Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 5

THE EDITOR IN CANADA. 157
t3 county, where I had the pleasure of meeting some genuine old
(Its. Among them I would notice ISTorman Macleod, Laggan, a
itive of Glenelg ; and Captain ]\Iackenzie, a fine old veteran 93 years
c age. I found Mackenzie to be a native of Contin, Ross-shire ; but
fought up in Lochbroom. He subsequently became a soldier, and was
il the British army when Napoleon I. was a prisoner in Elba, a period of
h hfe of which my venerable namesake was so full that I could hardly
iluce him to talk about anything else. He was the second who turned
{3od in the back part of Glengarry county, to which he found his way
I pure accident, having lost his way in the forest for three days and
l^hts trying to find his way to a place more than a hundred miles in the
('posite direction. "When he left this country he was so poor that he
(uld not pay for his passage across ; but the Captain of a sailing ship in
t-eenock gave him credit until he was afterwards able to pay him. He
f now in affluent circumstances, possessing an excellent farm of his own,
■ }'d has been able to start several sons in farms of their own equally good,
ifter a most pleasant drive to Lochiel and the surrounding country, I
itiu-ned to Alexandria, where I delivered my lecture to an appreciative
/dience of as genuine a type of Highlanders as ever drew breath.
I In the morning before starting for Lochiel, a deputation waited upon
J3 to know if I had any engagements in the evening, after my lecture ;
.'.d, answering in the negative, I was told that they would be glad then
■ i spend an hour with me. What was my surprise to find a really good
jper, and a Macdonald, at the door of the hall ready to play us to the
'itel immediately after my lecture, and there to find supper laid tor about
:rty-five gentlemen who were good enough to entertam me thus
i the guest of the Highlanders of Alexandria. The chair was taken by
■ !r Angus Macdonald, a fine Highlander and a prominent official in the
jace, supported by John Macdougald, whose grandfather left the Island
f Eigg, in 1788, for Sydney, Nova Scotia, and in 1793 went to Glengarry
[id settled there. His mother I found was one of the United Empire
ibyalists already referred to, descended from the Camerons of Fassiefern.
Ir Macdougald possesses his grandfather's original property in Glengarry.
|onald MacmiUan, M.D., who presided at the lecture, was croupier at
lie supper, and added much to our entertainment by his singing in fine
oice and spirit some excellent Gaelic songs. Among the company was
[so the grandson, A. B. ]\Iacdonald, of the first wliite man born in Glen-
lirry. His great-grandfather emigrated from Morar without means of
|iy kind, but havuig been in the army he had free land allotted to him
iid he died Avorth property valued at £2000. The great-grandson became
brtuer, and is now the successor, in the extensive and luciative business
ling carried on by the Hon. Donald Macdonald, the present Lieutenant-
1 overuor of Ontario ; and is rapidly amassing a fortune. Among others
resent were Colin D. Chisholm, clerk to the District Court — a cousin of
ar own Colin Chisholm, and almost as enthusiastic and as well informed
Celt as the ex-President of the Gaelic Society of London himself; Dr
Uexander R. Macdonell, and several other waim-hearted fellows whose
fames I did not manage to carry along with me. There were, however,
wo Southern Scots present, who had settled down among the Highlanders
f Alexandria, and who appeared to be in spirit as genuine Celts as the
9st, viz., Charles H. Connon, M.A., and Edward H. Tiffany, both bar-