Historical memoirs of Rob Roy and the Clan Macgregor

INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. 29
but neither justice nor humanity were regarded
in the religious controversies of that time, which
would have dishonoured the most savage na-
tions of antiquity. The reformed faith was en-
joined throughout the mountains with rigorous
frenzy, the usual accompaniment of enthusias-
tic proselytes ; and the Highlanders, always
obedient to the will of their superiors, and
naturally prone to novelty, readily became con-
verts to the precepts of the Reformation, with
the exception of the remote and distant Nor-
thern islands, whose situation precluded the
means of information, and in some of which the
Reformation was not heard of for upwards of
twelve months after it was effected, when it
was told as a dispute that had taken place be-
twixt the laird of Macdonald and the king.
Soon after the junction of the two kingdoms
under the sixth James of Scotland, the still un-
settled and obstinate situation of the Highland
districts demanded the notice of the legislature.
The state of seclusion in which their inhabitants
had lived, seemed, in the opinion of that mon-
arch, to have disqualified them for improvement
or civilization, as they were placed beyond the
limits of regal power, so that they were still
esteemed as objects more to be dreaded by the