An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America Part 20

[Footnote 125: Sir John Johnson's Orderly Book, p. Lx.x.xII.]

[Footnote 126: Macdonell's Sketches of Glengarry in Canada, p. 22.]

[Footnote 127: Doc.u.mentary and Colonial History of New York, Vol. VIII, p. 779.]

[Footnote 128: Stone's Life of Joseph Brant, Vol. I, p. 238.]

[Footnote 129: Johnson's Orderly Book, p. 57.]

[Footnote 130: _Ibid_, p. 59.]

[Footnote 131: _Ibid_, p. 56.]

[Footnote 132: Stone's Life of Joseph Brant, Vol. II, p. 164.]

[Footnote 133: Macdonell's Sketches of Glengarry, p. 47.]

[Footnote 134: _Ibid_, p. 51.]

[Footnote 135: See Appendix, Note K.]

CHAPTER IX.

THE GLENALADALE HIGHLANDERS OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

Highlanders had penetrated into the wilds of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island before they had formed any distinctive settlements of their own. Some of these belonged to the disbanded regiments, but the bulk had come into the country, either through the spirit of adventure, or else to better their condition, and establish homes that would be free from usurpation, oppression, and persecution. It cannot be said that any portion of Canada, at that period, was an inviting field. The Highland settlement that bears the honor of being the first in British North America is that on Prince Edward Island, on the north coast at the head of Tracadie Bay, almost due north of Charlottetown. This settlement was due to John Macdonald, Eighth of Glenaladale, of the family of Clanra.n.a.ld.

John Macdonald was but a child at the date of the battle of Culloden.

When of sufficient age he was sent to Ratisbon, Germany, to be educated, where he went through a complete course in the branches of learning as taught in the seminary. Returning to his country he was considered to be one of the most finished and accomplished gentlemen of his generation.

But events led him to change his prospects in life. In 1770 a violent persecution against the Roman Catholics broke out in the island of South Uist. Alexander Macdonald, First of Boisdale, also of the house of Clanra.n.a.ld, abandoned the religion of his forbears, and like all new converts was over zealous for his new found faith, and at once attempted to compel all his tenants to follow his example. After many acts of oppression, he summoned all his tenants to hear a paper read to them in their native tongue, containing a renunciation of their religion, and a promise, under oath, never more to hold communication with a catholic priest. The alternative was to sign the paper or lose their lands and homes. At once the people unanimously decided to starve rather than submit. The next step of Boisdale was to take his gold headed cane and drive his tenants before him, like a flock of sheep, to the protestant church. Boisdale failed to realize that conditions had changed in the Highlands; but, even if his methods had smacked of originality, he would have been placed in a far better light. To attempt to imitate the example of another may win applause, but if defeated contempt is the lot.

The history of _Creideamh a bhata bhuidhe_, or the religion of the yellow stick, is such an interesting episode in West Highland story as not to be out of place in this connection. Hector MacLean, Fifth of Coll, who held the estates from 1559 to 1593, became convinced of the truths of the principles of the Reformation, and decided that his tenants should think likewise. He pa.s.sed over to the island of Rum, and as his tenants came out of the Catholic church he held his cane straight out and said in Gaelic,--"Those who pa.s.s the stick to the Kirk are very good tenants, and those who go on the other side may go out of my island." This stick remained in the family until 1868, when it mysteriously disappeared. Mrs. Hamilton Dundas, daughter of Hugh, Fifteenth of Coll, in a letter dated March 26, 1898, describing the stick says, "There was the crest on the top and initials either H. McL.

or L. McL. in very flouris.h.i.+ng writing engraved on a band or oval below the top. It was a polished, yellow brown malacca stick, much taller than an ordinary walking stick. I seem to recollect that it had two gold rimmed eyelet holes for a cord and ta.s.sle."

John Macdonald of Glenaladale, having heard of the proceedings, went to visit the people, and was so touched by their pitiable condition, that he formed the resolution of expatriating himself, and going off at their head to America. He sold out his estates to his cousin Alexander Macdonald of Borrodale, and before the close of 1771, he purchased a tract of forty thousand acres on St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island), to which he took out about two hundred of his persecuted fellow catholics from South Uist, in the year 1772.

Whatever may have been the trials endured by these people, what s.h.i.+p they sailed in, how the land was allotted, if at all given to the public, has not come under the author's observation. Certain facts concerning Glenaladale have been advertised. His first wife was Miss Gordon of Baldornie, and his second, Marjory Macdonald of Ghernish, and had issue, Donald who emigrated with him, William, drowned on the coast of Ireland, John, Roderick and Flora. He died in 1811, and was buried on the Island at the Scotch Fort.

Glenaladale early took up arms against the colonists, and having raised a company from among his people, he became a Captain in the Royal Highland Emigrants, or 84th. That he was a man of energy and pluck will appear from the following daring enterprise. During the Revolution, an American man-of-war came to the coast of Nova Scotia, near a port where Glenaladale was on detachment duty, with a small portion of his men. A part of the crew of the wars.h.i.+p having landed for the purpose of plundering the people, Glenaladale, with his handful of men, boarded the vessel, cut down those who had been left in charge, hoisted sail, and brought her as a prize triumphantly into the harbor of Halifax. He there got a reinforcement, marched back to his former post, and took the whole crew, composed of Americans and French. As regards his military virtues and abilities Major John Small, of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Highland Emigrants, to which he was attached, writing to the English government, said of him,--

"The activity and unabating zeal of Captain John Macdonald of Glenaladale in bringing an excellent company into the field is his least recommendation, being acknowledged by all who know his rank in his Majesty's service."

Slight information may be gained of his connection with the Royal Highland Emigrant Regiment from the "Letter-Book" of Captain Alexander McDonald, of the same regiment. In embodying that regiment he was among the very earliest and readiest. Just why he should have exhibited so much feeling against the Americans whose country he had never seen and who had never harmed him in the least, does not appear. Captain McDonald, writing from Halifax, September 1, 1775, to Colonel Allan MacLean, says,--

"What Men that are on the Island of St. Johns (Prince Edward's) are already Engaged with Glenaladall who is now here with me, also young Mcdonald, with whom he came, he will Write to you by this opportunity and from the Contents of his Letter I will Leave you to Judge what sort of a Man he is."

By the same letter, "young Mcdonald" had been sent "to ye Island of St.

John," unquestionably for the purpose of raising the Highlanders. His great zeal is revealed in a letter from Captain Alexander McDonald to Major Small, dated at Halifax, November 15, 1775:

"Mr. McDonald of Glenaladale staid behind at Newfoundland and by the Last accounts from him he and one Lt Fizgerald had Six and thirty men. I dont doubt by this time his having as many more, he is determined to make out his Number Cost what it will, and I hope you will make out a Commission in his brother Donald's name, * * * poor Glenaladall I am afraid is Lost as there is no account of him since a small Schooner Arrived which brought an account of his having Six & thirty men then and if he should Not be Lost He is unavoidably ruined in his Means."

The last reference is in a letter to Colonel Allan MacLean, dated at Halifax June 5, 1776:

"Glen a la Del is an Ornament to any Corps that he goes into and if the Regiment is not established it had been telling him 300 Guineas that he had never heard of it. On Account of his Affairs upon the Island of St. John's and in Scotland where he was preparing to go to settle his Business when he received the Proposals."

The British government offered Glenaladale the governors.h.i.+p of Prince Edward Island, but owing to the oath of allegiance necessary at the time, he, being a catholic, was obliged to decline the office.

CHAPTER X.

HIGHLAND SETTLEMENT IN PICTOU, NOVA SCOTIA.

"What n.o.ble courage must their hearts have fired, How great the ardor which their souls inspired, Who leaving far beyond their native plain Have sought a home beyond the western main; And braved the perils of thestormy seas In search of wealth, of freedom, and of ease.

Oh, none can tell, but those who sadly share, The bosom's anguish, and its wild despair, What dire distress awaits the hardy bands, That venture first on bleak and desert lands; How great the pain, the danger and the toil Which mark the first rude culture of the soil.

When looking round, the lonely settler sees His home amid a wilderness of trees; How sinks his heart in those deep solitudes, Where not a voice upon his ear intrudes; Where solemn silence all the waste pervades, Heightening the horror of its gloomy shades; Save where the st.u.r.dy woodman's strokes resound That strew the fallen forest on the ground."

--_H. Goldsmith_.

The second settlement of Highlanders in British America was at Pictou, Nova Scotia. The stream of Scottish emigration which flowed in after years, not only over the county of Pictou, but also over the greater portion of eastern Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, and even the upper provinces of Canada, was largely due to this settlement; for these emigrants, in after years, communicated with their friends and induced them to take up their abode in the new country. The stream once started did not take long to deepen and widen.

A company of gentlemen, the majority of whom lived in Philadelphia, received a grant of land in Nova Scotia. Some of the shares pa.s.sed into the hands of the celebrated Dr. John Witherspoon and John Pagan, a merchant of Greenock, Scotland. These two men appear to have jointly been engaged in promoting emigration to the older colonies. Pagan owned a s.h.i.+p called _Hector_, which was engaged in carrying pa.s.sengers across the Atlantic. In 1770 she landed Scottish emigrants in Boston. In order to carry out the original obligations of the grant, the proprietors offered liberal inducements for the settlement of it. An agent, named John Ross, was employed, with whom it was agreed that each settler should have a free pa.s.sage from Scotland, a farm, and a year's free provisions. Ross sailed for Scotland on board the Hector, and on his arrival proceeded to the Highlands, where he painted in glowing colors a picture of the land and the advantages offered. The Highlanders knew nothing of the difficulties awaiting them in a land covered over with a dense unbroken forest, and, tempted by the prospect of owning splendid farms, they were imposed upon, and many agreed to cast their lot on the western side of the Atlantic. The Hector was the vessel that should convey them, with John Spears as master, James Orr being first mate, and John Anderson second. The vessel called first at Greenock, where three families and five young men were taken on board. From there she sailed for Lochbroom, in Rosss.h.i.+re, where she received thirty-three families and twenty-five single men, having all told about two hundred souls.

On July 1, 1773, this band bade adieu to friends, home, and country and started for a land they knew naught of. But few had ever crossed the ocean. Just as the s.h.i.+p was starting a piper named John McKay came on board who had not paid his pa.s.sage; the captain ordered him ash.o.r.e, but the strains of the national instrument so affected those on board that they interceded to have him allowed to accompany them, and offered to share their own rations with him, in exchange for his music, during the pa.s.sage. Their request was granted, and his performance aided in no small degree to cheer the pilgrims in their long voyage of eleven weeks, in a miserable hulk, across the Atlantic. The band of emigrants kept up their spirits, as best they could, by song, pipe music, dancing, wrestling, and other amus.e.m.e.nts, during the long and painful voyage. The Hector was an old Dutch s.h.i.+p, and a slow sailer. It was so rotten that the pa.s.sengers could pick the wood out of the sides with their fingers.

They met with a severe gale off the Newfoundland coast, and were driven back so far that it required two weeks to recover the lost distance. The accommodations on board were wretched and the provisions of inferior quality. Small-pox and dysentery broke out among the pa.s.sengers.

Eighteen, most of whom were children, died and were committed to the deep. The former disease was brought on board by a mother and child, both of whom lived to an advanced age. Owing to the voyage being prolonged, the stock of provisions and water became low; the remnant of food left consisted mostly of salt meat, which, with the scarcity of water, added greatly to their sufferings. The oatcake, carried by them, became mouldy, so that much of it was thrown away before they thought such a long pa.s.sage was before them; but, fortunately for them, Hugh Macleod, more prudent than the rest, gathered into a bag these despised sc.r.a.ps, and during the last few days of the voyage, all were glad to avail themselves of this refuse food.

At last, all the troubles and dangers of the voyage having been surmounted, on September 15th, the Hector dropped anchor, opposite where the town of Pictou now stands. Previous to the arrival of the vessel, the spa.r.s.ely inhabited country had been somewhat disturbed by the Indians. Word had been received that the Hector was on the way to that region with Highland emigrants. The whites warned the Indians that the Highlanders were coming--the same men they had seen at the taking of Quebec. When the Hector appeared, according to the fas.h.i.+on of that time, her sides were painted in imitation of gunports, which induced the impression that she was a man-of-war. Though the Highland dress was then proscribed at home, this emigrant band, carefully preserving and fondly cheris.h.i.+ng the national costume, carried it along with them, and, in celebration of their arrival, many of the younger men donned themselves in their kilts, with _Sgian Dubh_ and the claymore. Just as the vessel dropped anchor, the piper blew up his pipes with might and main, and its thrilling sounds then first startling the denizens of the endless forest, caused the Indians to fly in terror, and were not again seen there for quite an interval. After the terror of the Indians had subsided, they returned to cultivate the friends.h.i.+p of the Highlanders, and proved to be of great a.s.sistance. From them they learned to make and use snowshoes, to call moose, and acquired the art of woodcraft. Often too from them they received provisions. They never gave them any trouble, and generally showed real kindness.

The first care of the emigrants was to provide for the sick. The wife of Hugh Macleod had just died of smallpox, and the body was sent ash.o.r.e and buried. Several were sick, and others dying. The resident settlers did all within their power to alleviate the sufferers; and with the supply of fresh provisions most of the sick rapidly recovered, but some died on board the vessel.

However great may have been the expectation of these poor creatures on the eve of their leaving Scotland, their hopes almost deserted them by the sight that met their view as they crowded on the deck of the vessel to see their future homes. The primeval forest before them was unbroken, save a few patches on the sh.o.r.e between Brown's Point and the head of the harbor, which had been cleared by the few people who had preceded them. They were landed without the provisions promised them, and without shelter of any kind, and were only able, with the help of the earlier settlers, to erect camps of the rudest and most primitive description, to shelter their sick, their wives and children from the elements. Their feelings of disappointment were most bitter, when they compared the actual facts with the free farms and the comfort promised them by the emigration agent. Although glad to be freed from the pest-house of the s.h.i.+p, yet they were so overcome by their disappointment that many of them sat down and wept bitterly. The previous settlers could not promise food for one-third of those who had arrived on board the Hector, and what provisions were there soon became exhausted, and the season was too late to raise another crop. To make matters still worse, they were sent three miles into the forest, so that they could not even take advantage, with the same ease, of any fish that might be caught in the harbor.

These men were unskilled, and the work of cutting down the gigantic trees, and clearing up the land appeared to them to be a hopeless task.

They were naturally afraid of the Indians and the wild beasts; and without roads or paths through the forest, they were frightened to move, doubtful about being lost in the wilderness.

Under circ.u.mstances, such as above narrated, it is not surprising that the people refused to settle on the company's land. In consequence of this, when the supplies did arrive, the agents refused to give them any.

To add still further to the difficulties, there arose a jealously between them and the older settlers; Ross quarrelled with the company, and ultimately he left the newcomers to their fate. The few who had a little money with them bought food of the agents, while others, less fortunate, exchanged clothing for provisions; but the majority had absolutely nothing to buy with; and what little the others could purchase was soon devoured. Driven to extremity they insisted on having the supplies that had been sent to them. They were positively refused, and now determined on force in order to save the colony from starvation.

Donald McDonald and Colin Dougla.s.s went to the store seized the agents, tied them, took their guns from them, which they hid at a distance. Then they carefully measured the articles, took account of what each man received, that the same might be paid for, in case they should ever become able. They then left, leaving behind them Roderick McKay, a man of great energy and determination, a leader among them, who was to liberate the agents--Robert Patterson and Dr. Harris--as soon as the others could get to a safe distance, when he released them and informed them where their guns might be found, and then got out of the way himself.

Intelligence was at once dispatched to Halifax that the Highlanders were in rebellion, from whence orders were sent to Captain Thomas Archibald of Truro, to march his company of militia to Pictou to suppress and pacify the rebels; but to his honor, be it said, he pointedly refused, and made reply, "I will do no such thing; I know the Highlanders, and if they are fairly treated there will be no trouble with them." Correct representations of the case were sent to Halifax, and as lord William Campbell, whose term as governor had just expired, was still there, and interesting himself on behalf of the colony as his countrymen, he secured orders for the provisions. Robert Patterson, in after years, admitted that the Highlanders, who had arrived in poverty, paid him every farthing with which he had trusted them, notwithstanding the fact that they had been so badly treated.

Difficulties hemming them in on every hand, with rigorous winter approaching, the majority removed to Truro, and places adjacent, to obtain by their labor food for their families. A few settled at Londonderry, some went to Halifax, and still others to Windsor and Cornwallis. In, these settlements, the fathers, mothers, and even the children were forced to bind themselves, virtually as slaves, that they might have subsistence. Those who remained,--seventy in number--lived in small huts, covered over only with the bark and branches of trees to shelter them from the bitter cold of winter, enduring incredible hards.h.i.+ps. To procure food for their families, they must trudge eighty miles to Truro, through cold and snow and a trackless forest, and there obtaining a bushel or two of potatoes, and a little flour, in exchange for their labor, they had to return, carrying the supply either on their backs, or else dragging it behind them on handsleds. The way was beset with dangers such as the climbing of steep hills, the descending of high banks, crossing of brooks on the trunk of a single tree, the sinking in wet or boggy ground, and the camping out at night without shelter. Even the potatoes with which they were supplied were of an inferior grade, being soft, and such as is usually fed to cattle. Sometimes the cold was so piercing that the potatoes froze to their backs.

Many instances have been related of the privations of this period, some of which are here subjoined. Hugh Fraser, after having exhausted every means of procuring food for his family, resorted to the expedient of cutting down a birch tree and boiling the buds, which he gave them to eat. He then went to a heap, where one of the first settlers had buried some potatoes, and took out some, intending to inform the owner. Before he did so, some of the neighbors maliciously reported him, but the proprietor simply remarked that he thanked G.o.d he had them there for the poor old man's family. On another occasion when the father and eldest son had gone to Truro for provisions, everything in the shape of food being exhausted, except an old hen, which the mother finally killed, for the younger children. She boiled it in salt water for the benefit of the salt, with a quant.i.ty of herbs, the nature of which she was totally ignorant. A few days later the hen's nest was found with ten eggs in it.