390 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



the offers made by the Government, and " several of their 

 chieftains and many of their clans" had not taken the 

 preferred indemnity. The truth is, that the Government 

 knew beforehand that the chiefs would not all come in 

 by the 3ist December, 1691 ; and a fortnight before that 

 date, orders were given for taking active measures against 

 those who remained obstinate. And we find the King 

 informing the Privy Council of Scotland, on nth January, 

 1692, that an expedition under Sir Thomas Livingston 

 was to be sent to the Highlands, to " cut off those obstinate 

 rebels by all manner of hostility." A war of extermination, 

 in point of fact, had been decided upon, the expeditionary 

 force to be empowered " by fire and sword and all manner 

 of hostility, to burn their houses, seize and burn their 

 cattle, plenishing, or clothes, and cut off the men." No 

 terms were to be offered ; but those who surrendered un- 

 conditionally, as prisoners of war, were to have their lives 

 spared. If the common people submitted, they were to 

 receive quarter, but would be required to take fresh tacks 

 of their property.* 



The massacre of Glencoe was the beginning and the 

 end of the war of extermination. Not only was it a crime 

 unsurpassed, even in Scottish annals, for treachery and 

 ferocity, but it was a mistake which might have cost 

 William of Orange his throne. The thrill of horror which 

 ran through the length and breadth of the land, gave just 

 cause for alarm to the Government. With the state of 

 feeling in the country which the tragedy had aroused, all 

 further attempts to "cut off " the Highlanders had to be 

 abandoned. Indeed, the "barbarous" Highlanders were 

 so horrified by the doings of the emissaries of civilisation, 

 that, for the moment, they were quelled into submission. 

 Colonel Hill, in a letter to the Earl of Portland, dated 

 28th February, declares that the events of the winter 

 campaign had "put the Highlanders under great con- 

 sternation," and that they were all "very submissive and 



* CaL of State Papers (Nov., i69i-Dec., 1692. Intro.). 



