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Mr. Robert Brown,
Sheriff-Substitute of the Western District of Inverness-shire, in 1806,
wrote a pamphlet of 120 pages, now very scarce, entitled, "Strictures
and Remarks on the Earl of Selkirk's 'Observations on the
Present State
of the Highlands of Scotland.'" Sheriff Brown was a man of keen
observation, and his work is a powerful argument against the forced
depopulation of the country. Summing up the number who left from 1801 to
1803, he says "In the year 1801, a Mr. George Dennon, from Pictou,
carried out two cargoes of emigrants from Fort William to Pictou,
consisting of about seven hundred souls. A vessel sailed the same season
from Isle Martin with about one hundred passengers, it is believed, for
the same place. No more vessels sailed that year; but in 1802, eleven
large ships sailed with emigrants to America. Of these, four were from
Fort William, one from Knoydart, one from Isle Martin, one from Uist,
one from Greenock. Five of these were bound for Canada, four for Pictou,
and one for Cape Breton. The only remaining vessel, which took a cargo
of people in Skye, sailed for Wilmington, in the United States. In the
year 1803, exclusive of Lord Selkirk's transport, eleven cargoes of
emigrants went from the North Highlands. Of these, four were from the
Moray Firth, two from Ullapool, three from Stornoway, and two from Fort
William. The whole of these cargoes were bound for the British
settlements, and most of them were discharged at Pictou."
Soon after, several other
vessels sailed from the North West Highlands with emigrants, the whole
of whom were for the British Colonies. In addition to these, Lord
Selkirk took out 250 from South Uist in 1802, and in 1803 he sent out to
Prince Edward Island about 800 souls, in three different vessels, most
of whom were from the Island of Skye, and the remainder from Ross-shire,
North Argyll, the interior of the County of Inverness, and the Island of
Uist. In 1804, 1805, and 1806, several cargoes of Highlanders left Mull,
Skye, and other Western Islands, for Prince Edward Island and other
North American Colonies. Altogether, not less than 10,000 souls left the
West Highlands and Isles during the first six years of the present
century, a fact which will now appear incredible. |
