pted the editorship of the
_Scots Magazine_, to which he had formerly been a contributor, and
otherwise employed himself in literary pursuits. In 1799, he published,
in a duodecimo volume, "An Historical and Philosophical Sketch of the
Discoveries and Settlements of the Europeans in Northern and Central
Africa, at the Close of the Eighteenth Century." "The Complaynt of
Scotland," a curious political treatise of the sixteenth century, next
appeared under his editorial care, with an ingenious introduction, and
notes. In 1801, he contributed the ballad of "The Elf-king," to Lewis'
"Tales of Wonder;" and, about the same period, wrote several ballads for
the "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border." The dissertation on "Fairy
Superstition," in the second volume of the latter work, slightly altered
by Scott, proceeded from his pen. In 1802, he edited a small volume,
entitled, "Scottish Descriptive Poems," consisting of a new edition of
Wilson's "Clyde," and a reprint of "Albania,"--a curious poem, in blank
verse, by an anonymous writer of the beginning of the eighteenth
century.

A wide circle of influential friends were earnestly desirous of his
promotion. In 1800, the opposition of the aged incumbent prevented his
appointment as assistant and successor in the ministerial charge of his
native parish. A proposal to appoint him Professor of Rhetoric in the
University of Edinburgh also failed. He now resolved to proceed to
Africa, to explore the interior, under the auspices of the African
Association; but some of his friends meanwhile procured him an
appointment as a surgeon in the East India Company's establishment at
Madras. During his course at the University, he had attended some of the
medical classes; and he now resumed the study of medicine, with such an
amount of success, that in six weeks he qualified himself for a
surgeon's diploma. About the same time, the degree of M.D. was conferred
on him by the University of St Andrews.

Before his departure for the East, Leyden finished his longest poem, the
"Scenes of Infancy," the publication of which he entrusted to his
friend, Dr Thomas Brown. His last winter in Britain he passed in London,
enjoying the society of many distinguished men of letters, to whom he
was introduced by his former friend, Mr Richard Heber. He sailed for
India[95] on the 7th April 1803, and arrived at Madras on the 19th
August. In Hindostan, his talents and extraordinary capabilities in
forming an acquain