472 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



oppressions. The ties of clanship were so strong, the 

 pride of a common ancestry, or an adopted name, so un- 

 quenchable, that the yoke which was placed upon the 

 shoulders of the peasantry was borne, not only without a 

 murmur, but with a consciousness that in implicit obedi- 

 ence to their superiors, lay their own best security, their 

 own clearest duty, and their own highest good. Their 

 lord and master might, as he usually did, discourage the 

 spread of education among them ; they had no sense of 

 ignorance from which they desired deliverance. Their 

 lord and master, or his tacksman, might, as occasionally he 

 did, banish them to the West Indies, or attempt to sell 

 them as slaves to the American plantations ; in their blind 

 allegiance, they offered no resistance to his greed and 

 cruelty.* Their lord and master might, as he frequently 

 did, fine them, or even hang them, and confiscate their 

 property at his pleasure ; it was the chief's will, and his 

 will was their law. From this pathetic state of submissive- 

 ness, they were rudely aroused by the vigorous hand of an 

 alien civilisation, which was now knocking at their doors. 

 They awakened from their long sleep : but they were as 

 children groping in the dark, not knowing which way to 

 turn. The clan system was gone for ever ; and the finger 

 of the future pointed to a path shrouded with mystery, 

 strewn with perplexities, and leading to a goal beyond 

 their ken. 



While these were the conditions which applied generally 

 to the Highlands before, and immediately after,. the "forty- 

 five," it can hardly be supposed that their application was 

 universal. The great lords like the Argylls, the Huntlys, 

 and the Seaforths, pursued a more enlightened policy than 

 the less important chiefs. While retaining and exercising 

 the powers which their hereditary jurisdictions conferred 

 upon them, they encouraged a knowledge of peaceful arts 



* See Burt on this subject. In 1739, Norman Macleod of Bernera (Harris) 

 kidnapped a number of people from Skye and Harris, with the intention c 

 selling them as slaves to the Southern States of America. The vessel was 

 wrecked on the coast of the North of Ireland, where some of the islander 

 settled, the remainder finding their way back to their homes. 



