whose luxuries or honours he had no pretensions. But the end of this
reverence and submission seems now approaching; the highlanders have
learned, that there are countries less bleak and barren than their own,
where, instead of working for the laird, every man will till his own
ground, and eat the produce of his own labour. Great numbers have been
induced, by this discovery, to go, every year, for some time past, to
America. Macdonald and Macleod, of Skie, have lost many tenants and many
labourers; but Raarsa has not yet been forsaken by a single inhabitant.

Rona is yet more rocky and barren than Raarsa, and, though it contains,
perhaps, four thousand acres, is possessed only by a herd of cattle and
the keepers.

I find myself not very able to walk upon the mountains, but one day I
went out to see the walls, yet standing, of an ancient chapel. In almost
every island the superstitious votaries of the Romish church erected
places of worship, in which the drones of convents, or cathedrals,
performed the holy offices; but, by the active zeal of protestant
devotion, almost all of them have sunk into ruin. The chapel at Raarsa
is now only considered as the burying-place of the family, and, I
suppose, of the whole island.

We would now have gone away, and left room for others to enjoy the
pleasures of this little court; but the wind detained us till the 12th,
when, though it was Sunday, we thought it proper to snatch the
opportunity of a calm day. Raarsa accompanied us in his six-oared boat,
which, he said, was his coach and six. It is, indeed, the vehicle in
which the ladies take the air, and pay their visits, but they have taken
very little care for accommodations. There is no way, in or out of the
boat, for a woman, but by being carried; and in the boat thus dignified
with a pompous name, there is no seat, but an occasional bundle of
straw. Thus we left Raarsa; the seat of plenty, civility, and
cheerfulness.

We dined at a publick house at Port Re; so called, because one of the
Scottish kings landed there, in a progress through the western isles.
Raarsa paid the reckoning privately. We then got on horseback, and, by a
short, but very tedious journey, came to Kingsburgh, at which the same
king lodged, after he landed. Here I had the honour of saluting the
far-famed Miss Flora Macdonald, who conducted the prince, dressed as her
maid, through the English forces, from the island of Lewes; and, when
she came to Skie, dined