1 64 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



Macleods of Lewis and Harris, the Clan Ranald, the Clan 

 Donald, south and north, and the Clan Neill. Notwith- 

 standing, so the preamble runs, the sundry Acts made by 

 the King and his predecessors, for punishing theft, reiff, 

 oppression, and sorning, the clans named still practised 

 their cruelties and daily "heirschippes."* The Act was 

 intended to put a stop to such practices, as well as to 

 end the system of sorning (sjourner\ or commandeering 

 free quarters, then so prevalent in the Highlands and 

 Isles. There was evidently a good deal of truth in these 

 assertions, exaggerated though they may have been. It 

 is difficult, from the evidence, to resist the conclusion that 

 the Long Island, at the end of the sixteenth century, 

 was a hotbed of disorder and oppression. 



The chief supporters of Torquil Conanach were the 

 Morisons of Ness, under their leader John, the Brieve of 

 Lewis, son of Hugh Morison, whose relations with Ruari 

 Macleod's wife had been of so compromising a character, 

 if his own confession is to be believed. Among the most 

 active partisans of Torquil Dubh were the Macaulays of 

 Uig, whose leader, Donald Cam (so called because he was 

 blind of an eye), bulks so largely in Lewis tradition. In 

 1596, active hostilities between the two Torquils appear to 

 have taken place, and the Macleods were included in the 

 list of turbulent chiefs against whom the King proposed to 

 proceed in person, a task to which, as events proved, his 

 spirit was unequal. Certain of the chiefs, among whom were 

 Ruari Macleod of Harris, promptly made their submission, 

 and upon the rival claimants of Lewis offering to agree to an 

 increase of duties and other requirements of the Exchequer, 

 they were also removed from the list of disobedient clans. 

 Each of the Torquils doubtless hoped, by his ready 

 acquiescence in these demands, to receive legal recogni- 

 tion of his claims, but in this hope Torquil Dubh was 

 disappointed. By a charter dated loth August, 1596, 

 his rival was infeft in Lewis, the only reservation to the 



* Acts of Part., Vol. IV., p. 71. Hership, i.e., cattle-lifting. 



