DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

et Hebrides. A large eagle came and hovered over the vessel. ‘Sir, this is a happy omen,’ said the Marquis of Tullibardine, one of Charles’s seven friends, ‘the king of birds has come to welcome your Royal Highness on your arrival in Scotland.’ His reception at first was chilling, he was ad- vised by the first Jacobites he met to desist from an insane enterprise ; but being induced to persevere by his old governor, Sir Thomas Sheridan, he left the island and reached Loch Nuagh on the coast of Inverness-shire, where he was conducted to a neigh- bouring farmhouse at Borrodaile. The population of the Highlands in those days did not exceed 100,000, or about one twelfth of the entire population of Scotland, and was divided into about forty different tribes or clans. Each of these dwelt upon its own portion of territory. Retaining primitive manners in almost pristine purity, holding but little intercourse with the rest of the community, distinguished by peculiar language and dress, yielding an imperfect obedience to Govern- ment, these clans formed families. Each of them bore but one name, made arms their profession, despised all peaceful modes of living, and looked upon the rich Lowlands as a legitimate object of plunder. Go- verned by a chief, whose subordinates were called chieftains, they were divided into two ranks: gentlemen, who were descended from former chiefs,