Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 5, 1897

THE CELTIC MONTHLY.
the Commissariat Department, and also to the
Land Transport Corps. At this time the
Southern Muratha country wa.s in insuirection.
In 1858 he commanded three companies of his
regiment in a Hying cohunn, with a wing of
H. M.'s -Seth Foot, and half a battery of artillery
under the command of Brigadier Heyland, on a
forced march from Bhelgaum to Dharwar, as the
Muratha rebels were threatening Dharwar. The
mai-ch of fifty miles was done in good style in
fifty hours. Soon after this he was nominated
by the Bombay Government, to raise in the very
heart of the Southern Muratha country — where
disaffection amongst the semi-barbarous natives
was rife — a levy named the " Shetsundee Levy."
On its disbandment in 1859, he was appointed
Acting-Superintendent of Police at Sholapore.
On the return of the incumbent in 1S60, he
rejoined his regiment. Transferi-ed to Bombay
Staff Corps 1866, Acting - Commandant 16th
Bombay Native Infantry 1872-73. Retired
from the service on a pension, 1874.
It may be interesting to mention that General
Fai-quharson was the victim, and eventually the
hero, of the famous court-martial at Belgaum in
1856, on a trumped-up charge by his superior
officers, Down and Macleod. The trial created
a great sensation all over India, and resulted in
the triumphant acquittal of the jirisoner. It
also resulted in the exposure and suppression of
the terrible form of military tyranny which was
practised in the Indian army.
He is of the family of Farquharson of AUargue
and Breda ; succeeded as ne.xt heir male entail to
the estate of Breda, Aberdeenshire, on the death of
his uncle, General Francis Farquharson, Bombay
Army, 1873 ; disentailed the estate in 1882,
and sold it, 1892 ; and is the last heir male of
the Far(|uharsons of Allargue and Breda.
The following is the origin and descent of the
Farquharsons : — " Gilchrist, son of the Laird of
Mackintosh, was the father of Shaw, commonly
called Shaw M6r, who was the leader of the
thirty Clan Chattan that fought against the Clan
Cay on the North Inch of Perth about 1392.
Farquhar, the third son of Shaw of Rothymor-
chus, of whom the Farquharsons are come, was
chamberland or factor to the Earl of Marr, and
bought the land of Inverey from the said Earl'
of Marr."
ANDREW FAUQUHARSON OF BREDA, Died 1S31.
THE WHITE SANDS OF BARRA.
§T is a hard tale for a man to be telling about
a dead friend. But it cannot huit Ian
— now. And for the deep-eyed woman on
Barra, it matters not whether she reads these
words or not. Her black mischief is done. And
Ian MacNeill will never see the sun going down
behind the Caisteal of St. Clair again.
It is always of Ian that I am thinking, when,
on the long light summer nights I will be seeing,
•as in a dream, the white sands stretching for
miles along the coast of Barra that lies to tlie
west. Many a time did he see the sun dipping
away behind the lonely Atlantic out yonder,
when the great waves were breaking with a
boopa of thunder along the shore. But it was
not .by the clachan of huts near the Caisteal,
that stands on the rock in the water, that Ian
and I first met. It was fai- away in the towns
of the south, where the folk live like sheep
huddled together in squalid lanes, and the very
sparrows fall poisoned by the foul air as they
fly above the alleys in the mouth of day.
On the skirt of a crowd that surrounded two
brawling women, my fellow-islesman and I first
met. We were both Barra men, but we had to
come away to the towns of the south to be
introduced to one another. I had heard of Ian long
before I saw him that night in the crowd with
Duncan Grant. Duncan was often telling me
about the man who was carrying about with him
a bitter heart and a wild eye, because a woman
had taken his love and then thrown it away
again with a laugh. So wlien we saw one
another that night for the first time, it was with
a queer look that the eyes of us met, and we
were in the understanding of each other in a
moment,