i8o HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



by the fact that when, in 1610, Lord Kintail brought the 

 Rev. Farquhar Macrae to the island, his ministrations 

 were gladly welcomed, and his own person was treated with 

 the utmost respect. But the colonising scheme of James 

 was obviously a brazen attempt to fill his coffers by means 

 which stultified his professions, and revealed his insincerity. 

 He appears in the light of a company promoter who places 

 a concession on the market, puffs it by crafty advertisement, 

 and disposes of it on the most advantageous terms to 

 himself. The gentlemen from Fife and the Lothians, impe- 

 cunious like their Royal master, acquired the concession 

 with the firm resolve, as business men, of making as much 

 as possible out of it for themselves. This Syndicate ot 

 chartered buccaneers was brought into being, with aims 

 which the most hardened association of money-grubbers of 

 the twentieth century might hesitate openly to avow. By 

 their King, they were directly incited to accomplish the 

 process of " civilisation," much in the same manner as the 

 early settlers in Australia " civilised " the aboriginal black- 

 fellows. 



While these preparations were proceeding in the South, 

 fighting was proceeding in the North and West. Taking 

 advantage of the disturbed state of Lewis, Donald Gorm 

 revived the pretensions of the Sleat family to the island, 

 and invaded it with a strong body of followers. Neil 

 Macleod, the bastard son of Ruari, called out the 

 Lewismen to defend their homes, and a battle was 

 fought at the west side of the island, resulting in the 

 discomfiture of the invaders.* Reports, however, reached 

 the Lowlands that Donald Gorm had " spoyled and left 

 the Lewes voyd and bare,"t so he had apparently succeeded 

 in working much mischief before his defeat. The Southern 

 Hebrides were also disturbed by a revival of the feud 

 between the Macdonalds of Dunyveg and the Macleans of 

 Duart, in which Macleod of Harris and Macneill of Barra 

 sided with the Macleans, and helped to defeat the Mac- 



* Traditions of the Macaulays of Uig. 

 t Anderson's MS. Hist, of Scotland, Vol. III., fol. 295. 



