AN GAIDHEAL 'SA LEANNAN.

With Spirit.

.

Chionn gu'm beil gach gleann na fhas- ach, Theid mi fein 's mo Mhairi thair is. Chorus.

Theid i 's gu'n teid i leam, Leam-sa gu'n teid mo lean - nan, Theid i 's gun teid i leam.

| m, Chorus.

.f. : S1 sm., f s 1 s m : r d d

rm.r |

| d :m,.s, 1, ., s, : s, | m :r.fs., f: m.r│d:m,.s, | 1, ., s, : s‚ \l

Theid i leam á Tìr nam Fraoch-bheann,

Oir tha daoin' air dol á fasan.

Siùbhlaidh sinn á tìr ar dùthchais,
'Cur ar cùlaobh ris na beannaibh.

Theid i leam a null air sàl do
Thir's an dean an Gaidheal beartas.

Ach ged robh gach là 'na Shámhradh,
Chaoidh bi Tir nam Beann air m' aire.

As mu'n cairear anns an ùir sinn
'S i mo dhùrachd tilleadh dhachaidh ;

Chum 's gu'n tòrrar mise 's m' annsachd

'N Tir nam Beann, nan Gleann, 's nan Gaisgeach.

NOTE.-The above air is deservedly popular in the North-West Highlands. Mr J. A. Robertson, Inverness, agreed to sing it at the last annual assembly of the Gaelic Society; but unfortunately, I could only remember the chorus of the song, and some efforts to get the original, or any words, were unsuccessful. In order that the air might not be lost to the meeting for want of words, I strung together the above rhymes (retaining the old familiar chorus); and at the request of several parties, who were delighted with the manner in which Mr Robertson sang the song, it is given here.-W. M'K.

THE

CELTIC MAGAZINE.

No. XXXV.

SEPTEMBER 1878.

VOL. III.

HISTORY OF THE CLAN MACKENZIE,

WITH GENEALOGIES OF THE PRINCIPAL FAMILIES.
BY THE EDITOR.

[CONTINUED.]

XIII. COLIN "RUADH," second LORD MACKENZIE OF KINTAIL, afterwards created first Earl of Seaforth, was a minor only fourteen years of age when he succeeded his father. The estates were left heavily burdened in consequence of the long-continued wars with Glengarry and other demands upon Lord Kenneth, who acted prudently in such circumstances to appoint his brother, Sir Roderick Mackenzie of Coigeach, in whose judgment he placed the utmost confidence, tutor to his son and successor, Lord Colin. Sir Roderick, however, knowing the state of affairs-financial difficulties staring him in the face-while the family were at the time much involved with the conquest of the Lews and other broils on the mainland, hesitated to accept the great responsibilities of the position, but, to use the words of the Laird of Applecross, "all others refusing to take the charge he set resolutely to the work. The first thing he did was to assault the rebels in the Lews, which he did so suddenly, after his brother's death, and so unexpectedly to them, that what the Fife adventurers had spent many years, and much treasure in without success, he, in a few months, accomplished; for having by his youngest brother Alexander, chased Neill, the chief commander of all the rest, from the Isle, pursued him to Glasgow, where, apprehending him, he delivered him to the Council, who executed him immediately. He returned to the Lews, banished those whose deportment he most doubted, and settled the rest as peaceable tenants to his nephew; which success he had, with the more facility, because he had the only title of succession to it by his wife, and they looked on him as their just master. From thence he invaded Glengarry, who was again re-collecting his forces; but at his coming they dissipate and fled. He pursued Glengarry to Blairy in Moray, where he took him; but willing to have his nephew's estate settled with conventional right rather than legal, he took low countrymen as sureties for Glengarry's peaceable deportment, and then contracted with him for the reversion of the former wadsets, which Colin of Kintail had acquired of him, and for a ratification and new disposition of all his lands, formerly sold to Colin, and paid him thirty thousand merks in money for

this, and gave him a title to Lagganachindrom, which, till then, he possessed by force, so that Glengarry did ever acknowledge it as a favour to be overcome by such enemies, who over disobligements did deal both justly and generously. Rorie employed himself therefore in settling his pupil's estate, which he did to that advantage, that ere his minority passed, he freed his estate, leaving him master of an opulent fortune and of great superiorities, for he acquired the superiority of Troternish, with the heritable stewarty of the Isle of Skye, to his pupil, the superiority of Raasay and some other Isles. At this time, Macleod, partly by law and partly by force, had possessed himself of Sleat and Troternish, a great part of Macdonald's estate. Rory, now knighted by King James, owned Macdonald's cause, as an injured neighbour, and by the same method that Macleod possessed himself of Sleat and Troternish, he recovered both from him, marrying the heir thereof, Sir Donald Macdonald, to his neice, sister to Lord Colin, and caused him to take the lands of Troternish, holden of his pupil. Shortly after that, he took the management of Maclean's estate, and recovered it from the Earl of Argyle, who had fixed a number of debts and pretences on it, so by his means all the Isles were composed, and accorded in their debates and settled in their estates whence a full peace amongst them, Macneill of Barra excepted, who had been an hereditary outlaw. Him, by commission, Sir Rory reduced, took him in his fort of Kisemull, and carried him prisoner to Edinburgh, where he procured his remission. The King gifted his estate to Sir Rory, who restored it to Macneill for a sum not exceeding his expenses, and holding it of himself in feu. This Sir Rory, as he was beneficial to all his relations, establishing them in free and secure fortunes, he purchased considerable lands to himself in Ross and Moray, besides the patrimony left him by his father, the lands of Coigeach and others, which, in lieu of the Lews, were given him by his brother. His death was regretted as a public calamity, which was in September 1626, in the 48th year of his age. To Sir Rory succeeded Sir John Mackenzie of Tarbat; and to him Sir George Mackenzie, of whom to write might be more honour to him than of safety to the writer as matters now stand."

Sir Roderick Mackenzie of Coigeach was very determined and extremely fertile in schemes to enable him to gain any object he had in view. One of these, in connection with Mackenzie's final possession of the Lews, almost equalled the Raid of Cilliechriost in all its most abhorrent details of conception and execution, though the actual result was different; and for that we cannot give credit to the Tutor of Kintail. Neil Macleod, with his nephews, Malcolm, William, and Roderick, the three sons of Roderick Og, the four sons of Torquil Blair, and thirty of their more determined and desperate followers, retired, on Kintail's taking possession of the whole Island of Lews, to the impregnable rock of Berrissay, at the back of the island, to which Neil, as a precautionary measure, hatl been, for some years previously, sending provisions and other necessaries in case of future necessity. They held out on this rock for three years, and in their impregnable position were a source of great annoyance to the Tutor and his followers. While stationed on a little rock opposite, and within shot of, Berrissay, Neil killed one of the Tutor's followers named Donald MacDhonnchaidh Mhic Ian Ghlais,

and wounded another called Tearlach MacDhomh'uill Roy Mhic Fhionnlaidh Ghlais. This exasperated their leader so much, and all other means having failed to oust Neil Macleod from his impregnable position, that the Tutor conceived the inhuman scheme of gathering together the wives and children of all those who were in Berrissay, as also all those in the island who were in any way related to them by blood or marriage affinity, and having placed them on a rock in the sea during low water, so near Berrissay that Neil and his companions could see and hear them, Sir Roderick and his men avowed that they would leave those innocent creatures -women and children-on the rock until they were overwhelmed by the sea and drowned on the return of the flood tide, if Neill and his companions did not instantly surrender the stronghold of Berrissay. He, no doubt, knew by stern experience, that even in such an atrocious deed, the promise of the Tutor, once given, was as good as his bond. It is due to the greater humanity of Neil that this fearful position of his helpless countrymen and relations appalled him so much that he immediately yielded up the rock on condition that he and his followers were allowed to leave the Lews. It is impossible to think otherwise, were it not for Macleod's yielding, than that this villanous and ferocious crime would have been committed by the Clan Mackenzie; and their descendants have to thank the humanity of their enemies for saving them from the commission of an act which would have secured them the deserved execration of posterity. After Neil had given up the rock he went privately, under silence of night, to his relative Macleod of Harris. The Tutor learning this caused him to be charged, under pain of treason and forfeiture, to deliver Neil up to the Council. Macleod finding himself in such an awkward position prevailed upon Neil to accompany him, taking his son along with them to Edinburgh to seek forgiveness from the king; but under pretence of this he delivered them both up on arriving in that city, where Neil was, in April 1613, at once executed, and his son was banished out of the kingdom. The conduct of Macleod of Harris can hardly be commended; but it was, perhaps, a fair return for a piece of treachery of the same kind of which Neil had been guilty some little time previously. He met with the captain of a pirate while he was on Berrissay, with whom he entered into a mutual bond to help each other, both being outlaws. The captain was to defend the rock from the seaward while Neil made his incursions on shore, and they promised faithfully to live and die together; but to make the agreement more secure the captain must marry Neil's aunt, a daughter of Torquil Blair. The day fixed for the marriage having arrived; and having discovered that the captain possessed several articles of value aboard his ship, Neil and his adherents, when the captain was naturally most completely off his guard, treacherously seized the ship and all on board, and sent the captain and his crew off to Edinburgh, thus thinking to secure his own peace as well as whatever was in the ship. They were all hanged at Leith by order of the Council. Much of the silver and gold Neil carried to Harris, where probably it may have helped to tempt Macleod, as it had before tempted himself in the case of the captain, to break faith with Neil.

In 1614, when the Tutor was busily engaged with the Island of Lews, dissensions sprung up between different branches of the Camerons, insti

gated by the rival claims of the Marquis of Huntly and the Earl of Argyll. The latter had won over the aid of Allan Mac Dhomhnuill Duibh, Chief of the Clan Cameron, while Huntly had secured the support of Erracht, Kinlochiel, and Glen Nevis, and, by force, placed these in possession of the lands belonging to the Chief's adherents who supported Argyll. Allan, however, managed to deal out severe retribution on his enemies, who were commanded by Lord Enzie, the Marquis's eldest son, and, as is quaintly said, "teaching ane lesson to the rest of kin that are alqui in what form they shall carry themselves to their chief hereafter." Huntly, however, obtained orders from the king to suppress these violent proceedings, and called out all his Majesty's loyal vassals to join him. Kintail and the Tutor submitted the difficulties and trials they had in reducing the Lews to good order and peaceable government, and they were exempted from joining Huntly's forces by a special commission from the king. Closely connected as it is with the final settlement of this island, which, Scott says, "was a principality itself," in the possession of the House of Kintail, we shall place it before the reader :

"James Rex,-James, by the grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, to all and sundry our lieges, and subjects whom it effeirs to whose knowledge this our letters shall come greeting. For as much as we have taken great pains and travails, and bestoun great charge and expense for reducing the Isles of our kingdom to our obedience. And the same Isles being now settled in a reasonable way of quietness, and the chieftains thereof having come in and rendered their obedience to us; there rests none of the Isles rebellious, but only the Lews, which being inhabited by a number of godless and lawless people, trained up from their youth in all kinds of ungodliness. They can hardly be reclaimed from their impurities and barbarities, and induced to embrace a quiet and peaceable form of living; so that we have been constrained from time to time to employ our cousin, the Lord Kintail, who rests with God, and since his decease the Tutor of Kintail his brother, and other friends of that House in our service against the rebels of the Lews, with ample commission and authority to suppress their insolence and to reduce that island to our obedience, which service has been prosecuted and followed this diverse years by the power, friendship, and proper service of the House of Kintail, without any kind of trouble and charge or expense to us, or any support or relief from their neighbours; and in the prosecution of that service, they have had such good and happy success, as divers of the rebels have been apprehended and execute by justice. But seeing our said service is not yet fully accomplished, nor the Isle of the Lews settled in a solid and perfect obedience, we have of late renewed our former commission to our cousin Colin, now Lord of Kintail, and to his Tutor and some other friends of his house, and they are to employ the hale power and service in the execution of the said commission, whilk being a service emporting highly our honour, and being so necessary and expedient for the peace and quiet of the whole islands, and for the good of our subjects, haunting the trade of fishing in the Isles, the same ought not to be interrupted upon any other intervening occasion, and our commissioners and their friends ought not to be distracted therefrae for giving of their concurrence in our services.