Malcolm sung an Erse song, the chorus of which was '_Hatyin foam
foam eri_', with words of his own[486]. The tune resembled '_Owr the
muir amang the heather_'. The boatmen and Mr. M'Queen chorused, and all
went well. At length Malcolm himself took an oar, and rowed vigorously.
We sailed along the coast of Scalpa, a rugged island, about four miles
in length. Dr. Johnson proposed that he and I should buy it, and found a
good school, and an episcopal church, (Malcolm[487] said, he would come
to it,) and have a printing-press, where he would print all the Erse
that could be found. Here I was strongly struck with our long
projected scheme of visiting the Hebrides being realized[488]. I called
to him, 'We are contending with seas;' which I think were the words of
one of his letters to me[489]. 'Not much,' said he; and though the wind
made the sea lash considerably upon us, he was not discomposed. After we
were out of the shelter of Scalpa, and in the sound between it and
Rasay, which extended about a league, the wind made the sea very
rough[490]. I did not like it. JOHNSON. 'This now is the Atlantick. If I
should tell at a tea table in London, that I have crossed the Atlantick
in an open boat, how they'd shudder, and what a fool they'd think me to
expose myself to such danger?' He then repeated Horace's ode,--
'Otium Divos rogat in patenti
Prensus Aegaeo----[491]'
In the confusion and hurry of this boisterous sail, Dr.
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