WILLIAM AND MAKT.

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into the field, had perhaps never had fifty guineas at once in his chap.coffers.* -H"-

1689 .

Though Tarbet was considered by the Scottish ministers ofthe new Sovereigns as a very doubtful friend, his advice wasnot altogether neglected. It was resolved that overtures suchas he recommended should he made to the malecontents. Muchdepended on the choice of an agent; and unfortunately thechoice showed how little the prejudices of the wild tribes of thehills were understood at Edinburgh. A Campbell was selectedfor the office of gaining over to the cause of King AVilliammenwdiose only quarrel to King William was that he countenancedthe Campbells. Offers made through such a channel were na-turally regarded as at once snares and insults. After this it wasto no purpose that Tarbet wrote to Lochiel and Mackay toGlengarry. Lochiel returned no answer to Tarbet; and Glen-garry returned to Mackay a coldly civil answer, in which thegeneral was advised to imitate the example of Monk.**

Mackay, meanwhile, wasted some weeks hi marching, inMeci-countermarching, and in indecisive skirmishing. He afterwards paign inhonestly admitted that the knowledge which he had acquired, }anus' Btlduring thirty years of military service on the Continent, was, inthe new situation in which he was placed, useless to him. Itwas difficult in such a country to track the enemy. It was im-possible to drive him to bay. Food for an invading army wasnot to be found in the wilderness of heath and shingle; norcould supplies for many days be transported far over quakingbogs and up precipitous ascents. The general found that hehad tired his men and their horses almost to death, and yet

* From a letter of Archibald Earl of Argyle to Lauderdale, whichbears date the 25th of June, 1G64, it appears that a hundred thousandmarks Scots, little more than five thousand pounds sterling, would, atthat time, have very nearly satisfied all the claims of Mac Callum More onhis neighbours.

** Maekay’s Memoirs; Tarbet to Melville, June 1. 1689, in the Levenand Melville Papers; Dundee to Melfort, June 27, in the Naime Papers.