From the earliest centuries the Scandinavian pagans poured into the islands and among the Celts, to rob and burn, but also to settle down and be decent. When satiated with robbery and slaughter, they became peaceful, married the daughters of the land, and adopted the language and faith of the islanders. The vikings and the immigrants multiplied in the Hebrides, especially when tyrants in Norway became unusually active and severe. Battles and fighting between the islanders and the Norwegians kept the region in turmoil for centuries. Not a few attempts were made by the Scottish kings to displace the Norsemen. One of these, John Macdonald, adopted the title of “Lord of the Isles.” He married the daughter of the earl, who afterwards became Robert II. Battles, treaties, and alliances followed, but insular sovereignty was abolished in the reign of James V. Bloody feuds continued, through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, among the rival clans and their dependent tribes.
Even the subsidies granted by William III to the chiefs could not preserve order. Peace dawned only when the tribal system was broken up. Then, through the abolition of hereditary jurisdiction, through inheritance, and the appointments in the different districts of sheriffs who held the writ of the king, peace was secured. Nevertheless, in the new system of management the rents being made too high, there began an emigration to America that continued for many years, threatening at one time to depopulate the islands. Dr. Johnson, who, with Boswell, made what was virtually an exploration and published the classic, entitled “A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland,” in 1773, tells of the ships waiting in the harbors ready to take on their human cargo for the continent of promise. Thousands crossed the ocean to Canada or into those Atlantic colonies which became the United States.
Following the loss of so many able-bodied men and women, the standard of civilization in these islands began to sink, even though the population, which subsisted almost wholly on potatoes and herring, kept multiplying. When in 1846 the potato blight reduced the masses, both in Ireland and in western Scotland, to the verge of starvation, another large emigration of thousands to Australia and America took place. Had Carlyle’s advice been followed, Canada would have forty million and South Africa ten million loyal British subjects. This sage wanted the Government to turn men-of-war into emigrant ships, in order to give free transport of people to waste lands beyond sea. A royal commission, appointed by Parliament, later secured legislation which has made life for the crofters in the island more tolerable.
Steering south from Oban, we passed some rocky isles, one of which is called, from its shape, the Dutchman’s Cap. When in front of Fingal’s Cave, we are awed by its imposing entrance which is formed by a series of basaltic columns from twenty to forty feet high, which sustain an arch sixty feet above the sea. We land in a boat amid the fuming waves and climb into the cave, which for a distance of about two hundred feet has a sort of rather rough natural sidewalk made of fallen columns. The waves beneath us are continually surging and the thunderous echoes resound continually. The island, of volcanic origin, is nothing more or less than the fragment of an ancient stream of lava. In Fingal’s Cave there is first a basement of tufa, from which rise colonnades of basalt in pillars which form the walls and faces of the grotto, the roof of which consists of amorphous basalt.
Fingal’s Cave was first noted and described by Sir Joseph Banks in 1773. The grotto is two hundred and twenty-seven feet long, forty-two feet wide, and sixty-six feet high. But the height of the pillars is irregular, being thirty-six feet on one side and but eighteen on the other. Its waters are the haunts of seals and of sea-birds.
Happily for us, instead of seeing nothing but the sombre gray, in an atmosphere of fog or cloud, or storm-tossed waves, which on occasions do not allow passengers to disembark, the bursts of sunlight made unique beauty, both in atmospheric conditions and in an exquisite play of colors. The basalt appeared to combine every tint of warm red, brown, and rich maroon, while the seaweed and lichen of green and gold seemed like the upholstery of a palace. Through the percolation of the limestone water, the walls were in places of a snow-white tint. Looking upward we could see yellow, crimson, and white stalactites. When we examined the columns they appeared to possess a regularity so perfect as to suggest the work of a Greek sculptor rather than the play of Nature’s forces in her moods of agony. The Gaelic form of the name is taken from the murmuring of the sea, meaning the “Cave of Music.” In times of storm the compressed air rushes out producing a sound as of thunder.
“Fingal” is the name of the hero in the poems of Ossian, which are based on the ancient traditions of the Gaelic people of Scotland and Ireland, still known and told among the people, so many of whom in the outer islands use this ancient tongue. The Finn in these old stories was the Rig or King of the Fenians of Leinster, Ireland, who lived at a “du” or fort in the County of Kildare, and who was killed on the Boyne by a fisherman, A.D. 283. As for the name “Fingal,” it is thought to mean a “fair foreigner,” or Norwegian; the word “Dubgal,” meaning a “dark foreigner” or invader; the blond pirates or intruders being the Norwegians and the swarthy ones coming from Denmark. Both varieties of these unscientific marauders ravaged Ireland in the ninth century.
Only the chief caves have names. On the south-east coast is the Clam Shell, or Scallop Cave. It is thirty feet high, eighteen feet wide, and about one hundred and thirty feet long, one side of it consisting of ridges of basalt which stand out like the ribs of a ship. Near by is the Rock of the Herdsmen, from a supposed likeness to a shepherd’s cap. The Isle of Columns can be fully seen only at low water.
No human habitations were noted on the Island of Staffa by us, during our short stay. We got on board the steamer again and proceeded to Iona, that is, “the island”; for Columkill, or the Island of Columba, from time unrecorded has had a fertile soil. This fertility, supposed to be in the dark ages miraculous, led probably to its early occupation.
Iona’s history begins in the year 563 when St. Columba, from Ireland, landed on its shores with twelve apostles. By his life and work he rendered the place so rich in holy associations that to-day the hosts of divided Christendom, Roman Catholic, Protestant Episcopal, and Presbyterian, claim Iona as the cradle of their faith, and on different days—never together in holy union—visit the sacred isle. Sweethearts and wives must not meet. Which is which?