clan of Campbell, that prominence in our army to which their ancient renown entitles them. This may be explained. in the fact that the natives of Argyllshire have always manifested a strong predilection for the navy rather than the army, probably arising from the almost insular position of the county, and the sea-faring life of so many of its people. The Ninety-first, at first numbered the Ninety-eighth, which now remains the only, and, in our day, ill-defined representative of the martial renown of the Campbells, was raised by Lieut.Colonel Duncan Campbell of Lochnell, and embodied at Stirling in 1794. It was almost immediately thereafter embarked for service at the Cape of Good Hope, where it remained until that colony was restored to the Dutch in 1801. The severe and constant drain which had drafted from the scanty population of our Highlands and Lowlands whole regiments of recruits, had so exhausted the military resources of our country that, in 1809, it was found impossible to maintain all the numerous Gaelic corps which then existed in their original national integrity and completeness. Hence the Seventy-third, Seventy-fifth, Ninety-first, and the old Ninety-fourth (Scots Brigade), were of necessity doomed to lay aside the Highland costume, and, to a great extent, abandon their Scottish character. This regiment was present in the brigade of Brigadier-General Craufurd in reserve at the battles of Roleia and Vimiera in 1808, which seemed to foreshadow the triumphs of after years. It was also with the army of Sir John Moore in his disastrous retreat, terminated so gloriously in the victory of Corunna, the lustre of

which was only dimmed by the death of the hero, who fell whilst yet achieving it, and whose decease Marshal Soult, with a true soldier spirit, alike with ourselves lamented. Chivalrously he paid the last tribute of military respect to the departed brave, by firing the funeral salute, and raising a monument over the grave of his fallen foe. The generous behaviour of Marshal Soult, notwithstanding his after faults, must ever command our admiration, and remain a record of his own nobleness-the tribute of the friend of the brave; and justified the ovation he received at the hands of the British public, when he visited our shores as the ambassador of Louis Philippe.

For a moment the success of the French seemed complete, and the sway of Napoleon universal; whilst the British army appeared, as had been often threatened, "driven into the sea." But the British meantime returning to England, the chasms which want, fatigue, and the sword had occasioned in the recent retreat, were speedily filled up, and now our army only waited the opportunity when, returning to the Peninsula, it should avenge the past and deliver the oppressed. Soon, under Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Wellesley, landed at Lisbon, it began that victorious career which, by a perpetual series of successes, advanced the tide of war through Spain, and, at length entering France, helped materially to overthrow the dominion which the Empire had usurped. Although the Ninety-first claims an interest in the actions of the "Peninsula," it was not until the British army was about entering France that its connection therewith led to con

spicuous service—the memorials of which are still borne upon the colours and appointments of the regiment in these words: the "Pyrenees," the "Nive," the "Nivelle," "Orthes," and Toulouse."

From these scenes of stirring and thrilling interest, we turn to record a signal instance of heroism which, occurring nearer our own time, presents an illustrious example of the qualities which brightly distinguish the British soldier far more truly than even the triumphs of the battle-field. We give the incident as inscribed by order of the Duke of Wellington in the Records of the Regiment, who declared "he had never read anything so satisfactory," that is, in its compilation, and the marvellous obedience to orders and fidelity to duty it serves as a report to show:

"The reserve battalion of the Ninety-first Regiment arrived in Table Bay on the 25th of August, 1842, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Lindsay.

"On the 27th of August the command of the battalion and of the detachments embarked on board the 'Abercrombie Robinson' transport, devolved on Captain Bertie Gordon of the Ninety-first Regiment, Lieut.-Colonel Lindsay and Major Ducat having landed on that day at Cape Town.

"The situation of the transport was considered a dangerous one from her size (being 1430 tons), and from the insufficient depth of water in which she had brought up. The portcaptain, who boarded her on the evening of the 25th, advised the captain to take up another berth on the following day. This was impossible, for the wind blew strong into the bay

from the quarter which is so much dreaded there, and had continued to increase in violence during the 26th, 27th, and 28th August.

"At eleven o'clock P.M., on the night of the 27th, it was blowing a strong gale, and the sea was rolling heavily into the bay. The ship was pitching much, and she began to feel the ground; but she rode by two anchors, and much cable had been veered out the night before.

"Captain Gordon made such arrangements as he could, in warning the officers, the sergeant-major, and orderly noncommissioned officers to be in readiness.

"From sunset on the 27th the gale had continued to increase, until at length it blew a tremendous hurricane; and at a little after three A.M., on the morning of the 28th, the starboard cable snapped in two; the other cable parted in two or three minutes afterwards, and away went the ship before the storm, her hull striking, with heavy crashes, against the ground as she drove towards the beach, three miles distant, under her lee.

"About this time the fury of the gale, which had never lessened, was rendered more terrible by one of the most awful storms of thunder and lightning that had ever been witnessed in Table Bay. While the force of the wind and sea was driving the ship into shoaler water, she rolled incessantly; and heaved over so much with the back-set of the surf, that to the possibility of her going to pieces before daylight, was added the probability of settling down to windward, when the decks must have inevitably filled, and

every one of the seven hundred souls on board must have perished.

"While in this position the heavy seas broke over her side and poured down the hatchways. The decks were opening in every direction, and the strong framework of the hull seemed compressed together, starting the beams from their places. The ship had been driven with her starboard-bow towards the beach, exposing her stern to the sea, which rushed through the stern ports and tore up the cabin floors of the orlop-deck.

"The thunder and lightning ceased towards morning, and the ship seemed to have worked a bed for herself in the sand, for the terrible rolling had greatly diminished, and there then arose the hope that all on board would get safe ashore.

"At daybreak (about seven o'clock), it was just possible to distinguish some people on the beach opposite to the wreck. Owing to the fear of the masts, spars, and rigging falling, as well as to keep as much top-weight as possible off the ship's decks, the troops had been kept below, but were now allowed to come on deck in small numbers.

"An attempt was made to send a rope ashore; and one of the best swimmers, a Krooman, volunteered the trial with a rope round his body; but the back-set of the surf was too much for him. A line tied to a spar never got beyond the ship's bows, and one fired from a cannon also failed. One of the cutters was then carefully lowered on the lee-side of the ship, and her crew succeeded in reaching the shore with a hauling line. Two large surf-boats were shortly afterwards conveyed in waggons to the place where the ship was stranded,