The Immeasurable Wilds: Travellers to the Far North of Scotland

The Story of the Unfortunate but Heroic Highlander:

a Highlander in America.

I have a small 70-page chapbook written for children with the title as above. The author is unknown, and it was first published in 1809, but my copy is a third edition, published in 1817, so it clearly enjoyed some success. It was printed and sold by Houlston and Son, Wellington, Shropshire, and contains a small number of engravings.

I thought it worth giving a short precis of the contents for the light it sheds on Highlanders at this time. Most of the action takes place in America, describing the conflict there against the French, and their Native Tribe allies. By this time (the early 19th century), the Highlander had earned his reputation as a brave soldier, and our hero, referred to simply as Campbell, exemplifies this to the hilt.

At the start of the story, he is found in the Highlands, which he describes in the first paragraph: "The country there, partly from the barrenness of the soil and the inclemency of the seasons, and partly from other causes which I will not now enumerate, is unfavourable to the existence of its inhabitants. " He never does explain what these "other causes" were, but the clearances had begun in a small way by the time the chapbook was written. He continues: "More than half the year our mountains are covered with continual snows, which prohibit the use of agriculture, or blast the expectations of an harvest. Yet the race of men which inhabit these dreary wilds, are, perhaps, not more undeserving of the smiles of fortune than many of their happier neighbours. Accustomed to a life of toil and hardship, their bodies are braced by the incessant difficulties they have to encounter; and their minds remain untainted by the example of their more luxurious neighbours. They are bred up from infancy with a deference and respect for their parents, and with a mutual spirit of endearment towards their equals, which I have not remarked in happier climates." He continues to give a picture of a society "unsullied in the annals of the world", a picture that is a far cry from the sceptical suspicions that coloured attitudes to the Highlands in the years following Culloden.

He writes of his inclination to join the army, a common enough wish among many young Highlanders at that time to escape the life of a youth "brought up to subsist upon a handful of oatmeal, to drink the waters of the stream, and to sleep shrouded in my plaid, beneath the arch of an impending rock." His father was once in the army, so he does little to pour cold water onto his son's ambitions. Therefore, when a "man of a majestic presence" enters their house seeking shelter, our hero needs little persuading to volunteer, for this man is Colonel Simmons, who can do no wrong! He turns down the offer of a bed, saying "would you shame me in the eyes of my new recruit? What is a soldier good for, that cannot sleep without a bed?" And on leaving, Simmons leaves the family with more than the statutory five guineas owing when a new recruit is signed up. 

There then follows the familiar agonies of departure from the family, captured frequently by artists such as Landseer. "It pierced me to the very heart...I was, however, engaged, and determined to fulfil my engagement." So off goes Campbell to America, where of course he meets up again with Simmons, and the campaign against the French, and their allied tribes, begins. The author is, for the times, very fair to the Native Americans, saying "though we call them savages, they well deserve to be imitated by more refined nations." The Ottigamies were allies of the British, and at a meeting, the pipe of peace is produced, which the admirable Colonel Simmons is happy to smoke.

Not all the tribes were as co-operative, and the British forces, under an imcompetent general,  soon fall foul of one. In the ensuing action, Simmons is wounded, and the saga of Cambell's derring-do begins in earnest. He carries Simmons away from the action on a horse, but alas, his hero dies the next day. He then spends weeks making his way back to safety, living off what he can find in the dense forests.

Eventually he comes across a tribe who are willing to take him in, and he is able to rejoin the British forces, and continue the war in their ranks.

Eventually, Campbell finds his way back to the Highlands. He marries, and is able to stock a farm that he hires from a neighbour. Sadly, after a few tolerable years "the distresses of my country increasing, I found myself in deepest poverty. Several years of uncommon severity destroyed my cattle, which is the chief support of the Highlanders, and rotted the scanty crops, which were to supply us with food..." With a wife and two children to support, he decides to emigrate to America once and for all, and he sells off his stock. There is a slight twist at the end: the boat they are on, bound for the States, is shipwrecked off Cornwall, and the four of them find permanent refuge in an estate owned by a cousin of Colonel Simmons. He had heard of the Highlander's kindness, and was pleased to be able to repay his generosity.

A simple tale for children, but one that describes clearly the problems that Highlanders faced at the start of the 19th century, explaining both why so many young men joined the army, and why so many of the population chose to emigrate at that time.