jura, Mull, and Icolmkill. In the firft, we faw the remains of a caftle, built in a lake, where McDonald, Lord or King of the Ifles, formerly refided. Jura is famous for having given birth to one M'Crain, who lived one hundred and eighty years in one house, and died in the reign of Charles the Second.. Mull affords feveral bays, where there is fafe anchorage; in one of which, the Florida, a fhip of the Spanish armada, was blown up by one of Mr Smollet's ancestors. About forty years ago, John Duke of Argyle is faid to have confulted the Spanish registers, by which it appeared that this fhip had the military cheft on board-He employed experienced divers to examine the wreck, and they found the hull of the veffel ftill entire, but fo covered with fand, that they could not make their way between decks; however, they picked up feveral pieces of plate that were fcattered about in the bay, and a couple of fine brafs

cannon.

ICOL MKILL, or Iona, is a fmall ifland which St Columba chofe for his habitation-It was refpected for its fanctity, and college or feminary of ecclefiaftics-Part of its church is ftill ftanding, with the tombs of feveral Scottish, Irifh, and Danifh fovereigns, who were here interred.-Thefe iflanders are very bold and dex