EMIGRATION AND ITS CAUSES. 477 



and of the white fisheries. No tenant was allowed to sell his 

 cattle (until his rents were paid) to any one not empowered 

 by the factor to buy ; and if any person attempted to pur- 

 chase with ready money, the cattle were arrested and were 

 not permitted to be sent out of the country, until every 

 penny of the rents had been collected. " This on your 

 peril I desire may be done immediately, and any person 

 who dares to sell after these orders are made public, you 

 are to acquaint me thereof." Such was the manner in 

 which this autocrat was accustomed to issue his orders. 

 The tenants of Lewis were bound to keep the factor in 

 firing, and that official, after supplying his own require- 

 ments, was in the habit of selling the surplus to the inhabi- 

 tants of Stornoway, which yielded him an annual revenue 

 of 40 to .50. He is said to have left Lewis with a fortune 

 of 20,000, a portion of which he laid out on an estate, 

 where he developed into a full-blown Highland laird.* His 

 son, Alexander Gillanders, succeeded him in the factor- 

 ship and its emoluments. He paid the fishermen 13 per 

 ton for their ling fish, and sold at a spot price of 18. His 

 traffic in cattle, grain, meal, and other articles, brought him 

 such large profits that he was better off than many High- 

 land proprietors owning considerable estates. When the 

 lease of his office expired, which occurred about 1793-4, it is 

 probable that his reign came to an end ; for the last Lord 

 Seaforth, who was then proprietor of Lewis, was hardly the 

 man to perpetuate such an iniquitous system. But, unfor- 

 tunately, the day of tyrannical factors in Lewis did not 

 terminate with the end of the eighteenth century. 



The climax to the emigration movement was reached, 

 when the captains of emigrant ships commenced a syste- 

 matic search for passengers in every remote island and 

 creek on the west coast, where there was no possibility of 



vision over their methods of filling their ships. Kidnap- 



Decame a common occurrence ; the ships were loaded 

 iir maximum capacity ; and the accommodation and 



* Knox's Tour, pp. 191-3. 



K K 



