Dear Sir

I am really Ashamed to Write you at this distance of Time After receiving your last friendly Letter. The confusion, disorder, Law-suits And Emigration in Which My Countrey men are Involved have Arrested our Whole attention at Least have so Shattered And disconcerted Every Serious peice of Study that tho I shoud have had Leasure I had difficulty Enough in Mustering together My thoughts, which were dissipated on different disagreeable Scenes. Our Emigrants from this Isles and some parts in the Neighbourhood Exceed six hundred And have Last week Employed one of their Number to fraught a couple of Vessels to Waft them over to N. Carolina a considerable deduction of Rents Which Sir Alexander Macdonald was pleased to make in favour of the Small Tennants hath stoped Several who meant to go and had he taken this step Earlier and begun with the Farmers of the first Class particularly with those of his own Tribe who thorow an Indulgence for Time Immemorial had more vigour and Spirit Left them, Matters at this time woud have worn a different face Upon his Estate but he surely hath begun where he ought to have Ended And I do not know but the same may have been the Case among other Proprietors, which if I do not fail much in Point of Sagacity will put a new set of Adventurers in Motion Next year, for some, of the people we call Gentlemen are so much offended at the ^preposterous preference given to Small Tennants, who in a Countrey void of Trade and Manufacture cannot stand Long, for they acquired their Litle stock in the Service, Only, of their More Opulent Neighbours, who as Standing Alone upon an Extensive grazing woud have raised more Catle, the staple of this Countrey, than a Cluster of Small people with throng families, Unassisted with the foggage And favour of an Obliging Neighbour — but Surely these litle men are more Passive to Every kind of order and whoever Means, Factor, Drover &c to take Any advantage of them will find them Much more Manageable than Others who had some sparks of ambition And Independance in their Constitution. If I take it right

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[] The Highland Estates shoud have been in a certain proportion parcelled out Among Great and Small Farmers. It is the former gave rise to the Later by being Employed in their Service and by the Countenance they Afterwards gave them — it was they Also keeped Up the Breed of black Catle, who will soon degenerate in the hands of the Later, thorow and Intire inability of grazing them properly, being Obliged to till the best Part of the Soil for the Subsistence of their Numerous families And thorow want of good Bulls which they will not be disposed to purchase from Others. This in a Litle time will affect the payment of Rents, the Education of Children And the Rise of Any of our people abroad who know their Meeting with good Success Supported And Assisted Many of their Friends and Relations at home." Something of this too much.

Our people do not keep regular Registers of their Parishioners. By the best Information I coud pick up the Isle of Sky with the Adjacent Small Isles Rum, Egg, Canna & Isle of Mūck contains at present about 12800 Souls tho Captain Salt ^Late of Skeltons Regiment told me about a Couple of years after the Last Rebellion that they came Up to fifteen thousand for he caused the Numbers to be taken in the different Parishes when he was Stationed here. I take the decrease to be owing to a Course of bad years And to their fears from the Late Augmentation of Rents which affected their Minds rather than their pūrses and put them Upon Looking after a more benign Climate — It is to the same Course our Clergy Impute the decrease in Marriages & Christenings, as it is owing to the same cause that by the Loss & Sale of black Catle they at Least come one fourth Short of their Numbers in the year 1769. Some years ago it was computed that five or six thousand Cows were annually driven to Market from Sky but among these were some Catle from Uist And the Sale of the Stock of our Adventurers to America, keeps still Up to Something Like that Number but the dealers in Catle Suppose that in a Litle time the Numbers will become fewer And Worse.

I am informed by the Principal dealer in Kelp among Us that the Annual produce in that Article doth not in Sky Much Exceed 215 tuns. In North Uist Sir Alex^r Macdonald Part of the Long Island they Annually Manufacture about 700 tuns And As much on Clan Ranalds part of it & Barra. I know nothing of Lewis And Harris. I have Also got a Note out of the Factor's books of the Multūre

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[] Paid by the Milns in Sky to the Several Land Lords and Judging by this Standard, by the Portions Allowed the Millars themselves And takeing for grantd beside, according to the Judgement of a Sagacious Farmer that a hundred Bolls are annually grinded without Paying Any Multure at all to the poor and others; I conclude that the Annual produce of the Island may be something about 8986 bolls two ferlets one peck. There is no Certain Rule to go by in computeing What of our Corns are Laid out Upon our Cows And horses, if I was to form a conjecture I woud not Exceed four hundred bolls one year with another. potatoes are Lately so carefully Cultivated in his Island that they Serve the common people at Least a quarter of a Year in Stead of bread — the Exhalations from the Western Ocean which break down in Showers & Storms from the Summits of our hills, Cullin in Particular in the Month of September or beginnig of October is Surely the Cause of our frequent Scarcity And to the Poverty of the People the Shortness of their Leases And the Uncertainty in Which they hovered About three or four Years back.

A friend promised to send me Some sort of draught of the Anait but I have not yet received it, if it be worth the sending you will have it but if I mistake not you ^may Make it out from the description I sent you which was Exact And Particular.

I wish you health & happyness And Am with much Esteem
Dr Sir
Your very Obedient And Very humble Sert

Don: Macqueen

Kilmuir in Sky
June 23^d
1773.

I Shoud perhaps have observed above that the Westerly ^wind blows more frequently here than the Other Winds taken together. I heard an Old Farmer account for it in this way: that the Skies are Supported by four Pillars And that Hercules to Shew his Strength put^ing his Shoulders to the Western one, removed it a Litle out of its place And there by the Skies which he took for Something Like the roof of a house, inclining that way was the reason ^was Obvious Why So Many drops & blasts came from that act. —

Kelp-making

The Kelp Manufacturers raise What they call a Kiln near the Shore. It is 12 feet Long 4 wide And 3 feet high in the wall which is of Stone, faced on the out Side with turf that Neither wind or rain May get into it. When the Sea-Ware which they cut with Sharing hooks
turn over

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[] Is dryed before the Sun they burn it within this Inclosure And Spread the Ware regularly in this fiery furnace with a two pronged fork. When it is Sufficiently burnt into Ashes they work it backwards And forwards with an Iron Like a Garden how And then Only it runs into a Liquid Substance Like Melted glass Which When it cools becomes very hard. Thus they continue their Operation by puting in one Layer After Another Untill the Kiln is filled up And hen they cover it Close with turf that the Air or rain may have no access to it thro Any Crevice for the One or the Other would Soon Moulder it Away. Adieu.

M^r Macqueen.

M^r Macqueen
Numbers.
migrations. Kelp

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