History Of The Mackenzies [164]
twenty pounds of powder with a proportionable quantity of shot. If that cannot be bought at Inverness, I must beg you will write a line to Governor Grant to give my servant the powder, as I can do without the shot . Barrisdale has come down from Assynt, and was collared by one of the Maclauchlans there for offering to force the people to rise, and he has met with no success there.
I had a message from the Mackenzies in Argyllshire to know what they should do. Thirty are gone from Lochiel; the rest, being about sixty, are at home. I advised them to stay at home and mind their own business." On the 28th of the same month his Lordship writes to inform the President that the Earl of Cromarty and his son, Macculloch of Glastullich, and Ardloch's brother, came to Brahan Castle on the previous Friday; that it was the most unexpected visit he had received for some time, that he did not like to turn them out, that Cromarty was pensive and dull; but that if he had known what he knew at the date of writing he would have made them prisoners, for Lord Macleod went since to Lochbroom and Assynt to raise men. He enclosed for the President's use the names of the officers appointed to the two Mackenzie companies, and intimated that he offered the commission to both Coul and Redcastle, but that both refused it. It was from Coul's house, he says, that Lord Macleod started for the North, and that vexed him. On the same day Forbes acknowledges receipt of this letter, and requests that the officers in the two companies should be appointed according to Mackenzie's recommedations, "without any further consideration than that you judge it right," and he desires to see Sir Alexander of Fairburn for an hour next day to carry a proposal to his Lordship for future operations. "I think," he adds, "it would be right to assemble still more men about Brahan than you now have; the expense shall be made good and it will tend to make Caberfey respectable, and to discourage folly among your neighbours." In a letter of 6th November the President says, "I supposed that your Lordship was to have marched Hilton's company into town (Inverness) on Monday or Tuesday; but I dare say there is a good reason why it has not been done."
On the 8th of November Mackenzie informs the Lord President that the Earl of Cromarty had crossed the river at Contin, with about a hundred men on his way to Beauly, "owing to the neglect of my spies, as there's rogues of all professions." Lord Macleod, Cromarty's son came from Assynt and Lochbroom the same day, and followed his father to the rendezvous, but after traversing the whole of that northern district he did not get a single volunteer. "Not a man started from Ross-shire, except William, Kilcoy's brother, with seven men, and a tenant of Redcastle with a few more and if Lentran and Torridon did go off last night, they did not carry between them a score of men. I took a ride yesterday to the westward with two hundred men, but find the bounds so rugged that it's impossible to keep a single man from going by if he has a mind. However, I threatened to burn their cornyards if anybody was from home this day, and I turned one house into the river for not finding its master at home. It's hard the Government gives nobody in the North power to keep people in order. I don't choose to send a company to Inverness until I hear what they are determined to do at Lord Lovat's." The Earl of Loudon writes to Marshal Wade, then Commander-in-Chief in the North, under date of 16th November, saying that 150 or 160 Mackenzies, seduced by the Earl of Cromarty, marched in the beginning of that week up the north side of Loch-Ness, expecting to be followed by 500 or 600 Frasers, under command of the Master of Lovat, but the Mackenzies had not on that date passed the mountains. On the 16th of December Fortrose writes asking for ?00 expended by him during two months on his men going to and coming from the Highlands, for which he would not trouble him only that he bad a very "melancholy appearance"
I had a message from the Mackenzies in Argyllshire to know what they should do. Thirty are gone from Lochiel; the rest, being about sixty, are at home. I advised them to stay at home and mind their own business." On the 28th of the same month his Lordship writes to inform the President that the Earl of Cromarty and his son, Macculloch of Glastullich, and Ardloch's brother, came to Brahan Castle on the previous Friday; that it was the most unexpected visit he had received for some time, that he did not like to turn them out, that Cromarty was pensive and dull; but that if he had known what he knew at the date of writing he would have made them prisoners, for Lord Macleod went since to Lochbroom and Assynt to raise men. He enclosed for the President's use the names of the officers appointed to the two Mackenzie companies, and intimated that he offered the commission to both Coul and Redcastle, but that both refused it. It was from Coul's house, he says, that Lord Macleod started for the North, and that vexed him. On the same day Forbes acknowledges receipt of this letter, and requests that the officers in the two companies should be appointed according to Mackenzie's recommedations, "without any further consideration than that you judge it right," and he desires to see Sir Alexander of Fairburn for an hour next day to carry a proposal to his Lordship for future operations. "I think," he adds, "it would be right to assemble still more men about Brahan than you now have; the expense shall be made good and it will tend to make Caberfey respectable, and to discourage folly among your neighbours." In a letter of 6th November the President says, "I supposed that your Lordship was to have marched Hilton's company into town (Inverness) on Monday or Tuesday; but I dare say there is a good reason why it has not been done."
On the 8th of November Mackenzie informs the Lord President that the Earl of Cromarty had crossed the river at Contin, with about a hundred men on his way to Beauly, "owing to the neglect of my spies, as there's rogues of all professions." Lord Macleod, Cromarty's son came from Assynt and Lochbroom the same day, and followed his father to the rendezvous, but after traversing the whole of that northern district he did not get a single volunteer. "Not a man started from Ross-shire, except William, Kilcoy's brother, with seven men, and a tenant of Redcastle with a few more and if Lentran and Torridon did go off last night, they did not carry between them a score of men. I took a ride yesterday to the westward with two hundred men, but find the bounds so rugged that it's impossible to keep a single man from going by if he has a mind. However, I threatened to burn their cornyards if anybody was from home this day, and I turned one house into the river for not finding its master at home. It's hard the Government gives nobody in the North power to keep people in order. I don't choose to send a company to Inverness until I hear what they are determined to do at Lord Lovat's." The Earl of Loudon writes to Marshal Wade, then Commander-in-Chief in the North, under date of 16th November, saying that 150 or 160 Mackenzies, seduced by the Earl of Cromarty, marched in the beginning of that week up the north side of Loch-Ness, expecting to be followed by 500 or 600 Frasers, under command of the Master of Lovat, but the Mackenzies had not on that date passed the mountains. On the 16th of December Fortrose writes asking for ?00 expended by him during two months on his men going to and coming from the Highlands, for which he would not trouble him only that he bad a very "melancholy appearance"