A BOOK OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1776, 14 June 1913, Page 33

A BOOK OF THE DAY.

"PRINCE CHARLIE'S PILOT." Much has been written of tho romantio adventures of Prince Charles Edward Stuart after the crushing disaster to tho Jacobite army at Culloden, but some ot tho most dotailed and interesting accounts of the Prince's flight and experiences.in the Highlands have hitherto been buried in tho publications of tho Scottish Historical Society. Mr. Evan Macleod Barron, the author of "Prince Charlies Pilot, a Eecord of Loyalty and Devotion (Inverness, Robert Carruthers and Sons), has gone to these and other sources, notably "The Lyon in Mourning" and "The Wardlan Manuscript" (now in the Advocate Library in Edinburgh), and has compiled ai stirring and deeply interesting narrative of tho special and important part played in Prince Charlie's escape by Donald Macleod, the tenant of Gualtergiil on Loch Dunvegan, in the Island of Skye. It was to this stout-hearted old Highlander to whom Prince Charlie, having reached Borrodale—a hunted man with a pri'-e of .£30,000 put on-his head—after the Cuuoden disaster, entrusted himself, hoping to find refuge in the Hebrides until he oould get a vessel to convey him to France, or, failing that, the Orkneys. Macleod had known the West Coast and the Islands all his life. He was a. sailor born and bred, and already, in piloting Aeneas Macdonald, whom the. Pnnce had Bent to Barra to recover and transport a sum of .£3BO in gold, he had givca ample proof of his devotion to the cause. Jior two months, from April 21, 174G.t0 Jnno 21 the Prince was in Donald Macleod s care. For more than a third of the whole period during which he was a hunted fugitive, Charles Stuart's safety, depended •upon tho devotion and the vigilance ot this gallant old man of 65. On June 28 thoPrinco was taken in charge by ilora Macdonald, whose dangerous duty it was to get him through the ring, of foes which hemmed him in on every side. Two days afterwards tho Prince was conveyed to the Mainland, and finally, somowceks later, he got: safely away to France. Much has been written of the Prince's later adventares. but Mr. Barron's account, of the earlier iourneyings under the guidance, of Mac-, leod will ba new to many readers. .

Prince Charlie's Flight. It was at Borrodale that the "Hope of tho Stuarts" placed himself'in Macleod s lare, and set out, in an eight-pared boat, on the voyage to the outer islands, proDeeding by various stages to Stornoway, and then returning south again until, on June 21, tho. Prince bade farewell to his faithful followers on the shore ot i.ocli Boisdale, on South Uist The oarsmen were: Roderick Maodonald, Lachlan Mac muirich, Roderick Maccaskill, John Macdonald, Duncan Roy, Alexander Macdoii. aid, Edward Burke, and an intrepid bpy, yotuig' Murdoch Macleod, who ( insisted upon accompanying his gallant father. All-ware Highlanders, inspired by toe true Highland spirit.'"Their names, says Mr Barron, '.'deserve to be,remembered so-long as.the"'story of the '45 has,power to' stir men's blood." The ' adventures of the 'little party- are- narrated, point by Point, and most faithfully as to detail, bv Mr, Barron, and the Tesult is a record than wbioh none could be more imbired with tho spirit of romance. Whatever may have been the Prince's faults, and m later life it must be confessed, he cut but a sorry figure, hia good qualities undoubtedly came uppermost in those weary months, when he/woa a hunted man. Says Mr. Barron:— Prince Charlie, the leader of the Highland Army, the head of an anned rebellion; earned great Tfrsponsibilitiea on his shoulders, and was, in. tho eyes of most of his followers, however gay and debonnair he migh.t sometimes be, a man apart, s> Prince to be treated only- with, respect and reverence. Prince . Charlie, the fugitive, oast ' caTe'and,responsibility from hun like a discarded: cloak, and with them east tbo outward trappings of royalty. : . The Prince, a fugitive, forgottnnt he was a Prince, and., remembering only that he was a man in whom the blood of youth coursed generously, gave lull rein to all the gay recklessness in the face of danger, all the spirit of camaraderie, all the joy of living, which went to form a part of the . mysterious personal charm which was the gift of the unhappy Stuart race.,

Macleod Captured. >•' The farewell between the Prince and his gallant companion in the long voyagines in the rough Western seas has. often ' been described. Once these were over, and the Prince on -his way to 'take up a new series of adventures which commenced when he. was assisted by Flora Mcdonald,-Don-ald Macleod and his men sunk-their boat and separated. On July 5, after a fortnight's wanderings, Macleod had the misfortune to be taken : prisoner in Benbeoule by "Allan Macdonald, of Knock, m Slato-in-Skyc, a lieutenant," and .now commenced for the hardy old pilot a. period of tribulation and misery, out of which it is almost marvellous he escaped with his life. Ho was first taken to Bnrra and then to Portree. From Portree Donald Macleod and Captain Malcolm Macleod, of Brea, were sent to Applecross Bay where, on board the sloop Furnace, they were subjected to a searching examine tion by General Campbell, afterwards the Fourth Duke of Argyll. The Campbells were staunch Hanoverians and were hated ■throughout the Highlands for having assisted the Eedcoats in hunting out Jacobite fugitives. However, Campbell himself was a gentleman, and although he examined Macleod "most exactly' and circumstantially," he did not bully or illtreat him.

When first asked if he had been with the Prince, "Yes," said Donald, "I was along with that young gentleman, and I winna deny it." Do you know," said General Campbell, what money was upon that young mans head? No less a sum than thirty thousand pounds sterling, which would have made you and all your children after .you happy' forever.' To which Donald made indignant answer. "What then?" he replied. "Thirty thousand pounds'. Though I had gotten't 1 could not have enjoyed it eight-and-forty hours. Conscienco would have gotten up upon me. That money could not have kept it down. And though I could have gotten nil England and Scotland for my pains I would not have allowed a hair of his body to be touched if I could help it" Miseries of tho Highlander Prisoners. But if General Campbell was a gentleman, with some spark of humanity in him it was far otherwiso with the captain of the Furnace, one John Ferguson, who, with his crew, heaped indignities on the hapless prisoners who remained io tho sloop for several weeks while she crnised up and down tho Highland coast, eventually being transferred, when the Furnace returned to Tilbury Fort, to another and smaller vessel, the James and Mary. The unfortunate Highlanders wpto treated, both on the coast and at Tubury, "with the utmost barbarity and cruelty. Many of them died from a general sickness that raged among all tho prisoners on board the different ships, which could not fail to be the case,, when (as both Donald and Malcolm positively affirmed) they we're sometimes fed with the beeves that had died of the disease which was then raging amongst the horned cattle in England. One of the prisoners, one William Jack, at one time a merchant in Elgin, has placed on record a trrapnic description of the horrible treatment accorded to the captives in the prison ships. He had joined the Prince, fought at Ciilloden, been taken prisoner a few weeks after the battle, and conveyed to Inverness, where ho was put on board one of the Government ships which lay full of prisoners, off Kessock. A few weeks later no was sent to London, and aftor an imprisonment of nearly a year, was trans-

ported to the Barbadoes. Tho author quotes from a letter written by Jack from Tilbury Tort on the 17th March, 1717, and (uldressetl to friends in Elgin:

. "This comes to acquaint you," he continues, "that I was eight months and eight days on sea, of which time I was weeks upon half a pound and twelve ounces of oatmeal and a bottle of water in the 24 hours, which wo were obliged to make meal and water in the bottom of one . clu bottle. There was 125 put on board at Inverness on the 'James and Mary, of, Fife. In the latter end of Juno we was put on bonrd of a transpirt of 450 tons, called the 'Liberty ai:d Property,' in which we continued the rest of the eight months upon twelve ounces of oat shilling as it came from the mill. There was 32 prisoners moTQ put aboard tho said 'Liberty and Property,' which makes 157, and when we came ashoro we was but 49 in life.

"Ducked From the Yard-arm." The only wonder was that even 49 survived the foul treatment of Fergusson and his kind, for another captive, John Farqnharson, of Aldberg, better known as "John Anderson, My Jo," says-.— "They (the prisoners) were seized with a kind pf plague, which carried them off in dozens, and a good many of those who would have outlived their sickness were wantonly murdered by the sailors by dipping them in the sea in the crisis of their fevers. This was the sailors' diversion from Buchali Ness Point till we came to the-Noro. They'd take a rope and tic about the poor sick's waisl, then they would haul him up by their tackle and plunge them in the sec, as they said, to drown the vermin; but they took special care to drown both together. Then they'd haul them up lipon deck, and tie a stone about on the legs, and overboard'with them. I have seen six or seven examples of this, in one day.

Release at Last. The fine old Highlander, Macleod, must have been a man of stout heart and iron constitution, for, from the August 1, .1716, to April 9, 1747, the day upon which lord Lovat was executed, he was confined in a dark place of the Bhip, and 'Tot allowed the light of a candle of any kind." Released from the dungeon ship on June 10, 1747, "upon a most 'happy day," he says, "the birthday of the Old Chevalier, the, King over the water," he was placed in charge of a "messenger/ or officer of the court, and thereafter was allowed on parole to wander about London as he pleased. He was released altogether about a month later. The Jacobite prisoners, says the author,, "had now become the fnshion in London, and' the people who had teen afraid to risk their skins for the cause to which many had pledged themselves, were now tumbling over each other to extol the courage and virtues of those who had saved the Prince." Flora Macdonald was "the heroine of fashionable London, and A. Macleod and his.friends were feasted and. feted in o manner which" would have' turned the heads of smaller men." Eventually, eighteen months after he had last seen his wife and family, Macleod, aided, as were so many other prisoners, by John Walkingshaw and other London Jacobites left for .his home. He was very kindly treated -in Edinburgh, and finally reached Gualtergill, there to die two years later, esteemed and honon/ea by all who knew him, his good friend, Bishop Forbes, inditing* ".iir-thec-manneK: of the day, a brief epitaph, which duly appeared in the "Caledonian Mercury." Of the many braTe,and.honest,soulß whom it was the fate of Prince Charlie to lead into peril and misery, this modest, gallant Highland fisherman. and farmer was surely one of the most disinterested and noblest. Mr. Barron's book is one which : all Sootsmen . should' find great pleasure in wading. An excellent map enables the reader to follow the movements of the Prince and his faithful pilot, and a reproduction of the well-known picture by J. B. Macdonald, R.S.A., "After Culloden:'Prince Charlie's Farewell," forms a suitable frontispiece. (The price ia 55.)