Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/186

clxxviii PEEFACE. Ireland and part to Norway. This is immediately followed by the arrival of the relics of St. Andrew, and the foundation of St. Andrews. The Scots are then made to return under Fergus Mac Erch, forty- three years after their expulsion. While, however, he follows the earlier chronicles in placing the founda- tion of St. Andrews at that early period, he does not adopt the statement that the Scots were then converted to Christianity ; but finding it hkewise stated that this conversion took place 400 years before that of the Angles, he applies that to the date of the conversion of the Saxons in 603, and thus brings out that the Scots were converted to Christianity in the year 203. Having thus effected his twofold object of assigning a great antiquity to the Scottish kingdom, and of bringing it down so as to place the last king of Dalriada in immediate con- tact with the first king of the later Scottish king- dom, Kenneth Mac Alpin, his next object is to show that the Scots whom Kenneth led into the kingdom of the Picts had been brought by him out of Dal- riada, and were the same Scots which had formed the Dalriadic kingdom. He adopts as the basis of his narrative the same statement as that which is contained in the " Chronicle of Huntingdon," and a comparison of that chi'onicle with the text of For- dun will show how ingeniously he interpolates the matter necessary to adapt his materials to the scheme of his history.