x PREFACE. 



In the preparation of this history, I have kept before me 

 one main object, viz., to get at the truth. In doing so, I 

 have had, in some instances, to face the highest test of 

 impartiality to which a Highland historian can be subjected ; 

 and that is, to criticise the chiefs of his own clan. My 

 conclusions may in some cases be mistaken, but the facts 

 from which they are deduced are fairly stated. 



To Mr. D. Murray Rose, whose unique knowledge of 

 Highland historical material has invariably been placed 

 at my disposal with the utmost willingness, and who has 

 furnished me with one of the illustrations ; to Mr. John 

 Parker Anderson, late of the British Museum, for assist- 

 ance in the collection of material ; to my brother, Mr. C. G. 

 Mackenzie, Stornoway, and to Mr. Archibald Chisholm, 

 Lochmaddy, for statistics relating to the Outer Isles, and 

 to the latter for the use of several excellent photographs ; 

 to Mr. John Mackay, editor of the Celtic Monthly \ Glasgow, 

 for information supplied in reference to illustrations and 

 other matters ; to Messrs. Jack, publishers, Edinburgh, for 

 permission to reproduce an illustration from Keltic's Scot- 

 tish Highlands ; to Mr. Eneas Mackay, Stirling, for the 

 loan of an illustration " block " ; to Major Matheson of 

 the Lews, for the use of photographs ; and to the Rev. 

 R. C. Macleod of Macleod, for copies of documents in 

 Dunvegan Castle ; to all these helpers, I desire to express 

 my grateful thanks. I wish, also, to acknowledge the 

 courtesy of Sir Arthur Mitchell, who gave me an oppor- 

 tunity of examining his volumes of Lewis traditions which 

 were collected by the late Captain Thomas, R.N. The 

 more important of these traditions appear in Captain 

 Thomas's papers on the Macaulays of Uig and the 

 Morisons of Ness, printed in the Proceedings of the Society 

 of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vols. XII. and XIV. 



