within a pleasant valley where cattle, horses, and sheep were feeding, and
then came in sight of a castle, small but strong, where they went to the
door and knocked. No one answered, and they walked on, up a green hill,
where there were multitudes of black rabbits; but when they had reached
the top and looked around they could see no inhabitants, nor any house; on
which they returned to the sloop and told their tale. After this the whole
ship's company went ashore, except one left in charge, and they wandered
about for hours, yet saw nothing more. As night came on they made a fire
at the base of a fallen oak, near the shore, and lay around it, talking,
and smoking the lately discovered weed, tobacco; when suddenly they heard
loud noises from the direction of the castle and then all over the island,
which frightened them so that they went on board the sloop and stayed all
night.

The next morning they saw a dignified, elderly gentleman with ten unarmed
followers coming down towards the shore. Hailing the sloop, the older
gentleman, speaking Gaelic, asked who and whence they were, and being
told, invited them ashore as his guests. They went on shore, well armed;
and he embraced them one by one, telling them that they were the happiest
sight that island had seen for hundreds of years; that it was called
Hy-Brasail or O-Brazile; that his ancestors had been princes of it, but
For many years it had been taken possession of by enchanters, who kept it
almost always invisible, so that no ship came there; and that for the same
reason he and his friends were rendered unable to answer the sailors, even
when they knocked at the door; and that the enchantment must remain until
a fire was kindled on the island by good Christians. This had been done
the night before, and the terrible noises which they had heard were from
the powers of darkness, which had now left the island forever.

And indeed when the sailors were led to the castle, they saw that the