THE UISTS AND BARRA. 275 



the castle had again been seized by the Macdonalds, under 

 the leadership of Sir James, their chief. It was therefore 

 politic in the highest degree to keep the Hebridean chiefs 

 well in hand, in order not only to prevent the disaffection 

 from spreading, but to unite them in a solid resistance to 

 the Macdonalds of Islay. Hence the cooing words of the 

 Secretary to Rory Mor, whose " verie loveing freend " he 

 signed himself. 



Sir James Macdonald became alarmed at his position, 

 after his open defiance of the Crown by surprising and 

 re-capturing his ancestral stronghold. On 1st July, 1615, 

 he wrote a pitiful letter to Lord Binning, beseeching the 

 Secretary to befriend him against his enemies (the Camp- 

 bells), so that the King do not permit them to " root him 

 and his " out of Islay, which they had possessed for five or 

 six centuries. He pleaded for the restoration of the island 

 as the King's tenant, promising to find surety for the rent, 

 and for the obedience of himself and his clan. If, however, 

 this request were refused, he desired that the island should 

 become the absolute property of the Crown. " For," he 

 adds, " that is certane, I will die befoir I sie a Campbell 

 posses it."* But the petition of the unfortunate Sir James 

 was unavailing. The Earl of Argyll, who appears to have 

 found the pleasures of the English Court more congenial 

 to his tastes than the task of subduing the Macdonalds, 

 and who was not too anxious to meet his Scottish 

 creditors, at length waived, under pressure, his plea of 

 ill-health, and after being appointed Lieutenant over 

 the whole of the Hebrides, undertook the subjugation of 

 the Islay rebels, whom he finally dispersed after a short 

 and successful campaign. Sir James Macdonald was com- 

 pelled to flee from the island, and Coll Keitach, who held 

 Dunyveg Castle, finding his courage unequal to facing 

 Argyll's artillery, made terms for himself, and surrendered 

 the castle, being subsequently employed by his captor 

 against his former associates, whom he harried with all 

 the zeal of a time-serving pervert. 



* Metros Papers, Vol. I , pp. 226-8. 



