[Sidenote: Aug.]
Vol. 3, page 515. Before the Prince marched to Glenfinnan he was at
Glenaladale where old Glenbuicket joined him and delivered over to
him Captain Switenham (an English gentleman), [Sidenote: _fol._ 641.]
one of the prisoners taken by Major Macdonell of Tiendrish.[359]
The foresaid Captain went to London upon his parole and strictly
kept it till the time prefixed was expired. At Glenfinnan the Laird
of Moror, of Clanranald's family, came up to the Prince (before
the standard was set up) with 150 men who were joined to the fifty
men of Clanranald's following, that had been for some time keeping
guard upon his royal highness, the Prince himself thinking fifty men
sufficient for that purpose, the rest of Clanranald's men having
been employed in carrying the baggage and luggage from the head
of Lochshiel[360] (up which loch they had been brought in small
boats) to the head of the Loch-iel; which service kept the most of
Clanranald's men back for four days from joining the main body at
Moidh or Moy in Lochabar.
[359] See f. 68.
[360] See f. 356.
Captain Alexander MacDonald was on board the frigate in [Sidenote:
_fol._ 642.] Lochnannuagh before the Prince set his foot on the
continent, but he acknowledges he did not then know that the Prince
was among the passengers, who being in a very plain dress, Captain
MacDonald made up to him without any manner of ceremony and conversed
with him in a very familiar way, sitting close by the Prince and
drinking a glass with him, till one of the name of MacDonald made him
such a look that immediately he began to suspect he was using too
much freedom with one above his own rank. Upon this he soon withdrew,
but still was in the dark as to what particular person the young
gentleman he had been conversing with might be.
Vol. 3, page 519. Captain MacDonald declared that he could not help
looking upon the affair of O'Sullivan's hiding himself in a barn,
etc., as a romance.
At the same time I read in the hearing of Captain Alexander
[Sidenote: _fol._ 643.] MacDonald the passages in the Journal of
Duncan Cameron, etc., that relate to the landing and the marching
down the country. He owned they were very exact, and he made only two
short remarks upon them, which are as follows.
Vol. 2, page 356. Captain MacDonald said it was most certain that if
Keppoch, Lochiel, and young Clanranald had not joined the Prince, he
would have been forced to shift for himself in the best manner he
could.
Vol. 2, page 359. A night at Dalquhinnie before marching to
Dalnacardoch.
[Sidenote: June]
I then read in the hearing of Captain Alexander MacDonald the
conclusion of Captain O'Neille's own subscription, which had been
lying by me for some time till I should find leisure to take
[Sidenote: _fol._ 644.] an exact transcript of it.[361] In the
forementioned conclusion Captain O'Neille complains of one in
Benbecula that had betrayed him even after he had entirely confided
in him, but he does not name the person. I asked at Captain MacDonald
if he could inform me who that person was. He told me he knew the
whole affair well, and that he would give it me faithfully and
honestly. He said that Ranald MacDonald of Torulum in Benbecula was
the man there meant,[362] and that the whole story had taken its rise
altogether from a jealousy in Captain O'Neille. Ranald MacDonald
happened unluckily to have an outcast with Captain O'Neille, who,
though a very clever fellow, was heartily threshed by a MacDonald,
they having had a boxing bout together. This unlucky difference
made O'Neille strongly believe, when he happened to be seized, that
Ranald MacDonald had actually betrayed him, whereas Ranald refused to
betray [Sidenote: _fol._ 645.] him when a sum of money was offered
him for that purpose. Upon this Ranald MacDonald has given his oath
of old Clanranald, who questioned him upon the report of his having
betrayed O'Neille, and was very hard upon him for it, swearing that
he deserved to be shot through the head if he had done any such
dishonourable thing.
[361] See f. 690.
[362] See ff. 589, 923.
As to the story of General Campbell and Campbell of Skipness, Captain
MacDonald declared to me he did not in the least doubt the truth of
that, for this single reason, because all the Campbells, from the
head to the foot of them, had discovered a most avaritious, greedy
temper in the matter of pillaging and plundering their native country.
[Sidenote: 29 Dec.]
Captain Alexander MacDonald spoke excellent things of Donald MacLeod
of Gualtergill in Sky, and saying that he did not know an honester
man or a stauncher loyalist.[363] He told [Sidenote: _fol._ 646.] me
that Donald MacLeod's wife is aunt to the present Glenaladale.
Captain MacDonald had all his effects plundered and pillaged. After
everything was destroyed or carried off, the party happening to spy a
living cat, immediately killed poor harmless puss, and threw it out
of the way, lest the poor mother and her children should have eaten
the dead cat in their necessity. For Cumberland and his army were
exceedingly desirous that the young and old (women and infants not
excepted) they did not murder might be starved to death, which was
the fate of too many, and their endeavours were fully equal to their
desires.
Captain MacDonald and his wife and children wandered through hills
and mountains till the act of indemnity appeared, and in the time of
their skulking from place to place his poor wife fell with child,
which proved to be a daughter, and is still alive. He is a very
smart, acute man, remarkably well skilled in [Sidenote: _fol._ 647.]
the Erse, for he can both read and write the Irish language in its
original character, a piece of knowledge almost quite lost in the
Highlands of Scotland, there being exceedingly few that have any
skill at all in that way. For the Captain told me that he did not
know another person (Old Clanranald only excepted) that knew anything
of the first tongue in its original character; but that the natives
of Ireland (particularly in the higher parts of the country) do still
retain the knowledge of it. Several of the Captain's acquaintances
have informed me that he is by far the best Erse poet in all
Scotland, and that he has written many songs in the pure Irish.