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I thought the choice of a sailing ship on the front cover of the book was rather poignant as it seemed to represent both the end of the old and the beginning of the new simultaneously, if indeed, such a thing is possible. Imagine if you will, this vessel anchored in a bay on the west coast of Scotland somewhere, taking on a human cargo of emigrants: some there by choice and others against their will, but all with a common hope that whatever lay ahead of them, it had to be better than what they were leaving behind Ready then, to up anchor and set sail due west on the morning tide, bound for pastures new probably many thousands of miles away, they sailed into the unknown. Many of them would never get there, finding instead eternal peace in a watery, mid - Atlantic grave The survivors would come to look upon the hardships and privations of the voyage as a pleasant walk in the park in comparison to what they now faced in this new land which was a life of blood, sweat and tears, to say nothing of relentless back breaking, soul destroying toil Against all this, the availability of the possible benefits of this new life was legion; as many of them, or if not they themselves, then their children and grand children, were to discover. The fairly small percentage of them, probably about half or maybe less, who survived both the voyage and the first calendar year in this new land, quickly began to see the fruits of their toil come into blossom as life, slowly but surely, became bearable. Over the years, many of their descendants came to be rich and powerful people but few, if any of them, forgot where they came from; to wit, the tartan days, the clan gatherings, the highland games, the piping competitions and the ceilidh's which occur with almost monotonous regularity in so many countries of the world today
