Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

NORTH RONA. 315
the usual supplies from Lewis were interrupted for a
twelvemonth, so that all the people died. If true, there
is somewhat of the pathetic in this tale of Martin's, where
he says that the Steward of St. Kilda, having been driven
here by stress of weather, found, among- other matters,
a woman lying dead with a dead child at her breast.
Another colony, however, it is said, was sent afterwards;
so that, possibly, my friend Kenneth's story may refer to
this latter empire, and his credit will thus remain un-
impeached.
This tenant is, properly speaking, a cottar, as he cul-
tivates the farm on his employer's account. There seemed
to have been six or seven acres cultivated this year, in
barley, oats, and potatoes ; but the grain was now housed.
The soil is good, and the produce appeared to have been
abundant. The family is permitted to consume as much
as they please ; and it was stated that the average sur-
plus, paid to the tacksman, amounted to eight bolls of
barley. In addition to that, he was bound to find an
annual supply of eight stone of feathers ; the produce of
the gannets. Besides all this, the island maintained fifty
small sheep. The wool of these was, of course, reserved
for the tacksman ;
but, as far as we could discover, Ken-
neth was as unrestricted in the use of mutton as in that
of grain and potatoes. Whether within his charter or not,
we neither asked nor cared ;
but he made no scruple of
selling us a sheep, nor did we any where procure better
mutton : not often any so good. There was not much
danger to the tacksman, of his transgressing materially
in these dealings ; as, excepting one or two visits from
the boats of the Fortunee, while employed in cruising
after the President in 1812, we understood that he had,
for seven years, seen no human beings but ourselves and
the people of his employer. Twice in the year, that part