THE MACLEODS OF LEWIS. 165 



Crown being the Castle of Stornoway with the twenty 

 merklands adjoining, which, in the grants of the island, 

 always formed an appanage of the castle.* 



Both competitors had strengthened their hands by 

 powerful alliances. On attaining his majority, Torquil 

 Dubh married a sister of Rory Mor of Harris, while the 

 eldest daughter of Torquil Conanach was married to 

 Roderick, brother of Mackenzie of Kintail. Neil, the 

 second son of Torquil Conanach, had died of a fever at 

 Coigeach, and Torquil was thus left without a male heir. 

 Under these circumstances, he threw himself into the arms 

 of the Mackenzies, who espoused his quarrel with Torquil 

 Dubh, and afforded him in secret that support which it 

 did not then suit their policy to give openly. Torquil 

 Dubh, for his part, continued to defy his rival, and kept 

 possession of Lewis, with the consent of his clansmen, with 

 whom he was very popular. Resolved to carry the war 

 into the enemy's country, he invaded Coigeach and Loch 

 Broom with a powerful force, and ravaged these territories 

 with merciless ferocity. 



A complaint to the Privy Council, dated nth February, 

 1 596-7, by Torquil Conanach (who describes himself as of 

 " the Lewis ") and by Kenneth Mackenzie of Kintail, 

 against " Torquill Dow McCleude usurpar of the Lewis," 

 gives a highly coloured picture of this invasion. The com- 

 plaint states that, accompanied by a force of " Hieland 

 brokin men," numbering about seven or eight hundred, 

 Torquil Dubh had " committit sic barbarous and monstrous 

 crueltie as the lyk hes not bene hard of, spairing nowther 

 man wyffe nor barne quhome they micht apprehend," so 

 that a great number of his Majesty's true subjects are 

 " cruellie murdreist and slane, the haill boundis foirsaidis 

 displenneist and layd waist, and the haill bestiall and 

 guidis thairof goirit and slane." Mackenzie, being himself 

 a member of the Council, may be presumed to have 

 emphasised these charges in a way which boded ill for 



* Reg. Mag. Sig. (1593-1608), No. 465. 



