_Arbuthnott, September 8th, 1747._ * * * * * _N.B._--The original of the above is to be found among my Papers. ROBERT FORBES, A.M. Copy of a Return to the above Letter, wherein a character of honest DONALD MACLEOD. [Sidenote: 21 Oct. 1747] MY LORD,--Your lordship may be justly surprized at me having been honoured with yours of September 8th, without making any return to it before this time. But to tell the truth, as I had a view of this bearer, I delayed writing till I could do it with a good grace. And sure I am I could never [Sidenote: _fol._ 467.] do it with a better one than at present, when I gladly embrace the opportunity of affording your lordship the happiness to salute one of the first men in the world. I know, my Lord, you feel a sensible pleasure beyond many in the world in conversing with worthies, men of rigid virtue and integrity, and such indeed this man is. Know then, my Lord, that this will be put into your hands by the renowned SCOTS PALINURUS, Donald MacLeod, tenant at Gualtergill, in the Isle of Sky, that most faithfull and honest steersman of the eight-oar'd boat from the continent to the Isles of Benbicula, South Uist, Lewis, etc., etc., etc., and who had the Prince among his hands for about ten weeks after the battle of Culloden. While a prisoner on board a ship he went through an uninterrupted series of the greatest hardships and severities for several months together. In a word, he was reduced [Sidenote: _fol._ 468.] to the lowest ebb of misery, and had the mortification of seeing others dying about him like rotten sheep. But his gray hairs (by a remarkable blessing of Heaven) have survived the trials of adversity, while many younger and in appearance much stronger, submitted to the fate of a lingring death. Although his history be most extraordinary in all the several instances of it, yet, my Lord, when he arrived here from London, he had not wherewith to bear his charges to Sky, where he has a wife and children (under the Laird of Macleod) whom he has now been absent from for nineteen or twenty months. Something has been done for him in and about Edinburgh, but far from what his merit justly entitles him to, and what his circumstances really call for. So many and frequent are the demands that have been made, that I must frankly own I was turned quite bankrupt in applications before I had the honour of your Lordship's letter; so that it was altogether [Sidenote: _fol._ 469.] out of my power, though my inclination was great, to make anything for poor William Baird, whose affecting history and character were no strangers to me.