In 1777 Munro’s father obtained for him a clerkship in the counting-house of Messrs. Somerville & Gordon, West-Indian merchants in Glasgow. Shortly afterwards, the magistrates, who were not unacquainted with young Munro’s military propensities, made him a tender of a lieutenancy in the corps which they were raising. But his father being opposed to his acceptance of it he reluctantly declined the offer, his disappointment being increased by the departure for military service of several of his old companions, one being the future Sir John Moore who died at Corunna.
In the following year, however, the house of which his father was a partner became embarrassed. The passing of the Act of Confiscation by the Congress of the United States led to its stopping payment, and the Munro family were reduced to comparative poverty. The father was now glad to accept for his son a midshipman’s berth in the mercantile marine of the East India Company; but just before he sailed he was able to get it changed for a cadetship. Not being able to afford to pay for his passage, young Munro obtained permission from the captain of the Walpole to work his way out to Madras as an ordinary seaman[1], and here he arrived on January 15, 1780.
The following extract from a letter to his mother gives a humorous account of his first experiences after landing at Madras:–
- ↑ This incident Mr. Gleig was not aware of when he wrote his Life of Sir Thomas Munro in 1829, but mentions it in the edition of 1849.
