My path I could hardly discern;
So sweetly she bade me adieu,
I thought that she bade me return.”
ARDNAMURCHAN POINT.
On Friday, October 1, they took advantage of a break in the weather to move on to Armidale, about a mile from the Sound of Slate, where they waited for a favourable wind to carry them to Iona. It came, or rather seemed to come, on the following Sunday.
SETTING SAIL FOR IONA.
“While we were chatting,” writes Boswell, “in the indolent style of men who were to stay here all this day at least, we were suddenly roused at being told that the wind was fair, that a little fleet of herring-busses was passing by for Mull, and that Mr. Simpson’s vessel was about to sail. Hugh M’Donald, the skipper, came to us, and was impatient that we should get ready, which we soon did. Dr. Johnson, with composure and solemnity, repeated the observation of Epictetus, that ‘as man has the voyage of death before him, whatever may be his employment, he should be ready at the master’s call; and an old man should never be far from the shore, lest he should not be able to get himself ready.’”
For some hours they sailed along with a favourable breeze, catching sight of the Isle of Rum as they rounded the point; but when they had got in full view of Ardnamurchan, the wind changed. THE ISLAND OF COL. They tried tacking, but a storm broke upon them, night came on, and they were forced to run through the darkness for Col. Boswell’s account of this dangerous voyage is too long to quote, and too good to abridge. In this dreary spot they were weather-bound for more than a week. “There is,” writes Johnson, “literally no tree upon the island; part of it is a sandy waste, over which it would be really dangerous to travel in dry weather, and with a high wind.” The sight of these hills of sand struck him greatly. “I heard him,” writes Boswell, “after we were in the house, repeating to himself, as he walked about the room,
‘And smothered in the dusty whirlwind dies.’”