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off at the word of command, and ⟨left⟩ the press gang in the full belief ⟨that⟩ they had seen a detatchment of recruits going to join a new Regiment, a number of whom where forming ⟨at⟩ the same time.
No man could be better calculated for an enterprise of this kind, than John Kippen, He was nearly 6 feet high, had a fine open countenance, was of a strong, muscular, athletic make, and besides his natural acuteness, he had by this time, though only twenty one years of age, learnt a good deal of smartness by travelling to and from England. These fortified by a little self-confidence, gave him an ascendancy wherever he went, that few people ever acquires, & very few indeed at this period of life.
Notwithstanding that few people in the world had higher notions of the principles of honor and honesty, than John Kippen, he had some very falacious ideas concerning the term honestly, which it was never in the
