|
By ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
The people of Skye and
the Uist, where the Macdonalds for centuries ruled in the manner of
princes over a loyal and devoted people, were treated not a whit better
than those on the mainland, when their services were no longer required
to fight the battles of the Lords of the Isles, or to secure to them
their possessions, their dignity, and power. Bha latha eile ann! There
was another day! When possessions were held by the sword, those who
wielded them were highly valued, and well cared for. Now that sheep
skins are found sufficient, what could be more appropriate in the
opinion of some of the sheepish chiefs of modern times than to displace
the people who anciently secured and held the lands for real chiefs
worthy of the name, and replace them by the animals that produced the
modern sheep skins by which they hold their lands; especially when these
were found to be better titles than the old ones–the blood and sinew of
their ancient vassals.
Prior to 1849, the
manufacture of kelp in the Outer Hebrides had been for many years a
large source of income to the proprietors of those islands, and a
considerable revenue to the inhabitants; the lairds, in consequence, for
many years encouraged the people to remain, and it is alleged that they
multiplied to a degree quite out of proportion to the means of
subsistence within reach when kelp manufacture failed. To make matters
worse for the poor tenants, the rents were meanwhile raised by the
proprietors to more than double—not because the land was considered
worth more by itself, but because the possession of it enabled the poor
tenants to earn a certain sum a year from kelp made out of the sea-ware
to which their holdings entitled them, and out of which the proprietor
pocketed a profit of from £3 to £4 per ton, in addition to the enchanced
rent obtained from the crofter for the land. In these circumstances one
would have thought that some consideration would have been shown to the
people, who, it may perhaps be admitted, were found in the altered
circumstances too numerous to obtain a livelihood in those islands ; but
such consideration does not appear to have been given—indeed the very
reverse.
NORTH UIST.
In 1849 Lord Macdonald
determined to evict between boo and 700 persons from Sollas, in North
Uist, of which he was then proprietor. They were at the time in a state
of great misery from the failure of the potato crop for several years
previously in succession, many of them having had to work for ninety-six
hours a week for a pittance of two stones of Indian meal once a
fortnight. Sometimes even that miserable dole was not forthcoming, and
families had to live for weeks solely on shell-fish picked up on the
sea-shore. Some of the men were employed on drainage works, for which
public money was advanced to the proprietors; but here, as in most other
places throughout the Highlands, the money earned was applied by the
factors to wipe off old arrears, while the people were permitted
generally to starve. His lordship having decided that they must go,
notices of ejectment were served upon them, to take effect on the 15th
of May, 1849. They asked for delay, to enable them to dispose of their
cattle and other effects to the best advantage at the summer markets,
and offered to work meanwhile making kelp, on terms which would prove
remunerative to the proprietors, if only, in the altered circumstances,
they might get their crofts on equitable terms—for their value, as
such—apart from the kelp manufacture, on account of which the rents had
previously been raised. Their petitions were ignored. No answers were
received, while at the same time they were directed to sow as much corn
and potatoes as they could during that spring, and for which, they were
told, they would be fully compensated, whatever happened. They sold much
of their effects to procure seed, and continued to work and sow up to
and even after the 15th of May. They then began to cut their peats as
usual, thinking they were after all to be allowed to get the benefit.
They were, however, soon disappointed—their goods were hypothecated.
Many of them were turned out of their houses, the doors locked, and
everything they possessed—cattle, crops, and peatsseized. Even their
bits of furniture were thrown out of doors in the manner which had long
become the fashion in such cases. The season was too far
advanced—towards the end of July—to start for Canada. Before they could
arrive there the cold winter would be upon them, without means or money
to provide against it. They naturally rebelled, and the principal
Sheriff-Substitute, Colquhoun, with his officers and a strong body of
police left Inverness for North Uist, to eject them from their homes.
Naturally unwilling to proceed to extremes, on the arrival of the
steamer at Armadale, they sent a messenger ashore to ask for
instructions to guide them in case of resistance, or if possible to
obtain a modification of his lordship's views. Lord Macdonald had no
instructions to give, but referred the Sheriff to Mr. Cooper, his
factor, whose answer was that the whole population of Sollas would be
subject to eviction if they did not at once agree to emigrate. A few men
were arrested who obstructed the evictors on a previous occasion. They
were marched off to Lochmaddy by the police. The work of destruction
soon commenced. At first no opposition was made by the poor people. An
eye-witness, whose sympathies were believed to be favourable to the
proprietor, des-scribes some of the proceedings as follows:-
"In evicting Macpherson,
the first case taken up, no opposition to the law officers was made. In
two or three minutes the few articles of furniture he possessed--a
bench, a chair, a broken chair, a barrel, a bag of wool, and two or
three small articles, which comprised his whole household of goods and
gear—were turned out to the door, and his bothy left roofless. The wife
of the prisoner Macphail (one of those taken to Lochmaddy on the
previous day) was the next evicted. Her domestic plenishing was of the
simplest character—its greatest, and by far its most valuable part,
being three small children, dressed in nothing more than a single coat
of coarse blanketing, who played about her knee, while the poor woman,
herself half-clothed, with her face bathed in tears, and holding an
infant in her arms, assured the Sheriff that she and her children were
totally destitute and without food of any kind. The Sheriff at once sent
for the Inspector of Poor, and ordered him to place the woman and her
family on the poor's roll."
The next house was
occupied by very old and infirm people, whom the Sheriff positively
refused to evict. He also refused to eject eight other families where an
irregularity was discovered by him in the notices served upon them. The
next family ejected led to the almost solitary instance hitherto in the
history of Highland evictions where the people made anything like real
resistance. This man was a crofter and weaver, having a wife and nine
children to provide for. At this stage a crowd of men and women gathered
on an eminence a little distance from the house, and gave the first
indications of a hostile intention by raising shouts, as the police
advanced to help in the work of demolition, accompanied by about a dozen
men who came to their assistance in unroofing the houses from the other
end of the island. The crowd, exasperated at the conduct of their own
neighbours, threw some stones at the latter. The police were then drawn
up in two lines. The furniture was thrown outside, the web was cut of
the loom, and the terrified woman rushed to the door with a infant in
her arms, exclaiming in a passionate and wailing voice—"`Tha mo chlann
air a bhi' air a muirt" (My children are to be murdered). The crowd
became excited, stones were thrown at the officers, their assistants
were driven from the roof of the house, and they had to retire behind
the police for shelter. Volleys of stones and other missiles followed.
The police charged in two divisions. There were some cuts and bruises on
both sides. The work of demolition was then allowed to go on without
further opposition from the crowd.
Several heart-rending
scenes followed, but we shall only give a description of the last which
took place on that occasioij, and which brought about a little delay in
the cruel woxk. In one case it was found necessary to remove the women
out of the house by force. "One of them threw herself upon the ground
and fell into hysterics, uttering the most doleful sounds, and barking
and yelling like a dog for about ten minutes. Another, with many tears,
sobs, and groans put up a petition to the Sheriff that they would leave
the roof over part of her house, where she had a loom with cloth in it,
which she was weaving; and a third woman, the eldest of the family, made
an attack with a stick on an officer, and, missing him, she sprang upon
him, and knocked off his hat. So violently did this old woman conduct
herself that two stout policemen had great difficulty in carrying her
outside the door. The excitement was again getting so strong that the
factor, seeing the determination of the people, and finding that if he
continued and took their crops away from those who would not leave, even
when their houses were pulled down about their ears, they would have to
be fed and maintained at the expense of the parish during the
forthcoming winter, relaxed and agreed to allow them to occupy their
houses until next spring, if the heads of families undertook and signed
an agreement to emigrate any time next year, from the 1st of February to
the end of June. Some agreed to these conditions, but the majority
declined; and, in the circumstances, the people were permitted to go
back to their unroofed and ruined homes for a few months longer. Their
cattle were, however, mostly taken possession of, and applied to the
reduction of old arrears."
Four of the men were
afterwards charged with deforcing the officers, and sentenced at
Inverness Court of Justiciary each to four months' imprisonment. The
following year the district was completely and mercilessly cleared of
all its remaining inhabitants, numbering 603 souls. [A very full account
of these proceedings, written on the spot, appeared at the time in the
Inverness Courier, to which we are indebted for the above facts.] The
Sollas evictions did not satisfy the evicting craze which his lordship
afterwards so bitterly regretted. In 1851-53, he, or rather his trustee,
determined to evict the people from the villages of |
