i82 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



Memoirs (p. 138) state that they sailed in October, 1598, but, 

 as we have seen from the official records, they had not taken 

 their departure by the 3Oth of that month. Mr. Gregory 

 says (p. 290) they did not leave until October, 1 599, and is 

 at a loss to account for the delay in setting out on their 

 voyage. From documents which have recently been pub- 

 lished, as well as from the evidence already mentioned, 

 it is now established beyond any doubt that they were 

 actually in Lewis before the first week of December, 1598. 



Under the supreme command of the Duke of Lennox, 

 the expedition sailed from Leith, and appears to have 

 reached Stornoway within four days of the date of 

 departure. The members of the Syndicate were accom- 

 panied by several gentlemen volunteers, keen on so pro- 

 mising an adventure, and on the prospects of plunder. 

 The military force consisted of some five or six hundred 

 hired soldiers. A number of miscellaneous tradesmen 

 represented the intended permanency of the settlement, 

 and the expedition was thoroughly equipped with all the 

 requisites for an encampment. Contemporary historians 

 were under no illusion as to the severe measures which 

 were intended to be taken, nor as to the ultimate object of 

 the scheme. Archbishop Spotswood declares that the 

 intention was " to plant Lowlandmen in the Isles and 

 transport the inhabitants into the mainland, where they 

 might learn civility," and that the Adventurers " made a 

 beginning at the Isle of Lewis."* 



At the time of the invasion of Lewis, the government of 

 the island was in the hands of Murdoch and Neil Macleod, 

 the surviving illegitimate sons of old Ruari. Murdoch was a 

 man of superior education, who possessed not only the dis- 

 tinction of being able to sign his name, but could actually 

 draft legal documents with a precision and shrewdness 

 which could not be excelled by an Edinburgh lawyer. Neil, 

 too, could write a good letter, as we shall have occasion to 



* The late Dr. Fraser -Mackintosh informed the author that he had in his pos- 

 session a holograph letter from the King, being one of several addressed to 

 influential Highland gentlemen, requesting them to aid the Adventurers. 



