The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

AUTHOR'S PREFACE ix
appear wild and visionary, but he feels confident that a perusal of the
chain of reasoning contained in the first few chapters, will be sufificient
to satisfy any unprejudiced enquirer that the true origin of the Highlanders
is therein ascertained, and that their descent from the Caledonians
The same remarks
rests upon historic authority of no ordinary strength.
which apply generally to the origin of the Highlanders, are true also with
clans : the descent of each of these has been
regard to the Highland
traced and proved from the most authentic documents, while the
absurdity of the Irish origins of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
as well as the Scandinavian dreams of later historians, have been shewn.
With these remarks, the Author leaves his \\^ork to the judgment of
the public, and he may conclude with the words of a celebrated foieign
historian, " There can be no greater enjoyment to the inquisitive mind
than to find light where he has hitherto found nothing but darkness.
]More than once I have experienced this agreeable sensation in the
progress of the present investigation, and I may venture with the more
confidence to deliver this A\'^ork from my hands to the reader, because
happily I can safely assert, that much which formerly appeared to him
only in doubtful and obscure gloom, will now be seen in the full and
clear light of day."