That the struggle was between two
chieftains--one a Lowlander, the other a Highlander, did not count for
much, for the Lowlander spoke the Gaelic tongue--and he was championing
the interest of Highland men.
The two men of mark were the Earl of Selkirk and Sir Alexander
Mackenzie. Before showing the origin of the quarrel, it may be well to
take a glance at each of the men.
Thomas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, was the youngest of seven sons, and was
born in 1771. Though he belonged to one of the oldest noble families, of
Scotland, yet when he went to Edinburgh, as a fellow student of Sir
Walter Scott, Clerk of Eldon, and David Douglas, afterward Lord Reston,
it was with a view of making his own way in the world, for there were
older brothers between him and the Earldom. He was a young man of
intense earnestness, capable of living in an atmosphere of
enthusiasm--always rather given indeed to take up and advocate new
schemes. There was in him the spirit of service of his Douglas
ancestors, of being unwilling to "rust unburnished," and he was strong
in will, "to strive, to seek, to find." This gave the young Douglas a
seeming restlessness, and so he visited the Highlands and learned the
Gaelic tongue.
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