THE FIFE ADVENTURERS. 201 



in Lewis, and it is difficult to say what the consequences 



might have been to the Hebrides generally. And yet it is 



I not easy to conceive that a man of Neil's temper could 



; have become a permanent ally of the Lowlanders, with 



whom he had so little in common ; nor is it easier to 



! imagine the turbulent Lewisman playing the part of a 



peaceful trader, or a meek agriculturist. 



No sooner had he quarrelled with the Adventurers than 

 j he re-commenced active hostilities against them. The 

 colonists now determined to get rid of this troublesome foe 

 once for all. Being unable to seize him by force, they had 

 recourse to strategy. One very dark night in December, 

 ! 1 60 1, Spens of Wormiston, who was the cause of the 

 ; quarrel, sent a body of men from the camp to capture Neil 

 j and one Donald Dubh MacRory, " a gentleman of the 

 i island " who had also incurred the enmity of the colonists. 

 i But Neil was on his guard, and discovering the plot, turned 

 I the tables on his would-be captors. He suffered them to 

 leave the camp some distance behind them, and then burst 

 upon the surprised Lowlanders like an avalanche. The 

 ! latter, taken completely off their guard, made no stand. 

 The darkness of the night accentuated the confusion. 

 Hither and thither ran the colonists seeking in vain to 

 break their way through the Lewismen, who barred their 

 retreat to the camp. Their comrades sent a force to the 

 rescue, and the remains of the punitive force at length 

 found safety behind their friendly ramparts, leaving, accord- 

 ing to one authority, sixty, and according to another, fifty 

 men stark and stiff outside. Neil Macleod now became a 

 more dangerous antagonist than ever, and the Adventurers 

 realised that far from their colony being secure, they were 

 now only on the threshold of their difficulties, and that the 

 re-conquest of Lewis was imperative. 



Watchful eyes were directed from the mainland on 

 the events transpiring in Lewis. Mackenzie of Kintail, 

 negotiations with the Syndicate notwithstanding, main- 

 tained inviolate his purpose of ruining the colony. He 

 was sufficiently far-seeing to realise that the alliance 



