THE UISTS AND BARRA. 289 



The Macneills of Barra were not the only chiefs of the 

 Long Island who augmented their incomes by occasional 

 piracies. John Moidartach, Captain of Clan Ranald, and 

 great-grandson of his more famous namesake, did not 

 despise this lucrative occupation. In 1625, a Leith ship, 

 with a cargo of tea, wines, and general merchandise, was 

 rounding Barra Head bound northwards, when Clanranald 

 and some of his men, cruising about in their galleys for 

 likely prey, fell in with her. The stranger was without 

 ceremony boarded by the Macdonalds and plundered. It 

 requires no great stretch of the imagination to assume that 

 the self-denying ordinance of total abstinence, prescribed 

 by the Lords of the Privy Council, was on this occasion 

 more honoured in the breach than in the observance. A 

 similar exploit on the part of Clanranald occurred in 1636, 

 when the Susannah, an English barque bound from France 

 for Limerick, was driven ashore off the coast of Barra. The 

 vessel sent up signals of distress which were seen by the 

 Barra men, some of whom went out to her, and with a 

 remarkable business instinct, arranged with the captain for 

 salvage. They towed the ship into harbour, but on landing, 

 were confronted by John Moidartach with 300 of his men, 

 who seized the Susannah as his lawful prize. Her cargo, 

 consisting of wine, fruit, corn, &c., was taken possession of 

 by Clanranald, who, to give some show of legal colour to 

 the proceedings, compelled a wretched youth who was on 

 board to call himself the agent for the cargo, and in that 

 capacity, to sign a document, professing to sell the mer- 

 chandise for a certain sum, which Clanranald promised, but 

 failed to pay. The owner of the vessel was similarly dealt 

 with. The ship was valued at 150, but the owner was 

 forced to sell her for 8 ; glad enough, no doubt, to escape 

 with his life.* For these piracies, Clanranald was, on both 

 occasions, put to the horn, but that was a sentence which 

 could be lightly borne with such rich hauls in his posses- 

 sion. The Long Island was a place to be avoided by 

 peaceful traders, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 



* Clan Donald, Vol. II., pp. 325-7. 



