The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campell

Here the author adds many other instances concerning the second-sight, of which I shall set down only a few.

A man in Knockow, in the parish of St. Mary's, the northernmost part of Skye, being in perfect health, and sitting with his fellow-servants at night, was on a sudden taken ill, dropped from his seat backward, and then fell a vomiting; at which the family was much concerned, he having never been subject to the like before; but he came to himself soon after, and had no sort of pain about him. One of the family, who was accustomed to see the second-sight, told them that the man's illness proceeded from a very strange cause, which was thus: An ill-natured woman, whom he named, who lives in the next adjacent village of Bornskittag, came before him in a very angry and furious manner, her countenance full of passion, and her mouth full of reproaches, and threatened him with her head and hands, till he fell over, as you have seen him. This woman had a fancy for the man, but was like to be disappointed as to her marrying of him. This instance was told the author by the master of the family, and others who were present when it happened.

Sir Norman Macleod and some others, playing at tables, at a game called in Irish, Falmermore, wherein there are three of a side, and each of them throw the dice by turns, there happened to be one difficult point in the disposing of one of the tablemen; this obliged the gamester to deliberate before he was to change his man, since upon the disposing of it, the winning or losing of the game depended; at length the butler, who stood behind, advised the player where to place the man, with which he complied, and won the game. This being thought extraordinary, and Sir Norman hearing one whisper him in the ear, asked who advised him so skilfully? He answered it was the butler; but this seemed more strange, for it was generally thought he could not play at tables. Upon this Sir Norman asked him how long it was since he had learned to play? and the fellow owned that he had never played in his life, but that he saw the spirit Brownie, a spirit usually seen in that country, reaching his arm over the player's head, and touching the part with his finger where the tableman was to be placed. This was told the author by Sir Norman, and others who happened to be present at the time.

Daniel Bow, alias Black, an inhabitant of Bornskittag, who is one of the precisest seers in the Isles, foretold the death of a young woman in Minginis, within less than twenty-four hours before the time, and accordingly she died suddenly in the fields, though at the time of the prediction she was in perfect health; but the shroud appearing close about her head, was the ground of his confidence that her death was at hand.

The same person foretold the death of a child in his master's arms, by seeing a spark of fire fall on his left arm; and this was likewise accomplished soon after the prediction.

Some of the inhabitants of Harris, sailing round the Isle of Skye, with a design to go to the opposite mainland, were strangely surprised with an apparition of two men hanging down by the ropes that secured the mast, but could not conjecture what it meant; they pursued their voyage, but the wind turning contrary, they were forced into Broad-ford, in the Isle of Skye, where they found Sir Donald Macdonald keeping a sheriff's court, and two criminals receiving sentence of death there. The ropes and mast of that very boat were made use of to hang those criminals. This was told the author by several, who had this instance related to them by the boat's crew.

Several persons, living in a certain family, told the author that they had frequently seen two men standing at a gentle-woman's left hand, who was their master's daughter; they told the men's names, and being her equals, it was not doubted but she would be married to one of them; and perhaps to the other after the death of the first. Some time after a third man appeared, who seemed always to stand nearest to her of the three, but the seers did not know him, though they could describe him exactly; and within some months after, this man who was seen last, actually came to the house, and fully answered the description given of him by those who never saw him but in a vision; and he married the woman shortly after. They live in the Isle of Skye, and both themselves and others confirmed the truth of this instance when the author saw them.

Archibald Macdonald, of the parish of St. Mary's, in the Isle of Skye, being reputed famous in his skill of foretelling things to come, by the second-sight, happening to be in the village Knockow one night, and before supper, told the family that he had just then seen the strangest thing he ever saw in his life, viz., a man with an ugly long cap, always shaking his head; but that the strangest of all was a little kind of a harp which he had, with four strings only, and that it had two hart's horns fixed in the front of it. All that heard this odd vision fell a laughing at Archibald, telling him that he was dreaming, or had not his wits about him, since he pretended to see a thing which had no being, and was not so much as heard of in any part of the world. All this could not alter Archibald's opinion, who told them that they must excuse him if he laughed at them after the accomplishment of the vision. Archibald returned to his own house, and within three or four days after, a man with a cap, harp, &c., came to the house, and the harp, strings, horns, and cap, answered the description of them at first view, and he shook his head when he played; for he had two bells fixed to his cap. This harper was a poor man, who made himself a buffoon for his bread, and was never seen before in those parts, and at the time of the prediction he was in the Isle of Barray, which is about twenty leagues distant from that part of Skye. This relation is vouched by Mr. Daniel Martin, and all his family, and such as were then present; and they live in the village where this happened.

One Daniel Nicholson, minister of St. Mary's, in Skye, the parish in which Mr. Archibald Macdonald lived, told the author, that one Sunday, after sermon, at the chapel Uge, he took an occasion to inquire of Archibald, if he still retained that unhappy faculty of seeing the second-sight, and wished him to get rid of it, if possible; for, said he, it is no true character of a good man. Archibald was highly displeased, and answered, that he hoped he was no more unhappy than his neighbours, for seeing what they could not perceive. I had, said he, as serious thoughts as my neighbours in time of hearing a sermon to-day, and even then I saw a corpse laid on the ground, close to the pulpit; and I assure you it will be accomplished shortly, for it was in the day-time. There were none in the parish then sick, and few are buried at that little chapel, nay, sometimes, not one in a year. Yet when Mr. Nicholson returned to preach in the said chapel, a fortnight or three weeks after, he found one buried in the very spot named by Archibald. This story is vouched by Mr. Nicholson the minister, and several of the parishioners still living.

Note, that it is counted by many an argument of somewhat evil attending upon this faculty of the second-sight, because there are instances given of some persons who have been freed of it upon using some Christian practices; but I shall hereafter show that this opinion cannot be entirely true.

Sir Norman Macleod, who has his residence in the Isle of Bernera, which lies between the isles of North Uist and Harris, went to the Isle of Skye about business, without appointing any time for his return; his servants, in his absence, being altogether in the large hall at night; one of them, who had the second-sight, told the rest they must remove, for there would be abundance of other company in the hall that night. One of his fellow-servants answered that there was very little likelihood of that, because of the darkness of the night, and the danger of coming through the rocks that lie round the isle; but within an hour after, one of Sir Norman's men came to the house, bidding them provide lights, &c., for his master had newly landed.

Sir Norman being told of this, called for the seer and examined him about it. He answered, that he had seen the spirit Brownie, in human shape, come several times and make a show of carrying an old woman, that sat by the fire, to the door, and at last seemed to carry her out by neck and heels, which made him laugh heartily, and gave occasion to the rest to conclude him mad, to laugh so much without any reason. This instance was told the author by Sir Norman himself.

Four men from the Isle of Skye and Harris went to Barbadoes, and stayed there some years; who though they had wont to see the second-sight in their native country, never saw it in Barbadoes; but upon their return to England, the first night after their landing, they saw the second-sight; as the author was told by several of their acquaintance.

John Morrison, who lives in Bernera, of Harris, wears the plant called fuga dæmonum sewed in the neck of his coat, to prevent his seeing of visions, and says, he never saw any since he first carried that plant about him.

A spirit, by the country people called Brownie, was frequently seen in all the most considerable families in the isles, and north of Scotland, in the shape of a tall man, having very long brown hair; but within these twenty years past he has been seen but rarely.

There were spirits also that appeared in the shape of women, horses, swine, cats, and some like fiery bulls, which would follow men in the fields; but there have been but few instances of these for upwards of forty years past.

These spirits used also to form sounds in the air, resembling those of a harp, pipes, crowing of a cock, and of the grinding of hand-mills; and sometimes voices have been heard in the air at night, singing Irish songs; the words of which songs some of the author's acquaintances still retain; one of them resembled the voice of a woman who died some time before, and the song related to her state in the other world. All these accounts, the author says, he had from persons of as great integrity as any are in the world. So far Mr. Martin, whose account is so long, that I have given the reader only a short abridgment thereof; and shall therefore satisfy myself, without relating any further passages, by directing the reader to others also, learned men, who have written on the same subject. Laurentius Ananias printed a volume in Latin, at Venice, anno 1581, about the nature of demons; where, in the third book, he writes concerning the second-sight. The learned Camerarius does the like, and names a person of his own acquaintance whom he testifies to have had that gift. St. Austin himself testifies something (not very different from what we now call the gift of the second-sight) of one Curina, who lived in the country of Hippo, in Africa. Bonaysteau tells us something like it in his Disc. de Excell. et Dig. Hominis, concerning the spirit of Hermotimus. So do likewise Herodotus and Maximus Tyrius, about the spirit of Aristæus. Cardan does the same in his De Rerum Variet. 1. 8. c. 84, of his kinsman Baptista Cardan, a student at Pavia. Baptista Fulgosus tells us of what we call the second-sight, in other words, in his Fact. et Dict. Memorab. 1. i. c. 6. Among our own countrymen, the Lord Henry Howard, in the book he writ against supposed prophecies, in his seventeenth chapter, tells us a wonderful story of this kind of sight; and sure that noble lord may be looked upon as an unexceptionable testimony, in a story he relates of his own knowledge, he having otherwise little faith in things of this kind. Mr. Cotton Mather, a minister of New England, in his relation of the wonders of the invisible world, inserted in his Ecclesiastical History of that country, printed in London, anno 1702, in folio, has given us several instances of this kind, as also of many other diabolical operations. Mr. Baxter's book concerning The Certainty of the World of Spirits, has the like proofs in it. Mr. Aubrey, Fellow of the Royal Society, has written largely concerning second-sighted persons; so has Mr. Beaumont, in his book of Genii and Familiar Spirits, who has collected almost all the other accounts together; and many others, whose very names it would be tedious to recite. However, as there are a few more passages, very curious in themselves, I will venture so far upon the reader's patience, as not only to recite the names of the authors, but the accounts themselves, in as succinct and brief a manner as it is possible for any one to do.

Mr. Th. May, in his History, lib. viii. writes, that an old man, like a hermit, second-sighted, took his leave of king James I. when he came into England; he took little notice of Prince Henry, but addressing himself to the Duke of York, since King Charles I., fell a weeping to think what misfortunes he should undergo; and that he should be one of the most miserable and most unhappy princes that ever was.

A Scotch nobleman sent for one of these second-sighted men out of the Highlands, to give his judgment of the then great George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. As soon as ever he saw him; Pish, said he, he will come to nothing, I see a dagger in his breast; and he was stabbed in the breast by Captain Felton, as has been at large recounted in some of the foregoing pages.

Sir James Melvin hath several the like passages in his history.

A certain old man in South Wales, told a great man there of the fortune of his family, and that there should not be a third male generation. It has fallen out accordingly.

Sir William Dugdale with his own mouth informed several gentlemen, that Major-General Middleton (since lord) went into the Highlands of Scotland to endeavour to make a party for King Charles I. An old gentleman, that was second-sighted, came and told him that his endeavour was good, but he would be unsuccessful; and, moreover, that they would put the king to death; and that several other attempts would be made, but all in vain; but that his son would come in, but not reign in a long time; but would at last be restored. This Lord Middleton had a great friendship with the laird Bocconi, and they made an agreement, that the first of them that died should appear to the other in extremity. The Lord Middleton was taken prisoner at Worcester fight, and was prisoner in the Tower of London, under three locks. Lying in his bed, pensive, Bocconi appeared to him; my Lord Middleton asked him if he were dead or alive? He said, Dead; and that he was a ghost; and told him that within three days he should escape, and he did so, in his wife's clothes; when he had done his message, he gave a frisk, and said —

Givanni, Givanni, 'tis very strange,In the world to see so sudden a change;

and then gathered up and vanished. This account Sir William Dugdale had from the Bishop of Edinburgh; and this account he hath writ in a book of Miscellanies, which is now reposited, with other books of his, in the Museum at Oxford.

Thus the reader sees what great authorities may be produced to prove that wonderful and true predictions have been delivered by many persons gifted with the second-sight. The most learned men in almost all nations, who are not in all likelihood deceived themselves; the most celebrated and authentic historians, and some divines in England, who, it is not to be thought, have combined together and made it their business to obtrude upon us falsehoods; persons of all ranks, from the highest to the lowest, in Scotland, who, it would be even madness to think would join in a confederacy to impose tricks upon us, and to persuade us to the greatest of impostures as solemn truths delivered from their own mouths; all these, I say, have unanimously, and, as it were, with one voice, asserted, repeated, and confirmed to us, that there have been at all times, and in many different nations, and that still there are persons, who, possessed with the gift of a second sight, predict things that wonderfully come to pass; and seem to merit very little less than the name of prophets for their miraculous discoveries. Now, if any man should come, and without giving the least manner of reason for it (for there is no reason to be given against such assertions), declare his disbelief of all these authentic, though strange accounts, can he with reason imagine that his incredulity shall pass for a token of wisdom? Shall his obstinacy confute the learned? Shall his want of faith be thought justly to give the lie to so many persons of the highest honour and quality, and of the most undoubted integrity? In fine, shall his infidelity, by a reverse kind of power to that which is attributed to the philosopher's stone, be able to change the nature of things, turn and transmute truth into falsehood, and make a downright plain matter of fact to be no more than a chimera, or an ens rationis? And shall a manifest experience be so easily exploded?

Taking it, therefore, for granted, that no modest man whatsoever, though never so hard of belief, which is certainly as great a weakness as that of too much credulity, will make bold openly to declare his disbelief of things so well attested; and taking it much more for granted still, that it is impossible for any man of common sense to have the front of declaring his disbelief of them in such a manner as to urge it for an argument and a reason why others should disbelieve them too; taking this, I say, as I think I very well may, for granted, I think there remains nothing farther for me to offer, before I conclude this chapter, except a few remarks as to the similitude there is between those actions which I have related above to have been performed by Mr. Campbell, and these actions which so many learned, ingenious, and noble authors, as I have just now quoted, have asserted to have been performed by persons whom they knew to be gifted with the second-sight.

As to what is said several pages above, concerning Duncan Campbell when a boy at Edinburgh, that he even told his little companions who would have success at their little matches when they played at marbles, and that he informed a great gamester there, whose name I have disguised under that of Count Cog, what times he should choose to play if he would win, as ludicrous as it may have appeared to be, and as much as it may have seemed to my readers to carry with it nothing better than the face of invention and the air of fiction, yet if they will be at the pains of comparing that passage of Duncan Campbell's with the account given in this chapter from the mouth of Sir Norman Macleod, concerning a man, who, though he never played at tables in his life, instructed a skilful gamester, when he was at a stand, to place one of his men right, upon which the whole game depended, which the ignorant fellow, when asked how he came to do it, said he was directed to by the spirit Brownie; whoever, I say, will be at the pains of comparing these passages together, will find they bear a very near resemblance, and that the way we may most reasonably account for Duncan Campbell's prediction when he was a boy, must be, that he was at that time directed by his little genius or familiar spirit, which I described in the precedent pages, as this fellow was by the spirit Brownie, according to Sir Norman Macleod's assertion; which spirit Brownie, as Mr. Martin, a very good and credited writer, assures us, in his History of the Western Islands, dedicated to the late Prince George of Denmark, is a spirit usually seen all over that country.

If the reader recollects, he will remember likewise, that in the little discourse which I mentioned to have been held between me and this Duncan Campbell, when a boy, concerning his little genius, I there say, the boy signified to me that he smelt venison, and was sure that some one would come to his mother's house shortly after; accordingly I came thither that morning from the death of a deer, and ordered a part of it to be brought after me to her house. Now Mr. Martin's twelfth observation about the second-sight, in this chapter, clears it plainly up that this knowledge in the boy proceeded from the gift of second-sight. Not to give the reader too often the trouble of looking back in order to judge of the truth of what I say, I will here repeat that observation, which is as follows: Things are also foretold by smelling sometimes: for example, fish or flesh is frequently smelt in the fire, when, at the same time, neither of the two are in the house, or, in any probability, like to be had in it for some weeks or months. This smell several persons have, who are, endued with the second-sight, and it is always accomplished soon after.

But I will here omit any farther remarks by way of accounting how he compassed his predictions when a boy, either by the intervention of his genius, or the gift of a second-sight; and examine how nearly those things, which I have related to have been done by him in his more advanced years, when he took up the profession of a predictor, in London, correspond with the accounts given us in this chapter about a second-sight, and how near a resemblance the things done by him bear to those things that are so well attested to have been performed by others, through the efficacious power of this wonderful faculty.

First, then, if we have a mind to make a tolerable guess which way Mr. Campbell came acquainted that the death of the beautiful young lady, Miss W – lw – d was so near at hand, and that, though she was so universally admired she would die unmarried, the accounts given of other second-sighted persons in the like cases, will put us in the most probable way of guessing right. This is explained by the seventh observation in this chapter, where it is said from Mr. Martin, that when a shroud is perceived about one, it is a sure prognostic of death; the time is judged according to the height of it, about the person; for if it be not seen above the middle, death is not to be expected for the space of a year or longer, but as it comes nearer to the head it is expected sooner; if to the very head, it is concluded to be at hand within a few days, if not hours. Of this we have an example, of which Mr. Martin was an eye-witness, concerning the death of his own acquaintance; but he did not in the least regard it, till the death of the person, about the time foretold, confirmed to him the certainty of the prediction.

Secondly, as to the ignominious death that Irwin came to, and which he predicted to his mother so long before, when she was in flourishing circumstances, and when there was no appearance that any of her children should be brought to a beggarly condition, and learn among base gangs of company to thieve, and be carried to the gallows; the story told in this chapter of some of the inhabitants of Harris, sailing round the Isle of Skye, and seeing the apparition of two men hanging by the ropes on the mast of their vessel, and when they came to the opposite mainland, finding two criminals just sentenced to death by Sir Donald Macdonald, and seeing their own very mast and ropes made choice of for their execution, clears up the manner how Mr. Campbell might predict this of Irwin likewise, by the force of the second-sight.

Thirdly, as to Mr. Campbell's telling Christallina the belle and chief toast of the court, and Urbana the reigning beauty of the city, that they should shortly be married, and who were to be their husbands, it is a thing he has done almost every day in his life to one woman or other, that comes to consult him about the man she is to be married to; the manner he probably takes in doing this may be likewise explained by the foregoing story in this chapter about the servants, who said they saw three men standing by the left hand of their master's daughter; and that he that was nearest would marry her first, whom they plainly and exactly described, though they had never seen him but in their vision, as appeared afterwards. For within some months after, the very man described did come to the house, and did marry her. Vide the eighth observation of the second-sight.

Fourthly, as to the predictions delivered by Mr. Campbell to the merchant, which are set down at length in the foregoing chapter, I know no better way at guessing the manner how the second-sight operated in him at that time, than by comparing them to these two instances, which I briefly repeat because they are set down at length before, in this chapter. And first it may be asked, how did the second-sight operate in Mr. Campbell, when it gave him to know that the merchant's ships, which repeated intelligences had in appearance confirmed to be lost, were at that time safe, and would return securely home into the harbour designed? The best way of accounting for it, that I know, is by the story that Sir Norman Macleod is above affirmed to have told with his own mouth, concerning a servant of his, who rightly foretold his returning home and landing on the Isle of Bernera one night, where his residence is, when there was very little or no likelihood of it, because of the darkness of the night, and the danger of coming through the rocks that lie round the isle. When Sir Norman examined him about it, he answered that he knew it by a vision of the spirit Brownie; and hence it may be the most probably conjectured that Mr. Campbell's knowledge of the merchant's ships being safe came from a vision of his particular genius, or familiar spirit, which we spoke of before. What I have already instanced in, is, I think, sufficient with regard to the wonderful things which Mr. Campbell has performed, either by the intervention of a genius, or the power of a second-sight. But as he has frequently done a great many amazing performances, which seem to be of such a nature that they can't be well and clearly explained to have been done either by the intervention of his familiar spirit and genius, or by the power of the second-sighted faculty, we must have recourse to the third means by which only such predictions and practises can be compassed, before we expound these new mysteries, which appear like incredible riddles, and enigmas at the first; and this third means which we must have recourse to for expounding these strange acts of his, is a due consideration of the force and power of natural magic, which, together with a narrative of the acts, which he seems magically to bring about, will be the subject of the following chapter.