d
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 a