Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

676
GLENCOE.
these instructions, Dalrymple informs Livingston
that " the king does not at all incline to receive any
after the diet but in mercy," but he artfully adds,
" but for a just example of vengeance, I entreat the
thieving tribe of Glencoe may be rooted out to pur-
pose." Lest, however, Livingston might hesitate,
a duplicate of these additional instructions was sent
at the same time by Secretary Dalrymple to Colonel
Hill, the governor of Fort- William, with a letter of
an import similar to that sent to Livingston.*
Preparatory to putting the butchering warrant in
execution, a party of Argyle's regiment, to the num-
ber of 120 men, under the command of Captain
Campbell of Glenlyon, was ordered to proceed to
Glencoe, and take up their quarters there, about the
end of January or beginning of February. On ap-
proaching the glen, they were met by John Mac-
donald, the elder son of the chief, at the head of
about twenty men, who demanded from Campbell
the reason of his coming into a peaceful country with
a military force : Glenlyon, and two subalterns who
were with hi m, explained that they came as friends, and
that their sole object was to obtain suitable quarters,
where they could conveniently collect the arrears of
cess and hearth-money — a new tax laid on by the
Scottish parliament in 1690 — in proof of which,
Lieutenant Lindsay produced the instructions of
Colonel Hill to that effect. The officers having
given their parole of honour that they came without
any hostile intentions, and that no harm would be
done to the persons or properties of the chief and
his tenants, they received a kindly welcome, and
were hospitably entertained by Glencoe and his fam-
ily till the fatal morning of the massacre. Indeed,
so familiar was Glenlyon, that scarcely a day passed
that he did not visit the house of Alexander Mac-
donald, the younger son of the chief, who was mar-
ried to his niece, and take his " morning drink,"
agreeably to the most approved practice of Highland
hospitality. If Secretary Dalrymple imagined that
Livingston was disinclined to follow his instructions
he was mistaken; for immediately on receipt of
them, he wrote Lieutenant- colonel Hamilton, who
had been fixed upon by the secretary to be the exe-
cutioner, expressing his satisfaction that Glencoe
had not taken the oath within the period prescribed,
and urging him now that a "fair occasion" offered
for showing that his garrison served for some use,
and as the order to him from the court was positive,
not to spare any that had not come timeously in,
and desiring that he would begin with Glencoe, and
spare nothing of what belongs to them, "but not
2. We do allow you to receive the submissions of Glengarry
and those with him upon their taking the oath of allegiance
and delivering up the houEe of Invergarry ; to be safe as to
their lives, but as to their estates to depend upon our mercy.
3. In case you find that the house uf Invergarry cannot pro-
bably be taken in this season of the year, with the artillery and
provision you can bring there ; in that case we leave it to your
discretion to give Glengarry the assurance of entire indemnity
for life and fortune, upon delivering of the house and arms, and
taking the oath of allegiance. In this you are to act as you
find the circumstances of the affair do require; but it were
much better that those who have not taken the benefit of our
indemnity, in the terras within the diet prefixt by our procla-
mation, should be obliged to render upon mercy. The taking
the oath of allegiance is indispensable, others having already
taken it.
4. If M'Ean of Glenco and that tribe can be well separated
from the rest, it will be a proper vindication of the public jus-
tice to extirpate that set of thieves. The double of these in-
structions is only communicated to Sir Thomas Livingston.
W. Rex.
* From the following extract it would appear that not only
the Earl of Breadalbane, but atso the Earl of Argyle, was privy
to this infamous transaction. " The Earls of Argyle and Bread,
albane have promised that they (the Macdonalds of Gleticoel
shall have no retreat in their bounds, the passes to Hannoch
would be secured, and the hazard certified to the laird of
Weems to reset them ; in that case Argyle's detachment with
a party that may be posted in Island-Stalker must cut them
off."
to trouble the government with prisoners," or in
other words, to massacre every man, woman, and
child. Hamilton, however, did not take any imme-
diate steps for executing this inhuman order. In
the meantime, the master of Stair was not inactive
in inciting his blood-hounds to the carnage, and ac-
cordingly on the 30th of January he wrote two let-
ters, one to Livingston, and the other to Hill, urging
them on. Addressing the former, he says: " I am
glad Glencoe did not come in within the time pre-
fixed ; I hope what is done there may be in earnest,
since the rest are not in a condition to draw together
help. I think to harry (plunder) their cattle, and
burn their houses, is but to render them desperate
lawless men to rob their neighbours, but I believe
you will be satisfied, it were a great advantage to
the nation that thieving tribe were rooted out and
cut off; it must be quietly done, otherwise they will
make shift for both their men and their cattle.
Argyle's detachment lies in Lelrickweel, to assist
the garrison to do all of a sudden." And in his let-
ter to Hill, he says: "Pray, when the thing con-
cerning Glencoe is resolved, let it be secret and
sudden, otherwise the men will shift you, and better
not meddle with them than not to do it to purpose,
to cut off that nest of robbers who have fallen in
the mercy of the law, now when there is force and
opportunity, whereby the king's justice will be as
conspicuous and useful as his clemency to others. I
apprehend the storm is so great that for some time
you can do little, but so soon as possible I know
you will be at work, for these false people will do
nothing, but as they see you in a condition to do
with them."
In pursuance of these fresh instructions from the
secretary, Hill, on the 12th of February, sent orders
to Hamilton, forthwith to execute the fatal commis-
sion, who, accordingly, on the same day, directed
Major Robert Duncanson of Argyle's regiment' to
proceed immediately with a detachment of that
regiment to Glencoe, so as to reach the post which
had been assigned him by five o'clock the follow-
ing morning, at which hour Hamilton promised to
reach another post with a party of Hill's regiment.
Whether Duncanson was averse to take an active
personal part in the bloody tragedy about to be en-
acted, is a question the solution of which would
neither aggravate nor extenuate his guilt as a party
to one of the foulest murders ever perpetrated in any
age or country ; but the probability is, that he felt
some repugnance to act in person, as immediately on
receipt of Hamilton's order, he despatched another
order from himself to Captain Campbell of Glenlyon,
then living in Glencoe, with instructions to fall upon
the Macdonalds precisely at five o'clock the follow-
ing morning, and put all to the sword under seventy
years of age. Campbell was a man fitted for every
kind of villany, a monster in human shape, who, for
the sake of lucre, or to gratify his revenge, would
have destroyed his nearest and dearest friend ; and
who, with consummate treachery,
" Could smile, and murder while he smiled."
With this sanguinary order in his pocket, he ac-
cordingly did not hesitate to spend the eve of the
massacre at cards with John and Alexander Mac-
donald, the sons of the chief, to wish them good night
at parting, and to accept an invitation from Glencoe
himself to dine with him the following day, although
he had resolved to imbrue his hands in the blood of
his kind-hearted and unsuspecting host, his sons, and
utterly to exterminate the whole clan within a few
hours! Little suspecting the intended butchery,
Glencoe and his sons retired to rest at their usual
hour ; but early in the morning, while the prepara-