Ossian Collection > Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Ossian

r.IACPHERSON's DECLARATION-. 55-
seventy-three years, who declares, That he is a native of
Badenoch, where, in his youth, he was acquainted with
the late Mr James I\Iacpherson, the translator of the
poems of Ossian : That the declarant having come, about
the year I7o0, to this country from the opposite coast of
Knoydart to pay a visit to the late Doctor John Macpher-
son, then minister of this parish, he happened to meet
there his old acquaintance ]Mr James Macpherson, who
waa then employed in collecting the poems of Ossian, the
son of Fingal : That as jNIr Macpherson did not know the
Gaelic orthography so well as the declarant, who could
read the Gaelic character, which was anciently used by
xhe Scotch and Irish Gaels, the Doctor and Mr Macpher-
son urged the declarant very much to accompany the latter
10 the Long island, for the purpose of committing to papec
the recitations of persons ihey might find, who could re-
peat any of the said poems : That the declarant endea-
voured to excuse himself, through a reluctance to be absent
from his charge; but was importuned so exceedingly, that
he agreed to go as far as Dunvegan ; but when he reached
that place, he was in a m.anner compulsively obliged by
Colonel Macleod of Talisker, and the late Mr Maclean of
Coll, to embark with Mr Macpherson for Uist on the
same pursuit : That they landed at Lochmaddy, and pro-
ceeded across the Muir to Benbecula, the seat of the
younger Clanranald : That on their way thither, they fell
in with a man whom they afterwards ascertained to have
been Mac Codrum the poet : That Mr Macpherson asked
him the question — " A bheil dad agad air an Fheinn?"
by which he m.eant to enquire, whether or not he knev/
any of the poems of Ossian relative to the Fingalians ;
but that the terms in which the question was asked, strict-
ly imported whether or not the Fingalians owed him any
thing ; and that Mac Codrum being a man of humour,
took advantage of the incorrectness or inelegance of tht;