THE FIFE ADVENTURERS. 193 



The heads of the agreement seem to show (ist) that 

 Mackenzie had been a party to the worrying tactics of the 

 natives ; (2nd) that he had bitterly resented the friendly 

 attitude of Macleod of Assynt towards the Lowlanders ; 

 (3rd) that he had been backing Torquil Conanach in his 

 rightful claims to Lewis ; (4th) that Neil Macleod had been 

 annoying Mackenzie by attacks on the mainland ; that 

 his compact with the Syndicate was made in May, 1599 ; 

 and that since that time he had maintained friendly 

 relations with the colonists. True to their promises, the 

 Adventurers, or those of them who went South to give 

 evidence against Murdoch Macleod, had taken Neil with 

 them and obtained for him a free pardon from the King. 

 He returned to Lewis with his Lowland friends, the latter, 

 who were accompanied by the new laird of Balcomie, 

 rejoicing doubtless in the fact that they had put one of 

 their two principal enemies out of the way, and secured 

 the co-operation of the other, and the more dangerous, 

 foe. 



According to Sir Robert Gordon, Murdoch Macleod 

 revealed certain incriminating facts about Kenneth Mac- 

 kenzie of Kintail, which placed that clever schemer in a 

 perilous situation. He was ordered to Edinburgh to answer 

 these charges the head and front of his offending being 

 apparently his secret thwarting of the Adventurers and 

 was committed to prison, but escaped trial through the 

 influence of his friend, the Earl of Montrose, Lord Chan- 

 cellor of Scotland. In view of these statements, the com- 

 pact between him and the Syndicate, which must have 

 immediately followed his release from imprisonment, is 

 rather curious. We must believe either that he succeeded 

 in clearing himself from the charges said to have been 

 made against him, or that the Adventurers, convinced of 

 his enmity towards them, powerless to crush him, and 

 dreading his further machinations, resolved to make a deal 

 with him. It is possible that the evidence of his secret 

 hostility to the Lowlanders was sufficiently strong to have 

 secured his conviction, if he was brought to trial, but that the 



