464. What is he?-He is just a merchant carrying on business
there, and he has stepped into the fishing. He sold goods before he
began to it.
465. Does he keep a shop at Lebidden?-Yes, for the fishermen;
and to sell to other people as well.
466. You engage to fish to him: is that for the summer fishing?-
Yes, chiefly; or for the whole season, if we can follow it up.
467. Do you go to the Faroe fishing for him?-No; only to the ling
fishing, in the six-oared boats.
468. What have you come here to say?-Chiefly, that we should
like to have our freedom. We have freedom at present; but we are
afraid of young Mr. Bruce taking the tack of the tenants into his
own hands. He got a lease of the tenants from his father last
season.
469. What did he get a lease of?-Of his father's premises at
Cunningsburgh.
470. Then he got a lease of the whole lands of Cunningsburgh?-
Yes, from his father. That was his statement the last time we
settled with him.
471. What did he say then?-He said he was prepared to settle
with the tenants, because he had got a lease from his father of the
lands.
472. But you say you have your freedom?-Yes, at present; but
we are doubtful if we can keep it, because young Mr. Bruce has
taken the tenants at the place where he is living himself-at
Dunrossness. He took the tenants there some three or four years
ago, and he has built a house; and both we and the merchant are
doubtful that he may take us into his own hand too. We rather
think we might be worse off if we were taken back.
473. What do you mean by being taken back?-I mean, if the
tenants were taken into his own hands again.
474. Have you any objection to the arrangement you have just now
with Mr. Thomas Tulloch?-We cannot complain of it, further
than that we don't know the price we are to get until we settle. We
never had any chance of knowing that from any merchant we ever
dealt with.
475. When do you arrange to go out to fish?-About the beginning
of May. In some years it may be a month or a fortnight earlier,
just as the weather is.
476. At that time do you make a bargain with Mr. Tulloch about
the fishing, to fish for him, during the whole season?-Yes. We
have so much confidence in him that we do not make any written
agreement; it is all done by word of mouth.
477. To whom do the boats belong that you go out in?-The boat I
go in is our own. It belongs to the crew.