In  the  following  year  arrived  a  further
batch  of  Highland  settlers  under  Cap-
tain Macdonald  of  Glenalladale.  In
1774  the  population  of  the  island  was
increased  by  a  settlement  of  Lowlanders
from  Dumfries  under  Wellwood  Waugh
of  Lockerbie,  but  these  were  discouraged
by  a  pest  of  locusts,  and  migrated  to
Pictou.  The  settlement,  however,  of
which  we  have  the  most  interesting
record  was  that  initiated  by  Thomas
Douglas,  Earl  of  Selkirk.  This  was  in
1808,  four  years  after  the  island  had
been  renamed  "Prince  Edward  Island."
"Of  these  settlers,"  says  Lord  Selkirk,
"the  greatest  proportion  were  from  the
Isle  of  Skye,  a  district  which  had  so


LORD  SELKIRK'S  STORY.     51

decided  a  connection  with  North  Caro-
lina that  no  emigrants  had  ever  gone
from  it  to  any  other  quarter.  There
were  a  few  from  Ross-shire,  from  the
north  part  of  Argyllshire,  and  from
some  interior  districts  of  Inverness-
shire,  all  of  whose  connections  lay  in
some  parts  of  the  United  States.  There
were  some  also  from  a  part  of  the
Island  of  Uist,  where  the  emigration
had  not  taken  a  decided  direction."

Three  ships  were  chartered  to  convey
the  colonists  to  their  destination,  con-
taining altogether  eight  hundred  souls,
and  reaching  the  island  on  the  7th,  9th,
and  27th  of  August,  1803.  Lord  Selkirk
had  intended  to  precede  them  and  make
preparations  for  their  arrival,  but  in  this
he  was  prevented,  and  when  he  did
make  his  appearance  the  first  ship  had
already  disembarked  her  passengers.
"  I  lost  no  time  in  proceeding  to  the
spot,  where  I  found  that  the  people  had
already  lodged  themselves  in  temporary
wigwams,  constructed  after  the  fashion  of
the  Indians,  by  setting  up  a  number  of
poles  in  a  conical  form,  tied  together  at
top,  and  covered  with  boughs  of  trees.
