Between six and seven we hauled our anchor, and set sail with a fair breeze; and, after a pleasant voyage, we got safely and agreeably into the harbour of Tobermorie, before the wind rose, which it always has done, for some days, about noon.  Tobermorie is an excellent harbour.  An island lies before it, and it is surrounded by a hilly theatre[836].  The island is too low, otherwise this would be quite a secure port; but, the island not being a sufficient protection, some storms blow very hard here.  Not long ago, fifteen vessels were blown from their moorings.  There are sometimes sixty or seventy sail here:  to-day there were twelve or fourteen vessels.  To see such a fleet was the next thing to seeing a town.  The vessels were from different places; Clyde, Campbelltown, Newcastle, &c.  One was returning to Lancaster from Hamburgh.  After having been shut up so long in Col, the sight of such an assemblage of moving habitations, containing such a variety of people, engaged in different pursuits, gave me much gaiety of spirit.  When we had landed, Dr. Johnson said, ’Boswell is now all alive.  He is like Antaeus; he gets new vigour whenever he touches the ground.’  I went to the top of a hill fronting the harbour, from whence I had a good view of it.  We had here a tolerable inn.  Dr. Johnson had owned to me this morning, that he was out of humour.  Indeed, he shewed it a good deal in the ship; for when I was expressing my joy on the prospect of our landing in Mull, he said, he had no joy, when he recollected that it would be five days before he should get to the main land.  I was afraid he would now take a sudden resolution to give up seeing Icolmkill.  A dish of tea, and some good bread and butter, did him service, and his bad humour went off.  I told him, that I was diverted to hear all the people whom we had visited in our tour, say, ’Honest man! he’s pleased with every thing; he’s always content!’—­’Little do they know,’ said I. He laughed, and said, ’You rogue[837]!’

We sent to hire horses to carry us across the island of Mull to the shore opposite to Inchkenneth, the residence of Sir Allan M’Lean, uncle to young Col, and Chief of the M’Leans, to whose house we intended to go the next day.  Our friend Col went to visit his aunt, the wife of Dr. Alexander M’Lean, a physician, who lives about a mile from Tobermorie.

Dr. Johnson and I sat by ourselves at the inn, and talked a good deal.  I told him, that I had found, in Leandro Alberti’s Description of Italy, much of what Addison has given us in his Remarks[838].  He said, ’The collection of passages from the Classicks has been made by another Italian:  it is, however, impossible to detect a man as a plagiary in such a case, because all who set about making such a collection must find the same passages; but, if you find the same applications in another book, then Addison’s learning in his Remarks tumbles down.  It is a tedious book; and, if it were not