2i 4 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



wished to draw back. Stewart and his colleagues, who 

 had not found caution, and their comrades who regretted 

 having done so, were ordered to appear before the Council 

 on 27th July, the former to be accompanied by their 

 cautioners. Stewart and his friends were to bind them- 

 selves to fulfil their undertaking, or forfeit their shares, 

 while those who wished to be freed from their caution 

 were to have their wish granted on renouncing all their 

 rights in Lewis.* The friction between the King and the 

 Adventurers appears to have been overcome by means of 

 this order, for the necessary caution was ultimately found. 

 The members of the Syndicate were very much in the 

 position of shareholders in a good many modern Com- 

 panies, who realise that they have made a bad investment, 

 but, having to choose between forfeiture of their shares and 

 finding fresh capital for a re-construction scheme elect, after 

 many misgivings, to do the latter, on the chance of getting 

 their money back, if nothing more. 



On 28th July an order was issued, charging all chief- 

 tains and heads of clans in the Highlands and Borders to 

 appear before the Council, and find caution for keeping the 

 general Bond, and for maintaining the laws against sorners 

 and broken men ; and in October of the same year, a fresh 

 bond was entered into by the landlords of those districts 

 against "thieves, murderers, and oppressors," among the 

 subscribers to which appear the names of Lennox and 

 Huntly. So far as the bearing of these measures on the 

 Outer Hebrides is concerned, they seem to have been 

 utterly useless in quelling the turbulence of the natives, 

 or in fitting these islands as a dumping ground for Low- 

 land colonists. 



The muster of men for the invasion of Lewis was an 

 intolerable hardship for the lieges of the North, who had 

 no direct interest in the undertaking, and who, not un- 

 reasonably, must have anathematised the very name of 

 the island, and with still greater reason, the name of the 



* Reg. ofP.C., Vol. VI., p. 421. 



