e in the bookselling trade, whose
favour is so essential to men of letters. Discouraged in longer
persevering in the attempt of procuring a livelihood at home, Macneill,
for the fourth time, took his departure from Britain. Provided with
letters of introduction to influential and wealthy persons in Jamaica,
he sailed for that island on a voyage of adventure; being now in his
thirty-eighth year, and nearly as unprovided for as when he had first
left his native shores, twenty-four years before. On his arrival at
Kingston, he was employed by the collector of customs, whose
acquaintance he had formed on the voyage; but this official soon found
he could dispense with his services, which he did, without aiding him in
obtaining another situation. The individuals to whom he had brought
letters were unable or unwilling to render him assistance, and the
unfortunate adventurer was constrained, in his emergency, to accept the
kind invitation of a medical friend, to make his quarters with him till
some satisfactory employment might occur. He now discovered two intimate
companions of his boyhood settled in the island, in very prosperous
circumstances, and from these he received both pecuniary aid and the
promise of future support. Through their friendly offices, his two sons,
who had been sent out by a generous friend, were placed in situations of
respectability and emolument. But the thoughts of the poet himself were
directed towards Britain. He sailed from Jamaica, with a thousand plans
and schemes hovering in his mind, equally vague and indefinite as had
been his aims and designs during the past chapter of his history. A
small sum given him as the pay of an inland ensigncy, now conferred on
him, but antedated, sufficed to defray the expenses of the voyage.

Before leaving Scotland for Jamaica, Macneill had commenced a poem,
founded on a Highland tradition; and to the completion of this
production he assiduously devoted himself during his homeward voyage. It
was published at Edinburgh in 1789, under the title of "The Harp, a
Legendary Tale." In the previous year, he published a pamphlet in
vindication of slavery, entitled, "On the Treatment of the Negroes in
Jamaica." This pamphlet, written to gratify the wishes of an interested
friend, rather than as the result of his own convictions, he
subsequently endeavoured to suppress. For several years, Macneill
persevered in his unsettled mode of life. On his return from Jamaica, he
reside