Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

302 NORTH RONA.
Our departure was taken from Cape Rath, and, longf
before evening-, we had run the prescribed course ; but
no islands appeared. It was evident that the tables were
incorrect : as we had kept an accurate reckoning. We
stood, therefore, further to the north-west; but, after
running some miles, and no land still appearing, we were
obliged to heave to for the night. It seemed not a little
extraordinary, that within a few miles of the continent
of Britain, we had as much difficulty in finding two
islands which must have been visible ten miles off, as if
we had been exploring the seas of another hemisphere.
We had looked for them, " come vecchio sartor fa nella
cruna," in vain.
It is very likely that North Rona, and not Mann, was
the island which was covered with a perpetual mist, so
that no navigators could discover it; and that, probably,
is the reason why the gentlemen who construct maps and
charts to drown confiding sailors, and the parallel gen-
tlemen who calculate latitudes and longitudes, could not
find its place. Toland, indeed, who is such unquestion-
able authority, says, absolutely, that Mann was the island
in question, and that the Enchanter was Mannanan, its
King, who lived and reigned, and mistified his own king-
dom, five centuries before Christ, and Mr. Toland's
brain seventeen centuries after. Besides, he was son of
King Lear ; not Shakspeare's King Lear, but the god of
the sea; or of Alladius, (for the herald's office and Mr*
Toland doubt,) and was, furthermore, as great a naviga-
tor as Jason, and as sapient a lawyer as Tribonian. Others
indeed say that " Mona, long hid from those who sail the
main," was obfuscated by a Mermaid, in revenge of the
slights of a lover. But a caliginous obnubilation adum-
brates this intenebrated subject. If Collins and Toland
do not agree, as little can we unfog the narrations of that
great and incredulous historian, Procopius, and of that