TRAVELLERS' ACCOUNTS. 513 



men-merchants, and the heavy duties on salt in the Outer 

 Isles. The arbitrary powers of factors are also anim- 

 adverted upon. In 1786, John Knox visited the Outer 

 Hebrides on a commission from the Highland Society 

 of London, and has left a faithful record of his impres- 

 sions. The Rev. John Lane Buchanan in his Travels in the 

 Hebrides, which took place from 1782-90, gives a doleful 

 picture of the oppression of the tacksmen, and the misery of 

 the sub-tenants, more particularly in Harris, and the immor- 

 ality of the elders of the Kirk. The General View of the 

 Agriculture of the Central Highlands and Islands (pub- 

 lished in 1794), comments favourably on the policy of 

 Lord Macdonald in North Uist and Macneill in Barra, 

 which had as its object a reduction of the size of the 

 tacksmen's holdings, and the introduction of a general 

 system of tenure direct from the proprietors. But the 

 most important record of all is that of the Old Statisical 

 Account (1796), which describes in detail the conditions of 

 each parish as they existed at the end of the eighteenth 

 century. 



In 1800, Mr. Headrick, a mineralogist, wrote a report on 

 Lewis, which embodies various suggestions for developing 

 the resources of the island. He remarks on the great 

 number of deer and hogs (the latter in Stornoway) and 

 considers them equally a nuisance. About the same time, 

 John Leyden wrote his account of the Highlands and 

 Islands, only recently published by Mr James Sinton. In 

 1 8 1 1 , A General View of Agriculture in the Hebrides was 

 published by James Macdonald, and his remarks about 

 the Long Island are full of information. Stornoway made 

 a favourable impression upon him, with its neat houses and 

 its shipping. The fishing was prosecuted with energy, but 

 towards education, the attitude of the inhabitants was 

 deplorably apathetic, and even antagonistic. As for the 

 rest of the island, he says, " so vile indeed are the dwellings 

 in general that we cannot enter upon a description of 

 them." Illicit distilling was largely practised in Lewis, the 

 people clubbing together [to pay the fines levied by the 



