232 cruises. 



leopard had ever been seen there from the beginning of 

 creation, and, it may be, will never be seen there again, 

 till the end of time. 



" We led a secluded, if not a savage life, and had little 

 intercourse with our neighbours, saving the humbler class. 

 Indeed, owing to the great extent of their Highland 

 estates, neighbours, in the ordinary sense, were few and far 

 between. As members of the Free Church, we passed our 

 Sabbath-days almost in a fairy palace ; an open, yet shel- 

 tered circular space, clothed with the softest turf, and 

 encircled by the slender spray and silver stems of aro- 

 matic birches — 



' Most beautiful of forest trees, 

 The lady of the wooda.' 



The people were attentive, and much impressed — an ad- 

 ditional feeling of devotion seeming to have come upon 

 them since the disruption of the old Establishment. The 

 gentry, however, and all the higher classes there, as else- 

 where, are hostile to the movement, and shew their hos- 

 tility by every means, whether active or passive, within 

 their power. It has always appeared to myself, that, 

 even setting aside the awful importance of the subject, it 

 is a strange return for chieftains and heads of families to 

 make, in these days of peace, to the descendants of those 

 faithful followers, who, in the rude contending^ of other 

 times, shrunk not from shedding their blood like water 



