origin they produce a fragment of the Records of Icolmkill, and
a charter by Alexander III. to Colin Fitzgerald, the supposed
progenitor of the family, of the lands of Kintail. At first sight
these documents might appear conclusive, but, independently of
the somewhat suspicious circumstance that while these pages have
been most freely and generally quoted, no one has ever seen the
originals, and the fragment of the Icolmkill Record merely says
that among the actors in the battle of Largs, fought in 1263, was
`Peregrinus et Hibernus nobilis ex familia Geraldinorum qui proximo
anno Hibernia pulsus apud regni benigne acceptus hinc usque in
curta permansit et in praefacto proelio strenue pugnavit,' giving
not a hint of his having settled in the Highlands, or of his having
become the progenitor of any Scottish family whatever while as to
the supposed charter of Alexander III., it is equally inconclusive,
as it merely grants the lands of Kintail to Colin Hiberno, the
word `Hiberno' having at the time come into general use as denoting
the Highlanders, in the same manner as the word 'Erse' is now
frequently used to express their language; but inconclusive as it
is, this charter," he continues, "cannot be admitted at all, as
it bears the most palpable marks of having been a forgery of a
later time, and one by no means happy in its execution. How such
a tradition of the origin of the Mackenzies ever could have arisen,
it is difficult to say but the fact of their native origin and
Gaelic descent is completely set at rest by the Manuscript of
1450, which has already so often been the means of detecting the
falsehood of the foreign origins of other clans."

Cosmo Innes, another high authority, editor of the 'Orgines
Parachiales Scotia,' the most valuable work ever published dealing
with the early history of Scotland, and especially of the Highlands,