under date of 5th July, 1593, that "Colin Mackenzie of Kintail being admitted of the Privy Council gave his oath," in common form. The great troubles in the Lewis, which ultimately ended in that extensive principality coming into the possession of the House of Kintail, commenced about this time, and although the most important events connected with and leading up to that great result will principally fall to be treated of later on, the quarrel having originated in Colin Cam's time, it may be more convenient to explain its origin under the present. Roderick Macleod, X. of the Lewis, married, first, Janet, a natural daughter of John Mackenzie of Killin, by whom he had a son, Torquil Cononach, so called from his having been brought up with his mother's relations in Strathconon. Roderick, by all accounts, was not so immaculate in his domestic relations as one might wish, for we find him having no fewer than five bastard sons, named respectively, Tormod Uigeach, Murdoch, Neil, Donald, and Rory Og, all of whom arrived at maturity. In these circumstances it can hardly be supposed that his lady's domestic happiness was of the most felicitous and unmixed description. It was alleged by this paragon of virtue that she had proved unfaithful to him, and that she had criminal intimacy with the Brieve (Breitheamh), or consistorial judge of the Island. On the other hand, it was maintained that the Brieve in his capacity of judge, had been somewhat severe on the Island chief for his reckless and immoral habits, and for his bad treatment of his lady and that the unprincipled villain, as throughout his whole career he proved himself to be, boldly, and in revenge, turned upon and accused the judge of committing adultery with his wife. Be that as it may, the unfortunate woman, attempting to escape from his cruel treatment, while passing in a large birlinn, from the Lewis to Coigeach, on the opposite side of the coast, was pursued and run down by some of her husband's followers, when she, with all on board, perished. Roderick thereupon disinherited her son, Torquil Cononach, grandson of John of Killin, maintaining that Torquil was not his legitimate son and heir, but the fruit of his wife's unfaithfulness. [Most of the MS. Histories of the family which we have perused state that Rory Macleod's wife was a daughter of Kenneth a Bhlair, but it is impossible that the daughter of a chief who died in 1491 could have been the wife of one who lived in the early years of the seventeenth Century. She must have been Kenneth's granddaughter, as above described, a daughter of John of Kuhn. This view is corroborated by a decree arbitral in 1554, in which Torquil Cononach is called the oy (ogha, or grandson) of John Mackenzie: Acts and Decreets of Session, X., folio 201. The Roderick Macleod who married, probably as his second wife, Agnes, daughter of Kenneth a Bhlair, was Roderick Macleod, seventh of Lewis, who died some time after his father early in the sixteenth