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

LETTERS TO DR. ELAIR. 21
7. From Mr Niel Macleod, Minister of Ross, dated
Ross in Mull, 22d January 17G4.
Rev. Dear Brother,
I received your flavour of
the 5th of October some time in November last, and I
would have acknowledged it long ago if I did not expect
to find more satisfactory answers to your enquiries than I
could give of myself. My copy of Fingal happened to be
borrowed by an acquaintance at a distance ; there was
some time lost before I could procure another, in a place
where there are but very few of them, and where tiie com-
munication, especially in the winter season, is not easy or
frequent. In the mean time, I employed Mr M'Tavisli,
minister of Morven, to whom you wrote, and who is
zealous to give you all the satisfaction in his power,
to transmit to you all that Mr Campbell of Octomore, an
aged gentleman in his neighbourhood, knows of these
poems of Ossian. This man assured me, that, in his
younger days, he heard Fingal repeated very frequently in
rhe original, just as Mr Macpherson has translated it. He
lived then In the island of Ila; I employed some of my
friends there to enquire whether this poem is still exant
there, but without success. I was informed also, that a
man w ho died in this island about fifteen years ago, had a.
•manuscript of the poems of Ossian. I wrote to a nephey/
of his, into whose hands that man's books and papers have
fallen, but have had no ansv/er hitherto. I soon will ; and
if this manuscript can be got, you shall have as particu-
lar an account of it as I can give you. I examined all tlie
persons in this or the other parishes in Mull, who have
any poems in Gaelic of Fingal, or his heroes. There are
still a great many of them handed down by tradition ; but
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