PRINCE CHARLES AND THE LONG ISLAND. 453 



to make the attempt. Besides, said the messengers, Mac- 

 donald of Boisdale was, at the time they left, trying to hire 

 a meal vessel for the same purpose (this they must have 

 learned from Clanranald), and she might have sailed before 

 Murray could reach the Long Island. Murray's proposal 

 was thus overruled. Nothing appears to have been said 

 about money when Donald Macleod and his companion 

 met Murray at Loch Arkaig. When they mentioned the 

 subject later on, Murray told them he had no money with 

 him except sixty louis, which he required for his personal 

 expenses. The messengers, after an absence of eighteen 

 days, were thus obliged to return to the Prince empty- 

 handed, with the exception of two ankers of brandy. 



In the meantime, on Clanranald's suggestion, Charles 

 had removed, on I4th May, to Coradale in South Uist, 

 where he was welcomed to the house of Neil MacEachain 

 Macdonald ; a palace, he declared, in comparison with the 

 hovel which he had just left. Neil MacEachain a de- 

 scendant of the Macdonalds of Howbeg was educated in 

 France for the priesthood, but had not taken orders. 

 Returning to South Uist, he became parish schoolmaster 

 and tutor to Clanranald's family. His proficiency as a 

 linguist rendered him a useful companion for the Prince at 

 Coradale. His journal is full of Boswellian touches which 

 do not detract from its interest. Like "Johnson's Boswell," 

 he chronicles the foibles, as well as the virtues, of his hero. 

 He frankly states that the Prince always drank "a vast 

 deal of brandy." And both he and Hugh Macdonald of 

 Baleshare give particulars of a carouse, lasting for three 

 days, in which Charles and his visitors indulged. Hugh 

 Macdonald was the emissary of Lady Margaret, the 

 Jacobite wife of Sir Alexander Macdonald of Sleat, the 

 Government supporter. She sent him to Charles with 

 newspapers, and with the intelligence that arrangements 

 were being made to send regulars and militia to the Long 

 Island, to search for the Prince. He met Boisdale at 

 Coradale, who brought the disquieting news that two parties 

 of Macdonalds and Macleods had arrived at Barra to look 



