heir spiritual pastors. * * * The Continental Congress have
thought proper to direct us to employ two pious clergymen to make a tour
through North Carolina in order to remove the prejudices which the minds
of the Regulators and Highlanders may labor under with respect to the
justice of the American controversy, and to obviate the religious
scruples which Governor Tryon's heartrending oath has implanted in their
tender consciences. We are employed at present in quest of some persons
who may be equal to this undertaking."[30]

The Regulators were divided in their sympathies, and it was impossible
to find a Gaelic-speaking minister, clothed with authority, to go among
the Highlanders. Even if such a personage could have been found, the
effort would have been counteracted by the influence of John McLeod,
their own minister. His sympathies, though not boldly expressed, were
against the interests of the Thirteen Colonies, and on account of his
suspicious actions was placed under arrest, but discharged May 11, 1776,
by the Provincial Congress, in the following order:

"That the Rev. John McLeod, who was brought to this Congress on
suspicion of his having acted inimical to the rights of America, be
discharged from his further attendance."[31]

August 23, 1775, the Provincial Congress appointed, from among its
members, Archibald Maclaine, Alexander McAlister, Farquhard Campbell,
Robert Rowan, Thomas Wade, Alexander McKay, John Ashe, Samuel Spencer,
Walter Gibson, William Kennon, and James Hepburn, "a committee to confer
with the Gentlemen who have lately arrived from the Highlands in
Scotland to settle in this Province, and to explain to them the Nature
of our Unhappy Controversy with Great Britain, and to advise and urge
them to unite with the other Inhabitants of America in defence of those
rights which they derive from God and the Constitution."[32][33]

No steps appear to have been taken by the Americans to organize the
Highlanders into military companies, but rather their efforts were to
enlist their sympathies. On the other hand, the royal governor, Josiah
Martin, took steps towards enrolling them into active British service.
In a letter to the earl of Dartmouth, under date of June 30, 1775,
Martin declares he "could collect immediately among the emigrants from
the Highlands of Scotland, who were settled here, and immoveably
attached to His Majesty and His Government, that I am assured by the
best authority I may comput