letter to the ground-officer, was that on which their houses were pulled about their ears, to make way for the large farmers to whom their crofts were let". They had been moved to infertile land; their crops were small or blighted, and they had been living on relief. When the Destitution Board had ceased operation, Gordon had taken over relief, but with inferior and unpalatable meal. They had not been evicted from the island; indeed Gordon's factor had refused them any assistance to leave the island – not even any meal for the journey. They were, however, convinced that Gordon was deliberately trying to "disgust them into" leaving. (In contrast to the treatment they had had from Gordon and his agents, they had reached Inverness through multiple kindnesses: An Irish merchant on Barra had given them provisions; the captain of a Board of Northern Lights lighthouse tender had kindly taken them to Tobermory; the townsfolk of Tobermory had fed them, lodged them, and given them money to pay their fare to Oban; the captain of the Tobermory–Oban packet had refused payment; the people of Oban "had outdone those of Tobermory in generosity"; and so on.) In 1851, the Parochial Board of Barra reported that over half the population wished to emigrate if only they had the means. In May, they told the Board of Supervision that they did not have the funds to continue relief to the able-bodied poor – the Board wrote back to say it was their responsibility to do so. Gordon chartered ships and offered free passage to Quebec to his tenants in Barra and South Uist (and to those recently evicted). About 1,700 people availed themselves of the offer, but on arrival at Quebec some members of the last shipload signed a statement that they had been induced to emigrate by promises by their landlord (free onward passage to Upper Canada, guaranteed work, the possibility of free land grants) which they now found were illusory. They said twenty of those on the ship had wanted to change their mind about emigrating, but had been dragooned onto the ship by Gordon's factor and a police constable. The emigrants arrived on board half-starving and half-naked (some children were naked: "Many children of nine and ten years old had not a rag to cover them. Mrs Crisp the wife of the master of ... [the ship] ... was employed