meal, or what would be adequate to the support of the population for about two months; whilst even then there were families who did not possess so many pecks of meal as there were persons in them." Consequently, the islanders became dependent on the benevolence of others to an extraordinary extent: in 1850, 1,965 of a population of 2,300 received relief. Gordon attempted to consolidate small crofts into larger holdings better able to support their tenants (his version) or to reduce the number of destitute islanders he would have to support (the view taken by his critics). Some Barra islanders appeared, penniless, ragged, and unable to speak English, on the streets of Glasgow just before Christmas 1850 . The tale told on their behalf was that they were only a small part of 132 families evicted from their holdings in May 1850; they squatted on waste land only to be evicted when relief operations ceased in September 1850. They excited public sympathy and Gordon became the target of criticism in Scottish newspapers for having them removed first from their homes and secondly from the island of their birth; the criticism intensified when he indicated he had no intention of assisting them. Gordon denied that he had had anybody evicted "at this inclement time of year" and denied all knowledge of why they had left Barra; he would welcome further enquiry, as it would show the truth of the matter. He replied to criticism by letting it be known that, prior to the evictions, he had cooperated with the Relief Committee, given them £1000, and spent nearly £2300 in relieving distress in the island; he declared himself willing to lay out more money if anyone could show him where it might effect lasting good. The Barra islanders who reached Glasgow do not appear to have given interviews to journalists (and were subsequently claimed by the Barra Parochial Board to have left Barra in July and to be known bad characters). A subsequent party arrived at Inverness and talked to a Gaelic-speaking journalist, giving an account which was markedly different but not significantly more favourable to Gordon. The Inverness party said they had been moved from their crofts two to three years ago: "Ejectments were made illegally. No summonses of removal were served, nor any steps taken before the judge ordinary, or any other. The bare authority of Colonel Gordon, in a