The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

42 THE HIGHLANDERS [part i
Upon comparing, therefore, the results obtained by the two
lines of argument ^ which we have followed, we find
'
Tlie result
of both them to coincide so very remarkably with each other,
111 ones of J J 1
^^^'^^ ^^^ cannot, in the absence of
t"iat tiiT*'
express authority
scotsconregarding
the nature of this revolution, come to
"="
quered the " '
Picuo'iTiy
''^">' other conclusion, than that we have made the
nearest possible approximation to the truth, and that
from a strict analysis of all the facts known, either preceding
or subsequent to that event, and of the inferences deducible from
the Dalriadic Scots was
them, it appears that the conquest by
confined exclusively to the Piccardach or southern Picts— that
the Scots were assisted in that conquest by the Cruithne or
northern Picts—and that after the conquest, the northet'n Picts,
although they owed a nominal submission to the kings of the
Scottish line, yrt remained in fact independent, and still retained
their ancient territories and peculiar designation.
This view of the conquest is strongly corroborated by the
testimony of Nennius, who mentions that in the fifth century
a colony of Jutes under Octa and Ebussa, settled on the north
of the " Mare fresicum id est quod inter nos Scotosque est usque
ad co}ifi)iia Pictorumy ^ Whatever may be the truth with
regard to this colony, the clear inference from this passage is,
that fifteen }'ears after the Scottish conquest, or in 858, when
Nennius wrote, the Scots occupied the country immediately
north of the P^irth of Eorth, and the Picts lay beyond them, and
were separated from them by a distinct boundary. In other
words, the Scots occupied the territories previously possessed
by the southern Picts, while the northern Picts remained
untouched ; and this view is likewise supported by the only
facts regarding the war immediately preceding that event,
which are to be found in the ancient chronicles.
Alpin's attack appears, from the register of St. Andrews,
to have been confined to Galloway, a province of the so7ithern
Picts ; and
it is expressly said by that chronicle, that it was
his conquest of that territory which transferred the kingdom
of the Picts to the Scots. Kenneth, his son, apparently fought
but one battle, and that battle took place, according to the same
'
Xennius, c. 37.