A TRUE ACCOUNT OF MR. JOHN DANIEL’S PROGRESS WITH PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD IN THE YEARS 1745 AND 1746 WRITTEN BY HIMSELF
The manuscript preserved at Drummond Castle from which this Narrative is printed bears the following docquet:—
This is to certify, that I believe the aforegoing Narrative to be a correct Copy of the Original, written by my late Friend, Captain John Daniel, which I have frequently seen and read, and conversed with him, on the subject of its contents: more particularly as to the facts of the Duke of Perth’s death, on his passage from Scotland to France, on board the ship in which the said Captain Daniel was also a passenger. To which conversations, I can conscientiously depose if required.
Witness my hand at Exmouth Devon. This 25th day of September 1830.
R. B. Gibson.
Signed in the presence of
Herbert Mends Gibson,
Atty. at Law.
[Note.—The notes in this narrative which are indicated by asterisks are written on the Drummond Castle manuscript in a later hand.]
A TRUE ACCOUNT OF MR. JOHN DANIEL’S PROGRESS WITH PRINCE CHARLES
As Fortune, or rather Providence, has screened, conducted and brought me safe out of so many miseries and dangers; gratitude obliges me to be ever-thankful to that Omniscient Power, by whose particular bounty and goodness I now live, and survive a Cause, which, though it be now a little sunk, will, I doubt not, one day or other, rise again, and shine forth in its true colours, make its Hero famous to after-ages, and the Actors esteemed and their memory venerable. But since it is not permitted to pry into futurity, we may at least take a retrospective view of our own or others’ actions, and draw from them what may amuse, instruct or benefit human Society, and by that means fulfill in some measure the end for which we were sent into this world. Conceiving it therefore to be the best method of shewing my gratitude to Divine Providence, I shall give a short but true account of what happened to me during the time I had the honour of being a soldier under the banner of a most beloved Prince; hoping that the indulgent reader, whom curiosity may induce to peruse the following pages, will pardon the simplicity and ruggedness of my style, which, I am afraid, will be the more strikingly conspicuous, as, in order to preserve the thread of my History unbroken, I have occasionally been obliged to interweave with my narrative some extracts from the Memoirs of another, whose excellence totally eclipses my humble attempt.