94 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



for so exasperated were the garrison at an incident which had lost them a 

 prisoner of distinction, that they wreaked their vengeance on the faithful 

 adherent. On the battlements two hrass guns are preserved which formerly 

 belonged to the flag-ship* of the Spanish Armada, when it was blown up at 

 Tobermory, by a supposed emissary from Queen Elizabeth. 



During various civil commotions, Dunstaffnage was considered a place of 

 great security, and many curious deeds and charters were consequently deposited 

 in it ; of these, it is said, several still remain. The foundation of the Castle 

 is on a mass of breccia. It is still among the number of royal castles, and gives 

 the office of keeper to the duke of Argyll. The Castle is said to have been 

 founded by Edwin, a Pictish monarch contemporary with Julius Caesar who, 

 in honour of himself, called it Evonium. Whether this account be true or not, 

 it is certainly a place of great antiquity. Down to the commencement of the 

 present century part of the ancient regalia was preserved, but at that period, 

 says Dr. Garnet, " it was embezzled by the keeper's servants for the sake of 

 the silver ornaments." An ancient battle-axe is the only relic left. The 

 irregularity of the external walls, as observed in the annexed view, is owing 

 to the angular rocky precipice along which they are carried. At a short distance 

 from the Castle is a small roofless chapel, of elegant workmanship, which has 

 struggled hard to accompany this venerable seat of kings through the various 

 stages of its prosperity, decline, and fall. Within the hallowed enclosure, it 

 is said, several of the Scottish monarchs lie interred. On the south side is a 

 rock one point of which stretches towards the chapel, and where, if a person 

 be placed on one side of it, and speak loud, the sound of his voice is so distinctly 

 reverberated from the ruin, as to make him imagine that the voice comes from 

 a person within the walls. It is reported that, a few years ago, a man con- 

 tracted a fatal illness on hearing a sermon on mortality read to him by an 

 unearthly voice proceeding from a person who, in the dusk of evening, had 

 concealed himself on the opposite side of the point mentioned, but which he 



This vessel, the Florida, is supposed to have contained a great deal of specie, and attempts have been 

 made, by means of diving-bells, to get at the precious stores, or to raise the ship. Guns of brass and iron, 

 among which were those above-mentioned, have been recovered some of them bearing the marks of an 

 English founder, with the date 158*. A portion of the ship's plank was presented to his late majesty, 

 George IV., on his visit to Scotland in August, 1822. The local tradition respecting this vessel, is, that a 

 daughter of the king of Spain having dreamed that a young man of most prepossessing figure had appeared 

 to her, resolved to sail round the whole world in search of the living prototype. On her arrival on these 

 shores, Maclean of Duart realized in the eyes of the princess the being of her fond imaginings. His lady, 

 however, becoming jealous of his attentions to the fair Spaniard, took counsel of the witches of Mull, and, 

 by their agency, the ship was sunk with the royal object of her resentment. The story has lately been 

 made the subject of a romantic ballad. See the local history. 



