The place and manner of teaching this hymn afforded him a fair opportunity of debauching many of the fimple women; and this fome of their number acknowledged to the minister and me upon examination.

He prescribed to all his auditory long rhymes, which he called pfalms; these he ordinarily fung at his rhapfodical preachments.

He endeavoured to alter the common way of burying, viz. in placing the faces of the dead to the eaft, and would have perfuaded them to place them to the fouth, and that he might prevail the more with them fo to do, he fet the bodies of those of his own family who happened to die in that pofition: but the inhabitants would never follow his example in this, but continued their former practice.

He perfuaded the women, that if in all things they complied with his new revelation, they should be undoubtedly carried to heaven, and that in their journey thither they were to pass through the firmament riding upon white horfes. Thefe and many more fuch whims he impofed upon the people, of which this is a short abstract.

This unhappy fellow, to confecrate his enterprize, pitched upon a little rifing spot of ground, which he called John the Baptift's Bufh, upon which he faid these oracles were delivered to him. This bufh was from that time forward believed to be holy ground, and must not be trod upon by any of their cattle; if by chance one of them happen to touch it, it was forthwith to be flain and eaten by Roderick and the owners; and if any proved refractory, and were refolved to spare their cattle, a most dreadful commination was iffued out against them, of being thenceforward excluded from any further fellowship with him, until they should acknowledge their faults, and comply with his luxurious defires, which to disobey he made them believe was damnable. It was reckoned meri torious for any body to reveal those who had tranfgreffed the orders given by him.

This impoftor continued for feveral years without controul, to delude these innocent well-meaning people, until at last his villainous defign upon the women was found out, which he intended to accomplish under the mask of the devout hymn he taught them, and was first discovered by the officer's wife, who the impoftor first made a profelyte of to his falfe doctrines, and after that would have debauched her from her conjugal fidelity. This woman was fo heroically virtuous, as to communicate his lewd defign to her hufband, who ordered the matter fo as to be in a room hard by at the time he supposed Roderick would be coming, where he continued till this letcher began to carefs his wife, and then he thought himself obliged seasonably to appear to her rescue, and boldly reproved the impoftor for his wicked practices, which were fo widely contrary to his profeffion, and that upon the whole it appeared he had no true mission.

The impottor was very much furprised at this unexpected and fatal disappointment,. which put him into an extreme disorder, infomuch that he asked the officer's pardon, acknowledged his crime, and promised never to attempt the like again. The officer continued to upbraid him, telling him he was inftigated by the devil; that innocence and chastity were always the effects of true religion, and that the contrary practices were countenanced only by falfe prophets; and that now no other proof was wanting of his being a notorious deceiver: however the impoftor s great reputation prevailed with the officer to patch up a friendship, for the continuance of which he condefcended to be Roderick's fponfor at the baptism of one of his children; of which ceremony an account has been given when there is no opportunity of being fpontor to each other, and it is thought neceffary to enter into bonds of friendship at baptifm, the inhabitants of the western ifles fupply this ceremony by tafting a drop of each other's blood.

Notwithstanding the friendship thus patched up between the officer and Roderick,. the latter's mifcarriages got air, which administered occafion to the most thinking among. them

them to doubt much of his miffion; his father, who was reputed a very honeft man, told him frequently that he was a deceiver, and would come to a fatal end. For this im poftor once prophefied that one of the inhabitants (whofe name I have heard) fhould be killed in a battle, to be fought in the ifle of Harries, within a limited fpace of time; the unthinking man relying on this infallible oracle, ventured more defperately on the rock than ufual, fancying he could not fall, but it fo happened that he tumbled over and was drowned, at which the inhabitants were a good deal alarmed; but the impoftor ftill continued in the exercife of his pretended million.

One of the inhabitants called Muldonich, alias Lewis, coufin-german to this man, had a ewe which brought forth three lambs at one time, which were feen feeding upon the facred bush, but Lewis refused to comply with the order for killing the fheep, and had the boldnefs to aver that it was an unreafonable piece of worship to destroy fo many cattle, and deprive the owners of their property, adding withal, that he never heard any fuch thing practifed in any of the western ifles upon a religious account. The impoftor infifted that the heavenly command was to be observed by all his followers, adding the dreadful threatening against fuch as proved difobedient; but Lewis nevertheless remained obftinate, chufing to be excluded from fuch worthip rather than kill his fheep. The filly people expected no lefs than a speedy judgment to befall this recufant; but when nothing enfued upon his difobedience, they all began to have a lefs veneration for the impoftor than before; and began to think within themfelves that they might as well have ventured to run the fame rifque with Lewis for the prefervation of their cattle. Notwithstanding this notorious villainy, the impoftor continued to maintain his authority, till one night (for it was always at night that he kept his religious meetings), by a special providence, a boy of the ifle of Harries, (who had staid with his father a year in St. Kilda, and was employed in mending their boat) happened to go into the house where Roderick was preaching; the boy lurked in the dark, and gave his father an account of what he had heard, at least fo far as he could remember; which the boy's father communicated to the steward upon his arrival, who being highly concerned at the relation given him, carried Roderick along with him to the ifle of Skie before the late Mack-Leod, who forbid him from that time forward to preach any more, on pain of death.

This was a fenfible mortification, as well as difappointment to the impoftor, who had flattered himself that Mack-Leod would hear him preach, and expected no less than to perfuade him to become a profelyte, as he has fince confeffed.

This fellow afferts, that every night after he had affembled the people, he heard a voice without faying, "Come you out;" which when he heard, he had no power to ftay within; and that after his going forth, John the Baptist always met him, and inftructed him what he fhould fay to the people at that particular meeting. He fays, that St. John used to repeat the difcourfe to him only once, which he owns he could fcarcely remember one fentence of, and therefore he enquired of the faint how to behave himself in this cafe; that the answer was, "Go, you have it;" which the impoftor believing, was upon his return able to deliver fluently all he had heard, and would continue, after his own way, for feveral hours together, to preach until he had lulled most of his hearers to fleep.

When the earthquake before-mentioned was over, one of the inhabitants enquired of him with admiration how the rock was made to tremble? he anfwered, that it was the effect of pleasant mufick played by a devout faint in a church under ground: his neighbour owned his love for mufick, but heartily wifhed never to hear any more of this kind, which carried fo great terror along with it.

The

The impoftor owned the truth of all this account, first to the minister and me, and then publicly after divine fervice, in the prefence of all the inhabitants, and fuch as were come to that place from the ifle of Harries. The minifter and congregation jointly prayed for repentance and pardon to this poor wretch, which when ended, we carried him and all the inhabitants to the bufh pretended to be facred; he himself, leading the van, was commanded to demolish that wall which he had ordered to be built round the faid bufh (which otherwife would in a fhort time have proved a purgatory, to have robbed them of all their goods), which he and the inhabitants did in the Ipace of an hour; we made them fcatter the ftones up and down in the field, left their pofterity might fee fuch a monument of folly and ignorance. We reproved the credulous people for complying implicitly with fuch follies and delufions as were delivered to them by the impoftor; and all of them with one voice answered, that what they did was unaccountable; but feeing one of their own number and ftamp in all refpects, endued, as they fancied, with a powerful faculty of preaching fo fluently and frequently, and pretending to converfe with John the Baptift, they were induced to believe his miffion from heaven, and therefore complied with his commands without difpute, and the rather, as he did not attempt to change their laws of neighbourhood.

They now regret their wandering, and hope that God may pardon their error, as what they did was with a defign (though a mistaken one) to ferve him.

They are now overjoyed to find themselves undeceived, and the light of the gospel reftored to them, as it was at firft delivered to their ancestors by the first Christian monks, who had gone thither to instruct them.

This impoftor is a poet, and alfo endued with that rare faculty of enjoying the fecond fight, which makes it the more probable that he was haunted by a familiar fpirit. It hath been obferved of him, before his impofture was difcovered, that fo often as he was employed by the steward to go to, or return from, Harries, they were always exposed to the greatest dangers by violent ftorms, being at one time driven fifty leagues to the north-eaft, and by fpecial providence were at laft caft upon the little ifle Rona, twenty leagues north-east of Lewis: the fteward's wife, and all his crew reflecting upon these dangers fince the discovery of his impofture, could never be prevailed upon to receive him again into their boat. They often intreated Mr. Campbell and me not to admit him into our boat, but we did not yield to these fears, for we received and brought him along with us, and afterwards delivered him to the steward's fervants in the ifle of Pabby in Harries, where he remains ftill in cuftody in order to his trial.

VOL. III.

5 A

AN

AN ACCOUNT OF HIRTA AND RONA.

GIVEN TO SIR ROBERT SIBBALD BY THE LORD REGISTER SIR GEORGE M‘KENZIE, OF TARBAT,

Hirta.

HE ifland of Hirta, of all the ifles about Scotland, lieth furthest out into the fea, is very mountainous, and not acceffible but by climbing. it is incredible what number of fowls frequent the rocks there; fo far as one can fee the fea is covered with them, and when they rife they darken the fky, they are fo numerous; they are ordinarily catched this way: a man lies upon his back with a long pole in his hand, and knocketh them down as they fly over him. There be many forts of these fowls; fome of them of strange fhapes, among which there is one they call the gare-fowl, which is bigger than a goose, and hath eggs as big almost as those of the oftrich. Among the other commodities they export out of the island, this is none of the meaneft. They take the fat of these fowls that frequent the island and stuff the stomach of this fowl with it, which they preferve by hanging it near the chimney, where it is dried with the fmoke, and they fell it to their neighbours on the continent, as a remedy they use for aches and pains.

Their fheep upon that island of Hirta are far different from all others, having long legs, long horns, and instead of wool, a bluish hair upon them; for the figure and defcription it seems to approach in refemblance to the ovis Chilenfis. Some natural historians make mention of the milk of those sheep; they make butter and a fort of cheese, which my Lord Register faith pleases his taste better than Holland cheese. They have no falt there but what they make by burning of fea-tangle, which is very black. Their greatest trade is in feathers they fell; and the exercise they affect moft is climbing of fteep rocks: he is the prettiest man who ventures upon the most inacceffible, though all they gain is the eggs of the fowls, and the honour to die, as many of their ancestors, by breaking of their necks; which Pliny obferves of these people, which he calls hyperborei.

Rona.

THE island of Rona hath for many generations been inhabited by five families, which feldom exceed thirty fouls in all: they have a kind of commonwealth among them, in fo far if any of them have more children than another, he that hath fewer taketh from the other what makes his number equal, and the excrefcence of above thirty fouls is fent with the fummer boat to the Lewis to the Earl of Seaforth, their mafter, to whom they pay yearly fome quantity of meal stitched up in fheeps' skins, and feathers of fea-fowls. They have no fuel for fire upon the island; but by the special providence of God, the fea yearly cafts in so much timber as ferves them: their fheep there have wool, but of a bluish colour.

There is a chapel in the midft of the ifle, where they meet twice or thrice a day. One of the families is hereditary beddall, and the master of that stands at the altar and prayeth, the reft kneel upon their knees and join with him. Their religion is the Romish religion: there is always one who is chief, and commands the reft, and they are so well fatisfied with their condition, that they exceedingly bewail the condition of those, as fupernumerary, they must send out of the island.

A BRIEF

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION

OF

ORKNEY, ZETLAND, PIGHTLAND-FIRTH, AND CAITHNESS; WHEREIN, AFTER A SHORT JOURNAL OF THE AUTHOR'S VOYAGE THITHER, THESE NORTHERN

PLACES ARE FIRST MORE GENERALLY DESCRIBED ;

THEN A PARTICULAR VIEW IS GIVEN OF THE SEVERAL ISLES THERETO BELONGING: TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OF WHAT IS MOST RARE AND REMARKABLE THEREIN WITH THE AUTHOR'S OBSERVATIONS THEREUPON.

BY JOHN BRAND.*

TO HIS GRACE JAMES DUKE OF HAMILTON.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR GRACE,

UPON my return from Zetland, as bound in duty, I paid my refpects to your Grace, who was pleased to ask if I had kept a diary? which I acknowledged, but could not fhew it, till the remarks therein contained were tranfcribed, which when done, your Grace fhould have them to glance at fome leisure hour. Thus your command giving rife to this undertaking, I have prefumed to make the dedication to your Grace. The noble and illuftrious family of Hamilton, the first in the nation, standeth in no need of panegyrics from me to fet forth its eminency. His Grace your father, was very inftrumental in fettling the peace and quiet of this kingdom at the late merciful and wonderful revolution, as became a patriot of his country; under whose presidency, in the convention of eftates, the government of our church was restored, which fince hath been confirmed by the fubfequent parliaments.

In his furviving confort, your pious mother, thefe endowments and qualifications requifite in the confort of a prince have eminently shined forth, which will embalm her name to fucceeding generations: her likewife being fo very helpful to many afflicted ones, both in the former years of this church's distress and trouble, and in the latter of great scarcity and dearth, fhe knowing how valuable are the bleffings of those who were ready to perish.

Your Grace's honourable appearance for, and acknowledgment of, p:efbyterian government in the last feffion of parliament, was acceptable to many; and I hope your Grace fhall never have caufe to repent of your continuing to favour the ancient government of this church, which as it is conform to the fcripture plan, so the Lord hath been graciously pleased to own and countenance it, in the great things he hath done for and by the ministers and profeffors thereof.

Among these things for which you ftand obliged to the wife conduct of providence, one is, that you have been fo well directed in the happy choice of your conforts. Your prefent lady of a sweet and gentle temper; her carriage obliging and difcreet to all; her loving to entertain pious and religious difcourfe; her modeft and exemplary dress: I wifh fhe may prove a bleffing to your illuftrious family, and be as Rachel or as Leah, which two did build up he thoufe of Ifrael.

Your noble brother Lord George hath been created, by our prefent gracious King, Earl of Orkney, for his heroick appearances, under the aufpicious conduct of our King, who was pleased to take notice thereof, fome of these being under His Majefty's view ¿