426 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



blackguard soldier on the street of Stirling ! But come 

 awa'." He brought him home with him, and added to 

 the much good advice he had given him an excellent 

 dinner. The temper of the preacher seems to have soft- 

 ened a good deal as he became old, and he grew much 

 a favourite with the more serious part of his congrega- 

 tion. He was, I doubt not, with all his defects of 

 temper, an honest, pious man ; and had he lived in the 

 days of Renwick and Cargill, or a century earlier, in the 

 days of Knox and Wishart, he might have been a useful 

 one. But he was unlucky in the age in which he lived, 

 in his temper, and in coming in contact with as hard- 

 headed people as himself/ 



WRITTEN FOR THE ' INVERNESS COURIER/ 



1 Cromarty, May 29, 1830. 



' On Monday, the 24th instant, a Cromarty boat, 

 which had gone with the passengers from Invergordon 

 to Wick, left the latter port on her return, about five 

 o'clock in the evening. The crew consisted of three sea- 

 men, two of whom were brothers ; and there were also 

 on board a native of Tain, John Ross, who had taken 

 his passage with them to Cromarty, together with his 

 wife and six children ; in all, eleven persons. There was 

 a light breeze from the north, accompanied by a moder- 

 ate swell, and with both sails stretched to the mast-head, 

 the boat swept for about five hours at an easy rate along 

 the shore. At ten o'clock she was nearly opposite the 

 Castle of Dunbeath. About this time Alexander Skinner, 

 now the sole survivor of the eleven, became drowsy, and, 

 quitting the stern of the boat, where the helmsman (An- 

 drew Johnston) and the passengers were, he went ahead 

 of the mainsail, and lay down to sleep. His last recol- 

 lection of this period is, that the helmsman and Ross 



