It was difficult in such a country to track the enemy.
It was impossible to drive him to bay.

Food for an invading army was not to be found in the wilderness of heath and shingle; nor could supplies for many days be transported far over quaking bogs and up precipitous ascents.

The general found that he had tired his men and their horses almost to death, and yet had effected nothing.

Highland auxiliaries might have been of the greatest use to him: but he had few such auxiliaries.

The chief of the Grants, indeed, who had been persecuted by the late government, and had been accused of conspiring with the unfortunate Earl of Argyle, was zealous on the side of the Revolution.
Two hundred Mackays, animated probably by family feeling, came from the northern extremity of our island, where at midsummer there is no night, to fight under a commander of their own name: but in general the clans which took no part in the insurrection awaited the event with cold indifference, and pleased themselves with the hope that they should easily make their peace with the conquerors, and be permitted to assist in plundering the conquered.
An experience of little more than a month satisfied Mackay that there was only one way in which the Highlands could be subdued.