1. sincerity– this word indicates that Mount confessed to all of his crimes willingly and the account that was published was not given based on any other basis than genuineness. this caught my eye because we have questioned the validity of some of the narratives we have read. here, however, both the narrator and mount himself state that his confession is voluntary. this factor makes the account, perhaps, a little more heartfelt rather than dramatic: “the voluntary confession of Thomas Mount” “in sincerity and truth make the following confession.”
2. desert– mount has an undying urge to abandon people to whom he has agreed to be loyal. it began with his parents, ” at the age of 10 or 11, i quitted my parents” continued through ship assignments, and even through his military enlistments. his desertions always result in more theft. the combination of the two cause a continuous cycle in which mount was caught. this cycle created a life of unrest for him. he was always running and trying to escape the punishment for his life of crime.
3. disguise– mount eventually reaches the point that he must disguise himself in order to even go through the motions of a normal life. “and told her i was a fortune-teller, and repeating several things that i had heard of her, she thought i was really a fortune teller; then i proposed to marry her, and she approved of my offer.” also, “but this i could not do unless i was disguised.” his life had become so corrupt that his original identity had been lost. a disguise was one of the only ways he could escape being caught for his many crimes.