THE FIFE ADVENTURERS. 181 



donalds at Bern Bige in Islay (1598). These disturbances 

 roused the King to assert his authority, and a proclamation 

 was issued in June, 1598, calling out a levy to meet him at 

 Dumbarton, James avowing his intention of proceeding in 

 person to Kintyre and other parts of the Highlands and 

 Isles to reduce the clans to subjection. Two months later, 

 a further proclamation of a similar but more peremptory 

 tenor, was issued, and all the shipping at Glasgow, Ayr, 

 and Irvine was impressed into the King's service. At the 

 end of August, James actually proceeded to Dumbarton 

 with a portion of his Court, leaving part of the Council in 

 Edinburgh under the presidency of Lord Seton. He had 

 made elaborate arrangements for his personal safety. He 

 selected for his own use a ship of Ayr, whose owner 

 was charged to find a crew of the best and ablest 

 mariners that the town could produce, and to get a loan of 

 artillery or munition from any burghers who possessed 

 them. But he never reached Kintyre, much less the 

 Hebrides. The shires and burghs had gauged his pusil- 

 lanimity to a nicety ; hence their neglect to obey his first 

 proclamation. They were convinced that he would hesi- 

 tate to trust his sacred person in the Hebrides, being a man 

 of big words but timid action. The expedition was aban- 

 doned from no known cause save the King's indecision. In 

 1600, a similar farce was enacted, and with the same result. 

 One of the proclamations of that year was particularly 

 concerned with the " suirtie of his Heynes persone," which 

 it did not accord with his " honnour " to " hasard in thay 

 pairtis," unless adequately supported. Not thus was 

 James IV. accustomed to arrange his expeditions to the 

 Hebrides. But James VI. was,more careful of his person 

 than of his honour and dignity. The personally-conducted 

 expedition was once more abandoned, never again to be 

 proposed. 



The exact date of the Adventurers' departure for Lewis 

 is uncertain, but they appear to have sailed early in 

 November, 1598, and this is confirmed by a contemporary 

 diarist (Moncrieff of that ilk): BirreVs Diary and Moysie's 



