In 1827, when giving evidence to a government select committee on emigration, an agent of the laird 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 florid 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"".