THE UISTS AND BARRA. 283 



frequented the Long Island, the Council compelled Donald 

 Gorm, Ruari Macleod, Clanranald, Ranald MacAllan of 

 Benbecula, and Sir Lauchlan Mackinnon of Strath, to 

 enter into a bond ; but the undertaking does not appear to 

 have carried weight with Clanranald. In 1625, the Council 

 commanded Ruari Macleod, "all excuissis sett asyde," to 

 co-operate with them in suppressing the lawlessness of 

 Clanranald, who had been annoying, not only Scottish sub- 

 jects, but those of friendly nations. Ruari was threatened 

 with dire penalties for non-compliance with this order : it 

 will be hard for him, wrote the Council, to "eshaip the 

 weyght of his Majesteis arme." Seeing that Macleod two 

 months previously, had been held responsible, with Clan- 

 ranald and Maclean of Coll, for encouraging a state of 

 piracy in the Isles, it would appear that the old distrust 

 of him by the Council was again uppermost. 



The lack of sobriety in the Hebrides again received, in 

 1622, the attention of the Council, and an Act of great 

 stringency was passed, forbidding, under severe penalties, 

 the masters of ships from carrying wines to the Isles. 

 According to the preamble of this Act, the people were 

 possessed by such an insatiable love of wine that when 

 a ship arrived, they spent " bothe dayis and nightis in thair 

 excesse of drinking," the result of these excesses being to 

 breed quarrels and lead to bloodshed.* It will thus be 

 seen that the repressive measure of 1616 had proved 

 abortive in respect of the prohibition of wines ; evasion of 

 the law, as might have been expected, followed the attempt 

 to enforce total abstinence. 



There is on record an interesting letter to the Council by 

 Ruari Macleod, dated 3 1st August, 1622, written on his own 

 behalf, and that of his son-in-law, Clanranald. He empha- 

 sises the fact of his family having ever been " trew and 

 obediant subjectis," and complains that in this "dilectable 

 tyme of peax," he is forced to appear before the Council 

 annually. When the chiefs are away from home, he says, 



*Reg. of P.O., Vol. XIII., pp. 20-1. 



