"Here his imagination was so heated by the warlike achievements he
found recorded in the Latin authors, such as Caesar, Curtius, and
Buchanan, that he was seized with an irresistible thirst of military
glory, and desire of trying his fortune in the army. His Majesty's
troops taking the field, in consequence of the rebellion which
happened in the year seventeen hundred and fifteen, this young
adventurer, thinking no life equal to that of a soldier, found
means to furnish himself with a fusil and bayonet, and, leaving
the school, repaired to the camp near Stirling with a view of
signalizing himself in the field, though he was at that time but just
turned of thirteen. He offered his service to several officers, in
hope of being enlisted in their companies; but they would not receive
him, because they rightly concluded, that he was some schoolboy
broke loose, without the knowledge or consent of his relations.
Notwithstanding this discouragement, he continued in camp, curiously
prying into every part of the service; and such was the resolution
conspicuous in him, even at such a tender age, that, after his small
finances were exhausted, he persisted in his design; and, because
he would not make his wants known, actually subsisted for several
days on hips, haws, and sloes, and other spontaneous fruits, which
he gathered in the woods and fields.
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