[481] Moidart.
[482] In Ordnance Survey Glen Quoich, to the west of Loch Garry. I have no knowledge of the actions here referred to.
[483] Donald Macdonald, second son of Clanranald, served as captain in his brother ‘Young Clanranald’s’ regiment throughout the campaign. His mother was Margaret, d. of William Macleod of Luskintyre, son of Sir Norman Macleod of Bernera, and Catherine, d. of Sir James ‘Mor’ Macdonald of Sleat, 2nd bart. Donald’s uncle, Alexander Macleod, was at this time laird of Luskintyre in Harris. Donald was afterwards captured and imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, but discharged without trial. In 1756 he joined Fraser’s Highlanders (the Master of Lovat’s); fought with Wolfe at Quebec and was killed in a subsequent action.
[484] i.e. Boisdale.
[485] Hugh Macdonald of Baleshare, an island to the south-west of North Uist, was of the Sleat family, his father being a natural son of Sir James ‘Mor,’ 2nd bart., and his mother a daughter of the 13th Clanranald. As Sir Alexander of Sleat and Lady Clanranald were both great-grandchildren of Sir James ‘Mor,’ they were nearly related to Baleshare, being in the Scots phrase ‘first-cousins once removed.’ Baleshare’s sister was the wife of Donald Campbell, the Prince’s host in Scalpa. Hugh of Baleshare had been sent to South Uist by Lady Margaret Macdonald, the wife of Sir Alexander of Sleat then in attendance on Cumberland at Fort Augustus, while his men were out against the broken Jacobites. Lady Margaret had sent Baleshare secretly with money and little luxuries to relieve the Prince’s discomfort and to help him generally. At one time it was proposed that Baleshare should conceal Prince Charles in his own island, but the scheme was abandoned as it might compromise his chief, Sir Alexander.
[486] This power of drinking seems to have made a great impression. Baleshare told Bishop Forbes that the Prince ‘still had the better of us, and even of Boystill [Boysdale] himself, notwithstanding his being as able a boulman as any in Scotland.’ It is generally assumed that Prince Charles acquired his drinking habits as a result of his hardships in Scotland, yet his anxious father had detected symptoms of an over-fondness for wine even before he left Rome in 1744. In a letter to Colonel O’Bryen (Lord Lismore), his envoy at the French Court, in August 1745, the Old Chevalier writes: ‘La grande vivacité du Prince, son penchant pour toutes sortes de divertissements, et un peu trop de goût qu’il sembloit alors avoir pour le vin, leur ont faire croire faussement qu’ils avoient gagné quelque chose sur son esprit et il devint bientôt par là leur Héros.’ (Stuart Papers, Browne, Hist. of the High., iii. 445.)
[487] See post, p. 249, n. 3.
[488] Should be Ulinish. He was a first cousin of Sir Alexander Macdonald, whose mother was a Macleod of Greshornish. Alexander Macleod was made sheriff-substitute in Skye in 1773. In 1791 he was alive and in his 100th year.
[489] Captain John Ferguson was the fourth son of George Ferguson, one of six brothers, members of a family long resident at Inverurie. The eldest was the celebrated or notorious ‘Ferguson the Plotter’ of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries; other brothers founded the families of Pitfour and Kinmundy. George lived and died at Old Meldrum near Inverurie, so it may be supposed that his son, John, was born there. Nothing is known of his early career, but in 1746 John Ferguson was in command of H.M.S. Furness, (which is always spelt Furnace in the Scottish journals and narratives of the time), and was employed in hunting fugitive Jacobites. He was the ‘black captain’ of the ’45, one of the most active and ruthless of the Government officers. His cruelties are a constant theme in Jacobite annals (see the Lyon from the index). Captain O’Neille, who was one of his prisoners, states that Ferguson used him with the barbarity of a pirate, stripped him, and ordered him to be put into a rack and whipped by his hangman because he would not confess where he thought the Prince was. (L. in M., i. 374.) Ferguson was promoted in the same year, by the express interference and recommendation of the Duke of Cumberland, to be captain of the Nightingale, a new frigate just launched. He died in 1767. (Records of Clan Ferguson, p. 280.) Ferguson’s greatest exploit was the capture of Lord Lovat, which was effected with skill. Lovat had taken refuge in an island on Loch Morar, a fresh-water lake, and had removed all the boats on the loch to the island. Ferguson landed a party, who saw the fugitives, whom they could not reach, and by whom they were greeted with cries of derision. He then sent a boat ashore from his ship, carried it over a mile or so of rugged country, and launched it on Loch Morar. Lovat’s party rowed rapidly up the loch, and got on shore, but after three days’ concealment, the old lord, unable from infirmities to continue the struggle, determined to give himself up, sent word to his pursuers and surrendered to Captain Dugald Campbell of Achacrossan of the Argyll Militia.
[490] Fuyia, which I have corrected from Fugia in the N. M. Maga., as it is a manifest error of the copyist or printer. Fuyia gives the local pronunciation of the name of the island, which is generally spelt Ouia in the Lyon, and Wiay in the Ordnance Survey maps. It is spelt Fouay on p. 253.