Dan to Beersheba : work and travel in four continents

Front matter

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Chapter I

My great-grandfather — Connection’with Smolletts and “ Humphrey Clinker” — The Earldom of Annandale — A curious coincidence — My grandfather’s career in the army — Youthful half-pay officers — My grandfather’s Indian diary — My grandmother and her six daughters — My father a typical Scot of a vanishing type — His influence on my character — “ He would be a soldier,” but had to be a doctor — The East India Company’s service — Qualifications of an assistant surgeon — Voyage to India round the Cape and “ Overland” — The young cadet at the “India House” — An enormous outfit — The lady passenger — Husband-hunting — A stormy voyage — Arrival of a “ griffin ” at Calcutta— The native servant’s view — Life in India in the “’twenties” — Some old letters — A revelation of my father’s character — His romantic marriage to a girl of sixteen — Off to the Army of the Indus.

Chapter II My Father Goes To Kandahar And Kabul

Why we went to war — Russophobia — The garbled Blue Book — Shah Suja and Dost Mohammed — The Army of the Indus — The tomasha at Ferozepore — The “ Lion of the Punjaub ” — The “military promenade” — Sufferings of troops — My father’s task — Operations under difficulties — Quetta — Nottis left to “ rot” — Through the Bolan Pass — “ Colkie” at Quetta —Kandahar at last — My father in action — The “ fighting viii doctor” earns his title— Rawlinson— A narrow squeak for the doctor — Winter at Kandahar — More fighting — Affairs at Kabul — Macnaghten’s optimism — Murder of Burnes — The disaster — My father with Maclaren’s brigade — Failure to get to relief of Kabul — The retreat — Brydon arrives at Jellalabad — A year at Kandahar — Rawlinson’s narrow escape — Kandahar nearly taken by Afghans — Christie and the rassaldar — The rescue force under Pollock starts — “ Retire by Kabul” — The gates of Somnath— Nott fights his way to Kabul — Recovery of prisoners— The storming of I stalif — The march to India and the triumph — Ellenborough’s pageant — Character of Nott — My father’s reputation in the army of Bengal \j

Chapter III My Mother Goes “home”

Preparations — Journey down Ganges — A “deader” at close quarters — Friends at Calcutta — The voyage on the “ Indiaman” — London and new relations — Smart clothes — To Edinburgh by packet — “ Grandmamma” — The battle of the porridge bowl— Deportment — The first snow — Some cousins — To Glasgow by canal — Riddrie Park and its master — An old-fashioned Scottish home — The tea merchant — Christmas at Riddrie — “Papa” comes home from the war — Little girls at school — A young ladies’ fashionable seminary — A summer holiday — Glimpse of the Queen and little Prince of Wales — A new home — Sir Walter Scott — My parents back in India — Sikh campaign — Sobraon — Ill-health — My father retires and comes home — My arrival on the voyage — My father dabbles in speculation — “Jim Courtney” — Voyage to Australia — Adventures of the Antelope — Return to Scotland—My father refuses to practise medicine — The postman’s leg — The Company’s “bad bargain” — My grandmother’s death — Loss of family relics and papers — Family portraits — My brothers and sisters — Some stories of my father — “ The sin of pride ” — “ Putting up petitions” — The Highland parson — My father’s notes and mine — A half-sheet of note-paper — Adventures in outline — An historical puzzle. 45

Chapter IV My Boyhood

My first disappointment — The phantom boat — Loneliness — A first smoke — My father s system — Felicia’s wedding — Janet

IX and Agnes — A “ cheeky” boy — I learn nothing at school — Neuwied — Von Stein wins my heart — My mother’s death — Office life at Glasgow — My stepmother — Theatrical distractions— Helen Faucit — The Glovers, Mr. Kendal, Henrietta Hodson and Lydia Thompson, Sam Bough, the scene painter — Charles Dickens reads “ The Christmas Carol ” — Thackeray — Dr. Norman Macleod — The idle apprentice — Indian stories — The Mutiny — Adventures of the Lennox family — My father’s friends : Rawlinson, Broadfoot, Pottinger, Gardner, Skinner of “ Skinner’s Horse ” — The Thugs — I run away — The Wander jahr — Shipped to India as a black sheep . . . , 68

Chapter V

Voyage round the Cape — Vanishing seaman types — India in the ’sixties — Life on an indigo estate — Station life — Society — The Mo/ussil — Intellectual stagnation — The verb “ to collect”— I go to Roorkee— Some comrades and professors — Work and play — Sport in the Mofussil — a true ‘ ‘ tiger story ”

— Bachelor bungalows — Pillows ad lib — Hot nights — Camp life — My brother-in-law and sister — A debt of gratitude . 88

CHAPTER VI First impression — Contrast with India — Early days in Burma

Sir Arthur Phayre — Bishop Bigandet — Rev. Dr. Marks — Theebaw at school — Rangoon in the ’seventies — Unhealthiness— Moulmein— Tennasserim — Theo Fforde — “ Pickled tea ” and ngapee — Burmese character ; have we improved it ? Letter from a head-man — Happiness v. efficiency — Life in a lonely station — Gilbertian situation — All sorts of work —

The “ Thoogyeds niece ” — River life — The “ great bore ” — A “ snake ” story — My entrance into literature — Strictly anonymous ! — Some personalities — My nickname — “ C. B.” — How I got my chance . 99

Chapter VII

Bangkok and King Chulalongkorn — His predecessor a typical Oriental potentate — A quaint menage — Condition of Siam

X

— “Johnny” Davis the dacoit hunter — Our march to Zimmay — The Karens — “ Bangilla ” — Dress and undress —

The Was — Sepoys a nuisance — Our imposing procession — Elephants and their ways — An embarrassing episode —

Our reception at Zimmay — Paris in Siam — Morning markets — Prisoners and jails — A quaint guard of honour — “Who come dar?” — Saluting extraordinary — A much married chief — Missionaries and Buddhism — Education in Siam —

I have a scheme — My first furlough — Sir Henry Yule — My ambitious project — Charles Wahab joins me — We start for Canton 116

Chapter VIII

Meet Sir Harry Parkes — Previous explorations of Southern China — My own plan — Hong Kong and Pope Hennessy — Preparations at Canton — The interpreter difficulty — Jordan and Lockhart — Cooks and food in China — Our “houseboat”— We start off — The captain’s contract — Protected by “gun-boat” — Our disguise — Fishing with cormorants — Hostility of people — Trouble with servants — A reward for our heads ! — Hong Beng-Kaw deserts us — We begin our march — Get into Shan country — Primitive accommodation — Scenery — I am baffled — The tinchai is surprised — March to Tali — Poisoned water in Yunnan — An English missionary — The journey to Bhamo — A French missionary — We get lost — Difficulties and dangers — We outwit the tinchai —

Pere Vial offers to accompany us — A terrible march — Starvation and imprisonment — We reach Bhamo — The delights of civilization — Back to Rangoon — Poor Wahab —

1 pay a flying visit to Simla — Lord Ripon and Evelyn Baring — My lost dinner — I go home — An autumn’s work and pleasure — “Across Chryse” — Sir Henry Yule and my father — Colborne Baber — Terrien de Lacouperie — The Royal Geographical Society’s gold medal — Henry Stanley — Lord Salisbury — Stanley’s offer — I join the Times and start for Tongking 134

Chapter IX The Far East In Peace Ani) War

V affaire Tonkinois — My mission — The Times gives me carle blanche — What the war was about — My impressions — The xi launch — Position of French — My conclusions — The unwelcome truth — My “record” telegram and how it was written — A telegraph story — The effect in Paris — War correspondents de luxe — Our unpopularity — Sontay and Bacninh — I go down river — How I got back — An Irish friend in need — Press censorship and how it was eluded — Cameron tries to steal a march — Cameron and Gilder — I go home — Sent back at once — Life at Hong Kong— Sir “Jaw Bone” — Rochfort Maguire — “Jaw Bahadur” — “No, Malcolm, no!” — A curious war — Treaty-making extraordinary— My friend Detring intervenes — Courbet sinks the Chinese fleet — Pelham Warren refuses to be hurried — Franco-Chinese “war ” declared at last — I go to Port Arthur — Admiral Ting and Admiral Lang — “ Notre ami Li Hung Chang” — Von Hanneken’s escape — The conclusion of the war — “A dramatic extravaganza” — Fall of Jules Ferry —

Irony of fate — The duel — Some people I met — Alexander Michie — Li Hung Chang — “Baron Mickiewitz” — Sheng Taotai — Loh fung-loh — Halliday Macartney — Robert Hart — British servants of the Chinese Government — My travels —

I go home — Peace declared between France and China . 165

Chapter X

Second visit to Siam — Meet Hallett — On railway projects — Connection of Burma and China — The favoured line — Curzon’s cold douche — I offend the King — A case of obstinacy — My work at home — The Chambers of Commerce — A petition that failed — “Amongst the Shans” — Sir Arthur Phayre — Immigration into Burma — Our policy — French designs —

King Theebaw and his Oueen — Lord Randolph Churchill in office — My attacks on Lord Ripon — Dufferin’s ultimatum — My newspaper friends — Joe Cowen — Interviewers — The World — “As others see us” — Edmund Yates — Blowitz —

On public speakers — A Slav story — My mission to Lord Dufferin— My “warning” — Bear Wood — The great John Walter — Leader writing — John Macdonald — A note on the present government of Burma 194

Chapter XI

Early days in Upper Burma — The work of a deputy commissioner — A heavy death-roll — How the ranks were xii recruited — My first district — Dacoit hunting — “ The buffalo in the elephant-grass ” — The three dacoit brothers — Mounted infantry— Penn Symons — Some victims — A brave stand — Some recollections— Forbes on bravery — Smith and I are surprised — Why the Sepoys went on — A suggestion for a policy — I take fever and go home — My letter to the Times on Burmese affairs — I am reproved — I go to the Ruby Mines — Illicit rubies — Maung Hmat — The“Momeit affair ” — I am blamed — I reply — The letter which went astray — An affair of high treason — My excuses — 1 am “suspended ” and go home — The “ Momeit affair” again —

I remonstrate and am (ultimately) acquitted — The moral of the letter incident — Fate and sealing wax — My punishment — I meet Alfred Beit — His kindness — The die is cast — Good-bye to the East, but not for ever . . . .218

Chapter XII

A hurried departure — Arrival in South Africa — I get a job — About Cecil Rhodes — Some real stories — Was Rhodes brave ? — Afraid of ghosts — Kimberley and its club — l.D.B.

— Society — Rhodes and his clothes —The Imperialism of an empire builder — The origin of the “Cape to Cairo” — Schnadhorst — Rhodes on the power of money — I do not make a good investment — Expert opinions on “the Rand ”

— Railways in South Africa— Visit to Pretoria — President Kruger as I saw him — Nelmapius — Stage-coach travelling in South Africa — Refreshments for travellers, and accommodation— The delights of trekking — Wagon versus motor — Johannesburg in the ’eighties — A contrast — Cape Town —

The origin of the British South Africa Company — Why we went to Mashonaland 248

Chapter XIII

The Pioneers — We start off quietly — Khama and his people — Last news from home — Our march — Difficulties of the road — The bivouac — The “great white eye” — Lion story — We reach Mount Hampden — I go to Manika — No sign of Portuguese — The great King Umtassa— A treaty is signed — Jameson’s accident — A letter from him — The Portuguese xiii mission of remonstrance — An imposing cortege — Move and counter-move — “Pat” Forbes checkmates— We take two important prisoners — Great excitement in Portugal — The Pioneers at work — Short commons — A desperate situation —

F ounding a colony — I leave Rhodesia — A letter from Rhodes — Some of our men — The first London dinner of Rhodesian Pioneers — “ We do not live in Park Lane ! ” — At Groot Schuur — Rhodes’s curiosities — Some of his guests— Hofmeyr “ the 'Mole ” — John Merriman — Biblical perversions — I meet Lord Randolph Churchill for the last time — Say good-bye to Rhodes — Reasons for leaving — My “Government House ” in Mashonaland — My views on marriage . . 272

Chapter XIV

Return home — Climate and cold baths — The fresh air cure — Press work — Literary friends — Andrew Tuerandhis circle — “ Red with the blood of authors ” — Norman Maccoll — A receipt for growing hair — A season in town — I meet my fate, but bungle matters — A wet day at Henley — Some people I have met — Sir Richard Burton, Stillman, Edwin Arnold — I get bored — Go to the United States — Life in the Southern States — John C. Calhoun — Atlanta and Chicago — Chicago and another place — On the farms — The British not popular — School books and prejudice — The Negro problem — The “ poor white ” — The perils of an editor — A Western story —

Some American statesmen — John Hay— Theodore Roosevelt— William H. Taft — Tales of the White House — I make an investment — Facilis decensus — About lecturing and lectures — “Max O’Rell” — A tu quoque — I fall ill — The demon nurse — Convalescence — A tangled situation . . 296

Chapter XV

The ruling passion — I go to Central America — Some notes on the Panama Canal — A question of expense — The Admiral does not like Times correspondents — I take a deck passage, and fare very well — Corinto — The Spanish Main — Spanish America — Social life in Nicaragua — Hotels and baths — Food and cooking — Beds and bedfellows — “Patience, fleas ! ” — Club life — Street life — The ladies — Love-making —

XIV

Amusements — Roads — “ Beggars on horseback” — Politics — The right to vote — Revolutions on a tennis court, and elsewhere — The man of honour — “ The Key of the Pacific ”

— The Canal question — Lake Nicaragua — The Panama difficulty solved — Trinidad and Lady Broome — I get home — Literary work — The Morning Post — My politics — Resume of last eight years’ work — My motto 320

As I am frequently asked about my family and the meaning of our peculiar name, a few words on the subject may be of interest. My earliest known ancestor was Humphrey de Kilpatrick, so called because he hailed from the district of that name in the Leven-achs, the land of the powerful family of Lennox. Humphrey received from his liege lord the Earl of Lennox, in 1190, the gift of the lands of Colchune, which were situated in the west of Kilpatrick, running down to the Clyde and including the point on which stood (and still stands in decay) an ancient fortress known as Dunglass. No place-name Colchune (or Colquhoun) still survives, but the modern town of Milton was the “ middle-toun ” of the Colchune country, and Chapelton commemorates the site of the Colchune Chapel, while a muir and a burn still bear the name. The reason for the disappearance of the place or district name is probably found in the fact that the head of the family, in the third generation from the first Humphrey, married the heiress of a big estate on Loch Lomond and went to live there at Luss, which became the centre of the family possessions. Cadets were planted out in the old Colchune country, but little by little it was sold, until no part of it to-day belongs to the Colquhouns. Luss, on the contrary, became the centre of an estate which was constantly increased, until at the present time it extends along nearly the whole western shore of Loch Lomond and is one of the finest in the Western Highlands.

The etymology of the name Colchune (which became Colquhoun by the mediseval Gaelic transliteration into Latin, qu being commonly used for ch ) is somewhat

XVI obscure. It is derived by some authorities from coil cumhann ( mh mute) “ a narrow wood,” and by others from the Gaelic words for “a sea coasting corner or point,” alluding to the castle of Dunglass, which was a family mansion of the Colquhouns for many generations. In any case the original form was both spelt and pronounced Colchune or Cuchuin, the l being mute in the first, and the pronunciation has not really altered, though on non- Scottish tongues the name sounds more like Kohoon. Americans who drop the superfluous syllables and spell the name Calhoon or Calhoun, pronouncing the l, make a mistake. They get neither the original spelling nor pronunciation. The form Cahoon, which I have met, is really better, being a fairly good phonetic rendering of the name.

The family deeds and records at Luss establish the position of the Colquhouns as people of some importance, especially after the marriage of Robert, in 1386, with the Fair Maid of Luss. From this time the lairds of Luss played their part in the history of Scotland, holding olfices under the king, rearing large families, and continually adding, little by little, to their estates. They had enemies, such as the Macgregors, who on a celebrated occasion, mentioned (with many inaccuracies) by Sir Walter Scott in “The Lady of the Lake” and “ Rob Roy,” descended on them and massacred a great number of the clan. For this crime — the massacre of Glenfruin — the Macgregors were proscribed and became the “nameless clan.” Over all enemies, great and small, the Colquhouns triumphed, and, though but a small clan, they held their own and helped to keep the balance between the civilised Lowlands and the wild tribes of the Western Highlands. Eventually they were absorbed into the industrial civilisation of the former, and to-day they are found scattered throughout the busy towns of the Lowlands as well as living in model villages on the estate of their chief. The city with which they have, perhaps, been most intimately connected, and

&vif

tvhich knows them best, is Dumbarton, which is actually in the old Colchune country.

Sir Robert and the Fair Maid of Luss had many sons, the eldest of whom inherited Luss and was chief of the elan. To his younger brother Robert he gave the estate of Camstradden, on the shores of Loch Lomond, a little south of Luss. The descendants of Robert from father to son held this estate of Camstradden for fifteen generations, during a period of 435 years (1390 — 1825), and then it was sold to Sir James Colquhoun of Luss.

From this cadet branch of the chiefs of Colquhoun I am descended, and can trace my ancestry in the male line back for twenty-one generations to.Humphrey de Kilpatrick in 1190. As the Camstradden family split off in the fourteenth century, our connection with the Colquhouns of Luss is too distant to be called relationship ; moreover, their male line failed in the time of Queen Anne, and was continued through the son of the heiress of Colquhoun, who had married a Grant, taking his mother’s name.

The history of such an old Scots family as mine, if there were space for it, would be an epitome of the domestic history of Scotland and not without interest. First the clan, gathered under the wing of a land-owning chief, then the lairds, each with his “ mickle land, pickle debt, lawsuit and adoo-cot,” then the adventurer to the colonies, the prosperous burgess, the soldier, the lawyer and administrator, going forth from a poor Scots home to win fortune in distant lands. In such a story one may trace influences at work to-day and little suspected by those they govern. I, for instance, “ heard the East a-calling,” but did not know till I set myself to study my family history that the call came to us three or four generations back. Tricks of foreign speech and gesture, about which I have often been questioned, I now know that I owe to a Spanish ancestress unsuspected by me.

But I must dilate no longer on family history and tradition, for my father waits to be introduced, and he,

D.B. b xvin who never waited patiently for any one or any thing, would not forgive me if I kept him longer for what he would certainly call — it was a favourite expression — “ a pack of balderdash ! ” He was as democratic in principle as he was autocratic in practice, and I am convinced that he felt not the slightest pride in a long and honourable descent. Consequently the family tradition played little part in my own upbringing, and if I include this brief account of my ancestry in this book it is because I am so often asked about it, and because we poor Scots, who have done some work for the Empire to which we belong, are proud of the country that bore us and the povertystricken lairds who were our forbears, and think with affection of the too-often barren acres to which our families clung with so much devotion. Scotland for ever !

Chapter I

My great-grandfather, Hugh Colquhoun, lived on a small estate called Underwood, near Stirling. He was a prosperous man and married into a good mercantile family, his wife being Elizabeth Semple. At the time when all Britain was shaking with fear of invasion from “Boney” he raised a troop of regulars for home service called, in the fashion of the day, “ Fencibles.” One of his grandsons afterwards carried on the tea business in Glasgow, which was the source of the family fortunes, under the name of Semple and Co. Elizabeth Semple was granddaughter to Donald Govan of Cameron and Bonhill, who is reputed to be the original of the old Admiral in “ Humphrey Clinker.” The Smolletts had at one time got possession of one of the Colquhoun estates, and Donald Govan’s own place at Bonhill passed into their hands, so the connection between the families was undoubtedly close — more close than friendly ! In fact, a feud existed between the Colquhouns and the Smolletts to such an extent that my father incurred the wrath of the head of the clan on one occasion by voting for a Mr. Smollett who was the Conservative candidate for Parliament. My father did not agree with Mr. Smollett’s politics, but declared obstinately that he was the “ best man,” and the best man knew most about India, so he should vote for him ! I suspect that he did so very largely to demonstrate his independence of clan ties or the influence of his chief, Sir James, for, although the latter was his good friend, my father would not brook any idea of the patronage or feudal feeling which is the kernel of the clan system. He aggravated his offence by inviting

D.B. B

Mr. Smollett to a fine dinner ordered at the local hotel, and this although he was an ardent Liberal and admirer of Gladstone, while Smollett was in the other camp. My father was not always so unorthodox in his attitude to the party to which he belonged. When the “ Governor Eyre ” episode happened in Jamaica, and although Eyre was a friend of his, he sided with the Liberal Government, and quarrelled over the affair with his rich aunt, Miss Bathgate. She was so incensed with him that at last she wrote, “ Don’t send me any more of your Radical trash ; I will not read it. And don’t write to me ; I will return your letters.” And she cut him out of her will !

These stories introduce my father in a characteristic light rather prematurely — while I have not yet done with his grandparents. It remains to be said that Donald Govan, my great-great-great-grandfather, had for his wife the Lady Helen Johnstone, sister to the then Earl of Annandale, and that on this slender foundation rested a family tradition that my father might have succeeded to the (now extinct) earldom. By a most curious coincidence, however, he married en secondes noces the granddaughter of a more serious claimant, who actually spent a great deal of his money in an abortive claim on the Earldom of Annandale.

The two sons of Hugh and Elizabeth Colquhoun were named Archibald and Hugh, and the former entered the army in 1796 at the age of sixteen or seventeen, was captain in the 40th Foot from 1805 to 1813, and saw a good deal of service in South America and the Peninsula. He then (1813) joined the Pay Department and went out to India, where he was in 1817 when (with a great part of the army) he was retired on half-pay at the close of the Napoleonic wars. This custom, which seems strange to us now, was general at that period. The army was reduced to a peace footing as soon as peace was proclaimed. Men were sometimes retired on half-pay after a couple of years’ service, and in the case of Colonel James

Gardner, an acquaintance of my father’s, he was ensign at thirteen and placed on half-pay before he was fourteen. At nineteen he took active service, and at twenty-four was once more retired as a half-pay captain !

My grandfather was only thirty-seven when he was retired, and having a large family — originally twelve but reduced by death to six girls and a boy — to support, he went into business in Calcutta, where he died after a few years. For reasons which will appear later I have very few family papers on which to draw, but a fragment of a diary, kept by my grandfather in India, has come down to me. It is very well written and expressed, and contains marginal notes, such as “Wrote to Mrs. C.,” “ Meeting with J. S.” — a precis of the subject matter. Very few men keep such a record nowadays ! In this fragment he tells of a friendship which he struck up with an officer named Grindlay, not in his own regiment, and of a feeling of mutual liking which inspired them both from the first. One day they discovered that they were both great-grandsons of Donald Govan and Lady Helen, one of whose daughters had married a Grindlay and settled in America. The founder of the well-known banking house was the father of the man who met and fraternised with my grandfather without knowing of their kinship.

My grandfather’s death must have come very hardly on his widow, who was left to face the world with no more stalwart protector than her boy, then about fourteen or fifteen. My grandmother, whose maiden name was Janet Bathgate, also belonged to a family with Indian connections, but from my father’s early letters we know that she was by no means in easy circumstances. She was, however, a woman of character and determination, and very handsome and dignified to boot. She lived with her daughters in a small house in the Meadows — a suburb in Edinburgh now gone — and there the six beautiful girls became the centre of attraction for the young officers of the garrison. Five of them married into the army, one

B 2 becoming the wife of Sir John Dennis, who commanded the Buffs, another marrying Colonel Fraser, a third Colonel Grant of the Canadian Rifles, a fourth Captain Yate, and the fifth Dr. Dempster, a military surgeon. The sixth married an Edinburgh physician, Dr. Marr.

My father was brought up by his uncle Hugh at Underwood after my grandfather went to India, but in 1820 he joined his mother and attended the Edinburgh University. One can imagine the anxiety of the widow over her one boy, left fatherless at a critical point in his career, but as far as character went he gave her little trouble. He was not only extremely handsome but distinguished in appearance, notwithstanding which he was neither vain nor foppish. In after life he was, indeed, extraordinarily careless in his dress, but I think he knew by that time that dress made very little difference to him — he could afford to be careless. He had the uncompromising morality of the Scottish Puritan and an uprightness and downrightness which, if report is true, he inherited from his mother. He had, moreover, that most excellent quality common at that time in Scotland, but (as far as I can observe) becoming rarer and rarer in the sister kingdoms, a sturdy independence and a determination to fight his own battles and not be “ beholden ” to anyone. This spirit of independence he inculcated in after days into his children, but by a mistake in method rather than in principle he converted it into a discouragement rather than a stimulus, and by his attitude of exacting rather than influencing he defeated his own ends and stirred up rebellion. It was difficult to reconcile the subservience demanded by my father, in his parental capacity, with the growth of healthy individualism and independence among his children, but we are all able to admire the sturdiness of his own character and his freedom from any taint of hypocrisy or snobbishness. My father’s character is, naturally, interesting to me because of the influence it exercised on my own career, but also because it was that of a vanishing type. Such Spartan discipline as he exacted, and such relations as he established with his children in early years, would be considered almost inhuman now. I think they were often deplorable in their effects. But at the present time we have certainly swung to the other extreme, and I find no more convincing sign of this than the increasing number of boys in our well-todo middle classes who are content to be dependent on their parents until well on into manhood. Scotland, which had no provision for her sons beyond a good education, has thrown them out by scores upon a world in which they have carved their way to success. We Scotsmen owe something to our inhospitable motherland and our frugal homes. In the half-century from 1780 the Island of Skye alone sent out no fewer than 21 lieutenant and majorgenerals, 48 colonels, 600 commissioned officers, about 10,000 soldiers, four governors of colonies, one governor-general, one adjutant-general, one Chief Baron of England and one Judge of the Supreme Court of England ! In this book the reader will see how one branch of an old Scottish family has spread itself, first to India, then to Australia, and again to America, both North and South.