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526

COMPANY OF THE LEWES.

It was necessary to try to bring the Celts into order, a task in which the Crown never succeeded for want of money, of a standing army, and of police. The difficulties, when a royal expedition was attempted, were of a kind not unfamiliar. The castles of the island chiefs were of a strength impregnable to the weak artillery of the assailants. To burn the cots and destroy the crops of the clansmen might irritate but could not subdue the hardy recalcitrants. Swiftfooted and mobile, they succeeded in night surprises of camps, and, if hard pressed, easily escaped by boats to other islands. A common ruse was to attack a camp, and then fall back among their unmapped hills and glens, alluring the pursuers into ambushes for which every wood and corry afforded shelter. Driven far from their base, the royal forces were now attacked by overwhelming numbers; now returned to find that their camp had been fired, and that their supplies were in the hands of the enemy.3

On July 9, 1599, the Privy Council tried what could be done by a vigorous proclamation. The Celts were persecuting what may be called the Chartered Company of the Lewes, which was an association of Fifeshire and other gentlemen to exploit and establish towns, agriculture, and fisheries in that island. A commission was given to Lennox and Huntly to quiet the Lewes and collect the royal rents. The two lieutenants were to be assisted by a council of nobles and gentlemen. Negotiations were entered into in the September of the same year for reducing the southern isles and promontories of the West coast. The focus of trouble was the Castle of Dunyveg in Isla, the old royal seat of the sons of Somerled. For sway in Isla, and the long, narrow, but fertile peninsula of Kintyre, Macdonalds had been cutting each other's throats, while Macleans took part in the fray, and Campbells waited for their opportunity, which was soon to come. Probably the rightful holder of Dunyveg was the truculent old Angus Macdonald, whom his son, Sir James, once burned out of his house. In 1599, in September, negotiations were begun with Sir James Macdonald. He was to evacuate Kintyre in favour of new settlers; was to place the Castle of Dunyveg, in Isla, in the king's hands; and was to receive, as royal tenant, the lands of Isla, and make provision for his father, Angus, whom he had once nearly burned to death.5 No good came of all this, for which Sir James and his friends blamed Argyll and Campbell of Calder. Sir James was a polished ruffian, but the Campbells usually bear the weight of all turmoils which turned to their own advantage.

CELTIC FEUDS.

527 In October 1599, fortified by hopes from Lennox and Huntly, the Lowland settlers, with an armed force, set off to "plant" the Lewes. Unsheltered in the wild weather, they sickened and died. Leirmont of Balcomy was taken at sea and held prisoner by Murdoch Macleod; the curse of Andrew Melville, with whom he had quarrelled in St Andrews, was thought to pursue "this jolly gentleman," who died in the Orkneys. But Murdoch was given up to the adventurers by his brother Neil Macleod, who allied himself with the Lowlanders. Murdoch was executed at St Andrews, and the Lord of Kintail, a Mackenzie and a foe of the settlers, was imprisoned. He escaped, and continued to oppose the "planters."

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James, in 1600, thought of visiting the Isles with a large array, but ships, money, men, and perhaps inclination, were deficient. The Highland historian, Dr Gregory (one of the Gregarach), accuses James of cowardice, but we know how destitute he was of money in 1600. Nicholson (July 9) writes to Cecil about the king's poverty; the Convention in which Gowrie spoke refused supplies; and (July 22) Nicholson says that the expedition to the Isles was abandoned on account of the great scarcity in the country." 6 In June 1601 increased powers were given to Lennox and Huntly, but these powers were not used. In Skye, Macdonald of Sleat and Macleod were at feud; they were brothers-in-law, and Macdonald had repudiated Macleod's sister with insult, divorced her, and wedded a sister of Mackenzie of Kintail. Then began expeditions of murder and rapine through Skye, Harris, and the Long Island; the natives were driven to eat their horses and cats. Government interfered; Macdonald was to surrender to Argyll, Macleod to Huntly, and the clans were reconciled. The Lewes settlers now quarrelled with Neil Macleod, and had the worse of the strife; while Mackenzie of Kintail slipped on the settlers a chief who was the nephew of Neil, and had been a prisoner. Round this young Tormod the Celts rallied as the representative of the true Macleod dynasty, and they reduced the Lowland settlers to a capitulation. They kept two hostages, turned the other Lowlanders out, and secured a pardon, but the settlers did not observe the conditions, and the war was renewed, or rather was deferred, till 1603.

The Glengarry Macdonalds now went to war with the Mackenzies, and young Glengarry was slain in a night surprise of his galley. By burning a church full of Mackenzies the Macdonalds avenged this disaster, Glengarry's piper strutting round the edifice playing a

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pibroch. The singular point is that there was any church to burn. But it is fair to add that Dr Gregory could find "no public notice taken of such an enormity," so we may trust that the story (so unfavourable to Glengarry) is a Mackenzie myth. The Celtic excesses in West Ross and the Isles were nearly as remote, in effect, as now is a rising in Fiji. But the Macgregors, in the Lennox, were much nearer home. This unlucky clan seems to date its misfortunes from Bruce's forfeiture of the Macdougals. They were harried from one reservation to another, a fleeting race, the Children of the Mist. As Argyll "gave them wood and water" down to the days of Rob Roy, he was responsible for their behaviour. But just as a much later Argyll, "Red Ian of the Battles," found Rob Roy a useful spy and secret ally in 1715, so the Argyll of 1603 is accused of "hounding out" the Gregarach against Colquhoun of Luss. The Macgregors invaded the Lennox, it is said, by virtue of a commission from the king. The great fight, or slaughter, of Glenfruin occurred on February 7 or 8, 1603. On January 20, 1604, Macgregor of Glenstra was tried for his feat of arms. His idea, it is alleged, was to extirpate the Colquhouns and Buchanans, and he was aided by the Camerons, the Clananverich (not Clan Vourich, the Macphersons ?), and "other broken men and sorners." The Glencoe Macdonalds appear to have been in the fray. The invaders wore coats of mail, and had muskets, bows, two-handed swords, and pole-axes. They entered Glenfruin, in Luss's territory, and slew, among others, "Tobias Smollet, bailie of Dumbarton," and bearer of the name made immortal by the author of "Peregrine Pickle." About a hundred and forty persons were slain, many of them as disarmed prisoners. The house of Luss was burned, and a very large creagh was driven. Nothing is said in the indictment about the massacre of a number of students or schoolboys who had made a trip to see the sport.8

While most writers accuse Argyll of "hounding out" the Macgregors, Calderwood says that Lady Lennox was believed to have instigated the raid. The Macgregors, one might conceive, needed little hounding out by lord or lady. In October 1603 Ardkinglas invited the chief of the Macgregors to dinner, seized him, and was taking him by boat to Argyll, when Macgregor leaped overboard and escaped. Argyll then betrayed Macgregor, under promise of sending him to England, to the king. He did carry the chief to Berwick, that is, into England, and then brought him back to

THE NAMELESS CLAN.

529 Edinburgh, where the chief was tried and executed on January 20, 1604.9

Poor Macgregor left a statement, written in the hand of James Primrose, Clerk of Council. Argyll, he said, had been his ruin. First he hounded the Macleans and Camerons on to the Macgregor lands in Rannoch. Then, these Macgregors being destitute, Argyll urged them to attack the Buchanans and the Colquhouns of Luss. Next this Macchiavelli suborned Ardkinglas to betray Macgregor, and Macgregor to slay Ardkinglas. How much truth there is in all this we have no method of discovering. It is certain that the very name of Macgregor was abolished by an Act of April 3, 1603.10 The results were that many of the clan, changing their name, became sober and distinguished citizens, like the family of Gregory, which, for several generations, produced men of learning if not of genius. On the other side the body of the clan became Ishmaelites, their hands against every man's hand.

In 1608 considerable preparations were made for the subjection of the islands, and a guard of 500 was allotted to the new lieutenant, Lord Ochiltree. He was assisted by a council, with the Bishop of the Isles at its head, the warlike preacher, Andrew Knox. In August, when a handful of 200 rather useless Scottish soldiers had been sent to aid in subduing an Irish rebellion, a force of English soldiers from Ireland joined the royal levies at Isla. The Irish rebels and the islanders were apt to work into each other's hands, hence the junction of Scots with recruits from the English army in Ireland to guard against their combinations. O'Dogherty's rebellion in Ulster having been put down, English forces in Ireland were free to deal with the insular Celts.11 Meanwhile the king and Council were occupied with plans for the "plantation of Ulster" with English and Scottish settlers, each in his peel or tower, and holding lands from which the Irish had been evicted. On the island side, the castle of Dunyveg in Isla, a hold of the Macdonalds, was surrendered and garrisoned for the Crown, as (August 17) was the Maclean fortress of Dowart in Mull. Ochiltree held a durbar of the chiefs, at Aros in Mull, and received them into the king's peace, or pretended to do so. Next, inviting them to dinner on board his vessel, he carried them off, and the Council warded them in Dumbarton, Blackness, and Stirling, much as the Maxwells had already been treated. The Macleods of Harris and the Lewes

VOL. II.

2 L

530

BAND OF ICOLMKILL.

were not captured. The imprisoned chiefs capitulated, and in February 1609 a large body of commissioners was appointed to Ideal with the island affairs.12 By way of striking terror, that old prisoner, Sir James Macdonald, son of Angus of Dunyveg, and slayer of the valiant Maclean of Dowart, was tried for the burning of the house in which he nearly roasted his father, and for his attempted escape from the Castle, when he was taken, and Lord Maxwell got free. James, we know, had of old rather favoured this chief, who produced, but withdrew, a royal warrant for the capture of his father. He was convicted, and sentenced to death and forfeiture, but was not executed. Six years later he succeeded in escaping. Possibly it was not thought well to push him to extremities, as he had some more or less compromising old document of the king's.

Meanwhile the Bishop of the Isles had been surveying these territories and negotiating with the natives. In July he met the released chiefs and others at Iona or Icolmkill, and in August the Statutes or Band of Icolmkill were ratified. The great chiefs, mainly Macdonalds and Macleans, professed the true religion, and obedience to the king and the laws of the realm. They vowed that they would respect and pay the stipends of ministers already planted or to be planted, repair the churches, and abandon the custom of handfasting, or temporary marriages. Next they denounced the custom of sorning, or forced hospitality, and ordained that inns or hostelries should be established. Each chief bound himself to harbour and entertain only a small fixed number of gentlemen. Once more they denounced "the extraordinary drinking of strong wines and aqua vita," and the traffic in these comforts. But everybody might distil his own whisky, so that the cause of temperance took little advantage. Every gentleman owning sixty cows must educate his eldest child in the Lowlands. Unlike their ancestors in the time of Henry VIII., the chiefs at Icolmkill were themselves able to read and write. The law against using firearms was accepted. Bards and other vagabonds were to be put in the stocks, or expelled. 13

From these statutes the historian, Dr Gregory, dates the loyalty of the Celts, as displayed under Charles I., and onwards, we may add, to the last Jacobite rising. But perhaps the natural attachment of the Celts to the lost cause, with the chances of authorised raids on the Lowlands, and loyalty to "the Kirk malignant," that

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