heavy and incessant rain. The sparks of the burning peat
flew so much about, that I dreaded the vessel might take fire. Then, as
Col was a sportsman, and had powder on board, I figured that we might be
blown up. Simpson and he appeared a little frightened, which made me
more so; and the perpetual talking, or rather shouting, which was
carried on in Erse, alarmed me still more. A man is always suspicious of
what is saying in an unknown tongue; and, if fear be his passion at the
time, he grows more afraid. Our vessel often lay so much on one side,
that I trembled lest she should be overset, and indeed they told me
afterwards, that they had run her sometimes to within an inch of the
water, so anxious were they to make what haste they could before the
night should be worse. I now saw what I never saw before, a prodigious
sea, with immense billows coming upon a vessel, so as that it seemed
hardly possible to escape. There was something grandly horrible in the
sight. I am glad I have seen it once. Amidst all these terrifying
circumstances, I endeavoured to compose my mind. It was not easy to do
it; for all the stories that I had heard of the dangerous sailing among
the Hebrides, which is proverbial[767], came full upon my recollection.
When I thought of those who were dearest to me, and would suffer
severely, should I be lost, I upbraided myself, as not having a
sufficient cause for putting myself in such danger. Piety afforded me
comfort; yet I was disturbed by the objections that have been made
against a particular providence, and by the arguments of those who
maintain that it is in vain to hope that the petitions of an individual,
or even of congregations, can have any influence with the Deity;
objections which have been often made, and which Dr. Hawkesworth has
lately revived, in his Preface to the _Voyages to the South Seas_[768];
but Dr. Ogden's excellent doctrine on the efficacy of intercession
prevailed.

It was half an hour after eleven before we set ourselves in the course
for Col. As I saw them all busy doing something, I asked Col, with much
earnestness, what I could do. He, with a happy readiness, put into my
hand a rope, which was fixed to the top of one of the masts, and told me
to hold it till he bade me pull. If I had considered the matter, I might
have seen that this could not be of the least service; but his object
was to keep me out of the way of those who were busy working the vessel,
and at the same tim