The travel writer Isabella Bird arrived in 1863 aboard the "Shamrock" receiving an "outrageous welcome" from the islanders, despite the fact that amongst the Gaelic-speaking locals only a few had "some very lame sentences in English". She wrote approvingly that her hosts were "well-dressed, cleanly and healthy looking" and of the "delicious cream, in large clean, wooden bowls." Duncan Sinclair, the only Protestant on the island purchased a Bible and there was much bartering and bargaining with the islanders paying for their purchases in dried fish. Bird concluded that the island was: