332 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Not discouraged by the reproof conveyed in the decision of the Assembly,
Mr. M'Donald is known in the religious world for his praiseworthy exertions in
various parts of the Highlands, and particularly in behalf of the previously
much-neglected inhabitants of St. Kilda'-the most distant and isolated of all
the islands of Scotland. Commissioned by the Society for Propagating Christian
Knowledge, his first visit was undertaken in 1822, for the purpose of
ascertaining the religious and moral condition of the inhabitants. In his journal
Mr. M'Donald gives an interesting account of his reception by the natives.
He was accompanied by Mr. M'Lellan, the tacksman of the island; and not
being able to effect a landing on the eastern coast, in consequence of the boisterous
state of the weather, the boat veered round to the leeward, where shelter
was found in an arm of the sea. Upon landing, he and Mr. M'Lellan
walked towards the village, a distance of nearly two miles. " When descending
the brow of the hill above the village," says the journal, "we observed
some persons standing without ; and on a sudden, in consequence, as we afterwards
learned, of his sounding the alarm, all the souls in the village appeared
at once ; at first flying in different directions, until they discovered from what
quarter the strangers were coming, when they made toward us in a body, shook
hands with their tacksman, and welcomed him to the place. After these salutations
were over, he introduced me to them as a minister who had come to visit
them, and was sent by the Society. Upon this they immediately shook hands
with me, as if we had been many years acquainted ; and, ' God bless the Society
which sent him, and God bless him for coming,' was the general exclamation."
Mr. M'Donald remained nearly a fortnight on the island, during which he
embraced every opportunity of preaching to them ; and in his private conversations
entered so warmly into their affairs and interests, that when the day of
departure came, he had much difficulty in sustaining the emotions'with which
the scene overpowered him. Mr. M'Lellan and he were accompanied by the
inhabitants to the beach, where they assisted in launching the boat-took an
affecting farewell-and long after the party had bid adieu to the shores of St.
Kilda, they could still see the group of islanders clustering round the gentle
rising ground, gazing as if unwilling to lose sight of their recent visitors.
The report which Mr. M'Donald submitted to the Society on his return contains
some interesting particulars regarding St. Kilda and its inhabitants. We
need offer no apology for the following extract :-
1 St. Kilda, or Kirta, a solitary isle in the Atlantic Ocean, belonging to the range of the Hebrides,
but removed to a considerable distance from the main cluster. The nearest land to it is Harris, from
which it is distant sixty miles in a west-south-west direction ; and it is about one hundred and forty
mile3 from the nearest point of the mainland of Scotland.-EncycZopdiu Britannica.
Of late a trip to St. Kilda has become a favourite steamboat and pleasure-yacht excursion ; and
some curious, though rather exaggerated, descriptions of the isle and its inhabitants were in circulation
a short time ago. In former days, however, little intercourse was maintained with the mainland ;
and so late as about the middle of last century the island was the prison of the lady of Erskine of
Grange, brother of the Earl of Mar, attainted for his concern in the Rebellion of 1715. The cruel
treatment of the unfortunate lady was attributed to a violence of temper on her part, and a fear on
that of her husband lest she might betray the secrets of the party to which he was attached. She
was a daughter of Chiesley of Dalry, who was executed for the murder of President Lockhart in 1689.