brotherly love and affection towards him. Maclean, hearing this, seemed to be void of all suspicion, and so resolves to go to Angus's house; he carried with him James Macdonald, the pledge (his own nephew, and the son of Angus), whom he kept always in his custody, thereby to save himself from danger, if any injury should be offered unto him. He came to Mullintrea, accompanied with 86 of his kinsfolk and servants, in the month of July, 1586, where, at the first arrival, they were made welcome with all courtesy, and sumptuously banquetted all that day; but Angus, in the meantime, had premonished all his friends and well-wishers within Islay to be at his house the same night at nine o'clock; for he had concluded with himself to kill them all the very first night of their arrival, and still concealed his purpose, until he found the time commodious, and the place proper. So Maclean, being lodged with all his men in a long house that was somewhat distant from other houses, took to be with him his nephew James, the pledge before mentioned, with whom he never parted; but within an hour thereafter, when Angus had assembled his men, to the number of 3 or 400, he placed them all in order about the house where Maclean then lay. Angus himself came and called upon Maclean at the door, offering him his reposing drink, which was forgotten to be given him before he went to bed. Maclean answered that he desired none for that time. Although, said Angus, it be so, yet it is my will that thou arise and come forth to receive it. Then began Maclean to suspect, and so did arise, with his nephew James betwixt his shoulders, thinking, that if present killing was intended against him, he would save himself as long as he could by the boy. The boy, seeing his father with a bare sword, and a number of his men in like manner about him, cried, with a loud voice, for mercy to his uncle, which was granted, and Maclean immediately removed to a secret chamber till the next morning. Then called Angus to the remnant within, so many as would have their own lives to be saved, that they should come forth (Macdonald Herrach, and another, whom he named, only excepted); obedience was made by all the rest, and these two only fearing the danger, refused to come forth; which Angus perceiving, he commanded incontinent to put fire to the house; which was done, so that the two men were pitifully burnt to

death. This Macdonald was the author of these troubles; the other was a very near kinsman to Maclean, and of the eldest of his sirname, renowned both for counsel and manhood.

After that, the report of Maclean's taking came to the Isle of Mull, Allan Maclean, and some others of the Macleans, caused a rumour to be spread in Islay, that Ronald (the brother of Angus Macdonald, and the other pledge which he had given to Maclean) was slain at Duart, in Mull, by Maclean's friends; which false report was raised by Allan Maclean, that thereby Angus Macdonald might be moved to kill his prisoner, Sir Lauchlan Maclean, and so Allan himself might succeed to Sir Lauchlan; and, indeed, it wrought this effect, that how soon the report came to Angus's ears that his brother Ronald was slain, he revenged himself fully upon the prisoners; for Maclean's followers were by couples beheaded the days following, by Coll, the brother of Angus. The report of this fact at Mullintrae was carried to the Earl of Argyll, who immediately assembled his friends to get Maclean out of Angus's power; but, perceiving that they were not able to do it, either by force or fair means, they thought necessary to complain to the King. His Majesty directed charges to Angus, by a herald of arms, commanding him to restore Maclean into the hands of the Earl of Argyll; but the messenger was interrupted, and the haven port stopped, where he should have taken shipping towards Islay, and so he returned home; yet with exceeding travel made by Captain James Stewart, Chancellor of Scotland, and many straight conditions granted by Maclean to Angus, Maclean was at last exchanged for Ronald, the brother of Angus, and the pledge before mentioned; and for performance of such conditions as Maclean did promise to Angus, at his delivery, he gave his own son, and the son of Macleod of Harris, with divers other pledges to Angus Macdonald, who thereupon went into Ireland upon some occasion of business, which Maclean understanding, he invaded the Isle of Islay, and burnt a great part of the same, regarding neither the safety of the pledges, nor his faith given before the friends at his delivery. Angus Macdonald, returning out of Ireland, did not stir the pledges, who were innocent of what was done unto his lands in his absence; yet, with a great preparation of men and shipping, he went into the islands and Tiree apper

taining to Maclean, invading these places with great hostility; where, what by fire, what by sword, and what by water, he destroyed all the men that he could overtake (none excepted), and all sorts of beasts that served for domestic use and pleasure of man; and, finally, came to the very Ben Mor, in Mull, and there killed and chased the Clan-Lean at his pleasure, and so fully revenged himself of his former injuries. Whilst Angus Macdonald was thus raging in Mull and Tiree, Sir Lauchlan Maclean went into Kintyre, spoiled, wasted, and burnt a great part of that country; and thus, for a while, they did continually vex one another with slaughters and outrages, to the destruction, well near, of all their country and people. In this meantime, Sir Lachlan Maclean did entice and train John MacIan, of Ardnamurchan (one of the Clan-Donald), to come unto him unto the Isle of Mull, promising him that he would give him his mother in marriage, unto whom the said John MacIan had been a suitor. John being come unto Mull, in hope of this marriage, Maclean yielded to his desire, thinking thereby to draw John Maclan unto his party against Angus Macdonald. The marriage was celebrated at Torloisk, in Mull; but the very same night John MacIan's chamber was forced, himself taken from his bed out of Maclean's mother's arms, and eighteen of his men slain, because he refused to assist Maclean against Angus Macdonald. These were (and are to this day) called, in a proverb, Maclean's nuptials. John MacIan was detained a whole year in captivity by Maclean; and, at last, was released, in exchange of Maclean's son and the rest of the pledges which Angus Macdonald had in his hands. These two islanders, Angus Macdonald and Maclean, were afterwards written for by the King, and trained unto Edinburgh, the year of God, 1591, with promise safely to pass and repass unhurt or molested in their bodies or goods, and were committed both to ward within the Castle of Edinburgh, where they remained not long when they were remitted free, to pass home again, for a pecunial fine, and a remission granted to either of them. Their eldest sons were left as pledges for their obedience in time coming.

(To be continued.)

THE STATE OF THE HIGHLANDS A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

I.

WE have recently been perusing a most interesting book, published in 1787, being "A Tour through the Highlands of Scotland, and the Hebride Isles, in 1786," by John Knox, and containing many facts of no little interest at the present day. He not only gives many of his own experiences, but makes interesting quotations from others who had preceded him over the same ground. Pythias, our author informs us, had made a voyage to Thule, the remotest island belonging to Britain, which he describes as being "at the distance of six days' sailing from it, in the skirts of the Frozen Ocean." It was a place, according to him, which was neither earth, sea, nor air, but something like a composition of all of them, something resembling, to use his own expression, "the lungs of the sea." The same author describes the climate of the Hebrides, at that early period, pretty much in the same language in which it might be accurately described in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, but he informs us that "the natives are obliged to carry their corn under shelter, to beat the grain out, lest it should be spoiled by the want of sunshine, and violence of the rains."

In a description of Iona, Mr. Knox tells us that it had been famous for its library, containing the archives and histories of the kingdom, with many other manuscripts which were then dispersed and lost. Æneas Sylvius, who afterwards became Pope Pius II., intended, during a visit to Scotland, to have gone to Iona to search for the lost books of Livy, but was prevented by the death of the King. A small parcel of books from this library was brought to Aberdeen in 1524, and great pains were taken to unfold them, but in consequenee of their great age, and the tenderness of the parchment, scarcely any portion of them could be

read. The best authorities, however, from what they were able to make out, thought that the work was rather a fragment of Sallust than of Livy.

The register and records of the island were all destroyed at the Reformation. Iona was the burial-place "of forty-eight kings of Scotland, eight of Norway, four of Ireland, besides the chieftains of the Highland and Hebridean Clans, some of whose effigies still remain on the spot; many have been destroyed, and others have been purloined for other church-yards in the Highlands." The writer says that he had seen several of these effigies, as well as some of the stone crosses that had been taken away from the island. One of the crosses, he informs us, stood in the centre of the town of Campbeltown, "a beautiful pillar, ornamented with foliage." The effigies had been carried mostly to Argyleshire, where they were laid over the graves of the principal inhabitants. Several were at that time to be seen at Kilmartin, where the people could actually give the names of the persons on whose graves they were originally placed in Iona.

Writing of the Highlanders of his own time, Mr. Knox says that they are." the lineal, unmixed descendants of these heroes, poets, and bards, who, through a long succession of ages, have preserved the Celtic language in its ancient purity; who still retain, in a considerable degree, the simple manners and customs of their ancestors; and who are less tinctured with the vices of modern times than those that bestow upon them the epithet of barbarous." Mr. Knox, in 1764, made his first tour to the Highlands, and he states that the extreme poverty, idleness, and distress of the people made an impression on his mind which engaged his thoughts, much of his time, and afterwards cost him several thousand pounds in various efforts to ameliorate the state of the people. His great object was to start what has since. become so well known as the British Fisheries' Society.

He afterwards visited the Highlands no less than sixteen times in twenty-three years, and at first he made it a point to enquire into the most effectual means of employing the inhabitants, "and of preventing emigration, which at that time prevailed greatly;" and he says that there was in the country then a population of 300,000 people and upwards, "many of whom had