Uncle Jaque, Sandy, I love your posts. I continue to learn. You really can't make up this sort thing, and I rather fancy there are thousand of other similar tales.

One whose outline only I am aware of is that of the Rev Norman McLeod, who started off from Assynt in Sutherland and ended up in New Zealand. They were starved out of one settlement in Nova Scotian and I understand even built their own ships for some of their voyages.

I have a feeling that the extraordinary experiences of some of these individuals, and communities, must be recorded in song in the oral tradition, in one language or another.   I just don't seem to have heard any. Anyone care to point me in the right direction?

SM