idS A VI E W O F 



their opinions perfonally, and all agreed in their 

 encomiums upon the new world. They exhorted 

 their countrymen to exchange their barren heaths 

 ' for the boundlefs plains of America ; they declaimed 

 upon the ibftnefs of the climate, the fertility of the 

 foil, the abundance of provifions, the exemption 

 from taxes -, the opulence, eafe, and luxury of the 

 people. 



Thefe alluring defcriptions had the defired effect 

 upon the imaginations of men naturally Warm, and 

 impatient of injuries. The Highlanders now firft 

 began to look on their native country with con- 

 tempt, and upon their oppreffors with indignation. 

 Shall we, faid they, remain in thefe miferable 

 huts, the objects of clerifion, without the common 

 neceffaries of life, or the prcfpect of better times ? 

 No I we will depart to the great country beyond 

 the ocean, where our labour will be rewarded, and 

 our families comfortably maintained. 



Such was the language, and fuch the cifpofition 

 of the oppreffed, the much-injured Highlanders, 

 whether fituated upon the continent, or amongft the 

 iflands. In vain did the landlords ufe the mofi per- 

 fuafive arguments, offering terms, which formerly 

 would have been gladly accepted. The heroic ex- 

 ploits of their anceftors, the antiquity of the clan, 

 the refpect for the chief, no longer held the people 

 in fetters. They began to think, and to act for 

 themfelves. Whole groups of men, worrier}, and 

 children, paffed in continual fuccefliorij to the ft a 

 ports, * and with fuch determined refolutioil, that 



thofe 



* In myjournies through the Highlands, I often met families or 

 bodies of people travelling to the ports. They generally edged off 

 the road, and hurried along as if fhy of an interview ; which, upon 

 the ether hand, I was equally delirous to procure, though I neither 

 could fpeak the erfe, nor was furnilhed with that infallible recom- 

 mendation a ihuff box. Upon finding their flight thus interrupted, 

 not by a hoilileor dangerous force, but a fingle individual, without 

 or fpurs, uponafmall hoife,and in the midft of uninha- 

 bited 



