The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

56 THE HIGHLANDERS [part i
The history of the Maormors of Scotland then, forms a
clue by which the The northern
Pictsare
Highlanders of the elev-enth
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century can be distnictly traced the ancestors
of the
Highlanders.
up to the northern
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r icts of the nnith century, and when we add to this, the
facts that the northern Picts spoke the same language,
bore the same national appellation, and inhabited the same
territories as the Highlanders did, it is impossible that we can
come to any other conclusion than that they were the same
people.
Having now concluded the chain of argument by which the
true origin of the Highlanders of Scotland has been demonstrated,
it will not be improper here to recapitulate shortly the different
leading facts which have been established, and by which that
origin has been determined.
hi the — first place. It has been shewn, that from the earliest
period down to the end of the fifth century, that part of Scotland
which extends to the north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, was
at all times inhabited by a single nation, termed by the Romans
at first Caledonians, and afterwards Picts.
/;/ tlie second place. — It has been proved, that in the beginning
of the sixth century, an Irish colony arrived in Scotland, and
obtained possession of the southern part of Argyll, and that
during a period of 340 years, the territorities and relative situation
of the two nations of the Picts and Dalriads remained
unaltered.
/// the third place. — It has been proved, that during this
period the Picts were divided into two great nations, the
Dicaledones, Cruithne, or northern Picts, and the Vecturiones,
Piccardach, or southern Picts ; that the northern Picts inhabited
the whole of the mountainous part of the country, with the
exception of the Dalriadic territories, consisting
of southern
Argyll alone, while the southern Picts occupied the plains ; that
in the year 843, the Dalriadic Scots conquered the Piccardach or
southern Picts, but that their conquest was confined to that branch
of the Pictish nation alone ; and that while the northern Picts
probably assisted the Dalriadic Scots in that conquest, their
situation was, at all events, not in any respect altered by it, but
on the contrary, that the}^ remained in full possession of the north
of Scotland.