 In 1827 , when giving evidence to a government select committee on emigration , an agent of Maclean of Coll was asked " And were the people willing to go ? " " Some of them " , came the reply , " Others were not very willing , they did not like to leave the land of their ancestors " . Years later an eyewitness , a local shepherd , was more forthcoming in his description of the events : " The people of the island were carried off in one mass , for ever , from the sea @-@ girt spot where they were born and bred ... The wild outcries of the men and heart @-@ breaking wails of the women and children filled all the air between the mountainous shore of the bay " . 
