rds in the Hebrides, were originally an
indigent and subordinate clan, and having no farms nor stock, were in
great numbers servants to the Maclellans, who, in the war of Charles the
First, took arms at the call of the heroic Montrose, and were, in one of
his battles, almost all destroyed. The women that were left at home,
being thus deprived of their husbands, like the Scythian ladies of old,
married their servants, and the Macraes became a considerable race.

THE HIGHLANDS

As we continued our journey, we were at leisure to extend our
speculations, and to investigate the reason of those peculiarities by
which such rugged regions as these before us are generally distinguished.

Mountainous countries commonly contain the original, at least the oldest
race of inhabitants, for they are not easily conquered, because they must
be entered by narrow ways, exposed to every power of mischief from those
that occupy the heights; and every new ridge is a new fortress, where the
defendants have again the same advantages. If the assailants either
force the strait, or storm the summit, they gain only so much ground;
their enemies are fled to take possession of the next rock, and the
pursuers stand at gaze, knowing neither where the ways of escape wind
among the steeps, nor where the bog has firmness to sustain them: besides
that, mountaineers have an agility in climbing and descending distinct
from strength or courage, and attainable only by use.

If the war be not soon concluded, the invaders are dislodged by hunger;
for in those anxious and toilsome marches, provisions cannot easily be
carried, and are never to be found. The wealth of mountains is cattle,
which, while the men stand in the passes, the women drive away. Such
lands at last cannot repay the expence of conquest, and therefore perhaps
have not been so often invaded by the mere ambition of dominion; as by
resentment of robberies and insults, or the desire of enjoying in
security the more fruitful provinces.

As mountains are long before they are conquered, they are likewise long
before they are civilized. Men are softened by intercourse mutually
profitable, and instructed by comparing their own notions with those of
others. Thus Caesar found the maritime parts of Britain made less
barbarous by their commerce with the Gauls. Into a barren and rough
tract no stranger is brought either by the hope of gain or of pleasure.
The inhabitants having neither comm