“I saw many tomb-stones only a few years old, with new inscriptions, from which the gilding had scarcely begun to fade, and their effect upon the solitary and remote island was peculiar and by no means unpleasing. Among them were the tombs of several captains of ships, and it would have been difficult to suggest a more appropriate place of interment for such men than this little island cemetery at the mouth of a great river, with the wide ocean rolling in front. Indeed, there is no other country in Europe where there are such interesting cemeteries, or such picturesque tombs, as in Ireland, partly on account of the abundance of ivy with which they are hung, and partly on account of the practice that still prevails of burying the dead among ruins.
“Of some of the seven churches on Scattery isle, scarcely a trace remained; but three of them were in tolerable preservation. Their walls, covered with ivy, remained, and into the wall of one of them, that nearest the round tower, a stone strangely sculptured into the form of a human face had been introduced. Strange to say, it has completely the stiff, mask-like features and projecting ears of the Egyptian statue, whence I conclude it must have belonged originally to some other building. On the opposite wall is a stone with evident traces of an ancient inscription.
“The round tower stands a little to the side. Although not perfect, it belongs to the most picturesque in Ireland, for it has been struck by lightning, and has received a split on one side from top to bottom. On the south side it is covered completely with mosses and creeping plants; on the north and west side it is bare, the heavy winds, as the sailors told me, making all vegetation impossible there. Lightning and vegetation are the worst enemies the round towers have to contend with, and it is strange that such active foes should not have been able to overturn the whole of them in a space of two thousand years.
“All the land upon the little island, except the cemetery, is pasturage. A small battery has been erected here to protect the mouth of the Shannon, the entrance to which river is defended by no less than six batteries and forts, while at the mouth of the Thames there is not one.
“On leaving Inniscattery, to repair to the kingdom of Kerry, we had work enough before us, for the tide was against us, besides which we had to contend with such a variety of currents, that the boatmen required all their skill and experience to carry their slight skiff in safety to the little port of Tarbert, whither we were bound. The mouth of the Shannon has rather the character of an arm of the sea, but to consider it as such would be in violation of the principles of Irish geography.
“The waves, now of a very respectable size, were rolling out towards the ocean; but the fog was completely gone, and we had the most beautiful sunshine. With the exception of our own little bark, which seemed to crest the waves like a bird, neither ship nor boat was to be seen upon the noble estuary, and, without passing a human creature with whom we could have exchanged a salutation, we arrived at length in safety at our destined harbour.
“There I learned, when it was too late, that without any additional expenditure of time or trouble, I might have effected a landing at Ballybunian, whose marine caverns, at the mouth of the Shannon, are reckoned among the wonders of Ireland. These caverns stretch more than a mile from the sea into the land. Ireland, indeed, is rich in remarkable caverns, many of which are but little known to the scientific world.”
The original models from which the Round Towers of Ireland were taken are still to be found in the Soudan of Africa; and the people whose ancestors erected buildings after this fashion, as they migrated from their native country to the seaboard, and crossed over to Spain—whence they visited Ireland—are to this day as savage in manners and customs as their forefathers were before they left Africa. The following description of the round conical granaries, the country where they are situated, and the builders of them, is taken from a work called Egypt, the Soudan, and Central Africa, by John Petherick, F.R.G.S., Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul for the Soudan:—
“Those of my men who had wintered with the Djour had procured from the negroes a large quantity of tusks, the accumulation of several years’ hunting. Their journeys had extended to the confines of the Rohl, in the east, and in the territory of the Djour westwards beyond the large stream which, on reference to the map, will be seen as the largest feeder of the lake. I had discovered southwards they had penetrated the Dôr territory; and as they had succeeded in gaining the good-will of the Dôr chief Djau, I despatched a party to invite him to meet me.
“The porters who had accompanied me from the Raik, on learning my intention to proceed south amongst tribes unknown to them, and dreaded in consequence of the difference of weapons and savage habits, refused to proceed; and, consigning loads of ivory to them, in charge of a detachment of my Khartoumers, I sent them back to their own country. Levying in their stead a party of Djour for the transport of my stock in trade, I took the advantage of a moonlight night to perform the journey to the Dôr to Fan-Djau (the country of Djau), so named after my chief Djau, situated in about six degrees north latitude.