towards it.  The little wherry which had fallen behind us had hard work.  The master begged that, if we made for Col, we should put out a light to him.  Accordingly one of the sailors waved a glowing peat for some time.  The various difficulties that were started, gave me a good deal of apprehension, from which I was relieved, when I found we were to run for a harbour before the wind.  But my relief was but of short duration:  for I soon heard that our sails were very bad, and were in danger of being torn in pieces, in which case we should be driven upon the rocky shore of Col.  It was very dark, and there was a 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;