[4] When about fifteen years of age, Mr Buchan obtained an appointment in the Madras Civil Service, and sailed for that destination in May 1792, in the Winterton East Indiaman, commanded by Captain George Dundas.

On 20 August, after the Indian Ocean had been reached, the vessel, with 280 souls on board, was wrecked on a coral reef north from Augustine's Bay, on the coast of Madagascar.

Mr Buchan was thrown into the sea, the darkness of night adding to the horrors of the situation; and after having been twice washed from a plank to which he had clung, was providentially floated alongside part of the dismembered ship, which formed a raft, whereon were about forty of his companions, who drew him up among them.

This raft grounded on an inner reef, and for four days they suffered fearfully from hunger, thirst, and cold: the blood and raw flesh of a live pig which had been on the wreck forming their chief sustenance.

On the sixth day after the wreck the famished castaways were rescued by some native canoes; only to commence a toilsome week's journey on foot to Tullear, where the king resided.

Mr Buchan had lost his shoes, and, to use his own words, “had all in life depended on it, he could not have gone many miles further.” Though kindly treated, it was seven months before an opportunity occurred of leaving the island, and during that time nearly a hundred of the survivors died.

[7] His service record is outlined in the Dictionary of Indian Biography: Continued ill health and urgent private reasons then induced him to return to Scotland, when he took up his residence chiefly at Kelloe.

The influence of Robert Cathcart of Drum, W.S., was, one factor in that and one work which he read at this time with absorbing interest, and to which he frequently in after life referred, was Lord Lyttleton's treatise on the conversion of Paul.

In 1841 he seconded Dr Candlish's conciliatory motion; also, he was sent with Principal Dewar and Mr Dunlop for the Commissioner, who was absent, when the deposed Strathbogie ministers attempted to serve an interdict on the Assembly.

His thoughts on duelling followed the trial of James Stuart of Dunearn who was acquitted following a duel that fatally wounded Sir Alexander Boswell.

In the closing sentence of the inscription on a marble tablet to his memory in Edrom church, it is says “Zealous in every good work for the service of God and the benefit of mankind, his active benevolence and munificent bounty endeared him to the poor; while his rare mental endowments, his high-toned principle, and his consistency of character, obtained universal respect and esteem.