'220 TRANSACTIONS OF THK CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. I. 



Malcolm Macpherson makes a declaration that his brother gave Mac- 

 pherson a quarto Gaelic manuscript of poems, i^ inches thick. Sir 

 Adam Ferguson saw manuscripts stained with smoke in Macpherson's 

 possession. Rev. Dr. Cameron and four other Catholic clergymen make 

 a very important declaration. They say that Rev. John Farquharson, 

 lately prefect of studies in the College of Douay, was, in his youth, a mis- 

 sionary in Strathglass in Invernesshire, that he commenced to collect 

 Gaelic poetry before 1745 ; that he filled a folio volume three inches thick; 

 that all these gentlemen saw it in his possession from 1763 to 1777 ; that 

 Macpherson's translation was sent to him at Douay ; that Mr. McGilvray, 

 one of the declarants, saw it there in 1777, tattered and torn, tossed 

 about by the students who knew nothing of its value, and who tore leaves 

 off it to light their fires. Bishop Cameron thought that it was destroyed 

 when the Revolutionary army carried off the papers of the College. 



From all the evidence it is highly probable that Macpherson found 

 manuscripts, of which we know nothing, which he may have changed and 

 modernized in many respects and placed together, supplying the links, as 

 did Rev. Dr. Smith. He may have destroyed the original in his posses- 

 sion for some reason unknown to us. It may also be observed that we 

 have not these poems even as Macpherson left them ; for the Highland 

 Society, in appointing Rev. Thomas Ross to edit them, instructed him to 

 conform the orthography to the system used in the translation of the 

 Scriptures. The longer poems appear to have been made up of shorter 

 ones by Macpherson or some preceding poet. There are portions that 

 seem the creations of some great genius, while other parts are common- 

 place. The ground work or subject matter of the poems is admitted by 

 the ablest opponents of Macpherson's claims to be extremely ancient, and 

 portions contain legends and myths common to the whole Aryan world. 

 There are poems, such as the " Battle of Gabhra," in some versions 

 called the " Death of Oscar," which have been found current 

 among the most illiterate people in various parts of Scotland. 

 A copy was printed by Gillies in 1786 ; 286 lines were taken down 

 from recitation in the Isle of Skye ; 2 versions are printed in the Dean 

 of Lismore's book ; and a version was found in Ireland and printed by 

 Miss Brooke. This is believed to have been a real battle fought more 

 than thirteen hundred years ago, and it forms the subject matter of a 

 considerable part of Macpherson's " Temora." 



John F. Campbell and Hector McLean. 



Just one hundred years (i860) after the tour of James Macpherson to 

 the Highlands, John F. Campbell and Hector McLean, both of the Island 



