massacre, which, at the time of its commission, excited universal
and heartfelt indignation, took place in February, 1692. About
the middle of 1691, “as the Highlanders were not yet totally
subdued, the Earl of Breadalbane undertook to bring them over by
distributing sums of money among their chiefs; and £15,000 were
accordingly remitted from England for that purpose. The clans
being informed of this, suspected that the Earl’s design was to
appropriate to himself the best part of the money; and when he
began to treat with them, they made such extravagant demands, that
he found his scheme impracticable. He had therefore to refund
the sum he had received; and resolved to wreak his vengeance on
those who had frustrated his intention. He who chiefly thwarted
him was McDonald of Glencoe, whose opposition rose from a private
circumstance, which ought to have had no effect on a treaty that
regarded the public weal. McDonald had plundered the lands of
Breadalbane during the course of hostilities; and the Earl insisted
upon being indemnified for his losses, from the other’s share of
the money which he was employed to distribute. The Highlander,
however, not only refused to acquiesce in these terms, but, by
his influence among the clans, defeated the whole scheme, and,
in revenge, Breadalbane devoted him to destruction. King William
had, by proclamation, offered an indemnity to all those who had
been in arms against him, provided they would submit and take the
oaths by a certain day; and this was prolonged to the close of
1691, with a denunciation of military execution against those who
should hold out after the end of December. McDonald, intimidated
by this declaration, repaired, on the very last day of the month,
to Fort William, and desired that the oaths might be tendered to
him by Colonel Hill, governor of that fortress. As this officer
was not vested with the power of a civil magistrate, he refused to
administer them; and McDonald set out immediately for Inverary, the
county-town of Argyle. Though the ground was covered with snow,
and the weather intensely cold, he travelled with such diligence,
that the term prescribed by the proclamation was but one day
elapsed when he reached the place, and addressed himself to Sir
John Campbell, sheriff of the county, who, in consideration of his
disappointment at Fort William, was prevailed upon to administer
the oaths to him and his adherents. Then they returned to their
own habitations in the valley of Glencoe, in full confidence of
being protected by the government, to which they had so solemnly
submitted.
Breadalbane had represented McDonald at court as an incorrigible
rebel, as a ruffian inured to bloodshed and rapine, who would never
be obedient to the laws of his country, nor live peaceably under
any sovereign. He observed, that he had paid no regard to the
proclamation, and proposed that the government should sacrifice
him to the quiet of the kingdom, in extirpating him, with his
family and dependants, by military execution. His advice was
supported by the suggestions of the other Scottish ministers; and
the King, whose chief virtue was not humanity, signed a warrant
for the destruction of those unhappy people, though it does not
appear that he knew of McDonald’s submission. An order for this
barbarous execution, signed and counter-signed by his majesty’s
own hand, being transmitted to the master of Stair, secretary for
Scotland, this minister sent particular directions to Livingstone,
who commanded the troops in that kingdom, to put the inhabitants
of Glencoe to the sword, charging him to take no prisoners, that
the scene might be more terrible. In the month of February, captain
Campbell of Glenlyon, by virtue of an order from major Duncanson,
marched into the valley of Glencoe with a company of soldiers
belonging to Argyle’s regiment, on pretence of levying the arrears
of the land-tax and hearth-money. When McDonald demanded whether
they came as friends or enemies, he answered as friends, and
promised, upon his honour, that neither he nor his people should
sustain the least injury. In consequence of this declaration, he
and his men were received with the most cordial hospitality, and
lived fifteen days with the men of the valley in all the appearance
of the most unreserved friendship. At length the fatal period
approached. McDonald and Campbell having passed the day together,
parted about seven in the evening, with mutual professions of the
warmest affection. As soon as Campbell had retired, he received the
following letter from major Duncanson, quartered at Ballachalis, a
place some distance from Glencoe. It is dated the 12th of February,
1692, and runs thus:--
“SIR,--You are hereby ordered to fall upon the rebels, the
McDonalds of Glencoe, and put all to the sword under seventy
years of age. You are to have especial care that the old fox and
his sons do upon no account escape. This you are to put into
execution at five o’clock in the morning (Saturday, the 13th)
precisely; and by that time I will strive to be with you, with a
stronger party. If I do not come to you at five, you are not to
tarry for me, but to fall on. Secure all the avenues, that not a
man may escape. _This is by the King’s especial command_, for the
good of the country, that these miscreants may be cut off, root
and branch.”
This was instantly communicated to the officers and men under his
command, and immediate preparations made for carrying the inhuman
massacre into effect.
The younger McDonald, perceiving the guards doubled, began to
suspect some treachery, and communicated his suspicion to his
brother; but neither he nor the father would harbour the least
doubt of Campbell’s sincerity; nevertheless, the two young men
went forth privately, to make farther observations. They overheard
the common soldiers say they liked not the work; that though they
would willingly have fought the McDonalds of the glen fairly in
the field, they held it base to murder them in cold blood; but
that their officers were answerable for the treachery. When the
youths hasted back to apprise their father of the impending danger,
they saw the house already surrounded; they heard the discharge of
muskets, the shrieks of women and children; and, being destitute
of arms, secured their own lives by immediate flight. The savage
ministers of vengeance had entered the old man’s chamber, and shot
him through the head. He fell down dead in the arms of his wife,
who died next day, distracted by the horror of her husband’s fate.
The laird of Auchintrincken, McDonald’s guest, who had, three
months before this period, submitted to the government, and at this
very time had a protection in his pocket, was put to death without
question. A boy of eight years, who fell at Campbell’s feet,
imploring mercy, and offering to serve him for life, was stabbed
to the heart by one Drummond, a subaltern officer. Eight and thirty
persons suffered in this manner, the greater part of whom where
surprised in their beds, and hurried into eternity before they
had time to implore the divine mercy. The design to butcher all
the males under seventy years of ago that lived in the valley,
the number of whom amounted to 200, was defeated by Duncanson not
arriving in time to secure the passes, so that one young man and
woman had nearly succeeded in escaping, and were climbing the last
rugged height of their native place, when they were discovered,
and shots immediately sent after them. Struck by one of them the
unfortunate young man made a convulsive spring, and fell headlong
into the valley below. His companion, alarmed by the report, lost
her hold, and tumbled after him. They were both killed by the fall.
Campbell, having perpetrated this brutal massacre, ordered all the
houses to be burned, made a prey of all the cattle and effects
that were found in the valley, and left the helpless women and
children, whose husbands and fathers he had murdered, naked and
forlorn, without covering, food, or shelter, in the midst of the
snow that covered the whole face of the country, at the distance of
six long miles from any inhabited place. Distracted with grief and
horror, surrounded with the shades of night, shivering with cold,
and appalled with the apprehension of immediate death from the
swords of those who had sacrificed their friends and kinsmen, they
could not endure such a complication of calamities, but generally
perished in the waste, before they could receive the least
comfort or assistance. This barbarous massacre, performed under
the sanction of King William’s authority, answered the immediate
purpose of the court, by striking terror into the hearts of the
jacobite Highlanders; but at the same time excited the horror of
all those who had not renounced every sentiment of humanity, and
produced such an aversion to the government, as all the arts of a
ministry could never totally surmount. A detail of the particulars
was published at Paris, with many exaggerations, and the jacobites
did not fail to expatiate upon every circumstance, in domestic
libels and private conversation. The King, alarmed at the outcry
which was raised on this occasion, ordered an inquiry to be set
on foot, and dismissed the master of Stair from his employment of
secretary; he likewise pretended that he had subscribed the order
amidst a heap of other papers, without knowing the purport, of it;
but as he did not severely punish those who made his authority
subservient to their own cruel revenge, the imputation stuck fast
to his character; and the Highlanders, though terrified into
silence and submission, were inspired with the most implacable
resentment against his person and administration.”
SLAUGHTER or MASSACRE OF THE MAMELUKES, March 1st, 1811.--“It has
been related, that one of the chief means employed by Mahomet Ali
in civilizing Egypt, or in improving the state of the country,
was the destruction of the Mamelukes--a class of hired foreign
soldiers, who, as usual in such cases, were opposed to all changes
in the government. It was only by resorting to a barbarous
stratagem in one of his campaigns, that the sanguinary blow was
struck. The following is an account of this sanguinary affair:
“The chiefs of the Mamelukes, with their adherents, being
assembled, by invitation from the Pacha of Egypt, within the
citadel of Cairo, after a time, according to eastern custom, coffee
was brought, and, last of all, the pipes; but at the moment when
these were presented, as if from etiquette, or to leave his guests
more at their case, Mahomet Ali rose and withdrew, and, sending
privately for the captain of his guard, gave orders that the gates
of the citadel should be closed; adding, that as soon as Siam Bey
and his two associates should come out for the purpose of mounting,
they should be fired upon till they dropped, and that at the same
signal the troops posted throughout the fortress should take aim
at, every Mameluke within their reach, while a corresponding order
was sent down at the same time to those in the town, and to such
even as were encamped without, round the foot of the fortress,
to pursue the work of extermination on all stragglers that they
should find, so that not one of the proscribed body might escape.
Siam Bey, and his two brothers in command, finding that the Pacha
did not return to them, and being informed by the attendants that
he was gone into his harem (an answer that precluded all farther
inquiry), judged it time to take their departure. But no sooner
did they make their appearance without, and were mounting their
horses, than they were suddenly fired upon from every quarter,
and all became at once a scene of confusion, and dismay, and
horror, similar volleys being directed at all the rest, who were
collected round, and preparing to return with them, so that the
victims dropped by hundreds. Siam himself had time to gain his
saddle, and even to penetrate to one of the gates of the citadel;
but all to no purpose, for he found it closed like the rest, and
fell there pierced with innumerable bullets. Another chief, Amim
Bey, who was the brother to Elfi, urged the noble animal which
he rode to an act of greater desperation, for he spurred him till
he made him clamber upon the rampart; and preferring rather to be
dashed to pieces than to be slaughtered in cold blood, drove him to
leap down the precipice, a height that has been estimated at from
thirty to forty feet, or even more; yet fortune so favoured him,
that though the horse was killed in the fall, the rider escaped.
An Albanian camp was below, and an officer’s tent very near the
spot on which he alighted. Instead of shunning it, he went in,
and throwing himself on the rites of hospitality, implored that
no advantage might be taken of him; which was not only granted,
but the officer offered him protection, even at his own peril, and
kept him concealed so long as the popular fury and the excesses of
the soldiery continued. Of the rest of that devoted number, thus
shut up and surrounded, not one went out alive; and even of those
who had quietly remained in the town, but very few found means to
elude the activity and greedy search that was made after them--a
high price being set upon every Mameluke’s head that should be
brought. All Cairo was filled with wailing and lamentations; and,
in truth, the confusion and horrors of that day are indescribable;
for not the Mamelukes alone, but others also, in many instances
wholly unconnected with them, either from mistake, or from malice,
or for plunder, were indiscriminately seized on and put to death;
so that great as the number was that perished of that ill-fated
body, it yet did not comprehend the total of the victims. The
strange fact of the leap and escape of Amim Bey, and of his asylum
in the officer’s tent, reached at last the Pacha’s ears, who sent
instantly to demand him; and when the generous Albanian found
that it would be impossible any longer to shelter or screen his
fugitive, he gave him a horse, and recommended him to fly with all
speed into Asia, where, in the palace of Suleyman Pacha at Acre, he
found safety.”
SLAVE TRADE.--The following is a good description of this horrible
trade now nearly at an end:--
“On our return from Brazil, we fell in with a slave-ship. She
had taken in, on the coast of Africa, 336 males and 226 females,
making in all 562, and had been out seventeen days, during which
she had thrown overboard 55. The slaves were all enclosed under
grated hatchways, between decks. The space was so low, that they
sat between each other’s legs, and stowed so close together, that
there was no possibility of their lying down, or at all changing
their position, by night or day. As they belonged to, and were
shipped on account of different individuals, they were all branded,
like sheep, with the owners’ marks, of different forms. These were
impressed under their breasts, or on their arms, and, as the mate
informed me, with perfect indifference, “queimados pelo ferro
quento--burnt with the red-hot iron.” Over the hatchway stood a
ferocious-looking fellow, with a scourge of many twisted thongs in
his hand, who was the slave-driver of the ship; and whenever he
heard the slightest noise below, he shook it over them, and seemed
eager to exercise it. As soon as the poor creatures saw us looking
down at them, their dark and melancholy visages brightened up. They
perceived something of sympathy and kindness in our looks, which
they had not been accustomed to, and feeling, instinctively, that
we were friends, they immediately began to shout and clap their
hands. One or two had picked up a few Portuguese words, and cried
out, “Viva! viva!” The women were particularly excited. They all
held up their arms; and when we bent down and shook hands with
them, they could not contain their delight; they endeavoured to
scramble upon their knees, stretching up to kiss our hands; and
we understood that they knew we had come to liberate them. Some,
however, hung down their heads in apparently hopeless dejection;
some were greatly emaciated, and some, particularly children,
seemed dying. But the circumstance which struck us most forcibly,
was, how it was possible for such a number of human beings to
exist, packed up and wedged together as tight as they could cram,
in low cells, three feet high, the greater part of which, except
that immediately under the grated hatchways, was shut out from
light or air, and this when the thermometer, exposed to the open
sky, was standing in the shade, on our deck, at 89 deg. The space
between decks was divided into compartments, three feet three
inches high; the size of one was sixteen feet by eighteen, and
of the other, forty by twenty-one; into the first were crammed
the women and girls; into the second, the men and boys: 226
fellow-creatures were thus thrust into one space 288 feet square,
and 336 into another space 800 feet square, giving to the whole an
average of twenty-three inches, and to each of the women not more
than thirteen inches, though many of them were pregnant. We also
found manacles and fetters of different kinds; but it appeared that
they had all been taken off before we boarded. The heat of these
horrid places was so great, and the odour so offensive, that it was
quite impossible to enter them, even had there been room. They were
measured, as above, when the slaves had left them. The officers
insisted that the poor suffering creatures should be admitted
on deck, to get air and water. This was opposed by the mate of
the slaver, who, from a feeling that they deserved it, declared
they would murder them all. The officers, however, persisted, and
the poor beings were all turned up together. It is impossible to
conceive the effect of this eruption--507 fellow-creatures, of all
ages and sexes, some children, some adults, some old men and women,
all in a state of total nudity, scrambling out together to taste
the luxury of a little fresh air and water. They came swarming
up, like bees from the aperture of a hive, till the whole deck
was crowded to suffocation, from stem to stern, so that it was
impossible to imagine where they could all have come from, or how
they could all have been stowed away. On looking into places where
they had been crammed, there were found some children next the
sides of the ship, in the places most remote from light and air;
they were lying nearly in a torpid state, after the rest had turned
out. The little creatures seemed indifferent as to life or death;
and when they were carried on deck, many of them could not stand.
After enjoying for a short time the unusual luxury of air, some
water was brought; it was then that the extent of their sufferings
was exposed in a fearful manner. They all rushed like maniacs
towards it. No entreaties, or threats, or blows, could restrain
them; they shrieked and struggled, and fought with one another, for
a drop of this precious liquid, as if they grew rabid at the sight
of it. There is nothing which slaves, in the middle passage, suffer
from so much as the want of water. It is sometimes usual to take
out casks filled with sea-water as ballast, and when the slaves are
received on board, to start the casks and refill them with fresh.
On one occasion, a ship from Bahia neglected to change the contents
of the casks, and on the mid-passage found, to their horror, that
they were filled with nothing but salt water. All the slaves on
board perished! We could judge of the extent of their sufferings
from the afflicting sight we now saw.”
SLUYS, NAVAL BATTLE OF.--In this battle Edward III gained a signal
victory over the French. The English had the wind of the enemy, and
the sun at their backs, and began the action, which was fierce and
bloody--the English archers galling the French on their approach;
230 French ships were taken; 30,000 Frenchmen were killed, and two
Admirals; English loss inconsiderable.--Fought, June 24th, 1340.
SMOLENSKO, BATTLE OF.--One of the most memorable battles fought
during the Russian campaign of 1812, between the French and
Russian armies. Fought, August 17th, 1812. The French were three
times repulsed, but at last gained the victory, and on entering
Smolensko, found it in ruins, on account of their bombardment.
SOBRAON, BATTLE OF.--_In India._--Fought, February 10th, 1846,
between the British army, 35,000 strong, under Sir Hugh Gough, and
the Sikh force on the Sutlej. The enemy were dislodged after a
dreadful contest, and all their batteries taken; and in attempting
the passage of the river by a floating bridge in their rear, the
weight of the masses that crowded upon it caused it to break down,
and more than 10,000 Sikhs were killed, wounded or drowned. They
also lost sixty-seven cannon and some standards. The British lost
2383 men.
SOLEBAY, NAVAL BATTLE OF.--Between the fleets of England and France
on the one side and the Dutch on the other; the Allies commanded
by the Duke of York. The Dutch were compelled to flee, having lost
three ships, but the English lost four. In this obstinate and
bloody engagement the _Earl of Sandwich_ man-of-war blew up, and
1000 men were either killed or wounded. Fought, May 28th, 1672.
SOLFERINO, BATTLE OF.--This great battle, one of the most bloody
ever fought, took place during the war of Italy and France against
Austria. Fought, June 24th, 1859. The loss on both sides was
tremendous. The Austrians mustered 250,000 men; the Allies 150,000.
The number slain and wounded ranged from 30,000 to 37,000. The
result of this battle was the Austrians repassed the Mincio, whilst
the Allied headquarters were placed at Cavriana.
SORTIE FROM SEBASTOPOL.--The great sortie, during which the
good Captain Hedley Vicars was killed, is well described in the
following account:
“On the night of the 22nd of March, the enemy, about 7000 strong
made a sortie from the works of the Mamelon, which the French, as
already related, had so gallantly endeavoured to wrest from them.
The distance between the advanced parallels of the opposing forces
was not more than sixty yards; and the Russians were fully alive
to the necessity of preventing, if possible, any further advance
on the part of the Allies. The French and English Generals were
equally aware of the importance of the position, and not less than
6000 or 7000 French soldiers were nightly marched down to the
trenches; our working and covering parties numbering about 1500.
Advancing stealthily in two columns, the enemy attacked the head
of the French sap, and were gallantly met by a division of the 3rd
Zouaves, under Chef de Bataillon Balon. Three times was the attack
made, and three times repulsed, not without great loss both to
assailants and defenders. Finding themselves unable to force the
French lines in this direction, the enemy changed his front, and
threw himself against the left of the French position; but here,
too, our brave Allies were equally on the alert, and a sharp volley
assured the adventurous Russians that but little success was to be
hoped for in that quarter. Rapidly extending their attack, they
succeeded in occupying the nearest English parallel, and thence
poured a murderous fire into the French lines. General D’Autemarre,
the officer in command, seeing the fierce nature of the attack,
now ordered up the 4th battalion of the Chasseurs-à-Pied, who, in
a vigorous bayonet charge, drove the enemy from his position.