[1]: viii Whilst serving in Sierra Leone, he was sent by the governor, Charles MacCarthy to the Iles de Los, for his health.
[1]: ix He was also requested to write a report on the area, in which connection he made three trips to the mainland of what is now Guinea, in particular he covered the areas around Rio Nunez, Rio Pongo and the Fatala River.
[1]: ix His report Travels into the Baga and Soosoo country during the year 1821 was first published in the Royal Gazette and Sierra Leone Advertiser, October–November 1821.
[1]: x Machlan served as a four-year apprenticeship with Dr Thomas Millar, a surgeon in Greenock, Renfrewshire.
[1]: vii He then got a job at the Merchant Seaman's Hospital, but after a year he became a student at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary.