HIGHLANDS. 



737 



tian friends there ! We do not go to New England 

 as Separatists from the church of England, though 

 we cannot but separate from the corruptions in it, but 

 we go to practise the positive part of church refor- 

 mation, and propagate the gospel in America." 

 There were but seven houses in Salem at the time of 

 his arrival, but he immediately entered upon the 

 performance of his duties. These, however, he was 

 not destined to discharge long, for he died in August, 

 1630. He wrote an account of New England, 

 entitled A short and true Description of the Dis- 

 coveries and Commodities of the Country, which is 

 printed in the first volume of the Collections of the 

 Historical Society of Massachusetts. One of his 

 sons, also named Francis, who was an excellent 

 scholar, kept a school for some time in New Eng- 

 land, but finally settled in the county of Westmore- 

 land, in his native country. He wrote a book against 

 the society of Friends, called the Irreligion of North- 

 ern Quakers, said to be the first publication against 

 that sect. He also published a treatise, De quinyue 

 maximis Luminibus ; De Luce increatd ; De Luce 

 creatd ; De Lumine Naturae, Gratiee et Gloria . 



HIGHLANDS of Scotland, one of the greater divi- 

 sions of Scotland, applied to the mountainous part 

 of the country to the N. and N. W. in contradistinc- 

 tion to the Lowlands, which occupy the E. and S. E. 

 district. The Western Isles are also comprehended 

 in the Highland district. The Highlands are gener- 

 ally subdivided into two parts, the West Highlands, 

 and the North Highlands ; the former of which con- 

 tains the shires of Argyll and Bute, and part of Perth 

 and Dumbarton, with the islands belonging to them ; 

 and the latter comprehends the counties of Inverness, 

 Ross, Sutherland, the districts of Athol, Ranuoch, 

 and the isles of Sky, Lewis, and others belonging to 

 Inverness and Ross. The extent of this greater dis- 

 trict, from Dumbarton to the borders of Caithness, is 

 upwards of 200 miles, and its breadth varies from 

 80 to 100. The whole of the district is wild, 

 rugged, and mountainous in the highest degree : 

 many of the mountains are elevated to a great 

 height, while some of the vales at their base, for 

 months,never feel the rays of the sun. These vales are 

 generally occupied by lakes, or the precipitous rivers 

 which pour in torrents from them. The principal 

 rivers of the country have their rise amongst these 

 wilds, descending to the ocean with great rapidity : 

 the Tay, the Spey, and the Forth, are formed from the 

 junction of the numerous streams from the hills. 



The openings or passes from the Lowlands into the 

 Highlands were originally so wild and narrow that 

 they appeared almost impassable till they were ex- 

 tended by art. Amongst these passes, the most ex- 

 traordinary are, Balmaha, on Loch Lomond ; Aberfoil 

 and Leney, in the county of Monteith ; the pass of 

 Glenalmond over the Crieff; the entrance into the 

 county of Athol by Dunkeld, over mount Birnam ; the 

 pass of Killicrankie ; and some beds of rivers. This 

 natural boundary was one of the principal causes that 

 the Highlanders remained a distinct race from the 

 inhabitants of the plains (the Lowlanders). In the 

 Grampian chain there are some hills of considerable 

 height, as Ben Lomond, Ben Lawers, Shehallien and 

 others. The Highlands appear in majestic grandeur 

 from these mountains. Covered with clouds or en- 

 veloped in fogs, their summits are often scarcely 

 perceptible, while their sterile appearance, and the 

 deep, rocky defiles by which they are hollowed, bear 

 the traces of violent convulsions of nature. Towards 

 these summits the soil is barren ; lower down is a 

 thin covering of heath, where none but birds of prey, 

 white hares, and ptarmigans are met with. Farther 

 down still live red deer and grouse ; and on fertile 

 plains interspersed with rich heath, are numerous 

 HI. 



herds of sheep. At the foot of the mountains, beauti- 

 ful valleys are formed, traversed by rivers from the 

 hills, or enclosing splendid lakes, or covered with 

 wood, or producing different kinds of corn. Many 

 of these valleys have numerous inhabitants, whose 

 principal property consists in cattle. The territory 

 peopled by the Gaelic race consists of the counties 

 of Sutherland, Caithness, Ross, Inverness, Cromarty, 

 Nairn, Argyle, Bute, the Hebrides, and part of the 

 counties of Moray, Banff, Stirling, Perth, Dumbarton, 

 Aberdeen, and Angus. The boundary of the High- 

 lands forms a line, (beginning at the entrance to the 

 Pentland Firth, extending round St Kilda, and encir- 

 cling the whole group of the eastern and southern 

 islands to Isla and round the Mull of Kintyre, up the 

 Firth of Clyde, and comprehending the islands of Ar- 

 ran and Bute, to the Leven at Dumbarton on the main- 

 land of Scotland, along the Grampian hills to the 

 county of Aberdeen, and ending at the north-east point 

 of Caithness. The inhabitants are descendants of the 

 Celts. They call their country Gaeldach (land of 

 the Gaels) or Albanich. The names of England and 

 Scotland are unknown in the Gaelic dialect. The 

 English are called by them Saxons (Sassanach) ; the 

 Lowlanders, Gual (strangers), and their country, 

 Gualdach. 



While, after the union of the Picts and Scots (see 

 Scotland), in the ninth century, the Scotch Lowlands, 

 by the intercourse with southern Britain, gradually 

 became more and more civilized, the social relations 

 of the Highlanders assumed a peculiar character, 

 having for its basis the circumstances of the original 

 Celtic inhabitants. The condition of the country, 

 and the motives which led them to fix their residence 

 there, determined the nature of their institutions. 

 Unable to contend on equal terms with the force 

 which urged them from below, and desiring to pre- 

 serve, their independence, they protected themselves 

 in those mountain-castles, which have always been 

 the sanctuary of liberty, and the refuge for those 

 who would oppose their more powerful neighbours. 

 In the absence of their kings, who had their seats in 

 the Scotch Lowlands, and protected by the moun- 

 tains, they did not always submit to the dominion of 

 a distant sovereign, who was neither able to enforce 

 obedience nor to afford protection. The division of the 

 country of the Gaels into single valleys, glens, and 

 islands, separated either by mountains or inlets of the 

 sea, necessarily led to the formation of small tribes; and 

 men of considerable property or distinguished talents, 

 under whose command the others had fought, or 

 under whose protection they had settled, became 

 chiefs. As the inhabitants of these valleys had little 

 intercourse with each other, on account of the natural 

 condition of the country, eacli valley became the 

 territory and property of a tribe, which had arms for 

 defence, a sufficient number of artisans for their con- 

 fined wants, pasture for their cattle, wood for build- 

 ing, &c., moss and turf for burning, and a territory 

 for hunting. These tribes were without inducements to 

 change their habitation, to invite foreigners, or to pro- 

 mote a general intercourse among the various settle- 

 ments ; so that each of them isolated itself. Thus the 

 nation was split into single masses, connected, indeed, 

 by the same language and customs, but living under 

 different rulers. Thus was formed, in each tribe or 

 clan, a patriarchal government, a kind of hereditary 

 monarchy, founded rather on custom, and confirmed 

 by general consent, than regulated by laws. The 

 Highlander honoured, in his chief, the descendant of 

 a distant ancestor, from whom the whole clan was 

 believed to have sprung. The clan showed him a 

 filial devotedness ; and even the name clan is derived 

 from the Gaelic word klaan, that is, children. The 

 more the ties of real or supposed relationship contri- 

 SA 



