Matheson Collection > Macleods of Dunvegan from the time of Leod to the end of the seventeenth century

140 THE MACLEODS OF DUNVEGAN
It is as a clear-sighted statesman that he stands
out pre-eminent among the distinguished Chiefs who
have ruled over the clan. I think that, even early in his
life, he realised how dreadful was the state of anarchy
into which the Highlands had fallen, and saw that the
only chance for his country lay in submission to the
King, and in obedience to the law, and that in all his
actions between 1597 and 1609 he was doing, not what
he wanted to do, but what he was forced to do by
circumstances.
The Act of 1597, which ordered him to produce title
deeds, which were possibly not in his possession, made
him a rebel in spite of himself. He could not refuse to
support his brother-in-law, whom he believed to be the
rightful Chief of the Lewes branch of his clan. The
notarial instrument at Dunvegan, which supplies some
proof that Torquil Connanach was not really the son of
Rory of the Lewes, was very likely sent to him to con-
vince him of the justice of his brother-in-law's claim ;
and its presence in the charter chest implies that he
had gone into the question, and made up his mind
on the subject. It was impossible for him to over-
look the meditated insult offered to him by Donald
Gorme. Had he done so he would have been an
object of contempt and derision throughout all the
Highlands.
During these years, controlled by the force of circum-
stances, he was, in my opinion, acting against his own
better judgment.
In 1609 he got his chance to show the great qualities
of statesmanship which he really possessed. To him
more than to any other man, except the Bishop of the
Isles, and possibly Sir Roderick MacKenzie of Coigeach,
the rapid pacification of the Highlands is, as I think,
due, and we, his clansmen and descendants, may find an
honest pride that it was our clan which produced the