The History of the Highland Clearances 28

The History of the Highland Clearances 28

but men would not, could not, hear it. We must go to the backwoods of

Canada, to Detroit, to Hamilton, to Woodstock, to Toronto, to Montreal;

we must stand by the waters of Lake Huron or Lake Ontario, where the

cry--“Well done, brave Highlanders!” would call up a thousand brawny

fellows, and draw down a tear on a thousand manly cheeks. Or we must

go to the bare rocks that skirt the sea-coast of Sutherland, where

the residuary population were generously treated to barren steeps and

inhospitable shores, on which to keep up the breed of heroes, and

fight for the men who dared--_dared_--to drive them from houses for

which they fought, and from land which was purchased with the blood

of their fathers. But the cry, “Well done, brave Highlanders,” would

evoke no effective response from the race. Need the reader wonder?

Wherefore should they fight? To what purpose did their fathers climb

the Peninsular heights and gloriously write in blood the superiority of

Britain, when their sons were rewarded by extirpation, or toleration to

starve, in sight of fertile straths and glens devoted to beasts? These

are words of truth and soberness. They are but repetitions in other

forms of arguments, employed by us for years; and we shall continue to

ring changes on them so long as our brave Highland people are subjected

to treatment to which no other race would have submitted. We are no

alarmists. But we tell Highland proprietors that were Britain some

twenty years hence to have the misfortune to be plunged into such a

crisis as the present, there will be few such men as the Highlanders of

the 78th to fight her battles, and that the country will find when too

late, if another policy towards the Highlanders is not adopted, that

sheep and deer, ptarmigan and grouse, can do but little to save it in

such a calamity.

 

 

THE REV. DR. JOHN KENNEDY ON THE ROSS-SHIRE CLEARANCES.[17]

 

[17] _The Days of the Fathers in Ross-shire_, 1861, pp. 15, 16.

 

Dr. John Kennedy, the highly, deservedly respected, and eminent

minister of Dingwall so long resident among the scenes which he

describes, and so intimately acquainted with all classes of the people

in his native county of Ross, informs us that it was at a time when

the Highlanders became most distinguished as the most peaceable and

virtuous peasantry in the world--“at the climax of their spiritual

prosperity,” in Ross-shire--“that the cruel work of eviction began to

lay waste the hill-sides and the plains of the North. Swayed by the

example of the godly among them, and away from the influences by which

less sequestered localities were corrupted, the body of the people in

the Highlands became distinguished as the most peaceable and virtuous

peasantry in Britain. It was just then that they began to be driven off

by ungodly oppressors, to clear their native soil for strangers, red

deer, and sheep. With few exceptions, the owners of the soil began to

act as if they were also owners of the people, and, disposed to regard

them as the vilest part of their estate, they treated them without

respect to the requirements of righteousness or to the dictates of

mercy. Without the inducement of gain, in the recklessness of cruelty,

families by hundreds were driven across the sea, or gathered, as the

sweepings of the hill-sides, into wretched hamlets on the shore. By

wholesale evictions, wastes were formed for the red deer, that the

gentry of the nineteenth century might indulge in the sports of the

savages of three centuries before. Of many happy households sheep

walks were cleared for strangers, who, fattening amidst the ruined

homes of the banished, corrupted by their example the few natives who

remained. Meanwhile their rulers, while deaf to the Highlanders’ cry of

oppression, were wasting their sinews and their blood on battle-fields,

that, but for their prowess and their bravery, would have been the

scene of their country’s defeat.”

 

 

 

 

_INVERNESS-SHIRE._

 

 

GLENGARRY.

 

BY ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.

 

Glengarry was peopled down to the end of last century with a fine

race of men. In 1745, six hundred stalwart vassals followed the

chief of Glengarry to the battle of Culloden. Some few years later

they became so disgusted with the return made by their chief that

many of them emigrated to the United States, though they were

almost all in comfortable, some indeed, in affluent circumstances.

Notwithstanding this semi-voluntary exodus, Major John Macdonell of

Lochgarry, was able in 1777, to raise a fine regiment--the 76th or

Macdonald Highlanders--numbering 1086 men, 750 of whom were Highlanders

mainly from the Glengarry property. In 1794, Alexander Macdonnell

of Glengarry, raised a Fencible regiment, described as “a handsome

body of men,” of whom one-half were enlisted on the same estate. On

being disbanded in 1802, these men were again so shabbily treated,

that they followed the example of the men of the “Forty-five,”

and emigrated in a body, with their families, to Canada, taking

two Gaelic-speaking ministers along with them to their new home.

They afterwards distinguished themselves as part of the “Glengarry

Fencibles” of Canada, in defence of their adopted country, and called

their settlement there after their native glen in Scotland. The chiefs

of Glengarry drove away their people, only, as in most other cases in

the Highlands, to be themselves ousted soon after them.

 

The Glengarry property at one time covered an area of nearly 200 square

miles, and to-day, while many of their expatriated vassals are landed

proprietors and in affluent circumstances in Canada, not an inch of the

old possessions of the ancient and powerful family of Glengarry remains

to the descendants of those who caused the banishment of a people who,

on many a well-fought field, shed their blood for their chief and

country. In 1853, every inch of the ancient heritage was possessed by

the stranger, except Knoydart in the west, and this has long ago become

the property of one of the Bairds. In the year named, young Glengarry

was a minor, his mother, the widow of the late chief, being one of his

trustees. She does not appear to have learned any lesson of wisdom from

the past misfortunes of her house. Indeed, considering her limited

power and possessions, she was comparatively the worst of them all.

 

The tenants of Knoydart, like all other Highlanders, had suffered

severely during and after the potato famine in 1846 and 1847, and some

of them got into arrear with a year and some with two years’ rent,

but they were fast clearing it off. Mrs. Macdonell and her factor

determined to evict every crofter on her property, to make room for

sheep. In the spring of 1853, they were all served with summonses of

removal, accompanied by a message that Sir John Macneil, chairman of

the Board of Supervision, had agreed to convey them to Australia. Their

feelings were not considered worthy of the slightest consideration.

They were not even asked whether they would prefer to follow their

countrymen to America and Canada. They were to be treated as if they

were nothing better than Africans, and the laws of their country on a

level with those which regulated South American slavery. The people,

however, had no alternative but to accept any offer made to them. They

could not get an inch of land on any of the neighbouring estates, and

any one who would give them a night’s shelter was threatened with

eviction.

 

It was afterwards found not convenient to transport them to Australia,

and it was then intimated to the poor creatures, as if they were

nothing but common slaves to be disposed of at will, that they would

be taken to North America, and that a ship would be at Isle Ornsay,

in the Isle of Skye, in a few days, to receive them, and that they

_must_ go on board. The _Sillery_ soon arrived. Mrs. Macdonell and

her factor came all the way from Edinburgh to see the people hounded

across in boats, and put on board this ship whether they would or not.

An eye-witness who described the proceeding at the time, in a now rare

pamphlet, and whom we met a few years ago in Nova Scotia, characterises

the scene as heart-rending. “The wail of the poor women and children

as they were torn away from their homes would have melted a heart of

stone.” Some few families, principally cottars, refused to go, in spite

of every influence brought to bear upon them; and the treatment they

afterwards received was cruel beyond belief. The houses, not only of

those who went, but of those who remained, were burnt and levelled to

the ground. The Strath was dotted all over with black spots, showing

where yesterday stood the habitations of men. The scarred half-burned

wood--couples, rafters, cabars--were strewn about in every direction.

Stooks of corn and plots of unlifted potatoes could be seen on all

sides, but man was gone. No voice could be heard. Those who refused to

go aboard the _Sillery_ were in hiding among the rocks and the caves,

while their friends were packed off like so many African slaves to the

Cuban market.

 

No mercy was shown to those who refused to emigrate; their few articles

of furniture were thrown out of their houses after them--beds, chairs,

tables, pots, stoneware, clothing, in many cases, rolling down the

hill. What took years to erect and collect were destroyed and scattered

in a few minutes. “From house to house, from hut to hut, and from barn

to barn, the factor and his menials proceeded, carrying on the work of

demolition, until there was scarcely a human habitation left standing

in the district. Able-bodied men who, if the matter would rest with

a mere trial of physical force, would have bound the factor and his

party hand and foot, and sent them out of the district, stood aside

as dumb spectators. Women wrung their hands and cried aloud, children

ran to and fro dreadfully frightened; and while all this work of

demolition and destruction was going on no opposition was offered by

the inhabitants, no hand was lifted, no stone cast, no angry word was

spoken.” The few huts left undemolished were occupied by the paupers,

but before the factor left for the south even they were warned not

to give any shelter to the evicted, or their huts would assuredly

meet with the same fate. Eleven families, numbering in all over sixty

persons, mostly old and decrepit men and women, and helpless children,

were exposed that night, and many of them long afterwards, to the cold

air, without shelter of any description beyond what little they were

able to save out of the wreck of their burnt dwellings.

 

We feel unwilling to inflict pain on the reader by the recitation of

the untold cruelties perpetrated on the poor Highlanders of Knoydart,

but doing so may, perhaps, serve a good purpose. It may convince the

evil-doer that his work shall not be forgotten, and any who may be

disposed to follow the example of past evictors may hesitate before

they proceed to immortalise themselves in such a hateful manner. We

shall, therefore, quote a few cases from the pamphlet already referred

to:--

 

John Macdugald, aged about 50, with a wife and family, was a cottar,

and earned his subsistence chiefly by fishing. He was in bad health,

and had two of his sons in the hospital, at Elgin, ill of smallpox,

when the _Sillery_ was sent to convey the Knoydart people to Canada.

He refused to go on that occasion owing to the state of his health,

and his boys being at a distance under medical treatment. The factor

and the officers, however, arrived, turned Macdugald and his family

adrift, put their bits of furniture out on the field, and in a few

minutes levelled their house to the ground. The whole family had now

no shelter but the broad canopy of heaven. The mother and the youngest

of the children could not sleep owing to the cold, and the father, on

account of his sickness, kept wandering about all night near where his

helpless family lay down to repose. After the factor and the officers

left the district Macdugald and his wife went back to the ruins of

their house, collected some of the stones and turf into something like

walls, threw a few cabars across, covered them over with blankets,

old sails, and turf, and then, with their children, crept underneath,

trusting that they would be allowed, at least for a time, to take

shelter under this temporary covering. But, alas! they were doomed to

bitter disappointment. A week had not elapsed when the local manager,

accompanied by a _posse_ of officers and menials, traversed the country

and levelled to the ground every hut or shelter erected by the evicted

peasantry. Macdugald was at this time away from Knoydart; his wife

was at Inverie, distant about six miles, seeing a sick relative; the

oldest children were working at the shore; and in the hut, when the

manager came with the “levellers,” he found none of the family except

Lucy and Jane, the two youngest. The moment they saw the officers they

screamed and fled for their lives. The demolition of the shelter was

easily accomplished--it was but the work of two or three minutes; and,

this over, the officers and menials of the manager amused themselves

by seizing hold of chairs, stools, tables, spinning-wheels, or any

other light articles, by throwing them a considerable distance from the

hut. The mother, as I said, was at Inverie, distant about six or seven

miles, and Lucy and Jane proceeded in that direction hoping to meet

her. They had not gone far, however, when they missed the footpath and

wandered far out of the way. In the interval the mother returned from

Inverie and found the hut razed to the ground, her furniture scattered

far and near, her bedclothes lying under turf, clay, and _debris_, and

her children gone! Just imagine the feelings of this poor Highland

mother on the occasion! But, to proceed, the other children returned

from the shore, and they too stood aside, amazed and grieved at the

sudden destruction of their humble refuge, and at the absence of their

two little sisters. At first they thought they were under the ruins, and creeping down on their knees they carefully removed every turf and stone, but found nothing except a few broken dishes. A consultation was now held and a search resolved upon.