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Few events in the history
of civilized nations compare in interest and pathos, with the attempt made
in the middle of the eighteenth century by Prince Charles Edward Stuart,
to recover the throne of his ancestors.
From his landing in
Scotland on July 23rd 1745, till his final escape into France, his pathway
lay through so many vicissitudes of success and failure, of hope and
despondency, that the story of those few months seem to belong to the
realm of romance, rather than to that of true history.
One trait however, stands
forth clearly from the background of doubt and obscurity, and shines like
a thread of gold throughout it all, and that is, the unswerving attachment
and loyalty of the Catholic Highlanders to the person of the unfortunate
Prince. With only, little regard for consequences, they flocked to his
standard, on the memorable day when its waving folds blessed by Bishop
McDonald were flung out on the breeze at Glenfinnan. They pledged their
wealth, their homes, their lives, to his cause. They were ready to go with
him, to fight for him, aye and die for him with a tenacity of purpose,
that seemed begotten not of calm reason but of thoughtless infatuation.
And dearly did they pay, for their devotedness. Terrible indeed, was the
retribution that followed their espousal of the Stuart cause and for years
they were forced to pay the penalty amid incalculable trials and
sufferings.
It is true that the Penal
Laws had been in force in Scotland, for years prior to the coming of
Prince Charlie; but, with the lapse of time, they had lost much of their
earlier severity, and it often happened, that officials well disposed
towards their Catholic countrymen, would allow the latter, intervals of
comparative peace. But after Culloden's fatal day when the Stuart cause
was ruined forever, the authorities laid deeper plans to harass the poor
Highlanders, so that henceforth their existence became a veritable
Egyptian bondage. Any leniency hitherto exercised in the administration of
the Laws was no longer tolerated. New statutes, surpassing all former ones
in ferocity, were enacted, and orders went forth enjoining stricter
vigilance in dealing with the Catholic people. Nothing was left undone to
make their lives miserable, and it would seem that the policy of the day
was nothing less than a plan well thought out, to glut the vengeance of
the House of Hanover. According to a modern writer: "more than a thousand
persons were transported from the Country, the Highland Clans were
decimated and dispersed, the Catholic Chapels destroyed, the Seminary at
Scalan plundered and burned, Missals and Vestments publicly committed to
the flames, and Priests and people persecuted with merciless rigor. The
vigilance of the authorities was directed in a special manner against the
Bishop of the Highland District, Right- Reverend Hugh McDonald, who was
forced to flee the Country and spend some time in retirement in France." (Geddes)
Another circumstance, that
added to the difficulties of the times was the conduct of the Landlords,
upon whose estates the Catholic people were settled. These landed gentry,
taking their cue from the Government of the day, treated their tenants
with heartless severity, and pursued in their regard a policy of petty
persecution, scarcely less trying than the iniquitous laws of the Country.
Howsoever matters stood with the poor tenant, his rent must be paid an
demand. Whether his crop yielded well or was a failure, whether his
circumstances were good or bad, the collector never failed to come to his
door insisting upon the "pound of flesh," and threatening seizure or
eviction for the luckless one, who found himself unable to meet his
obligations. Oft-times failure to pay the rent was hailed with undisguised
pleasure by the haughty proprietor, who pretended to find therein some
shadow of excuse for proceeding to extreme measures. Occasionally these
evictions were carried out on a general scale, and for no other reason
than that the Landlord would be able to unite a number of small holdings
in a park, which he could stock with game for the amusement of himself and
his friends during the hunting season.
One of the most heartless
and bigoted of these landed proprietors was Alexander McDonald of Boisdale,
in the Western Islands. Originally a Catholic, he gradually fell away from
the Faith, mainly through the influence of his wife, who was a Protestant,
and not content with his own cowardly perversion, he strove by all means
in his power to drag his tenantry with him, as if by abandoning their
religion they would furnish him a quasi-justifaction of his own miserable
weakness in that regard. It is said of him that on a certain Sunday, he
posted himself at the junction of two roads and brandishing a stout cane
tried to keep the people from the Catholic Church and force them to his
own place of worship, a circumstance which gave rise to the epithet "Credimh
a bhata bhui," ["Religion of the yellow staff."] which they contemptuously
applied to his particular style of evangelism. Meeting nothing but failure
in his attempts to pervert the older people, he turned his attention to
the children in the hope that he might here realize a larger measure of
success. He established schools in his neighborhood, where instruction
would be gratuitously furnished, and exhorted the parents to profit by the
advantages thus supplied by his generosity. Soon however, it was
discovered that the Faith of the little ones was being tampered with by
ultra zealous Protestant teachers, who found many occasions to inculcate
doctrines and opinions contrary to the spirit of the Catholic Church, and,
should this state of affairs continue, the plastic minds of the children
would be gradually turned away from the Faith of their Fathers. The
parents therefore, apprised of this cowardly attempt at perversion at once
removed their children from the schools, and would not permit them to
return. The Laird thus thwarted in his designs, was more than ever enraged
with his tenants and more than ever determined that they should of
necessity come over to his way of thinking. He served notice on them to
attend a meeting on a certain day, and exhorted all to be present as he
had matters of great importance to announce to them. They accordingly
assembled on the appointed day, and of the interested persons not one was
absent. They came, all the more eagerly, that it had begun to be rumored
about, that Boisdale having grown weary of his work of persecution, was
now convinced of the futility of severity in treating with a people
unswerving in their loyalty to religion; and that now he was gradually
coming around to gentler methods of dealing with his tenants. Imagine
their surprise and chagrin, when the Landlord, having addressed them in
his usual overbearing manner, produced a document written in their native
Gaelic, containing practically a renunciation of their faith, and a
promise that they would hold no further intercourse with priests of the
Church, and this document he asked them to sign under pain of being driven
from their lands and deprived of their homes. With the spirit of the early
christians every man refused to sign, and this unanimous decision was not
the result of long deliberation, but a spontaneous outburst of refusal,
showing a determination that could never be broken. The alternative of
being deprived of their homes seemed to those devoted people but a paltry
affair compared to the priceless boon of Faith, which they were called
upon to sacrifice.
From the date of this
meeting they began to talk of emigration. Matters had now reached a
crisis, and it was plain that the passive resistance of former years was
no longer sufficient to save the situation. The older people, it is true,
did not fear for themselves. They possessed the firm conviction that, by
the grace of God, they would persevere and triumph over the pretensions of
an inquitous master, but how would it fare with their children? Would they
in turn be able to cope with the stress and tyranny of a system that grew
more effective as it increased in cunning, until it might well be called
expert in its methods of perversion?
Would these young and
innocent souls persevere amid such trying circumstances, or would they
perhaps weaken in the struggle, and sell their birth-right for a "mess of
pottage?" So the cry became more and yet more insistent: Let us go out
from here! Let us go to a land beyond the seas, where the Upas tree of
Landlordism has never taken root, where the sun shines upon a people free
as the air they breathe, and where our children and our children's
children may live in peace and security and adore God according to the
dictates of their conscience. Thus they talked the matter over among
themselves. Wherever they came together it was the main subject of
conversation. Particularly at their Ceillidhs in the long winter evenings,
when neighbors met for a heart to heart talk, the question of emigration
was sure to come up, and not infrequently some strolling seannachie, his
soul fired by the consciousness of present wrongs, would rehearse the
trying circumstances which they patiently endured, while the free land of
America was calling to them, aye imploring them to come across the seas
and share in the peace and prosperity of the New World. In this way
emigration became their one dominant idea, until they seemed to have no
other purpose in life, but to go out from their native land and seek homes
in America.
But many and great were the
difficulties in the way. To bid adieu to the land of their birth, to sever
ties that seemed as it were a part of their very lives, to abandon homes
wherein they had spent so many years, and in which they had hoped to close
their earthly career, these were indeed formidable barriers in their way;
yet they seemed comparatively small compared to the difficulty of devising
ways and means of defraying the expenses of such a journey. Some of the
people possessed a little means, and for these the undertaking was
feasible, but a great majority were comparatively poor and to these it
seemed an utter impossibility. The rent roll of years had eaten up the
results of their labors, and they had merely eked out a bare subsistence
for themselves and their familities, so that nothing was put by for the
proverbial rainy day; and hence, when the rainy day came in the form of
emigration, the poor tenant had nothing to meet the extraordinary
expenditure thus entailed. For him it seemed that he must continue to
endure his wrongs in patience, and await a brighter lay, when in God's own
good time he would find a relief.
But fortunately there was a
man on the spot who was able to dominate the situation and procure the
funds required by the poorer people. Captain John MacDonald, Laird of the
Glens, took up their cause and by enlisting the kindly sympathy of other
powerful personages, he succeeded in collecting sufficient money to defray
the expenses of the voyage. He placed himself in communication with Bishop
Hay, Vicar-Apostolic of the Lowland District, and with Bishop Challoner of
London, through whose influence subscriptions were taken up, and a goodly
sum raised to meet the needs of the emigrants. Captain John himself
mortgaged his vast Estates in Scotland to enable him to purchase land in
Prince Edward Island, whereon the emigrants would settle on their arrival
in the new Colony. This purchase was effected in the year 1771, and
forthwith he despatched laborers ahead to make the necessary preparations
for the arrival of the emigrants, who, he hoped, would be ready to leave
Scotland early in the following year. In the month of March, 1772, he
chartered a vessel called the "Alexander" in Greenock. Thence she went
North to Uist Island, and early in the month of May she set sail for
Prince Edward Island with two hundred and ten emigrants, of whom one
hundred were from Uist Island, and the remainder from the mainland. Of
these by far the largest group was composed of MacDonalds, but there were
also a goodly number of MacEacherns, MacKenzies, McPhees, Campbells,
Beatons, Gillises, MacRaes, MacIntoshes, MacKinnons and probably others,
whose names escape the writer at this time. |
