named McDonnel the other McCloud. They pretend they are on a visit to
some of their countrymen on your river, but I think there is reason
to suspect their errand of a base nature. The Committee of this town
have wrote to New Bern to have them secured. Should they escape there
I hope you will keep a good lookout for them."[45]

The vigorous campaign for 1776, in the Carolinas was determined upon in
the fall of 1775, in deference to the oft repeated and urgent
solicitations of the royal governors, and on account of the appeals made
by Martin, the brunt of it fell upon North Carolina. He assured the home
government that large numbers of the Highlanders and Regulators were
ready to take up arms for the king.

The program, as arranged, was for Sir Henry Clinton, with a fleet of
ships and seven corps of Irish Regulars, to be at the mouth of the Cape
Fear early in the year 1776, and there form a junction with the
Highlanders and other disaffected persons from the interior. Believing
that Sir Henry Clinton's armament would arrive in January or early in
February Martin made preparations for the revolt; for his "unwearied,
persevering agent," Alexander MacLean brought written assurances from
the principal persons to whom he had been directed, that between two and
three thousand men would take the field at the governor's summons. Under
this encouragement MacLean was sent again into the back country, with a
commission dated January 10, 1776, authorizing Allan McDonald, Donald
McDonald, Alexander McLeod, Donald McLeod, Alexander McLean, Allen
Stewart, William Campbell, Alexander McDonald and Neal McArthur, of
Cumberland and Anson counties, and seventeen other persons who resided
in a belt of counties in middle Carolina, to raise and array all the
king's loyal subjects, and to march them in a body to Brunswick by
February 15th.[46]

Donald MacDonald was placed in command of this array and of all other
forces in North Carolina with the rank of brigadier general, with Donald
MacLeod next in rank. Upon receiving his orders, General MacDonald
issued the following:

"_By His Excellency Brigadier-General Donald McDonald, Commander of
His Majesty's Forces for the time being, in North Carolina:_

A MANIFESTO.

Whereas, I have received information that many of His Majesty's
faithful subjects have been so far overcome by apprehension of
danger, as to fly before His Majesty's Army as from the most
inve