Chapter I

MR. CAMPBELL'S DESCENT, FAMILY, BIRTH, ETC.

Of the goodness and antiquity of the name and family of this gentleman, nobody can ever make any question. He is a Campbell, lineally descended from the house of Argyll, and bears a distant relation to the present duke of that name in Scotland, and who is now constituted a duke of England, by the style and title of Duke of Greenwich.

It happens frequently that the birth of extraordinary persons is so long disputed by different people, each claiming him for their own, that the real place where he first took breath grows at last dubious. And thus it fares with the person who is the subject of the following sheets; as, therefore, it is my proposal to have a strict regard to historical faith, so I am obliged to tell the reader that I can with no certainty give an account of him till after he was three years old; from which age I knew him, even to this day; I will answer for the truths which I impart to the public during that time, and as for his birth and the circumstances of it, and how the first three years of his life passed, I can only deliver them the same account I have received from others, and leave them to their own judgments whether it ought to be deemed real or fabulous.

The father of our Mr. Duncan Campbell, as these relate the story, was from his infancy of a very curious, inquisitive nature, and of an enterprising genius, and if he heard of anything surprising to be seen, the difficulty in practice was enough to recommend to him the attempting to get a sight of it at any rate or any hazard. It is certain, that during some civil broils and troubles in Scotland, the grandfather of our Mr. Campbell was driven with his wife and family, by the fate of war, into the isle of Shetland, where he lived many years; and during his residence there, Mr. Archibald Campbell, the father of our Duncan Campbell, was born.

Shetland lies north-east from Orkney, between sixty and sixty-one degrees of latitude. The largest isle of Shetland, by the natives called the Mainland, is sixty miles in length from south-west to the north-east, and from sixteen, to one mile, in breadth.

The people who live in the smaller isles have abundance of eggs and fowl, which contributes to maintain their families during the summer.

The ordinary folks are mostly very nimble and active in climbing the rocks in quest of those eggs and fowl. This exercise is far more diverting than hunting and hawking among us, and would certainly for the pleasure of it, be followed by people of greater distinction, was it not attended with very great dangers, sufficient to turn sport into sorrow, and which have often proved fatal to those who too eagerly pursue their game. Mr. Archibald Campbell, however, delighted extremely in this way of fowling, and used to condescend to mix with the common people for company, because none of the youths of his rank and condition were venturesome enough to go along with him.

The most remarkable experiment of this sort, is at the isle called the Noss of Brassah: the Noss standing at sixteen fathoms distance from the side of the opposite main: the higher and lower rocks have two stakes fastened in each of them, and to these there are ropes tied; upon the ropes there is an engine hung which they call a cradle, and in this a man makes his way over from the greater to the smaller rocks, where he makes a considerable purchase of eggs and fowl; but his return being by an ascent, makes it the more dangerous, though those on the great rock have a rope tied to the cradle, by which they draw it and the man safe over for the most part. Over this rock Mr. Archibald Campbell and five others were in that manner let down by cradles and ropes; but before they could be all drawn back again, it grew dark, and their associates not daring to be benighted, were forced to withdraw, and Mr. Campbell was the unfortunate person left behind, having wandered too far, and not minded how the day declined, being intent on his game. He passed that night, you may easily guess, without much sleep, and with great anxiety of heart. The night, too, as he lay in the open air, was, to add to his misfortunes, as boisterous and tempestuous as his own mind; but in the end the tempest proved very happy for him. The reader is to understand that the Hamburghers, Bremeners, and Hollanders, carry on a great fish trade there. Accordingly, a Holland vessel, that was just coming in the sound of Brassah, was by this tempest driven into a creek of the rock, which nature had made into a harbour, and they were providentially saved from the bottom of the sea by a rock, from which, humanly speaking, they could expect nothing but destruction, and being sent to the bottom of that sea. As never could a man be taken hold of with so sudden and surprising a disaster, so nobody could meet with a more sudden and surprising relief than Mr. Campbell found when he saw a ship so near. He made to the vessel, and begged the Hollanders to take him in; they asked him what he would give them, or, said the barbarous sailors, we will even leave you where you are; he told them his disaster, but they asked money, and nothing else would move them: as he knew them a self-interested people, he bethought himself, that if he should tell them of the plenty of fowls and eggs they would get there, he might not only be taken in a passenger, but made a partner in the money arising from the stock; it succeeded accordingly: when he proposed it, the whole crew were all at work, and, in four hours, pretty well stored the vessel, and then, returning on board, set sail for Holland. They offered Mr. Campbell to put him in at his own island; but having a mind to see Holland, and being a partner, to learn their way of merchandize, which he thought he might turn to his countrymen's advantage, he told them he would go the voyage out with them, and see the country of those who were his deliverers; a necessary way of speech, when one has a design to sooth barbarians, who, but for interest, would have left him unredeemed, and, for aught they knew, a perpetual sole inhabitant of a dreadful rock, encompassed round with precipices, some three hundred fathoms high. Not so the islanders, who are wrongly called a savage set of mortals; no, they came in quest of him after so bitter a night, not doubting to find him, but fearing to find him in a lamentable condition; they hunted and ransacked every little hole and corner in the rock, but all in vain. In one place they saw a great slaughter of fowls, enough to serve forty families for a week; and then they guessed, though they had not the ill fortune to meet the eagles frequently noted to hover about those isles, that they might have devoured part of him on some precipice of the rock, and dropped the remnant into the sea. Night came upon them, and they were afraid of falling into the same disaster they went to relieve Mr. Campbell from. They returned each to their proper basket, and were drawn up safe by their respective friends, who were amazed that one basket was drawn up empty which was let down for Mr. Campbell, and that there was not the least intelligence to be had concerning him, but the suppositious story of his having been devoured by eagles. The story was told at home; and with the lamentation of the whole family, and all his friends, he was looked upon to be murdered or dead.

Return we now to Mr. Archibald Campbell, still alive, and on board the Holland vessel; secure, as he thought within himself that, from the delivery he lately had by the gift of Providence, he was not intended to be liable to any more misfortunes and dangers of life, in the compass of so small a voyage. But his lot was placed otherwise in the book of fate, than he too fondly imagined: his time of happiness was dated some pages lower down, and more rubs and difficulties were to be encountered with, before his stars intended to lead him to the port of felicity. Just as he arrived within sight of Amsterdam, a terrible storm arose, and, in danger of their lives, for many hours, they weathered out the tempest; and a calm promising fair afresh, they made to the coast of Zealand; but a new hurricane prevented the ship from coming there also; and after having lost their masts and rigging, they were driven into Lapland. There they went ashore in order to careen and repair their ship, and take in provisions; while the ship was repairing by the Dutch, our islander made merry with the inhabitants, being the most inclined to their superstitious customs; he there became acquainted with a very beautiful woman, who fell in love with him, and after a very short space of time he married her. About the time when the ship departed, his wife, who was very rich, was big with child of a son, namely, Mr. Duncan Campbell. He wrote a letter by the master of the vessel to his parents in Shetland, concerning the various adventures he had met with, which was delivered the June following, about the time of fishing, to his parents, and several persons had copies thereof, and, for aught I know, some retain them to this very day; sure I am that many remember the particulars of this, surprising affair, who are now living in that island.

The letter being very remarkable and singular in all its circumstances, I shall present it to the reader word for word, as it was given into my hands, together with some others which he wrote afterwards, in all which I am assured by very credible persons, and undoubted authorities, there are not the least alterations, but what the version of it from the then Scotch manner of expression into a more modern English dress, made absolutely necessary.

MY DEAREST FATHER,

The same odd variety of accident, which put it out of my power to
be personally present with you for so long a time, put it
likewise out of my power to write to you. At last fortune has so
ordered it, that I can send a letter to you before I can come
myself, and it is written expressly to tell you the adventures I
have met with, which have detained me this tedious space of time
from my dear father, and because the same captain of a ship that
brings you this, might as easily have brought your son to speak
for himself. I shall in the next place lay before you the
necessity there is for my stay a little longer among the strange
natives of the country where I now inhabit, and where I am, in a
manner, become naturalized.

You have, no doubt of it, been informed by my companions, some of
whom I hope got safe back again, if not all, that I was lost,
where many a brave man has perished before me, by going over the
high precipices of the mountain Brassah, in a basket, sliding
down by a rope. I must suppose I have given you the anguish of a
father for a son, who you thought had lost his life by such a
foolhardy attempt, and I implore your pardon with all the power
of filial contrition, penitence, and duty. You have always showed
me such singular marks of paternal affection, that I know your
receipt of this letter will fill your heart with joy, and cause
you to sign me an absolution and free pardon for all the errors I
have committed, and think the sufferings I have undergone for my
rashness and indiscretion, a sufficient atonement for my crime of
making you by my undutifulness, a partner of my sorrows. To free
you the more from this uneasiness, I know I need only tell you,
that every grief of mine is gone excepting one, which is, that I
must still lose the pleasure of seeing you a little longer. There
was never surely a more bitter night than that which must by me
be for ever remembered, when I was lost in the mountain of
Brassah, where I must, for aught I know, have lived for ever a
wild single inhabitant, but that the storm which made the night
so uneasy to me, rendered the first approach of daylight, beyond
measure delightful. The first providential glimpse of the morning
gave me a view of a ship driven by the tempest into a creek of
the rock, that was by nature formed like a harbour; a miraculous
security of deliverance, as I thought, both for the ship's crew
and myself. I made all the haste I could, you may be sure, to
them, and I found them to be Dutchmen that were come for fish;
but in lieu of fish I instructed them to load it with eggs and
fowl, which we compassed very happily in a short space of time,
and I was to be a sharer with the captain in the lading, and
bargained to go for Holland, to see the sale, and nature of the
traffic; but when we were at sea, after much bad weather, we made
towards Zealand, but we were driven upon the coast of Finland by
a new storm, and thence into Lapland, where I now am, and from
whence I send you this letter.

I could not come into a place so properly named for my reception;
as I had been undutiful to you, and fortune seemed to make me an
exile, or a banished man, by way of punishment for the vices of
my youth; so Lapland (which is a word originally derived from the
Finland word _lappi_, that is, exiles, and from the Sweden word
_lap_, signifying banished, from which two kingdoms most of our
inhabitants were banished hither, for not embracing the Christian
religion), was certainly the properest country in the world to
receive me.

When first I entered this country, I thought I was got into quite
another world; the men are all of them pigmies to our tall,
brawny Highlanders; they are, generally speaking, not above three
cubits high, insomuch that though the whole country of Lapland is
immensely large, and I have heard it reckoned by the inhabitants
to be above a hundred German leagues in length, and fourscore and
ten in breadth, yet I was the tallest man there, and looked upon
as a giant. The district in which I live now, is called Uma
Lapmark. You must understand, sir, that when I landed at North
Cape, in Kimi Lapmark, another district of Lapland, there was at
that time a most beautiful lady come to see a sick relation of
her father's, who was prefect, or governor of Uma Lapmark, which
is a post of great distinction. This lady, by being frequently in
the company of French merchants, who traffic now and then in that
province of Uma Lapmark, understood French, and having heard of a
man six foot and a half high, desired to see me, and when I
came, she happened mightily to like my person; and she talked
French, which when I answered, she made great signs of joy, that
she could communicate her sentiments to me, and she told me who
she was, how rich, and that not one in the company besides could
understand a syllable we said, and so I might speak my mind
freely to her; she told me the customs of the country, that it
was divided into cantons, like our shires, and those cantons into
rekars, or certain grounds allotted to families, that are just
like our clans. As she was beyond measure beautiful, she was
extremely good humoured, a thing rarely to be met among Lapland
women, of a better stature than her country women, and very rich,
and of good birth: I thought it would be a prodigious turn of
fortune, for a man in my circumstances, if I could make any
progress in her heart, which she seemed a little to open to me,
in such a manner, for the beginning, as if such a successful
event, if managed with prudence, might not be despaired off.
Souls that are generous are apt to love, and compassion is the
best introducer of love into a generous bosom, and that was the
best stock I had to go upon in my courtship! I told her of all my
calamities, my dangers, and my escapes; the goodness of my birth,
as being allied to one of the greatest nobles in our island; and
still she would ask me to tell it her over again, though every
time I told it, just at such and such passages, she was forced to
drop the tears from her eyes. In fine, I grew more in love with
her, more out of a sense of gratitude now, than by the power of
her charms before; the matter in a few days went so far, that she
owned to me I had her heart. As to marriage, I did not then know
the custom of the nation; I thought that if it proved only
dangerous to me, I loved her so well that I intended to marry
her, though the law was to pronounce me dead for it; but I did
not know whether it might not be perilous for her too, to engage
in such a state with me, and I resolved in that case, rather to
be singly unhappy, than to involve her in distress, and make her
the fair companion of my woes. I would not tell her so, for fear
she should out of love hide from me those dangers, and therefore
using a kind sort of dissimulation, I conjured her to tell me the
laws and customs of marriages in that country to a tittle, and
that nothing should hinder us from happiness. She told me
exactly, as I find since. Our marriage, said she, will be very
hard to compass; provided we follow the strict rule of the
country. For our women here, are bound not to see the man who
makes their addresses to them, in some time. His way of courtship
is to come to the parents, and his nearest friends and relations
must make her father presents, and supplicate him like a king, to
grant him his daughter. The courtship often lasts two or three
years, and sometimes has not its effect at last; but if it has,
the woman is dragged by her father and brother to church, as
unwilling to go to be married, which is looked upon as a greater
part of modesty in her, according to the greater disinclination
she shows. My father and brother, said she, will both be against
it; you have no relations in this country to move your suit, I
cannot be so hypocritical as to be dragged unwillingly to him I
own I desire for my lawful husband, and therefore, as I have an
inclination to you, and I dare own I have, I will not follow
those methods which I disapprove. I have talked with several
Swedes, and several polite Frenchmen, about their manner of
espousals, and I am told, that when souls are naturally united by
affection, the couple so mutually and reciprocally loving, though
they had rather have their parents' leave if likely to be got,
yet, unwilling to be disappointed, only go to the next minister's
and marry for better for worse. This way I approve of, for where
two persons naturally love each other, the rest is nothing but a
modest restraint to their wishes, and since it is only custom, my
own reason teaches me there is no error committed, nor any harm
done in breaking through it upon so commendable an occasion. I
have, added she, a thousand rein-deer belonging to me, beyond my
father's power of taking away, and a third share in a rekar or
clan, that is ten leagues in compass, in the byar or canton of
Uma Lapmark. This is at my own disposal, and it is all your own,
if you please to accept of it with me. Our women are very coy,
when they are courted, though they have never so much an
inclination to their suitor; but good reason and the commerce I
have had with persons of politer nations than ours is, teach me
that this proceeds entirely from vanity and affectation, and the
greatest proof of a woman's modesty, chastity, and sincerity,
certainly consists, contrary to the general corrupted opinion, in
yielding up herself into the arms of the man she loves. For she
that can dally with a heart she prizes, can give away her heart,
when she is once balked, to any man, even though she dislikes
him. You must judge, my dear father, I must be touched with a
woman that was exceeding beautiful, beyond any of her nation, and
who had thoughts as beautiful as her person. I therefore was all
in rapture, and longed for the matrimony, but still loved her
enough to propose the question, I resolved, to her, viz., if it
would not be in her nation accounted a clandestine marriage, and
prove of great damage to her.

To this she answered with all the wisdom which could be expected
from a woman who had given such eminent tokens of her judgment on
other points, amidst a nation so barbarous in its manners, and so
corrupt in its principles, as Lapland is. I am, said she,
answerable to my father, for nothing by our laws, having no
portion of him, but only what was presented me by my relations at
my birth, according to custom, in lands and rein-deer. My father
is but deputy governor; it is a Swede who is the governor of Uma;
and if I pay to him at every mart and fair the due tribute, which
must either consist of fifty rein-deer or one hundred and fifty
rixdollars, he will have the priest that marries us present at
the court of justice, according to our custom, and keep us in
possession of our rights, that we may be enabled to pay tribute
to the crown of Sweden. Indeed, before the abolition of the
Birkarti, which were our native judges, we could not have married
thus without danger to us both; but now there is none at all.

My dear father, you must easily imagine that I could not help
embracing with all tenderness so dear and so lovely a woman. In
fine, I am married to her, I have lived very happy hitherto, and
am now grown more happy, for she is big with child; and likely,
before my letter comes to your hands, to make you a grandfather
of a pretty boy. You will perhaps wonder that I name the sex of
the child before it comes into the world, but we have a way in
Lapland of finding that out, which though some judicious people
call superstitious, I am really persuaded of by experience, and
therefore I indulged my dear wife's curiosity, when she signified
to me she had a mind to make the usual trial, whether the child
she was going to be delivered of would be a boy or a girl.

You must understand, my dear father, the people here judge of
the sex of the child by the moon, unto which they compare a
big-bellied woman. If they see a star appear just above the moon,
it is a sign it will be a boy, but, if the star be just below the
moon, they conjecture her to be big with a girl. This observation
and remark of Laplanders has, I know, been accounted by some, and
those wise and judicious men too, to be ridiculously
superstitious; but I have been led into an easy belief of this
mystery, by a mistress that is superior to wisdom itself,
constant, and therefore probably infallible, experience. I
therefore indulged my wife in this her request, and went with her
to the ceremony; the star appeared above the moon, which
prognosticates a boy, which I wish may, and I scarce doubt will,
prove true, and when she is brought to bed I will send you word
of it. It is remarkable, likewise, that a star was seen just
before the moon, which we also count a very good omen. For it is
a custom likewise here in Lapland, to consult the moon, as an
oracle about the health and vigour of the child. If a star be
seen just before the moon, we count it a sign of a lusty and well
grown child, without blemish; if a star comes just after, we
reckon it a token that the child will have some defect or
deformity, or die soon after it is born.

Having thus told you the manners of the country I live in at
present, as much at large as the nature of a letter will permit,
and related to you my own happy circumstances, and the kindly
promises of the heavens that are ushering in the birth of my
child, I would not have you think that I addict myself to the
superstitions of the country, which are very many and groundless,
and arising partly from the remainder of Pagan worship, which is
still cultivated among some of the more obstinate inhabitants. I
have, on the contrary, since I married her, endeavoured to repay
my wife's temporal blessings to me with those that are endless,
instructed her in all the points of religion, and made her
perfectly a Christian; and she, by her devotion and prayers for
me, makes me such amends for it that I hope in us two St. Paul's
saying will be verified, viz., "That the woman shall be
sanctified in her husband, and the husband shall be sanctified in
his wife."

However, I must take notice in this place, with all due deference
to Christianity, that though I am obliged to applaud the prudence
and piety of Charles the Ninth of Sweden, who, constituting
Swedish governors over this country, abrogated their practice of
superstitions and art magic upon pain of death, yet that king
carried the point too far, and intermingled with these arts the
pretensions to the gift of a second-sight, which you know how
frequent it is with us in Scotland, and which, I assure you, my
wife (though she durst not publicly own it for fear of incurring
the penalty of those Swedish laws) does, as it were, inherit (for
all her ancestors before her have had it from time immemorial) to
a greater degree than ever I knew any of our countrywomen or
countrymen.

One day last week she distracted me between the extremes of joy
and sorrow. She told me I should see you shortly, and that my
coming son would grow to be one of the most remarkable men in
England and Scotland, for his power of foresight; but that I
should speedily lose her, and meet with difficulties in my own
country, in the same manner as my father, meaning you, sir, had
done before me, and on the same account, viz., of civil broils,
and intestine wars in Scotland.

These unfortunate parts of her relation I would not conceal from
you, because the veracity of her notions should appear, if they
are true, though you may be sure I much wish they all may prove
false to the very last; excepting that wherein she tells me, my
son will be greatly remarkable, and that I shall shortly see my
dear father, which I daily long for, and will endeavour to do as
soon as possible. Pray remember me to all friends; being,

Honoured sir,
Your most dutiful and loving son,
ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL.

* * * * *

THE SECOND LETTER.

I am now the happiest man alive; the prosperous part of my wife's
predictions, which I mentioned to you in my last, is come in some
measure to pass. The child she has brought me proves a boy, and
as fine a one as I ever beheld, (if fondness for my own makes me
not blind); and sure it cannot be fondness, because other plain
circumstances joined at his birth to prove it a more than
ordinary remarkable one. He was born with a caul upon his head,
which we count one of the luckiest signs that can be in nature;
he had likewise three teeth ready cut through the gums, and we
reckon that an undeniable testimony and promise given to the
world by nature, that she intends such a person for her
extraordinary favourite, and that he is born for great things,
which I daily beg of heaven may come to pass.

Since I have known for some months what it is to be a father, it
adds a considerable weight to those affections which I had for my
wife. I thought that my tenderness for her was at the height of
perfection before; which shows how little we know of those parts
of nature that we have yet never tried, and of which we have not
yet been allotted our share to act upon the stage of life. I find
that I did love her then as well as a husband could love a wife,
that is, a wife without a child; but the love to a wife that has
a child, is a feeling wonderful and inexpressibly different. A
child is the seal and the pledge of love. Meditating upon this,
has likewise doubled my affection to you. I loved you before, as
a son, and because as such, I felt your tenderness; but my love
is much increased now, because I know the tenderness which you
felt for me as a father. With these pleasing images of thought, I
often keep you nearer company at this vast distance, than when I
lived irregularly under your eye. These reflections render a
solitary life dear to me. And though I have no manner of
acquaintance with her relations, who hate me, as I am told, nor
indeed with almost any of the inhabitants, but my own domestics,
and those I am forced to deal with, yet I have as much, methinks,
as I wish for, unless I could come over to Shetland and live with
you, which I the more ardently desire, because I think I and my
wife could be true comforts to you, in your advanced years; now I
know what living truly is. I am daily persuading my wife to go
with me; but she denies me with kind expressions, and says, she
owes too much to the place, however less pleasant in itself than
other climates, where she had the happiness of first joining
hands with me in wedlock, ever to part from it. But I must
explain how I ask, and how she refuses. I resolved never directly
and downrightly to ask her, because I know she can refuse me
nothing; and that would be bearing hard upon the goodness of her
will. But my way of persuading her consists in endeavouring to
make her in love with the place, by agreeable descriptions of
it, and likewise of the humane temper of the people; so that I
shortly shall induce her to signify to me that it is her own will
to come with me, and then I shall seem rather to consent to her
will, than to have moved it over to my own. These hopes I have of
seeing my dear father very shortly, and I know such news would
make this letter, which I therefore send, more acceptable to him,
to whom I will be,

A most dutiful and
affectionate son, till death,
ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL.

P.S. If I cannot bring my wife to change this country for
another, I have brought her to that pitch of devotion, that
whenever Providence, which, notwithstanding her predictions, I
hope will be long yet, shall call her to change this world for
another, it will be happy with her there; she joins with me in
begging your blessing to me, herself, and our little Duncan, whom
we christened so, out of respect to the name you bear.

* * * * *

THE THIRD LETTER.

MY DEAR FATHER,

I am lost in grief; I had just brought my wife (her that was my
wife, for I have none now, I have lost all joy), in the mind of
coming over to be a comfort to you. But now grief will let me say
no more than that I am coming to beg comfort from you, and by
this I prepare you to receive, when he comes, a son in tears and
mourning.

ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL.

P.S. I have a babe, not much above two years old, must bear the
hardships of travelling over the ice, and all through Muscovy,
for no ships can stir here for many months; and I cannot bear to
live in this inhospitable place, where she died, that only could
make it easy to me, one moment beyond the first opportunity I
have of leaving it. She is in heaven; that should make me easy,
but I cannot; I am not so good a Christian as she was--I am lost
and ruined.