LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
ST. -KILDA.
[TO THE EIOTOS OF THE "SPECTATOR.")
Sin,—My attention has just been called to two letters in reference to the island of St. Kilda which appeared in your columns on the 15th inst. One of them is written by Mrs. Robertson, who ably seconds your charitable appeal on behalf of the neglected St. Kildians, and shifts a share of the reproach to the proper shoulders. I believe the laird has never had his foot on the island, which has belonged to him and to his ancestors for centuries, an indifference that seems to me extraordinary.
I mentioned in the little book that I lately published on St. Kilda (and which you were so kind as to honour with a favourable review) that the islanders requested me several times to let their position be known in Duneidion (Edinburgh), in the hope that some charitable personage might present them with a boat large enough to make a passage to the Lewis. I fulfilled my promise
by publishing their wish in the Scotsman, but as my letter did not have the desired result, I was induced to start a subscription to buy a suitable boat. This I endeavoured to do in as private a manner as possible, thinking it would be most admirable to get the boat delivered to the St. Kildians before anything was published on the subject. By the kind assistance of my friends and by the liberality of the subscribers, I have succeeded in raising between £50 and /60. I have got a boat built, which is to coat (sails included) 140. The balance, after paying for her, will, I hope, be sufficient to defray the expense of getting her taken from Loch Fyne to St. Kilda, and also of buying a compass, anchor, large rope, chart, &c. I intend to go out in her myself, but will require to employ three of a crew. She is twenty-six feet by ten feet, and is shallow in proportion to her breadth. She is small enough for the seas she may have to encounter, but as there is no harbour in St. Kilda, and as it will be neces- sary to pull her up the rocky shore, a larger and heavier craft would have been of no use. I feel, of course, a deep interest in the experiment, and hope, before the summer is over, to see the factor's monopoly abolished and free-trade established. If this can be accomplished, I calculate that the earnings of the St. Kildians will be quadrupled, and that the luxuries as well as necessaries of life will be abundant in that long-oppressed and neglected island. I also trust that the proprietor will agree to accept payment of his rents in current coin, instead of in kind, as at present, so that the tenants may know what they are paying. But to see something of their fellow-subjects in other places may be more beneficial to the islanders than even a reform of their trade. Their intercourse with the wicked world outside will, under any circumstances, be so small, and their principles are withal so firmly rooted, that I am not afraid of their being contaminated.
With reference to the second letter, which is written by Dr. Latham, I may say that I have read it with great interest, and will not fail to communicate its contents to the St. Kildians. With all deference to him, I venture to doubt, however, if the "want of wood and coal" is the cause of the infant mortality, as the children in many places, equally destitute of such fuel, are not affected by the distemper which keeps down and threatens to extinguish the population of St. Kilda. I think the natives of the Westmanna Islands live, like the St. Kildians, on sea-fowl, and the rank diet of the mothers probably causes the deaths of the infants in both places. I am glad that the opinion I had formed on this subject is confirmed by you in the article above referred to. I intend to take a larger supply of oatmeal andfore- castle biscuits with me than will be required by myself, and if a case occurs, to give a supply to any nursing or intending mother as an experiment,—a cheap one, considering its import- ance. Trusting, for the sake of the subject, that you will find space for this letter, I am, Sir, &c.,
Ormiston, East Lotitian, April 24. J. SANDS.
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