arms; but Locheill having certified that they were of his Clan, and shown that they were intituled to the use of their arms by his treaty with the General, they were all liberated. Nor seems it improper here to be observed, that this privelidge was of great use to the neightbouring Clans, for he generously communicated it to all that demanded the favour, by granting certificats that they were Camerons; so that, in a short time, his name became so numerous as to spread itself over a great part of the Highlands.

He soon thereafter brought his lady to Lochaber, and was complimented by his Clan with a sume equall at least to all the charges of that expensive wedding. Att this meeting he was agreeably intertained by a Highland Bard, who sung or recited his verses after the manner of the antients, and who inherited no small portion of their spirite and simplicity. He laboured under the common missfortune of the brotherhood of Parnassus, and came all the way from Breamar, or thereabouts, to petition for three cows that had been taken from him in the late wars. He artefully introduced himself by a panegyrick on the Chief; and while he magnifys his power, he ingeniously compliments his Clan, whose friendship and protection he begs: He makes frequent mention of those qualitys that were most for his purpose with cunning enowgh, for as pity, generosity, and compassion, are virtues inseperable from great sowls, so they answered his aim in opening the hearts of those whom he petitioned.

The Poem is wrote in a strong, nervous, and masculine stile, abounding with thoughts and images drawn from such simple objects as he had either seen or occasionaly heard of; but expressed in a manner peculiar to the emphasis and genius of the Gaulik, for he understood no other language. Here is no ostentation of learning, no allusions to antient fable or mythology, no far-fetched similes, nor dazeling metaphors brought from imaginary or unknown objects. These are the affected ornaments of modern poetry, and are more properly the issue of arte and study than of nature and genius. But the beauty of this consists in that agreeable simplicity, in that glow of imagination and noble flame of fancy, which gives life and energy to such compositions; but which, I am afraid, is

lost in the following translation. As I attempted it with no other view but to gratifie the curious, so I have, for their furder satisfaction, given also a literall version, in prose, which the reader will find in the Appendix. Though neither resembles the original more than the naked and dissfigured carcass of a murdered hero does a living one in full vigour and spirite; for the Gaulick has all the advantages of an original language. It is concise, copious, and pathetick; and as one word of it expresses more than three of ours, so it is well known how impossible it is to preserve the full force and energy of a thought or image in a tedious circumlocution. The translation is as follows:

To Abrian shoars I wing my willing flight,

To see with wondring eyes the matchless Knight,
The generous Chief, who the brave Clan commands,
And waves his bloody banner o're the lands.
The Hero, to whom all that's great belongs :
The glorious theam of our sublimest songs,
Whose manly sport, the savage is to trace,
Inur'd to toyle, and hard'ned in the chase.

Strong as an eagle, with resistless blows
He falls impetuous on his fiercest foes.
His fiercest foes beneth his arm must dye,
Or quick as birds before the falcon flye.
Keen to attack, the approach of danger fires;
A mighty foe, still mightyer force inspires;
His courage swells the more that dangers grow,
And still the Hero rises with the foe.

Oft I, young Chief, have heard thine actions told,
Thy person prais'd, thy generous name extol'd;
Now to my eyes, these graces stand confest,
With which kind Fame my ravished eares possess'd.

See! his fresh looks with manly beautys glow,
His brawn and air, his strength and vigour show,
In just proportion every feature shines,
And goodness softens the majestick lines,
The charms of modesty through all we trace,
And winning sweetness smiles in every grace.

What numerous Tribes thy lov'd commands obey?
In shining helms, and polished armour gay;
Brave champions all, whose brawny arms doe weild
The offencive broad-sword and defencive shield.
Ah! many a foe has then laid victime been,
And hapless widows mourn their edge too keen.

Immortal Chief! with early triumphs croun'd,
Thy conduct guids, thy courage gives the wound.
Matchless the guns, the bows well-backed and long,
Pointed the shafts, the sounding queavers strong;
Dreadfull the swords, and vigurous are the hands
Of our well-bodied, feirce, and numerous bands-
Bands, whose resistless fury scours the field,
Greedy of slaughter, and unknown to yield!

Hence your fierce Camerons, (for that name they bear,)
As masters rule, and lord it every where.
Ev'n of such pow'r might sceptred Monarchs boast!
Happy when guarded by so brave ane hoaste;
Ane hoast, whose matches no one Chief can tell,

In arms to equall, or in strength t' excell.

O lett me, Sir, their lov'd protection gain,
For this I came, nor did I come in vaine !
Great as their courage is, their generous mind,
To want still liberal, and to suffering kind!

But first to thee, Great Chief, I make my moan;
Heroick Ewen! Thow sone of prudent John,
Illustrious Allan's heir, with beauty crown'd,
And as a lyon bold, when foes surround.

If, or your judgement does approve my song,
Or, if my sufferings claim redress of wrong-
Three cows well-fed, (nor more, alas ! had I,)
With drink and food sustain'd my poverty;
These I demand, oh! they the victims are
Of lawless ravage, and destructive war.

Nor I to those with doubtfull hopes complain,
Whose liberal hands did former wants sustain.
My losses, now repeated, aids demand,
Since I nor milk, nor other cow command-
Else I all summer must on herbage dine,
And in the cold of shivering winter pine!

Brave Callaurt, with the shineing armour shone,
I nixt adress: To thee I make my moane.
Yow to the field, the embattled warriours lead,
And hear with pitty when poor sufferrers plead;

Your natʼral goodness does my hopes secure,
Nor need I tell yow more, but that I'm poor!
With thee I joyne brave Dougal's worthy heir,
And Martin's sone, who all the virtues share.
Witness, O! Heavens! how I esteem the three,
So much enobled by their ancestry!

Locheill and his company were very generous to the poor Poet; for besides his three cowes, they gave him 300 merks in money, in order to incourage his vein. It was unlucky for him that he did not mention

more of these gentlemen, for those he omitted were not so liberal as the rest. However, he returned home very well contented, and made all the rocks and woods resound with the praises of Locheill and his Camerons, in his poeticall compositions, which are still highly esteemed in these parts, and are often the agreeable intertainment of the ingenious.

About the begining of the last war, a detatchment of the army happning to meet with Sir Alexander Livingstone, natural sone to the Earl of Callander, as he, with a good number of servants and followers, were travelling through those moors betwixt Badenoch and Athole, attacked and defeated them; whereby they became master of a great dale of valuable moveables, which that gentleman was conveying home from Inverness, where they had been for the greater security depositated during the fury of the preceeding wars.

All that Locheill got of this booty was a fine horse, which he afterwards gifted to the Laird of M'Naghtan. Neither the General nor he condemned the action, in so far as the Earl, to whom these goods belonged, had alwayes acted against King Charles I. on the side of the Covenant; and though it is possible that he might have joyned the present King, yet they tooke that for no proofe of his loyalty, because the greatest part of the Covenanted Lords were forced into that service against their will, by the general torrent of the nation, which almost unanimously declaired for their Soveraign; nor was any person thought trewely loyall, but such as afterwards gave more evident testimonys of it.

However the matter was, the Earl, having gott information that several Camerons were in that party, and that their Chief (though not there in person) was complimented with his son's horse, he raised action before the Criminal Judges against Locheill, as accessorey, and against his men, as actors in the alleaged robbery. Before the day of appearance, Locheill having thought it proper to apply to his ordinary protector the General, he procured the following letter or order from the Counceill to the Earl: