24 ST. KILDA. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



has in all probability produced a good effect both on 

 the manners and information of the inhabitants. This 

 establishment is supported by the Society for the Pro- 

 pagation of Christian Knowledge in Scotland, and is 

 now of twenty years' duration. The salary is 35 per 

 annum, and the church service is performed in a house 

 that was erected as a store for the wool and feathers 

 of the natives ; the chapels described by Martin having 

 disappeared. It is to be regretted that the duty of a 

 schoolmaster has not been combined with this office ; 

 for want of which, independently of more important 

 considerations, the children are still ignorant of English ; 

 a language which, in most parts of the Highlands, they 

 are now fast acquiring, and which bids fair, in a few 

 generations, to expel the original tongue, since a people 

 rarely maintains two languages long. This is an event 

 much to be desired ; as, besides the inconvenience attending 

 a population of which the one portion does not understand 

 the other, the association of the Gaelic language with 

 early prejudices and bad habits, offers one of the great 

 impediments yet remaining to the improvement of the 

 Highlands.* 



rican war had an influence on the price of tobacco ; that bribe which 

 gains immediate access to his heart and services. 



The politics of Europe being settled, it became a contest who 

 should be nearest or render the greatest number of good offices; the 

 whole male population down to the age of seven attending my progress 

 throughout the island with a civility at least equal to their curiosity. 

 The follozcing of an ancient chieftain could not have been more 

 attentive and have probably seldom been so happy. He who is 

 ambitious of distant fame need only visit St. Kilda; he will assuredly 

 be recorded in its annals. 



* The establishment of Gaelic schools is, in this view, an evil to 

 be deprecated; and must be considered as the result of national 

 affections, unchecked by that good sense which these prejudices, 

 in other cases than this, are so apt to observe. I am aware how- 

 ever that this is delicate ground: more especially for the descend- 

 ant of a Gael, and for one who still expects to wander among the 

 Gael. But it is difficult to discover what countervailing advantages 

 can arise from the cultivation of a rude language, now inadequate 



