e cliffs are
particularly fine. To the south, separated by a strait that is fordable
at low water, lies the isle of ORONSAY, 2-1/4 m. long by 2-3/4 m. wide. Both
islands contain a number of ecclesiastical remains, standing stones, and
some beautiful sculptured crosses. They are named after Columba and
Oran, who are said to have stopped here after they left Ireland. There
is regular communication between Scalasaig and Glasgow and the Clyde
ports. The golf-course at Kilchattan lends a touch of modernity to these
remote islands. Near Scalasaig a granite obelisk has been erected to the
memory of Sir Duncan M'Neill (1794-1874), a distinguished Scottish
lawyer, who took the title of Lord Colonsay when he became a lord of
appeal. The soil of both islands is fertile, potatoes and barley being
raised and cattle pastured. Population: Colonsay (1901), 301; Oronsay
(1901), 12.

COLONY (Lat. _colonia_, from _colonus_, a cultivator), a term most
commonly used to denote a settlement of the subjects of a sovereign
state in lands beyond its boundaries, owning no allegiance to any
foreign power, and retaining a greater or less degree of dependence on
the mother country. The founding and the growth of such communities
furnish matter for an interesting chapter in the history as well of
ancient as of modern civilization; and the regulation of the relations
between the parent state and its dependencies abroad gives rise to
important problems alike in national policy and in international
economics.

It was mainly the spirit of commercial enterprise that led the
Phoenicians to plant their colonies upon the islands and along the
southern coast of the Mediterranean; and even beyond the Pillars of
Hercules this earliest great colonizing race left enduring traces of its
maritime supremacy. Carthage, indeed, chief of the Phoenician
settlements, sent forth colonies to defend her conquests and strengthen
her military power; and these sub-colonies naturally remained in strict
subjection to her power, whereas the other young Phoenician states
assumed and asserted entire independence.

In this latter respect the Greek colonies resembled those of the
Phoenicians. From a very early period the little civic communities of
Greece had sent forth numerous colonizing streams. At points so far
asunder as the Tauric Chersonese, Cyrene and Massilia were found
prosperous centres of Greek commercial energy; but the regions most
thickly peopled by settlers