In the year 1770 travelling in the
Highlands of Scotland was neither so fashionable nor so easy as it is
to-day. Steamers were unknown. Oban, waxing strong in the shelter
of Dunstaffnage, was unconscious of its future celebrity as a gay
seaport town. The Campbells were flourishing as a green bay-tree,
nourished on that all-powerful cordial, "government pap." They
were the most fashionable people of the country; in brand-new garments
of the London cut, new politics of the Hanoverian tint, with a new
religion and a new king, they walked in the footsteps of their leader,
MacCailleam-Mor, stigmatized by one of Scotland's most vigorous writers
as
"He who sold his king for gold, the
master-fiend Argyle."
The Western Islands occasionally shipped
to England shaggy little bits of canine perfection that were sold at
high prices to the phlegmatic Brunswick belles of the English court, but
for the most part they were unvisited and unmolested. MacDonald of Sleat
had given in his allegiance to the new religion, and for his refusal to
espouse the cause of the exiled king had been created Lord MacDonald of
the Isles in the Irish peerage. Clan Ronald had gone "over the
water to Charlie," though the Inverness-shire hills still echoed to
the shrill pibroch of his clansmen, and the bagpipes resounded where
to-day one hears but the rifle of the Sassenach sportsman or the
bleating of the mountain sheep.
From Oban, after sailing through the
Sound of Mull and rounding Ardnamurchan Point, one sights the little
island of Muck, a place where woman's rights were once pretty well
enforced; and after passing the islands called Rum and Eig, that in
spite of one's self suggest the addition of milk and sugar, we come to
the Long island of the Hebrides—South Uist. Here in the spring of 1770
was enacted the first of those tragedies that gave to British North
America the gallant and God-fearing bands of Scotch emigrants that have
done so much to enrich the Dominion of Canada.
The southern part of South Uist had for
its laird Alexander MacDonald, better known in those days as Alister mor
Bhoistal, or Big Sandy of Boisdale; he owned the southern part of the
island, and had leased the northern part from his kinsman and feudal
chieftain, Clan Ronald, so that his tenantry numbered over two hundred
families—all of them, of course, Catholics. Boisdale took unto himself
a wife of "the daughters of Heth," a Calvinist, and fell an
easy prey to the gloomy horrors of that doctrine. Not content with
converting himself, he undertook to convert his followers. He imported a
dominie, to whom he entrusted the instruction of his household,
and to this man he gave the care of a free school which he opened on his
estate. The people, unsuspecting, sent their children gladly at first,
but, soon finding their religion was being tampered with, they withdrew
them. Upon this Boisdale issued an edict abolishing days of abstinence,
holidays of obligation, going to church, to confession, to communion,
and even doing away with the priest himself. He gave the people the
option of complying with this mild expression of his wishes or of being
evicted from their lands and houses, and then set out himself to engraft
his doctrines by means of muscular persuasion. It must have been a
strange sight that Lenten Sunday morning more than a century ago—the
bell calling the faithful to God's own feast: the clansmen coming from
near and far, over hill and dale, in their picturesque dress; the
Highland lassies in their plaid gowns, with their banded yellow hair,
and innocent blue eyes, and so much determination withal; the old wives,
who had grown weary while praying for their king to be restored to his
own again, and who were looking forward now to their last sleep beside
the rocky shores they loved so well, where the surging Atlantic would
sing their requiem through the long, wild nights of those northern
latitudes, and would bring tangled garlands and clusters of strange
sea-mosses to strew their graves in the cladh er cladach na fairge.To
this peaceful scene came the laird in his south-country dress, and in
his hand, not the sword of other days, but his bhati-bui, or
yellow walking-stick! With this weapon he actually attempted to drive
his tenants into a Protestant church that he had erected, and belabored
them severely, which treatment did not tend to increase their admiration
for what they called credible a bhati-bui—the "creed of
the yellow stick." Upon hearing his conditions his tenants declared
themselves ready to part with their patches of land but not with their
faith. They were encouraged and supported by their pastor, an Irish
Dominican friar, Father Wynne, who, thus becoming obnoxious to Boisdale,
was obliged to fly from the island. The persecution went on, but the
people, though they suffered, did not waver. However, it so happened
that the persecution suddenly stopped, but not before the people had
imbibed the mania for emigration and carried out the scheme devised in
their favor by Captain John MacDonald, the laird of Glenaladale, called
by his countrymen Fer a Ghlinne.*
The great Clan Colla, or MacDonald sept
was divided into several distinct sub-clans, each having its
chief—namely, Clan Ronald, Glengarry, **
MacDonald of Sleat, Glencoe, Keppoch, and Kinloch-Moidart—and these
branches were again sub-divided. Clan Ronald and Glengarry have disputed
the chieftainship of the sept for many years, and a great many
careful students of Celtic history decide that Glengarry has the
stronger claim. Clan Ronald takes its name from "Ranald, eighth
chief of the race of Somerled, thane of Argyle, progenitor of the
MacDonalds of Glengarry and of all the MacDonalds known as Clanranald,
or Clann Raonuil—that is, descendants of Ronald." The Glengarry
family now spell their name MacDonell, it being so written in the patent
of nobility conferring their title of Lord MacDonell and Aross given
them by Charles II in 1660.***
We have already spoken of Captain John
MacDonald of Glenaladale, who came to the rescue of Boisdale's tenants.
At the time of the fatal mistake that put the MacDonalds on the left wing
of the Jacobite army, and so lost to Scotland the field of Culloden,
this Captain John MacDonald was but a child. He was sent to Ratisbon to
receive his education in a Catholic college, and returned to his native
land one of the most scholarly men of his day. He first married Miss
Gordon, of Wardhouse, who died young, and many years afterwards Miss
Margery MacDonald, of Ghernish, by whom he had a family of four sons and
one daughter. Glenaladale was a wise and far-seeing man, and the events
of the time in Scotland showed him that for his clansmen the only hope
of happiness lay in emigration. Not only was Boisdale bent on tyranny,
but he had infected others. For instance, a missionary priest named
Kennedy, landing on the island of Muck, was arrested and imprisoned by
order of Mrs. MacLean, wife of the proprietor, who himself was absent
from the island. The same work was going on in the island of Barn and in
the surrounding country, and the very existence of the Catholic religion
in the Western Islands seemed at stake. Such events induced Glenaladale
to organize a scheme of emigration, and, going up to Edinburgh, he
entered into a treaty with the lord-advocate, Henry Dundas, for some
large tracts of land in the isle of St. John, lying in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, and known since 1798 as Prince Edward Island, so called in
compliment to the Duke of Kent. Glenaladale's following being Catholics
proved to be anything but an objection against them, as there were
already about fifty families of Acadians on the island, and the
authorities hoped that the coming of the Highlanders might ensure a
Catholic clergyman for these people, who were without pastoral care.
In February, 1772, Glenaladale
went to Greenock and chartered the ship Alexander; but it was not
until May that the Alexander, with two hundred and ten emigrants,
sailed for St. John's Island. One hundred of these were from Uist and a
hundred and ten from the mainland. They, by a wise foresight, took with
them provisions sufficient for a whole year. They were accompanied by
Father James MacDonald, a secular priest who bad obtained faculties from
Rome, to last until such time as he could have them renewed by the
bishop of Quebec. A Dr. Roderick MacDonald was among the passengers,
and, owing to his medical skill and their own prudence, they
successfully combated several cases of fever, and, their number lessened
only by the loss of one child, they arrived safely in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence at the end of seven weeks, and dropped anchor in what is now
known as the harbor of Charlottetown, opposite to a spot that bad been
partly cleared of woods in preparation for this colony.
Yielding, however, to the persuasions of
Glenaladale's brother, Lieutenant Donald MacDonald, the skipper of the Alexander,
against his will, pushed further up the Hillsborough to a point near the
head of Tracadie Bay, the final destination of his passengers, who
landed themselves and their goods and chattels, doubtless well pleased
to be once more on terra firma. As they had passed, on
their way up the river, an old stronghold called French Fort, they
dubbed the place of their landing Scotch Fort— a name it retains to
this day.
In 1773 Fer a Ghlinne sold his estate and
set sail for America, coming to St. John's Island by way of Philadelphia
and Boston. In Boston he learned that a vessel which the previous year
he bad despatched from Scotland with a cargo of provisions for the
emigrants had never reached her destination, having been taken by a
privateer. To meet the demand caused by this serious loss he brought
from Boston a cargo of produce sufficient to appease the immediate wants
of the colony. He proceeded to his new estate at Tracadie, where he
lived for many years, always taking a very active part in the public
affairs of the island of his adoption. Although he had shown himself
generous to a fault, he was nevertheless very tenacious of the rights of
land-owners. Some of his tenants were so prosperous as soon to be able
to purchase leads in Antigonish and Bras d'Or, where their descendants
are still to be found. The British government had the most exalted
opinion of this Highland gentleman, and the office of governor of St.
John's Island was offered to him. He was, however, obliged to decline
the honor because of the anti-Catholic nature of the oath at that time
required to be taken. Glenaladale could have accepted the governorship
only at the price of his religion. It was during the administration of
Colonel Ready that a better state of affairs was brought about in Prince
Edward Island. He was appointed governor in 1829, and from that year
until 1837 eighteen hundred and forty-four emigrants arrived and infused
new life into the agriculture and trade of the country. It was in the
year 1830 that the Prince Edward Island legislature passed the act for
"the relief of his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects," by
which their civil and political disabilities were repealed and "all
places of trust or profit rendered as open to them as to any other
portion of the king's subjects."
In conjunction with Major Small,
Glenaladale was instrumental in forming the Eighty-fourth, or Royal
Highland, Regiment in Nova Scotia, and gallant deeds are told of him in
the records of those troubled times.
Roderick, the son of Fer a Ghlinne,
though intended by his father for a priest, entered the army at an early
age, and died in the Ionian Islands about twenty-five years ago. He
married a niece of Sir James McDonnell, brother to the chief of
Glengarry and general of the British forces in Canada. It was this
latter McDonnell, by the way, who was the hero of Hugomont, and who,
after the battle of Waterloo, received from the Duke of Wellington a
special mark of distinction for his bravery. He was called "the
bravest man in the British army." Lieutenant Roderick MacDonald,
when in London in 1835, having been requested by the Highland Society of
Prince Edward Island to select and purchase a tartan for the Highlanders
of that colony, asked Miss Flora MacDonald, granddaughter of the heroine
of that name, to decide on the pattern. The young lady chose as a
prominent color the Gordon tartan, out of respect to the Duke of Gordon,
a great patron of the Highlander, in America, and interwove with it the
colors of the other clans. This tartan has since been adopted by the
Highland Societies of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The only son of
Lieutenant Roderick MacDonald is a member of the Society of Jesus. One
of Glenaladale's sons, John, became a priest and died in England in
1874; William was drowned; and the eldest son, Donald, lived on the
family estate, which his descendants still hold.
The Rev. James MacDonald came out in the
emigration of 1774, and exercised his ministry among his
countrymen and the Acadians of the colony, and also along the shores of
the neighboring provinces. He was a zealous and large-hearted man, and
universally beloved. The beloved saggarth, worn out by the
hardships and extent of his mission, died in 1785 at the early age of
forty-nine years, and was buried in the old French cemetery at Scotch
Fort. For many years after his death the Catholics of St John's Island
were without a pastor, until in 1790 the son of one Ewen ban MacEachern,
who had arrived among the emigrants of 1774, having been consecrated
priest at Valladolid, in Spain, came out to visit his parents in their
new home, and, seeing the sore need of his presence, decided to remain
and throw himself into the work so manifestly waiting for him. Among the
heroic and holy dead who have worked for Christ on the wild coasts and
in the dense forests of the New World there is no more prominent figure,
no more revered memory, than that of the Right Rev. Angus MacEachern,
first bishop of Charlottetown. Catholic and Protestant alike speak
lovingly of his virtues and good deeds. His bright intellect mastered
all the knotty points of his surrounding; and his wise judgment has
borne fruit in the success of the cause for which he worked. His
devotion and self-sacrifice sowed the seed of a goodly harvest, to be
witnessed in the prosperity and steady increase of the church in Prince
Edward Island. Father MacEachern was first created Bishop of Rosens, in
partibus, and afterwards bishop of Charlottetown. He died in his
mission-hone at St Andrews, and was buried in the old cemetery where
repose also the mortal remains of good Father James, and of a Father
Augustine McDonald, brother of Glenaladale, who, worn out with
missionary labors among his native hills, came out to spend his last
years with his people, beside whom he now sleeps the dreamless sleep of
death.
We may have some idea of the hardships
encountered by Bishop MacEachern when we consider that for may years
after his arrival on Prince Edward Island there were no high roads nor
vehicles in the country. Journeys were accomplished in summer by riding
on horseback through rough pathways hewn in the forest. In winter these
journeys were generally made on snow-shoes and necessitated weary nights
of camping-out under the insufficient shelter of the green spruce
groves. The severity of the climate is shown by the following incident,
which occurred in Charlottetown, the capital of the island, only two or
three years ago. An old woman residing in the bogor negro quarter
of the town, came before the stipendiary magistrate with a petition that
teams should be prevented from driving over her house, as since the last
snow-storm she had been completely blocked up, and the temporary road
broken through the snow-banks and used by the public as a highway lay
right across the roof of her dwelling!
In the year 1790 there came from the
island of Barra a reinforcement of Highlanders, who settled for the most
part in the western end of Prince Edward Island, in and around the
district known as Grand River. They were MacKinnons, MacDonalds,
MacIntyres, and Gillises.
On the island of Barn dwelt a loyal
Catholic population. But the laird of Barra—one McNeil by name—had
adopted the religion of Calvin; ho accordingly tried to inoculate his
tenants, and succeeded just about as well as did Alister mor Bhoistal.
On the south end of the island of Barra was built the Catholic church;
it was probably insufficient for the wants of the people, and its
situation was somewhat inconvenient, as the greater part of the
population lived at the north end and wished to have their church in
that locality. They subscribed four hundred and fifty pounds, and on the
25th of March, 1790, Father Alexander MacDonald gave out that all his
flock were to meet on the north end of the island on that evening to
discuss the proposed erection. This news was brought to the laird, who
determined there should be no church built. Four men were nevertheless
selected to choose the site; they were Alec MacKinnon, John MacDonald,
Malcolm MacKinnon, and Neil MacNeil. They set off for the appointed
land, and met the laird in full bravery riding on his Highland pony,
with his sword girded on, all ready for a fray.
"'What brought you here?' said the
laud. Alec McKinnon, a very strong and powerful man, was the spokesman
and made answer:
"'My lord, to select ground for a
church.'
"Said the laird: `Don't you know,
Alec, I've set my face against it?'
"McKinnon, in reply, said they were `hard
dealt with and worse than slaves.'
"The laird retaliated: 'You may
thank me for your education.'
McKinnon: 'I don't; there are schools
anywhere.'
"The
laird: 'Take care; I'd as soon fight you here as on the mountain.'
"McKinnon: 'No, my lord, I won't
fight; I'd rather leave."'
Soon after this encounter McNeil's
Catholic tenants all gave notice, and on the 28th of March they, or
probably some among them, went to Tobermory, in the island of Mull, and
laid their case before Bishop McDonald, who gave them a letter to
Colonel Frazer at Edinburgh. This officer was much interested in
promoting emigration to Nova Scotia, and promised them a ship if they
could muster three hundred and fifty emigrants. The required number was
made up by the addition of some from Uist and from the mainland. They
sailed from Tobermory and arrived at Charlottetown Harbor. From
Charlottetown the emigrants went up to Malpeque, but in 1792 most of
them settled in Grand River, Lot 14. About this time another band came
out, principally MacDonalds, McMillens, and McLellens, and settled in
Lot 18 and Indian River.
Among all the Highland emigrations to
Canada none have furnished so many men successful in professional and
mercantile life as the MacDonalds of Georgetown, at the east end of
Prince Edward Island. Andrew MacDonald, Esquire, of Eilean Shona,
Inverness-shire, and Arisaig on the island of Eig, came to Prince Edward
Island in 1806, bringing with him a following of forty persons. He had
married a Miss MacDonald and had a family of fifteen children, the last
of whom was laid to rest in Georgetown cemetery but a few weeks ago,
having been born in 1797 and died in 1882. Mr. Andrew MacDonald had
purchased an extensive estate in Prince Edward Island, but, owing to
some informality in the title-deed, it was ultimately eaten up by
law-costs, and there remained to his descendants but Panmure Island and
some property in Georgetown. However, in San Francisco, in Boston, in
New Brunswick and in Montreal, as well as in old Scotia and in Prince
Edward Island, the descendants of this enterprising Scotch gentleman are
not only prosperous but remarkable for their superior talents and
success.
The large and fertile property in Prince
County known as Bedeque was originally the property of MacDonald of
Rhetland a branch of the house of Morar founded by Raol MacAllan 0g. In
1775 Rhetland, following the example of his kinsman Glenaladale,
determined to better the condition of his people by emigration, and with
that view purchased ten thousand acres in Prince Edward Island and sold
his estate in Scotland to Lord MacDonald of Sleat. He was returning in
an open boat from Skye, whither he had gone to receive from Lord
MacDonald the purchase-money, when a squall arose, and Rhetland, with
his eldest son and all on board were drowned. He left a grandson, who
succeeded to the title and estate, and also two sons and two daughters.
The family was of course much impoverished by the loss of the gold paid
for their lands, and had no choice but to come out to their newly
acquired property in America, where their descendants still dwell. A
young priest, great-grandson of the old Rhetland, left Prince Edward
Island some years ago and became a most popular vicaire in
Montreal. He has since entered the Society of Jesus.
The second bishop of Prince Edward
Island, the Right Rev. Bernard MacDonald, was of the house of Alisary,
another branch of Glenaladale. He succeeded Bishop MacEachern, and was
consecrated bishop of Charlottetown in 1836. He was a hardworking pastor
and took a deep interest in education. He established in 1855 St.
Dunstan's College, an institute of learning for Catholic boys, and was
instrumental in inducing the Sisters of the Congregation de Notre Dame
of Montreal to open their first mission on the island. He died in his
college of St. Dunstan, about two miles from Charlottetown, in 1859.
The present bishop of Charlottetown, the
Right Rev. Dr. McIntyre, is descended from one of the Inverness-shire
families who came out in the Queen of Greenock. He was
consecrated bishop in August, 1860, and has done a vast work in the
building of churches and convents and the organizing of charitable
institutions in his large diocese, which comprises the whole of Prince
Edward Island and the Magdalen Isles. There are now forty- six churches
in Prince Edward Island, and eight convents under the care of the
Sisters of the Congregation. There are thirty-six priests in the diocese
of Charlottetown; of these eleven are MacDonalds, and three of that
name, natives of Prince Edward Island, have entered the Society of
Jesus.
A Highland gentleman of Prince Edward
Island, writing of his countrymen, says:
"The old people were good, frugal
and industrious; they cleared the land, built houses and barns, and when
they died generally left a good farm free from debt and a good stock of
cattle to sons who were not long content to live as their self-denying
parents had done, and who would take the first offer of wages to go in a
vessel as sailors or fishermen. The number of those who have been lost
sight of in that way is as great as of those now to be found in the old
settlements. Their bones whiten the bottom of the 'George's Banks,' or
they are absorbed in the mixed populations of the fishing-towns of New
England. Those who came from the Western Islands all have a hankering
for the sea, and there is hardly a family to be found that has not one
or more of its sons sailors or fishermen. When they have a tendency that
way they seldom make good farmers, and so families soon disappear from
their native island. The Highlander of my first recollection was very
fond of whiskey, and this extravagant habit kept a great many of them in
poverty. The last ten years have wrought much improvement in that
respect, and many of them are becoming independent farmers and saving
money."
One cannot drive through the rural
districts of Prince Edward Island without seeing that, in spite of the
propensity of some to a sea-going life, as a rule the Scotch make good
farmers. Through sad experience have they bought their knowledge, for
their hands were more accustomed to fishing-lines than to hoes. It is
said of one Highland settlement that when the census was first taken
there the returns showed twenty-nine bagpipes and five ploughs! To-day,
however, there are no more flourishing farms to be seen than those of
the western Highlanders. Snug houses and barns mark their settlements,
and many of them hold high places of trust in their native colony.
Strangers who visit Prince Edward Island on yachting excursions are
struck by the fact that, in entering nearly every harbor, the most
prominent object is always the Catholic church, keeping, as it were, the
Ave Maris Stella in the hearts of this seafaring people. As the
tired fisherman at sunset enters port the Angelus bell is sure to
welcome his return. In sight of the lofty spire, where flashes the
golden symbol of his faith, he repeats the Am Beannacha' Moire, in
which his human feeling of tenderness for his beloved Mother is blended
with his Catholic reverence for the mystery of the Incarnation.
*Or,
as the Irish more correctly would write it, fear na ghlinne- that
is, the "man of the valleys" (or glens)
**For the
Glengarry colony in Canada see the article "A Scotch Catholic
Settlement in Canada" in THE CATHOLIC WORLD for October, 1881
***Donald,
Donnell, or more properly, Domhnall (pronounced Dhonal), has
practically almost disappeared as a Christian name among the Irish
Gaels, having been lost in its supposed equivalent, "Daniel,"
with which Biblical name it has, of course, not the slightest
connection- merely a remote resemblance in sound. In a similar manner Brian
has become "Bernard" and "Barney", Cathal and
Cormac, "Charles"; Tadg (Teige)
"Jeremiah"(!) or "Teddy"; Sivdla (pronounced
Sheela), "Julia," etc. Eoghan has either been
supplanted by its Welsh brother, "Owen," or has been
transmogrified into the Greek "Eugene." Most singular of all
that very ancient and suggestive Gaelic name, Conn (a
wolf-hound), is treated as if it were the nickname of the classical
"Cornelius" or "Constantine." Thus the
Gaelic-speaking Conn MacDuaire, when he learned English, was
metamorphosed into "Cornelius (or perhaps Constantine)
Maguire"!
Thanks
to the Glenaladale Settlers for this information
See
also The Island Register, Prince Edward Islands Genealogy Site
