PREFACE. x1 
Letter from Carrain Roxpert Kyp, Calcutta, to Carrain James Kyp, r.n., Elie, Fifeshire, dated 
28th February 1773. 
Your son Sandy arrived here three weeks ago and delivered me your letter from Elie, dated 
March last. Though we have received no certain account of your brother’s death, yet his loss must be 
looked upon as certain, seeing it is now three years since he sailed from this river on a voyage to 
the coast of Africa, and he has not yet been heard of. So that the army was the only resource 
left for your son, and into that he must have entered under great disadvantages, which I will now 
point out to you. First, he must have entered as a cadet; and there are now more than two 
hundred on that list, all of whom must have been commissioned before him, and this could not have 
taken place in less than two years, during which time he would have learned nothing here but what he 
already possesses from his military education at Douay, with the almost inevitable risk of imbibing 
his share of the vices and prejudices peculiar to this climate. This has determined me to send him home 
again in the first ship (which sails in two or three days), and the plan I have to lay down to him 
and to you is as follows. 
On his arrival in England he must proceed again to Douay and qualify himself for an engineer 
and artillery officer. And he assures me that; from his former acquaintance and connections there, he 
will find no difficulty of gaining admittance into the academy. Meanwhile, you must lose no time 
in using all your interest with G. Dempster and Sir J. Cockburn, and with any other person in the 
direction, in order to get him appointed an Ensign in the Corps of Engineers, infantry or artillery, on 
the Bengal establishment, and no other; and, failing an ensigney, he must be appointed a cadet, in 
which, I think, you cannot fail. In this latter case, an Ensign’s commission in the King’s must like- 
wise be bought: for, by the rules of this service, it will give him rank of all the cadets of the 
season in which he comes out, and will also entitle him to be employed as an officer upon his 
arrival. You must perceive that (exclusive of the advantages your son will receive from ten or twelve 
months’ study at Douay) he also will be further advanced in the army in point of rank than if he 
had remained here; and, in order that no time may be lost, I have resolved to accommodate him with 
a sum of money, which he himself thinks equivalent to the expenses that will be incurred during his 
two years’ absence, which will in a great measure provide against the worst that can possibly happen, 
ramely, of your failing to procure him either of the aforesaid appointments from the India House. 
I have also introduced him to some of my friends here, who, in case of any accident happening to 
myself, will receive and provide for him in a manner next to what he would have expected from myself. 
Respecting your son’s genius and parts, I am perfectly satisfied with them, and doubt not he will make 
the desired proficiency in the studies which I have already pointed out to him. 
This plan which I have laid down for your son may probably startle you upon first rere and, 
if upon due consideration it should not appear to you in the same light that it does to me, I am 
confident that, upon your submitting it to any Indian lately returned from this part of the continent and 
acquainted with the state of affairs, every part of what I now write to you will be confirmed. Nor 
have I presumed on the strength of my own judgment alone to decide in this matter, but I have the 
unanimous approbation of all the friends whom I have consulted. 
I have omitted mentioning your getting your son appointed to the civil branch on this establish- 
ment, apprehending that this may be attended with too much difficulty, if not expense; but, if you can 
muster interest enough, by all means do it; but do not alter the plan of his education, for here it is 
equally necessary to know how to brandish the areal as to wield the pen. 
