with Captain Benjamin Hallowell (afterwards Carew) [q. v.], and in the Warspite with Captain Sir Henry Blackwood [q. v.] From May to August 1816 he was in the Ville de Paris, the flagship of Lord Keith, in the Channel [see Elphinstone, George Keith, Viscount Keith], and in December 1815 was appointed to the Alceste frigate, then fitting to carry out Lord Amherst as ambassador to China [see Maxwell, Sir Murray]. McLeod continued in her during the whole voyage, in her examination of the northern waters, her visit to Loo-Choo and Canton, and when she was wrecked near Pulo Leat on 18 Feb. 1817, returning from Batavia with the other officers and the ship's company in the hired ship Caesar. On the way home he wrote, and published the same year, the 'Narrative of a Voyage in His Majesty's late Ship Alceste to the Yellow Sea, along the Coast of Corea, and through its numerous hitherto undiscovered Islands, to the Island of Lew-Chew, with an Account of her Shipwreck in the Straits of Gaspar' (1817, 8vo). The second edition, with a somewhat different title, was published in 1818, and a third, again with an altered title-page, in 1819.
On 4 July 1818, on the recommendation of Sir Gilbert Blane [q. v.] and James Wood, M.D., the university of St. Andrews conferred on him the degree of M.D. In July 1818 he was appointed surgeon of the Royal Sovereign yacht, and in the following year, encouraged by the success of his literary venture, he put together a short and pleasantly written account of his experiences as a slaver, which was published under the title of 'A Voyage to Africa, with some Account of the Manners and Customs of the Dahomian People,' 1820, 12mo. McLeod was still surgeon of the Royal Sovereign at his death, 8 Nov. 1820.
[Admiralty pay-lists in the Public Record Office; Nary Lists; Gent. Mag. 1820, pt. ii. p. 476; McLeod's works as above, more especially the Voyage to Africa; information kindly supplied by Mr. J. Maitland Anderson, the university librarian.]
MACLEOD, JOHN (1757–1841), presbyterian divine and Gaelic scholar, born in Skye in 1757, was educated at the Aberdeen University. Graduating in 1776, he was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Aberdeen in 1778. After assisting Principal Campbell in Aberdeen he became parish minister of Harris in 1779. In 1795 he was made a D.D. of Aberdeen, and prior to 1804 was appointed deputy-lieutenant of the county of Inverness. In 1805 he was transferred to Kilmodan, Argyllshire, in 1809 to Kilmarnock, and in 1816 to Dundonald, Ayrshire, where he died 6 Feb. 1841. He took a deep interest in education in the highlands, and after having been superintendent of the schools in Glenelg of the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge, he was elected by the general assembly of the church of Scotland in 1816 one of the committee appointed to publish a Gaelic bible for pulpit use. The work, completed mostly under his superintendence, was published in Edinburgh in 1826. He was also the general editor of the 'Gaelic Dictionary' (2 vols.) published by the Highland Society of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1828. He is author of the article on Harris in Sir John Sinclair's 'Statistical Account of Scotland,' x. 342-92.
[Hew Scott's Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ, ii. 113, 176, iii. 24, 139; Gent. Mag. 1841, pt. i. p. 549; Reid's Bibliotheca Scoto-Celtica; Introduction to Highland Soc.'s Gaelic Dict.]
MACLEOD, MARY (1569–1674), Gaelic poetess, called 'poetess of the Isles,' and in Gaelic 'Mairi Nighean Alasdair Ruaidh,' born in 1569 at Rowdil, Harris, was daughter of Red Alastair, and through him connected with the chiefs of the Macleods. In one of her poems she claims to have nursed five lairds of the Macleods and two lairds of Applecross. Most of her life was spent at Dunvegan, Skye, but at one time she was exiled by her chief to Mull for being too profuse in her praise of his relative, Sir Norman Macleod of Bernera [q. v.] She was afterwards recalled to Dunvegan and died there in 1674. Only a few of her poems, mostly laudations of the Macleods, have been preserved.
[Mackenzie's History of the Macleods, p. 244; Mackenzie's Beauties of Gaelic Poetry, p. 20; Blackie's Language and Literature of the Scottish Highlands, p. 100; MacNeill's Literature of the Highlanders, p. 169.]
MACLEOD, NEIL, eleventh of Assynt (1628?–1697?), eldest son of Neil, tenth of Assynt, by Florence, fifth daughter of Torquil Conanach Macleod of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, was born about 1628. It was in Assynt's territories that Montrose took refuge after his defeat at Invercarron, on 27 April 1650, by the forces of Strachan and Sutherland. A manuscript memoir on the district of Assynt, drawn up by George Taylor of Golspie from original sources, represents Montrose as under the belief that Macleod would apprehend him if he declared himself (quoted in the Quarterly Review, 1847, lxxix. 48-9). Wishart, on the contrary, asserts that Assynt had formerly been one of Montrose's
