INTRODUCTION. Xlv 



following Saturday. It became known in Sltye that lie was 

 coming, and the Portree and Braes people determined to 

 give him a hearty reception. As the " Clydesdale " ap- 

 proached the Braes, three bonfires were noticed a-blaze, and 

 several flags were flying aloft, in the distance. When the 

 steamer rounded into Portree Bay, a large crowd congre- 

 gated on the pier, while numbers were flocking from all 

 parts of the village in the same direction. Macpherson 

 having been observed on deck, the crowd cheered vocifer- 

 ously, while hats were raised and handkerchiefs waved by 

 the assembled multitude. Before he could place his foot 

 on shore he was raised on the shoulders of four stalwart 

 fellows, who carried him aloft, hat in hand, bowing to the 

 crowd, amid the enthusiasm of the people, to the Portree 

 Hotel, a piper leading the way, playing appropriate airs. 

 Macpherson, on his arrival at the hotel, addressed the 

 people, warmly thanking all his friends and the friends of 

 the people of Skye, north and south, and urging upon his 

 countrymen to insist upon getting justice now that it was 

 within their reach. "If Joseph," he said, "had never been 

 sent into Egyptian bondage, the children of Israel might 

 never have got out of it." He believed the imprisonment 

 of the Glendale crofters had done more to remove landlord 

 tyranny and oppression from Skye than anything which hap- 

 pened during the present century. He was afterwards enter- 

 tained in the hotel by many of the leading inhabitants of 

 Portree, where several of the Braes men came all the way 

 to pay, honour, on his return from prison, to one whom they 

 esteemed as the leading martyr in the crofter cause. 



An attempt to arrive at an amicable settlement has recently 

 been made by the proprietor of Glendale, who personally 

 approached his tenants after all the mischief recorded in 

 this book had been completed, and since the Royal Com- 



