Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/219

McLeod States, Lawrence joining the governing board of the newly annexed Punjab. Under McLeod served Major Herbert (afterwards Sir Herbert) Edwardes [q. v.] In 1854 he became financial commissioner of the Punjab, and on 18 April 1866 the court of directors acknowledged his services to native education in a minute. At Lahore, where he succeeded Edmondstone, he remained throughout the mutiny, and at its close in 1858 was created C.B. In 1859 he returned to England, but was back at Lahore the following year, and was president of the Famine Relief Committee in 1861. In January. 1865 he became, by Lawrence's recommendation, lieutenant-governor of the Punjab. He was made K.C.S.I. in 1866, and retired in 1870. Returning to England he interested himself in philanthropic movements, and was chairman of the Scinde, Punjab, and Delhi railway. He died 28 Nov. 1872 in St. George's Hospital, London, from the results of an accient on the Metropolitan Railway, and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery. In 1854 he married Fanny, daughter of Sir Robert Montgomery [q. v.], who died the following year without issue.

McLeod was a sincerely religious man, but somewhat dilatory in business matters. Lawrence knew him well, and used to call him 'the Cunctator.' He has left an amusing sketch of McLeod's character in a letter (1 Aug. 1853) to Edwardes : 'Morally and intellectually he has no superior in the Punjab, perhaps no equal But as an administrator he is behind Edmondstone, Raikes, and even Burnes. He is too fond of polishing. . . . He wastes much time on unimportant matters. . . . Donald spends half the day in writing elegant demi-official chits.' On the other hand, very few administrators have managed, as McLeod managed, to gain the esteem of both natives and Europeans. A portrait of him is at Lahore, and represents the testimonial of the English in the Punjab at the close of his governorship.  McLEOD, JOHN (1777?–1820), naval surgeon and author, is said to have been born in the parish of Bonhill, Dumbartonshire, in (, Book of Scotsmen). The date cannot be verified, for the Bonhill register has been destroyed. As, however, McLeod, after qualifying as a medical practitioner, and serving some time in the navy as a surgeon's mate, was promoted to be surgeon on 5 Feb. 1801, the probability is that he was born five or six years earlier. During 1801 and 1802 he served as surgeon of different small craft in the Channel, and being left by the peace without employment, half-pay, or any chance of a practice on shore, he accepted an appointment as surgeon of the ship Trusty, Davidson, master, bound from London to the coast of Africa, in the slave trade, which sailed in January 1803. At Whydah, which he describes as being then esteemed 'the Circassia of Africa,' on account of the comeliness and jetty blackness of its maidens, he was left in charge of a factory for purchasing slaves, while the Trusty went on to Lagos. Shortly afterwards McLeod learnt from a Liverpool privateer that the European war had broken out again. He immediately sent on word to Lagos. Thereupon, Davidson, assisted by the masters of three or four other English ships at that port, attacked and captured a large French slaver, named the Julie, which had been spoiling tieir market. The Julie was sent to the West Indies, to be sold for — it was estimated — 30,000l. At Barbados, however, the capture was declared invalid. The ship was condemned as the prize of the Serapis man-of-war, which took possession of her, and when, some little time afterwards, the Trusty arrived, an officer of the vice-admiralty court came off to her, and, putting the broad arrow on her mainmast, arrested the ship and all on board her as pirates. The charge was allowed to drop, and the decision of the Barbados prize-court was subsequently reversed, with the result that McLeod was awarded a part of the prize, which he received in 1820. But at the time, disappointed of his share, and disgusted at being stigmatised as a pirate, he took a passage for Jamaica, where, his leave being expired, Sir John Duckworth [q. v.], the commander-in-chief, appointed him to the Flying Fish, a small cruiser under the command of an energetic young lieutenant, 'and for the next year,' he says, 'we roamed through each creek and corner of the Caribbean sea, and plundered every enemy of England without the risk of incurring the penalties of piracy,'

He was afterwards for two years longer on the Jamaica. station, as surgeon of the Pique frigate, and from 1807 to 1814 was in the Mediterranean, in the Volontaire, with Captain Charles Bullen [q. v.], in the Tigre 