The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAi'. IX] OF SCOTLAND 355
rendered it admirably adapted for concealment. Here for two
days they succeeded in eluding the search of the Macleods,
which was pursued with ineffectual industry, until at length
their retreat was discovered in consequence of their impatience
they refused to
having led them to send forth a scout ; when
surrender themselves to the pleasure of the Macleod, he caused
the stream of water which fell over the entrance of the cave
to be turned aside ; and having caused all the combustibles
to be found on the island, had them piled up against the
entrance, and so furious a fire maintained for many hours
that every creature within was suffocated ; thus, at one blow,
exterminating the entire population of the island. This atrocity
was one of the worst instances arising out of the feuds which
at that period distracted the whole Highlands, and by which
one family rose upon the ruins of another.
The possessions and power of the Macleods appear to have
been very much increased by Sir Rorie More Macleod, and it
was during his life that the rival family of Lewis became
extinct,— a circumstance which, as it removed the division and
disagreement hitherto existing in the clan, also tended to render
the family of still greater influence. During the civil wars of
the seventeenth century, the Macleods joined the royal army
with seven hundred men, and took an active share in all the
campaigns of that period ;
but
when the clans again took arms
in support of the cause of that family, the Macleods were
induced, by the persuasion and active urgency of the Laird of
Culloden, to abstain from taking any share in that insurrection,
and while their presence would not probably have altered the
ultimate result, they thereby escaped
of the period.
Artns.
the numerous forfeitures
Az. a castle triple towered and embattled, or, masoned sa. windows
and port, gu.
Badoc.
Red whortle-berries.
Principal Seat.
Glenelg.
Oldest Cadet.
Macleod of Lewis, now represented by Macleod of Rasay.