Series 2 > Origins of the 'Forty-five

WITH PRINCE CHARLES
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all our plans ; for a man who carried our provisions of
Oatmeal, fallen a little behind, by accident met with
some of the Brigade Picquets, who robbed him of our
meal and two riding-coats. This unexpected loss obliged
us to separate soon afterwards, being too many to subsist
in this wild tract of country, if we had kept together.
However, having got betwixt Fort Augustus and Fort
William, we struck up into the country to the right, and
passed several large mountains in Lochiel’s Country,
where we staid three days, because we heard, that the
brave Prince was nigh us, and to take leave of one another,
the necessaries of life being exceedingly scarce, from the
great number of people wandering over the hills as well
as we. I here went to wait upon the Duke of Perth,
who was at the house of Doctor Cameron, Lochiel’s
Brother: but being told by two sentinels at the door,
that His Grace was indisposed, I returned without seeing
him. It was now reported, that an English spy had been
at Doctor Cameron’s house which obliged me in all haste
to quit that place ; for certain it is, had I staid there any
longer, and the Highlanders supposed me to be the spy,
they would have made away with me. I therefore left
my companions and set forward to Lochaber, the wildest
country I ever was in. And now it was that I began to
be truly miserable, and to endure hardships which I had
thought it impossible for human nature to support, for
in that most hideous place I was deprived of every thing
that could give me comfort: true it is, I found some
few inhabitants ; but in language food and customs quite
different from what I had ever seen before. In this place
I was forced to stay several days, on account of the
prodigious quantity of snow that fell upon the mountains,
and hindered me from discerning or making any road.
During my stay, I by good fortune got a pound of black
bread to live upon. The snow somewhat melting I set
forward again from Lochaber towards the sea-shore. On
the road I was overtaken by about forty women, half-
starved to death who were wandering up and down for
safety. Some of them, who spoke English, told me.