[1] _BEing fallen at the last in|to mention of our Iles, I will addresse my selfe to des|cribe the same, in maner and forme as followeth. In the Irish sea, betwixt Ire|land and Scotland are fortie and thrée Iles, whereof some are thirtie miles long, diuers twelue, and others more or lesse. These are called by some writers Eu|boniae, and by other Hebrides. But the principall of them all is that of Man, which lieth ouer against Galloway, & was somtime the principall seat of the Druides, as Cornelius Tacitus, Caesar in his com|mentaries, and other Romane writers doo testifie at large. North from the Ile of Man lieth Arran, o|therwise named Botha after S. Brandons time, who dwelled there in a little cottage, which (as all o|ther the like were in those daies) was called Botha. From Arran we go to Hellaw and Rothesay, which later is so named of the Scot, which brought the Scots first out of Ireland into Britaine. Not far from this Ile is Ailsay, where there is such store of soland géese as they said before to be in Bas. Be|yond Ailsay lie manie other distinguished by their se|uerall names, but full of mines, as of iron, tin, lead, & sundrie other mettals. But the most notable Ile belonging to Scotland is Ila, that lieth beyond the promontorie of Nouant cliffe (in Scotish the toong of Lorne) within sight of Lochquhabre. Certes it is a rich parcell, thirtie miles in length, and full of corne and mettall, if the people were cunning to find and trim the same.
[1] Not farre from thence is Cumbra, and Mula, ful|lie so large as Ila, both for length and breadth. In Mula is a faire spring two miles from the sea, from whence runneth a little brooke or strippet, whereof you shall read more in the description of Britaine, lib. 1. cap. 8. Neere vnto this is Iona, otherwise cal|led Columkill, in which is an abbie, wherin the kings of Scotland were commonlie buried from the time of Fergus the second, vnto Malcolme Cammof, who erected the monasterie of Dunfermelin, where since that time the most part of our kings haue béene of custome interred. Passing forward toward the northnorthwest seas, ouer against Rosse is an Ile named Lewis, 60 miles in length, in this Ile is but one fish riuer, & it is said that if a woman wade through the same at the spring of the yeere, there shall no samon be séene there for a twelue month af|ter, wheras otherwise that fish is knowne to abound there in verie great plentie. Beyond Lewis lie the Sky and the Rona, in the later whereof, it is incre|dible to saie what of seale, of pellocke and porpasse is to be séene, which are nothing abashed at the sight of any man. The last and vttermost Ile is named Hir|tha, where the eleuation of the pole is 63 degrées, and since the latitude of Man, is but 57.
[1] I conclude, that from the Ile of Man the first Ile of Albion, to Hirtha the last Ile hereof are 377 miles, after 62 miles and an halfe to each degrée, as Ptolomie hath set downe. It is named Hirtha, which in Irish soundeth so much as a shéepe in English, for herein that kind of cattell aboundeth, each one be|ing greater than any bucke, their hornes longer and thicker than of the bugle, and thereto they haue side tailes that reach vnto the earth. It is enuironed on euerie part with rochie or rockie crags, whereby few vessels may land there but at one place, where the working of the sea is oftentimes so terrible & rough, that no man dare aduenture thither without danger of his life. They that go thither therefore, doo watch their times when the sea is calme and still. In the moneth of Iune also, a priest commeth vnto them out of Leuissa, and ministreth the sacrament of bap|tisme to all the children that haue béene borne there since that moneth in the yeare precedent: which bée|ing doone, and a certeine number of masses said, he receiueth tithes of all their commodities, and then returneth home againe.
[1] [2] In the Ile of Lewis are two churches or chappels, whereof one is dedicated to saint Peter, another to saint Clement. The fame is, that so soone as the fire goeth out in this Ile, the man that is holden of most cleane and innocent life, goeth to the altar with great solemnitie, and there laieth a w [...]pe of straw, which being doone they fall all to praier, in the mid|dest whereof fire commeth downe from heauen and kindleth or setteth the same on fire. Beyond this is yet another Ile, but void of people and all other li|uing creatures, sauing a certeine kind of beasts like vnto shéepe, whose nature and forme I haue al|readie touched in the description of Britaine, and therefore omit it here for hast and breuitie sake. Be|twixt these Iles also is a right dangerous passage, sith the sea by working of opposite streames hath in|gendred a g [...]lfe, which sometimes taketh in an in|comprehensible deale of water, and sometimes ca|steth it foorth againe, by meanes whereof many ships [page 17] that by rage of wind and weather are inforced to come that waie, are either swallowed vp by the wauss, or throwne against the rocks to their vtter danger and ruine. The greatest rage of this conflu|ence is at a place called Corebrecke, where it will ei|ther sinke, or at the least wise draw any ship vnto it, though it be a full mile distant from the same.