the generous Mr Malcolm, I shall not run the risk of repetition, but proceed with our voyages. I had, while tarrying here, by my rashness, received a grievous wound in the face, which I was obliged to keep bound up with a napkin, and which occasioned my having something of a hideous appearance. Wherever I showed my face the people were impressed with high ideas of my prowess in the art of boxing, which I never in my life tried; and I thought it would have been more natural had they concluded that some body had been boxing me. We set sail on the morning of Tuesday with a fine southern breeze, which carried us out of Loch Crinan. About a mile off the point of Craignish we witnessed a very singular phenomenon. A phenomenon, James! little things are such to you when on a journey: pray what was it? Your honour will not guess; not if you should do nothing else but try for a year. It was, however, what I never before saw or heard of; being a boat well manned, fishing up cows in the open sea. Aye, look back at the word again; it is just Cows. But I am to this day unable to account for it in the least, or how such a valuable fishery came to be there; but it was literally as follows: On reaching the sound of Jura, we steered to the northward; where the wind beginning to sink, and the tide meeting us like a mighty river, we advanced very slow. To the westward about half a mile, we first saw a large wherry crouding sail to the South, and then, a good way a head of her, a black thing came on with the tide, which we soon discovered, with the help of the spyglass, to be an excellent black highland cow. We approached quite near them, and saw them overtake her, when they immediately dropped their sail and threw coils of ropes around her, endeavouring with all their might to haul her into the boat: this however they were unable to effect, for she splashed like 'a whale; and the boat was like to turn its keel uppermost ; but they lashed her to the stem. Just about this time, when the noise of Gaelic in the boat began to abate, in a moment a dun cow emerged from below the waves about forty yards to the N.W. of us. She was grown very weak, was swimming with her side uppermost, and blowing like a porpoise; but the tide bare her rapidly away from us, and very near straight for them. I cannot describe to you the noise and hurry which ensued in the boat on the appearance of this second prize: some hauled up the sails, others hung strenuously by that which they had got, being unwilling to lose a certainty for a chance. They at last with some difficulty succeeded in securing that also, when they made slowly toward the land. We were lost in conjecture from whence these cows could have come, there being no other vessel or boat within sight from which they could have made their escape; and could think of nothing more probable, than that they were cattle which had lately been brought from Jura, and were attempting to swim across the sound to their native isle again, a distance I suppose not exceeding eight miles; but you now know as much as I do. After this we continued for some time to hold slowly on our course, but were soon overtaken by a dead calm, when the furious tide carried us straight away to the south. We were now in no very agreeable situation, being surrounded to the southward by numbers of rocky islets, without any means in our power of eschewing them, and were greatly alarmed at seeing ourselves borne full upon a large one in the mouth of Lochrinan! the sailors plied with the oars to force the vessel from its longitude, but their efforts for a long time proved abortive. I, for my own part, had no apprehensions of being wrecked on that rock, and strove with all all my rhetorick to persuade them that it was impossible the tide could run us ashore on the island, unless it had a passage under it; for that it must necessarily go about the island itself, and it was plain would carry us with it, especially as its shore did not shelve: and so narrow is my comprehension, that I believe to this day it was the effect of the island's repelling the current that carried us round, and not the oars. A small breeze now coming from the S.W. we stood into the bay of Craignish, and the breeze afterwards increasing, we again beat up, doubled the point of Craignish a second time, and the tide turning in our favours, went on swimmingly. We kept nearly the same road by which I came last sumraer, and saw nothing worth remarking saving a great number of fishing boats busily employed on a bank off the slate islands. On the broad channel beyond these islands, and South of Mull, we met with a pretty heavy sea, which was however productive of no worse effect upon any of us, than depriving Mr W. of the power of speech for about two hours, and covering his complexion with the lily's pallid hue. As we dreaded again to encounter the tides in the sound of Mull, we came to an anchor in Loch Don, and in company with Mr M'Alister, went and spent the evening at the house of Achnacraig in Mull, which is a good inn, and kept by civil people. Here we tarried until a late hour, and then returned on board our vessel. There is some green grass surrounding this bay but most of it is upon land which hath been tilled, and is thereby converted from a moss soil into a rich black loam. The mountains are high, the coast, except in the bays, bold and rocky; some brush-wood interlines the declivities; a good way to the eastward appeared the isle of Kerrara, and beyond that the mountains of Lorn; the ruins of Castle-Duart October 1808. stood on the point beyond us, and u pon the whole, the scene was rather interesting, though more so on account of its novelty to us than any thing else. Next morning, as soon as it was day, the tide then beginning to ebb, we got under way, the wind being fair and very gentle. As I did not go to sleep that night, for fear of losing the views, I was on deck all the way, and the morning being fair and clear, enjoyed them very much: my two friends did not awake until we were got up to the narrow sound about the mouth of Loch-Alen. They were much delighted with the wild prospects on each hand, but testified their surprise at seeing so few cottages on the coasts, and those that were all in clusters: they seemed also much better pleased with the appearance of the mountains of Mull than those in Morven. About ten o'clock, we cast anchor in the bay of Tobermory, and went ashore to the village, where Mr M'Alister had some business to transact, but, a violent rain commencing, we were forced to keep mostly within doors. Although I did not tarry above two hours at this place last year, and tho' now so much disfigured by the wound in my face, I was surprised at being told by a native who went aboard with us, that the whole village knew me that they wondered much what my business was there last year, and much more when they saw me return this year this might possibly proceed from their having a jealousy of strangers, but I rather think that the great number of excise-men on these coasts obliges the highlanders to keep a sharp look out: those of Mull seem to be amongst the most robust, and stout made of any; and many of them wear the old Highland garb, which quite disappears in the country of Lewis and Harris. Mr M'Alister having settled his business at Tobermory, we left it about 3 o'clock. P. M. contrary to to the ardent remonstrances of an old sailor named Hugh; and I still believe that our importunity to get forward influenced the master too much to set out. The wind was now shifted to the West, the day cleared up, and every five minutes the sky wore a more gloomy aspect; the consequence was, that before we passed the bloody bay, where one of the large vessels of the Spanish Armado was ruined, every countenance was stamped with the marks of apprehension; but as it still continued tolerable we held on. When we reached the point of Ardnamurchan, or the Rhu,as it is commonly called, we were obliged to tack twice in order to weather it, and had already got to the windward of it, when the sea growing prodigiously heavy, and the wind continuing to increase, the sailors were affrighted, and though ten or twelve miles advanced, turned and run again for Tobermory. It was not long until we found ourselves off the mouth of the harbour, but the wind, which was now increased to a gale, blowing straight out of it, and the passage betwixt the island and the rocky point being so narrow that it was dangerous to tack, the getting in became a serious concern: the Johnson, though a strong English-built sloop, is certainly the most unwieldy vessel of her size that ever was made. They now made a strong effort to weather the straits, putting her about almost every three minutes; all hands assisted in hauling in the sheets; and after a struggle of nearly two hours, they succeeded in working her through the narrowest, and expected at the next stretch to gain the harbour. There being ten in all on board, and the deck rather throng, I had stepped below to prevent confusion; but my two companions assisted with all their might, not without imminent danger to their persons, for the boom overthrew Mr John every time it was dragged in, and very nearly turned him overboard, he not having experience how to manage himself. I was at length alarmed by an unusual noise and bustle above, but still kept tenaciously by my birth in the cabin, until I heard Mr M'Alister cry out in great agitation, O! Lord! she will go in a thousand pieces!-O! my God! my God! cried the old man at the helm. What's the matter now, thought I; and selting my head out at the campeignan door, saw every man rivetted to the spot awaiting his fate in silent horror. In truth, my dear Sir, you need not envy the then feelings of Your most obedient J. H. On the Employments of WOMEN de ring the MIDDLE Ages. (From Fisher's History of German Trade.) HE free German, who valued no thing but his sword, and lived only on what it procured, viewed every other source of gain which was to be pursued by skill and eloquence, as inglorious, and unworthy of himself. He imported from strangers merely weapons and clothes, in exchange for the produce of his land, to which he added that of his hunting, and the gold plundered from his neighbours. Neither during the time of the Roman empire, nor under that of the Franks, was he acquainted with real manufactures; he left them chiefly to freed men, to ultramontane foreigners, or to the despised Sclavonians, who afterwards exported their increased wealth to Italy, or the East sea, and left Germany in its ancient state of rudeness. It appears also, by the acts concerning manufactures, that at that time we had, properly speaking, no internal trade, and although our histories already name all the principal manufacturing towns, yet no business of any consequence was carried on in them by natives. How, indeed, could men men apply to manufactures, who procured all necessaries by the efforts of their own limbs. All, therefore, came from the hands of the female sex, who supplied their families, both with clothes and with household furniture. The daughters were employed by their mothers as servants, in sewing, weaving, and making clothes. Eginhard mentions of Charlemagne, that he caused his princesses to be diligently instructed in these points. That emperor even issued an edict, ordaining, young noblemen should be early trained to the use of arms, and that young ladies of quality should be kept close to their spinning wheel. The silver wheel of the Princess Lutgard, daughter of the Emperor Otto I. that came after her death to the cloister of St Alban's on the Main, and the Empress Cunegund wore, when a widow, a dark coloured gown of her own making. In the romances of the middle ages, (which always give a true picture of the manners of the old times, and therefore are of great use, both for history and for the understanding of German law,) we often find ladies described as sitting over their embroidery, og their loom. These labours were performed by mother, daughter, and maid servants, in a remote part of the house, called the women's house, which men were seldom allowed to enter. This women's house, in the most ancient times, was under ground; it was afterwards strongly guarded and surrounded with a ditch, to preserve the inhabitants. from any violence on their persons, which was then a favourite exploit among the Germans. Seldom, among any people, shall we find such a number of laws against this species of violence. Indeed, there is no country where we find so many instances of it, as among the Germans, and they were reproached on that account by the ancient French and Italian writers. Nor were ladies secure even from their suitors, but were obliged to employ against them every means of defence. The women's house served not only as a working-place, but also as a bedchamber. All the German laws allude to it as divided into an apartment in front, and one behind. The one probably contained the members of the family, the latter the maid servants; the violation of the former was punished by a fine of six shillings, and that of the latter by one of three shillings. Afterwards, it became usual for men to attain access into these apartments, which gave occasion to many licentious romances, insomuch, that the very word came ultimately to signify a place of debauchery. In very remote times also, the female slaves belonging to charitable foundations were obliged to reside in a separate house, called Genitium. The cloister of Farfe, in Italy, and others in Germany, had a similar regulation; and' in these houses they caused the ornaments of their churches to be manufactured. These buildings appear to have been preferable to the French farm-houses, as we may see, among others, from the capitulary of Charlemagne, in which he gives directions to supply his women's houses with wool, linen, kermes, wood, soap, ointment, combs, and other things necessary for the uses of manufacture. Our ladies made early a great progress in weaving and embroidery. Already, in the time of Tacitus, they employed themselves in weaving linen, and made clothes of it, which they varied with stripes of scarlet. Nor is there any reason to believe that these were imported from Egypt, since, in the most ancient writers, particularly Saxo and Torfæus, we find mention made of the making both of woollen and linen cloth. Nor did they long confine themselves to plain stuffs, but employed themselves upon tapestry, and other ornaments, for houses and churches, which they covered with ornaments of flowers, with hunting pieces, or other historical representa tions. Such a covering for an altar, of the highest antiquity, is described by Olaus Wormius, as made by a lady of the name of Lodena, and skilfully representing a remarkable hunt. Saxo mentions of Hamlet, that he tore down, at once, all the tapestry made by his mother, with which the interior walls of the house were covered, and threw it over a circle of drunken guests, binding it down in such a manner, that not one of them was able to rise. In the history of Regner Lodbrog, it is mentioned, that Brunchild had very skilfully delineated on cloth all the brave actions of Sigurd. Every one knows the tapestry on which is described the whole history of William the Conqueror's invasion of England. We find still abundance of similar pieces, because it was customary, in the earliest times, to cover all rooms with them. In many ancient castles of upper Germany, the keepers used to mention to me the names of the Princesses who had wrought them. The most ancient tapestry contained only two colours; black and white. About the end of the eleventh century, they became somewhat livelier; in the thirteenth, they were completely chequered with colours; and in the fourteenth, they began to be drawn in natural hues. Thus it is that they are distinguished by Cluverius, and I had a full opportunity of satisfying myself on the subject, by means of a great number which Duke Charles caused to be brought to Louisbourg out of various castles in Wirtemberg, which I had it in my power to examine with the greatest attention, and to compare with each other. They consisted of Bible stories, of holy legends, and of representations of former exploits, chiefly hunting parties, which were distinguished by any uncommon incidents. Sometimes they presented rare beasts and birds, and those of a very large size; I also observed various wild beasts, described by Tacitus and Pli ny, woven into them, conformably to the description of those writers. At the end of the fifteenth century, such animals were still found in the Prussian woods. Thormod Torfæus has, in like manner, considered the ancient tapestries as a grand source of historical information; and it is much to be regretted, that better care is not taken to preserve these precious remnants of antiquity. It were to be wished also, that the learned would draw up descriptions of them for the benefit of posterity, or would cause them to be engraved. At present, they are daily, either falling to the ground, or are newly painted, or cut down for household use. A passage in the chronicle of the cloister Farfe, and a letter of foundation by Otto II. informs us, that most of the ornaments of churches were wrought by female hands. We can also, by means of those which still remain, establish many historical and natural observations. Kleffel, and Professor Schutz of Hamburgh, have in vain endeavoured to deny their use in heraldry, since Du Fresne has insti tuted the most satisfactory inquiry into this subject. It is now completely ascertained, that the Franks, and the rest of the Germans, had their ancient memorials sometimes woven, some times cut in the covering of their shields. These were, on that account called coats of arms; and in latter times, were added to their weapons The Baron du Cange shews, that thei lining, even at the earliest period contained gold and silver, chiefly wrought in fur, which gave occasion to the use of these metals in blazonry Both the colours and figures on thes coats of arms were imitated from ta pestry. Besides tapestry, women also per formed other species of embroidery in which they made very great pro gress. They formed large banner and ensigns. The famous Danish En sign is said to have been made in on morning by the three daughters Regne |