There was a little miserable publick-house close upon the shore, to which we should have gone, had we landed last night:  but this morning Col resolved to take us directly to the house of Captain Lauchlan M’Lean, a descendant of his family, who had acquired a fortune in the East-Indies, and taken a farm in Col[774].  We had about an English mile to go to it.  Col and Joseph, and some others, ran to some little horses, called here Shelties, that were running wild on a heath, and catched one of them.  We had a saddle with us, which was clapped upon it, and a straw halter was put on its head.  Dr. Johnson was then mounted, and Joseph very slowly and gravely led the horse.  I said to Dr. Johnson, ’I wish, Sir, the Club saw you in this attitude.[775]’

It was a very heavy rain, and I was wet to the skin.  Captain M’Lean had but a poor temporary house, or rather hut; however, it was a very good haven to us.  There was a blazing peat-fire, and Mrs. M’Lean, daughter of the minister of the parish, got us tea.  I felt still the motion of the sea.  Dr. Johnson said, it was not in imagination, but a continuation of motion on the fluids, like that of the sea itself after the storm is over.

There were some books on the board which served as a chimney-piece.  Dr. Johnson took up Burnet’s History of his own Times[776].  He said, ’The first part of it is one of the most entertaining books in the English language; it is quite dramatick:  while he went about every where, saw every where, and heard every where.  By the first part, I mean so far as it appears that Burnet himself was actually engaged in what he has told; and this may be easily distinguished.’  Captain M’Lean censured Burnet, for his high praise of Lauderdale in a dedication[777], when he shews him in his history to have been so bad a man.  JOHNSON.  ’I do not myself think that a man should say in a dedication what he could not say in a history.  However, allowance should be made; for there is a great difference.  The known style of a dedication is flattery:  it professes to flatter.  There is the same difference between what a man says in a dedication, and what he says in a history, as between a lawyer’s pleading a cause, and reporting it.’

The day passed away pleasantly enough.  The wind became fair for Mull in the evening, and Mr. Simpson resolved to sail next morning:  but having been thrown into the island of Col we were unwilling to leave it unexamined, especially as we considered that the Campbelltown vessel would sail for Mull in a day or two, and therefore we determined to stay.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5.