84 THE HIGHLAND CLEARANCES. 



without saying anything to the crofters who were patiently 

 enduring poverty and hardship waiting for the fulfilment of 

 his promise, let the hill on a new lease, and then leaving this 

 little complication for his successor to settle, he resigned his 

 factorship. The successor was Mr. Alexander Macdonald. 

 It was Mr. Macdonald's misfortune that in his time the 

 crofters found out how they had been deceived, and that, not 

 taking the trouble to understand their grievances, he 

 threatened them when he ought to exhihit at least the appear- 

 ance of sympathy, and to attempt to conciliate them. To 

 the crofters Martin was simply the factor's clerk, Beaton the 

 factor's underling, and with the factor and all his belongings 

 they resolved to have nothing to do. To Lord Macdonald 

 they must appeal. They believed that he had never autho- 

 rised the harsh measures adopted towards them, and the 

 evidence led to-day shows that their belief was well founded. 

 Lord Macdonald, in whose name these proceedings were 

 carried on, never authorised them, was never even consulted 

 about them. Proceedings which had for their ostensible 

 object the eviction of the inhabitants of three townships, 

 several hundred people in all, were not important enough 

 forsooth to lead the factor to consult his master. The people 

 knew well that less than thirty years before similar pro- 

 ceedings had been carried out to their bitter end in the name 

 of their landlord's father without his authority, and they knew 

 that to the day of his death that Lord Macdonald bitterly 

 regretted these proceedings. Well might they believe that 

 this Lord Macdonald would not lightly consent to their whole- 

 sale eviction and expatriation. They knew, and he knew, 

 that the strong arm of their ancestors was the only title deed 

 by which his ancestors held their land, and that but for the 

 sturdy clansmen of the Isles, Lord Macdonald would not 

 now hold an acre of land in Skye. It was not, therefore, the 



