During the last week of July 1840 a full rigged ship and a brig left Loch Snizort for Prince Edward Island. The ship contained 400 people and the brig 200. The brig crossed in 31 days while the ship, due to poor navigation and loosing its way, took 8 weeks. During the journey 9 passengers died on board the ship and four or five babies were born.

On 6th July 1841 the 1660 ton sailing ship "Washington" with a compliment of 850 passengers departed Skye from Uig Bay. (This was the largest sailing vessel ever to enter Uig). The majority of passengers were from Snizort, Kilmuir and the east side of Skye. The crossing was completed in a record 22 days, arriving in Charlottetown, PEI on 28th July. Morning and evening worship was held on the Sabbath Day. It is also recorded "most families kept family worship regularly each day". Only two people died on this journey.

On 26th June 1841 the bark "Ocean" left Portree with 450 passengers, the majority of whom were from the Isle of Raasay. The journey to Charlottetown PEI took 36 days. The fare was £3.00 sterling with children under 12 travelling for half price. No deaths are recorded, but two children were born en route.

These journeys, were for the age, reIatively normal. However, all were not so fortunate. On other crossings smallpox broke out on board and even after enduring the rigours of such a journey the whole ships company found themselves confined in tents on the shores of their "new world" until the disease had subsided. Hundreds more never set foot on the soil of this their promised land. The devastating effect on local communities in Skye is summed up by one historian "An emigrant ship would call into one of the lochs by night, and, next morning a whole township would be tenantless, it's inhabitants having embarked to seek fortune beyond the seas". Many other ships proceeded and followed these recorded above. One of the first was "The Alexander" , which sailed to Prince Edward Island from South Uist, in 1772, with 210 passengers. "The Polly", "The Dykes" and "The Oughton" disembarked some 800 Skye folk at Charlottetown, PEI, about 1803. "The Polly" was commanded by Captain Neil MacLeod of Glaskvin, Isle of Skye. A relative of Neil MacLeod, Captain John MacLeod of Rona was Captain of "The Ocean". On "The Ocean" in 1835 were many of John MacLeod's relatives including those of ,"his wife, the MacLeod's of Raasay, those of his mother, the Munro's of Kilmuir (Skye), his grandmother's relatives, the MacQueen's of Lochaber, his cousins Norman, Donald, James, Angus, John and Neil MacLeod; His Clansfolk, the MacLennans of Fladda Isle, the MacKenzies, the MacLeans, the MacPhees, Gillies, Beatons, Martins, Matnesons, Morrisons and Nicholsons from Rona, Raasay and even from the Braes of Portree."

Among these emigrants were a "considerable number who had been, converted under the preaching of such men as Roderick MacLeod, (Snizort) and Dr MacDonald (Ferintosh)".

Many of those who came to a living faith as a result of revival in Skye during the early 1800's, were among those who subsequently emigrated. A brief glance at available historical records clearly reveals the impact made by these Skye missionaries.

Alexander Munro, known as Alasdair Mor na h'urnuigh ( Big Alexander of the Prayers), was born at Kilmuir, Skye in 1774. He was a cousin of the famed blind Donald Munro.

Alexander, who was Schoolmaster at Ferinilea, Bracadale, from May 1821 to November 1832 and catechist for the Society for Propagation of Christian Knowledge, emigrated to Prince Edward Island in 1842. Not only did Alexander Munro become a teacher and leader in his new homeland but also organised a Church and preached in it.

At least two of Alexander's sons (he had ten children), Thomas Boston Munro (aged 23) and John (aged 19) had emigrated two years earlier on the Brig "Ruther"*. Both became teachers and preachers in their adopted homeland. Thomas subsequently left Prince Edward Island in 1874 with one Donald MacDonald. These men and their families moved to Schuyler, Kansas, USA, where, it is recorded " Among the flood of immigrants then pouring into Nebraska, they played an honourable part, and many Churches and Schools in that state are living monuments to the unselfish labour, timely interest, and zeal of the two well educated Skye men, Donald MacDonald and Thomas Boston Munro, and their respective wives and families". Thomas Munro's son George, subsequently became a Congregational minister in Nebraska, where he died in 1914.

Prior to leaving Skye, MacLeod had actively espoused Baptist principals. As a result the School Board summonsed him and required him to resign. MacLeod is reputed to have been sitting on his own chair during the interview and at the end said, "I am more independent than His Majesty, our King. If he is dethroned he must leave his throne behind, but I take mine with me". As he boarded the "Mary Kennedy" the chair was on his shoulder!

There were at least eighty-four family heads on board the Mary Kennedy. They arrived on June 1st and settled in an area of the Selkirk Estate which was later called Lyndale. They named the District Uigg! Samuel subsequently married another immigrant, one Margaret Curry from Mull.

History records of this 1829 group - "Their heritage of piety persisted undiminished for several generations". Although the majority were noted as "rigid Calvinists" it is also recorded that a small group of MacDonalds, MacLeods, Gordons, Munros and others, were Baptists. It was to the latter group that Samuel MacLeod belonged. He subsequently became the Pastor of this small Church.

Despite the fact that it was a small Church their influence was profound. In the book Skye Pioneers and "The Island", written about 1930, it is recorded :- " So far reaching was the influence of this small Baptist group in Uigg, that neighbours of other denominations testify that throughout their lives they have held the Baptist Church in especial veneration and reverence owing to the irreproachable lives and blameless character of this small group in Uigg assembled about their kinsmen and beloved Pastor, the Rev Samuel MacLeod".

Another Baptist minister, Rev Donald Gordon MacDonald, born in Prince Edward Island in 1843 and later of Vancouver, Canada gave the following testimony regarding Samuel MacLeod and the small Church at Uigg:-

"To say he was a man of outstanding natural ability is no exaggeration. His learning and wisdom were profound; his character irreproachable; his influence widespread; his example wholesome and contagious. In all my experience of eighty-six years of life, I look back on the character of Rev Samuel MacLeod as one of the most potent and significant things I have met. In speaking of him less than justice would be done were I to refrain from paying, in my own declining years, a final tribute to the memory of the group - the small Uigg group - of MacLeods, Gordons and MacDonalds, who constitute in themselves perhaps the highest expression of the human family that it has been my privilege to know".

On one occasion two serious minded boys were discussing the day of Judgement. One said to the other "Where would you like to be on The day of Judgement?" "Inside Samuel MacLeod" was the prompt reply. Samuel died in 1881 aged 85 years.

Such testimony could no doubt be repeated of many Skye men and women who, together, formed the missionary band that left these shores for the "New World" during the early to mid 1800's.

 However, this drift from native shores had a negative effect on home Churches. Most of the members of the Uig, Skye, Baptist Church emigrated to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. In 1841 alone eight members from the Uig Church and eight from the Broadford Church boarded two emigrant ships at anchor in Loch Snizort. In 1831 the then minister William Fraser, himself emigrated to Breadalbane, Glengarry Co, Ontario. Despite these negative circumstances the Uig Baptist Church still saw congregations of between 100 - 200 in the 1850's. At the Broadford Baptist Church, despite thirty baptisms in 1836/37 the membership actually dropped to twenty. There can be little doubt that subsequent revival movements accounted for the fact that by 1844 membership had increased to sixty-three.

Presbyterian Churches suffered in a similar manner but due to their much stronger numerical base, they weathered the emigration storm with less disastrous consequences.

For the smaller independent Churches the long term effect of emigration and other factors resulted in their quietly slipping from the scene. Today only the brick and mortar of the Broadford Baptist Chapel remains as a witness to a once thriving missionary movement on the Island.