354a PAST AND PRESENT OF and was laid to her rest on the little Island, being the first of the pioneers buried here. James McLaren was the next head to fall. He died in the year 1818. Donald Gordon came next, in 1819. Thus three of the principal heads of this little community were called to their eternal rest within sixteen years of their landing at Brudenell . I may say here that Isabel McDonald , wife of James McLaren , survived her husband for many years and died at the residence of her son-in-law, James McFarlane , of Montague, at the advanced age of ninety-two. Her remains rest in the old cemetery on the south bank of the Brude¬ nell. In this connection it may be mentioned that a tradition exists to the effect that early in the history of the little colony, previous to the death of Mrs. Donald Gordon , the ap¬ pearance of a woman and two children was observed by her and others, passing from the north bank of the river towards this spot and disappearing into the forest by which the Islet was then thickly covered. No woman or chil¬ dren were known to be in the vicinity except those belonging to the settlement, nor al¬ though strict search was made, were any dis¬ covered. This event was supposed by the people to have been a foreshadowing of the death which occured soon after and of the founding of this cemetery on . Of the history of James McLaren previ¬ ous to his imigrating to we know little except through oral tradition, which tells us that he was the son of Donald McLaren , a cattle dealer known to his com¬ patriots in their native Gaelic tongue as "Domhuull mor na mart" or big Donald of the cattle, who owned land in the district of Balguhidder in the early part of the eight¬ eenth century, and of Robena Stewart, of the Stewarts o^Appin, his wife. He lost both land and life in consequence of his com¬ plicity in the unfortunate "rising" under Prince Charles Edward Stewart in the year 1745. After the final defeat of the rebel force at Culloden in 1746 he was taken pris¬ oner by a party of dragoons and was being conveytd by them to Carlisle for trial and probable execution. While passing through a part of the country well known to him at a time when his native hills were thickly shrouded in mist he by some means contrived to escape and plunged into a deep ravine at the risk of his life and managed to elude his pursuers, but so close was the pursuit and so vigilant the search the unfortunate man was compelled to thrust himself down into a mo¬ rass, or water-soaked bog, and drawing a sod of turf over his head remain there until night¬ fall under the cover of which he made his way to the house of an acquaintance who afforded him shelter and concealment until his death, which occurred a few weeks later, presum¬ ably in consequence of cold and exposure endured while lying hidden in the morass. It is supposed that Sir Walter Scott has made use of this incident in describing a similar imaginary escape of a character in one of the works of that great author. In the search for the escaped prisoner the troopers vsited McLaren's home, which they burned down after destroying the pleneshey and killing the cattle. James Mc ¬ Laren, the subject of this short article, who was then three or four years of age, is said to have remembered being carried out of the burning house in the arms of one of the fe¬ male retainers of the family who had se¬ creted a cheese in her plaid as necessary food for the child, which unfortunately fell out and rolled to the feet of one of the soldiers engaged in the work of destruction who stuck his bayonet into it and held it up to