Knox wrote to the lawyer Thomas Hamilton explaining these events and his actions after accusations that his inaction and sloth had led to the capture of the castle by the MacDonalds. He said his negotiation for the castle's surrender had stalled, and he had found it difficult to hire boats to take him from Arran to Dunyvaig during the harvest time. The MacLeans and McLeods of Harris refused to serve with him, and he could raise no more than seventy men, of whom fifty were waged soldiers and twenty followers of the lairds of Ardincaple and Ranfurly. When he landed on Islay, lacking any further armed support, the Clan Donald of Islay, outmanoeuvred him and cut him off from his boats, which they looted and destroyed. The next day Knox was told he should surrender the two hostages or all his men would be executed. Knox noted that the MacDonalds had built a new fort in the loch. Some of his men had heard Angus Og MacDonald say he was working for the Earl of Argyll, who would give him the castle and the whole lands of Islay. Thomas Hamilton wrote to Knox, who was at Brodick Castle offering the services of the Earl of Caithness and his cannon, but noting it was too late in the year.