THE FIFE ADVENTURERS. 179 



role of hypocrite to perfection. It cannot be denied that 

 the Lewismen were wild, unruly, and irreligious ; that they 

 stood sorely in need of civilising influences ; nor that their 

 code of ethics was laxness itself. But the statements of 

 the crimes attributed to them by their King crimes, the 

 enormity of which grew in a crescendo fashion with each 

 successive Act of Council or Parliament are too highly 

 coloured to be received without the most profound sus- 

 picion. It is only too obvious that the character of the 

 Lewismen was purposely limned in the blackest colours, 

 and the reason for this exaggeration is not obscure. It is 

 no uncommon circumstance for a man to bolster up a weak 

 case by damaging the character of his opponent, and that 

 was precisely the course followed by his most Christian 

 Majesty. It may be argued that the Lewismen had no 

 character to lose, and that the extirpation of a set of bar- 

 barians such as they were held to have been, was justifiable. 

 But they possessed at least a character for bravery, as the 

 Fife filibusters discovered to their cost. When King James 

 and his Council found that the primitive instinct of self- 

 defence still flourished in Lewis with undiminished vigour, 

 their language became more abusive than ever. They ex- 

 hausted their vocabulary of vituperation. 



The logical expression of the King's passion for civilising 

 Lewis would have been the despatch of a band of mis- 

 sionaries and schoolmasters to the island, instead of an 

 organisation of land-grabbers, backed by a military force. 

 The process of civilising a people by " ruiting " them out 

 of their homes has yet to be discovered. Muskets, not 

 missionaries ; swords, not schoolmasters, were the weapons 

 of civilisation chosen by the King. All too tardily it was 

 discovered by James and his advisers, that force was a 

 means of permanent subjugation which it was futile to 

 employ against the warlike Hebrideans, for it frequently 

 recoiled upon the heads of those who used it. And when 

 a more enlightened policy was adopted, the beneficent 

 results were immediately apparent. That the Lewismen 

 were amenable to genuine methods of civilisation, is proved 



