days of King William
III. a sum of 20,000 pounds was voted for the purpose of purchasing
the allegiance of the Glengarry of that day, and of that of several
other powerful chiefs. On taking the oath of loyalty to the new
dynasty, they were to receive not more than 2,000 pounds
each; or, if they preferred dignity to cash, they could have any
title of nobility they pleased below that of earl. Most of them took
the oath and the cash. It is not recorded that any chief preferred a
title, but the Macdonnell of 1842 was Lord Glengarry to all the new
settlers in Gippsland. His father, Colonel Alexander Ronaldson
Macdonnell, was the last genuine specimen of a Highland chief, and he
was the Fergus McIvor of Walter Scott's "Waverley." He always wore
the dress of his ancestors, and kept sentinels posted at his doors.
He perished in the year 1828, while attempting to escape from a
steamer which had gone ashore. His estate was heavily encumbered,
and his son was compelled to sell it to the Marquis of Huntly. In
1840 it was sold to the Earl of Dudley for 91,000 pounds, and in 1860
to Edward Ellice for 120,000 pounds.

The landless young chief resolved to transfer his broken fortunes to
Australia. He brought with him a number of men and women, chiefly
Highlanders, who were landed by Davy in his whaleboat. For this
service Glengarry gave a cheque on a Sydney bank for five pounds,
which was entrusted to Captain Gaunson of the schooner 'Coquette' to
purchase groceries. On arriving in Sydney the Gaunsons went on a
pleasure excursion about the harbour, the 'Coquette' was capsized in
a squall, one or two of the family perished, and Davy's cheque went
down with the vessel. But when the schooner was raised and the water
pumped out, the cheque was found, and the groceries on the next
voyage arrived safely at the Old Port.

Glengarry's head man and manager of the enterprise was a poor
gentleman from Tipperary named Dancer, and his chief stockman was
Sandy Fraser.

By the regulations then in force in New South Wales, Glengarry was
entitled, for a fee of 10 pounds per annum, to hold under a
depasturing license an area of twenty square miles, on which he might
place 500 head of cattle or 4,000 sheep. He selected a site for his
head station and residence on the banks of the Tarra. The house was
built, huts and stockyards were erected, 500 dairy cows were bought
at 10 pounds each, and the business of dairy farming commenced.

But