is brother Phelim Oge to be
inaugurated Prince of Inishowen, because Cahir, his son, was then
only thirteen years of age, too young to command the sept. But this
arrangement did not please his foster brothers, the M'Davitts, who
proposed to Sir Henry Docwra, governor of Derry, that their youthful
chief should be adopted as the queen's O'Dogherty; and on this
condition they promised that he and they would devote themselves to
her majesty's service. The terms were gladly accepted. Sir Cahir was
trained by Docwra in martial exercises, in the arts of civility, and
in English literature. He was an apt pupil. He grew up strong and
comely; and he so distinguished himself before he was sixteen years
of age in skirmishes with his father's allies, that Sir Henry wrote
of him in the following terms: 'The country was overgrown with ancient
oak and coppice. O'Dogherty was with me, alighted when I did, kept me
company in the greatest heat of the fight, behaved himself bravely,
and with a great deal of love and affection; so much so, that I
recommended him at my next meeting with the Lord Deputy Mountjoy, for
the honour of knighthood, which was accordingly conferred upon him.'
The young knight went to London, was well received at court, and
obtained a new grant of a large portion of the O'Dogherty's country.
He married a daughter of Lord Gormanstown, a catholic peer of the
Pale, distinguished for loyalty to the English throne, resided with
his bride at his Castle of Elagh, or at Burt, or Buncranna, keeping
princely state, not in the old Irish fashion, but in the manner of an
English nobleman of the period; hunting the red deer in his forest,
hawking, or fishing in the teeming waters of Lough Foyle, Lough
Swilly, and the Atlantic, which poured their treasures around the
promontory of which he was the lord. His intimate associates were
officers and favourites of the king.

Docwra had given up the government of Derry and retired to England. He
was succeeded by Sir George Paulet, a man of violent temper. Sir Cahir
had sold 3,000 acres of land, which was to be planted with English;
and, in order to perfect the deed of sale, it was necessary to have
the document signed before the governor of Derry. It had been reported
to the lord deputy that Sir Cahir, not content with his position,
intended to leave the country, probably with the design of joining the
fugitive earls in an attempt to destroy the English power in
Ireland. He was therefore