■j-Iio are u'
         '.. upward
         . of-:tone,
i the it.nti «-oll arr
i cimil.; J~u   VT    •"■«!'»»«=. ui noyai Artillery,  the pni "Hi
..el^  Wi.^'.Llbe T* Wa" ,3«"«''°S 0'* mile ,n crcumfi-. n..................-- ,;
                                                         (; wich are ten feet in height.  Ad  » ably reduced.  A small aperture neat
                                                          , e yard* which communicate with  5 tal,
    iVe J Cv l.lilt.n i.w aui.tt n.ipi l*uillll£Ml QUI
*ililan  5 men, who are allowed a blanket ami
         'My reduced.  A small aperture nea
           , and fronting No. 3, is another wa
''en..<ed piTaiU, fc
    • Brit.
                                       DESCRIPTI^  O'F  DAIITMOOIR



luiroundedbv ti ?!~ i  M,luJ?,and,;wocoraPa"'esoi'R'>>a» Artillery.  The ~'  --' '.....""    .....■ "'.-tone ami ..m > e.-nment 10 suffer unon.on.n^nt H..,;...L .,,., ,.  ....:
w«lta tor the: tenS.S? Wilt*„'LL-   °?fttT Wa" ,3eR4u'inff <>'* mile .n  «,«„._..
joining th* eu™wiutreW^nhtbU **' *n* ,r°" ,Pa"i!"**. *""" =•'"  twent.
WotberthrOTthJ„jr^L^OU3eSPu'a':^ north> eas'» and soath-   ' .ere are  se>
KSHiif??' "^ 0ne hun<lred "'d nlty feet  long and „, ,, I broad., * d on
jSrf J^B> S™„I^0- 4-- " * mi,il"* wa,k for """U"*- Opposite thi,  H> age t t'da. k. t-!-,-
« tfc DnUnS^  T^0 «°" ^'L' "* tha.' a" co^mnnication^nav be -,;,  ',,«( at idee-. »''ich is often done to annoy a
lUndmg «*LTh* „£,  'Vl? °°nuun» «»»»« prison.,  v.z. ■  ,,  - [,  nl-whidf .. i and > ."dv an- occupied, N< . ,   .... ...... „„„.„.„, »lv!,<;„ra t0 t,lfcpiJUl an. fc^^ for tht.



                                                                   . would-g.ne *ey were rather calculated to 5 long by 40 wide,except No's. 2 and e|» a,tToIuetCg smTllerf bU,Ui"'gS with nUmbcrs »«»«h«d. »™ prison* of 180 fa*
  'IViIp     i         ■    ls; •""rpei-sonshaiii..  oeen senieiuid In  tl.e Briti«i. ;.ui.'
,1'I«.Tit .!h*, i'".i"." ' "*"j'K lobknv "1"« P>«e.  Tli , |.n,on ,s calculated to  M.tnn sis*/
V. Ih^l ,f V, „.",i"' "^'"a'y'lending.  Their da.ly ril-nvanc- of provisio ,s n considjl
»  i «^»,.n». ■, I      'Bht-  F,0'"il'B No. 1 yard is a wall separating it from the Hosi*.
vaLpwratingit trora the inn<ipi.....„...L..   -i i... ........ ..........• ... ,.!pa......  -■-______*i_
                                     ... .... ..r..i.  iioiiiingwu. i yara is a wall separating it hum the rlosfl
                                   £ VJS™ \,   mner ''ij1™*-^8-  '! '>e Market-Squaie (which fronts the passage
                                   •e, and  will contain  five thousand persons.  The market is o]iened every diy



en^r^heS«^re"uC                      ^^™^X?!?^^^^
is wnicn coniiiiuuicaic «iu' > lai, uiiu irumiug r«o. j, is another wal, purating it from the inn
 each side by iron bars, over > leading from one yard to annthtr) is fiarV square, and'will craa.
Square: passing into eithe  J (Sundays excepted) at U o'clock inIS Lied at two  l> i. ,„j". ""-."""""''a persons,  i ne maruel is o]ieni<l every «n)y
^*»» u naoain^ woiq.                               'Tf "—*—"• ««*». hji

 «ie iaade of ilk. prison, present a melancholy and disagreeable aspect one
^.  b.rgeoL's  bouse.   B.  Capt. Shore's lioi     C.  Hospital,   i).  Barracks.    E.  Cachot, or $ltk-kole.   F. Goard  houses.   G.  Store hoasO. 
            JOURNAL,
                        OE
A YOUNG MAN OF MASSACHUSETTS,
LATE
     A. SURGEON ON BOARD AN AMERICAN PRIVATEER,

WHO WAS CAPTURED AT SEA BY THE BRITISH, IN MAT, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED
           AND THIRTEEN, AND WAS CONFINED FIRST,

  ^.T MELVILLE ISLAND, HALIFAX, THEN AT CHATHAM,.
                   IN ENGLAND,

     AND LAST, AT DARTMOOR PRISON.

                 INTERSPERSED WITH

 OBSERVATIONS, ANECDOTES AND REMARKS,

                     TENDING TO

    ILLUSTRATE THE MORAL AND POLITICAL CHARACTERS
                 OF THREE NATIONS.

                  TO  WHICH IS ADDED,

    A CORRECT ENGRAVING OF DARTMOOR PRISON,

        REPRESENTING THE MASSACRE OF AMERICAN PRISONERS.


                WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

         w Nothing extenuate, or set down aught in malice."
                              ...........................SHAKESPEARE.
          BOSTON:      ;  .-*...   ...
PRINTED BY ROWE AND H0(3PEF?,*-. { _ # / ":
          ...............•......      ••• •••" •••  *»..
            181&. 
          District of Massachusetts, to  wit :
                                              District Clerk's Office.
            BE it remembered, that on the sixth day of March,  A  D\
   JL. S.)  i8i&,'and in the fortieth year of the Independence of the Uni-
          ted States of America, Rowe & Hooper, of the said District,
 have deposited in this Office, the title of a Book, the Right whereof they
 claim as Proprietors, in the words following, to wit;
   " A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, late a Surgeon on board
 an American Privateer, who  was captured at Sea by the British, in May,
 eighteen hundred and thirteen,  and was confined first, at Melville Island,
 Halifax, then at Chatham, in England, and last at Dartmoor Prison.   In-
 terspersed with Observations, Anecdotes and Remarks, tending to illus-
 trate the moral and  political characters of three nations.   To which is
 added, acorrect Engraving of Dartmoor Prison,  representing the Massa-
 cre of American prisoners.  Written by himself.  "Nothing  extenuate,
or set down aught in malice.".........Shakespeare."
  In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled,
 "An Act for the encouragement of  learning,  by  securing the copies of
 Maps, Charts and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of  such Copies,  v
 during the Times therein mentioned;" and also to an Act entitled, " An  l
 Act supplementary to an  Act,  entitled an Act for the encouragement of  £.
 learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the authors  t
 and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned ; and  %
 extending the  benefits thereof to the  arts of designing, engraving and  ")
 ^ching historical, and other prints."
                                       Wm. S.SHAW,
                                Ckrk of the District of  Massachusetts-. 
                     TO THE



           COMMON SENSE,



                      AND



              HUMANE FEELINGS



      OF THE  PEOPLE OF AMERICA,



              THIS JOURNAL IS INSCRIBE^,



                      BY



   A LATE PRISONER OF WAR WITH THE BRITISB,



     Massachusetts, County of)
       Hampshire^ 1815.   i









k___ 
s
\ 
JOURNAL.
Jn December, 1812, I  found  a schooner fitting  out  of
Salem,  as a privateer.  She had only four carriage guns
and ninety men.  By the fifth  of January, 1813, she was
ready to sail,  and only  wanted some young man to go as
assistant surgeon  of her.  The offer was made  to me,
when without much reflection, or consultation of friends,
I stepped on  board her in that  capacity,  with no other
ideas than that of a pleasant cruise, and making a for-
tune.  With this in view we steered for the coast of Bra-
zils, which we reached  about the first of February.
  Our first land-fall was not the most judicious,  for we
made the coast in the night, and in the morning found
ourselves surrouuded with breakers.  Fortunately  for us,
a Portuguese schooner was outside of us, and we hoisted
out our  boat,  and  went  on board her; and received from
her  commander and officers directions for clearing  our-
selves from  these dangerous breakers.   We were then
about 60 miles below Cape  St. Roque.  The captain  of
the Portuguese vessel kindly  informed us where  to  get
water, in a bay then before us.   We had English colours
flying and all this time  passed for a British vessel.
  In a  few hours  we cast anchor in the bay,  when  our
Captain  went  on shore ; and when he had discovered the
watering place, he returned on  board, and sent his  wa-
ter casks to be filled ;  but the inhabitants  collected around
our men, and  shewed, by their gestures  and  grimaces, a
disposition to drive us away.  It is probable that they only
wanted  to make us pay for  the  water;  for it is the way
of all the inhabitants of the sea shores every  where,  to
profit by the distresses of  those who are cast upon them.
But pretending not to understand them, we got what water
wa# necessary.
  The next day a Portuguese ship of war came into the
hay. on which we thought it prudent to haul  off,  as we
thought it not so  easy  to impose on a public  ship as a
                 1 
6                    JOUBNAL.
private one, with  our English colours and uniform.  In\  ,
beating up  to Pernainbuco we spoke  with vessels every ^
day, but they were all Portuguese.   When near to St. Sal- 1
vadore, we  were in great danger of capture by a British
frigate, whom we mistook  for a large merchantman, until
she came within half  musket shot of us,  but, luckily for
us, it died away calm, when we out with our oars, which
seamen c*.l\  sweeps, and in spite of their round and grape
shot we got  clear of her without any serious injury.
   We vould remark here, that  sailors have  a dialect of
their ewu, and a phraseology by themselves.  Instead of
right side, and left side, they  sa\ starboard, and larboard. \
To tie a rope fast, is to belay it.   To lower down a  sail,  -y
or to pull down  a  colour,  is to  dowse it,  and so of many  „
other things.  These peculiar phrazes have been adopted
from the Dutch, and from  the Danes,  nations from whom
the English  learnt navigation.  We may occasionally use
some of these terms, when  it cannot well be avoided.
   Our Captain was not an  American, neither was he an
Englishman.  He was a little bit of a man, of a swarthy
complexion, and did not weigh perhaps more than an  hun-  >
dred  pounds by the scale.   During the  firing our  little  -
man stood upon the taftrail, swung his sword, d—d  the $
English  and praised his  own men.  He had been  long
enough in the United States to acquire property and infor-
mation, and credit enough to  command a schooner of four
guns and ninety men.   The crew considered him a brave
man and a good sailor, but not  over generous in his dis-
position.  Whether the following is a proof  of it, I  can-   ,
not determine.
   He allowed the crew but one gill  of New England rum
per day, which they thought an under dose for a Yankee,  i
They contended for more, but he refused it.   They expos-
tulated, and he remained obstinate; when at  length,  they,
one  and all, declared that they  would not  touch a  rope
unless he  agreed to double the allowance, to half a  pint.
The  Captain was  a very abstemious man  himself, and
being very small in person, he did not consider that a man
four times as big required  twice as much  rum to keeixhis   j
sluggish  frame in the same degree  of good  spirits.'S^He
held out against his crew for two days, during which time
they never one of them so much as lifted a spun yarn.  The
weather was, be sure, very mild and pleasant,  I confess, 
                      JOURNAL.                     7

however, that I was very uneasy, under the idea that we
might all perish from the obstinacy of ihe crew, on one
side, and the firmness of the little man on the other.  Our
Captain  found  that his government was  democratical;
and perceiving that the weather was about to change, he
conceded to the large and fearful majority, and INTew Eng-
land spirit carried the day against a temperate European
commander.
  This habit of rum drinking makes a striking difference
between  the military of ancient and modern days.  If a
Homau soldier or aCarthagenian sailor, had his cloathing,
his meat, and his bread, and his vinegar, he was content-
ed, and  rarely was guilty of mutiny.   But the  modern
soldier and sailor must, in addition to these, have his rum,
or brandy, and his tobacco ; and deprive  him of these two
articles, which are neither food, nor clothing, and he in-
fallibly mutinies ; that is,  he runs the risk of the severest
punishment, even  that of death,  rather than  renounce
them.  I have observed among sailors, that they bear the
deprivation of rum with more patience than the depriva-
tion of tobacco.  On granting the crew haif a pint of rum
a day, they gave three  cheers,  and went to work with the
greatest  cheerfulness and alaerity.
   The next day we descried three sail steering for St.
Salvadore.  We gave chace to them, but when we  came
within gun shot of the stern most, she fired  her  stern
chacers at us.   We brought our four guns on one side to
attack, or to defend ourselves, as we should find ourselves
circumstanced ; but night  coming on, we saw  no more of
them.                  %
   Our water growing short, we determined to gain our
f.jrmer watering place; but not being able to reach it easi-
ly, we anchored off a little settlement,  2Q  miles distant
from the place where we^watered before.  Here our cap-
tain put on a British  uniform,  and waited on the  com-
mandant of the place, who, although he  treated him with
politeness, gave evident suspicions that he was not an
English  officer.  To prevent the awkward consequences
of a detection, our captain promised to send off a barrel
of hams, and a keg of butter.  Under the expectation of
the fulfilment of this rather rash promise, our crafty com-
mander returned to his vessel, and left the place very early
next moruing. 
s
JOURNAL.
       It  was now the middle of March, and we had taken
»  nothing, neither had we fired our cannon  excepting at a
    miserable sort of a half boat and half raft, called a Cata-  ,
    maran, made  of five light logs, with a triangular  sail.
    From the men on this miserable vessel we got information
    of a good watering place, where we soon anchored.   The
    , commandant of this little settlement was of the colour of our
 ,**£ North American Iudians, and so were his family, but the
"*v-v'*' rest were nearly as black as negroes.  He lived in a house
    covered  and  worked in with long grass ; he offered  us
    snuff out of a box tipped with silver, but every thing else
    looked very rude and simple.  While we were getting our
    water, the females hovered  round us.  They had  long
    black and  shining  hair, and  wore a long white cotton
    garment, like a shirt  or shift.  They seemed to admire
    our complexions.   One of  these  women,  more forward
    than the rest, opened the bosom of one of our fairest
    young men, to see if his body  was as white  as  his  face.
    She appeared to be  highly amused with the discovery, and
    called her companions to come and view the phenomenon.
    He shewed a similar curiosity as it concerned her, but she
    shrunk from  it with the  apparent delicacy of polished
    life, before so many men.
       Just as we were about embarking, the commandant told
    our captain that he had just received a message from the
     commandant of Gomora, to seize him and all his crew and
    send them to Pernambuco, but that he should not obey him.
    We now set sail for the United States, and had not been at
     sea long before we  were chased by a frigate, but out sail-
     ed her.
       On the 20th of May we made Gay Head, which is the
    shining remains of an extinguished Volcano,' on the west
    end of Martha's Vineyard.   The next morning we discov-
     ered a ship and a brig standing for us.  We taeked and
     stood for the  ship until we found that she was  a man of
     war, and then we wore round for the brig, she being near-
     est of our own size.  We now, for the first time, hoisted
     American  colours,  when  the  brig gave us a broadside ;
     and kept up a constant fire upon us, but we soon left her   >
     by our superior sailing and management.  The fixate.
     for such she proved to be, was not so easily got rid  of.
     She  was to the windward of us when we  first  saw her.
     She  came within gun shot about noou.   She firing lief 
JOtfRNAL.
9
 Low-ehacers and we  our stern-chacers.   At length slie
 eame almost within musket shot of us, when she fired re-
 peated  broadsides into our little schooner, so as to cat
 away almost all our rigging, when our brave little captain
 went down below,  after telling  the men to fight it out;
 but they  prudently  struck their colours.  A boat soon
 came ou bo:ivd of us with a Lieutenant  and twelve ma-
 rines, swearing most bravely at the d—d Yankees.   But
 as our men had, according to custom,  when a vessel sur-
 renders, seized whatever casks of liquor they could  come
 at, soon filled  out a few horns of gin,  and passed it round
 among the marines, which inspired them with  good na-
 ture,  and for  a moment, they  seemed " all hale fellows
 Well met."  The boarding officer did  not appear to bo so
 intent in securing the vessel, as  in searching every hole
 and corner for small articles to  pocket.   We were soon
 ordered on board of his Britannic Majesty's ship the Tene-
 dos, Capt. Parker.
   I had always entertained a respectable opinion of the
 British, especially of  their national inarkse.  I had read
 British  history, and listened  to  British songs,  and had
 heard from my childhood of the superior bravery and gen-
 erosity  of the British sailor, and had entertained a  real
 respect  for their character; and being of a family denom-
inated federalists, I may be said to have entered  the fri-
Igate Teaedos, Capt. Parker, with feelings and  expecta-
 tions very different from what 1 should have felt, had we
 been at  war with the French, and had it  been a frigate of
 that nation that had captured us.  The French are a peo-
 ple marked by nature as well as by customs and habits, a
 different nation from  us.  Their language is different;
 their religion is different,  and so are their manners.  All
 these things have eonspircd in making a wall of separa-
 tion between us and that lively people.  But it  is not so
 with the English.  Our language, religion, customs, ha-
 bits, manners, institutions; and  above all, books  have
 united to  make us feel as if we were  but children of the
 sapie  great fam.il}, only divided  by  the Atlantic ocean.
 All JJUese  things have a natural and habitual  tendency t»
 unite us, and nothing but the unfeeling and contemptuous
 treatment of us by the British military generally, could
 have separated us.   With all these feelings and  partiali-
 ties about me,  I went from owr sclrooner  over the side of 
10
JOURNAL.
the British frigate with  different feelings from  what I
should, had I been going- on board an enemies ship of the
French, Spanish, or  Portuguese  nation.  But  what was
my change of feelings, on  being  driven with the  rest all
up  in a  corner  like  hogs,  and then marched about  the
deck, for the strutting captain of the frigate to view and
review us like cattle  in a market before  the  drover or
butcher.
  When  our baggage was brought on board, the master of
arms took every portable article from us, not leaving us a
jack knife, penknife  or  razor.   We Americans*  never
conduct so towards British prisoners.  We always respect
the private articles of the officer aud sailor.
  On the same day we were put on board the brig Curlew,
Lt. Head, a polite and humane gentleman, and much be-
loved by  his own crew.  He is, I am informed, son of an
English Baronet.  He is  a plain, honest man, with easy,
elegant manners, and very  unlike  the sputtering com-
mander of the Tenedos, a man who allowed us to be strip-
ped of all our little pocket articles.   We were kept very
close while  on board the Curlew, because her crew was
very  weak, principally decrepid  old men and boys,  but
then we were kindly  spoken to, and  respectfully and  hu-
manely treated  by Lieut Head, and his worthy surgeon.
Wc can  discover real gentlemen at sea, as  well  as  onj
shore.                                              *^
   We were landed  in  Halifax,  the  principal  British
port of North America, and the capital of Nova Scotia, on
the 29th of May, 1813.   We were soon  surrounded  by
soldiers,  and being joined by a number of our countrymen,
recently captured, we were attempted to be marshalled and
paraded in military order, so as to make as grand a show
as possible, as we marched through  the streets to prison.
The first thing they did was to make us stand  in platoons,
and then  (be commanding officer stationed a soldier on the
flanks of each platoon to keep us regular, and to march
and wheel according to rule.  The  word was then  given
to march, when  we all ran up together just as we were
when the strutting Capt. Parker  reviewethus on the deck
of the Tenedos.   We Mere  then  commanded to halt.  As
we have no such  word of command on board of an Ameri-
can  privateer, some  crowded on, while a few stopped.
The young officer tried again, and made us stand all in a 
JOURNAL.
a
row.  Some of the crew told their comrades that when the
captain snug out " halt" he meant '• avast" and that then
they should all stop.   When we  were all in order  again,
the scarlet-coated young gentleman, with a golden swash
on his left shoulder, gave a second time the word of com-
mand—•• march"—when we got  into the like confusion,
again, when he cried out in a swearing passion, "halt"—.
on which some stopped short, and some  walked on,  when
the whole squad burst out a laughing.  1 know not what
would have been the consequence of his  passion had not a
navy officer standing by observed to  him,  that they were
not soldiers but sailors, who knew nothing about military
marching, or military words of command,  when the young
man told us to inarch on  in our  own way ;  upon  which
our sailors stuck their lists in their pockets, and scrabbled
and reeled on  as sailors always do ; for a sailor does not
know how to walk like a landsman.   On which account I
Lave been informed, since my return from captivity, that
all our seamen,  that were sent from Boston  to S.ickcit'ss
harbour,  oh Lake Ontario, were  transported in coaches
with four horses, chartered for the express purpose; and
that it was common,  for many weeks  together, to see a
dozen of the large stage coaches, setting out  from Boston
in a morning, full of sailors going up to  the lakes, to man
the fleets of Commodores Perry, Chauncey and M-Do-
nough.   The former of these commanders told the writer,
that he never  allowed a sailor destined for his squadron
to walk a single day.   These merry fellows  used to ride
through the country with their colours and streamers and
music, nnd heaving the lead amidst the  acclamations of
the country people.   While these things  were thus con-
ducted in New England, the people of Old England were
simple enough to believe that the war with England was
unpopular.  They judged  of us by our party  newspapers.
   The soldiers  marched  us about two miles, when  we
came to the spot, where we were to take boat for Melville
Island, the place of our imprisonment.   When we arrived
at the  gates of the  prison, hammocks and blankets were
served out to us, as our names  were called over.   We
were then ordered into the prison yard.   And here I must
remark,  that  I  shall never forget  the first impression,
which the sight of my wretched looking countrymen made
on my feelings.  Here we  were, at once, sarrounded by a, 
iZ
JOURNAL.
  ragged set of quidnuncs, eagerly inquiring, What news?—
  where  we were taken ?  and how? and what success we
  had met with before we were taken ?  and every possible
  question, for American curiosity to put to  a promiscuous
  set of new comers.
    After satisfying these brave fellows, who felt an uncom-
  mon interest in the events of the war, and the news of the
  day, 1 had time to notice the various occupations of these
  poor fellows.   Some  were washing their  own clothes ;
  others mending them.  Others were intent on ridding their
  shirts and other clothing from lice, which, to the disgrace
  of the British government, are allowed to infest our pris-
  oners.  It may, in part, be owing to the nastiness and neg-
  ligence of the prisoners themselves, but the great fault
  and the disgrace,  remain with the British.   Whoever
  could  say that  criminals, confined in our State prisons,
  were infected with vermin ?   Were our pri-;on ships  in
  iSo'slon or Salem ever kuown to be lousy ?
    The  buildings on Melville Island are constructed  of
  wood.  Beside the prison, t!ure is a cooking house,  bar-
  racks for soldiers, and a storehouse ; a house for  the offi-
  cers, and  another for the surgeon.  There ;>re a couple of
  cannon pointing towards the prison, and a Telegraph, for
  the purpose of giving intelligence to the fort, which "fcver-
  looks this island and the town of Halifax.  These build-
  ings are painted red, and have upon the whole, a neat ap-
  pearance. The prison itself is 200 feet in length, and 50
  in breadth.   It is two  stories high ; the upper one is for
  officers, and for the infirmary and dispensary ; while the
  lower part is divided into two prisons, one for the French,
  the other  for Americans.  The prison yard is little more
  than an acre, the whole island being little more  than five
  acres.   It is  connected on the  south side with the main
  land by a bridge.   The parade, so called, is between the
  Turnkey's house, and  the barracks.  From  all which  it
  may be gathered that  Melville Island  is a  very humble '
  garrison,  and a very dreary spot for the officer who com-
  mands there.
    The  view from the  prison exhibit? a range of dreary
  hills.  On the northern side are a few scattered dwellings,
• and some  attempts at  cultivation ; on the southern noth-
  ing appears but immense piles of rocks, with bushes, scat-
  tered here and there in their hollows andcrevices j if their 
JOURNAL.
II?
Bummer appearance conveys the idea of barrenness, their
winter appearance must be dreadful  in this region of al-
most everlasting frost and snow.   This unfruitful  country
is rightly named New Scotland.  Barren and unfruitful as
old Scotland is,  our Nova Scotia  is worse.  If Churchill
were alive, what might he not say of this  rude and unfin-
ished part of creation, that glories  in the name of New
Scotland ?  The picture would  here be  complete if it
were set off with here and there a meagre, and dried up
highlander, without shoes,  stockings or breeches, with a
ragged plaid, a little blue flat bonnet, sitting on a bleak
rock  playing  a bag-pipe, and singing the glories  of a
countrv that never was conquered !  To fiuish the picture,
you have to imagine a  dozen more ragged  raw boned
Scotchmen, sitting on the bare rocks around the piper*
knitting stockings to send to England and  America, where
they  can afford to wear them.   Such  is Scotia  old  and
new, whose sons are remarkable for their inveterate ha-
tred of the Americans, as we shall see in the course ol this
narrative.                       „„,.,•  r  1   j  -ei\
   As to the inside of the prison at Melville Island, it the
 American reader expects to hear  it represented as a place
 resembling the  large  prisons for criminals  m the United
 States, such as those at  Boston, Charlestown, New York
 or Philadelphia, he will be sadly disappointed,   borne ol
 these prisons are as  clean, and nearly as comfortable, as
 some of the monasteries and convents in Europe.   Our
 new prisons in the United States reflect  great honour on
 the nation.  They speak loudly that we are a considerate
 and  humane  people;  whereas  the  prison  at  Halifax,
 erected solely for the safe keeping of prisoners of war,
 resembles an horse  stable, with stalls, or stanchions, for
 separating the cattle from each other.  It is to a contriv-
 ance of this sort that they attach the  cords that support
 those canvass bags, or cradles, called  hammocks,   tour
 tier of these hanging nests were made to  swing one above
 another, between these stalls or stanchions.  1 o those un-
 used to these lofty sleeping-births,  they  were rather un-
 pleasant situations for repose.  But use makes every thing

 ed The first time I was shut up for the night, in this prison,
 it"distressed me too maeh to close nv,  eyes.  Its chseness
 and smell were, in a degree, disagreeable, but  this was 
i-i                    JOURNAL.

trifling'to what I experienced afterwards, in another place.
The general hum and confused noise from  almost every
hammock was at first, very distressing.   Some  would be
lamenting their  hard fate  at  being shut up like negro
slaves  in a guinea ship, or like fowls in a  hencoop,  for
ho  crime, but for fighting the battles of their country.
Some were cursing and execrating their oppressors; oth-
ers, late at night, were relating their adventures to a new
prisoner; others lamenting  their aberrations from recti-
tude, and disobedience to parents, and head  strong wilful-
ness, that drove  them to sea, contrary to  their parents
wish, while others, of the younger class, were sobbing out
their lamentations at the thoughts of what their mothers
and sisters suffered, after knowing of their imprisonment.
Not unfrequently the whole night was spent in  this way,
and when, about day break, the weary prisoner fell into a
dose, he was waked from his slumber by the grinding noise
of the  locks,  and the unbarring of the doors, with the  cry
ofiL tm')i oxd—all out" when each man took down his ham-
mock and lashed it up, and slung it on  his back, and was
ready to answer to the roll-call of the turnkey.   If any,
through  natural heaviness or  indisposition, was dilatory,
he was sure to feel the bayonet of the brutal soldier, who
appeared to us to have a natural antipathy to a sailor,  and
from what I observed, 1 believe that in general little or no
love is lost between them.                   ,
   This prison is swept out twice a week, by the prisoners.
The task is performed by the respective messes in tnrhs.
When  the  prison is washed, the prisoners are kept  out
until it is perfectly dry.  This, in the wet seasons, and in
the severity of winter, is sometimes very distressing  aud
dangerous  to health; for there  is  no  retiring place for
shelter :—it is like a stable, where the  cattle  are either
under cover,  or  exposed to the weather, be it ever  so in-
clement.
   Wheu we arrived  here in May, 1813, there were about
nine hundred prisoners ;  but many died by the severity of
the winter; and the quantity of fuel allowed  by the Brit-
ish government was insufficient to convey warmth through
the  prison.   The men were cruelly harrassed by the bar-
barous custom of mustering and parading them in the se-
verest  cold, and even i;i snow storms.   The agent, Miller,
might  have alleviated the sufferings of our pe<:^e. had he 
JOURNAL.
IS
been so disposed,  without  relaxation of duty.  Bu<  he,
as well as the turnkey, named Grant, seemed to take de-
light in tormenting the Americans.  This man would often
keep the prisoners out  for many hours, in  the severest
weather, when the mercury was ten a>:d fifteen degrees be-
low 0, under a  pretext that the prison had been washed,
and  was not  sufficiently dry for their reception, when in
fact,  every  drop of water used, was in a  moment ice.
People in the southern states, and the inhabitants of Eng-
land and Ireland, can form no adequate idea of the  fright-
ful climate of Nova Scotia.  The description of the suffer-
ings of our poor fellows, the past winter,  was enough to
make ones heart ache, and to rouse our indignation against
the agents in this business
   Our people are sensible to kind treatment, and are ready
to acknowledge humane and considerate conduct towards
themselves,  or  towards their companions; but they  are
resentful in-proportion as they are grateful.  They speak
very generally of the conduct of Miller the agent, and
Grant  the  turnkey, with  disgust and resentment.   A
complaint was  made  to him  of  the badness  of the beef
served out  to the prisoners,  upon which he  collected the
prisoners, and maunted the stair-ease, began a most pas-
sionate harrangue, declaring that the beef was good enough,
and a d—d deal better than they had in their own coun-
try, and if they did not eat it, they should have none.  He
then went   on  as follows :—" Hundreds of  you, d—d
" screundrels, have been to me begging and pleading that
" I would interpose my influence that  you might  be the
" first to be exchanged, to return home  to your families,
*' who were starving in your  ahsence, and now  you have
" the impudence  to tell me to  my face, that the King's
" beef is not good enough for your dainty stomach.  Why
" some of that  there beef is good enough for me  to eat.
ei You are a set of mean rascals,you beg ofan enemy the fa-
" vours which your own government won't graat you  You
" complain of ill treatment, when you never fared better in
" your lives.  Had you been in a French prison and fed on
" horse-beef, you would have some grounds of complaint;
" but here  in his Brittanick Majesty'9  royal prison, you
" have every thing that is right and proper for persons
" taken fighting against his  crown and dignity.  There
" is a surgeon here for you, if you are sick, and physick 
16
JOURNAL.
" to take if vou are sick, and a hospital to go to info the
" bargain, and if you die,  there are boards enough (point-
'•ingto a pile of  lumber in the yard)  for  to  make  you
" coffins, and  an hundred and fifty acres of laud to bury
" you in : and if vou are not satisfied with all tins you may
"die  and be  d—d."—Having  finished  this  eloquent
harrangue, orator Miller descended from his rostrum, and
strutted out of the prison yard, accompanied with hisses
from some of the prisoners.
  On a re-examination however of the " King's beef," some
pieces were found too much tainted for a dog  to eat,  and
the prisoners threw it over the pickets.  After this, the
supply of wholesome meat was  such as it ought to  be;
full good enough for Mr. Miller himself to eat; and some
of the very best pieces good enough for Grant, the turnkey.
  In all  this  business of provision for  prisoners of war,
one thing ought to be taken into consideration,  which may
be offered as an extenuation of crime  alledged against the
British agents for prisoners; and that is, that the Ameri-
can  soldier  and sailor live  infinitely better in America,
than the same class of people do  in Great Britain and Ire-
land.  Generally speaking, an American eats three times
the quantity of animal  food that falls to the share of the
same class of people in England, Holland, Germany, Den-
mark or Sweden.   He sleeps more comfortably and lives
in greater plenty of fish, flesh, vegetables and spirituous
liquors.  Add to this, his freedom is in a manner unbound-
ed.  He speaks his mind to any man.  If  he thinks he is
wronged he seeks redress with confidence ; if he  is insulted,
he resents it;  and  if you should  venture to strike hiin, he
never will rest quiet under the dishonor ; yet you seldom or
ever hear of quarrels ending in murder.  The dagger and
pistol are weapons, in a manner unknown.   The fist, a la
mode de John  Bull, is commonly the  ultimatum of a Yan-
kee's rage.
  We often hear the British, if they are unsuccessful, la-
menting the war between England and America; they call
it an unhappy strife between brethren ;  and they attribute
this  " unnatural war," to a French  influence; and their
friends in New England, who are denominated tories, use
the same  language ; they say that  all  the odium of the
war ought to fall on our administration and their wicked
seducers, the French ; and yet you will find that both in 
JOURNAL.
17
England and at Halifax^  the  French meet with better
treatment than their dear brothers the Americans.
  We  found that there were about two hundred French
prisoners in Nova  Scotia.  Some had  been  there  ever
since 1803.   Few of them were confined in prison.   The
chief of them lived in, or near the town of Halifax, work-
ing for the inhabitants, or teaching dancing,  or fencing,
or their own language.   Some were employed as butchers,
and  c>oks ; others as nurses in the hospital; and  they
were every where favoured for their complaisance, obedi-
ence and good humour.   They had the character of behav-
ing  better towards  the British officers,  and  inhabitants
than the Americans, and I believe with  reason; for our
men seem to take a delight in plaguing, embarrassing and
alarming those who were set over them.  A  Frenchman
always tried to please, while many Americans seemed to
take an  equal delight in letting the Nova Scotians know
that they longed to  be  at liberty to fight  them again.  I
confess I do not wonder that the submissive,  smiling
Frenchmen made more  friends at Halifax, than the ordi-
nary run of American  seamen, who seemed too often  to
look and speak as if they longed to  try again the lug of war
with John Bull.
  Sunday being a leisure day among the men  of business
in Halifax and its vicinity, the old refugees from the Unit-
ed states used  to come round the prison to gratify their
eyes, instead of going to a place of worship, with the sight
of what they called "• rebels."   These  are generally
Scotchmen,  or  sons  of Scotchmen, and  are  very bitter
against the Americans.  Some of  this class were clergy-
men, who came occasionally to  pray and  preach with  us
in prison.  We paid every mark of respect to  every mod-
est and prudent minister who came among us  to perform.
divine  service; but  we  never could restrain our feelings,
when one of these refugee gentlemen came among us pray-
ing for King George and  the  royal family of England.
The men considered it as an insult, and resented it accord-
ingly.   Some of these  imprudent  men would fulminate
the vengeance of Heaven,  for what they conceived polit-
ical, instead of moral  errors.   The  prisoners respected
some of these reverend gentlemen highly,  while they  des-
pised some others.   The priesthood,  however, have less
                2 
16
JOURNAL.
hold on the minds of the people of the United States, than
of any other people on earth.
  The Bishops and Church  of England are fast destroy-
ing their own craft, by aiding the sly dissenters in spread-
ing  the  Bible through  every family in Britain  and  in
America.  In reading tins blessed book, the people will
see how Christianity has been corrupted.  They will com-
pare the  arch-bishops and dignified clergy of the  present
degenerate days, with the plainness of our Saviour, and
with the  simplicity of the  holy fisherman and other  of his
disciples.  Before this book  the factitious institutions and
gorgeous establishments of the modern priesthood will
fade and die, like Jonah's gourd.   The English Episco-
pacy never has, nor ever \i ill take deep root in the United
States.  It can never flourish in the American soil.  Even
the Roman Catholic religion is here a humble and ration-
al thing.  Its ministers  are highly  respected, because
their lives  adorn their  doctrines  ; and the parochal care
of their flock, who are principally Irish,  is seen and com-
mended.   It is observed throughout our sea ports, that the
seafaring people are generous supporters of their minis-
ters ; but these same people can never be made to pay
tythes, or to hear and support a minister whom they had
not directly or remotely chosen.  This is the predominant
sentiment of all the anglo-Americans.
  The daily allowance of the British government to our
prisoners is one pound of bread, one pound of beef, and
one gill of pease.  Over and above this  we received from
ihe American agent a sufficiency of coffee, sugar, potatoes
and  tobacco.  The first may  be called the  bare necessa-
ries of life, but the latter contribute much to its comforta-
ble enjoyment.   Whether the British government  ought
not to have found the whole I am not prepared to  deter-
mine ; but certainly, before this addition from our own
agent, our men complained bitterly.!
  In justice to Mr. Miller,  the British agent, I ought to
record that he  paid great attention to th'e cleanliness of
the prison, and to the clothes of the men ; and I must, at
the same time, say that some of  our men were very  dirty,
lazy fellows, that required constantly spurring Hp to keep
them from being offensive.   This indolent  and careless
disposition was observed to  be chiefly among those who
had been formerly intemperate ;  they felt the'loss of their
beloved stimulous, and  their spirits  sunk, and they had 
JOLKN'AL.
IS
railier lay down and rot, and  die, than exert themselves.
There were a few who seemed to  be like hogs,  innately
dirty,  and who had rather be  dirty than  clean.  Mr.
Miller had therefore great merit in compelling these men
to follow the  rules prescribed  to the  whole prison.  He
has the thanks of every considerate American.
  It was a common remark, that the  most indolent and
most slovenly men were the most vicious ; and a dirty ex-
ternal was a pretty sure  indication of a depraved mind.
Such  as would not conform  to the rules of cleanliness
were committed to the black-hole, which was under the
prison,  and  divided  into  solitary cells.   The agent had
the power of confining a prisoner in one of these dungeons
during ten days.  It is to the credit of our seamen to re-
mark that they co-operated with the agent most  heartily
in whatever tended to  preserve the  cleanliness  of their
persons, and they  applauded the confinement of such as
were disinclined to follow the salutary rules of the prison.
  We were one day not a little shocked by the arrival of
a number of American soldiers who were entrapped and
taken with  Colonel Boerstler, in Upper  Canada.  They
exhibited a picture of  misery,  woe and despair.  Their
miserable  condition called forth our sympathy and  com-
passion, and 1 may add excited our  resentment  against
ihe authors  of their distress.  These  uirtbrtunate lands-
men had never been used  to rough it like  sailors,  but had
lived  the  easy life of  farmer.* and mechanics.  Some  of
them  had never experienced the hardships of a soldiers
life, but were raw, inexperienced militia men.  They were
taken at some  creek between Fort George and Little York
by the British and their allies  the Indians, who  stripped
them of most of their clothing, and then wore them down
by very long and harrassing  marches; first to Montreal,
and then  to Quebec ; and  soon after  crowded them  on
hoard transports, like  negroes in  a guinea ship,  where
some suffered deathfand others merely escaped it.  It ap-
pears from their account and from every other account that
the treatment of these poor fellows at their  capture, and
on their march, and more especially on board the transports
from Quebec to Halifax, was barbarous in the extreme, and
5iigMy disgraceful to the  British name and nation.
  We have  it asserted  uniform!}, that t?:e prisoners, who
came from Quebec to Halifax and to Boston, down the St. 
?u
JOURNAL.
Lawrence,  were treated and  provided  for  in a  manned
little above  brutes.  Colonel Scott, now Major General
Scott, came by that rout from Quebec to Boston, and  it is
well known that  he complained that there was  neither
accommodations, provisions, or any thing on board the
ship proper for  a gentleman.   He spoke of the  whole
treatment  he received  with deep disgust and pointed re-
sentment.   If an officer of his rank and accomplishments
had so  much reason for complaint, we may easily conceive
what (he private soldier must endure.
  We  paid every attention in our power to these poor
soldiers, whose emaciated appearance and dejection gave
us reason to expect that an end would soon be put  to their
sufferings by death.  They, however, recruited fast;  and
we  were soon  convinced that  they were  reduced  to the
ccisdition we saw them in, absolutely for want  of food.
The account which these soldiers gave of their hardships
was enough to fill with rage and resentment the  heart of
a saint. Four men were not allowed more provision than
what was needful for one.   They assured us, that if they
ha<! not secretly come at some bags of ship bread, unknown
to the  officers of the transport, they must have perished
for want of food.  We cannot pass over one anecdote.
Some fish  were caught by our own people on the passage,
in common with the crew, but  they  were compelled to de-
liver them all to  the captain  of the ship, who withheld
them from the American prisoners.   Some of the prison-
ers had a little money, and the captain  of  the transport
was mean  enough to take a dollar for a single cod  fish,
from men in their situation.  This fact has  appeared in
several Boston papers, with the names of the persons  con-
cerned, and has never  been contradicted  or doubted.  We
give this as the common report; and as  the Boston news-
papers circulated freely through Nova Scotia and Canada,
we  infer that had the story been void of truth it would
have been contradicted.
  Those Americans who have no other knowledge of the
English character, but what they gather from books made
in London ; and  from their dramatic  productions,  and
from their national songs, would believe, as I myself once
did, that John Bull, (by which name Dean Swift personi-
fied the whole nation) wa9 an humane,  tender-hearted.
generous gentleman; but let him be once in  the power of 
JOURNAL.
si
&/ti Englishman, or what is still worse,  of a Scotchman,
and  it will  correct his erroneous notions.   An English-
man is  strongly attached to his King and  country, and
thinks nothing on earth can equal them, while he  holds
all the rest of the world in comparative contempt.  Until
the days of Bonaparte, the people of England really be-
lieved that one Englishman could flog six  Frenchmen.
They at one time  had the same idea of us, Americans ;
but the late war  has  corrected their articles of belief.
The humanity of the British is one of the most monstrous
impositions.
  The most glaring feature in the English character is a
vain glorious ostentation, as is exhibited in  their elegant
and costly steeples, superb hospitals, useless cathedrals,
lying columns : such as the monument near Loudon bridge,
which as Pope says of it,

                " Lifts its tall head and lies."

But if you wish to  learn their real character, look at their
bloody"code of laws, read their wars with Wales,  with
Scotland, and with Ireland.   Look at India, and  at  their
own West India Islands.  Look at the present border war
carried  on by associating themselves  with our savages;
look  into this very prison, ask the soldiers just brought
into it,  what thev  think of  British humanity or British
bravery.   A  reliance  on British veracity and  honour
caused these poor  fellovvs to surrender, when they found
them  worse than the Indians.   These things may be for-
given, but they ought never to be forgotten.
  Nova Scotia, or New Scotland, was formerly called
Chebucto  by the native Indians.  It h a  dreary  region.
The country, for many miles west of Halifax, is a continued
range of mountains,  rising one over the other, as iar as
the eye can  reach.  The winters are severe,  and the
springs backward.  The trees appeared to be as  bare on
the 26th of May as the  same kind of trees do in the middle
of March.  To us there was something hideous in the as-
pect of  their mountains; but this  may  have been partly
owing to our own hideous habitation, and low spirits.   1 he
same objects may have appeared charming m the eyes ol
a Scotch family/just arrived from the fag-end of the Island
of Great Britain. 
22
JOURNAL
  The capital, Halifax, was settled by a number of British
subjects in 1749.  It is situated  on a spacious  and com-
modious bay or harbor, called Chebucto, of a bold and easy-
entrance,  where a  thousand of  the  largest ships might
ride with  safety.  The town  is built on the west side of
the harbor,  and  on  the declivity of  a commanding hill,
whose summit is 236 feet perpendicular from the level of
the sea.   The town  is laid out into  oblong squares ; the
streets parallel and  at right angles.  The  town and sub-
urbs are about two miles in length; and the  general width
a quarter  of a mile.   It contained in 1793, about 4000 in-
habitants and 700 houses.   At the  northern extremity of
the town,  is  the king's naval  yard, completely built and
supplied with stores of every kind for the royal navy. The
harbor of  Halifax is reckoned inferior to no place in Bri-
tish America for the seat of government,  being  open and
accessible  at all seasons of the year, when almost all other
harbors in these  provinces  are locked  up with ice ; also
from its entrance, situation, and  its proximity to the bay
of Fundy,  and principal interior  settlements of the prov-
ince.  This  city  lying on the  S coast of Nova Scotia has
communication with  Piclou, 68 miles to the N E on the
gulf of St. Lawrence, by a good cart road finished in 1792.
I.t is 12 miles northerly of Cape Sambro, which forms in
part the entrance of the bay; 27 south easterly of Wind-
sor, 40 N  by E of Truro,  80 N E by  E of Annapolis,  on
the bay of Fundy, and 157 S E of St.  Ann, in New Bruns-
wick, measuring in a straight  line.  N. lat.  44 40, W Ion.
<;3 15.
  It was settled chiefly by Scotchmen;  and  since the rev-
olutionary war,  which secured  our independence, they
have  received considerable additions  from  the  United
States of a class  of men denominated refugees, who exiled
themselves,  on account of our republicanism and of their
own attachment to the best of kings.  They show too often
their  hatred to us.   To  this day they call us " rebels ;"
and they speak to us in a stile and  tone as if they were
sorry  they could  not murder us without the  risk of being
hanged.
  It is strange, it is passing strange, that a whole people
should be  so strongly attached to  the honor, crown  and
dignity of their conquerors as the  Scotch are to the present
royal family of England, whose ancestor was, in fact, an 
JOURNAL.
S3
usurper of the crown and dignities of the Scotch race of
kings, the self sufficient Stewarts.  The most remarkable
thing in the reign of George (beside that of loosing Amer-
ica)  is the perfect conciliation of the Scotch.   Whether
this was owing to my Lord Bute, or to his relation, 1 am
unable to say ;  but it is a singular thing in the history of
nations, when we take into consideration the cruel treat-
ment of the Scotch so low down as the year 174£.  As
there is no new thing under the sun,  and what has been
may  be again,  who knows but that  the  Cherokees and
Choctaws, the  Chippewas, the Hurons and  Pottowatto-
mies may hereafter become  most attached to our govern-
ment, and afford us Judges, Secretaries  of State, Admi-
rals, Generals, Governors of  Provinces, Grooms of the
Stool, and Historians ?  Who knows but the day will come,
when there shall spring up from the mud and ooze of our
own  trifling lakes, another Walter Scott, who  shall sing
as sublimely to  the  story of our border wars; and who
shall be able to trace a long and illustrious line of ances-
try, up to the renowned chief Split-log, Walk-in-the-water,
Hanging-maw,  or to  Tecumseh ? Who  knows but that
among these American highlanders, we shall find another
Ossian and  another  Fingal?  for what  has  been,  under
similar circumstances, may be again.
  Early in the  month of July, we were not a little dis-
turbed by  the arrival of the crew of  our ill omened, ill
fated Chesapeake.
  The capture of this American frigate by the British
frigate Shannon of equal force, was variously related.
From all  that  I  could gather, she  was not judiciously
brought into action, nor well fought after Capt. Lawrence
fell.   It is too much like the British to hunt up every pos-
sible excuse for a defeat; but we  must conclude,  and  I
have since found it a general opinion in the United States,
that the frigate was by no means in a condition to go into
action.  The captain was a stranger to his own crew; his
ship was  lumbered  up  with her cables and every thing
else.  She ought to have cruised three or four days before
she met the Shannon, and that, it seems, was the opinion
of the captain of the British frigate ; who was every way
prepared for the action
   The rapid destruction of the British sloop  of war Pea-
cock, gave Lawrence high reputation; and  he felt as^if 
JOURNAL.
     he must act up to his high character.  He seemed like an
     hero impelled, by high ideas of chivalry, to fight? conquer
     or die, without attending to the needful cautions and prep-
     arations.  His first officer he left sick en shore; his next
     officer was soon killed ; soon after which he fell himself,
     uttering the never to be forgotten words, '" Don't  give
     up the ship," which has since become a sort of national
     motto.   While the British captain prudenth dressed him-
fc    self in a short jacket and round hat, so as  not to distin-
     guish himself from the other officers, our Capt.  Lawrence,
     who was six feet and fbur inches tall, was in his uniform
     and military hat, a fair and inviting mark for the enemy's
     sharp shooters.  No one doubted his bravery, but  some
     have called his prudence in question.
       This heroic man  and his Lieutenant,  Ludlow,  were
     three times buried with great military pomp ; first at Hal-
,,    ifax—then at Salem, and last of all at New York.  The
     name of Lawrence is consecrated in America, while his
     ever unlucky ship is doomed to everlasting ignominy  ; for
     this was the vessel that preferred allowing the  British
     ship Leopard to muster her crew, instead of sinking, with
     her colors flying.
       In the month of August, Halifax was  alarmed, or pre-
     tended to be alarmed, by a  rumor that the prisoners  on
     Tvielville Island, which is about three miles, or less, from
     the town, meditated a sally,  with a determination of seiz-
     ing the capital of Nova Scotia.   They immediately took
     the most serious precautions, and screwed up their muni-
     cipal regulations to the highest pitch.   All the loyal cit-
     izens entrusted with  arms,  were ordered to keep them-
     selves in readiness to march  at a minute's warning to re-
     pel the meditated attack of about a  thousand unarmed
     yaukees, rendered formidable by a reinforcement of a few
     dozen half starved  soldiers,  who were taken by  the In-
     dians and British and sent from  Quebec down the river
     St. Lawrence,  to the formidable American post ou Mel-
     ville Island, under the command of turn-key Grant !  who
     was himself under the  command of Lieut. General  Mr.
     Agent Miller!
       It was reported and believed by many in Halifax,  that
     the prisoners had made arrangements for the attack, and
     had sworn to massacre every man, woman  and child.
     When we found that they reallv believed the  ridiculsus 
•OURNAL.
itofy, we must confess that we enjoyed their terror, and
laughed  inwardly at their formidable precautions of de-
fence.  They placed a company of artillery, with two pie~
ces of cannon on a height south of the prison; and cleared
up a piece of land, and stationed another corps of artillery
with a cannon so placed as to rake our  habitation length-
wise, while sentries  were placed at regulated distances on
the road, all the way into the town of Halifax.   An addi-
tional number of troops were stationed on the island, who
bivouacked in the open air near to the officers dwellings;
in other words, they were placed there to prevent us from
cutting the officers  throats with clam  shells,  or oyster
shells, for we had nothing metallic for the purpose.
  When  we saw these formidable preparations, and re*
fleeted on our own helpless Condition, without any means
of offence, beside our teeth and nails, we could not but des-
pise  our enemies; and we did not omit to increase their
ridiculous alarm, by whispering together, pointing  our
fingers sometimes E. and sometimes YV. and sometimes Nv
and sometimes S. ami rubbiag our hands and laughing and
affecting to be in high spirits.  The conduct of the agent^
at this threatening crisis  of his affairs, did not diminish
our contempt of him.  He would often mount his rostrum,
the head  of the stair-case, to address us,  and  assure us,
that we  should  soon be  delivered from our confinement
and be sent home. He said that he did not expect to see any
of us in  prison  six weeks longer;  and  that our detention
was then only owing to some delay of orders from admiral
Warren ; but that  he expected them every moment.  He
therefore entreated us to  remain  contented and quiet a lit-
tle longer, and uot obstruct the kind intentions  that were
in train for our deliverance from captivity ; and he assur-
ed us, upon his honor, that every thing should be done in
his power to expedite our return home ; that there  were
then three cartels getting ready to convey us away.   In
the mean time every thing was said and done at Halifax
to make  us satisfied and quiet.
  While the agent was making his declarations of friend-
ship, and protesting upon his honor, that we should be
sent home, he knew full Well that the greatest part  of the
prisoners were to be  sent across  the atlantic, to  suffer the
punishment of a British prison.  Tke policy of the Eng-
lish  government wa«, it  seems, to- discourage the enlist- 
36

men
  eut of soldiers into owr service by sending the prisoners,
taken on the frontiers, to England.  They meant also to
distress us bv accumulating our seamen in their prisons,
and this the/imagined would disenable us from manning
our men of war, or sending out privateers.   1 hey pi eier-
red every mode of distressing  us to that of fair fighting,
for, in fair fight and equal numbers, we have always beat
them  by sea and land.                 .
  Wc "were in good humor an3 high spirits at the prospect
of leaving our loathsome den, and once more returning
home to see our mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers,
and school fellows, and the  old jolly  companions of our
happy days.  We smiled upon Mr. Agent Miller, and he
upon'us.*  We greeted our turn key, the now  and then
smooth tongued Mr. Grant, with a good morrow, and  all
feelings of hostility were fast subsiding ; and one told him
that lie should be very glad to  see him in Boston ; another
said he should be  very  glad to see him  in  Marblehead,
and another at New York, and Baltimore, and so on.
  Towards the close  of the month of  August,  and after
Mr. Agent Miller and the military had taken the most ef-
fectual method to provide against  the possibility of resist-
ance  from  the prisoners, reports now and  then reached us,
that the expected exchange was unhappily broken off, and
that it was the fault of the American government. These
things were hinted at  with  great  caution, as not entitled
to eutire credit; the next day it was said that the business
of exchange was in a prosperous train. All this was done
by way of feeling  the pulse of the most respectable of the
prisoners ; those most likely to take the lead in an insur-
rection.   YVe could easily trace all these different stories
Jo the cunning Mr. Miller, through his subordinate agents.
   On the first day of September, 1813, an hundred of us
prisoners were selected from different crews, and ordered
to get our  baggage ready and be  at the gate at a certain
hour. On enquiring of our keeper, Mr. Grant, what was
the design of this  order, he replied, with his habitual  du-
plicity, that we were '• to be sent home."  YVhen Mr Mil-
ler was asked the  same question,  he  replied, that he had
a particular reason, at  that time, for  not answering  the
question;  but none of us doubted from the selection from
different crews, but that we were about to be sent to  our
beloved country and natal homes. YYe left the prison with 
JOURNAL.
iif
»ight hearts, not without pitying our companions, who
were doomed to wait awhile longer before they  could be
made so happy as we then felt.  YVe stepped on board  the
boats with smiling countenances.  The barge men told us
•that the ships we were going to were cartels.
  Having arrived among the shipping, the officer of  the
boat was asked, which of these several ships was the car-
<cl—"there," said he, pointing to an  old 41-, "is the ship,
" which is to take you to Old England."  Heavens above!
What a stroke of thunder was this !  We looked at each
other with horror, with  dismay, and stupefaction, before
our depressed souls recoiled with indignation! Such a
change of countenance I never beheld! Had  we been on
the deck of a ship, and been informed that a  match was
just about being  touched to her  magazine of powder, we
should not have exhibited sueh a picture of paleness  and
dismay.   The deception was cruel; the  duplicity was hir
famous.  The whole trick from beginning to end was an
instance of cowardice, meanness and villainy.   It proves
that cowards are cruel; that barbarity and sincerity never
meet in the same bosom.
   YY'e  now  saw that the rumor of  our rising  upon  our
keepers, and marching to Halifax was a miserable false-
hood, spread abroad for no other purpose than  to double
our guards, and prevent the imagined consequences of des-
peration, should it be discovered that we were  to be  sent
across  the  atlantic.  It is  possible  we might  have  suc-
ceeded  in disarming the soldiers on the island,  and taken
their cannon; but for want of more  arms we could have
done but little.   Had we all been  armed we could have
entered  Halifax, and put to the test  the bravery of these
 loyalists ; but an unarmed multitude  are nothing before au
 eighth part of their number of regular soldiers.  Military
 men, in Halifax, could never have had a moment's serious
 apprehension from the prisoners on Melville Island.  It is
 my firm opinion, however, that had  we been apprized of
 our cruel destination, we should have risen upon the boats
 and attempted an escape, or sold our lives dearly.  Re-
 venge and  desperation  have  done  wonders;  and  both
 would have  steeled the heart and nerved the arm  of our
 little band of sufferers.   Had we not been beguiled  with
 the lies of the agent and his  turn  key, we  should have
 "•iven our enemies a  fresh proof of American bravery, if 
.*«
JOURNAL.
not of  imprudence.   Had  Miller been  on board the neat
with us, we should most certainly have  thrown him over-
board.   His base and dishonorable artifice, first to raise
r.ir hopes and expectations to the height of joy, and then
to sink us in despair, was an infamous deed, worthy such
a rew ard.   Speaking for myself, I declare, that my heart
snnk within mc, and I came'near tainting, and it was some
time before tears came to my relief; then in a burst of in-
dignation, I cursed the perfidious enemy, and felt my isouj
-vound  up to deeds of desperation.
                   CHAPTER II.

  Had the agent informed us of the orders of his govern-
ment, and made us acquainted with our destination, we
should have braced our minds up to the occasion, and sub-
mitted to our hard fate like men.  We should have said
to each other in the language of Shakespeare—" if these
•* things  be necessities, lefs meet them like necessities ;'*
but to be deceived and duped, and cajoled  into a state of
great joy and exultation, and then, in an instant, precipi-
tated into the dark and cold regions of despair, was bar-
barous beyond expression.   As much resentment as 1 feel
towards Miller and his subalterns, 1 cannot wish either of
them to suffer the pangs I felt at the idea of this floating
dungeon.
  The late Governor Gerry, in one of his  communica-
tions to the legislature of Massachusetts, when speaking
of the impressment and ill usage of our seamen by the
English, calls a British man of war " a floating Pandemo-
k< nium."  1 never felt the force of that expression until I
entered on board this floating hell.
  After some difficulty and  delay we got ourselves and
bedding up the side  of the ship;  and as our  names were
called over, our bedding was served out to us.   We in-
formed the officer that there were but seventy blankets for
an hundred men; to which he replied, that he had orders to
serve out blankets in the same proportion as they served
put our provisions.   To understand this, the  reader musf 
JOL7RNAL.
2t)
rV.iow that the "ritish have been in tlie habit, all Ihe war,
 of giving to their prisoners a less quantity of food than to
 their oun men.  They uniformly gave  to six of us,  the
 same quantity which they gave to four of their own sailors.
 If what they allowed to  their oun  men was barely suffi-
 cient, what they gave to us could not be enough to satisfy
 the  cravings of hunger; and this we all found to be  the
 case.
   The crew of the man of .war sleep on  the deck, which is
 next under the gun deck, while our destination was on the
 deck under that.  It was to the ship what the cellar is to
 a house.  It was under water, and of course, without win-
 dows, or air holes.  All  the  air and  light came through
 the  batch way, a sort of trap door or cellar way.  In  this
 floating dungeon, we miserable young men spent our first
 night, in  sleepless anguish, embittered with the apprehen-
 sion of our suffering a cruel death by suffocation.  Here
 the black bole of Calcutta rose to my view in all  its hor-
 rors : and the very thought stopped my respiration,  and
 set my brain on fire.  In my distress, 1 stamped with my
 feet, and beat my head against the side of the ship in the
 madness  of despair.  I measured   the misery of those
 around  me  by  what I myself suffered.  Shut up in the
 dark, with  ninety-nine distressed young men, like so many
 galley slaves, or Guinea negroes, excluded from the bene-
 fit of the common air, without one ray of light or comfort,
 and without a single word expressive of compassion from
 any officer  of the ship.  I never was so near sinking  into
 despair    YVe naturally cling to life,  but now I should
 have welcomed death.  To be confined, and even chained
 any  where in the light of the  sun,  is a distressing tbin<r,
 especially to very young men, but to be crowded into a
 dirty hole  in the dark, where  there was  no circulation
 of air is beyond expression horrible.  Perhaps my study
 of the human frame, and my knowledge of the vital prop-
 erty of the air, and of the philosophy of the vital functions,
 may have added to my distress.  I remembered what I  had
 read and learnt in the course of my education, viz: that
 every full grown person requires forty-eight thousand  cu-
 bic inches of air in an hour, or one million one hundred  and
fifty-two thousand cubic inches in the course of a day ;  and
 that if this  is once received  into the lungs and breathed
 out again, it cannot  be breathed a second time, till it is
                  3 
60
JOURNAL.
mixed with the common atmospheric air.   V. hen I con-
sidered that our number amounted to an hundred, 1 could
not drive i'rom my mind this calculation, and the result of
it nearly deprived me of my reason.  The horrors of  the
Black Hole of Calcutta have been long celebrated, because
Englishmen suffered and perished in it.   Now the English
have more than a  thousand black holes into which they
unfeelingly thrust their impressed  men, and their prison-
ers  ol war.   Their tenders that lay in the Thames, off
Tower-wharf are so many black holes into which they
thrust their own people, whom their press gangs seize in
the  streets of London, and crowd into them like so many
live rabbits or chickens carrying in a cart to market.   My
reflections on these things have greatly changed my opinion
of the English character in point of humanity.
  After passing a wretched night, one of the petty officers
came down to us, by which event,  we  learnt that it  was
morning.   1 found myself much indisposed ; my tongue
was dry and coated with a furr; my head ached  violently,
and I felt no inclination to take any thing but cold water.
A degree of calmness, however, prevailed  among  my  fel-
low prisoners.  They found lamentations unavailing, and
complaints useless.  Few  of them, beside myself, had  lost
their appetites,  and several  expressed a  wish for some
breakfast.  Preparations were soon  made for this delicious
repast.   The first step was to divide us into messes,  six
in a mess.  To each mess was given a wooden kid, or pig-
gin, as our farmers call  them, because it  is out of such
wooden vessels that  they  feed their pigs that are fatting
for the market.   At 8 o'clock one was called from each
mess, by the whistle of the boatswain's mate, to attend at
the galley, the nautical  name for the kitchen and  fire
place,  to receive  the breakfast  for the rest.   But what
■was our disappointment to find instead of coffee, which we
were allowed by our own government  at Melville prison,
a piggin of swiil, for we  farmers'  sons can give no  other
name  to the disgusting  mess  they brought  us.  This
breakfast was a pint of liquid  which  they call Burgoo,
which is a kind  of oatmeal gruel, about the consistence of
the swill which  our farmers give their hogs,  and not  a
whit better in its quality.   It is made  of oatmeal, which
we Americans very generally detest. Our people consider
ground oats as only fit for cattle, and it is never eaten by 
JOURNAL.
St
the human species in the United  States.  It  is said  that
this oatmeal porridge, was introduced to the British  pris-
ons by the Scotch influence, and we think that none but
hogs and Scotchmen ought to eat it.  A mess more repel-
lant to ayankee's stomach could not well be contrived. It
is said, however, that the Highlanders are very fond  of it,
and that the Scotch  physicians extol it as a  very whole-
some  and nutritious  food, and very nicely calculated for
the sedentary  life of a prisoner ; but  by what we  have
heard, we are led  to believe that oatmeal is  the staple
commodity  of  Scotland,  and that the  highly  favored
Scotch have the exclusive privilege of supplying the mis-
erable creatures whom the fortune of war has thrown into
the hands of the English, with this national dish, so deli-
cious  to Scotchmen, and so abhorrent to an American.
   Excepting this pint of oatmeal porridge, we had  noth-
ing more to eat or drink until dinner time ; when we  were
served with a pint of pea water.  Our allowance for the
week, for it is difficult to calculate it by the day, was four
and a half pounds of bread, two and a quarter  pounds of
beef  or pork,  one and a quarter pounds of flour, and the
pea water, which they called " soup"  five days in  every
week.  Now let any man of knowledge and observation
judge, whether the portion of food here allotted to  each
man  was sufficient to preserve him from the exquisite tor-
tures of hunger ; and perhaps there is no torture more in-
tolerable to young men not yet arrived to their full growth.
We had been guilty of no crime.  We had been engaged
in the service of our dear country, and deserve applause
and not torture.  And be it forever remembered, that the
Americans  always feed  their  prisoners  well, and  treat
them with  humanity.
   The Uegulus, for  that is the name of the ship we  were
in, is, if I mistake not, an old line of  battle ship, armed
en flute, that is, her lower deck was fitted up with bunjfe,
or births, so large as to contain six men in a birth.   Pne
only  passages for light or air were through the main anr|
fore  hatches,  which were  covered with a grating, at
which stood, day and night, a sentinel.   The communica-
tion between our dungeon and  the upper deck was only
through the main hatch way, by means of a rope ladder,
that  could be easily cut away at a  moment's warning,
should the half starved American prisoners ever conclude 
JOURNAL.
to rise and take the *hip, which these brave British ta;;*
seemed constantly  apprehensive  of.   Vou may  judge of
their apprehensions by their extraordinary precautions—
they had  a large store of muskets in their tops to be ready
f»r their  marines and crew should we yankees drive them
from the  hull to seek safety above.   They had  two car-
ronades loaded with grape and cannister shot on the poop,
pointing forward, with a man at each ; and strict orders
were given not to bald any conversation with the Ameri-
cans,  under the penalty of the  severest chastisement.
However improbable the thing  may appear, we discussed
the matter very seriously and repeatedly among ourselves,
and compared  the observations we made when on deck, in
our council chamber under water.   It seems that the Bri-
tish are apprized of the daring spirit of  the  Americans ;
they watch them with as much dread  as if  they were  so
many tigers.
  Just before we sailed, our old friend, Mr.  Miller, came
on board, and we were all called upon deck to  hear his
last  speech and receive  his blessing.   We conceited that
he looked ashamed, and felt embarrassed.  It is  probable
that the consciousness of having told  us  things that were
not true,  disconcerted him.  He however,  in a milder man-
ner and voice  than usual, told us that we were going to
England  to be exchanged, while there were some in another
ship going to England to be hanged.   Beside this enviable
difference in our situation, compared with those traitorous
Irishmen, who had been fighting against their king and
country, we were very fortunate in being the first selected
to go, as  we should, of course, be the first to  be exchanged
and sent  home.  He told us that he thought  it  probable
that we should be  sent  home again  before spring, or at
farthest in the spring; he therefore exhorted us to be good
boys during the passage,  and behave  well,  and  obey or-
ders, and that would insure us kiud  and humane  treat-
ment ; but that if we were mutinous, or attempted to resist
the authority of the officers, our treatment  would be  less
kind, and we  should lose our turn in the course  of ex-
change, and that our comfort and happiness depended en-
tirely on  our own  submissive behavior.   He every now
and then  gave force to his assertions by pledging his honor
that what he said was true, and no deception.
  As this was probably  the last time  we should have  an 
JOt'RNAL.
33
opportunity of a personal communication with Mr. Agent
Miller, we represented to him that there were several of
the prisoners destitute of comfortable  clothing; that the
clothes of some were not even decent to cover those parts
of the  body that even our savag-e Indians corneal, and he
promised to accommodate them; but we never heard  any
more of him or  the clothing.  However it may be account-
ed for, we saw this man part from us  with regret.  It
seemed to be losing an old acquaintance, while we were
going we knew  not where—to meet  we knew not what.
   Previous to our sailing we had applied to Mr. Mitchell,
the American agent, for a supply of clothing; but from
some cause or other, he did not relieve the wants  of our
suffering companions.  Mr. Mitchell may  be a very good
man ; but every good man is not fit for every station.  We
had  rather see  old age, or decrepitude, pensioned by  the
government we  support, than employed in stations that
require high health aud activity.   Disease and  infir-
mity may  check or impede the benevolent views  of  our
government, and cast an odium on the  officers of adminis-
tration.  After all, we may find fault  where we  ought to
praise. It is possible that we may not have made due al-
lowance for Mr. Miller,  the  British agent, and we  may
have sometimes denounced him in terms  of bitterness,
when he did not deserve it.  His general conduct, however,
we could not mistake.
   On the third  of September, 1813, we sailed from Hali-
fax in  company with the Melpomene, a man of war trans-
port, armed en  flute.  On board of this ship were a num-
ber of Irishmen, who had enlisted in  our regiments,  and
were captured in Upper Canada, fighting under the colors
of the  United States of America; or, in the language of
 be English government, found fighting against their kinA-
and country.  The  condition  of these  Irishmen was tray
pitiable.   Unable to live in their own  oppressed country,
they, in  imitation of our fore-fathers, left  their  native
Jand to enjoy liherty,  and the fruits of  their  labor in
another.  They abandoned Ireland,  where  they were  op-
pressed, and chose this country, where they were protected
and kindly treated. Many of them had married in America,
and considered  it their home.  Here  they chose to live,
and here they wished to die.   As few of them had trades,
(hey got their living as laborers, or as seamen.  The em-
                3* 
34
JOURNAL.
bargoes and the war threw them out of business, and many
of them enlisted  in our army ;  that is, in the army of  the
country wi'.ich they had chosen, and had a right to choose.
Neither our nor  their consciences forbade  them to  fight
for us, against the English and their allies, the Indians.
In their eyes, and in the eye of our laws, no imputation of
crime could be attached to* their conduct; yet were  these
men  seized from among other  prisoners, taken in battle,
and  sent together in  one  ship,  as traitors  and  rebels to
their country.   YVe fled from our native land, said  tliese^
unfortunate men, to avoid the  tyranny  and oppression of
our British task-masters,  and  the same tyrannical  hand
has seized  us here, and sent us back to be tried,  and per-
haps executed as rebels.   Beside the privations, hunger
and  miseries that we endured, these poor Irishmen had be-
fore  their eyes, the apprehension of a  violent and  igno-
minious death.   YVhile we talked among ourselves of the
hard fate of these brave Hibernians, we were ashamed to
lament our own.
   I cannot help remarking here, that the plan of retalia-
tion  determined  by President Madison, merits the respect
and gratitude of the present and future generations of men.
it was this energetic step  that saved the lives, and insur-
ed the  usual treatment of ordinary prisoners of war to
these American  soldiers of Irish birth.  This firm deter-
mination of the  American executive arrested the bloody
hand of the  British.  They remembered  Major Andre,
and  they recollected Sir James Asgill,  under the adminis
tration of the great YVashington, and  they trembled for
the fate of their own officers.  May eternal  blessings here,
and  hereafter, be the reward of Madison, for his righteous
intention to retaliate on the enemy any  public punishment
that should  be  executed  on these American soldiers, of
Irish origin.   YVhile we feel gratitude and respect to the
head of the nation for his  scheme of retaliation, we cannot
 suppress our feelings of disgust towards  the faction in
 our  own country, who justified the British government in
 their conduct towards these few Irishmen, and condemned
 our own for protecting them from an ignominious death.  I
 speak it with shame for my country, the ablest writers of
 the  oppositionists, and  the oldest and most celebrated
 ministers of religion, employed their pens and their voices
 to condemn Mr. Madison and to justify the British doc- 
JOURNAL.
33
trine.  This is a deep stain  on the character of our cler-
gy ;  and the subsequent conduct of the British, may serve
to shew  these ever meddling men, that our enemies  des-
pised them and respected Madison.
  Our voyage across the  Atlantic afforded but few inci-
dents for remark.  Every day brought the same distressed
sensations, and every  night the same  doleful feelings,
arising from darkness, stench, increased debility and dis-
ease.  The general and most distressing in the catalogue
of our miseries, was the almost unceasing torment of hun-
ger.   Many of us would have gladly partaken with vour
lather's hogs, in their hog-troughs.  This barbarous system
of starvation  reduced several of our hale and hearty young
men  to mere skeletons.   YVhat with the allowance of the
enemy, and the allowance from  our own government, in
which was good hot coffee for breakfast, we were gener-
ally  robust and hearty at  Melville Island    Some of our
companions might well be called fine looking fellows, when
we came first on board the Regulus,but before  we  arrived
on the coast of England they were so reduced and weaken-
ed, that they  tottered as they walked.   It was the opinion
of us all,  that one young man absolutely  died for want
of sufficient food !  Yes ! Christian reader, a young Amer-
ican, who  was carried on board  the Regulus, man of war
transport,  perished for  want of sufficient to eat.   In  this
insufficiency of food,  complaint was made to the Captain
of the Regulus, but it produced no increase of the scanty
allowance ; and had the common sailors possessed no more
humanity than their officers, w7e might  all  have perished
with hunger.   You who never felt the agonizing torture of
hunger, can have no idea of our misery.  The study of my
profession  had acquainted me, that when the  stomach is
empty and contracted to  a  certain degree,  that it, in a
measure, acts upon itself, and draws all the neighbouring
organs into sympathy  with  its distress : this increases to
an agony that ends in  distraction ;  for  it  is well known
that those who are starved to death, die raving distracted !
Some of us in the course of this horrid voyage  could have
eaten  a puppy or kitten could we have laid hands  upon
either.
   Our constitutions, mind and body united,  were  so con-
stantly impressed  and worried with  the desire of eating,
that the torment followed us in our sleep.   YVe were con- 
f!ti
JOURNAL.
slanlly dreaming of tables finely spread with a plenty of all
ifooe good and savouring things with which we u >ed to be
regaled at home, when we would wake smacking our lips,
and groaning with disappointment.   I  pretend  not  to
say, that the allowance was sufficient to  keep  some men
pretty comfortable, but it was not half enough for some
others.  It is well known in common life, that one man
will eat three times as much as  another.   The quality of
the bread served out to us on hoard the Regulus, was not
fit and  proper  for any human  being.  It was old, and
more  like the powder of rotten  wood than bread-stuff,
and to crown all, it was full  of worms.   Often  have I
seen  our poor fellows  viewing  their  daily allowance  of
bread, with mixed sensations of pain and pleasure,  with
smiles aud tears, not being able to  determine whether they
had best eat it all up at once, or to eat it in small portions
through the day.   Home would  devour all their bread at
once,worms and all, while others  would  be eating small
portions  through  the day.  Some picked out the worms,
and threw them away, others eat  them, saying that they
might as well eat the worm as his  habitation.   Some rea-
soned and debated a long time on the subject.   Prejudice
said, throw the nasty thing  away,  while knawing hunger
held his hand.  Birds, said  they, are nourished by  eating
worms, and if clean birds eat them why may  not man ?
Who  feels any  reluctance  at eating  of  an  oyster,  with
all its parts,  and  why not a worm ?
   One day while we were debating the subject, one of our
jack tars set us  a laughing,  by  crying out—" Retaliation
by G—, these d—d worms eat us when ive are dead,  and so
me will eat them first."  This shews that misery can some-
times  laugh.  1 have observed that a  sailor has generally
more laughter and good humour  in him than is to'be found
among any other class of men.  They have beside a great-
er share of compassion than the soldier.  YYTe had repeat-
ed instances of their generosity; for while the epauletted
officers of this  British ship treated  us like brutes, the
common sailors would, now  and  then, give us of their own
allowance ; but they  took care  not to let their  officers
know  it
  The Regulus had brought British soldiers  to America,
and among the rags and filth left behind  them  were my-
riads ef fleas.  These were at first a source of vexation, 
JOURNAL,
■ii
 but  at  length  their destruction  became an  amusement-.
 We could not,  however, overcome them; like the perse-
 cuted Christians of old times, when you killed one, twen-
 ty would seem to rise up in his place  Had I  have known
 what 1 have since learnt, and had been provided with the
 essential oil of pennyroyal, We should have conquered ail
 these light troops in a few days.  A few drops of this es-
 sential oil, dropped here and there  upon the  blankets in-
 fested with fleas, and they will abandon the garment. The
 diluvium of it  destroys them.
   Confined below,  we knew little of  what was  going on
 upon deck ; some of us, however, were more or less there
 every day.  Nothing occurred worthy notice  during our
 passage to England, excepting the retaking of a brig cap-
 tured a few hours  before on  the Grand Bank by the fri-
 gate President, Commodore Rodgers.  From information
 obtained from the midshipman who  commanded the prize,
 we learnt  the course of  the President, whereupon  we al-
 tered ours to avoid being captured.  A few hours after
 this,  we fell in with the Bellerophon, a,British seventy-
 four, who went, from our information, in pursuit of the
 President.   YVe could  easily  perceive  that the fame of
 our frigates had inspired these masters of the ocean with
 a degree of respect bordering on dread.  We overheard
 the  sailors  say, that they had rather  fall in  with  two
 French frigates than one American.  We  thought, or it
 might be conceit, that we were spoken to with more kind-
 ness at  this time.   I have certainly had occasion for re-
 marking, that prosperity increases  the insults  and hard
 heartedness of the British, and that we  never received so
 much humane attention as when they apprehended an at-
 tack from us, as in the case of alarm at Halifax.  I was
 brought up, all  my life, even until 1  left my father's bouse,
 and came off without calculation, or reflection on this wild
 adventure in a privateer, in the opinion that  the English
 were an humane, generous and magnanimous people, and
 that none  but  Turks, Frenchmen  and Algerines,  were
 cruel ; but my  experience for  three years past  has cor-
 rected my false notions of this proud nation.   If they do
 not impale men as the Algerines and Turks do, or roast a
 man as the Indians  do, and as the Inquisitors do, they will
 leave him  to  starve, and  linger out his miserable days
hi  the hole of  a ship,  or in a prison, where the blessed 
2$
JOU«HAI<
air is changed into a poison, and where the articles  give.;
him to eat, are far worse in quality  than the swill,  with
which the  American farmer feeds his hogs   How can
an officer, how can any man, holding in  society the rank
of a gentleman,  set d iwn to his meal in  his cabin,  when
he has a hundred of  his  fellow creatures, some of them
brought up with  delicacy and refinement, and  with the
feelings of gentlemen—I  say, how can he sit composedly
down to his dinner, while men, as good  as himself, are
suffering for  want of food  There is  in this  conduct,
either a cold blooded cruelly, or a stupidity and want of
reflection, that does no honour to that officer,  or to those
who gave him his command.
  It happened, when some of us were allowed, in our turn
to be  on deck, that we would  lay hold and pull or belay
a rope when  needed.   When we arrived at Portsmouth,
whicli uas  the fifth of October, we were visited by the
health officer; and when  we again weighed anchor to go
to the quarantine ground, the  boatswain's mate  came to
tell us, that it was the captain's  order,  that  we should
tumble up, and assist  at the capstan.  Accordingly  three
or four went to assist;  but one of our veteran tars bid him
to go and  tell his captain, that hunger and labour were
not friends, and never  would go together ; and that from
prisoners who subsisted three days  in a week on pea-water,
could only give him  pea-water assistance.  This speech
raised the temper of the officer  of the deck, who sent down
some  marines, who drove us all up.  There  was among
us a Dutchman, who was  very forward in complying with
the officer's  request ; but being awkward and careless
withall, he suffered himself to be jambed between the end
of the capstan-bar and  the  side of the ship,  which  hurt
him badly.  Some of the prisoners collected round  their
wounded companion, when the officer of the deck ordered
them  to take the d—d  blunder-headed fellow below, and
let some American take bis place ; but afier this expres-
sion of  brutalily towards the poor jambud up Dutchman,
not a  man would go near the capstan, so one of  their own
crew  tilled up the vacancy made by the  wounded  Hol-
lander.
  A Mr. S----.,  who had  some office  of distinction  in
Newfoundland, if 1 mistake not he was  the first in com-
mand of that dreary island.  This gentleman, wlio 1 think 
JOURNAL.
they called General Smith, was passenger on board the
Regulus ; one diiy, when I was upon deck, he asked me
how  many of the hundred prisoners could read atid write.
I told him that it was a rare thing  to find a person, male
or female, in New England, who could not write as well
as read.  Then, s:sid he, New England must be  covered
with charity schools.  1  replied, that we  had no charity
schools, or very few; at  which he looked as if he thought
1 had uttered an absurdity  1 then  related in a few words
our school system.   1  told him, that the  primary condir
tion of every town in Massachusetts, and I believed in the
other four  New England States, was  a reserve of land,
and a bond to maintain a school  or schools, according  to
the number of inhabitants ; that  the teachers were sup-
ported  by a tax,  in  the same  way  as  we supported our
clergy; that  such schools were opened  to every child,
from the children of the first magistrate down to^the chil-
dren of the constable ; and that there  was no distinction,
promotion or favour, but what arose from talent, industry
and good behaviour.   I told him  that the children of the
poorest peopie, generally went  to  school  in the winter,
while  in  the spring and summer they  assisted their par-
ents.
   He walked about  musing awhile,  and then-turning back,
asked  me if the clergy did not devote much of their time
to the instruction of our youth-—very seldom,  sir—our
young students of divinity and theological candidates very
often instruct youth; but when a gentleman is once ordain-
ed and settled as a parish minister,  he never or very rarely
keeps  a school.  At which the general appeared surpris-
ed.  I  added that sometimes episcopal clergymen kept  a
school, but never the presbyterian, or congregational min-
isters.  He asked why the'latter could not keep school as
well as the former;  1  told him, because they were expect-
ed to write their own sermons, at which he  laughed.  Be-
sides parochal  visits  consume much of their time, and
when a congregation have stipulated with a  minister to
fill the pulpit, and preach two sermons a week,  visit the
sick and  attend funerals  they think he can have no tune
to write sermons,  they moreover consider it derogatory to
the honour of  his flock to be obliged to keep a school—
when I told him that our clergymen bent ail their force to
instructing youth in morality and religion, he said, then 
40                    JOURNAL.
they attempt to raise a structure before they lay a f.umnV
lioii for it   He seemed  very strenuous  that  our  priests:
should be employed in the education ef youth, as he con-
ceived that hired  school masters  had not the pious zeal
lhat the  priest would have.  I suspect, said General S.
that your priests are too  proud and too lazy.   1 perceived
his idea was, that a school master, hired to undergo the
drudgery of teaching boys, was too much of an hireling
to fill up to  the full the important duties of a teacher;
but  he judged of them  by the numerous  Scotch  school
masters here and there in Canada, Nova Scotia, the West
India islands and every where, teaching for money merely.
He did know that our New England school masters were
men of character and consequence.  Some of our very first
men  in the United States,  have been teachers of  youth.
At this present time some of the sons of the first men in
Massachusetts are village school masters ; that is. they
keep a school in the winter vacations of the University;
some of them for the first year  after leaving college.
   1 was much pleased with the general ; aud have since
learnt, that he was  a very worthy and benevolent man;
and that he had paid great attention to  the education of
youth in Newfoundland  ; and that it was, in a degree, his
ruling passion.  I wish  1 had then known as much of our
school system, and of our system of public education at
our  Universities, as I do now ;  for I might have gratified
his benevolent disposition by the recital.   The ignorance
of English gentlemen of the people of America, is indeed
surprising as well as mortifying.  By their treatment of
us, it is evident they consider us  a sort of white  savages,
with minds as uncultivated, and dispositions  as ferocious
as  their own allies, with their tomahawks and  scalping
knives.  After conversing with this worthy Englishman,
about the education of the common people in America,  I
could not but say to myself, little do  you,  good sir, and
your haughtv, unfeeling eaptain imagine,  that there are
those among  the  hundred miserable men whom you keep
confined in the hold .of your ship like so  many Gallipago
turtles, and who you allow to suffer for want of sufficient
food ; little do you think that there are among them those
who have sufficient learning to lay the whole story of their
sufferings before the American and English people ; little
dc you imagine that the inhumane treatment of men every 
Journal.
a
waj as good as yourselves, are now recording, and will in
due time be displayed to your mortification.
  Our sailors, though half starved,  confined and  broken
down by harsh  treatment, always  kept  up the genuine
Yankee character, which  is that of being grateful and
tractable by kind usage, but stern, inflexible and resentful
at iiorsh treatment.  One morning as the general and the
captain of the Uegulus were walking as usual on the quar-
ter deck, one  of our Yankee boys passed along  the galley
with bis kid of burgoo.  He  rested it on the edge of the
hatchway,  while he was adjusting the rope ladder  to de-
scend with his swill.   The thing attracted the attention
of the general, who asked the man, how many of his com-
rades eat of  that quantity for  their breakfast ?  " Six,
Sir," said  the man, '• but it is Jit food  only for hogs."
This answer  affronted the captain,  who  asked the man,
in an angry tone, " what part of America he came from ?"
" near  to Bunker Hill,  Sir—if you ever heard  of that
place."  They looked at  each  other and  smiled, turned
about and continued their walk.  This is  what the Eng-
lish call impudence.  Give it what name you please, it is
that something which will one day wrest the trident from
the hands of  Britannia and place it with those who have
more humanity,  if not more cultivated  powers of mind.
There was a marine in the Regulus, who had been wound-
ed  on  board  the Shannon in the battle with the  Chesa-
peake, who had a great antipathy  to the Americans, and
was continually  casting reflections on the Americans gen-
erally.   He one day got into a high dispute with one of
our men,  which  ended in  blows.  This  man had served
on board the Constitution,  when  she captured the Guerrier
and afterwards the Java.   After the two wranglers were
separated,  the marine complained to his  officer, that he
had been abused by one of the American prisoners, and it
reaching the  captain's ears, he  ordered  the American on
the quarter deck, and iuquired into the cause of the quar-
rel.  When he had heard it all, he  called  the American
sailor a d—d  coward for striking a wounded man.  " I
am no coward,  Sir." said the high spirited Yankee ; '; I
was captain of a gun on board the Constitution when she
captured the Guerriere, and afterwards when she took the
Java.  Had I been a coward I should not have been there."
The captain called him an insolent scoundrel,  and order-
                 4 
42
JOURNAL.
cd him to his hole again.  YVhat the British naval cora
manders  call insolence, is no mare than the undaunted ex-
pression  of their natural  and habitual independence.
When a British sailor is called by his captain, in an angry
toue,ontothequarter deck,he turns pale and trembles, like
a thief before a country justice ; but  not so the American ;
he, if he  be innocent, speaks his mind with a  firm tone and
steady countenance ; and if  he feels himself insulted, he
is not afraid to deal in  sarcasm.   In the instances just
mentioned, Jonathan knew full well  that the very name of
Bunker Hill, the Guerriere and the Javier, was a deep  mor-
tification to John Bull.   Actuated by  this sort of feeling,
the steady  Romans shook the world.
  From  this digression, let us return,  and resume our
Journal.  We arrived oft'Portsmouth  the fifth ol October,
1813 ; and were visited by the health  officer and ordered
to the Mother-bank, opposite  that place, where vessels
ride out their quarantine.  The next day the ship was fu-
migated, and every exertion made by the officers to put her
in a condition for inspection by Ihe health-officer.  Letters
were fumigated by vinegar, or nitrous acid, before they were
allowed  to go out of the  ship.   Their attention was next
turned to us, miserable  prisoners.  We were ordered to
wash, and  put on clean shirts.   Being informed that many
of  us had  not a second shirt  to put on,  the captain took
down the names of such  destitute men, but never supplied
them with a single rag.
   The prisoners were  now as anxious to go  on shore, and
to know  the extent of  their misery, as the captain of the
Regulus was to get rid of us.   The most of us, therefore,
joined heartily  in the  task of cleansing the ship,  and in
white-washing^ the lower deck, or the place we occupied.
Some, either through laziness or resentment, refused to do
any thing  about; but the rest of us said, that it was al-
ways customary in  America, when we {eft  a  house, or a
room we hired, to leave  it clean, and it  was ever deemed
disreputable to leave  an apartment dirty.  The officers
of  the  ship tried to make them, and began to threaten
them, but they  persisted in their refusal, and every at-
tempt to force them  was  fruitless.   1  do not myself won-
der that the British officer's, so used to prompt and even
servile obedience of their own men,  were ready to knock
some of our obstinate, saucy fellows, on the head.   This 
'JOURNAL.
4S
 brings to my mind the concise but just observation of an
 English traveller through  the United States of America,
 After saying  that the inhabitants south of the Hudson
 were a mixed  race of English, Irish, Scotch, Dutch, Ger-
 mans and Swedes, among whom you could observe no pre-
 cise national  character; he adds, "but as to New-Eng-
 land, they are all true English, and there you see one uni-
 form trait of national manners, habits and  disposition.
 The people are hardy, industrious, humane, obliging, ob-
 stinate and brave.  By kind  and courteous usage, mixed
 with flattery, you can  lead them like so many children al-
 most as  you please ;"  but, he adds, " the Devil from  h—/,
 wilhfive in one hand, and faggots in the other, cannot drive
 them."   Neither Csesar, nor Tacitus ever drew  a more true
 and concise character of the Gauls, or Germans, than this.
 Here is seen the transplanted Englishman, enjoying <• In-
 dian freedom," and therefore a  little wilder than in his
 native soil of Albion ;  and yet it is surprising that a peo-
 ple whose ancestors  left England less than a century and
 a half ago, should be so little known to the present court
 and administration of Great Britain.  Even the revolution-
 ary war was not  sufficient to  teach John Bull, that his de-
 scendants had improved by  transplantation, in all  those
 qualities for w Inch stuffy John moit values himself.    The
 present race of Englishmen are puffed  up and blinded by
 what they have been, while their descendants in  America
 arc proud of what they are, and what they know they shall
 be.
   After the ship  had  been cleansed, fumigated and par-
 tially white w ashed, so as to  be fit for the eye and nose of
 the health officer, she  was  exaiained by him, and  reported
free from contagion  J  Now  I conceive this line  of con-
 duct not very  reputable to the parties coucerned.   When
 we arrived off Portsmouth, our ship was filthy, and I be-
 lieve contagious;  we miserable prisoners, were encrusted
 with the Hastiness common to such a  place, as that into
 which we had been inhumanly crowded.  It was the duty
 of the health officers and the  surgeon  of the Regulus, to
 have reported her condition when she first anchored, and
 not have cleaned her up. and altered her condition for in-
 spection.  In  the  American service the captain,  surgeon
 and health officer would havo all been  cashiered  for such
 a dereliction of honor and duty.  This is the way  that the 
44
JOURNAL
British board of admiralty, the transport  board, the par-
liament and the people are deceived ; and this corruption,
which more or less pervades the whole  transport service,
will enervate and debase their boasted navy.   YY'e cannot
suppose that the British board of admiralty, or the trans-
port board  would justify the cruel system of starvation
practised on the brave Americans who were taken in Can-
ada and conveyed in their floating dungeons down the riv-
er St. Lawrence to Halifax.  Some of  these  captains of
transports deserve to be hanged for their  barbarity to our
men, and for the eternal hatred they have occasioned to-
wards their own  government in the hearts of the surviv-
ing Americans.   We hope, for the honor of that country
whence we derived our laws and sacred institutions, that
this Journal will be read in England.
  The Regulus  was then removed  to the  anchoring place
destined for men  of war; and the same  night,  we were
taken out, and put on board the Malabar store ship, where
we found one hundred  and fifty of our  countrymen in her
hold, with  no other bed to sleep on but the stone ballast.
Here were  two  hundred and fifty men, emaciated by a sys-
tem of starvation  cooped  up in a small space, with only
an aperture of about two feet square to  admit  the air, and
with ballast stones for  our beds!   Although  in  the  har-
bor, we were not supplied with sufficient  water to quench
our thirst, nor with sufficient light to see our food, or each
other, nor of sufficient air to breathe; and what aggravat-
ed the whole, was the stench of the place, owing to a di-
arrhoea with which several were affected.  Our  situation
was truly deplorable.  Imagine to yourself, christian read-
er ! two hundred and fifty men crammed  into  a place too
small to contain one hundred with  comfort, stifling for
want of air, pushing and crowding each other, and exert-
ing all their little remaining strength to push forward  to
the grated hatch-way  to  respire a little  fresh air.   The
strongest  obtained their  wish, while  the weakest were
pushed  back,  and sometimes trampled under foot.  God
of mercy, cried 1, in my agony of distress, is this »■ sample
ef the English humanity we have heard and read so much
of from our school boy  years to manhood ?  If they are  a
merciful nation, they   belong  to  that class of nations
" whose tender mercies are cruelty."
  Representations were repeatedly  made  to the captain 
JOURNAL.
4^>
of the Malabar,  of  our  distressed situation, as suffering
extremely  by heat and stagnant air; for only  two of us
were allowed to come upon deck at a time ; but he answer-
ed that he  had given orders for our safe treatment, and
safe  keeping ; and  he was  determined not to  lose his
ship by too much lenity.   In a word, we found  the  fel-
low's heart to be as  hard as the bed we slept on.  Soon af-
ter,  however,  our situation  became  so dangerous  and
alarming, that one of the marine corps informed the captain
that  if he wished to preserve us  alive, he must speedily
give us more air.  If this did  not move his compassion, it
alarmed his fears ;  and he then  gave  orders to remove
the after hatch, and iron bars  fixed in its place, in order
to prevent us from forcing our way up, and throwing him
into the sea, a punishment he richly deserved.  This al-
teration rendered the condition of our " black hole," more
tolerable; it was nevertheless a very loathsome dungeon :
for our poor fellows were not  allowed to go upon deck  to
relieve the calls of nature, but  were compelled to appro-
priate one part  of  our  residence to  this dirty purpose.
This, as may be supposed, rendered our confinement doubly
disgusting, as" well as unwholesome.
  1 do not recollect the name of the captain of the Mala-
bar, and it may be as well that I do not; I only know that
he  was a Scotchman.  It  may be  considered by  some as
illiberal to deal in national reflections, I nevertheless can-
not help remarking that I have received more ill-treat-
ment from  men of that nation than from individuals of any
other; and this is the general impression of my country-
men.  The poet tells us, that

             "Cowards are cruel, but the brave
             " Love mercy, and delight to save."

   The Scotch are brave soldiers, but we, Americans, have
found them to be the most hard  hearted and cruel people
we have ever yet met with.   Our soldiers as well as sail-
ors make the same complaint, insomuch that " cruel as a
Scotchman," has become  a proverb in  the United States.
The  Scotch officers have been remarked for treating our
officers, when in  their power, with insolence, and expres-
sions of contempt;  more so than the English   It is said
that a Scotch  officer that superintends the horrid whip-
pings so common in British camps is commonly observed
                  4* 
46;
JOURNAL.
to be more hard hearted  than an English one.   It is cer-
tain that tbev are generally preferred as negro-drivers in
the YV'est India Islands   It has been uniformly remarked
that those  Scotchmen who are  settled on  the  Canada
frontiers were  remarkable for their bitterness towards our
men in captivity.
  YVe speak here of the  vagrant Scotch, the fortune-hun-
ters of the  Caledonian tribe, at the same time we respect
her philosophers and  literary  men, who  appear to us to
compose the first rank of writers.  YVithout mentioning
their Ossian, Thompson and Burns, we  may enumerate
their prose writers, such as Hume, and the present associ-
ation of truly learned and acutemen, who write the Edin-
burgh Review.  A  Scotchman may be allowed to show
pride at the mention of this  celebrated work.   As it re-
gards America, this northern constellation of talent, shines
Brightly  in our eyes.  The ancient Greeks,  who  once
straggled about  Rome and the Roman empire, were not
fair specimens of the  refined Athenians.
  Our peasantry,  settled around our own frontier,  and
around  the shores  of our  lakes,  have a notion  that the
Scotch Highlanders were, not long since, the same kind
of wild, half naked people compared with the true Eng-
lish, that  the  Choctaws, Cherokees,  rottowatomies  and
Kickapoo Indians aie to the common inhabitants of these
United  States : that less  than  an hundred  years  ago,
these Scotchmen were in the habit  of making the  like
scalping and  tomahawking excursions upon the English
farmer, that the North  American savage makes upon the
white people here.  This is the idea which our common
people have of what YYalter Scott calls " the border wars."
Some of them will  tell you  that the Scotch go half naked
in their own country,  and wear a blanket, and  kill  their
enemies with a knife just like Indians.   They  say their
features differ from the English as much as theirs do from
the Indian. In a word, to suppose  the Scotch highlanders
to be a race who have been conquered by the English,  who
have taught them the use of fire arms, and civilized them
in a degree to form themselves into regiments of soldiers,
and this imperfect  idea of the half savage Sawney will not
soon be corrected;  and we  must say that the general  con-
duet of this harsh and  self-interested  race  towards our
prisoners, will not expedite the period of correct ideas rel- 
.TOCRNAL.
47
ative to the comparative condition of the Scotch and Eng-
lish.  The Americans have imbibed no prejudice against
the Irish, having found them a brave, generous, jovial set
of fellows, full of fun, and full of good kind feelings, the
very autipodes of Scotchmen, who, as it regards those
qualities, are cold, rough and  barren, like the land that
gave them birth.
   YYre moved from Portsmouth to the Nore or Noah, fori
ki;ovv not the meaning  of the word, or how to spell it.
The nlaee so called  is the mouth  of  the river Thames,
which runs through the capital of the British nation  YYre
were three days on our passage.   Here we were transfer-
red to i everal tenders, to be transported lo Chatham. We
soOi. entered the river Medvvay, which rises in Sussex, and
passes by Tunbridge, Maidstone and Rochester,  in Kent,
and is then divided into  two branches, called the east and
west passage.  The  chief entrance is the west, and is de-
fended by a considerable fort, called Sheerness.   In this
river lay a number of Russian men of war,  detained here
probably by way of pledge for the fidelity of the Emperor.
What gives most celebrity to this river is Chatham, a na-
val station, where the English build and lay up their first
rate men of war.  It is but about thirty  miles from Lon-
don ; or the distance of Newport, Rhode Island,  from the
town of Providence.   YVe passed  up to  where the  prison
ships lay, after dark. The prospect appeared very pleas-
ant, as the prison ships  appeared to us illuminated.  As
we were aii upon deck, we enjoyed the sight as we passed,
and the commander of the tender appeared to partake  of
our pleasure.   YVe  were  ordered  on  board  the Crown
Prince prison ship ;  and as our names were called over,
we  were marched  along the deck between  two rows  of
emaciated Frenchmen, who had drawn themselves  up  to
review  us.  YY7e  then passed on to that part of the ship
which was occupied by the Americans,  who testified their
curiosity at knowing all about us, and sticking to their na-
tional characteristic, put more questions to us iu ten min-
utes, than we could well answer in as many hours.  We
passed the evening and the first part of the night in mu-
tual  communications;  and we  went to rest with more
pleasure than for many a night before.
   Our prison ship was moored in what they called Gilling-
ham reach.  We would  here remark, that the river, and 
48
JOURNAL.
Thames, and Medway make, like all other rivers near to
their outlets, many turnings or bendings ; some forming a
more obtuse, and  some a  more acute angle  with their
hanks.  This course of the river compels a vessel to stretch
along in one direction, and then to sketch along in a very
different direction.  YY hat the English call reaching,  we
in America call stretching.  Each of t! ese different courses
of the  river they call "reaches."   They have their long
reach and their short reach, and a number of reaches,  un-
der local, or  less obvious names.   Some are named after
some of their own pirates, which is here ai.d there designat-
ed by a gibhet; a singular object, be sure, to greet the  eye
of a stranger on entering the grand watery avenue of the
capital of the British empire. But there is no room for dis-
puting concerning our tastes.  The reach where our prison
was moored was about  three  miles below Chatham; and
is named from the village of Gilliugham.  Now  whether
reach or stretch-he the  most  proper for an  effort  to sail
against the wind, is left to be settled  by  those  reverend
monopolizers of all the arts and sciences, the London Re-
viewers ; who,  by the way, and we mention it pro bono
publico, would very much increase  their stock of knowl-
edge and usefulness, if they would depute a few missiona-
ries to pass and  repass the Atlantic in a British transport,
containing in its black hole an hundred or two of yankee
prisoners of war.  It would, if they should be so fortunate
as to survive the voyage, make them better judges of the
character of the English nation, and of the American  na-
tion, and of that nearly lost tribe, the Caledonian nation.
  There were thirteen prison ships beside our own. all
ships of the line, aud one hospital ship, moored near each
other.   They were filled,  principally, with Frenchmen,
Danes and Italians. We found on our arrival twelve hun-
dred Americans, chiefly men  who had been  impressed  on
board British men of war, and who  bad given  themselves
up, with a declaration that they would not  fight against
their own eountrymen, and they were sent here and confin-
ed, without any distinction made between them and those
who Lad been taken in arms.   The injustice of the thin«»
is glaring.   During the  night, the prisoners were confined
on the lower deck and on the main  deck ;  but in the day
time they were allowed the  privilege of the ** pound," so
cajlecj, and the fore-castle j  which  was a comfortable  ar- 
JOURNAL.
49
 rangement compared with the black holes of the Regulus
 and Malabar.  There  were  three officers  on  board our
 ship, namely, a lieutenant, a sailing master, and  a sur-
 geon,  together with sixty marines and a few  invalid, or
 superannuated seamen to go in the boats. The  whole was
 under the command of a commodore, while captain Hutch*
 inson, agent far the prisoners  of war, exercised a sort  of
 controul over the whole ; but the butts and bounds of their
 jurisdiction I never knew.   The commodore visited  each
 of the prison ships every month, to hear and redress com-
 plaints, and to correct abuses, and to enforce wholesome
 regulations.   All written  communications, and  all  inter*
 course by letter passed through the hands of capt. Hutch-
 inson.   If the letters contained nothing of evil  tendency,
 they were suffered to pass ; but it they contained any thing
 which the agent deemed improper, they were detained.
 Complaints were sometimes made when  those who  wrote
 them thought they ought not.
   We found our situation materially altered for the better.
 Our allowance of food  was more consonant to  humanity
 than at Halifax, much more to the villainous scheme  of
 starvation on board the Regulus, and the still more  exe-
 crable Malabar.  Our allowance of food  here was half a
 pound of beef and a gill of barley, one pound  and a half of
 bread, for five days in the week, and one pound of cod-fish,
 and one pound of potatoes, or one pound  of  smoked  her-
 ring the other two days;  and porter and  small  beer were
 allowed to be sold to  us.  Boats  with garden vegetables
 visited the ship daily, so that we now lived in clover com-
 pared  with our former hard fare and  cruel  treatment.
 Upoii the whole, I believe that we fared as well as could
 be expected,  all things considered,  and had  such fare  as
 we could do very well with ; nut that we  fared so well  as
 the British prisoners fare  in America.  Rich as the  Eng-
 lish nation is, it  cannot well  afford to feed us as we feed
 the British prisoners: such is the difference of the two
 countries in point of cheap food.  On thanksgiving day,
 and on Christmas days, and  such like holy days, we used
 to treat  these  Europeans  with geese, turkies and plumb
pudding.   Many of these fellows declared that they never
iu their lives  sat down to  a table to a roasted turkey, or
even a  roasted goose.  It is  also a fact, that when the
time approached for draft in g tli^ritish prisoners to send 
50
JOURNAL.
to Halifax to exchange them for our own men, several of
the patriotic Englishmen,  and many Irishmen, ran away,
and  when taken  showed  as  much chagrin as our  men
would  have felt,  had  they attempted to desert and run
home from  Halifax prison,  and  had  been  seized  and
brought back ! This is a curious fact, and worthy the at-
tention of the British politician.   An American, in Eng-
land, pines to get home .• while an Englishman and an Irish-
man  longs to become an American  citizen.  Ye wise men
of England, the  far famed  England,  the proud island
whence we originally sprang, ponder  well this fact ; and
confess that it will finally operate a great change in our
respective countries, and that your thousand  ships, your
vast commerce, and your immense (factitious) riches can-
not alter it.   This inclination, or disposition,  growing up
in the hearts of that class of your subjects who are more
disposed to follow the bent of their natural appetites than
to cultivate patriotic opinions, will one day hoist our " bits
of striped bunting" over those of  your  now predominant
flag, and you, long sighted politicians, see it i;s well  as I
do.   The hard  fare of your sailors  and soldiers, the
scoundrelism of some of your officers, especially those con-
cerned in your provision departments ; but above all your
shocking cruel punishments in  your navy and in your army,
have lessened their attachment  to their native  country.
England has, from the beginning, blundered most  wretch-
edly, for want of consulting  the human heart, in prefer-
ence to musty parchments ; and the equally useless books
on the law of nations.   Believe me, ye great men  of Eng-
land, Scotland, Ireland and  Berwick upon Tweed ! that
one  chapter from  the Law of Human  Nature, is worth
more than all your libraries  on the law of nations.  Be-
side, gentlemen, your situation is a new one.   No nation
was ever so situated and circumstanced as you are,  with
regard to us, your descendants.   The  history of nations
does not record its parallel.    Why then have  recourse to
books, or maritime laws,  or  written precedents.   In the
code of the law of nations, you stand in need of an  entirely
New Chapter.  YVe Americans, we despised  Americans,
are  accumulating, as fast as  we well can, the materials
for that chapter.   Your government began to write this
chapter in blood, and for two years past we co-oper;,ted
with you in the same  way.   Nothing stands  still within 
                      JOURNAL.                     -Si,

the great frame of nature.  On every sublunary thing mu-
tability is written.   Nothing can  arrest  the  destined
course of republics aud kingdoms.

       " Westward the course of empire takes its way."

  It is singular that while the Englishman and Irishman
are disposed  to abandon their native  countries to dwell
with us in this new world,the Scotchman has rarely sho.vn
that inclination.  No—Sawney is loyal, and talks as big
of his king, and his country, as would an English country
squire, surroi.ided by his tenants, his horses, and his dogs.
It is singular that the  Laplander, and  the inhabitant of
Iceland, are  as much  attached to their frightful countries,
as the inhabitant of Italy, France or England ; and when
avarice, and  the thirst for a  domineering command leads
the Scotchman out of his native rocks and barren hills, and
treeless country, he talks of  it as a second paradiso,  and
as  the ancient  Egyptians  longed after their onions  and
garlics, so these  half dressed, raw-boned  mountaineers.,
talk in raptures of their country, of their bag-pipes, their
singed sheep's head, and their '; haggiss." The only way
that I can think of, by way of preventing the hearts blood
of Old England from being drained  off in America, is to
people Nova Scotia aud Newfoundland with Scotchmen,
where they can raise  a few sheep  for singeing  and for
haggiss ; and where they can wear their Gothic habit and
be indulged in the luxury of the bug-pipe, enjoy over again
; heir native fogs, a.id howling storms, and  think them-
selves at home.  Nature seems to have fixed the great ar-
ticles of food in Nova Scotia to fish and potatoes;  this
last article is of excellent quality in that country.   Then
let these  strangers, these hostes, these antipodes to the
Americans, man the British  fleet, aud  fill up the  ranks of
their armies, and mutual antipathy will prevent the dread-
ed coalition.
   But 1 hasten to return from these people to my prison
ship. Among other conveniences, we had a sort of a shed
erected over the hatch-way, on which  to air our ham-
mocks.  This was grateful  to us all, especially to those
whose learning had taught them the salutiferous effects of
a free circulation of the vital air.   It is surprisiu<>;,  that
after what the English philosophers have written concern-
ing the properties  of the  atmospheric airj after  what 
52
JOURNAL,
Boyle, Mayhew, Hales and Priestley have written on thi*
subject: and after what they have learnt from the history
of the Calcutta  black hole : and after what  Howard has
taught them concerning prisons and  hospitals, it is sur-
prising that in  1813, the commanders of ships in the Eng-
lish service, should  be allowed to thrust a crowd of men
into those hideous black holes,  situated in the bottom  of
their ships, far  below  the surface of the water.  I have
sometimes pleased mvself with the hope that what is here
written may contribute to the abolition of a practice  so
disgraceful to a nation ; a nation  which has the honor of
first teaching mankind the true  properties of the air; and
of the  philosophy of the .healthy  construction of prisons
and hospitals;  and one would suppose of healthy and con-
venient ships,  for the prisoner as well as for their own
seamen.
   Our situation, in the day time,  was not unpleasant for
prisoners of war  Confinement is disagreeable to all men,
and very irksome to us, yankees, who have rioted, as it
were, from our  infancy, iu a sort of Indian freedom.   Our
situation was the most unpleasant  during the night.  It
was the practice, every night at sun-set, lo count the pris-
oners as they went down below; and then the hatch-ways
are all barred down and locked, and the ladder of commu-
nication drawn  up ; and every other precaution  that fear
inspires adopted, to prevent our escape, or our rising upon
our prison keepers ; for they never had half the apprehen-
sion of the French as of the Americans.   They said the
French were always busy in some little mechanical em-
ploy, or in gaming,  or in  playing the  fool; but that the
Americans seemed to be on the rack of invention to escape,
or to elude some of the  least agreeable of their regulations.
In a word, they cared but little for the Frenchmen ; but
were in constant dread of the increasing contrivance, and
persevering efforts of us  Americans   They  had  built
around the sides of the ship, and little abov% the surface
of the  water, a  stage, or flooring, on  which the  sentries
walked during  the whole night,  singing  out, every half
hour.  " all's  well."   Beside  these sentries  marching
around the ship, they had  a floating-guard in boats, row-
ing around all  the  ships, during the live  long  night.
Whenever these  boats rowed past a sentinel, it was his
duty to challenge them, and theirs to answer;  and this 
JOURNAL.
.  0-i
v,as  done to  ascertain whether they  were  French  or
American boats, come to surprise, and carry by boarding,
the Crown Prince !  We used to laugh among ourselves at
this ridiculous precaution.  It must be  remembered, that.
we were then up a small river, within thirty-two miles of
London, and three thousand miles from our own  country.
However,4i a burnt child dreads the fire," and an English-
man's fears may tell him, that what once happened, may
happen again.   About one hundred and  fifty years ago,
viz.  in 1667,  the Dutch  sent one of  their admirals  up
the river Medway, three miles above where we  now lay,
and singed the beard of John Bull. He has never entirely
?^ot over  that  fright,  but  turns pale  and trembles ever
^ince, at the sight, or name of a  republican.
                   CHAPTER III.

  Our prison-ship contained a pretty well organized com-
munity.  YVe were allowed to establish among ourselves an.
internal police for our own comfort and self-government.
And here we adhered to the forms  of our own adored con-
stitution ; for in ph.ce of making a  King, Dukes and
Lords, we  elected  a President and twelve Counsellors,
who, having executive as well legislative powers, we called
Committee men.   But instead of four years, they were to
hold their offices but four weeks : at the end of w liich a new
set were chosen,  by the general votes of all the prisoners.
  It was the duty of the president and his twelve counsel-
lors, to make  wholesome laws, and  define  crimes, and
award punishments   YVe  made laws and regulations res-
pecting personal behavior, and personal cleanliness, which
last we enforced'with particular care; for we had some
lazy, lifeless, dirty fellows among  us, that  required  at-
tending to  like  children.   They were like hogs, whose
delight it is to eat, sleep and wallow in the dirt, and never
work.   We had. however, but very few of this low cast;
and they  were, in a great  measure, pressed down by some
chronical disorder.  It was the duty of the president and
the twelve  committee men, or common council, to define,
                 5 
Bi
JOURNAL.
precisely, every act punishable by fine, whipping, or con-
finement in the black hole.  I opposed, with all my might,
this last mode of  punishment as unequal,  inhuman, and
disgraceful to our national character.   1 contended  that
we, who had  suffered so much, and complained so loud of
the black hole of the Regulus, Malabar, and other floating
dungeons, should  reject, from an humane  principle, this
horrid mode of torment.  I urged, as a medical man, that
the punishment of a confined black hole, was a very  une-
qual  mode of  punishment; for  that some men of weak
lungs and debilitated habit, might die under the effects of
that which another man could bear without much distress,
.1 maintained that it was wicked, a sin against human na-
ture,  to take  a well man, put him in a pl&ce that should
destroy his health, and,  very possibly, shorten his  days,
by engrafting on  him some iucurable disorder.- Some, on
the other side, urged, that as we were in the power of the
British, we should not be uncivil to them ; and that our
rejection of the punishment of  the  black  hole might be
construed into a reflection on the English government; so
■we suffered it to remain in terror em,  with a strong recom-
mendation not to  have recourse to it, but in very extraor-
dinary cases. This dispute plunged me deep into the phi-
losophy of crimes and punishments;  and 1  am convinced,
on mature reflection, that we, in America, are as much too
mild  in our  civil punishments, as the British are too se-
vere.  By what  I have heard,  I have  inferred, that the
Hollanders have  drawn a just line between both.
   We used to have our stated as well as occasional courts.
Beside  a bench  of judges, we had  our orators, and ex-
pounders of our laws.  It was amusing and interesting to
see a sailor,  in his round short jacket, addressing the com-
mittee, or bench  of judges, with a  phiz  as serious, and
with  lies as specious as any of our common lawyers in Mas-
sachusetts.  They would argue, turn and twist, evade, re-
treat, back out, renew  the attack,  and dispute every inch
of the ground, or rather the deck,  with an address that
astonished me.   The surgeon of the ship said to me, one
day,  after listening to some of our native salt water plead-
ers, " these  countrymen of yours  are the most extraordi-
nary men 1 ever  met with.  YVhile you have such fellows
 as these, your country will never lose its liberty."  I re-
plied, that this turn for  legislation arose from our  being 
JOURNAL.
%b
&\l taught to read aud write.   " That, alone, did not givo
them/' said he, " this  acutene'ss  of understanding, and
promptness of speech.   It arises,"  said he, with  great
justness, " from fearless liberty."
   I have already  mentioned that we had Frenchmen  hi
this prison-ship.  Instead of occupying  themselves with
forming a constitution,  and making a code of laws, and
defining crimes, and adjusting punishments, and  holding
courts, and  pleading for, and against the person arraign-
ed, these Frenchmen had erected billiard tables, and row-
letts,  or wheels  of fortune,  not  merely for their own
amusement, but to allure the Americans to hazard their
money, which these Frenchmen seldom failed to win.
   These Frenchmen exhibited a considerable portion  of
ingenuity, industry and patience, in their little manufac-
tories of bone, of straw, aud of hair. They  would work
incessantly,  to  get  money,  by  selling  these  trifliug
wares; but many of them had a much more expeditious
method of acquiring cash, and that was by gaming  at the*
billiard tables, and the  wheels of fortune. Their skill and
address at these apparent games of hazard were far supe-
rior to  the Americans.  They  seemed calculated for
gamesters ; their vivacity, their readiness, and their ever-
fasting professions of friendship, were nicely adapted  to
inspire confidence in the unsuspecting American Jack Tar,
who has no legerdemain about him.  Most of the prisoners
were in the way of earning a little money; but almost all
of them were deprived of it by the French gamesters. Our
people stood no  chance with  them, but were commonly
stripped of every cent,  whenever they set out seriously to
p!;<y w ith them.  How  often have I seen a Freuchman ca-
pering, aud singing, and grinning, in consequence  of his
stripping one of our sailors of all his money; while our
solemn Jack Tar was either scratching his head, or trying
to whistle, or else  walking  slowly off,  with both  hands
stuck  in his pocket, and looking like John Bull, after con-
cluding a treaty of peace with Louis Baboon.
   I admire the* French, and wish their  nation to possess
and enjoy peace, liberty and  happiness ; but I cannot say
that I love these French prisoners.   Beside common sail-
ors, there are several officers of the rank of captains, lieu-
tenants, and, I believe,  midshipmen ; and it is these that
are the most adroit gamesters.   Y\7e have all  tried hard to 
5<'>
JOURNAL*
 respect them;  but there is something in their conduct so-
 much  hke swindling, that I hanily know what to say of
 them.   When they knew that we had received money for
 the work we had been allowed to perform, they were very
 attentive,  and  complaisant, and,  flattering.  Some had
 been, or pretended to have been, in America. Ti.ey would
 come round and say, ah ! Boston fine town, very pretty—
 Cape Cod  fine town, very fine.  Town of Rhode Island su-
 perb.   Bristol  ferry very pretty.  General YY ashington
 tres gran/! hoinme ! General Madison brave hommc ! With
 these expressions and broken Fnglish, they would accom-
 pany,  with their monkey tricks, capering  and grinning,
 and patting us  on the shoulder, with, the Americans are
 brave  men—fight like Frenchmen  ; and by their insinuat-
 ing manners, allure  our men once more to their wheels of
 fortune and billiard-tables, and as sure as they did. so sure
 did they strip them  of all their money.  I must either say
 nothing of these Frenchmen, otfieeis and  all,  or else I
 must speak as I found them.  I hope they were not a just
 sample of their whole nation ; for these gentry would ex-
 ercise  every imposition, and even insinuate the thing that
 is not, the more easily  to plunder us of our hard earned
 pittance of small change.  Had they shown any generosi-
 ty like the British tar,  I  should have passed  over their
 conduct in silence ; but after they had stripped our men of
 every farthing, they  would say to them—;-  Monsieur, you
 have won all our money, now lend us a little change  to
 get us some coffee and sugar, and we  will  pay you when
 we shall earn more." " Ah, Mon  Ami," says Monsieur,
 shrugging  up his shoulders, " 1 am sorry, very sorry, in-
 deed ;  it is le fortune du guerre.  If you  have lost your
 money, you must win it  back again ; that is the fashion in
 my country—we no lend, that is not the fashion."   1 have
 observed that these Frenchmen are fatalists.   Good luck,
 or ill luck is all fate with them.  So of their national mis-
 fortunes;  they shrug up their shoulders, and ascribe all
 to (he inevitable decrees of fate.  This is  very different
 from the Americans, who ascribe every thing to prudence
 or imprudence, strength  or weakness.  Our men say, that
 if the game was wrestling, playing at ball, or foot-ball,
 or firing at a mark, or rowing,  or  running  a  race, they
should  be on fair ground with them.  Our'fellows offered
to institute this game with them : there should be a  stron- 
JOURNAL.
57
canvass bag, with  two pieces of cord four feet long ; the
contest should be, for one man to put the other in the bag,
with the liberty of first tying his haads, or his feet, or both
if he chose.   Here  would be a contest of strength and
hardihood, but not of cunning or legerdemain.   But the
Frenchmen all united in saying, " No, it was not the fash-
ion in their country to tie gentlemen up in sacks."
   There were here some Danes as well  as Dutchmen. It is
curious  to observe their  different  looks  and  manners,
which  I can  hardly believe to be owing, entirely, to the
manner of bringing  up.   Here we  see the thick  skulled
plodding Dane,  making a wooden dish ; or else  some  of
the most ingenious making a clumsy ship: while others
submitted to  the dirtiest drudgery of the hulk, for money ;
and  there  we see a Dutchman, picking to pieces  tarred
ropes, which, when reduced to its original  form of hemp,
they call oakum ;  or else you see him lazily stowed away
in some corner, with his pipe, surrounded with smoke, and
'■ steeping his senses in forgetfulness ;" while  here  and
there, and every where, you find a lively singing French-
man, working in hair ; or carving out of a hone, a lady, a
monkey, or the central figure of tha crucifixion!  Among
the  specimens  of American  ingenuity, I most  admired
their ships, which they built from three to  five feet long.
Some of them were said, by the navy-officers, to be perfect
as regarded proportion, and exact, as it regarded the min-
iature  representation of a merchantman, or sloop of war.
By the specimens of ingenuity of these  people of different
nations,, you  could discover their respective  ruling pas-
sions.
   Had  not the  French proved  themselves to be a very-
brave people, I should have doubted it, by what 1 observ-
ed of them on board  the prison-ship.  They would scold,
quarrel and fight, by slapping each other's chops with the
flat hand, and cry like so many girls. 1  have often thought
that one of our yankees, with his iron  fist, could, by one
blow, send monsieur into  hi» nonentity.  Perhaps such a
man as  Napoleon Bonaparte,  ceuld make any nation cour-
ageous ; but  there is some difference between courage and
bravery.  1 have been amused, amid captivity, on observ-
ing  the volatile Frenchman  singing, dancing, fencing,
grinning  and gambling, while the American tar lifts his
hardy  front  and weather beaten countenance,  despising 
58
JOURNAL.
them all, but the dupe of them ; just  about  as much de-
posed to squander his money among girls and fiddlers,  as
the English sailor ; but never so in love with  it, as to study
the arts and legerdemain to obtain it.  I have, at times,
wondered that the hard fisted yankee did not revenge im-
positions on the skulls of some of these blue-skinned sons
of the old continent.   Is  there not a country, where there
is one series or chain of impositions, from the Pope down-
wards ? There is  no such  thing in the United States.
That is a couutry of laws ;  and their very sailors are  all
frill of rights and wrongs ; of justice and injustice ; and of
defining crimes, and ascertaining the butts and  bounds of
national and individual rights.
   It was a pleasant circumstance, that I could, now  and
then obtain some entertaining  books.   I had read most of
Bean Swift's w orks, but had never met with his celebrat-
ed allegory of John Bull, until  I found it on board this
prison-ship.   I read  this little  work  with  more delight
than I can express.   I had  always heard the English  na-
tion, including king, lords, commons, country squires, awl
merchants, called " John Bull" but  I never before knew
that the name originated from this piece of wit  of Dean
?w ift's.  Now I learnt, for the first time, that the English
king, court and nation, taken collectively, were character-
ized under the name of John Bull : and that of France iva-
derlhc name of Louis Baboon; and that of  the  Dutch of
Nick Frog ;  and that of Spain under Lord Strul;  that
the church of England was called John's Mother ; the par-
liament his wife; and Scotland his poor ill-treated, raw-
koned, mangy Sister Peg*  While 1 was shaking my sides
at the comieal characteristical painting of the witty Dean
of St. Patrick, the Frenchmen would eome aromid me to
know what the book contained, which so much  tickled my
fancy ; they thought it  was an obscene book, and wished
some one to translate it to them : but all they could get out
of me was the word " John Bull and  Louis Baboon 1"
   It is now the 3oth of November; a month celebrated to
 a proverb in England, for its  gloominess.  YYre  have  had
 a troubled sky and foggy for several  weeks past.   The
 pleasant prospect of the surrounding shores has been ob-
 scured a great portion of this month.  The countenances
 of our companions partake of our dismal atmosphere.  It
 has even sobered oar Frenchmen; they do not sing  and 
JOURNAL^
Si
caper as usual; nor  do they swing their arms about, and
talk with strong  emphasis  of every trifle.  The thoughts
of home obtrude upon us;  and we feel as the poor Jews
felt on the banks  of the Euphrates, when their task-mast-
ers and  prison-keepers insisted on  their singing a  son°\
We all hung up  our  fiddles, as the  Jews did their harp^,
and sat about, here and there, like barn-door fowls, when
molting.
   Our captivity on the banks of the river Medway, bor-
dered with willows, brought to my mind  the plaintive song
of the children of Israel,  in  captivity on the banks  of the
river Euphrates, which  psalm, among  others,  I  used to
sing with my  mother and  sisters, on  Sunday evenings,
when an innocent boy, and long before the wild notion of
rambling, from  a comfortable and  plentiful  home, came
into my head.  It is the  iarth Psalm, Tate and Brady's
version.
    When we our weary limbs to rest
       Sat down by proud Euphrates' streato,,
    We wept, with doleful thoughts opprest.
      And Salem was our mournful theme.

    Our harps, that, when with joy we sung,,
       Were wont their tuneful parts to bear,
    With silent strings, neglected hung,
      On willow-trees, that wither'd there.

    Meanwhile our foes, who alt conspir'd
      To triumph in our slavish wrongs,
    Music and mirth of us requir'd,
      " Come sing us one of Zion's songs."

    How shall we tune our voice to sing ?
      Or touch our harps with skilful hands?
    Shall hymns of joy to God, our King,
       Be sung by slaves in foreign lands?

    ©, Salem!  Our once happy seat f
      When I of thee forgetful prove,
    Let then my trembling hand forget
      The speaking strings with art to move I

    ■If I, to mention thee, forbear,
      Eternal silence seize my tongue 1
    Or if I sing one cheerful air,
       Till my dcliv'rance is my song:


t' 
(T)
JOURNAL.
                   CHAPTER IV.

  I come now to a delicate  subject :  and  shall speak
accordingly, with due caution;  1 mean the character and
conduct of Mr. Beasly, the American Agent for  prisoners.
He resides in the city  of London, thirty-two miles from
this place.  There have been loud and constant complaints
made of his conduct towards his countrymen suffering con-
finement at three thousand miles distance from all they
hold most dear and valuable, and he but half a day's jour-
ney from us.  Mr.  Beasly knew that there were  some
thousands of his countrymen imprisoued in a foreign land
for no crime,  but for defending and fighting under the
American flag, that  emblem of national independence, and
sovereignty ; if he  reflected  at all he must  have known
these countrymen of his were in general, thinkin   men;
men who had  homes, and " fire places."  lie knew they
had, some of them,  fathers  and mothers,  wives  and chil-
dren, brothers and sisters in the United States,  who lived
in houses that had  "fire places," and that  they had,  in
general been brought up in more ease and plenty than the
same class in  England ; he  knew  they  were a people of
strong affections to their relatives^ and strong attachments
to their country ;  and he might have supposed that some
of them had as good an education as himself;  he  must,
or ought to have  thought constantly  that  they  were suf-
fering  imprisonment, deprivations  and occasionally sick-
ness in  a foreign  country, where he is specially commis-
sioned  and placed  to attend to their comfort, relieve, if
practicable their wants, aud to be the channel of commu-
nication between  them and their families.  The British
commander, or Commodore of all the prison ships in this
river visited them all once a month, and paid good  atten-
tion  to all their wants.
   When we first  arrived here, we  wrote  in  a  respectful
style to Mr. Beasly, as the Agent from our government for
the prisoners in England.   We glanced at our sufferings
at Halifax ; and stated our extreme sufferings on the pas-
sage to England, and until we arrived in the river Med-
way.  We  remarked that  we expected that the govern-
ment of the United States intended to treat her citizens in
captivity in a foreign land  all equally alike.   We repre- 
JOURNAL.
61
Bfcnted to him that Ave were, in general destitute of eloath-
ing, and many conveniences, that a trifling sum of money
would obtain ; that we did not doubt  the  good wiil, and
honorable intentions of our government; and that he doubt-
less knew of their kind intentions towards  us all.—But he
never returned a  word of answer.  W e found that all those
prisoners, who had been  confined  here at  Chatham from
the commencement of the war bore Mr. Beasly an inveter-
ate hatred.  They accuse him of an unfeeling neglect, and
disregard to their pressing  wants. They say he never
visited them but once, and that then his conduct gave more
disgust  than his visit gave pleasure.  Where there is
much smoke there must be some fire.  The account they
gave  is this—that when he came on board, he seemed fear-
ful that they would come too  near him, he therefore request-
ed that additional sentries  might be placed on the gang-
ways, tj  keep the prisoners from coming aft on the  quar-
ter deck   He then sent for one of their number, said a few-
words to  him relative to  ttie prisoners ; but not a word of
information  in answer to  the questions repeatedly put to
him ; and of which we were all very anxious to hear.  He
acted as  if he was afraid that any questions should be put
to him; so that without waiting to hear a single complaint,
and without waiting to examine into any thing respecting
their situation, their health, or their wants, he hastily took
his departure, amidst the hooting and hisses of his coun-
trymen, as he passed  over the side of the ship.
   Written representations of the neglect of this nominal
agent for us prisoners were  made to the government of the
United States,  which we sent by different conveyances ;
but whether they ever reached the person  of the Secretary
we never knew.  Several individuals among the prisoners
wrote to Mr. Beasly  for  information on subjects in  which
their comfort and happiness  were concerned, but received
no answer.  Once  indeed a letter was received from his
clerk in an imperious stvle, announcing that no notice would
be taken  of any letters from individuals, (which was  pro-
bably correct)  but  those only that  were written bj the
committee collectively. The Committee accordingly wrote,
but their letter was  treated  with  the same silent neglect.
This desertion of his countrymen in their  utmost need, ex-
cited an  universal expression of disgust if not resentment.
Cut off from their own country, surrounded only  by ene- 
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JOURNAL.
mies, swindled by their neighbours, winter coming on, and
no clothing proper for  the approaching season, and the
American agent for themselves and other prisoners, with-
in three or four hours journey, and yet abandoned by him
to the tender mercies of our decided enemies, it is no won-
der that our prisoners  detested, at length,  the name of
Beasly.  We made every possible allowance for this gen-
tleman ;  we said to each other.he may have no funds  ; he
•nay have the will but not  the power to help  us; his com-
mission, and his directions may not extend so  high as our
expectations;  still we  could  make  no excuse for his
uot visiting us, and enquiring, and seeing for himself our
real situation.   He might  have answered our letters, and
encouraged us not to despair but tr> hope  for relief; lie
might have visited us as often as did the English Commo-
dore, which was  once in four weeks ; but  he should not
have insulted our feelings, the only time he  did visit us,
and humble and mortify us in the view of the  Frenchmen,
who saw, and remarked that our agent considered us no
more than so  many hogs.   The  Emperor  Napoleon has
visited some of his hospitals in cog. has viewed the situa-
tion  of the sick  and wounded, examined  their food and
eaten of  their  bread, and once threw a cup  of wine in the
face of a steward, because he thought it not good enough
for the soldier ; but—some of our agents are men of more
consequence, in their own  eyes, than Napoleon !
   During the war it  was stated to our government that
six thousand two hundred and fifty-seven seamen had been
pressed and forcibly detained on board British ships of
war.  Events  have proved the correctness of this state-
ment ;  and this slavery  has been a  subject of merriment,
and  a theme for  ridicule among the federalists.  They say
it makes no more  difference to a sailor what ship he is on
board than it does to a hog what stye he is in   Others not
quite so brutal,  have said—hush ! it  may be so; but we
must bear it;  England is mistress of the Ocean ; and her
existence  depends on  this practice of impressment ; her
naval power  must  be  submitted to—give  us merchants
commerce, and these Jack tars  will  t&ke  care of them-
selves ; for it is not worth  while to loose a profitable trade
for the sake of a few ignorant sailors,  who never had any
rights, and who  have neither libertv, property  or homes,
but what we merchants give to them. 
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it.
  The American seamen on board the Crown Prince, were
chiefly men who had been impressed into  the British Navy
previous to the ivar ; but who, on  hearing of  the Decla-
ration of war against Great Britain  by  the people of  the
United States, gave themselves  up  as prisoners of war;
but instead of being directly exchanged,  the English Gov-
ernment thought it proper to send them on board these
prison ships to be retained there during the war, evidently
to prevent them from entering into our own navy. It should
be remembered that they were all citizens of the United
States sailing in merchant ships ; and yet the merchants,
at least those of Boston, and the other New-England sea-
ports, have very generally mocked the complaints of  im-
pressed seamen, and derided their representations, and
have even  denied .the story of their  impressment.  Even
the Governor of Massachusetts (Strong)  has affected in his
public speeches to the Legislature to  represent this crying
outrage, as the mere groundless  clamor  of a party oppos-
ed  to his  election !  Whether groundless  or not, I  will
venture to  assert that the names of many  of  the  leading
federalists in Massachusetts, and a few others will never
be forgotten by the inhabitants of the prison ships at Chat-
ham, at Halifax, and in the West Indies.
  We are  now at peace, and the tide of party has so far
slackened, that we can tell the truth  without the suspicion
of political, or party designs.  I shall relate only what I
have collected from the  men themselves, who  were never
in the way of reading our newspapers, or of hearing of the
speeches of the friends  of the British in  Congress, or in
our State Legislatures.—I think I ought however, here to
premise, that my family were of that party in Massachu-
setts called Federal; that is, we voted for Governor Strong,
and federal Senators and Representatives ; our Clergyman
was also federal and preached  and prayed federally,  and
we read none but federal newspapers, and associated with
none but federalists ; of course we believed all that Gover-
nor Strong said, and approved all that our Senators  and
Representatives voted,  arid believed all that was printed
in the Boston federal papers.  The whole  family, and  my-
self with them, believed all that Colonel Timothy Picker-
ing had written about impressment of seamen, and  about
the  weakness and wickedness of the  President and admin-
istration ;  we believed them all to be under the pay  and 
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JOURNAL
influence of Bonaparte, who we knew was  the first Lieu-
tenant of  Satan.   We believed all thf.t was  said  about
'• Free trade and sail'urs> rights," was all stuff and nonsense,
brought forward by the Republicans, whom we called De-
mocrats and Jacobins to gull the people out of their liber-
ty tin d property, in order to surrender both to the Tyrant
of France.  W*e believed entirely  that the  war w as unne-
cessary and wicked,  aud declared  with no other design but
to injure England  and gratify  France.   We believed also
that the whole of the administration, and every man of the
Republican party, from Jefferson  and Madison, down to
our — was either fool or knave. If we did not believe that
every  republican was a scoundrel, we were sure and cer-
tain that  every scoundicl  was a republican.  In some
points our belief was as strong and as fixed as any in the
papal  dominions ;  for example—we maintained stiffly that
Governor Strong.  Lieut. Gov.  Phillips, H. G.  Otis, and
John Lowell and Francis Blake, Esqrs were, for talents,
know ledge, piety  and  virtue, the very first men in the
United States,  and ought to be at  the head of the nation ;
or—to express  it  all in one word, as  my sister once did,
" Federalism is  <he politics of a gentleman, and of a ludy,
but Republicanism is the low cant of the vulgar ;" of sii'Ji
men as your Tom Jeffersons., Jim Madisons,  and Johu
Adams', and Col.  Monroe's.
   With these expanded and enlightened ideas of men and
things, did  I, Perigrinus Americanns, quit  my  father's
house  of ease and  plenty, to make a short trip in a Priva-
teer, more  for a frolic than for any thing serious, being
very little concerned whether I was taken or not, provided
my capture would  be the means of carrying me among the
people who I had  long adored for their superior bravery,
magnanimity,  religion, knowledge, and  justice ; which
opinions 1 had imbibed from  their own writers, in vese
and prose   Beside the federal newspapers, 1  bad  dipped
into the posthumous  works of  Fisher Ames, enough to in-
spire me with adoration of England, abhorrence of France,
and a contempt for my own country :  or to express it all
in fewer words, I was. a Federalist of  the Boston stamp.—
These are the outlines of my preconceived opinions, which
I carried with me  into  Melville  Prison, at  Halifax.   I
was not the only one by many, who entered ti at abode of
misery with similar  notions. *  How often  have  1 wished 
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65
that Governor Strong, and his principal supporters, were
here w'th us, learning wisdom, and acquiring just  notions
of men, tilings and governments.
   But to return from the Governor and Council, and other
great  men of Massachusetts, to the British prison ship at
Chatham —The British had been in the habit of pressing
the sailors from our  merchant ships, ever since the year
i755.   The practice was always  abhorred,  and often re-
sisted, and sometimes even unto death.   We naturally in-
ferred that, with our  independence, we  should  preserve
the persons of our citizens from violence and deep dis-
grace ;  for, to an American, a whipping is a degradation
worse than death.  Since  the termination of the war with
England, which guaranteed our independence, the British
never pretended  to impress American  citizens;  but pre-
tended to the right of entering our vessels, and taking from
them  the natives of Britain or Ireland, and this was their
general rule of conduct ;—they would forcibly board  our
vessels,  and the  boarding-officer, who was commonly  a
lieutenant, completely armed with sword, dirk, and load-
ed pistols, would  muster the crew, and examine the per-
sons of the sailors, as a planter examines a lot of negroes
exposed for sale ;  and all  the thin, puny, or sickly men,
he allowed to be Americans—but all  the stout, hearty,
red cheeked, iron fisted, crispy  haired fellovvs, were  de-
clared to be British ; and   if such men showed their cer-
tificates of citizenship and place of birth, they were pro-
nounced forgeries, and the unfortunate men were dragged
over the side into the boat, and forced on  board his float-
ing prison.  Not  a  day in the year,  but there occurerd
such a scene as this ; and to  our shame  be  it spoken, we
endured this outrage  on  man through the administration
of Washington, Adams and Jefferson, before we  declared
war, to revenge the  villany.  If an high spirited man,
thus kidnap'd,  refused to  work,  he was first deprived of
victuals ; and if starvation did not induce him to work, ha
was stripped, and tied up, and whipped like a thief!—and
many a noble spirited  fellow suffered this accursed pun-
ishment.  If he seized the first opportunity, as he ought,
to run away  from his  tyrants, and was taken,  he was se-
verely whipped ; and for a second attempt the punishment
was doubled, aud  for a third, he was hanged, or shot.
  it happened on our declaration of war, chiefly ou account
                 6 
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JOURNAL.
of this atrocious treatment of the sailors, that thousands of
our countrymen had been impressed into tbeBrii ish navy and
more or less were found in almost every ship ; most of these
informed their respective captains, that being American cit-
izens, they could not remain in the service of a nation, to
aid them in killing their brethren, and in pulling down the
flag of their native country.   They declared, firmly,  that
it  was fighting against nature for a man to fight against
liis native land, the only land to  which he owed a natural
duty. Some noble British commanders  admired their  pat-
riotic spirit, and permitted them to quit their ships and go
to prison :  while other captains, of an opposite  and igno-
ble character, refused to hear their declarations,  and or-
dered them to  return to what  they  called their duty;
which they accompanied with threats  of severe  punish-
ment if  they disobeyed.  But some,  whose  noble spirits
would have honored any man, or station, adhered to their
first  determination, not to fight against  their own brothers,
or aid in pulling down the flag of their nation.  These
were immediately  put in irons,  and  fed on scanty allow-
ance of bread and water: for if any thing can bring down
the high spirit of an hearty young man, it is the slow tor-
ture  of hunger and thirst; when it was found that.this had
not the  effect of debasing the American spirit, the young
sufferer was brought upon deck, and stripped to his waist,
and sometimes lower, and — Oh ! my pen cannot write it
for  indignation !   resentment, and a  righteous  revenge
shakes my hand with rage, while I attempt to record the act
of villainy. Yes, my countrymen and my countrywomen, our
noble minded young men, brought up  in more ease  and
plenty than half the officers of a British man of war,  are
violently stripped, and tied fast and immoveable by a rope,
to a cannon, or to the iron railing of  what is  called the
gang-way, and when he is so fixed as to stretch the skin
and  muscles to the utmost, he is whipped by a long,heavy
and  hard knotted whip, four  times more formidable  and
heavy than the whip allowed to   be used by the carters,
truck, or carmen, on their horses.  With this  heavy and
knotted scourge, the  boatswain's mate, who is generally
selected for his strength, after stripping off his jacket that
he may strike the harder, lashes this  young man, on his
delicate skin, until his back is cut from his shoulders to
his waist! Few men, of ordinary feelings  of humanity, 
JOURNAL.
67
could bear to see, without great emotion, even a thief, or a
robber so severely punished.  But what must be  the feel-
ings of an American, to see such a cruel operation  upon the
body of his countryman, of his mess-mate and companion ?
We will venture to say, that if a dog, or an  horse, were
tied fast to a post, in any street of any town in America,
and lashed with such an  heavy knotted whip, swung by
the strong arm of  a vigorous  man, although their skins
were covered and defended by their hair, or fur, we do not
believe that the inhabitants  would see it inflicted on the
poor beast, without carrying the whipper before  a magis-
trate, to answer to  the law  for his cruelty.   Yet what is
the whipping of a beast, devoid of reason, and covered
with fur, to this severe operation upon the delicate skin
and flesh of one of our young men ? And all, for what ? For
nobly maintaining and upholding the first and great prin-
cipal of our nature.  Yet has this heroism of our  enslaved
seamen been overlooked, and even derided by the federal
merchant  and the federal politician, and the federal mem-
ber of congress, aud the federal clergyman !  Some of our
brave  fellows have been brought upon deck every punish-
ing day, and undergone this horrid punishment  three or
four times over, until the crews of the men of war were
disposed to cry out shame, upon their own officers. Some
of  our poor  fellows could not sustain these  repeated tor-
tures,  which is  not to be  wondered  at, and have finally
gone to work as soon as they recovered  from their barba-
rous usage.  Others, of firmer frames and firmer minds,
have wearied out their persecutors, whose infernal dispo-
sitions they have defied, and triumphed over; such  have
been sent  out of the ship into our prison-ships; and  here
they are to tell their own story, to show to their country-
men the everlasting marks of their tormenters, the British
navy officers.  With  what indignation, rage and horror,
have I seen our brave fellows actuated, while one of these
heroes of national rights, and national character, has been
relating his sufferings, and showing his degrading scars,
made on his body by the  accursed whip of a boatswain's
mate,  by order of an infamous captain of the British navy!
You talk  of peace, friendship  and cordiality with the na-
tion from whom most of us  sprang.   It is well,  perhaps,
that the two nations should  be at peace politically, but
can you ever expect cordiality to subsist between our im- 
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   pressed and cruelly treated sailor,and a British navy ofiieer?
   It is next to impossible.   Our ill treated sailor, lacerated
   in his flesh,  wounded  in his honor, and debased by the
   slavish hand of a boatswain's mate, never can forget the
   barbarians : nor ever can, nor ever ought to forgive them.
   The God of nature  has ordained that  nations should be
   separated by a difference of language,  religion, customs,
   and manners, for wise purposes;  but where two great na-
   tions, like the English and American, have the same lan-
   guage, institutions and manners,  he may possibly have al-
   lowed the  devil to inspire one with a portion of his own
   infernal spirit of cruelty, in order to effect a separation,
   and keep apart two  people, superficially resembling each
   other.
     It may be for good and wise purposes, in the order of
   Providence, that there should he a partition wall between
   ns  and  Britain.  We  hajjc  had to deplore that  three
   thousand miles of ocean  is not half enough; for avarice,
   fashion and folly, are continually drawing us together;
   and these often drown the still small voice of patriotism,
   whose language is,  " Come out of her,  O my peoplel"
   There is nothing that tends so strongly  to keep us asunder
   as  the  different  dispositions of the two people.  The
*   Americans are a kind, humane,  tender-hearted people, as
   free from  cruelty as any nation  upon earth ; and possess-
   ing as much generosity towards  an enemy they have van-
   quished, and who is at their mercy, as any people to be
   found on the records of the human kind.  Their laws ex-
   press it; the records of their courts preve it; the  history
   of the war illustrates it; and I hope that all our  actions
   declare it.  We may change, and become  as hard hearted
   and cruel  as the English.  It may be that we are  now in
   the chivalrous age, or period of our nation, which is the
   generous, youthful stage of a nation's life; this may pass
   away, and we may sink into the cold, phlegmatic, calcu-
   lating cruelty of  the present Britons;  and become, like
   them, objects of hatred to our own descendants.   What-
   ever we may, in the  course  of degeneration, beeome, we
   assert it,  as  an incontrovertible fact,  that the Britons
   are now, and have been for many generations past, vast-
   ly our inferiors on the score of  polished  humanity.  On
   this subject we would refer the reader to the history of
   England, written by  eminent Englishmen and Scotchmen, 
JOURNAL.
09
and to Shakespeare's historical plays, and to the records
^>f their courts, the annals of Newgate, and of the Tower,
and to their penal code, generally; but above all, to their
horrid military punishments, in  their army and  in their
navy; and then contrast  the whole with the history of
America, of her courts, and of her army and navy punish-
ments.
   When the Algerines captured some of our vessels,  and
made slaves of the crew, a very high degree of sensibility
was excited.   It was the theme of every newspaper  and
oratiou, and the subject of almost every conversation. The
horrors of Algerine slavery was considered as the ne plus
ultra of human misery ; but  it has so happened, that we
have  many sailors  returned  again  to their  country, who
have  been enslaved  at Algiers, and have been impressed
and detained on board British men of war, and afterwards
thrown into their prison-ships.  The united opinion of
these people is, that  the Algerine slavery is much more
tolerable than  the British slavery.   The Algerines make
the common sailors work from six to eight hours in  the
day, but they give them good food, and enough of it, and
lodge them in  airy places ; and always employ the officers
according to their rank, whereas the  British seem to tate
a delight in confounding and  mixing together, the officers
with- their men.  As  to their punishments among them-
selves, they will cut off a man's  head, and  strangle  him
with a bow-string, in a summary manner; but a Turk, or
Algerine, would sicken at the sight of a  whipping in  the
navy, and in the army of the  christian king of England.
There is no nation upon this globe of earth that treats its
soldiers and sailors with that degree  of barbarity  common
to their camps, garrisons and men of war; for what they
lack in the number of lashes on board a ship, they make
up in the severity of infliction, so as to render the punish-
ment  nearly equal to the Russian knout
  If any one is curious to see British military  flogging
treated scientifically, I would refer  him to chapter xii,
vol. 2d, of Dr. R. Hamilton's Duties of a Regimental Sur-
geon, from page 22, to 82.   The reading of it  is enough
to spoil an hungry man's dinner.   We there read of  the
suppuration and stench that follows  after seven  or eight
hundred  lashes ; and that some men have complained that
Us offcnsiveness was almost equal to the whipping.  We
                 6* 
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there read of the surgeon discharging a pound and a half
of matter from  an abscess, formed  in  consequence of a
merciless punishment. The reader may also be entertain-
ed with the discussion, whether it is best to wash the  cats
clear from the blood, (for the executioners lay on twenty-
five strokes, and then another twenty-five, and  so  on, till
the nine hundred, or  a thousand,  ordered, are finished) or
whether it is best to  let the blood dry on the knots of the
whip,  in order to make it cut the sharper.   There, too,
you may learn the advantage of  having the naked wretch
tied  fast  and  firm,  so that he may not wring and twist
about  to avoid the torture, which, he says, if not attended
to, may destroy the sight, by the  whip cutting his eyes, or
Jiis cheeks and breasts may be cut for want of this precau-
tion.  He says, however, that in those regiments who pun-
ish by running the gauntlet, it is almost impossible to pre-
vent the man from being cut from the nape of the neck to
Lis hams. You will  there find a  description of a neat con-
trivance, used at Gibraltar, which was  compounded of the
stocks and the pillory.  The soldiers legs were held firm
in two apertures of a thick plank, while his body and head
were bent down to a plank placed in a perpendicular di-
rection, to receive the man's head, and  two more apertures
to confine his arms.  In this  immoveable posture, human
beings, Englishmen, Irishmen and  Scotchmen, have had
their flesh lacerated  for more than half an hour !  But the
Doctor informs us that the men did not like this new con-
trivance, as it checked their vociferation and injured their
lungs ; 9*0 it was discontinued, and they returned again to
the halberts, where  their hands were tied up  over their
Iieads.  Some of these poor  wretches have been known to
gnaw the flesh of their own arms, in the agonies of torture.
   Americans! think of these barbarities, and bless the
memories of those statesmen and warriors, who have sep-
arated you as  a nation from  a cruel people, who have nei-
ther bowels of compassion, or any  tenderness of feeling,
for the soldier or  the sailor.  They value them and care
for them on the same principle that we value a  horse and
no more, merely as an animal  that  is  useful to them.   I
have for some time believed  that America would be the
s»rave of  the  British character.  Our free presses dare
speak of  their military  whippings, without fearing the
pui>i«hment inflicted on the Editor of their Political  Reg-
i:s'tje:r. 
JOURNAL.

  Those pressed men liberated from the British men of
war, aud sent on board this ship, the Crown Prince, that
is, sent from one prison to another, are large, well made,
fine looking fellows, for such they usually  select as Eng-
lishmen.  Some of them were men of colour. The follow-
ing anecdote does honor to the  character of Sir Sidney
Smith, as well as to that of our brave  tars.   Sir Sidney
was then off Toulon.  On the news reaching the crew that
the United States had declared war  against England, all
the Americans on board had determined not to fight against
their country, or aid in  striking its flag ; they therefore
asked permission to speak with Sir Sidney,  who permitted
them to  come altogether on the quarter-deck ; they told
him they  were all   Araericaus by  birth, and  impressed
against their will  into  the British  service, and forcibly
detained, that although they had consented to do the  du-
ties of Englishmen  on board his ship, they  could not fight
against their own country.  " Nor do 1 wish you should,"
was the answer of this gallant knight.   On being remind-
ed by one of his officers, that they were nearly all petty
officers,  he observed to  them, that they had been promot-
ed in consequence  of their  good behaviour ; and  that if
they could, as he hoped  they would, reconcile themselves
to the  service, he  should continue  to promote them,  and
reward their  good  behaviour.   Phey thanked him ;  but
assured him that it was against their principles, as Amer-
icans, and against  a sense of duty towards their beloved
country, to fight against their brethren, or to aid in pulling
down the emblem of their nation's sovereignty.  He prom-
ised to report the  business  to his superiors, and turning
to one of his officers, said, I wish all  Englishmen were as
strongly attached to their country, as these Americans are
to theirs.
   Another instance of a British commander, the opposite
of this, is worth relating.  I give it as the sufferer related
it to us all, and as  confirmed by other testimony beside his
own.  The man declared himself to be au  American,  and
as such,  asked  for his  discharge.  The captain said he
lied, that he was no American, but  an Englishman,  and
that he only made this declaration to  get his liberty ;  and
he ordered him to be severely whipped;  and on every pun-
ishing day, he was  asked if he still persisted in  calling
himself an American,  and  in refusing to do duty ? The 
V2
JOURNAL.
man obstinately persisted.   At length the captain became
enraged to a high degree ; he ordered the man to be strip-
ped, and tied up to the gratings, and after threatening him
with the severest flogging that was in his power to inflict,
he asked the  man if he would avoid the punishment, and
do his duty?   " Yes," said the noble sailor, " I will do
my duty, and that is to blow up your ship the very first op-
portunity in my power "   This  was said  with a  stern
countenance,  and a  corresponding voice.  The captain
seemed  astonished,  and first looking over  his larboard
shoulder, and then over his starboard shoulder, said to his
officers, this is a damn'd queer fellow ! I do  not believe he
is an Englishman.   I suppose he  is crazy ; so you  may
unlash him, boatswain ; and he was soon after  sent out of
that ship  into this prison-ship.   This man  will carry the
marks of the accursed cat to his grave !
   O, ye Tories ! ye  Federalists, ye every thing  but  what
you should be, who have derided the sufferings  of the sail-
or, and mocked at his misery—had you one half of the he-
roic virtue  that  filled  and sustained  the brave heart of
this noble sailor, you would cease to  eulogize these ty-
rauts of the ocean, or to revile  your own government for
drawing the sword, and running  all risks  to redress the
wrongs of the oppressed sailor.   The cruel  conduct of the
British ought to be trumpeted throughout the terraqueous
globe ; but we would feign cover over, if possible, the de-
pravity  of some few of our merchants and politicians, who
regard a sailor in the same light as a truckman does his
horse.
   Several of  these impressed men have declared, that in
looking back on their  past sufferings,  on board English
men of  war, aud comparing it with their present confine-
ment at Chatham,  they  feel themselves in a Paradise.
The ocean, the mirror of heaven, is as  much the element
of an American as of an  Englishman.  The great  Crea-
tor has given it  to us, as  well  as  to them  ; and we will
guard its honor accordingly, by chasing cruelly from its
surface, whether it shall appear in the habit of a  Briton,
or an Algerine. 
JOURNAL.
73
                    CHAPTER V.

    It is now the last day of the year 1813 ;  and we live
pretty comfortably.  Prisoners of war, confined in an old
man of war hulk, must not expect to sleep on beds of down,
or to fare sumptuously every day,  as if we were at home
with  our indulgent mothers and sisters.  All things taken
into consideration, 1 believe we are nearly as  well treated
here, in the river Medway, as the British prisoners are in
Salem or Boston ; not quite so well fed with fresh meat,,
a^:d a variety of vegetables, because this country does uot
admit of it ; but we do suffer, as  we did at Halifax, and
above all, as we suffered on board  the floating dungeons^
the transports,  and store-ship Malabar.
  All the Frenchmen are sent out  of the ship, excepting
about forty officers, and these are all gamblers, ready and
willing and able to fleece us all, had we ever so much mo-
ney  I wonder that the prison-ship  police has not put
down this infamous practice.  It is a fomenter of almost
all  the evil passions, of those particularly which do the
least  honor  to  the human  heart.   Our domestic faction
Lave  uttered a  deal of nonsense about a French influence
in America.  By what 1 have observed  here,  1 never can
believe that the French  will ever have any  influence to
speak of, in the United States.  We  never agreed with
them  but in one point, and that was in our hatred to the
English   There we united cordially ;  there we could fight
at the same gun, and there we could mingle our blood to-
gether.   The  English may  thank themselves  for this.
They, with their friends and allies, the Algerines and the
Savages  of our own wilderness,  have  made  a breach in
that great  christian family,  whose native language was
the  English, which is every year growing wider and wider.
  January, 1814.— We take two or three London newspa-
pers,  and through them  know a little  what is going for-
ward  in the world.   We find by them  that Joanha South-
cote, and Molenaux,  the  black bruiser, engross the atten-
tion of the most respectable portion of John Bull's family.
Not only the  British  officers, but  the ladies wear the or-
ange  colored cockade, in honor of the Prince of  Orange,
and because the Dutch  have taken Holla. I.  The yel-
low, or orange  color, is  all the rage -? it has been even 
74
JOURNAL.
 extended to  the  clothing of the prisoners.  Our sailors
 say that it is because we are  under the command of a yel-
 low Admiral, or  at least a  yellow  Commodore, which is
 about the same thing.
   About this time there came on board of  us a recruiting
 sergeant, to try to enlist some of our men in the  service of
 the Prince Regent.  He  offered us sixteen guineas ; hut
 he met with no success.   Some of  the men '<* bored"  him
 pretty  well.   We had a very good  will to throw the slave
 overboard, but as we dare not, we contented ourselves with
 telling him what a flogging  the Yankees would give  him
 and his platoon, when they got over to America.
   About five hundred prisoners have recently arrived in
 this " reach," from Halifax.  There are between one hun-
 dred and fifty and two hundred  of Colonel Boestler's men,
 who  were deceived, decoyed, and  captured near Beaver
 Dams,  on the twenty-third of June, 1813. These men were
 principally from Pennsylvania and Maryland.   It is diffi-
 cult to  describe their wretched appearance ; and as diffi-
 cult to narrate their suffering on the passage, without get-
 ting into a rage, inconsistent  with the character  of an  im-
 partial journalist.
   To the everlasting disgraee of the British government,
 and of a^British man of war, be it known, that these mis-
 erable victims to hardheartedness, were crowded together
 in the black hole  of a ship, as we were, just like sheep in
 a sheep-fold.  They allowed but two to come upon deck
 at a time.  They were covered with nastiness, and over-
 run with vermin, for these poor creatures were not allowed
 to wash their clothes or themselves.  O,  how my soul  did
 abhor the English,  w hen I saw these poor soldiers !  It is
 no  wonder that people who  only see and judge of  the
 Americans by the prisoners, that thev conceive us to be a
 horde of savages.  They see us while  prisoners, in  the
 most degraded and odious light that we  ever  before saw
 or felt ourselves in.  1 can easily conceive how bad and
 scanty food, dirt, vermin, and  a slow chronical  disease, or
 low spirits, may change the temper and character of large
 bodies of men.  I would advise all my countrymen, should
 it ever be their hard lot to be  again  in British bondage, to
exert themselves to appear as clean and smart in their per-
 sons as  their situation will  possibly admit.   I believe a
soldier feels more of Ute partial spirit when in  uniform, 
JOURNAL.
73
than in  a loose drab coat.  The same feeling may extend
to a judge in his robes, and to a parson in his gown.  They
all may feel  braver, more  consciencious,  and pious, for
this  " outward  and visible sign," of what  the inward
ought to be.
   These poor soldiers were, of all men among us, the most
miserable ; they had suffered greatly for want of good and
sufficient food ; as six of them had to feed on that quanti-
ty which the British allowed to four of their own  men.
iiy what we  could gather, the  most barbarous, the most
unfeeling neglect, aud  actual ill treatment,  was experi-
enced on board the  Nemesis.  This ship seems, like the
Malabar, to be damned to everlasting reproach.  1 forgot
to enquire whether her  Captain and her Surgeon  were
Scotchmen.
   We turn with disgust  and  resentment from such ships
as the Regulus, the Malabar,  and  the Nemesis, and men-
tion with pleasure the Poictiers, of 74 guns   The captain
and officers  of this ship behaved to  the prisoners she
brought, with the same kindness and  humanity, as I pre-
sume the captain, officers and crew of an American man
of war would towards British  prisoners.  They consider-
ed our men as living, sensitive beings, feeling the  incon-
veniences of hunger and thirst, and  the pleasure of the
gratifications of these instinctive appetites;  they seemed
to consider, also, that we were rational beings ;  and it is
possible they may have suspected that some of us  might
have had our rational and improvable faculty increased by
education ; they might,  moreover, have thought that we
had, like them, the powers of reminescence, and the same
dispositions  to revenge ; or  they might not have thought
mueh on the subject,  but acted  "from their own generous
and humane feeiings.  I wish it were in  my  power to re-
cord the names of the officers  of  the Poictiers.  Of this
ship we can remark, that she had long been on the  Amer-
ican station, long enough to know the American charac-
ter, and to respect  it.   Her officers had a  noble specimen
of American bravery and humanity, when the American
sloop Wasp  took the British sloop Frolic, and both were
soon after taken by the  Poictiers.   The humane, and we
dare say,  brave  Capt. Beresford,  has the homage of re-
spect for his proper line of conduct towards those Ameri-
cans whom the fortuue  of  war put under his command. 
76
JOURNAL.
We drank the healths, in the best beer  we could get, of
the Captain, officers u»d  crew, of his Britannic Majesty's
line of battle ship, Poic iers.
  It may be tedious to our readers, especially  if  they  be
British, but we cannot yet leave  the  subject of the inhu-
man treatment of the  American prisoners of  war, while
on their passage ftom Halifax to Chatham.  The condi-
tion of the soldiers was  the  most deplorable.  Some of
these men were born in the interior, and bad never seen the
salt ocean ; they enlisted in Boestler's regiment, and were
taken by the British and  Indians, somewhere between fort
George and York, the capital of Upper Canada.   They
were pretty much stripped  ef their clothing, soon after
they were taken, and their march to Montreal was con-
ducted with very little regard to their feelings; but when
sick, they were well attended to  by the medical men of the
enemy; their passage from Quebec to Halifax, down  the
river St.  Lawrence,  was barbarous.  They  suffered for
victuals, cloths, and  every other conveniency. The men
say  that they had  more instances of real kindness from the
Indians, than from  the British.  But on their passage
across the atlantic, their situation was horrible, as may be
•well supposed,when it is  considered that these  soldiers had
never been at sea, and of course  could not shift, and shirk
about, as the sailors call it, as  could the seamen; they
were of course, sea sick; and were continually grooping
 and tumbling about in the dark  prison of  a  ship's hold.
They suffered a double portion  of misery compared vtith
the sailors, to whom the rolling  of  the ship in a  gale of
wind, and the stench of bilge-water, were matters of no
grievance ; but were serious  evils to these  landsmen, who
were constantly treading upon,  or running  against, and
tumbling over each other.  Many of them  were weary of
their lives, and some layed down dejected in despair, hop-
ing never to rise again.  Disheartened, and of course sick,
these young men became negligent of their  persons,  not
caring whether they ever  added another day  to their
 wretched existence, so that  when they came on board  the
 prison ship, they were loathsome objects  of  disgust.   A
 mother could not have known her own son;  nor  a sister
Iier brother, disguised and half  consumed  as  they  were,
with a variety of wretchedness.  They  were half naked,
and it was now the  middle  of  winter, and within thirty 
                       JOURNAL.                    77

miles of London, in the nineteenth  century, an era famous
for bible societies, for missionary and humane societies,and
for all the proud  boa-imgn of  christian and  evangel-
ical virtue ; under the reign of a king and prince, renowned
for their liberality and magnanimity towards French cath-
olics, (hut not Irish ones,) and towards Ferdinand the big-
ot, his holiness the Pope, and the venerable institution  of
the holy Inquisition.  Alas ! poor  old John Bull, thou art
in thy dotage, with thy thousand ships in  the great salt
ocean, and thy half a dozen victorious  ones in  the serpen-
tine river, alias the splendid gutter dug out in Hyde Park
for the amusement of British children six feet high.  Can
the world wonder  that  America,  in her  present  age of
chivalry, should knock over these doting old fellows, and
make them the derision  of the universe.
   I can no  otherwise account for this base treatment  of
the Americans, than by supposing  that the  British gov-
ernment had  concluded in the summer and autumn of 1813,
that America could  not stand the tug  of war with Eng-
land, that  Madison was unpopular, and that the federal-
ists, or British faction in America, were prevailing, espe-
cially in New-England ;  and that,  being sure of conquest,
they should eommence the subjugation of the United States
by degrading its soldiery and  seamen,  as they  have the
brave Irish.   They  may have been led into this  error by
our federal newspapers,  which are generally  vehicles  of
misinformation.   The faction may impede and embarrass
for a  time, but  they never can long confine  the nervous
arm of the  American Hercules.
   Candor influences me to  confess, that there were more
attempts than one, to rise and take these men of war trans-
ports    I  fiud that  several experiments were made, hut,
that they were always betrayed, by some Englishman, or
Irishman,  that had crept into American citizenship.  I
hope the time is not far off, when we shall reject  from our
service every man not known absolutely to have been born
in the United States.   Whenever these foreigners get
drunk, they betray  their partiality to  their own country,
and their dislike of ours.   I hope  our navy never will be
disgraced or endangered by these renegadbes.   Every man
is more or less a villain, who fights against his own coun-
try.   The  Irish are  so  ill treated at  home. 0 it it is no
wonder they  quit their native soil, for  a land of more lib- 
7S                    JOURNAL.

erty and plenty ; and they are often faithful to the coun-
try that adopts them : but never trust an Fnglishman, and
above all a Scotchman.  It is a happy circumstance that
America wants neither.  She  had rather have one English
manufacturer than an hundred English sailors.   We la-
bor under the  inconvenience  of  speaking the same lan-
guage with the enemies of our rising greatness.   1  know by
my owu personal experience, that English hooks, published
since our  revolutionary  war,  have a pernicious tendency
in anglifying the pure American character.  1 have been
amused in listening to  the  wrangling  conversation of an
English, Irish and  American sailor, when all three were
half drunk ; and this was very often the  case during this
month of  January, as many of our men who  had been in
the British navafservice, received payment from the gov-
ernment;  and this filled our abode with noise, riot, confu-
sion, and sometimes fighting.   The day was spent in gam-
bling, and the night in  drunkenness ; for now all would
attempt to forget their  misery, and  steep their  senses in
forgetfulness.   The French oificers among us, seldom in-
dulged  in drinking to excess.   Our men said they kept so-
ber in order to strip the boozy sailor of his money, by gam-
bling.
   While  the  Frenchmen keep sober,  the American and
English sailor will indulge  in their  favorite grog.  In
this respect,  I see  no  difference between English and
American.  Over  the can of grog, the  English tar forgets
all his  hardships and his slavery—yes, slavery ; for where
is there a greater  slavery among  white men,  than that of
impressed Englishmen on board of  one of their  own men
of war?  The American,  over his  grog,  seems equally
happy, and equally forgetful  of his harsh treatment. The
Englishman,  when his fekin  is full  of grog,  glows with
idolatry for his country,  and his favorite  lass ; and so^
does the American : The  former sings the  victories of
53embow, Howe,  Jervase, and  Nelson ; while the latter
sing the same songs, only substituting  the names  of Pre-
ble, Hull, Decatur, andBainbridge,' Perry aud Macdon-
 ough.  Our men parodied  all the English national songs.
 <■* Rule Britannia, rule the  waves," was " Rule Columbia,"
 &e.  " God suve great George, our King,"  was sung by
 our boys, "  God  saw great Madison ;" for every thing
 like federalism was banished from ear  hearts and ears ; 
JOURNAL.
fo
whatever we were before, we-were all staunch Madisoni-
ans in a foreign land.  The two great and ruling passions
among the  British sailors and the American sailors, seem-
ed precisely the same, viz. love of their country, and love.
of the fair sex.  These two subjects alone entered into all
their songs, and seemed to be the only dear objects of their
souls, when half drunk.   On  these two  strings hang all
our nation's glory ;  while, to my  surprize, I  found,  or
thought 1  fomid, that the love of  money vvas that  string
which vibrated oftenest  in a  Frenchman's  heart ; but  I
may be mistaken ; all the nation may not be  gamblers.—^
Remember, politicians, philosophers, admirals, and gen-
erals, that Love and Patriotism  are the two, and 1 almost
said the only two  passions of that class  of men, who are
destined to carry your Hag in  triumph around the terra-
queous globe, by skilfully  controlling  the powers of the
winds, and of vapor.
   One word more, before I quit this national trait.  The
English naval muse, which 1 presume must be a Mermaid,
half woman and half fish, has, by her simple, and half the
time nonsensical songs, done more for the British flag than
all her gunnery, or naval discipline and tactics.   This in-
spiration of the  tenth muse, with libations of grog, have
actually made the English believe they were invincible on
(he ocean, and what is still more extraordinary, the French
and Spaniards were  made to believe it also.  This belief
constituted a magical circle, tiiat secured their ships from
destruction, until two American  youth,  Isaac HulU from.
Connecticut, and  Oliver  II. Perry, from  Rhode  Island,
broke this spell by the thunder of their cannon, and anni-
hilated  the delusion.  Is not  this business of national
songs a subject of some importance ? Love and Patriotism,
daring amplification, with here  and there a dash  of  the
supernatural, are all that is requisite  in  forming this iia;
(ional band of naval music.   We all know that '• Yankee
Doodle," is the favorite national tune of America, although
it commenced with the British officers  and Tories, in de-
rision, in the year 1775.  When that animating tune is
struck up in  our Theatres, it electrifies the pit and the
upper galleries   When our soldiers are  marching to that
tune,  they "tread the air."  u With that  tune," said
Gen. M—, the same gallant officer  who  took nine pieces
of cannon from the British, planted on an eminence, at the 
80
JOURNAL.
battle of Bridgewater—" with  that tune, these  fellows
would follow me into hell, and pull the Devil by the nose."
For want of native compositions,  we  had  sung  British
songs  until  we had imbibed  their spirit, and the feelings
and sentiments imbibed in our youth, are  apt  to stiek to
us through life.   It is high time we  had new songs put in
our mouths.
  Unless we attend to the effects of these early impres-
sions,  it is almost incredible, the  number of false notions
that we imbibe, and carry to our graves.   A considerable
party in the United States have sung Nelson's victories,
until those victories seemed to be their own.  Even on the
day of the celebration of the Peace, the following Ode was
sung in the hall of the  University of Cambridge.  It was
written by the son of the keeper of the State  Prison,  in
Massachusetts.
                        ODE.  Sfc.
            COLUMBIA  and Britannia
            Have ceafed from Warfare wild ;
            No more in battle's rage they meef.
            The parent and the child:
            Each gallant nation now lament
            The heroes who have died.
             But the brave, on the wave,
             Shall yet in friendship ride,
             To bear Britannia's ancient name.
             And swell Columbia's pride.

           The flag-staff of Columbia
           Shall be her mountain Pine;
           Her Commerce on the foaming sea
           Shallbeher golden mine.
           Her wealth from every  nation borne.
           Shall swell the  ocean wide,
             And the brave, on the wave, &c. &c.
           To Britain's Faith and Prowess,
           Shall distant nations bow,
           The Cross upon her topmast head,
           The Lion at her prow.
           No haughty foe shall dare insult,
           No Injidel deride ;
             For the brave, on the wuve* &c. &c.
           For now the kindred nations
           Shall wage the fight no more ;
           No more in dreadful thunder dash
           The billows to the shore :
           Save when in firm  alliance boumi
           Some common-foe defied ;
             Then the brave, on the  wave,  ice. &c. 
JOURNAL.
81
   This captivity in a foreign land, has been to me a season
of thoughtfulness.  Sometimes I thought I was like a des-
pised Jew, among the sons of the modern Babylon, which
I might have sunk under but for the first  principles  of a
serious education ; for 1  was born  and educated in  the
state of Massachusetts, near an  hundred miles from Bos-
ton.   The subject of education has  greatly occupied my
mind, and I rejoiced that I was  born  in that  part of the
United States, where it is most attended to.  It  is an in-
jury  to our national character, that most of the books we
read in early life, were written  by Englishmen;  as with
their knowledge we imbibe their narrow prejudices.  The
present war has, in a degree,  corrected this evil, but time
alone can effect all we wish.
   A dispute arose between  us and our commander, rela-
tive  to the article of bread, which served to show English-
men. how tenacious we, Americans, are on what we consid-
er to be our rights.
   Whenever the  contractor omitted to. send us off soft
bread, provided the weather did not forbid, said contrac-
tor forfeited half a pound of bread to each man. The pris-
oners were not  acquainted with  this  rub',  until they were
informed  of it  by the worthy captain Hutchinson; and
they determined to enforce  the regulation on the next act
of delinquency  of the contractor.  This opportunity  soon
occurred.  The contractor  omitted  to send  ns  off soft
bread in fair weather; our commander, Mr. O. thereupon
ordered us to be served with hard ship bread.   This we
declined accepting, and contended that the contractor was
bound to send us off the soft bread, with an additional halt'
pound,  which he forfeited to us  far his breach of punctu-
ality.   Now the contractor  had again and again incurred
this*forfeiture, which went into Mr. O's pocket, instead of
our stomachs, and this mal-practice we  were resolved to
correct.  Our commander then swore from the teeth out-
wards,  that if we refused his hard bread,  we should have
none; and we  swore  from the teeth, inwardly, that we
would adhere to our first declaration, and maintain  our
rights.   Finding us obstinate,  he ordered us all tobedriv-.
en into the pound by the  marines, and the ladder drawn
i.ip.   Some of the prisoners, rather imprudently, cast some
reflections on Mr. O. and his  family ; in  consequence  of
which, he ordered us all  to be  driven below and the hat«h> 
S.2                    JOURNAL.
es closed upon us;  and he represented to the commodore
that the prisoners were in a state of mutiny.  He was so
alarmed that he sent the female part of his family on shore
for  safety, and requested a reinforcement of marines.   At
the  same time we  made a representation  to the commo-
dore, and stated our grievances, in our own way, and  we
demanded the extra half pound of soft bread, forfeited by
the  contractor.  In all this business we were as fierce and
as stubborn, and talked as big as a combination of collegi-
ans, to redress bad commons.   We remained  in this situ-
ation two days ; one from each  mess going on deck for a
supply of water, was all the intercourse we had with our
superiors. During all this time,  we found we had got hold
of the heaviest end of the timber.   We found it very hard
contending against  increasing hunger, and should have
been very glad of a few hard biscuit.  Some began to grow
slack in their resistance ; and even the  most obstinate al-
lowed their ire to cool  a little.   To lay such an embargo
on our own bowels was, be  sure, a pretty  tough piece of
self-denial: for we found, in all our sufferings, that bread
was, literally, the staff of life.  We were about taking the
general  opinion by a vote, whether it was best to eat hard
biscuit,  or starve ? Just as we were about taking this  im-
portant  vote, in which, I suspect, we should have been
unanimous, the commodore and  capt. Hutchinson came ou
board to inquire into  the cause of the dispute; and this
lucky and  well timed  visit, saved our credit, and estab-
lished the  yankee character for  inflexibility,  beyond all
doubt or controversy.   These two worthy  gentlemen  soon
discovered  that Mr. O. had made representations not alto-
gether correct.  They therefore ordered the hatches to be
taken off, aud proper bread to be served out, and  so  the
dispute  ended.
  What added to our present  satisfaction  was, that Mr.
my Lord Beasly was to allow  us  two  pence half penny
sterling per day, for coffee, tobacco, &c.   We now, to use
the sailor's own  expressive phrase, looked up one or  two
points nearer the wind than ever.
  This  Mr. O. had been in the  royal navy from his infan-  -
cy, and  now,  at  the  age of 45, ranks no higher than  a
lieutenant. He once commanded a sloop, and had the char-
acter of severity.  He had an amiable  wife and many
children, who lived in the prison ship.   Lieut. O. was net 
JOURNAL.
iSo
the wisest man in all England.  He exercised his cunning
in making money out of his station, but he was under the
immediate  controul of two honorable gentlemen,  other-
wise  we should have felt more instances of his revengq
than he dared at all times show.
                   CHAPTER VI.

  It is now the last day of February, 1814. The severity
of an English winter, which is generally milder than the
winters of New England, is past; and we are as comfort-
able as can be expected  on  board a prison ship ; we have
a few ceuts a day to  buy coffee, sugar or tobacco; add to
these, we have the luxury of newspapers, which is a high
gratification to the well  known curiosity of a genuine yau-
kee, by which cant term we always mean a New England
man.  We have  been laughed  at, by the British travel-
lers, for our insatiable curiosity ; but such should remem-
ber, that their great moralist, Johnson, tells us that curi-
osity is the thirst of the  soul, and is  a never-failing mark
of a vigorous .intellect.  The Hottentot has no curiosity—
the woolly  African has no curiosity—the vacant minded
Chinese has no curiosity—but the brightest sons of Old
Knglaud and New, are "remarkable for it;  insomuch that
they are often the dupes of it.   How  many thousand guin-
eas a year are acquired by artful foreigners, in  feeding
this appetite of our relation", the renowned John Bull? and
yet he is never satisfied ; his mouth  is open still, and so
wide, very lately, that Bonaparte  had like to have been
swallowed  up by  it, suite and all!
   We should have taken, perhaps, more satisfaction in the
perusal of these newspapers, had they not been so excess-
ively expensive.  We took the Statesman, the Star, and
BelPs Weekly Messenger ; and some part of the time, the
Whig.  The expense of the Statesman was defrayed by
the s'ale of green fish to the contractor.  The Star  was
taken by the Frenchmen ;  the  Whig and  Bell's Weekly
Messenger, by individuals.   We paid twenty-eight shill-
ings sterling per month, for the Statesman, which is twrce 
84
JOURNAL.
the price of a newspaper in Boston, for a whole year. Be-
sides, it cost us sixteen shillings per month to get these pa-
pers conveyed  on board. The reader will probably say, in
the language of Dr. Franklin's allegory, that considering
our destitute condition, " we paid dear for our whistle."
These newspapers were smuggled, «r pretended to be smug-
gled ? our commander's pocket was not  the lighter for New
England •' quidnuncism." But every day afforded instances
of meanness ; scraping misery to the. bone, for a few pence.
   The United States is the region of all  regions of the
earth for newspapers.   There are more newspapers print-
ed in the United States, than in all the rest of the world be-
sides.  We do not mean a greater number of copies of the
same title, but a greater number of different titles ;  inso-
much, that invention is nearly exhausted to afford  them
new names.   In England, newspapers pay a very high
tax;  in America, they are perfectly free, and  their trans-
port by the mails is nearly so ; and this is because our gov-
ernment, that is  to say, the people,  consider newspapers
one of the necessaries of a yankee's life. In the definition
of a New England man, you should always insert that he
is " a go to meeting animal,  and a newspaper reading ani-
mal I" The sums which we poor prisoners paid for one
English newspaper a year, would have paid the board  of
a  man in the interior of our own plentiful country.
   I thought that, at this  time, we  were as happy, or as
free from misery, as at any time since  our captivity.   The
pleasant season was advancing, the days growing longer,
and the nights shorter, and our condition seemed improv-
ing, when a dreadful calamity broke out upon us ; I mean
the Small pox.   There are no people on the face of the
earth, who have such a dread of this distemper as the peo-
ple of New England. Their laws and their municipal reg-
ulations prove this.  No person can  remain in his own
house with this disorder j but certain municipal officers
take charge of him, and convey him to the small pox hos-
pital, provided by the laws for the reception of such pa-
tients.  If the disorder has progressed so far as to render
it, in the opinion of physicians, dangerous to life to remove
him, then the  street, where he lives, is  fenced up, and a
guard plaeed  so that no one can pass,  and a red flag hoist-
ed on the house.   These formidable precautions may have
added to the dread of this loathsome disease. 
JOURNAL.
&y
  When this  alarming distemper first appeared in the
ship, the surgeon had all  the prisoners mustered, to  in-
quire of them  who  had  had the small pox, and  who the
kine pock ; or, as they call it in England, the cow pock^
He vaccinated a number. But there were several instances
of persons who said they  were inoculated with the kine
pock  in  America,  who took  the small pox  the natural
wii) at this time.  I do  not consider this as in any degree
diminishing the value of this important discovery  and
practice. Very i'ew  practitioners understand this  business,
and a great  number of people in the  United States have
inoculated themselves, without knowing at what period to
take the  matter, and without knowing the true pustule
from the spurious.  Many of our prisoners absolutely  re-
fused  to be vaccinated, although they believed in its effica-
ey of  guarding them from small pox.   I was greatly  sur-
prized at this, until 1 found that they  felt no disposition to
preserve their lives any longer.  It seeined that their mis-
cry had so far lessened their  attachment to life, that they
were indifferent as to any  method of preserving it.  1 was
surprized to find this in  some who  I had considered  as
among the most cheerful   I  was shocked to find among
these  a weight of woe I little expected. Several of them
told me that life was  a burthen ; that pride of character
kept them from whining and forced a smile on their coun-
tenance, wfiile their being penned up like so many dirty
hogs, had chilled their souls, and sunk them, at times, in-
to despondency.   Some  said,  that nothing  but the hope of
revenge kept them alive.
  There are two extremes of the mind producing a disre-
gard for life.  The one is, the fever or delirium of battle,
augmented and kept up  by the cannon's  roar, the  sight
of blood, and military music ; here a man, being all soul,
thinks nothing of his body.   The other case is, where his
bodv is debilitated, his  spirit half  extinguished, and  his
soul" desponding, and his body paralized.   Here existence
is a burden, and the attachment to life next to nothing  It
is here that death appears  to open the gate of the prison.
I found,'to my surprize, that  several  of our countrymen
were in that desponding state.
   Some refused to be vaccinated, from a  persuasion that
the kine pock  was no security against  the  small pox.
When 1 endeavored to  convince several of them of their 
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JOURNAL
error, one asked me if a weak man could drive away  a
strong oue ;  or a small evil drive  away  a great one r A
man need not despair in  making a certain class of people
believe any thing but truth
  It is surprizing that when our countryman, Dr. Water-
ho<  se, first introduced this new inoculation into  America,
in the year 1800, what  an  opposition  the  practice met
with ; and nothing but the most persevering aud unweari-
ed exertions, and public  experiments, could overcome the
reluctance, in numbers, to receive this great blessing. The
same perversity  of judgment was  observable  among indi-
viduals in this prison ship                       t
  As the spring advanced, the men contrary to my expec-
tation, became more desponding, and the Typhus  fever, or
rather the jail fever, appeared among  them.  From four
to six are taken down with it every day.  We have about
nine hundred men on board this ship ; eight hundred of us
wretched prisoners, and one hundred Englishmen.   We
are  more crowded than  is consistent with health or com-
fort.  Our hammocks are  slung one above another.  It is
warm and offensive in the  middle  of our habitation ;  and
those who have hammocks near the ports, are unwilling to
have them open in the night.  All this impedes the need-
ful  circulation of fresh air.  It is  a little singular, that  it
is the robust, and hearty that are seized with this fever,
before those who are weak in body, and, apparently, des-
ponding in mind.
  As the appropriate hospital ship is now  crowded with
sick, we  are obliged to retain  a number in the Crown
Prince.   The sickbay of this ship is now arranged like to
an hospital ship ; and the  hospital allowance served out;
and the  chief surgeon visits us every week  Our com-
mittee, composed of the  oldest and most respectable men
amongst us, do every thing in their power to keep the ship
and  the prisoners  clean.  Men are appointed to  inspect
the prisoners' clothes and bedding ; and even to punish
those who refused or were  too indolent to wash themselves
and their clothing; for there were some who were more
like hogs than men ; such is the  effect  of situations  and
circumstances.  Our most  influential men set the example
of cleanliness ; and endeavoured  to instill into the minds
of others the great importance of being free from all kinds
of filth. 
JOURNAL.
  It is now the first day of April, 1S14, and the small pox
and typhus fever still prevails in the different ships, espe-
cially on board the ship called the Bahama.  One hundred
and  sixty-one Americans were put on board  her in the
month of January.  She had been  used as a  prison for
Danish sailors, many of whom were sick of typhus fever.
These Americans came, like the rest of us, from Halifax ;
being weak,  weary,  fatigued, and half-starved, their de-
jected  spirits and debilitated  bodies, were aptly disposed
to imbibe the  contagion.  Accordingly  soon  after they
went onboard, they were attacked with it.   All the Danes
are sent out of her;  and her upper deek is converted into
an hospital ;  and the surgeon has declared the ship to  be
infectious ; and no one communicates with her  but such as
supply the ship and  attend the sick.
   While '• sick and imprisoned,"  Mr. Beasly  visited  us
not; but sent his clerk, a  Mr. Williams, to supply the
most needy with clothes ;  and  instead  of applying to the
committee, who could have informed him correctly who
most needed them, he adopted the mode most liable to lead
to deception and injustice.  This Mr. B. seems from the
beginning, to have considered his  countrymen as a set of
cheating, lying,swindling rascals ; and a  mutual contempt
has existed between  them.   We wish all our officers and
agents  would bear in mind  this  fact, that complacency
begets complacency ; and contempt begets contempt.
   We,  Americans, have seen aud severely felt  the highly
pernicious and demoralizing  tendency of gambling ; and
we have been long wishing to  break up the practice ; and
our selectmen, or committee,  were determined to effeet  it.
We accordingly took a vote,  agreeably  to the custom of
our country,  and it was found to be the will of the majori-
ty to prohibit the practice of it.  Wc began with the rou-
lette table, or  as our men called them, " wheels of for-
tune "   After no small opposition  from  the French offi-
cers, we succeeded in putting them down ; but we could
not succeed  so easily against the billiard tables.   It was
contended by many  that it was an exercise, and a trial of
skill ; and if confined to a halfpenny, or one cent a game,
it could not be dangerous to the morals or property of the
community.   On this a warm aud long dispute  aro->e,  in
defining gambling.  The playing of billiards for :i eeut a
game, was contended to he a muscular  exercise, and not 
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JOURNAL.
gambling ; whereas  cards  were denounced, as a studied,
sedentary contrivance, for the artful  to draw money from
the pockets of the artless.
   The owners of " the wheels of fortune" were, perhaps,
envied.   They made money and lived better than the rest,
and the same remark was made of the  owners of the bill-
iard tables.  In the course of debate they were tauntingly
called the privileged order, and risipg from one degree of
odious epithet to another, I could not help laughing,  on
hearing one angry orator pronounce this scheme of screw-
ing money  out of the pockets  of the  artless, and then
laughing at their poverty and distress, to be dowm  right
Federalism.   Now it should be  known that a Federalist
and  Federalism, are  the most odious  ideas  that can be
raised up in the minds of every  American prisoner in this
river.   A law  was, therefore, proposed, to fine any Amer-
ican prisoner, who should call  another  a Federalist.
   This state  of contention  continued  five or six days ;
when, I am sorry to say it,  the  gambling party increased
rather than  lessened.  At  length two  of the party ven-
tured to recommence gambling—one of them was imme-
diately sent for by the committee, who  ordered him to be
confined in the  black hole.   This lit up a blaze the com-
mittee little contemplated.   The whole body of the com-
mons cried out against  this summary  and  arbitrary pro-
ceeding.  This was pronounced  to be  such an alarming
attack on the liberty of the prisoners, that  every freeman
in the prison ship was called upon to rise up and resist the
daring encroachment on the birth-right of an American.
A strong party was  at once formed in  favor of the man
who was imprisoned without a trial.  On this occasion the
names of Hamden, Sydney, and  Wilks,  were echoed  from
all quarters  of our prison   The liberty of the citizen, and
false imprisonment were discanted on in a loud and  mov-
ing manner.  Some talked of a writ of  habeas corpus, but
others knew not what it meant ; but all agreed that it was
unconstitutional  to confine a man in prison without  trial.
One  man had the imprudence to say that they would  have
French fashions among them, of imprisoning and hanging
a man, and trying him afterwards.   This roused  the  ire
of some of the officers of that nation,  who declared in a
rage, that it was not  the fashion in France to hang a man
and try him  afterwards.   They  all agreed, however, that 
         I
                       JOURNAL.                    S9

 it was an illegal act to confine the man without trial; and
 that this was a precedent dan  erous to the libei lies of tho
 prisoner, and that they ought to  protest against it.  This
 was a curious scene to the surgeon, and some other pretty
 sensible English officers; one of whom observed »o anoth-
 er, m my hearing, these Americans are certainly the most
 singular set of men 1 ever met with.   The man who had
 been confined, was  allowed to  come from his confinement,
 and speak for himself.   He had  *• the gift of the gab,"
 and a species of forcible eloquence that some of ourlavv-
 yers might envy.   He would have distinguished himself in
 any of our town  meetings; and with cultivation, might
 have shone in history.   He. however, committed that very
 common fault among  our popular orators, he talked too
 much.   The President of the Committee was not much of
 a speaker ; but  he was a man of sense and prudence.
 Cool as^he was, he was thrown a little off his guard by am
 intemperate phrase of the  culprit; who, in the ardor of
 his defence, accused the President of  being a Federalist ;
 and this turned the current of favor against the unguard-
 ed orator, and he was from all sides, hissed. When quiet
 was restored,  the President took advantage of the current
just turned in his favor, and said, " Fellow Prisoners ! I
 perceive that  I have committed an error in confining this
 man without a previous trial, and I am sorry for  it  At
 the time, I thought I  was doing right, but  I now see that
 I was wrong "   He then proposed to have the ae 'used
 regularly tried, before the full committee, which he hoped
 would  prove themselves the real  representatives  of the
 community, collected in  course of events within the planks
 of an enemy's  prison ship.   He  exhorted  the  committee
 not to be influenced by party,  prejudice, or local  attach-
 ment, but to act  justly and independently.  The accused
 was allowed  to  speak for himself.   He was not an old
Jack Tar,  but the son of a respectable New England yeo-
man, with a clear head, and not destitute of learning,"nor
 was he ignorant of the  law.  He  defended himself with
real ability, and  the spirit  of  Emmet spoke within him.
Among other  things, he said—•• What have I done to
bring down upon mt the resentment of the committee, and
the vengeance  of its President ? In attempting to establish
the rights of this little community, I have suffered the ig-
nominy of a close  confinement, by the order of my own
                 8 
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JOURNAL.
countrymen.  While we are suffering oppression, degra-
dation and insult, from the external enemy, shall we re-
double our misery, by wrongfully oppressing one another?
I thought it my duty to exert myself in favor of an equal-
ity of rights among us.   1 could not. bear to bear the dom-
ineering language, and see the overbearing conduct of the
purse proud among us ; of a  set  of  cunning,  tricking,
slight-of-hand men, who were constantly stripping the un-
wary and artless American, of the small  sums he had ac-
quired,  not  by gaming, but by labor and good behaviour.
1 was an enemy to all this ; but  I was a friend  to the free-
dom of judgment, and the freedom of action, provided it did
not injure the whole.  If after what has been experienced,
our  countrymen will gamble  with certain Frenchmen,
above the rank  of common seamen, let  them do it, and en-
dure the  consequences.  It is wrong to attempt to abridge
the liberty  of amusement,  if that  amusement  does not
harm, or endanger the comfort of the whole."  The  man
was  acquitted, and escorted to his birth in triumph.
  It is surprising what trifling things  will   influence a
crowd !  A few minutes previous to  this man's bold  har.-
rangue,  every one, almost, was  against him ;  but as  soon
as he tickled their ears with a  flourishing speech, where
much more ability was shewn than was expected, instantly
they clap their hands, admire his talents,  applaud his sen-
timents, and think directly contrary to what they did five
minutes before.   From this incident, have I been seriously
impressed with  the dangerous effects of eloquence.  Here
this man made  " the worse appear the  better  reason.''
But how many instances have we of the same effect in the
Grecian, Roman, English and French history  I
  This trial, and this specimen  of oratory, convinced me
that Liberty is the parent of eloquence.   I have noticed
a striking difference between our  men and those of  Eng-
land, with all their loud talk of English  freedom. When
an American speaks  to an officer  set over him, he utters
all that  he has  to say,  in a ready and fearless  manner;
but when these  Englishmen come on board of us to bring
vegetables,  or any thing else to dispose of, they stand with
their caps off, scratching their  heads, through awe, and
embarrassment ; and every other word  is, •• Yes.  your
Honor," or,  '• Will your  Honor have this, or  your Honor
have that ;  and  your Honor knows best;" and all such 
                       JOURNAL.                    91

mean and slavish language.  It is  remarkable that  you
never hear this sort of language, and see this servile man-
ner, in the common savages of our wilderness   It belongs
only to the common  people,  and  1  am told, to  the shop
keepers of England and to our negroes.  Necessity first
inspires the poor with awe for the rich, and by and "by, it
grows  into a  principle.
  A day or two after these transactions, we resumed the
consideration of the practice  of gambling, and we turned
the tables against the billiard player-. ; and they were ta-
ken  down  by an almost  unanimous  consent ; "whatever
some individuals thought or wished, the  general opinion
was  so strong, that they dare  not express it.  The author-
ity of the committee, and the  authority of the President,
were established more firmly  than ever.
  W bile writing down these  occurrences, I have thought
that we might here see the great  characters, and the im-
porivnt doings of the Grecian, Roman and American  Re-
publics, in a very small compass.  Here we saw the strug-
gles of vice and virtue,  wisdom and folly, aud the  desire
of distinction, and the  ambition of taking the lead,  and
the little workings of  emulation, amid rags and tatters.
As often as 1 moaned over wearied moments of captivity,
1 do not think the  time entirely  lost  to  me.  1 learnt a
great deal.  1 saw close to them the  first workings of those
springs which set  republics,  kingdoms, empires, and  ar-
mies in motion ; the winds and  tides, without which, the
great ocean of human life would stagnate, and all within
its vast bounds would perish—until  now, I saw the human
heart  covered  over by  pride, encrusted  by  avarice, or
cloaked round by hypocrisy ;  1 now saw it exposed,  naked
a-,d hare, to the inspection of each man's neighbour.
  There are among us,  Americans,  on board this prison
ship, some men of sense and principle ; but there are  ma-
ny more, especially among the  soldiery, some of the low-
est  of the  American  community  ; the very dregs of the
American people.  They are lazy, dirty, lying, and prof-
ligate ; and yet they are total  strangers to some of the
worst vices of these Frenchmen.  But 1 forbear to enlarge,
and shall quit  this odious subject,  by wishing that all
young Americans may stay at home, and if possible, never
mix with these  veterans in vice, who inhabit what is call-
ed the old world.   Next to the French, I believe the Irish 
92
JOURNAL.
the next in vicious actions.  An Irishman appears to have
more spirit,  that/ brains.  There are only two situations
in which an  irishman  seems perfectly happy,  viz. when
he iii.s plenty of liquor to drink,  and a number of friends
to give it to ; and perhaps we may add, when he is wran-
gling in a mob.   They are amiable, yet bloody;  thrv have
the noblest feelings, with savage  hearts.  Their pi.ssions
have the most rapid transitions, so that they will hug a
man one minute, and the next knock him on the head.  I
gpeak only f; om my observations  in this confined place—>
With the same  limitation 1 speak of the  Portuguese aud
Sp.-.niards, a few of whom ure here among us.  They are
rattle snakes ; shining, glossy, malignant and revengeful,
bejond any fellows I ever met with.  They are void, how-
ever, of one virtue of our rattlesnakes ; they will stab a
man to the heart without giving him any warning.  1 have
charitably supposed, that when in a violent passion, they
are bereft of reason, and become entirely insane.   My ob-
servations,  however,  like  my remarks on  Frenchmen,
are confined to the narrow  space of this floating prison.
We should be very cautious iu making general or national
censures.  I have suspected whether  among  the Roman
Catholics, the  practice of confession and absolution, had
not opened a door for some  horrid crimes, such as murder.
It may be, too,  that they look upon  us, Protestants, as
the Mahomedans do the Christians, a sort of outcasts, the
killing of whom amounts not to the horrid sin of murder.
It is certain that some of these  people have been known
to plunge a  knife into a man, with no more compunction
than an Englishman or an American would use his fist.
                  CHAPTER  VII.

  April 30th, 1814.—The  good effects of the abolition of
all the apparatus of gamming, were more  and more  ap-
parent.   Those who  were heretofore employed merely in
rattling of the dice, and shuffling of cards, were now occu-
pied iu matters  more becoming a ratioual  and accounta-
ble being.   They  are now busily  employed in reading. 
JOURNAL.
83
"writing, drawing, and in studying arithmetic and naviga-
tion.   Our ship begins to wear the appearance of a semi-
nary  of learning;  for we have  established numerous
schools, in various parts of the ship; and there appears a
strong desire for improvement among the younger class of
the prisoners.  Every one is  now convinced of the  perni-
cious effects of gambling.  In order to improve this praise-
worthy disposition,  the committee, which, is in  fact a
board  of selectmen, applied to the agent, Mr.  Beasly,  for
stationary ; he accordingly sent us a ream  of writing  pa-
per, a few slates, and a few copies of a  small treatise on
arithmetic.   His supply was  by no means equal  to  our
needs.  Four times  the number would  have been in con-
stant use ;  for it checked the emulation of some, when they
could not obtain what they wished'.
  It was pleasing to see a number of quite young men pre-
ferring education  to gaming,  noise and uproar;  not  but
what we had among us a set  of noisy, thoughtless, gig-
gling, idle  fellows,  mere  drums, that  sounded  loud  by
reason  of their emptiness.  1 never was  so thoroughly
convinced of the great importance  of  a good education,
grounded on sound and serious principles, as since I have
formed one among this congrttgation of  wretchedness.  I
fear 1 shall betray  my partiality if I  should candidly
write down  my observations on this subject.  We Ameri-
cans are taught from our infancy not only to believe, but
to think,  compare,  and hold fast  that which we find to
be good.  It seems to me that the Roman catholic religion
takes all the trouble of thinking and examining from  off
the mind of their believers.   It  is a scheme of rules and
discipline not very  unlike that of  the  military, and its
punishments horrible.   The episcopal church of England
treads close uj on the heels of the papal, and  has formed
a system all cut and  dried, like the catholic, for a man to
believe and be saved.  Both of them make  religion a sta-
tionary point, and  not a motive of principle, forever pro-
gressing to perfection.  One never dares to think, or speak
beyond the bounds of that common prayer book, establish-
ed by the king and  his council : whereas  an American
reads or hears read the bible from his infancy, and  there-
by acquires a freedom of thinking, unknown even to the
generality of Englishmen.  I  should never  have t hough £
so much on these subjects had  I not remarked the differ-
                 8* 
JOURNAL.
enee of thinking, and behavior of the different people here
crouded together.  1 do not presume to say which is best,
or which is worst j I can only say which is the freest from
bigotry, and which is least tramefled'by ordinances merely
political.
   the ragged and despised legislators of the Crown Prince  .
prison ship, iu  solemn council, between decks convened,
mever  adopted a wiser measure than that of breaking up
the dangerous habit of gambling.  I had an idea that
gaming often become the ruling passion ;  but I never be-
fore had an  idea of its fascinating power.  Some of our
crew of reputed good habits  became  so  bewitched with
gaming, that they plundered their companions and return-
ed to their cards'and wheels of fortune with a serious and
anxious ardor, totally void of pleasantry, that seemed to
me to border upon insanity.
   After the  gaming tables  were demolished, some of our.
companions  amused themselves by running, and tumbling,
and scampering about the ship, disturbing those who were
disposed to read, write and study navigation   Not con-
tent with this, they hollowed, ridiculed and insulted people
passing in vessels and boats up aud down the river.  The
commander had no small difficulty in putting a stop to this
disgraceful river-slang.
   On receiving a month's pay from Mr. Beasly, our agent,
so called, every prisoner contributed  three pence towards
a fund for purchasing beer.  They formed themselves iuto
classes, like our collegians, and these  appointed persons
to se)l it to those who wished for it;  aud  each member of
the  class shared his proportion of the profits.   This an-
swered a very good purpose ;  it cheeked the monopolizers
and muck worms that infested  our ship, and fattened on
our  wastefulness.  It  also benefitted  those who  did not
choose to drink beer, or porter, as they call it in England.
  Some disagreeable and very mortifying occurrences took
I,lace among us in the course  of this spring. Four of our
men agreed  together to go on  to the quarter-deck and offer
themselves to the commander, to enter into the service of
the  British.   Their  intention was discovered before they
had an opportunity of putting  it in  execution.  Two of
lb*in were eaught a^d  two  escaped.   These two were ar-
raigned and  •• ntenced to be marked with the letter T, with
India ink. pricked into their foreheads, being the initial of 
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65
the word Tvaiior ; after which, one went aft and entered;
the other judged better, aud remained with his countrymen.
Had these  been  Englishmen  we should have applauded
them ;  and had they been Irishmen, we  had  no right to
blame them ;  but we  had  the  mortification to  know that
they were, by birth, Americans.   Some  thought the pun-
ishment was* too severe, and which  we had no right to in-
flict ; others  thought that the  letter in  their foreheads
should have been  F,  for Federalist;  for this was the
name they ever afterwards were known by.
   The Frenchmen were now (in the month of May) leav-
ing the reach.  Many of them had been in prison since.
1803. These  men are going home to live under a govern-
ment forced upon them by foreigners ! How unlike  Amer-
icans, who had rather perish under tortures. Our French-
men always spoke in  raptures of the Emperor Napoleon,
aud with contempt of Louis.   When we spoke  in praise of
Bonaparte, they would throw their arms around us, and
cry out, one bon American ! But these men are all passion
and no principle ;  they are fit for any thing but liberty.
1  cannot judge of the  whole nation; but those I have seen
here, are an abandoned set of men.  1  dare not write down
their incredible vices.  There  has been a great  cry  of
French influence by the British part)  in New Eugland.  I
never thought it ever existed, and  1 am very certain that
it never will  exist, unless they and we  should become a
very  altered   people.  It is a happy circumstance that
the"wide atlantic rolls between us and France, and between
us and England.                          #
   Louis  18th, passed through Chatham this  month for
France.  The tops of the carriages, only, were to  be seen
by the prisoners.   On this occasion, the  cannon were  fir-
ing from  London  to Sheerness.  Our Frenchmen  looked
blacker than  ever.  They were, be sure, obliged to stick
the white cockade on their hats, but they told  us they had
Bonaparte's cockade in their hearts.  They check  the ex-
pression of their feelings, lest it should retard their hber-

 *  On the news of taking of Paris, and of the flight of Bo-
naparte to Elba, all  our prison-keepers were alive  for joy.
«  Thank God that 1  am an Englishman," says our com-
mander, licut. O.—and '■ thank God I am a Briton,  says
our snr-con, who  is  a Scotchman.  John Bull is now  oa 
#5
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the very top of the steeple, huzzaing and swinging his hat,
and  crying out to the  whole  universe, "I'm thinking
Johnny  Bull, the magnanimous John Bull, the soul of the
continental war, the protector of France, the restorer of
his holiness the Pope, and of Ferdinand the Great, the ter-
ror and admiration of the whole world.   I have nothing
now  left me to do,  but  to  flog the yankees,  and depose
Madison, and burn the city  of Washington, disperse the
Congress, establish in their place the Hartford Convention
and raise  Caleb Strong to the high rank his devotion  mer-
its. After this, I will divide the world between me and----.
But  first,  1 will read  these  dispatches from  Sir George
Prevost, who is, beyond doubt, at this very moment, at the
city  of  Hartford, in Connecticut, or at the city of North
Hampton, the capital of my province of Massachusetts.
   John  Ball* is, be sure, an hearty fellow, with some  very
good points in his  character; but, dwelling on an island,
he oft times betrays an ignorance of the world, and of  him-
self, so that we cannot help laughing at him, on.ce  in a
while, for his  conceitedness.   His ignorance of America,
aud Americans, is a source of ridicule among us all.  An
English lady said  to one of the officers who had the  care
of American prisoners in England,  " I hear, Sir, that the
Americans are very ingenious in the manufactory of many
little articles, and should like to have some of them.''  The
officer replied that she might  herself give directions to
some of the  Americans, whom he would direct to speak
with her.   " O," said she, " how can that be, J cannot
sp-sak their language!" The individuals of the navy of
England,  have pretty correct ideas of  us; but the soldiery
of England have  betrayed  their ignorance in a manner
that is astonishing,  and sometimes truly laughable,  even
among their officers who have taken  prisoners.   To this
ignorance of free and happy America,  aud to the very gen-
erally diffused blessings of a respectable education, which
we all enjoy, is to  he attributed the base treatment we  have
experienced in some periods of our painful captivity.  Who
eould have entertained  any respect, or good opinion  of a
set of miserable looking, half naked, dirty men, such  as we
all  were  when we arrived  in the different ships  from,

   * Our youngest readers need not be told, that by John Bull, we mean
Ihe English nation personified. See Deao Swift's admirable historv of John
pM,  !,<.« wife, and his mother, 
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9f
America ?  Our own parents, our brothers and  sisters,
would not have recognized us as their relatives. The sol-
diers taken under Boestler, were the veriest looking vaga-
bonds 1 ever saw.  They resembled more the idea I have
formed of the lowest tenants of St. Giles',  than American
citizens, born and bred up in a sort of Indian freedom, and
living all their lives in  plenty, and never knowing, until
they came into the hands of the English,  what it was  to
he pinched for food, or to  be infested by  vermin.  This
short, severe,  aud for America,  most  glorious war, has
given all ranks of the British nation more correct ideas  of
that people,who have vanquished them in every contest,the
ill-omened frigate Chesapeakealone excepted. During this
short war, the  British have  learnt this important truth,
that the Americans  are a brave and skilful people, who,
though  they  appear to differ among themselves, are all
united against any attack from the English ; and on our side
we have learnt, that to carry on  a war as we have done$
is very expensive.
   The surgeon of this ship,  who is a  clever Scotchman^
speaks of the English nation  as in a state of starvation
in the midst of her great  power,  and  abounding wealth,
and matchless glory ; for the late  capture of Paris, by the
English, with a trifling assistance of the allies, has abso-
lutely intoxicated the whole nation, so that every  man  of
them' talks as if he were  drunk   He  told ine, " that al-
though the ship carpenters, at  Chatham, received two
guineas a week, (which, by the way. is  not so much as our
carpenters receive in  America)  they  were always poor,
and could lay up nothing against the accidents of sickness,
but that when such misfortunes came upon them,  they, in
common with the manufacturers of England, with their
families, went upon  the parish, or into some hospitals"
He 'said, •' such laboring people laid out too much of their
money in flesh meat and in porter, which was not the cus-
tom in Scotland: and that there  it was considered  an  in-
delible disgrace to a family to be maintained by the parish,
but that it was so common in  England,  that  no disgrace
was attached to it.  We, in Scotland, (said he) would work
 our hands off before any of our family should ask the par-
 ish for assistance to live." He talked much about  the poor
 laws, and the taxes to support the vast number of the poor
 in England. I told him that  in Massachusetts, which con- 
its
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tained about half a million of people, we had not more
than a thousand persons maintained at  the public charge ;
and  that  this   thousand  included  foreigners—English,
Scotch, Irish, Germans, Danes, Swedes, aud not a few ne-
groes.  He seemed  surprised at this account, but after  a
little  pause he said, '"it was just like Scotland, where they
had very few poor ; and of tfiose very few were so degrad-
ed in  mind, as to go into an alms-house."
  The Doctor observed, "that the  English  were full of
money ; that they give large and long credit, and that tay-
lors, shoe-makers and hatters gave a generous credit, and
could afford so  to do."  He said, "that the 'capitalists'
ruled and turned the wheels of the government  at  their
will and pleasure; they have great influence in the nation,
but thev have no ancestors, nor any thingto boast of but their
money, which gives them  all their  consequence; for it  is
true if they shut their purses, the whole machinery of the
government must stop." I could have told this discontent-
ed Caledonian  a different  story. I could have told him that
all our capitalists,  merchants and monied men, especially
in New England, had shut their purses against our admin-
istration, and yet, in spite of these detestable sons of mam-
mon,  our governmental machine went  steadily on, while
we vanquished our enemy by  land  and by sea; but I did
not wish to mortify a civil, friendly man.  " In England,"
continued he, " the merchant governs the cabinet; and the
cabinet governs the parliament; and the sovereign governs
both; but, (said he) the capitalists, (by which, he meant
the  mercantile interest)  govern the  whole."   I did not
choose  to controvert his  opinions : but, '; thinks-I-to-my-
self','' »h ! Sawney, thou  art mistaken; America, demo-
cratic America, has  proved  that the  most  demoeratical
government upon the terraqueous globe, have gone stead-
ily on to grea(ne>s, to victory and to glory, with the capi-
talists or mercantile interest, in direct opposition  to its
wondrous measures!
   I believe that our surgeon was a good man,  and not  ill
qualified  in bis profession, but no  politician,  and pretty
strongly  attached  to  his tribe ;  who,  from  his  account,
never spent much money  in buying meat and strong beer.
He  talked  much of the  machine and wheels of  govern-
ment; from  all which I  concluded, that the court of St.
.James', was the hub? or nave, where all the spokes of the 
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*S>
great wheel of the machine terminated ; and that the la?
boring people, manufacturers, and merchants were doom-
ed, all their days, to grease this wheel.  It  is remarkable
that David, the royal Psalmist, among the  severest of the
curses of his enemies expressly says,  " Lord, make them
like unto a wheel."
                  CHAPTER  VIII.

  The month of April, which is just past, is like our April
in New England, raw, cold, or as the English call it, sour.
But their month of May, which is now  arrived, is pleas-
anter by far, than ours."  By all that I can observe, I con-
slude that the vernal  season of this part of the Island  of
Britain, is full fifteen days, if not twenty, earlier  than
that of Boston.  I conjecture  that this spot corresponds
with Philadelphia.
  The  Med way, though a small  river in the eyes of  an
inhabitant of the new world, is a very pleasant one.  The
moveable  picture on its surface,  of ships, tenders, and
barges, is very pleasing,  while its banks  are rich and
beautiful.  Oh what  a* contrast to horrid  Nova-Scotia,
with her barren hills, and everlasting bleak mountains !—
The picture from the banks of the river to the top of the
landscape, is truly delightful, and beyond any thing I ever
saw  in my own country, and this is owing to the  hedges,
which are novelties in the eyes of an American.   In our
country, the fields, meadows' and pastures are divided  by
stor.e  walls, or the rough  post and  rail fence ; but  here
their fields,  pastures and enclosures, which ate very small,
compared with ours, are  made by hedges, or living grow-
ing vegetahies,ofa deep and mostbeautiful green. It gives a
richness to the English landscape,beyond all expression fine.
How  happens  it, 1 wonder, that hedges have never been
introduced into New England, who has copied so  closely
every thing  belonging to Old  England? Should I ever be
permitted to leave this Babylonish captivity, and be  al-
lowed cuee more, to see our own Canaan, the enclosures of
hedge shall  not be forgotten. 
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  Nearly opposite our doleful prison stands the village of
Gillingham, adorned with a handsome church ; on the side
next Chatham, stands the castle defended by more than an
hundred cannon.  These fortifications  w ere erected soon
after the Dutch  republicans sailed up  to  Chatham, and
singed John Bull's beard, since which it is said, he changes
countenance at the name of a republic.  We are told iu
the history of Gillingham, that here the famous Earl Good-
win murdered six hundred Norman gentlemen belonging to
the retinue of Prince  Alfred.   But some  such  shocking
story is told of almost every town in England that has an
old castle, an old tower, or an old cathedral.  This village
once belonged to an Archbishop of Canterbury, vestiges of
whose palace are yet to be seen.   This place is also noted
for making what is absurdly called copperas, which is the
cryslalized salt of  iron, or what is called in the new che-
mical nomenclature, sulphate of iron ;  or in common par-
lance, green  vitriol; which is  manufactured, and found
native in our  own country.
  Near to this village of Gillingham, is a neat house with
a good  garden, and surrounded by trees, which was be-
queathed by a lady to the oldest  boatswain in the  Royal
Navy.  The  present incumbent is 80 years ef age.  With-
in our view is a shepherd attending  his  flock  with his
canine lieutenants, who drive them into their pen in the
evening, just  as our shepherd does us on board the Crown
Prince.  In a clear day the masts of the ships can be seen
passing up and  down the Thames.   This  brings to our
minds our owu  gallant ships, whose decks we long once
more to tread.
  Britain  pursues a malignant policy, in confining us in a
loathsome prison.  The  Britains know, probably, that  a
long and lingering imprisonment  weakens the  body, and
diminishes the energy of the  mind ; that it disposes to
vice, to a looseness of thought, aud a destruction of those
moral principles inculcated by a careful  and early educa-
tion.  Such a sink  of vice I never  saw, or ever dreamt of,
as 1 have seen here.  Never was a juster saying than that
of " Evil communications corrupt good manners.''  One
vicious fellow may corrupt an hundred, even if he speaks
another language.   I have been thoroughly convinced of
the wisdom of solitary imprisonment.   By what I have
seen and heard in  this ship, where there are generally 
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101
from seven to nine hundred men, that such collections are
so many hot-beds of vice and villany.   It is a college of
Satan, where degrees of wickedness are conferred e meri-
to.   Here we  have  freshmen,  sophomores, juniors,  aud
seniors, in roguery, together with Bachelors, Masters of
Arts, and Doctors.
  Is it not a shame and a disgrace  to  Christian natives,
that because a man has had the virtue to step forward in
the cause of his country, in the cause of free trade and sail-
ors' rights, or from that  glow of chivalry  that fills a
youthful bosom, or the sound of the  warlike  drum  and
trumpet, and  the sight of the waving flag of his insulted
country; is it not a shame that such a young man of pure
morals  and careful education, should be plunged  into
such  an horrid prison as this ? amid  vice, and roguery,
and every thing else, debasing to the character of so mor-
al a people as the Americans really are ?
   The prisoners aud the commander  had lived in pretty
good  harmony, until very lately.  Some  of our  men had
absolutely cut  a hole  through  the ship, near  her stern,
and cut the copper all  round the  hole, excepting at the
under side, which  enabled them to  bend down the copper
at their pleasure, aud open a passage into the water, and
to re-close it in such a manner as to escape detection.   It
was effected with a great deal of art and good management.
   The first dark night after this newly contrived stern-
port was finished,  sixteen of the prisoners passed through
it into the water, and swam safely on shore, notwithstand-
ing a sentinel was stationed directly above the hole They
took  care, however, to allure him as far forward as  they
could, by singing droll songs, and handing about  some
grog, which liad been provided for that purpose   Sixteen
was thought to be as great a number as could be prudent-
ly ventured to escape at once ;  for one night the copper
which operated like a door upon its hinge, was considera-
bly ruptured, and the  prisoners gave  over the  attempt,
and retired to their hammocks again.
   The next evening the prisoners were to be counted; and
it was of the first importance to  keep  up the  entire num-
ber, and prevent the detection of our plot.  To this end
we cut  a hole through  one deck, big enough for one  man
to  pass from  one enclosure of prisoners to  the other.
There was  always  a  number of prisoners left on each
             9 
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deck, who were counted by the sergeant below ;  while the
serjeaut passsed from the lower deck to the next above it,
sixteen  men  slipped through the hole, and were counted
over again ; aud this deception kept the numbers good, and
this (rick was practised several times with success.  The
nights were now too light for a second attempt to escape.
When they  became sufficiently dark again, we  prepared
for a second attempt.  After drawing lots for the chance,
each man was provided with a little bag of cloths,  plais-
tered over with grease, to  keep them water tight, they
passed agreeably to lots drawn, to the hole near the stern
of the ship.  Two  got well into  the water,  but one of
them was tender and timid.  Trepidation and the cold-
ness of the water made  him  turn back to regain the hole
he  crept out of.   In eoming near the staging where the
sentinel was posted, he-heard the poor fellow breathe,
and at length got sight of him ;—•* Ah," says paddy," here
is a porpoise, and 1*11 stick  him with  my  bayonet."—On
which the terrified young man exclaimed—" don't  kill
me, I am a prisoner."   The sentinel  held  out  his hand
and helped him on to the staging, and  then tired  his gun to
give the alarm.  The gaard turned out,  and the officers
ran down in a fright, not  being able to conceive how the
man could have got over board, surrounded with a plat-
form, and guarded as this ship was    They ran here  and
there, and  questioned, aud threatened,  and  rummaged
about ; at length they discovered the sally port of the en-
emy.   The officers stood in astonishment  at the sight  of a
hole big enough for a man to creep through, cut through
the thick planking of a  ship of the line.  While they star-
ed  and  looked pale, many  of the prisoners burst out a
laughing.  None but an  American  could have thought
and executed such  a thing as this.   One of the officers
said he did not believe that the Devil himself would ever
be aide to keep these fellows in hell, if  they determined
on getting out!
  The  poor fellow who had  crept out,  and crept back
again, was so chilled, or petrified with fear, that he could
give the officers  no account  of  the matter.   In the mean
time,  muskets were fired, and a general alarm through
the  fleet of  prison ships, fifteen  in  number.  The river
was soon covered with  boats, but not a  man  could they
Sad.  The next day the  man who escaped was found dead 
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mi the beach, where he lay two days in the sight of us all.
At length a coroner's inquest was held upon him; but no
one was examined by the jury, excepting the crew of the
boat,  who first discovered him.  It was said that there
were bruises about his head.   His ship-mates said that he
was one of the best swimmers  they ever knew.  It  was
strongly suspected that he was discovered swimming, and
that some of the marines knocked him on the head, in re-
venge for  turning  them out of their hammocks in the
night.  His clothing, his money, and his watch  were tak-
en by  lieutenant  Osmore, the commander of this prison
ship.   It was disgraceful to the people and to the civil
authority, to allow the man  to lay such a long  space of
time, unexamined and unburied, on the shores of a chris-
tian people.
   When the prisoners were called to answer to  their
names, those absent, were called over several times; when
some of the  prisoners  answered that  the absentees had
been  paroled by the commander, and gone  on shore.  This
saucy answer enraged the commander,  excited his resent-
ment, and laid the foundation for future difficulties.
   I must needs say, that some of our young men treated
Mr. Osmore, the  first officer of this prison ship, in a man-
ner not to be excused, or even palliated.  If they did  not
love him, or esteem him, still, as he was the legally con-
stituted commander of this depot of prisoners,  he was en-
titled to good manners, which he did not  always receive,
as the following anecdote will show.  Not long after the
escape of  the sixteen men, our commander and  his family
were getting into the boat to go on shore, when a boy looked
out of a port near to him, and cried out  baa.' baa.'  This,
Mr. Osmore took as an insult, and ordered the  port to be
shut  down; but the messes  that were  accommodated by
the light from it, forced it up again.   Now the origin of
this ludicrous and sheep-like interjection was this ; a story
was  in circulation that  lieut. O.  had taken some sheep
from the neighboring marshes,  without leave  or license,
 and converted them to his own use, and that the owner be-
 ing about to prosecute him, the affair was  made up by the
 interposition of  friends,  on compensation being made.
 Now it is probable that there was not a word of truth in
 this  sfory;  but  that was the report.   The  commander,
 therefore, on finding his orders resisted by the  prisoners, 
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directed some marines to shut the port and confine it down
with spikes, and ordered the sentinel to  fire into the  port
if they forced it open again.  Upon this, some of the pris-
oners tore up a large oaken bench, with which they  forc-
ed open the port, and kept the bench out, so as to keep up
that valve,  or heavy  shutter, sustained on hinges,  that
when down, closes the port  hole, at the same time the
sheepish note of baa! baa! baa!  was uttered from every
part of the ship; soundinglike an  immense flock of sheep,
that might have been heard full a mile.  Although none
of us could help joining in the loud laugh, for laughter is
contagious, the most prudent of our countrymen condemn-
ed the  conduct as highly improper.   It is  said, if one
man is determined to insult  another, let  him do it  and
abide the consequences, but never insult a man in presence
of his family.  If  we Americans are in  the habit of rid-
iculing ribands, and  garters  and keys, and crowns and
sceptres, and mitres, and high sounding titles, let us never
attempt to diminish the dignity of patriarchal rank.
  The riot did not  end here ; for when the  commander
found that he could not keep the port  entirely shut, he
ordered the marines to  drive the prisoners off the forecas-
tle down into the pound, which occasioned the boys to sing
out as  before ; anil even  to be more insulting.   This he
was determined to bear no longer; and he therefore drove
them all below, allowing only the cooks to remain in the
galley, and  the  caterers to go upon deck, to get water
from the tanks.   The market boats were  forbidden to
come near us, and  in this state of embargo we remained
during two days, all the time  confined merely to the gov-
ernment allowance of food.  At length, the committee re-
quested the commander to transmit  some letters for them
to the  American agent  for prisoners, and  to the British
commodore.  This he could not well refuse.  These two
officers accordingly came down to  us. They requested the
president of the committee to state to  them  the cause and
course of the dispute.  Mr. Osmore stated his complaint,
and the  president of  our committee replied, and stated
ours ;  and among  other things, observed that  the  word
" baa" had no more meaning than a thousand other sense-
less cries, uttering  constantly from the throats of idle,
thoughtless hoys ; and begged Mr. Osmore to explain how
such an unmeaning sound could be  construed into an iu- 
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1Q5
suit : that if he and his officers should cry baa! baa! baa !
all day, none of the Americans would think themselves in-
jured or affronted.  As to forcibly keeping the port open,
the president observed, that however offended he might be
with a saucy boy, the men did not deserve to be deprived
of the light of heaven, and to be confined below, and re-
duced to a smaller allowance of food.  The result was,
the hatches  were ordered to be taken off, and we were all
restored  to our former situation.  Capt. Hutchinson  ac-
quired an additional stock of popularity  with the prison-
ers for this decision in our favor.   The prisoners are dis-
criminating and not uugrateful.  The  sailing-master, who
is a  Scotchman, has always treated us with  great tender-
ness and humanity.   He has  attended to our  little conven-
iences, and forwarded our letters.   Mr. Barnes never de-
scends to  little contemptible  extortions ; nor  is he on  the
continual watch, lest  his dignity  should  suffer by a look,
a tone, or a playful interjection.  When Osmore is absent
and  Barnes gives  orders, it  is instantly  and cheerfully
obeyed.   If there is any disorder, this worthy Scotchman,
can, by a word, restore harmony, of which we might give
many instances.  In  reprimanding a boy the other  day,
for ill behavior, he said to  him, " I expect better things of
voh  as an American ;  I consider you all in a different light
from that of a d—d set of French monkies."
   Mr. Galbreath is, likewise, a Scotchman  ; and he, too,
is a  very worthy man.  These two worthy Caledonians
operate together in alleviating our hard lot; and they do
as much  to please us,  as the jealous and revengeful dispo-
sition of some body else will admit of.   We  are all pretty
healthy, and the hospital arrangements on board are brok-
en up; some few remain on board the hospital ship.
   Tenders are daily passing down the  river, filled with
seamen and marines,  bound to America.  As they, pass by
us, they  play " Yankee Doodle,"  and cry out to us,  that
they are bound to America, to flog the yankees.  We hol-
low to them^ in return, and tell them what they will meet
there, and predict to them  their fate.  Some of these fel-
lows have been seven years  at  sea, and would desert to
our colour the first opportunity.   These white slaves ex-
pected to enjoy a little something like freedom, at  the
etmclusion of the peace ; but instead of setting their fee*
                  8* 
108
JOURNAL
on shore, they are now  sent off to  leave  their bones in
America, without a moment's  notice of their destination.
  June 30th,  1814.  Early in this month  three men con-
cealed themselves in the water tank, through the conniv-
ance of  the corporal of the guard, and so escaped from
prison.  More would have gone off by the same  convey-
ance, had not one of the fugitives written  an ironical let-
ter to the commander, thanking him for  his tenderness,
humanity and extreme kindness, and foolishly acquainting
him with the  method he took to effect his escape ;  and this
led to his re-capture.  Another fellow had the address to
conceal  himself in an  old worn out copper, that was sent
to the dock to be exchanged for a new one. This  man got
safe out of  the copper, but he found himself as bad off in
the dock as in the prison ship.  After roving and ramb-
ling around the dock, he was taken up by  the guard, and
rather than be sent on board  a man of war, he confessed
that he  had broke out of the prison ship ;  and he  was im-
mediately brought back to his former companions.
   A rage exists for cutting holes through  the wood work
and copper of the ship ; but no one has succeeded in es-
caping through them.  The holes were always discovered
as the men were ready to enter the breach, which led us
to suspect that we have secret informers among our crew,
perhaps some Irish, Dane, or Dutchman.
   A most daring attempt to  escape was made on board
the commodore's  ship, the Irresistible, by four American
prisoners.  It is  worth relating for its boldness ; for  it
was in the open day, when all eyes were upon them. The
jolly-boat lay near the stairs, with  her oars in, under the
oare of a sentry.  Notwithstanding she was thus guarded,
four brave Americans resolved to seize her in  spite of
musketry, and row on  shore, and run for it.  One of them
was from Rhode Island, being an Indian of the Narragan-
set tribe; he  was a man of  large stature and remarkable
strength; and it was agreed that he should lead the way,
in the bold enterprize.  This stout man, whose  name I
wish I could  remember, saw,  as he  thought, a favorable
moment, and  went down the side of the ship, followed by
three others ; he seized the sentry,  and, in a moment, dis-
armed him, and threw him into the jolly-boat, which was
below the stageing, where the sentinel was placed.  He
framediately jumped in after him, the other three closely 
JOURNAL.
10:
 following him, when they instantly pushed oflf, snatched
 up the oars, and rowed direct for the shore, with the abil-
 ity of so many Nantucket  whalemen.  The rapiditv and
 complete effect with which all this was done, was aston-
 ishing to the  British.   They were, however, soon fired
 upon by all the sentries, who had any chance of reaching
 them, from all the ships as they passed.   They  got out
 their numerous boats with all speed, and placed in  the bow
 of each as many marines as  could  well stand, and these
 kept up a continued fire of musketry upon the four fugi-
 tives in the jolly-boat, ballasted with a British prisoner,
 Notwithstanding the close and heavy firing, they wound-
 ed but one of the four; so that three of them were able to
 run for it w hen the boat reached the shore.  As  soon as
 they sat foot on shore, they made  directly for the fields.
 The marines soon followed, firing every few moments up-
 on them, but without hitting them.  Our men so complete-
 ly distanced them, that we  all thought they would make
 their escape from  his majesty's marines ; and they would
 have effected it, had not the country people poured out of
 the farm-houses, and the brick-yards.  In a few minutes
 the fields appeared  covered  with  people.  They outran
 the marines, and  pursued our brave adventurers so closely
 from all points, that they exhausted them of breath,  and
 fairly run them down, all except the nervous Indian,  and
 he did honor to the Narraganset tribe, and his brave an-
 cestors, so renowned in New England history.*  We  saw
 him from the Crown Prince prison ship, skipping over the
 ground  like a  buck, and defying his pursuers ; but unfor-
 tunately for this son of the forest,  he  sprained  his ancle
 in  leaping a fence, which compelled him to surrender ;
 otherwise he might have ran  on to London, in fair chace,
 before they could have come up with him.
   While sitting on the  ground, and unable to walk, by
 reason of his  dislocated bone,  the country people  ap-
proached him  with caution.   They did not think it quite
safe to come close up to a man  of  his extraordinary stat-
ure and commanding aspect.  He was, however, soon sur-
rounded by a large number of marines, who had the great
honor of recapturing a lame Indian, and conducting him
back  again to  his Britannic majesty's fleet of three deck-
ers, at anchor  oft' his royal dock of Chatham !
* Sec Dr, Holmes' Annals• 
108
JOURNAL.
  We made several attempts to gain our liberty while ly-
ing in the river Medway ; but  none of our  daring feats
equalled  this of the Indian.   We gave him  the name  of
Baron Trenck, and pronounced him his superior; for  he
had to pass the fire of several ships ; and the jolly-boat ap-
peared to be surrounded in a shower of shot, and yet only
one man  was wounded in the leg.  When the Indian had
made the fields, and was ascending the rising ground,  all
the prisoners  in  our  ship gave  him  three  cheers.   We
cheered him as he came along  back in the boat with  his
comrades, and drank their healths in the first liquor  we
obtained.  It is for deeds of bravery, and indications of a
commanding mind, and  superior strength  and agility of
body, that our  aboriginals in  North America appoint their
kings; and certainly there is more sense and reason in it,
than making the son a king, because his father was, king.
This Indian was, by nature,  a  commander.
  It was,  be  sure, an  extraordinary sight, mixed  with
something of the  ludicrous—to see three white Americans
and one Indian, with a  disarmed British red-coat under
their feet, in the jolly-boat, not daring to raise his head,
while about thirty boats, with  above 250  seamen,  aud
nearly as many  marines, were rowing, and puffing  and
blowing, and firing and  loading,  and loading and firing at
a small boat, containing three American seamen and  one
Indian, without any weapon  or instrument, except the oars
they rowed with.  While the  British marines were ruff-
ling the  water around the  flying boat with their bullets,,
we, on board  the prisou ships, sensible of their  danger,
felt as much  interest, and  probably more  apprehension,
than the fugitives themselves.   It  was an anxious period
of hope, fear and animating  pride, which sometimes petri-
fied us into silence, and  then caused us to rend the air with
acclamations,  and clapping  of hands.  The Indian, was,
however, the  hero of the piece.   We saw, and  admired
his energetic mind, his  abhorrence of captivity, and  his
irresistible love of freedom.  This fellow was not, proba-
bly, at all below some of the Grecian captains, who went
to the siege of Troy ; aud he only wanted the advantages
of education, and of modern discipline, to have become a
distinguished  commander.   The inspiring love of liberty
was all the theme, after the daring exploit  of our coun-
trymen,  and it made n*  uneasy and stimulated us to  con-- 
JOURNAL.
109
template similar acts of hardihood.  We had now become
pretty nearly tired of cutting holes through the ship's bot-
tom aud sides, for it was always detected, and we were
made to pay for repairing the  damage out of our provis-
ions. After seeing what four men could effect, our thoughts
turned more upon  a general  insurrection than upon the
partial escapes of a few.  We perceived, clearly enough,
that our keepers dreaded our enterprising spirit;  and we
could discover that they knew that we despised them, and
ridiculed them.  Some of our saucy boys, studying arith-
metic, with their slates and pencils in their hands, would
say out loud, as if stating a sum, " if it took 350 British
seamen and marines to  catch four yankees, how many Brit-
ish sailors and  marines would it take to catch ten thousand
of us ?"
   We could perceive a general uneasiness throughout our
ship ; even our good  friend,  Mr.---------, the worthy
Scotchman, said to me about  this time,  your countrymen
are such a restless, daring  set of beings, that it it is not
safe to befriend you, and I wish you were all safe and hap-
py in your own country, and all of us at peace. A change
of situation was foretold, but  of what kind  we know not-.
The  next chapter will inform us all about it.
END OF PART FIRST. 
2ART  SECOND.
                     CHAPTER I.

     IN consequence of various attempts to escape prison,
 and of the late daring enterprise at noon-day, the officers
 of this  ignoble fleet of prison  ships grew very uneasy.
 They, doubtless, felt that there was  neither honor nor
 pleasure, but much danger in this sort of service.   It was
 often said among them, that they felt perfectly safe when
 they had several thousand French  prisoners under their
 charge.  These lively people passed their time in little in-
 genious manufactures, and in gaining, and seemed to wait
 patiently until  their day of liberation  should  come: but
 these Americans, said they, are the most  restless, contriv-
 ing set of men we ever saw ; their amusement seems to
 be contriving how to escape, and to plague their keepers.
 They seem to take a pleasure in making us  uneasy, and in
 exciting our apprehensions of their  escape, and then they
 laugh and make themselves merry  at our  anxiety.  One
 of the officers said that the American  prisoners had sys-
 tematised the art of tormenting.  There  is a sort of mis-
 chievous humor among our fellows, that is,  at times, rath-
 er provoking, to officers  habituated to prompt obedience,
 and a distance  and deference bordering upon awe, which
 •ureouutrymen never feel for any man.
   It seems that the  British government, or  the admiralty
 department, were fully acquainted with  this state of things
 and with the difficult task which the miserable officers of
 this miserable Med way fleet had to  perform.   The gov-
 ernment did not seem to wish to exercise a greater degree
 ofngoroverthe \merican prisoners, because they knew,
 and all Europe  knew, that the United States treat-d their
Pnsouers with distin -lisbed humanity ;  uorl yet tlin- firm.
Iy  believed,  that unless  more  rigor was exercised, the 
JOURNAL.
Ill
 Americans would  rise upon their keepers before the win-
 ter  commenced.
   T!ie rumor is, that we are to be sent to Dartmoor prison.
 Some of our crew have lately received a letter from a pris-
 oner in that depot of misery, for  such he describes it.  He
 tells us that it is situated  in the most dreary and unculti-
 vated spot in England ; and that  to the sterility of the soil
 are  added the black coloring of superstitiou.
   A Moor, a word not used in America, is used in Eng-
 land to denote a low, marshy piece of ground, or a sterile
 spot, like our pine barren's, divested  of every thing like a
 pine tree.  It denotes something between a*beaeli and a
 meadovy.   It is a solemn faced truth in this country of our
 superstitious  ancestors, that every extensive  and dreary
 moor, in  England, is haunted by  troubled ghosts, witches
 and walking dead men, visiting,  in a sociable way, each
 other's graves.   It is really surprising, and  to an intelli-
 gent American, incredible, that stout, hearty, and  other-
 wise bold Englishmen, dare not walk  alone over the drea-
 ry spot, or moor, where the prison now stands, in a dark
 and  cloudy night, without  trembling with  horror, at a
 nothing! Beside the stories of witches flying about in the
 air, and dead men  strolling ove*  the moor, the letter con-
 tained an account of the origin of this new famous prison.
 It stated  that  this Dartmoor belonged to that beautiful
 gambler, the Dutchess of Devonshire,*  who  lost it in a
 game of hazard with the Prince of Wales, who, to enhance
 the  value of it, (he being,  as all the world knows,  a con-
 triving, speculating,  economical, elose fisted, miserly gen-
 ius) contrived to have erected there a species of a fortress,
 enclosing seven very large buildings, or  prisons, for the
 reception of captured seamen; from which establishment
 its royal  landlord received a very handsome annual rent;
 and  this princely anecdote is as firmly believed as the sto-
 ries  of the witches, and the walking dead men.   The only
 remark we would make upon it here, is, that Dartmoor has
 a  dismal  idea associated with it—and that was sufficient
 to make our people conceive of it as a place doleful as a
 coal-pit.
   Not iaug after the receipt of this letter, one hundred and

  • TV: letter writes, we suspect, had not  studied, carefully, the laws and
 customs of England, where all landed  property  belongs to the king, who
allows the eldest male of a family to possess it during his good behavior. 
112
JOURNAL.
fifty of our countrymen were  sent  off by  water, to  this
Dartmoor  Prison ;  but  the  measles appearing among
them, they were stopped at the Nore, which is at the en-
trance of the Thames.  They  are every day drafting more,
whidi are destined for  the dismal prison bouse.   We are
all struck with horror at the idea of our  removal from our
ships  in the river Medway, which runs through a beauti-
ful  country  It is " the untried scene,"  that fills us with
dread, " for  clouds and  darkness  rest upon  it."  Last
year we were transported  from inhospitable Nova Scotia,
over the boisterous Atlantic, and suffered incredible hard-
ships in  a rough winter  passage ; and  now  we are to be
launched again on the  same  tumultuous ocean, to go four
hundred miles coast-wise, to the most dismal spot in Eng-
land.  Who will believe it ?  the men  who exercised all
their  art and contrivance, and exerted all their muscular
powers to cut through the double plankings and copper of
a ship of the line, in hopes of escaping from her, now leave
the same ship  with regret.  I have read  of men who  had
beeu imprisoned many years in the Bastile, who, when lib-
erated, sighed to return to their place of long confinement,
and felt unhappy out of it. I thought it wondrous strange;
hut I now cease to be surprised.  This prison-ship, through
long habit, and the dread of  a worse place,  is actually
viewed with feelings of attachment  Of the hundred  men
who were sent hither last year, from Halifax, there are
only about seventy of  us  remaining on  board  the  Crown
Prince.    The next draft will  lessen  our numbers, and
separate some of those who have been long associates in
bondage.  It  is  not merely  the bodily inconvenience of
being transported here and there, that we dread, so much
as  the exposure to insult and sarcasm of our enemies.  We
 have been, and still dread to  be  again  placed  in rows, on
 board of a ship, or in a prison yard, to  be stared at by the
 British vulgar, just as if we were Guinea negroes, ex-
 posed to  the  examination of some scoundrel negro mer-
chants, commissioned to re-stock a plantation  with black
 cattle, capable of thinking,  talking, laughing and weep-
 ing.   This is not all.  We have been obliged often to en-
 dure  speeches of this sort, most commonly uttered in the
 Scotch accent—"' My life on't  that fellow is  a renegade
 Englishman—or Irishman—an halter  will be, I hope, his
 portion.   D—B all such rebel looking rascals."  Whatev- 
JOURNAL.
113
 er our feelings and resentments may be on account of im-
 pressment, inhuman  treatment, and  plundering our fobs
 and pockets, and of our clothing, we never speak  of the
 British king and government in terms of gross indecency ;
 whereas, we American prisoners of war, are ofteu assailed
 with the  bitterest sarcasms and curses of the  President of
 the United States, the Congress, and some of our military
 commanders.
   I have already mentioned that all my  family, as well
 as myself, were what they called " Federalists," or fault-
 finders, and opposers  of Madison's administration ; and
 that I, and all the rest of us. dropt every trait of federal-
 ism in the British prisons,  where, to call a man a Feder-
 alist, was resented as the deepest insult.  I appeal to all
 my companions in misery,  for the accuracy  of this opin-
 ion.  A man who is willing to expose his life to the balls
 and bayonets of  his country's foes, to the enemies of his
 government, and to the independence and union of his na-
 tion, holds his country and the government of his choice,
 in  higher estimation  than  his  life,   huch a  man cannot
 hear the United States, and  their President, spoken of in
 terms  of  contempt, without feeling the keenest  anguish.
 This I  have felt, and have  remarked  its effects in  the
 countenances of my insulted comrades. Situated as we are,
 it would be great  imprudence to resent what we are often
 obliged to hear.   Captivity, under British prison keepers,
 and British captains  of transport  men  of war, are the
 proper colleges for teaching the love of our  republican
 government, and strong attachment to its administration ;
 and they  are proper places to make the rankest federal-
 ist  abjure his errors, and cling to the constituted authori-
 ties of the country whose  flag he adores, and for whose
 defence he exposes his life. It is inconceivable  how closely
 we  are here pressed together in the cause of our dear coun-
trv, and in honor of its high  officers.  Were all the in-
habitants  of the United States as unanimous  in their po-
litical  sentiments, as we are, in the  river Medway, they
would all  be ready to exclaim, each man  to his neighbour,
           Rouse, and revive your ancient glory,
          Unite—and drive the world before you.

  July ist, 1S13—')ur feelings are all  alive at this joy-
ous season, for we are now making preparations for cele-
             10 
114
JOURNAL.
brating the  birth-day of our nation ; and though in cap-
tivity, we are determined not to suffer  the glorious Fourth
of July to pass over without testifying our undivided at-
tachment to our  beloved  country, and to the cause it is
fighting for.  Each mess are making arrangements in, be-
sure, a small and humble,  but a hearty way, for the cele-
bration ;  and  it is a curious spectacle, to see the pleas-
ureable anticipations of the prisoners in  a feast of good
things, all of which would  not amount to so plentiful a re-
past, as that which the criminals in our State Prison, near
Boston, enjoy every day, the plenty of good  porter except-
ed.   Application has been  made to  Capt. Hutchinson, for
an additional allowance of beer and porter, which request
he has granted, with his usual goodness.   Every brain is
at work to know how to spend what  we have been accu-
mulating for the Fourth of July,  with the most pleasure
and the most propriety.
   The Fourth  of July, 1813, is past.    We petitioned the
commander to  allow us to hoist the American flag, but he
refused to gratify us.  Application was then made to the
Commodore, who gave permission that we might hoist our
national colors, as high as the  top of  our railings ; and
the same permission was granted to all the other prison-
ships.  We had obtained a drum and fife ;  and  being all
assembled on the forecastle, and such other parts of the
ship as were accessible to us, prisoners, we in the morning
struck up the animating tune  of Yankee Doodle, and sa-
luted  the Nassau prison-ship  with three cheers, whieh
was returned ;  the ships more distant  caught the joyful
sound, and  echoed it back to  its  source   The fife and
drum, the latter ornamented with the king's arms, played
the whole forenoon,  while  the jovial prisoners drank, in
English porter, Success to the American cause !
   At twelve o'clock, an Oration, hastily  prepared, and
rather too inflammatory for about a tenth part of our au-
dience, was  delivered, by a prisoner of respectable talents;
a man, who, having been impressed into the British ser-
vice, had been  promoted to  the rank  of  boatswain of a
frigate ; and liberated from the service  in consequence of
his declaring it against bis honor and conscience to tight
against his-.countrymen, or aid in pulling down the colors
of his nation.   This man very deliberately  mounted an el-
evation, and with great force,  and with a characteristic 
JOURNAL.
115
freedom, pronounced an Address, which the prisoners list-
ened to with profound  silence, excepting the clapping of
hands, and sometimes cheers, at the end of such sentences
as wanned aud overpowered their silence.   At the close
of  the  whole, the orator was greeted with three times
three cheers, throughout the ship, and reached even to the
shores  The oratory of the boatswain seemed to electrify
the officers  and men set over us.  The  master and the
surgeon appeared  really pleased ;  even Osmer, our jailor,
" grinn'd horribly a ghastly smile."
   After the Oration, we returned below to  our prepared
dinners, at which  our reverend  orator asked a  blessing,
with  more fervor  than  is commonly observed in our Cos-
sack  clergymen ; and we fell to,  with a zest and hilarity
rarely to be found among a large collection of prisoners.
If, like the captive Jews on  the  Euphrates, we had hung
our harps upon the willows of the  Medway, we took them
down on this joyous occasion.   We felt the spirit of free-
dom  °dow within us; and we  anticipated the day when
we should celebrate our anniversary  in  that dear  land of
liberty, which we longed to see, and  panted  after, as the
thirsty hart pants after the water brooks.
   The Fourth of  July was celehrated in a very becoming
 manner, on board  the  Nassau  prison-ship, by similar acts
 of rejoicing.   I have obtained a copy of the Oration, de-
 livered by a seaman, on that day.   Among the  audience,
 were several ladies and gentlemen from the  neighborhood.

                     AN  ORATION,
 Delivered by permission, on board the Nassau prison-ship,
   at Chatham, England, by an American Seaman,prisoner
    of war.

 MY FELLOW PRISONERS,  AND BELOVED COUNTRYMEN,
   We are assembled to commemorate that ever memorable Fourth of July,
 1776, when our forefathers, inspired with the love of liberty, dared to de-
 vest themselves of the shackles of tyranny and oppression : yes, my friend s,
 on that important day these srripes were hoisted on the standard of liberty,
 as a signal of unity, and of their determination to fight under them, unt il
 Amenca was numbered among the nations of the globe, as one of them, a
 free *nd independent  nation. Yes, my countrymen, she was determined
 to spare neither blood nor treasure, until she had accomplished  the grand
 obiect of her intentions; an  object, my friends, which she was  prompted
 bv Heaven to undertake, and inspired by all that honor, justice  and patri-
 otism could infuse ; her armies were  then in the field,  with a Washing- 
116                        JOURNAL.
 ton at their head, whose upright conduct anc!  valorous  deeds you haye
 often heard related, and the memory of whom should be held sacred in the
 breasta of every true-born American.—Let his heart beat nigh  at the name
 of Washi ngton !  Sacred as the archives of heaven !  for he was a man of
 truth, honor, and integrity, and a soldier fostered by the gods to be the sa-
 viour of his country.
   The struggle was long, and arduous ; but our rallying word  was, '• Lib-
 erty or Death!" Torrents of blood w'ere  spilt;  towns  and  villages were
 burnt, and nothing but havoc, devastation and destruction was seen from
 one end of the continent to the other ; and this  was not all; but. to com-
 plete the horrid scene, an infernal horde of savage murderers was prompt-
 ed by our enemy to butcher our helpless wives  and children!  Then did
 our fathers' patriotic hearts swell in their bosoms, and they were ten-fold
 more resolved to break the yoke of the tyrant.
   I rtcite these things, my countrymen, that you may know how to prize
your liberty, that precious gem for which your  fathers fought,  wading in
 rivers of blood, until it  pleased the Almighty to crown their ar :is with suc-
 cess ; and, glorious to relate, America was acknowledged  free and independ-
ent by all the powers of Europe   Happy period ! then did our warrjors
«xult in what they had so nobly achieved ;  then commerce revived, and the
thirteen stripes were hoisted upon the tall masts of our ships, and displayed
 from pole to pole; emigrants flocked from  many parts to taste onr.free-
dom, and other blessings heaven had  bestowed  upon us ;  our population
 increased to an incredible degree ; our commerce flourished,  and our coun-
 try has been the seat of peace, plenty and happiness for many years.  At
length the fatal blast reached  our land!  America was  obliged  to unsheath
 the sword in justification of her violated rights.  Our ships were captured
 and condemned upon   frivolous pretensions; our seamen  were  dragged
from their lawful employment;  they were torn from the bosom of their
beloved country ; sons from their fathers ; husbands from their wives and
children, to serve with reluctance for  many years, under the severity of a
martial law.  The truth of this many of you can  attest to, perhaps with in-
ward pining and a bleeding heart!
   My countrymen ! I  did not mount this rostrum to inv«igh against the
 British;  only the demagogues, the war-faction I  exclaim against.   We all
know, and that full well, that there are many honest, patriotic  men in this
country, who would raise their voices to succour us,  and  their arms too,
could they do it with impunity.   The sympathetic hearts of the good, feel
 for the  oppressed  in all climes.   And now,  iny countrymen, it is more
than probable  that the land of your  nativity will  be involved in war, and
deluged in blood for some time to come;  yes, my friends, that happy coun-
try, which is the guardian of every thing you possess, that you esteem, near
 and dear, has again to struggle for her liberty.   The British war-faction are
 rushing upon us withtheii fleets and armies, thinking, perhaps,  to crush us
 in a moment.   Strange  infatuation ! They have  forgotten Bunkers Hill!
 They have forgotten Saratoga,  and Yorktown, when the immortal Wash-
 i ngton with his victorious army chased them through the Jerseys, under
 the muzzles of their ship's cannon for protection ! They have forgotten
 that tie sons of America have as good blood in their veins, and possess as
 sound limbs and nerves as they,  strange infatuation!  I repeat it, if they
 presume to think that eight millions of free people will  be very easily di-
 vested of their liberty; my word for it, they will  not give up  at th< sight
 of their men-of-war or their red coats ; no, my friends, they will meet the
 lads who Ywill play them the tune of yunkee doodle, as well as  they did at 
JOURNAL,
ii?
Lexington, or Bunker Hill.  Besides, my countrymen, there is a plant in
that country, (very little of which grows any where else,) the infusion of'
wV ic':>  stimulates the true sons of America to deeds of valour.   There is
something so fostering in the very sound of its name, that it holds superior-
ity wherever it grows; it  is a sacred  plant, my friends, its name is liber-
ty, and may God grant that that plant may continue to grow in the Unfted
States of America, and never be rooted out so long as it shall please Him to
continue the celestial orb to roll  in yon azure expanse.
  Ah!  Britons!  Britons!  had tour counsellors been just, and had they lis-
tened with attention, and followed the advice of the immortal * William Fitt,
Britain  and America might have been one until the present houi ; and they,
united, in time might have given laws to the inhabitants of this terrestrial ball.
  Many of you, my friends, have voluntarily embraced this loathsome pris-
on rather th?n betray your country;  for  by the  laws of your country, to
aid or give any assistance to an enemy, is treason, is punishable with  death.
I therefore hope  that your country will  reward  you abundantly for your
toil.  And one and all let us embrace the icy arms of death,  rather than
cherish  the least symptoms of an inclination to betray our country.  Some
have done it, who have pretended to be Americans, so far as to shield them-
selves under the nama.   Whether they were real Americans or not, is hard
for me  to say ; but if they were, they have put  their hand to  the plough,
and not only looked back, but have gone back.  1 have not the least doubt
but they will meet their reward ; that is, they will be spurned at by those
very people  that laid the  bait for them.   Such characters  will for ever be
condemned,  and held in detestation  by  both parties.   Therefore all  you
who feel the tide of true American blood flow through your hearts, I hope
never will attempt to flee from the allegiance of your country.  It is cew-
ardice,  it is felony ; and for all those who have done it, we may pray  that
the departed spirits of their fathers, who  so nobly fought, bled, and fell in
the conflict  to gain them their liberty, will haunt  them in their midnight
slumbers, and that they may feel the horrors of conscience and the dread
of a gallows  ! also, that they may have no rest, but like the dove that Noah
sent  out of the ark, be  restless until they return  to the allegiance of their
country.  And now, my countrymen, let us join in unison to correct our
own  m jrals ; let us be sober, let us  be vigilant over ourselves while in this
situation.   And although it is not in our power to assist our countrymen
in the present conflict, yet  if we are good the power of Heaven will fight
for us ;  for the good  must merit God's peculiarcare.   The powers of Hea-
ven fought for us ; they assisted us to gain our liberty, it is evident from
the very circumstance, that in our struggle with  Great Britain for our lib-
erty,  we had no navy, or none of any consequence,  yet Great Britain lost
more line of battle ships  in that war than she did with France, although
France  is a great  naval power.   And  we should be thankful to  God for all
the blessings he hath bestowed upon  us from  time to time, and in particu-
lar for  the blessings of that unity which  we are recently informed prevails
among  our countrymen in America ;  united they stand, nor will the pow-
ers of hell be able to overthrow  them.  And n>w let us appeal to tkeGod
of Sabaoth, that is, the God of armies—let us appeal to Him who holds the
balance and weighs the events of hattles  and of realms, and by his decision
we must abide.   And may He grant us health, peace and unity in this our
disagreeable situation;  and let us all join in concord to praise the Kuler.
arjd  Governor of the universe.   Amen.   Amen.

   * The celebrated Earl  of Chatham.
10* 
1X8                      JOURNAL.
  Among the songs sung on  this  occasion,  were several
composed by seafaring people, in our own country.   Tbe
following drew tears from the eyes of our generous heart-
ed sailors.   It pathetically describes what  many of them
had experienced, the  impressment of an American sailor
boy, by a British man of war, the tearing up of his legal
protection,  and of his sinking under a broken  heart.   It
was written by Mr. John De Wolfe, of Rhode Island.


  The Impressment of an  American  Sailor Boy.

                        A SONG,

Sung on board the British prison-ship, Crown Prince, the
   Fourth of July, 1813, by  a number of  the American
   prisoners.

            The youthful Sailor mounts the bark,
              And b'ids each weeping friend adieu j
            Fair blows the gale, the canvass swells;
              Slow sink  the uplands from his viev/.

            Three mornings, from his ocean bed,
              Resplendent beams the God of day ;
            The fourth, high looming in the mist,
              A war-ship's floating banners play.

            Her yawl is launch'd ; light o'er the deeft
              Too kind, she wafts a ruffian band ;
             Her blue track lengthens to the bark,
              And soon on deck the miscreants standi

            Around  they throw the baleful glance ;
              Suspense holds mute the anxious crew*-*-
            Who is their prey ?—poor sailor boy !
              The baleful glance is fix'd on you.

            Nay, why that useless scrip unfold ?
              They  damn the "lyingyankcc scrawl"
             Torn from thine hand, it strews the wave,
              They  force thee, trembling, to the yawl.

            §ick was thine heart, as from the deck,
              The hand of friendship wav'd farewell ;
             jljad was thy brain, as, far behind,
               In the grey mist, thy vessel fell.

             One hope, yet, to thy bosom clung,
              The captain mercy might impart ;
             Vain was that hope, which bade thee-loplg.
              f or meicy in a Pirate's heart. , 
JOURNAL.
jtm
            What woes can man on man inflict,
              When malice joins with uncheck'd pow'r^
            Such woes, unpitied and unknown,
              For many a month, the sailor bore.

            Oft gem'd his eye the bursting tear,
              As mem'ry linger'd on past joy ;
            As oft they flung the cruel jeer,
             And damn'd the " chicken-liver'd boy."

           When sick at heart, with -' hope deferr'd,"
              Kind sleep his wasting form  embrac'd,
            Some ready miniou ply'd the lash,
              And the lov'd dream of freedom chac'd.

            Fast to an end his miseries drew ;
              The deadly hectic flush'd his  cheek ;
            On his pale brow the cold dew hung,
              He sigh'd, and sunk upon the deck !

            The sailor's woes drew forth no sigh ;
            No hand would close the sailor's eye ;
            Remorseless, his pale corps they gave,
            Unshrouded, to the friendly wave.

            And, as he sunk beneath the tide,
              A hellish shout arose ;
            Exultingly the demons cried,
              " So fare all Albion's  RLBthfoes !"


  The power of music and  of song, on  such occasions,
has been witnessed in all ages of the world, especially in
the youthful, or chivalric period of a  nation's existence,
which is the present time, in the history of the United
States.  We all have felt and witnessed the animating ef-
fects  of the simple national tune of Yankee  Doodle.   Our
New  England boys cannot stand still  when it is played.
To that tune our regiments march with an energy that no
other music inspires.   At its sound, the  sentinel on his
post shoulders his musket, and marches his limits with a
smartness, that shows  that his brave heart pulsates to the
warlike drum.   Such a people, thus animated and united,
is absolutely invincible, by all the powers  of Europe com-
bined.
  Time, situation and circumstances, will give us national
songs.   Many ages passed away, before England was ani-
mated by a national hymn.   The Americans have paro-
died this hymn,  substituting, " God save great Washing-
ton!" &c. 
128
JOURNAL,
  Our orator, considering where  he was, and that he had
an hundred British hearers,  used pretty  harsh language.
He apostrophised the  English thus ;  '• Haughty nation !
with one hand thou art deluding  and dividing thy victims
in New England, and with the other, thou bearest  the
weapon of vengeance; and while employing the ruthful
savage, with  his tomahawk and scalping knife, thou art
boasting of thy humanity,  thy magnanimity, and thy reli-
gion !  Bloody villains ! detestable associates !  linked to-
gether by fear, and leagued with savages by necessity, to
murder a christian people, for the aliedged crime of light-
ing over again the battle of independence. Beware, bloody
nations of Britons and savage  Indians, of the  recoiling
vengeance of a  brave people.   For shame—talk no more
of your Christianity, of your bible and missionary societies,
when your only aim  is to  direct the scalping knife, and
give foree to the arm of the savage.   No longer express
the smile of pleasure, on hearing a stupid  Governor pro-
claim you to be  " The  Bulwark of our Religion!" You
have tilled India with blood and  ashes ; you  have murder-
ed the Irish for contending for liberty of conscience ; you
continue the scourge of war in  Spain  ; you pay  Russia,
Sweden, Germany and Holland, the price of blood ; and to
crown all, decorate your colors, and your seats of legisla-
tion, with scalps, torn from Americans, male and female;
and you are sowing  discord, and  diffusing  a Jacobinical
spirit through a protectant country, which you cannot con-
quer by force.  But, (continued the orator, waving his sin-
ewy arm, and hard and heavy hand.) the time is not far dis-
tant, when your guilty nation will be duly appreciated, and
justly punished ;" and saying  this, he drove his  iron fist
into the palm of his left hand, and stamped  with his foot
on the capstan, where he stood,  while his admiring coun-
trymen rewarded the herculean orator with three cheers.
  There is no disguising it. these Englishmen not only re-
spect us, but fear us   They perceive a mighty  difference
between us, and the  cringing,  gambling Frenchmen.   If
they are tolerably well informed, and  think at  all, they
must conclude that we Yankees, are filled with, and keep
up that, bold and daring spirit of liberty? which made Eng-
land what she is. and the loss of which is now perceived by
their surrendered ships and beaten  armies in  America.
All these things vyill hereafter be detailed by some  futar« 
JOURNAL.
121
Gibbon, in the history of the Decline and Fall of the  Brit-
ish Empire.
   iVe closed the  day, on this memorable fourth of July,
pretty much as we began it; we struck our flag at sun set
and saluted  the  other ships with three hearty cheers.
Throughout the whole, the prisoners, even to the boys, be-
haved with becoming decorum, and  the  whole was con-
eluded without auy disagreeable accident, or any thing like
a quarrel; and iu saying this, we desire to acknowledge
the extraordinary good behaviour of all the British officers
and men on board the Crown Prince.
   Excepting the  apprehensions of being  sent off to  Dart-
moor prison, of  which we  entertained horrid  ideas, we
were tolerably happy.  After the  measles ceased, we
were all very healthy ; and  there  exists a good under-
standing between the prisoners and our commander, Os-
more ; which they  say, is owing to the influence  of his
amiable wife.  This worthy woman has discovered that
we are not a gang  of  vagabonds,  but that many of the
American prisoners  are not only men of solid understand-
ing, and correct  principles,  but men  whose minds have
been improved by good education.   The manner and style
in which  we  celebrated our national independence, have
created a respect for  us.  The officers extend a  better
course of treatment  towards us, and this has occasioned
our treating  them with more respect.  Politeness gener-
ates politeness, and  insult,  insult.   They find that coax-
ing and fair words is the only way to manage Americans.
   There is a set  of busy-idlers  among us, a sort of news-
mongers, fault-tinders, and predictors, who are continual-
ly bothering* us  with unsubstantial  rumors.  The  news-
papers  we take, are  enough to confound any man; but
these creatures are  worse than the London uews-writers.
Sometimes we are told  that Baltimore is burnt; and then
that  New-York  is taken ;  and we have been  positively
assured that old  New-England has declared for the Brit-
ish ; and that  the  governor of Massachusetts and his
council had dined on board a British man of war in Bos-
ton harbor; and  that president Madison had been hanged
in effigy in Boston, Newburyport,  and Portsmouth.  At
other times we were told positively, and eireumstautially,

  •An Irish word, meaning a distraction of attention by reason of words
•triking our intellect through both can confusedly. 
%22
JOURNAL*
that three frigates sent their boats into Marblehead, and
after driving out  all the women and children, set fire to
the town, and reduced  the  whole to ashes ;  and this was
for some time credited.  We have a number of fine Mar-
blehead men here in captivity, all staunch friends of their
country's cause.  I well remember since that period, that
it  was told us,  that peace between America  aud England
was concluded, and  that one of its conditions was giving
up the fisheries  on the  banks of Newfoundland   This
alarmed the Marblehead men more than the report of burn-
ing their town ; they raved and swore like mad men. " If
that be the case," said they, " 1 am damned—Marblehead
is forever damned, and we are  all damned ; and damnation
seize  the peace-makers, who have consented to this con-
dition."  On this subject they worked themselves into a
fever, and were very unhappy all the  time the  story was
believed.  Such like stories were told to us, oft times, so
circumstantially, that we all believed them.  When dis-
covered to be false, they were called galley-news or galley
packets.   These mischievous characters are continually
sporting with  our feelings, and secretly laughing at the
uneasiness they occasion.   There is one man who has got
the name of lying Bob ; who is remarkable for the fertili-
ty of  his invention ; there is so much apparent correctness
in all he advances.  He mentions and describes the man
who informed him, states little  particulars, and  relates
circumstances  so closely connected  with acknowledged
facts, that the most cautious and incredulous  are often tak-
en in  by him.   He is a constitutional  liar, and the fellow
has such a plausible mode of lying, and wears throughout
such  a fixed and solemn phiz,  that his news  has been cir-
culated by us all, with all our  wise reasons,  and explana-
tions, and conjectures, that although  vve are sometimes
angry enough  to  knock his brains out,  we  cannot help
laughing at the hoax.   To the  name  of lying Bob, we
have  added  that of " Printer  to Prince BelzebuVs Royal
Gazette."
   This little community of ours, crowded within the
planks of a  single ship,'is but the prototype of th* great
communities on the land.  Here we see working, all those
passions, hopes, f-ars  emulations,  envies, aud  even con-
tentions for dist-netio/i, which, like the winds and f.des of
the ocean, keep the  human mind healthy, vigorous, and 
JOVRNAL.
123
progressing to  general benefit.  Amidst  it all,  we could
discover " the ruling passion," the love of country, and a
firm belief that our countrymen understood rational liber-
ty better, and could defend it longer, than any nation now
in existence.
   Many people are beguiled  with  an idea,  that  sailors
have no serious thoughts of religion, because  they  use
swearing, and, too often,  a profane phraseology, without
any  meaning.   But seamen  generally  have as  serious
ideas of religion,  as landsmen; and  are, in  my opinion,
full  as good.  Hypocrisy  is net among their vices.  They
never pretend  to  more religion than  their conduct pro-
claims.  You see and  hear the worse  of them,  and that
cannot always be said  of our brethren on shore.  We have
had a methodist preacher exhorting us twice a week, until
lately; but he has discontinued  his  visits;  for he found
the  hearts of some of  our  fellows as. hard as their faces,
and he relinquished the hope of their conversion to meih-
odi»m.   There was, at one time, on board our ship, a lit-
tle, ugly French surgeon's mate, who bad lived  several
years in London, aud  in the southern part of America. He
could speak and read  the English  language equally well
with his own.   He ridiculed  all religion, and  talked in
such an irreverent style of the bible, of Jesus Christ, and
of the Virgin Mary, that  our sailors would not associate
with him, nor, at  times, to eat with him. On one occasion
his profanity was  so shocking, that he ran some risk of be-
in"* thrown overboard.  He  was a witty, comical fellow,
and they would listen  and laugh at his drollery : but they
finally  stopped his mouth from uttering  things, for which
lie would be severely punished in England and in America.
   Generally speaking, in the religious notions of our sail-
ors, there is mixed a portion of that superstition which we,
our forefathers, and foremothers brought with them from
England, Scotland and Ireland.   They believe,  for exam-
ple, in spirits, or  ghosts,   and that they haunt houses and
ships ; and that they  haye sometimes appeared  wiih  hor-
rid visage and menacing  countenances, at the bed-side of
 a cruel captain :  aud  above all, to the false  hearted Tar,
 who cruelly deserted  his  too credulous Poll, who drowned
 herself in despair.   The common  sailor often tells such
 stories, aud sings them in ballads, both which are gener-
 ally ended with the good moral sentiment of the punish- 
124*
JOURNAL.
ment of cruelty and treachery, and the reward of the kind
hearted and humane.
  It may appear singular that men whose conduct is gen-
erally  so opposite  to the  prescribed rules of the Priest,
should have so firm an opinion of another life, after their
bodies are eaten up by sharks, or blown to atoms ; but it
is really the case with the British  and  American sailors,
for they have the strongest belief in the existence of spi-
rits, arid ail their  stories and  traditions  tend  to confirm
tin? superstition   How often have 1 known them huddied
together in the night, telling stories  of feats of danger
and desperation! a ghost or spirit is generally brought in-
to the  history.  Nothing suits these daring set of men
better  than a  solemn narrative of a supernatural achieve-
ment, and a supernatural  escape ; but  to be  charming, it
mast have a tinge of the  horrible   Shakespeare would
have recognized some of these  men as his  kindred, and
they him as a relation.  Good luck and ill  luck, lucky
days and unlucky days, as well as lucky ships, attach
themselves to a sailor's mind.  A remarkable instance of
this we have  in our  ill fated frigate Chesapeake.  Ever
since the British ship, Leopard,  fired into this American
frigate, in a period of profound peace,  and caused her to
strike  her colors, and which led to her being boarded ;
and her men  to be mustered  by  compulsion, and some of
her crew taken and carried forcibly on board the Leop-
ard, one of which was afterwards hanged ; after this deep
wound on our couutry's honor, this frigate was ever after
viewed as unlucky.
  In confirmation of this nautical curse, she met with a
series of disasters during the war,  which were not attrib-
uted to ill management, but to ill luck.  Thus, one lime
she was coming up the  harbor of  Boston, from a cruise,
where she lost spar after spar, and topmast after topmast;
and when in full sight of the town, and not  much wind,
over board went her  fore-top-mast, and several men were
drowned in their fall  from the rigging.  This was not
attributed to lack  of judgment,  but to  ill luck.   When
this ill-omened ship  lay in  Boston harbor, previous to her
last and fatal  cruise, she could not get men, and that from
the impression on the minds  of sailors,  that she was an
unlucky ship.   This  operated to  her final misfortune, for
her crew was made up of every thing that offered.  Her 
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125
captain was a stranger to his crew, and to  his  officers ;
his first lieutenant  lay  at the point  of death when she
sailed ; her motley crew mutinied, on account of their pay,
before  they  weighed anchor ; her brave, I  had like to
have said rash commander, sailed out  in a great hurry ;
her cables  were not quite stowed away, nor other things
arranged in their places, when she bore down  on the cool
and orderly Shannon ; and to crown all, her intrepid com-
mander, a man six feet, four inches, went into action with-
in half pistol shot, in full uniform, as if he defied the pow-
er of the British musketry  I  have  conversed with some
of her  officers and men in my captivity, and think that I
am warranted in saying that there was much  more high-
toned bravery exhibited on that day, than good conduct.
The sailors, however, think differently ; they all attrib-
ute it to that unavoidable fatality which forever adheres,
like pitch, to an unlucky ship.  O, my country !

        " It was that fatal and perfidious bark,
        " Built in th' eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark,
        {s That sunk so low that sacred head of thine !"
                                   Milton's Lycidas.
                    CHAPTER  II.

  August 30ih —Drafts continue  to  be  made from this
ship to be  sent off to  Dartmoor  Prison.  There are but
few of us remaining, and we are every day in  expectation
of removal.  All go off with evident reluctance, from  an
apprehension that the change will be for the worse.  It is
the1* untried scene," that fills  us with anxiety.   We are
more disposed to bear our present  ills, than fly to others
which  we know  not of.
  Oh.  how we envy the meanest looking wretch  we see,
crawling on the shore, gathering sticks to cook his fish.
Toere  the  beggar enjoys the natural inheritance of man,
sweet Liberty  ; if the unfeeling, the avaricious and mo-
rose, refuse his  petition, he  can  sweeten the  disappoint-
ment with the reflection that he has  liberty to  walk where
he pleases.  He is not  shot up  in  the prime   of life, and
             11 
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JOURNAL
cut off from all intercourse with those beholds most dear;
he is not lingering out  his  life and health under the mo-
rose countenance of an  unfeeling jailor.   He has not. like
us, a home, where  peace, plenty and every good, await to
welcome us.   Who can express the anguish felt by some
of us,  wretched prisoners,  here  crowded together, like
sheep, men  who  have broken no   law  of either country,
but who have  stood courageously  forth in supporting the
sacred cause of our country, and in defending '• free trade
and sailors'1 rights." Should this  war continue some years
longer,  or should  peace be restored, and another war with
Britain commence, I will venture to predict that our ene-
mies will take but few prisoners  alive.   My own mind is
entirely made  up on this head.  I  hope to stand ever ready
to risk  my  life for the liherty and  independence of our
nation, and for the preservation of my  own personal lib-
erty.
   The  American sailor has a beloved home; he was born
and brought up in a house that had  a  " fire place" in it.
Many of them here, in captivity, have wives and children,
most  of them have parents, and brothers  and sisters.
These poor fellows partake, at times, the misery of their
dear relatives, at  three thousand  miles  distance.   They
recollect their aged mothers, and decrepid fathers, worn
down with age,  labor,  and anxious thoughts for the wel-
fare of their absent sons   Some   have  wives,  and  little
children, weeping for their absent husbands, andsufteriug
for the  good and comfortable things  of this life,  having
none to help them. In families, neighborhoods, and villa-
ges, men are supported by  leaning on each other ; or by
supporting each other  ; and we have endeavored to do so
too ;  but now  our  numbers  are thinning,  some of our best,
our steadiest,  and most prudent   men,  have left us, and
gone  to Dartmoor Prison.   1 have felt very low  spirited
for some days past.  It is true, our numbers are  now so
few, that we can run about, and beguile the  tedious hours
by  a greater variety of exercise and amusement than here-
tofore : but then,  our soberest men are  gone, and  left be-
hind some  of  the  most noisy and  disorderly of our whole
crew ; and young  as I am,  I am little disposed to make  a
riut or noise, merely for noise sake.
   A disturbance took place last night, which deprived all
of us of sleep.   It   was owing to  the  unaccommodating 
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127
disposition of our commander, Mr. Osmore.  About thirty
prisoners were selected, and called aft, with their ham-
mocks all tied up, to be ready to go off early in the morn-
ing, in a tender.  The tender did not arrive as  was  exr
peeted ;  the sergeant was ordered to count us  over in  the
evening, to go  to  rest, whereupon the thirty drafted men
went aft, and requested their hammocks to sleep  in ; Mr.
Osmore replied, that, as  they were to go  off early in  the
morning, they would only detain the  tender, if they had
their hammocks to take down and pack up again, on which
aceouut he refused to let them have their usual accommo-
dations for sleeping.   The men went below,  very much
dissatisfied at the churlish disposition of the commander;
and as they  despaired being able to sleep themselves, on
bare boards, they all determined that Osmore  should not
sleep.   They waited quietly till about ten o'clock, when
the commander usually went to  bed, and  then they tore
up the large  oak benches, tied ropes to them, and run with
them round the deck, drawing the benches  after them like
a sled, at the same time hollowing, screaming and yelling,
and  making  every noise that  their ingenuity or malice
could devise.  Sometimes they drove these oaken benches
full but against the aft bulk  head, so as to make  the ship
tremble again with the noise, like cannon.  They jammed
down the crockery  belonging to  the marines,  which was
set  up  on the opposite side of the cock-pit, and  frightened
their wives out  of their beds.  The noise and jarring were
so great, that it seemed  as  if they were breaking up the
ship, for the  sake of her iron work.  Lieut. Osmore sent
a marine down, to  order them to be still and go to sleep.
They replied, that they had no  conveniences for sleeping,
and that Osmore had acted  like  a  villain, in depriving
them unnecessarily of their hammocks, for which brutal-
ity, they were determined that  he should not sleep any
more than they.   After which  they recommenced their
riot and  thundering noise, which  brought  Osmore  out of
his cabin, and called one  of the  committee  to him, and
told him to tell  the men, that if they did not directly eease
their noise, he would confine every man of them below, for
three days.  The  committee-man replied, that  nothing
could then  be done, for that the mob  had fairly capsized
the government of the ship,  and all  that  he  could say,
would only add to the riot and confusion.  " Then," said 
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JOURNAL.
he, " I'll be d—d if  I  do not fire upon them."  Some of
the mob answered,  " fire,  and be d—d."  And the com-
mandur hesitated a  moment, and  returned to his cabin ;
for he saw the men were wrought up to  the battle pitch,
and rather wished him to fire,  by way of excuse for their
attack upon him whom they most cordially despised.
   Directly upon  this,  they collected all the tin and  cop-
per pans, pots and kettles,  and  every sonorous metallic
substance they could lay their hands  on.  These they tied
together, and hitched buuches of them here and there, up-
on the oaken planks ; and then, what  with  screaming,
yelling, like the Indian war-whoop, cheering, aud the thun-
dering noise  of the planks,  grating  along the  deck, to-
gether  with  the ringing and clattering  of their metallic
vessels, they made  altogether  such a  hideous " rattle-
come-twang,"  that  it was enough  to  raise all Chatham.
All  this was transacted in  utter darkness.  The officers
doubtless saw that bloodshed and promiscuous death would
be the consequence  of firing among the  rioters, and  pru-
dently left it to subside with  the darkness of the night.
These disorderly fellows would go round the decks twice,
with all this thundering noise and clatter, aud then he si-
lent for about half  an hour,  or until they thought Mr.
Osmore had got  into a  doze ; and then they would recom-
mence their horrible serenade.   At length Osmore became
so enraged, that he swore by his Maker, that  he would
order every marine  in the   ship to  fire  in among them  ;
but on some  of the committee  observing to him that he
would be as likely to kill the innocent as the guilty, and
as they were then silent, he went off again to his eabin  ;
but within a  quarter of an  hour they began again their
shocking serenade, and continued it, at  provoking inter-
vals, all the night, so that none could sleep iu  the ship.
   In the morning the  tender came  along side, and  they
all went on board of her.  When they had all got in, and
pushed off from the ship's side, and while Osmore was su-
perintending their  departure,  they all  cried out,  baa!
baa! baa!  until  they got out of hearing.  The next day
he betrayed  a disposition to punish, in some way, those
prisoners that remained ; but it was remarked to  him,
that  it was utterly impossible  for  any  of them to  stop
the riot,  or  to  keep  their disturbers  quiet,  and  that
they, themselves, ware  equally incommoded with him aad 
JOURNAL.
129
liis family, he prudently dropped  the design.  Although
many ol us disapproved of this behaviour of ihe men, noue
of us could help laughing at the noise, and its ludicrous
effects.   It is a fact, that the officers and  marines of the
Crown Prince prison ship, were more afraid of the Amer-
ican prisoners, than they were of them.   This last frolic
absolutely cowed them.   One  of  the officers said to me,
next day, " Your countrymen do not seem to be a bloody
minded set of men, like  the  Portuguese  and Spaniards,
but they  have the most d—d provoking impudence I ever
saw, in any men : if they  did  not  accompany it all with
peals of laughter,  and in the  spirit  of fun, I should put
them down as a set of hell-hounds."  1 told him that I
considered the last night's riot, not in the light of a muti-
ny, or a serious attempt to wound  or  scratch au\ man, but
as a high frolic, without any real  malice, and was an evi-
dence of that  boisterous liberty  in  which they had been
bred up,  and arising also from their high notions of right
and wrong.   To which the worthy Scotchman replied, •' I
hate a Frenchman, a Spaniard and  a Portuguese ; but I
never can hate an American ;  and yet the three former
behave infinitely better,  and give  us  far less trouble than
your saucy fellows "  Had British prisoners behaved in
thi* manner, in the prison ships in the harbor of Boston,
or Salem, would our officers have borne it with more pa-
tience ?
   As  there  were but few prisoners now remaining, and
ample room to run and jump  about for exercise, our men
evidently recruited ; and  being in  good spirits, the rose of
health soon bloomed again on their  manly cheeks.  The
soldiers,  made  prisoners  in  Canada,  evidently  gained
strength,  and acquired  aetivity.   If we  compare  their
miserable, emaciated looks,  on their arrival  at Melville
Prison, from their wretched voyage down the St. Law-
rence, with their  present appearance, the differei.ee  is
striking.  The wretched  appearance of these new made
soldiers,  reflects no credit on  the  BritislL   The savages
of the forest never starve their  prisoners.  The war de-
partment of the United States having  ordered these men
a portion of their p*»v, they appropriated it chiefly to pur-
chase comfortable c ithing, which has been productive of
great good, and  has probably  saved the lives of some of 
130
JOURNAL.
them ;  others squandered away their money in dissipation
and gambling
  A becoming degree of tranquility prevailed  on board
this prison ship, during my residence in it   On the  13th
of September, we were all sent on board the Bahama pris-
on-ship, which  lay farther up the reach.   Here we found
about  three hundred of our countrymen, who received us
with kindness,  and many marks  of satisfaction.   1 could,
at once, perceive that their situation had been less pleas-
ant than ours in the Crown Prince.  Little attention had
been paid to cleanliness, and gambling had been carried to
as great excess as  their  means  would admit of.   They
seemed to lack either the power, or the resolution of ad-
hering to, and  carrying into effect, good  and wholesome
regulations. I never saw a set of more ragged, dirty men
in my  life;  and yet  they were disposed to sell  their last
rag to get money to game with.  Their misfortune  was,
they had too few men of sense and respectability among
them.   They had no good committee men ;  not enough to
bear down the current  of vice and folly.  We dread the
 contagion of bad example.  Some of our men soon resort-
 ed to  their detestible gambling tables, and pursued  their
 old vices with astonishing avidity.  We seriously expos-
 tulated with our companions,  on their returning to the per-
 nicious practice of gambling, after they had  had the  vir-
 tue of refraining on board the Crown Prince ; and our ad-
 vice induced nearly all of them to renounce the destructive
 practice.  I had read, but never saw convincing evidence
 before, of gaming  being a passion, that  rages in propor-
 tion to the degrees of misery, until it becomes a species of
 insanity.
   We, " new  comers,"  introduced certain measures that
 had a tendency to harmonise our sailors and soldiers. The
 disorders on  board the Bahama arise, principally, from
 having on hoard a number of these  two classes of men.
 Our sailors view a soldier as  belonging to an order of men
 below them ;  and it must be confessed that our first crop
 of recruits, that were huddled together soon after the dec-
 laration of war, in some measure justified this notion.
 They  were, many of them, idle, intemperate men, void of
 character and  good constitutions. The high flying federal
 clergy,  among other nonsense,  told their flocks that the
 war would  demoralize the people; whereas it had the con- 
JJJURNAL.
181
trary effect, as it regarded the towns  an hundred  miles
from th" sea coast.   It absolutely picked out all the rags,
dirt, and vice, from  our towns and villages, and transport-
ed them into Canada,  where they  were either captured,
killed, or died with sickness, so  that our towns and  villa-
ges on the atlantic  were cleared of idlers and drunkards,
and  experienced the benefit of their removal. The second
crop of recruits, in 1814, were of a different cast.   The
high bounty, and the love of country, induced the embar-
goed sailor to turn soldier ; to these were added young me-
chanics, and the sons  of farmers.   These  were men  of
good habits, and of calculation.  They looked forward to
their bounty of land, with a determination of settling  on
their farms  at the close of the war.  These were moral
men, and  they raised the character of the soldier, and  of
their country. These were the men who conquered at Chip-
pewa, Bridgewater, Erie, and Plattsburg  Of such men
was  composed that  potent army of  well disciplined mili-
tia, who  reposed within twenty miles of the sea shores  of
New England—especially of Massachusetts and Connecti-
cut; and who, had the British attempted  a landing, would
have met them, with the bayonet, at the water's edge, and
crimsoned its tide.
  Our captiv ated sailors knew nothing of this fine army ;
they only knew the  first recruits, and it is no  wonder they
viewed them as their inferiors, as they really  were.  Even
the officers  were, generally  speaking,  much inferior  to
those who closed the war.  The American sailor appears
to be a careless, unthinking,  swearing  fellow ; but he is
generally much better than he appears.   He is generally
marked with honor, generosity, and  honesty.   A ship's
crew soon assimilates, and they are all brother tars, em-
barked together in the same bottom, and  in the same pur-
suit  of interest, curiosity or fame ;  while the rigid  disci-
pline of an army does not admit of this association and as-
similation.  A  sailor,  therefore, greets  a sailor, as his
brother ;  but has not yet learned to greet a soldier as his
brother ;  nor has the American soldier ever  felt, tiie fra-
ternal attachment to the sailor.  It  should be the policy
of our rulers, and military commanders, to assimilate the
American soldier and sailor ; and there is little doubt but
that they  will amalgamate in time.  In  France,  the sol-
dier looks down  upon the sailor - in England, and in Amer- 
43£                   JOURNAL.

ica, the sailor looks down on the soldier.   We must learn
them to march  arm in arm.
  Confinement,  dirtiness, and deprivations, have an evil
operation on  the mind   1 have observed some who had a
little refinement of manners, at the commencement of their
captivity, and regarded the situation and feelings of oth-
ers near  them,  with complacency,  have  lost  it all, and
sunk into a state of misanthropy.   We, Americans, exer-
cise too little ceremony at best, but  some of our prisoners
lost all deference and respect for  their countrymen, and
became mere hogs,  the stronger pushing the weaker aside,
to get the most  swill.
     " Jove fix'd it certain that the very day
     " Made man a slave, took half his worth away."----Homzr.
   All our  industrious  men,  were well behaved,  and
all our idle men were hoggish.   Some of  our countrymen
worked very neatly in bone, out of which material liiiy
built ships, and carved images, and snuft' boxes, and tobac-
co boxes, and watch cases.   Some covered boxes, in a very
neat manner, with stiaw. The men  thus employed, formed
a strong  contrast to those who did nothing, or who followed
up gambling  Our ship afforded striking instances of the
pernicious effects of idleness, and of the  beneficial effects
of industry.  We, on board the Crown  Prince, instructed
the boys; "but  in  this ship, there  has  been no attention
paid to them, and they are, upon the whole,  as vicious in
their conduct, and  as profane in their  language, as any
bovs I  ever saw.   Frenchmen  are bad  companions for
American boys.  They  can  teach  them  more than they
ever thought of in their own country.
   In January last,  three  hundred and  sixty American
prisoners were  sent on board this ship.   Great mortality
prevail d among the Danish prisoners,  prior to the arri-
val of our countrymen, on board the  Bahama.   'Ihe Danes
occupied  her main  deck, while we occupied the lower one.
When our poor fellovvs  were tumbled from out of one ship
into this, they  had not  sufficient clothes to  cover their
shivering limbs in this coldest month of the year   They
were, indeed, objects oi' compassion, emaciated, pale, shud-
dering, low spirited, and their  constitutions sadly broken
down.   Their system was not strong enough to resist any
impression, especially the contagion of  the jail fever, un-
der which the Danes were dyiug by dozens.  Out of three 
                       JOURNAL.                   133

hundred and sixty-one Americans, who came last on board,
eighty-four were, in the course of three months, buried in
the surrounding marshes, the burying place of the prison
ships.   I may possibly forgive, but 1 never cau forget  the
unfeeling conduct of the British, on this occasion.   Why
send men on board a crowded prison ship,  that they knew
was infected  with  a mortal  contagion  ?  Their  govern-
ment must have known the  inevitabie consequences of put-
ting three  hundred  debilitated men  on board an infected
ship, where there were not enough well, to attend on  the
sick.  If we, Americans, ever treated British prisoners in
our  hands, in this cruel  manner, the facts have never
reached my ears.  Here was an  opportunity  for redeem-
ing their blasted reputation,  for the horrors  of their old
Jersey prison ship,  in  the  revolutionary  war.  But they
supposed that our affairs were so  low, and their  own  so
glorious, that there  was ho  room for  retaliation.   The
surrounding  marshes  were already  unhealthy,  without
adding the poison of human bodies, which were every hour
put into them   Several peisniis, now prisoners here, and
1 rank  myself among  that number,  had  a  high idea of
British humanity,  prior to our captivity : but  we have
been compelled to change our opinions of the character
of the  people from whom we descended.   The command-
er of the  Bahama, Mr. W. is a passionate and very  hot
tempered man, but is, upon the whole, an  humane one.
We  have more to praise than to blame, in his conduct to-
wards us.   He is not ill disposf a  to the Americans, gen-
erally, and wishes for a lasting peace between the two
contending nations.  His mate is the  reverse  of all this,
especially when he is overcharged with liquor.
   As characteristic  of some  of our imprudent country-
men, I insert the following  anecdote.   The Bellecean,
(or Bellauxcean) prison ship, lay  next to us.  She was
filled with  Norwegians, and  were  detained  in  England,
while  Norway  adhered to  a  kin°; of their own  choice.
The commander of her was a  nettlesome,  fractious, fool-
ish old fellow,  who was continually  overlooking us, and
hailing our commander, to inform  him  if  any one smug-
gled a bottle  of rum from the market boats.  His Norwe-
gians a;ave him no trouble,  they were a peaceable,  subser-
vient people, with no  fun in their constitutions, nor any
jovial cast  in their composition.  They were very differ- 
13*
JOURNAL.
ent from the British or American sailor, who will never
be baulked of his fun, if the Devil stands at the door. This
imprudent, meddling old commander, of the Bellauxcean,
was forever informing the officer of the deck of every lit-
tle pickadillo of the  American  prisoners : and  be,  of
course, got the hearty ill  will of all the Americans in the
ship Bahama.  He once saw a marine connive at the pass-
ing a ♦•ouple of bottles of  liquor through the lower ports,
and he hailed the commander, aud informed him  of it;
and the marine  was immediately  punished for it.  Ting
roused the Americans to revenge ;  for the British soldier,
or marine, is so  much of a slave, tbat revenge never dare
enter his head.  Retaliation belongs alone  to the free and
daring American.  He alone enjoys the  lex talionis, and
glories in carrying it into execution.
   Fish and potatoes constituted the diet of the following
day   What  does  our "  dare-devils" do but reserve all
their potatoes to serve as cold shot to fire at the fractions
commander of their next neighbor, the Bellauxcean  Ac-
t-oi iiiugly when  they observed the old man stubbing back-
wards and forwards his quarter deck, and  stopping now
and then to peak over  to  our ship to see if we smuggled a
bottle of liquor, they gave him a volley of potatoes, which
was kept up until the veteran commander hailed our cap-
tain and told  him  that  if  the Americans  did not cease
their insult he would order his marines to fire upon them ;
but his threatenings produced no other effect than  that of
increasing the  shower of potatoes ;  so  that this  brave
British tar was  compelled to  seek shelter in his  cabin ;
and then the potatoe  battery ceased  its fire.  When all
was quiet, the old gentleman seized  the  opportunity of
pushing on board of us   When he came on our quarter
deck, rage stopped all power of utterance, he foamed and
stamped like a mad man.   At length, he asked Mr.  Wilson
how he could  permit a body of prisoners  under his com-
mand and  control,  to  insult one of his  majesty's  officers
in his own ship ? To which Mr. Wilson replied, that  he
should use hisjnfluence to prevent a repetition of the  in-
sult, and restore harmony, and that he was sorry that bis
men should get  into any  difficulty  with  those of another
ship;  and he  recommended  moderation;  but  the old
commander  swore and raved terribly, when our  worthy
protector reminded him that he was not on his own quarter 
JOURNAL.
ISfi
deck.  The coolness of Mr Wilson still  further enraged
our exasperated neighbor, and  he left the  ship  execrat-
iiur  every  one  on  board,  and  swearing that he would
make complaint to  the commodore.
   When the prisoners saw  how their  own commander
viewed the interference of another, they collected all the
potatoes  I hey could find, and I am sorry to add, pieces of
eo»l, and as soon as he let the side of the  Bahama, they
pelted  him till  he fairly skulked under cover in his own
prison  ship.  He directly drew his marines up  in battle
array,  on his quarter deck, when the captain of the Baha-
ma seeing his folly, and knowing his  disposition, exerted
himself  to make every American go below, and  enjoined
upon them a cessation of potatoes.  We gained, however,
more by  this short  war, than most of  the nations  of the
world, for it entirely removed the cause fir which we took
up potatoes against one of his Britanick majesty's officers,
within ten lec.gues of  the capital of his empire.  I over-
heard capt. Wilson say to the second in command. '• these
Americans  are the sauciest  dogs I ever saw ; but damn
me if I can help liking them, nor can I ever hate men who
are s'< much like ourselves—they are John Bull all over."
   In a  course of kind and flattering treatment our coun-
trymen were orderly and easily governed; but when they
conceived themselves ill treated you might as well attempt
to govern so many  East India  tygers.  The British offi-
cers in this river discovered this, and dreaded their com-
bined anger ; and yet the Americans  are seldom or ever
known to carry their vengeance to blood and murder, like
the Spaniard. Italian and Portuguese.
   A Swedish frigate is just arrived in  the  reach, to take
away those good  boys,  the Norwegians. King Bernadotte
sent them two and six pence  a piece, to secure their affec-
tions, and  provide  them with  some  needed articles for
their passage to  Norway.  A cartel  is  hourly expected
from London, to take home some of their soldiers  The
Levden,  an old  Dutch  64, is preparing,  at  the Nore, to
take us away.
   We  are induced  to  believe that our  emancipation is
nigh.  We are  every day expecting, that we, too, shall be
sent home;  but this hope, instead of inspiring us with joy
an'' <rl- loess, has generated  sourness  and discontent.  It
seems that the  government of the  United  States  give a 
136
JOURNAL.
preference to those who ':u d enlisted in the public service
over such as were in  privateers.   We have  U H ibis dif-
ference all along.   Again, the government are disposed to
liberate the soldiers before the sailors, because  their suf-
ferings are greater than those of sailors, from their former
mode of life and occupations.   They were farmers or me-
chanics, or any thing hut seamen; and this makes  their
residence on ship-board very irksome : whereas  the sailor
is at  home on the deck or hold of the ship.  Most of these
soldiers were from the state  of  Pennsylvania  and  Mew
York, and  many  from the  western parts of the union.
These men could not bea>- confinement like sailors, neither
could they bear a short allowance of food, nor could they
shirk for themselves  like a Jack tar.  A sailor coubl  en-
dure, with a degree of patience, restraints and depriva-
tions that were death to landsmen   Many of these youth-
ful soldiers bad not long left their native, habitations, and
parental care, when they were captured : their morals mid
manners were purer  than those  of  sailors   Such young
men suffered not only in their health, but in their feelings,
and many sunk under their accumulated  miseries; for,
nourished by indulgence,  in the mi 1st of abundance,  many
of them died for want of sufficient food   These miserable
beings  were, as they  ought to be, the first objects of  the
solicitude of government.
   The prisoners were seen here  and there, collected in
squads, chewing together the cud of discontent, and grumb-
ling at the imagined  partiality and injustice  of their rul-
ers   These discontents and bickerings too often da-nped
the joy of their  prospect of liberation from captivity The
poor privateers' men had most reason for complaining, as
they found themselves neglected  by  one side, and despised
by tie other.
   The  sufferings of soldiers,  many of whom were militia,
who were taken on the frontiers  of Canada, are not  to be
withheld  from the public.  They were first stripped by
the savages in the British service, and then driveji befire
them, half naked, to the city of Quebec; from thence they
were sent, in ill provided transports, to Halifax, suffering;
all the  way, the torments of hunger and thirst. When they
arrived at Melville prison, they  were shocking objects to
the  prisoners th.-y found there; emaciated,  weak,  dirty,
sickly,  and but half clothed,  they excited, in us all, com- 
JOURNAL.
137
miseration  for their great misery ;  and indignation, con-
tempt and revenge, towards the nation who could allow
such barbarity.  The cruel  deception  practised on  their
embarkation for England, instead of going home;  their
various miseries on ship-hoard, where as landsmen, they
underwent infinitely more than the sailors; for many of them
never had seen the salt ocean ;  and their close confinement
in the hold of a ship, gave them the idea of a floating hell.
The captivity  of the sailors was sufficiently distressing;
but it was nothing to that of the wretched landsmen, who
considered  a ship, at all times, a kind of dungeon.  The
transporting our soldiers to England, and their sufferings
during their passage, and while confined in that country,
has engendered a hatred against the British nation, that
ages will not obliterate, and time scarcely diminish. We,
Americans, can never be justly accused of want of human-
ity to the English prisoner.
   I have frequently thought that the over-rated and  high-
ly boasted British bravery and humanity, would find their
graves in America.  The treatment these soldiers  expe-
rienced has stigmatised the English character, and de-
servedly so. It is not in the power of words, and scarcely
in the power of the painter's pencil, to  convey an idea of
their wretchedness.  They were covered with rags, dirt,
and vermin.   They were, to us, objects of pity, but  to all
others, objects of disgust; even we,  their brothers, recoil-
ed, at times, on approaching them.  Was there any design
in this ? Did our enemies wish to impress their country-
men with an abhorrence of a  yankee ?  How else can  we
account for a treatment which  our people never experienc-
ed when prisoners of the Indians ? No—the savages never
starve their prisoners, nor deprive them the use of water.
Dispirited, and every way disheartened, our poor fellows
had, generally speaking, the aspect of a cowardly, low
spirited race of men, and much inferior  to the British. We
here saw how  wretched circumstances, in a short time, de-
bases a brave and  high spirited man.  When people from
the shore visited our *hip, and saw our  miserable soldiers,
we do  not  wonder  that they despised  them.  We some-
times had  the mortification of hearing remarks in the
Scotch accent, to this effect: "  So, these are samples of the
brave yankees that took the  Guerriere and Java ; it proves
             12 
13S
JOURNAL.
to a demonstration, that the American frigates were man-
ned with British deserters."
  The sailors often tried to spirit  up the soldiers, and to
encourage  them to cleanliness; but it  was in  vain,  as
most of them were depressed below the elasticity of their
brave souls ; yet amidst their  distress, not  a man of them
would listen to proposals to enter the British service. Ev-
ery one preferred death,  and  even wished for  it.  The
Americans are a clean people  in their persons as well  as
in their houses.  None of  them are so poor as to  live  in
cabins,  like the Irish, or in cottages, like the Scotch; but
they  are  brought up  in houses  having chimnies, glass
windows, separate  and convenient rooms,  and good  bed-
ding; and to  all  these  comfortable things we must add
that the poorest of our countrymen eat  meat  once ev-
ery day,  and  most of them  twice.  To  young men  so
brought up and nourished, a  British captivity  on board
their  horrid  transports, and even on board their prison-
ships, is worse than death.   If we, Americans, treat Brit-
ish prisoners as they treat  ours, let it be  published to the
world to our  disgrace.  Should the war  continue many
years, I predict that few Americans will be taken alive by
the English.
  After these poor fellows had received money and cloth-
ing from our  government,  they became  cheerful, clean,
and many of them neat,  and  were no bad specimens  of
American  soldiery.  We are  sorry to remark, that there
was observed something repulsive  between  the soldier and
the sailor.   The soldier thought himself better  than the
Jack  tar, while the sailor  felt himself, en board ship, a
better fellow than  the soldier; one was a fish in the water,
the other a lobster out  of the water.  The  sailors always
took the lead, because  they were at home : while the dis-
pirited  landsman felt himself a stranger  in an enemy's
land,  even  among his countrymen.   It would be well if all
our sea and land commanders  would exert themselves  to
break down the partition wall that is growing up between
our sailors and soldiers; they should be  constantly re-
minded that they are all children of one  and  the same
great family, whereof the President of the United States
is father ; that they have all been taught  to read the same
bible, and to obey the same great moral law of loving one
another* I observed, with pain,  that nothing  vexed a 
JOURNAL.
139
sailor more, than to be called by a brother tar, a soldier-
lookin"- son of a----.   This term of contempt commonly
led to blows.   This mutual dislike bred difficulties in the
"•overnment of ourselves, and sometimes defeated our best
regulations; for it split us into parties, and then we be-
haved as bad as our superiors  and richer brethren do on
shore, neglecting the general interest to indulge our own
private views, and spirit of revenge.  I thought our ship
often resembled our republic in miniature, for human na-
ture is the same  always,  and  only varies its aspect  from
situation and circumstances.
   It is now the  latter end of September; the weather
pretty pleasant, but n:»t equal  to our fine Septembers and
Octobers in New England.  We  are, every hour, expect-
ing orders to quit this  river, and  return to  our own dear
 country.
                  CHAPTER  III.

  October 2d, 1814.—We were now ordered  to pick up
our duds and get all ready to embark in certain gun-brigs
that had anchored along side of us; and an hundred of us
were soon put on board, and the  tide favoring, we gently
drifted down the river Medway.   It rained, and not being
permitted to go below, and being thinly clad, we were wet
to the skin.   When the rain ceased, our commander went
below, and returned, in a short time, gaily equipped in his
full  uniform, cockade and dirk.   He  mounted the poop,
where  he strutted about, sometimes viewing himself, and
now and then eyeing  us, as if to see if we, too, admired
him.   He was about  five feet  high, with thick broad
shoulders, and portly belly. We concluded  that he would
afforJ  us some fun ; but we were mistaken; for, with the
body of Dr.  Slop, he bore a round, ruddy, open and smil-
ing countenance, expressive of good nature and urbanity.*
The crew said, that although he was no seaman, he was a
v.ian, and that a better fellow never eat the king's bread;
* fie was no bad resemblance of our Captain C. 
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that they were happy under his  command ;  and the only
dread they had was,"that he, or they should be transferred
to another ship.  Does not this prove that seamen can be
better governed by kindness and good humor than by the
boatswain's cat? We would ask two of our  own  naval
commanders, B. and C.  whether they had not  better try
the experiment ?  We should be very sorry  if the infant
navy of our young country, should have the character of
too much severity of discipline.  To  say that it is requi-
site is  a libel on  our national character.  Slavish minds
alone require the lash.
   On board this brig were two London mechanics, recent-
ly pressed in the streets of the capital of the English na-
tion—a nation that has  long boasted of its liberty and hu-
manity.   These cocknies wore long  coats,  drab-coloured
velvet breeches, and grey stockings.   They  were con-
stantly followed by the boatswain's  mate,  who often im-
pressed his lessons, and excited their activity with a rope's
end which he carried in his hat.   The poor Tellows were
extremely anxious  to avoid such repeated hard arguments,
and they*kept at as great a distance  from their tyrant as
possible, who seemed to  delight in beating  them.  It ap-
peared to me to be far outdoing, in cruelty,  the Algerines.
They look melancholy, and,  at  times, very sad.  May
 America never become  the greatest of naval powers, if to
 attain it; she must allow a brutal  sailor to treat a citizen,
 kidnapped from his family in the streets  of  our cities,
 worse than we use a dog. * I again repeat it, for the thou-
 sandth time, the English are a hard hearted, cruel and
 barbarous race ; and, on this  account alone, I  have often
 been  ashamed,  that we, Americans, descended  mostly
 from them.  When a man is ill used, it invites others to
 insult him.   One of our prisoners, who had been treated
 with a drink of grog, took out his knife, and, as the cock-
 ney's face was the other way, cut off one skirt of his long
 coat.   This joke excited  peals of laughter.  When the
 poor Londoner saw that this was done by a  roguish Amer-
 ican, at the instigation of his own  countrymen, the tear
 stood in his eye/  Even our jolly, big bellied captain, en-
 joyed the joke, and ordered the boatswain's mate to cut off
 the other skirt, who, after viewing him  amidst shouts  of
 laughter, damned him for a land lubber, aud said, now he
 had lost his ring-tail, he looked like a gentleman sailor. 
JOURNAL.
Hi
  Although our goodnatured captain laughed at this joke,
I confess 1 could not; all the horrors of impressment rush-
ed on my mind.  This mechanic may have left a w ife and
children, suffering and starving, frum having her husband
and their father kidnapped, like a negro on the coast  of
Guinea, and held in worse than negro slavery.   But  this
is Old England, the residence of liberty and equal laws ;
and the bulwark of our  holy religion! The crimes of na-
tions are punished in this world ; and we may venture  to
predict, that the impressment of seamen, and cruel military
punishments, will operate the downfal of this splendid im-
postor, whose  proper emblem is a bloated figure, seated  on
a throne, made of dead  mens' bones, with a crown on  its
head, a sword  in one hand, and a cup filled with theteai'3
of widows and orphans in  the other.
  We passed by Sheerness, and,  in our passage to the
Nore, came near several hulks filled with convicts.  We
soon came along side the Levden, an old Dutch 64, fitted
up with births, eight feet by'six, so as to contain six per-
sons;  but  they were nearly ail  filled by prisoners who
came before us, so that we were obliged to shirk wherever
we could.
  We found the captain of the Leyden very much such a
man as the  commander  of  the Malabar.  Our  allowance
of food was as short as he could make it, and our liquor
ungenerous. He said we were a damn set of rebel yankees
that lived too  well, which made us saucy.  The first lieu-
tenant was a kind and humane gentleman, but his captain
was the reverse.  He would hear no complaints and threat-
ened to put the bearer of them in irons.
   The countenance, and whole form of this  man was indi-
cative of malice;  his very step was that of an abrupt and
angry tyrant.   His gloomy visage was that of an harden-
ed'jailor;  and he bore  towards^us the same sort of affec-
tion  which we experienced  from  the refugees in Nova
 Scotia.  He caused a marine to be most severely flogged
 for selling one of the prisoners a little tobacco,  which  he
 saved out of his own allowance. The crew were forbidden
 to speak with  any of us ;  but, when they could with safe-
 ty, thev described him  to be the most odious of tyranls,
 and the most malicious  of men.  They said he never ap-
 peared pleased only when his men were suffering the ago- 
143
JOURNAL.
nies of the boatswain's lashes.  In this  he resembled the
demons among the damned.
  Upon calling over our names, and parading ourselves
before capt. Davie, we  could  discover, in a  second, the
harsh temper of the man. We, at length, weighed anchor,
passed a fleet of men of war, and in a few days arrived iu
Plymouth  harbor.  The captain  went  immediately on
shore and left the command to his worthy  and  humane
lieutenant.  The next day a great many boats came off to
us filled  with  Cyprian dames.  They were, generally,
healthy, rosy  looking  lasses.  Their number increased
every hour, until there  were as many on board of  us as
there were men.   In short, every man who paid the wa-
terman half a crown had a wife, so that the ship, belong-
ing to the bulwark of our religion, exhibited such a scene
as is  described by the  navigators, who have  visited the
South-Sea Islands.  We read, with surprise and pity, the
conduct of the female sex, when European ships visit the
islands in the Pacific ocean ; and we are unwilling to give
credit to all we read, because we, Americans, never fail to
annex the idea of modesty to that of a woman; for female
licentiousnes is very rarely witnessed  in the  new world.
This has rendered the accounts of navigators, in  a degree,
incredible : but we see the same thing in the ports of Eng-
land—a land of christians—renowned for its bishops and
their church, and  for moral  writings and sermons, and for
their bible societies, and religious  institutions, and  for
their numerous moral essays, and chaste poetical writ-
ings.  Yes, christian reader! in  this religious island,
whereof George the  3d  is king, and Charlotte the queen,
the youug females crowd the prison ships and take for hus-
bands the ragged American prisoners, provided they can
get a few  shillings  by  it.  What  are we to think of the
state of society  in England, when  two or three sisters
leave the house of their parents, and  pass a week on board
of a newly arrived ship ? What can be the sentiments of
the daughters ? What the feelings of their mothers, their
fathers, and their brothers? In the South Sea Islands,
young females know not what modesty means ; neither that
nor chastity is  a virtue  in those regions.  But  it  is not
quite so in England ; there this lewd conduct is a mark of
debasement, depravity and vice.   The sea-ports of Eng-
land, and the streets of  her capital, and, indeed,  of all her 
JOURNAL.
141
large cities, are  filled  with handsome women, who offer
themselves as wives to men they never saw before, for a
few shillings ; and  yet tiiis is the country of which our
reverend doctors, from the pulpit, assure as, contains more
religion and morality than any other of the same uuinoer
of inhabitants ; nay, more, our governor has proclaimed
it  to the world over, as beiug the very bulwark of the re-
ligion we profess.  If cruelty to prisoners, cruelty to their
own soldiers, of kidnapping  their  mechanics,  by  press
gangs, if shocking barbarity be exercised towards prison-
ers, and if open, shameless lewdness, mark and  disgrace
their sea-ports, their capital, and all  their large cities, are
the modest aud correct people, inhabiting the towns and
villages of the United States,  to be affronted by being told
publicly, tiial they  have less religion,  less  morality than
the people of  England.  How long  shall we continue to
be abused by folly and presumption ?  We, Americans, are
yet a modest, clean, and moral people, as much so as the
Swiss in Europe, and we feel ourselves offended and dis-
gusted when our blind guides tell us to follow the exam-
ple of the English in  their manners  and sexual conduct.
Could  I allow  myself  to particularise the conduct of
the  fair  sex, who  crowd  on  board  every  recently  ar-
rived ship, and  who swarm  on the  shores, my readers
would confess that few scenes of the kind could exceed it.
The freedom  of the American press  will give to posterity
a  just picture of British morals, in the reigns of George
the 3d and 4th.
   While layiug in Plymouth harbor, we received the news
of the capture of the City of Washington, and the burning
of its public  buildings.  Every body around us believed
that America was conquered, and the war over.   After
we  had read the account  in the newspaper,  the Lieuten-
ant came down among us, and talked with us on the event,
and asked us if we did not think that America would now
submit and make peace  on such terms  as Great Britain
should  propose.  We all told him with  once voice,  no !
no !  and that the possession of the whole sea-coast could
not produce that effect.  We  explained to him the situa-
tion of Washington, and described the half built city, and
 soon convinced him that the capture  of Washington,  was
by no means  an event of half the importauce of the cap-
 ture of Albany, or  New York, or  Baltimore.  We all 
144
JOURNAL.
agreed that it would make a great sound in E;«glii;d, and
throughout Europe, but  that it was, iu fac, of little con-
sequence to the United states.
  About a week after we entered Plymouth harbor,  two
hundred of us were drafted to be sent to Dartmoor Prison,
instead of beiug sent, as  we expected, to America.
  We were conveyed  in  boats,  and saw,  as we passed, a
number of men  of war on the stocks; and,  among others,
the Lord Vincent, pierced for 120 guns.  One of our pris-
oners told the lieutenant that he was  in  that battle with
Lord St. Vincent, and of course helped him gain the vic-
tory, and  here  he was  now sailing by a most noble ship,
built in honor of  that famous admiral, on  his way to  a
doleful prison.   This man had  been pressed on board  a
British man  of war, and was given up as such; but in-
stead of  being sent  home as  he  ought, he was detained a
prisoner  of war; and yet this unfortunate man exposed
his life in fighting for the British off Cape St. Vincents,
as much  as  the noble Lord himself.  Such is the differ-
ence of rewards in this chequered world !
  My mind was too much oppressed with the melancholy
prospect of Dartmoor prison, to notice particularly the
gallant show of ships, and the beautiful scenery which the
dock and  bay of Plymouth afforded.  When we landed  a
short distance from  the dock, we were received by a file of
soldiers,  or rather two files,  between which we marched
on.   This was  the first  time we touched the soil of Eng-
land with our feet, after laying under its shores nearly  a
year.  It  excited singular and plaesant sensations to be
once more permitted to  walk on the earth, although sur-
rounded by soldiers, and  going to prison.  The old women
collected about  us with their cakes and ale, and as we all
had a little money we soon emptied their jugs and baskets ;
and their cheering beveridge seon changed our  sad coun-
tenances, and as we marched on we  cheered each other.
Our march drew to the doors and windows the enchanting
sight of fair ladies ; compared with our dirty selves, they
looked like angels peeping out  of Heaven ;  and yet they
were  neither handsomer or neater than our  sweethearts
and sisters in our own dear country.
  After we left the street, we found  the  road extremely
dusty, which  rendered it very unpleasant iu walking close
to each  other.  Before  we got half way to the prised. 
JOURNAL.
145
there was a very heavy shower of rain, so that by the time
we arrived there we looked as if we had been wallowing
in the mud.   Our unfeeling conductors marched us nine
miles before they allowed us to rest, never once consider-
ing how unfit we were, from our long confinement, for tra-
velling.  Where we  were allowed to stop, a butt of beer
was placed in a cart for sale.   Had British prisoners been
marching through New-England, a butt of beer, or good
cider would have been placed for them free of all expense  ;
but old  England  is not New-England  by a  great  deal,
whatever Governor Strong may think of  his adorable
country of kings, bishops and missionary societies.   Here
a fresh  escort of soldiers relieved  those who brought us
from Plymouth.  The commanding officer of this detach-
ment undertook to drive us from the beer-cart before all of
us had a taste of it; he rode in among us, and flourished
his sword, with a view to frighten us ;  but we  efused to
stir till  we were ready,  and some of our company  called
him a damned lobster backed ------, for wishing to drive
us away before every one had his drink.  The man was
perplexed and knew not  what to do.   At last the  booby
did what he ought to have done at first—forced the beer-
seller to drive off his cart; but it is the fate of British of-
ficers of higher rank than this one, to think aud act at last
of that  which they ought to have thought and acted upon
at first.  They are no match  for the yankees, in contriv-
ance or  in execution.  This beer barrel is an epitome  of
all their conduct in their war with America.  What old
woman  put  the idea into this officer's head I know not;
but it is a fact,  as soon as the beer barrel was driven off,
we were all ready  to march off too ! And few companies
of vagabonds in England ever marched off'to prison in bet-
ter spirits;  we cheered  one another, and laughed at our
profound leader, until we came in sight of the  black, bleak,
and  barren  moor, without a solitary  bush  or blade  of
grass.  Some of our prisoners swore that we had march-
ed the  whole length of England, and  got into  Scotland.
We all  agreed that it was not credible that such a hideous,
barren spot could be any  where found in England.
  Our old mr;n-of-wars-men suffered the most.   Many  of
these had not set their feet on the earth for  seven years,
and they had lost in  a measure, the natural  operation  of
their feet and  legs.   These  naval  veterans  loitered be- 
146
JOURNAL.
hind, attended bv a guard.  In ascending a hill we  were
some distance from the main body, and by turning a corner
the rear was  concealed from  the van.   Two young men
took advantage of  this> and jumped over a wall, a'.id lay
snug under it; but being observed,  the guard fired, which
alarmed those in front, when some  soldiers pursued them,
and  seeing the impossibility of escaping, the young men
jumped over the wall again, and mixed in with their com-
panions without their being able to identify their persons.
Our driver was  extremely perplexed and alarmed at out-
daring attempts.
   On crawling up the long and ragged hill, we  became
wearied, and refused  to walk so fast as the guard.  No
prudent officer would have driven men on as we were driv-
en.  We  should have rested  every two or three miles.—
The sun was sinking below the horizon when we gained
the top of the hill  which commanded a view of Dartmoor
prison.  AVe passed through a small collection of bouses
called Princetown, where were two inns.   The  weather
was severe after the shower, and we saw the dark-hued
prisons, whose sombre aud doleful aspect chilled our blood.
Yonder,  cried one  of our companions, is the  residence of
four thousand five hundred men, and.in a few minutes vye
shall add to the number of its wretches.   Others said, in
in that place will  he sacrificed the aspiring feelings of
youth, and the anxious expectations of relatives.  There,
said 1, shall we bury all the designs of early emulation.  I
never felt disheartened before. Lshed tears when I thought
of home, and of my wretched situation, and I cursed the
barbarity of a people among whom we were driven more
like hogs than fellow men and christians.  I had weather-
ed adverse gales with fortitude ; and never flinched amidst
severities.  " A taught bowstring," was alwaysmy motto;
but  here I gave way, for a moment, to despair, and wish-
ed the string to snap asunder and end my misery ; for I
had not even the consolation of a  criminal going to exe-
cution to brace up  the cord of life.   The idea of lingering
out  a wretched existence in  a doleful  prison, dying by
piece-meals,  my flesh wasting by hunger,  my frame ex-
hausted by thirst, and my spirits broken  down by a tyrant,
and by jostling with misfortunes,  I  could not  avoid.   If
death,* instead of knocking at my prison  door, would en-
*cj' it at once, I would thank the goal deliverer.   I am now 
JOURNAL.
14'?
comforted with the conviction, that nothing but an early
religious education could have preserved  me at this, and
some other times of my misery, from destroying myself.
  We soon arrived at the gates of this very  extensive pri-
son, and were admitted into the first yard, for it has seve-
ral.  We there answered to the call of our names ; and at
length passed through the iron gates to prison No. 7. We
requested the turnkey to take in our baggage, as it con-
tained our bedding;  but it was neglected, and rained  on
during  the night; for on this bleak and drizly mountain
there are  not more than ninety fair days in  the year.   It
took us  several days to dry our duds.
  The moment we entered the dark prison,  we found our-
selvesjambed in with a multitude ; one calling us to come
this way, another  that; some halloing, swearing and
cursing, so that 1 did not  know, for a moment, but what I
had died through fatigue and hard usage, and was actual-
ly in the regions of the damned.  Oh, what  a horrid night
1 here passed!
  The  floors of  this reproach to Old England  were of
stone, damp and mouldy, and smelling like a transport.
Here we  had to lay down and sleep after  a most weary
inarch of 15 miles.  What apology can  be made for not
having  things prepared for our comfort ?  Those who have
been enslaved in Algiers found things very different.  The
food and  the lodging were in every respect superior among
the Mahometans, than among these  boasting christians,
and their general treatment infinitely more humaue;  soma
of  our companions had been prisoners among the Barbary
powers, and they describe them as vastly more considerate
than the English.
   After passing a dreadful night, we next day had oppor-
tunitv of examining our  prison.   It had  iron staucbeons,
like those in stables for horses, on which hammocks were
hung.   The windows had iron gratings, and the bars of the
doors seemed calculated to resist the force of men and of
time.   These things had a singular effect on such of us, as
had,  from  our  childhood, associated the idea  of liberty
 with the  name of Old England;  but a man  must travel be-
yond the smoke of his  own chimney to acquire correct
 ideas of the characters of men and of nations—We howev-
 er saw the worst of it at first, for every day our residence
 appeared less disagreeable. 
148
JOURNAL.
  We arrived here the 11th of October, and our lot was
better than that of thirty of our companions, who came on
a little after us from Plymouth.  These 30 men were sent
from the West-Indies, and had no descriptive lists, and it
was necessary that these men should be measured and de-
scribed  as  to  stature, complexion, £:c.—Capt.  Shortiand
therefore ordered them to be shut up in the prison No.  6.
This was a mure cold,  dreary and comfortless plaee than
No. 7.  Their bed was nothing but the cold damp stones,
and  being in total  darkness they  dare not walk about.
These 30 men had beer, imprisoned at Barbadoes, and they
had supposed that when they arrived at this famous birth
place of liberty, they should not be excluded from all her
blessings.  They had  suffered much a. Barbadoes, and
they expected a different treatment in England ; but alas!
Capt. ShoriLud at onee  dissipated  the illusion and shew-
ed himself what Britons really are. The next morning they
were taken up to Capt.  Shortland's office to he described,
and marked and numbered.  One of the thirty, an old and
respectable Captain of an American ship,  complained  of
his usage, and told Shortiand that he had been several
times a prisoner of war, but never experienced such bar-
barous treatment before.  The man only replied that their
not having their beds was the fault of the Turnkey ;  as if
that could ever be admitted as an excuse among military
men.   [££?* For a minute description of Dartmoor Prison,
see. the engraving.^
  Dartmoor is a dreary spot of itself;  it is rendered more
so by the westerly winds blowing from the  atlantic ocean,
which have the same quality  and effects  as the  easterly
wind, blowing from the same ocean, are known to have in
New-England.  This highland receives the sea mist and
fogs, and they settle on our skins with a deadly dampness.
Here reigns more than two thirds of the year,  the Scotch
mist,  which- is famous to a proverb.   This moor affords
nothing f«r subsistence or pleasure.  Rabbits cannot live
on it.  Birds fly from it, and it is inhabited, according to
the beiief of the most vulgar, by ghosts and demons ;  to
which will  now  doubtless be added, the troubled ghosts
of the murdered American prisoners ;  and  hereifter will
be distinctly seen the tormented spirit of the bloody Capt.
Shortiand, clanking his chains, weeping, wailing and
gnashing his teeth I  It is a fact that the market people 
JOURNAL.                   149
have not sufficient courage to pass this moor in the nio-h't.
They are always  sure to  leave Prineetown by day li^ht,
not having  the  resolution of passing this dreary, barren
and heaven-abandoned spot in the dark. Before the bloody
massacre of our countrymen, this unhallowed  spot  was
believed, by common superstition, to belon<*  to the Devil.
   Certain it is, that the common people in this neighbor-
hood were impressed with the notion that Dartmoor was a
place less desirable to mortals,  and  more under the influ-
ence of evil spirits, than any other spot in England.  I
shall only say  that I found it, take it all in all, a less disa-
greeable prison than the ships ;  the life  of   a  pru-
dent, industrious,  well behaved man  might  here  be
rendered pretty  easy,  for  a  prison life, as was the
the case with  some  of  our  own countrymen,  and some
Frenchmen ; but the young, the idle, the  giddy, fun mak-
ing  youth  generally  reaped such  fruit  as  he  sowed.
Gambling was the wide inlet to vice and disorder, and in
this  Frenchmen took the  lead.   These men would play
aw ay every thing they possessed beyond the clothes  to keep
them decent.  They have been known to game  away  a
mouth's provision, and when they had lost it, would shirk
and  steal for  a month  after for  their  subsistence.  A
man with some money in his pocket might live pretty well
through the day in Dartmoor  Prison, there being shops and
stalls where every  little article could beobtained; butadded
to this we had a good and constant  market, and the bread
and  meat supplied by government were not bad ; and as
good 1 presume as that given to British prisoners by our
own government;  had our lodging and prison-house been
equal to our food,  1 never should  have complained.  The
establishment  was  blessed with a good man  for a physi-
cian, named M'Garth, an  Irishman, a tall lean gentleman
w ith one eye, but of a warm and good heart. We never shall
•ease to admire his disposition,  nor forget his humanity.
   The  Frenchmen and our  prisoners did not agree very
well.  They quarrelled  and  sometimes fought, and they
carried their differences to that length, that it was deemed
proper to erect a wall to separate them, like so many game
cocks in different yards.   When this Depot was garrison-
ed bv Highlanders, thess* Scotchmen took part with the A-
mericans 'gainst the  French.  Here  the old presbyterian
principle of affinity operated  against the papal man of sin.
              13 
150
IfflURNAL.
If cannot he denied there is a deep  rooted hatred between
the Briton and the Frenchman.
  While at  Dartmoor Prison, there came certain  French
oflicers wearing the white cockade : their object seemed to
be to converse with the prisoners and to persuade  them to
declare for Louis 18th; but they could  not  prevail; the
Frenchmen shouted vive I'Empereur! Their attachment to
Bonaparte was remarkably strong.   He must have been a
man of wonderful powers to attach all ranks so  strongly to
him.  Before the officers left the place, these  Frenchmen
hoisted  up a little dog with the white cockade tied under
his tail.  Soon after this the French officers, who  appear-
ed to be men of some consideration  left the prison.
  1 have myself  had nothing particular to  complain  of,
but the prisoners  here speak of Captain Shortiand as  the
most detestable of men, and they bestow on him the vilest
and most abusive epithets.  The prisoners began  to dig a
hole under prison No. 6, and had made considerable pro-
gress towards the outer wall, when a man, who came from
Newbury-Port betrayed them to Capt.  Shortiand.  This
man had, it was  said, changed his name in  America, on
account uf  forgery«—Be that as it may, he was sick at
Chatham where we paid him every  attention, and subscrib-
ed money for procuring him the means of comfort.  Short-
land gave him two guineas, and  sent him to Ireland, or  the
prisoners would have hanged him for a  traitor to his coun-
trymen.   The hypocritical scoundrel's excuse was con-
science  and humanity, for he told  Shortiand that we  in-
tended to murder  him, and every one else in the neighbor-
hood.  Shortiand said he know better;  that  he was  fear-
ful of our escaping, but  never  had any apprehensions of
personal injury from an American :  that they delighted in
plaguing him and contriving the means  of escape, but he
never saw a cruel or murderous disposition in any of them.
  The instant Capt. Shortiand discovered  the  attempt to
escape by digging  a subterraneous passage, he drove all
the prisoners into the yard of No.  1, making them take
their baggage with them;  and in a few days after, when
he thought they might have begun another hole,  but had
not time to complete it,he moved them into anotheryard and
prison, and  so he kept moving  ' em from one prison to
the other  aud  took great credit  to himself for his contriv-
ance, and in this way he harrassed our poor fellows until the
i 
JOURNAL
151
day before our arrival at the prison.   He had said that he
was re: olved not to suffer them to remain in the same build-
ing aid yard more than ten days at a time, aud this was a
hardship they resolved not voluntarily to endure; for the re-
moval of hammocks and furniture and every little article,
was an intolerable grievance ; and the more the prisoners
appeared pestered, the greater was the enjoyment of Short-
land.   It  was observed that whenever, iu these removals,
there were much jamming and squeezing and contentions
for places, it gave this man pleasure; but that  the  ease
and comfort of  the prisoners gave him pain.  The united
opinion of the prisoners was, that he was a very bad heart-
ed man.   He would often stand on the military  walk, or
in the market square, whenever there was any difference,
or tumult, and enjoy the scene with malicious  satisfaction.
He appeared to delight  in exposing prisoners  in rainy
weather, without sufficient reason.  This has seut many of
our poor fellows  to the  grave, and would have sent more
had it  not been for the benevolence  and skill  of Dr.  Me
Garth.   We thought Miller  and Osmore skilled  in  tor-
menting,  but Skoillaud exceeded them both by a devilish
deal.   The prisoners related to  me several  instances of
cool and deliberate acts of torment, disgraceful to a gov-
erumeut of christians ; for the character and general con-
duct of this commander could not  be concealed from them.
He wore the British colours on his house, aud acted under
this emblem of sovereignty.
   It was customary to count over the prisoners twice a
week ; aud after the sweepers had brushed out the prisons,
the guard would send to the commander that they were all
ready for his inspection; on  these occasions, Shortiand
very seldom omitted staying away as long as he conven-
iently could, merely to vex the  prisoners, and they at length
expressed their sense of it; for he would keep them stand-
ing until they were weary.   At last they determined not
to submit to it;  and after waiting a sufficient time, they
made a simultaneous rush forward, and so forced their pas-
sage back into their prison-house.   To  punish  this  act,
Shortiand stopped the country people from  coming  into
market for two days.   At this juncture we arrived ;  and
as the increase of numbers increased our obstinacy, the
Captain  began to relax, and after that, he came to inspect
the prisoners, as  soon as they were paraded for that pur- 
152
JOURNAL.
pose.   Tt was easy to perceive that the prisoners had, in a
great measure conquered the hard hearted, and vindictive
Capt. Shortiand. •
  The roof of the prison to which we were consigned, was
very leaky,  and it rained on this dreary mountain almost
continually, place our beds wherever we could, they were
generally wet.   We represented this to Capt. Shortiand,
and to our complaint was added that of the worthy and hu-
mane Dr. M'Garth, but it produced no effect, so that to the
ordinary miseries of a prison, we, for a long time endured
the additional one of wet lodgings, which sent many of our
countrymen to their graves.
   We owe much to the humanity of Dr. M'Garth, a very
worthy man, and a native of Ireland. Was M'Garth com-
mander of this Depot,  there would  be  no difficulty with
the prisoners.   They would obey him  through affection
 and respect; because he considers us rational beings, with
minds cultivated like his  own, and susceptible  of grati-
tude, and habituated to do, and receive acts of kindness;
 whereas the great Capt. Shortiand considers us all as a
base set of men, degraded below the rank of Englishmen,
 towards whom nothing but rigor should be extended.  He
 acted on this false idea, and has  reaped the bitter fruit of
 his own ill  judged conduct.  He might, by  kind and re-
 spectful usage, have led the Americans to any thing just
 and honorable, but it was not in his power, nor all the Cap-
 tains in bis nation to force them to acknowledge and qui-
 etly submit to his tyranny.
    Dr. M'Garth was a very worthy man, and every prison-
 er loved him ;  but M'Farlane, his assistant, a Scotchman,
 was the reverse ; in dressing, or bleeding, or in any opera-
 tion, he would handle a prisoner with a brutal roughness,
 that conveyed the idea that he  was giving way to the feel-
 ings of revenge, or national hatred.  Cannot a Scotchman
 testify his unnatural loyalty to the present reigning family
 of England without treating an American  with  cruelty
 and contempt?
    Dr. Dobson, the superintendant-physician of the Hospit-
 al ship at Chatham,  was a very worthy and very skillful
 gentleman.    We Americans ought never  to  forget  his
 goodness towards us.  Some of us esteem him full as high
 as Dr. M'Garth, and  some more highly.   They are both
 however, worthy  men, and deserve well of this country.. 
JOURNAL.
103
There is nothing men vary more in than in their opinion of
and attachment to physicians.   Dobson and M'Garth  de-
serve medals of gold, aud hearts of gratitude, for  their
kind attention to us all.
                   CHAPTER  IV.

  The establishment at Chatham is  broken up, and the
fast of the prisoners were  marched from Plymouth to this
place, the 30lh of November.   They were  marched from
that place to this, in one day, half leg deep in mud. Some
lost their shoes ; others, to preserve them,  took them oiT,
an;l carried them in  their  hands.   When they arrived
here, they were indeed objects of pity ; nevertheless they
were immediately shut up  in a cold, damp prison, without
any bedding,  or any  of the ordinary conveniences, until
they could be examined  and described in the commander's
books :  afier  which they were  permitted to mix with the
rest of their countrymen.  We  found many of them, the
day after their arrival, unable to walk, by reason of their
too long protracted march, in a  very bad road.   A pru-
deut drover would uot  have risked  his  cattle by driving
them through such a road in a few hours.  Such a thing
never was done in America, with British prisoners.
  I find all the prisoners here deeply exasperated against
Captain Shortiand, and  too much  prejudiced to hear any
thing in his  favor.  I presume they have reason for it.
As 1 have but just arrived, I have had  but little opportu-
nity of seeing and judging  his eonduet.   Instead of his be-
ing a  bad hearted man,  I  am disposed to beiieve that the
fault  is in his  understanding  and education.  I suspect
that he is a man of narrow views ;  that he has not suffi-
cient information or capacity, to form a right judgment of
the peculiar  cast and  character of the  people under his
charge.  He has never,  perhaps,  considered, that these
descendants of Englishmen, the free inhabitants of the new
world, have been born and  brought up in, if we may speak
so, Indian freedom ; on which  freedom has  been yuperin-
d-xced an education purely democratic,  in  schools where
             13* 
154
JOURNAL.
degrading punishments are unknown, where if a school-
master exercised the severity  common in English  and
German schools, they would tie the master's hands with
his own bell-rope,   lie has never considered that our po-
tent militia choose their own officers, and that the people
choose all their  officers and leaders from  among them-
selves ; and there  are very  few men  indeed,  none,  per-
haps, in New England,  who would refuse to shake hands
with a decent yeoman.  It is probable that Capt. Short-
land has  never reflected that there are  fewer grades of
men between the lowest white man under his charge, and
the highest in America, than there are between him and
the highest  ranks in England.   He has never considered
the similarity  between the ancient Roman republican, and
the republican of the United Sta-tes of America ; nor why
both republics deemed  it abhorrent to inflict stripes on
their citizens.   Shortiand  had not sufficient sagacity to
discover that playfulness, fun and frolic, formed a strong
trait in the  character of  the American sailor and militia
man, for  they had hardly become, what is called in Eu-
rope, soldiers  ;  drilling and discipline  had not obliterated
the free and easy carriage of a bold and fearless Yankee.
   Sir  Guy  Carlton,  afterwards Lord Dorehester, was
Governor of Canada,  during the revolutionary war, and
proved himself  a  wise  man.   He penetrated  the Ameri-
can character, and treated the  American  prisoners cap-
tured in Canada, accordingly ;  and by  doing so, he came
near breaking up our army  ; for our prisoners were soft-
ened  and  subdued  by  his kindness   aud  humanity; he
sent, them  home  well  clothed, and well fed, and. most
of them declared they never would fight against Sir tiuy
Carlton,  lie  knew the American character  thoroughly,
and was convinced  that  harshness  and severity would
have no other effect  than  fo  excite revenge and hatred.
On the other hand our prisoners could  have no very great
respect for a captain, an officer,  which they  themselves
created by their vo'cs, at  pleasure ; add to this, that sev-
eral of the prisoners had the titie of captain in their own-
country.  Had (lie commander  of Dartmoor Prison  been
an old woman, the Americans would have  respected her
sex and years, and obeyed  her commands; but they des-
pised  and hated Shortiand, for his deficiency  of "head,
heart, and education j frem all which origin u.?e'.' those sad. 
JOURNAL,
153
events which have disgraced one  nation, and exasperated
the other forever.   Shortiand  may be excused, when it is
considered that England lost her  colonies by not studying
the American character; and  the same inattention to tue
natural operations of the human heart, is now raising her
gradually up to be the first naval  power  on the terraque-
ous globe ; and thus much for  contempt.
  There was an order that all  lights should be put out
by  eight o'clock at night,  in  every prison, and it was
doubtless proper ; but this order was carried into  execu-
tion with  a  rigor bordering on "barbarity. On the least
glimpse of light  discoverable in the prison, the guard
would fire in amongst  us, aud several  were shot.   Sev-
eral Frenchmen  were wounded.  This  story was told—
that a French captain  of a privateer, the night after he
first came, was  undressing him, by his hammock, when
the  sentry cried, " Out  lights!"   The Frenchman  not
understanding English, kept it burning ; the sentry fired,
aud scattered kL brains  over  the place ; but  this did not
occur while 1 was there ; but  this   i aver, that several
were shot, and I wondered that many were not killed, aud
1 was shocked at the barbarity of the order.
   About this time, the Derbyshire  militia were relieved
by  a regiment of regulars, who had been in Spain.   They
were chiefly  Irish,  and treated us   belter  than we were
treated by the militia.    They  had infinitely  more gener-
osity and  mauliuess, as well as more intelligence.   Tliey
acted plays in the cock  loft of No. 5.   They have good
music, and tolerable scenery, and charge six pence for ad-
mission, to defray the expense.  This  is a very pleasant
way of making the British soldier forget his slavery, and
the- American prisoner bis bondage.   These generous
hearted Irishmen would sometimes give us a song in hon-
or  of our naval victories.  O,  how   we  did long to beat
liberty, when we heard songs  iu honor of tiie Constitution
and of the United States.
   Some men are about to  be sent off to Dartmouth, to re-
turn to (he Ciii'od States;  t:is has occasioned us  to write
letters to our friends, and connexions; but «Japt. Shortiand
is very jealous on this  hear! ; he will not alliiw  us to write
lo any of the neighboring «ou»iir;,  |>t ;;>le   ihe  English
dare not trust their own people, much more the American
captives. 
156
JOURNAL.
  This is the latter part of the month of November ; and
the weather has been  generally rainy, dark, dismal and
foggy.  Sometimes we could hardly see  the sentinels on
the walls.  Sorrow and  sadness  within ; gloom, fog, or
drizzly rain without.  If the commissioners at Gheut do
not soon  make peace, nor establish an exchange, we shall
be lost to our country, and to hope.  The  newspapers now
and then enliven us with  the prospect of  peace.   We are
told that growing dissentions at Vienna will induce Great
Britain to get rid of her  transatlantic enemy, in order to
combat  those nearer  home.   Whenever we  see iu the
newspapers an  article captioned  " News from Ghent"
we devour it with our eyes, but instead of substance, gen-
erally find it empty wind.  We are wearied out.  I speak
for myself, and I hear the same expression from others.
Winter  is  commencing,  to add to our  miseries.  Poor
clothing, miserable  lodging, poor, and inadequate  food,
long dismal nights, darkness,  foul air,  bad  smells, the
groans of  the sick and  distressed,  the  execrations and
curses of the  half  distracted prisoner, the  unfeeling con-
duct of our keepers  and commander—all, all, all conspire
to fill up the cup of our  sorrow ;  but we hope that one
drop  will not be added after it is brim full, for then it will
run over, and death will  follow.
   December.  Nothing new worth recording ; everyday
and every night brings the  same  sad picture,  the  same
heart sinking impressions.  Until now, 1 could not believe
that misfortune and confinement,  with a deprivation of
the accustomed food, ease and  liberty of our own  dear
country,  could have wrought such a change in the human
person.   The young have not only acquired wrinkles, but
appear dried up, and contracted in  bddy and mind.   I can
easily conceive that a  few generations of  the human  spe-
cies,  passed  in such  misery and confinement,  would pro-
duce a race of beings, veiy inferior to what we now are.
The sailor, however, suffers less in appearance than we
landsmen ;  for my short cruise in a privateer does not en-
title me to the name of a sailor.   How often  have I re-
flected on my rash adventure  !  To  leave the  house of
pleuty, surrounded with  every  thing comfortable, merely
to change the scene, and  see the watery   world.  To quit
my paternal roof, half educated, to dress  wounds, and cut.
off limbs  of those who might be mutilated, was  about as 
JOURNAL.
157
mad a scheme as ever  giddy youth engaged in.  But re-
pining will do no good.  1 must not despair, but make the
best of my hard lot.  If I have lost a  portion of ordinary
education, I have passed the severer school of misfortune ;
and  should I  live to return to America, 1  must strive to
turn these hardships to  the best advantage.  He who has
not met adversity, has not seen the most profitable part of
human life.
  There were times, during  my captivity, especially in
the long and  cheerless nights, when home, and all its en-
dearments, rushed on  my  mind,  and when I reflected
on  my  then  situation,  I  burst  into tears  and  wept
aloud.  It  was then 1 was fearful that S should lose my
reason, and never recover it.  Many a  tiaie have 1 thought
myself into a fever, my tongue covered  with a furr, and
my brain seemed burning up withiii  my  skull.  It was
company that preserved me.   Had I h.ufi alone, I should
have been raving distracted.   I had committed no crime ;
I was in the service of my country, i:i a just and necessary
war, declared by the people of the United States through
their representatives in  Congress,  and proclaimed to the
world by our supreme executive officer,  James Madison.
On this subject I cannot help remarking the ignorance  of
the people  of England.   In their newspapers, and in their
conversation, you  will constantly find this idea held up,
that the war was  the work of Mr.  Madison  and Bona-
parte. This shows their  ignorance of the affairs of our coun-
try. They are too  ignorant to talk with on the constitution
of  our government, and on the character and conduct  of
our administration.  It is no  wonder  that they are aston-
ished at our  victories, by sea and by land, when they arc
so totally ignorant of our country, of its endless resources,
of its invincible republican  spirit, of its  strong  govern-
ment, founded  on the affections of the people, aud of the
vigor and all commanding intellect that pervades and di-
rects the whole.
   On the 28th  of  this month, December, 1815, the news
arrived here that a treaty of  peace was signed the 21th
instant at Ghent. After a "momentary stupor, acclamations
of joy burst forth from every mouth.  It flew like wild fire
through the  prison;  and p'eace !  peace!  peace! echoed
throughout these dreary regions.   To know that we w-^re
soon to return home, produced a sensation  of joy beyond 
158                   JOURNAL.
the powers of expression. Some screamed, hollowed, dan-
ced, sung, and capered, like so mail)  Frenchmen.  Others
stood in amaze, with their  hands in  their pockets, as if
doubtful of its truth.  In by far the greater  part, howev-
er, it gave a glow of health  and  animatioa to  the  wan
cheek of the half sick, and, hitherto, cheerless prisoner.
Some unforgiving spirits hail the joyful event as bringing
them nearer the period of revenge, which they longed  to
exercise on some of their tyrannical keepers.   Many who
had meditated escape, and had  hoarded  up every penny
for that event, now brought it forth to spend in celebration
of their regular deliverance.   Even hard hearted Short-
land  appeared to bend from the haughty  severity of his
jailor-like manner, and can now speak to an American  as
if be  were of the same species with himself.   He has even
allowed us to hoist our national colors  on those  prisons,
and appears not to be offended at the sound of mirth aud
hilarity, which  now  echoes  throughout  these extensive
mansions.  I say extensive, for I  suppose  the whole  of
these prisons, yards, hospitals, stores and  houses, are
spread over twenty acres of ground.   [See the plate.]
   We calculate that the ratification  of  the treaty by  the
presideut of the United States, will arrive in England  by
the 1st of April, at  which period there  will not be  an
American left in this  place. The very thoughts of it keep
us from sleeping.  Amidst this  joy for peace, and for the
near prospect of our seeing, once more, our dear America,
there is not a man among us but feels disposed to try again
the tug of war with the Britons, should she  impress and
flog our seamen, or instigate the savages of the wilderness
to scalp and tomahawk the inhabitants of our frontiers.
This war, and this harsh imprisonment, will  add  vigor to
our arms, should the people of America again declare, by
their representatives in  congress,  that individual oppres-
sion,  or the nation's wrongs, render it expedient to sail or
march against a foe,  whose tender mercies  are  cruelty.
We can tell our countrymen,  when we return home, what
the Britons are, as their prisoners can  tell  the  English
what the Americans are.   " By their fruits shall ye know
them."
  During this month a number of prisoners have been sent
to this prison from Plymouth.  They  came here from Hal-
ifax; they were principally seamen  taken out of prizes, 
JOURNAL.
159
 which the English retook.  They all  make similar com-
 plaints of harsh usage, bad and very scanty food, and no
 attention to their health or comfort.  There  are now, at
 this depot, about Twenty-Three Hundred and Fifty Amer-
 icans, who were impressed, previously to the war, into the
 British service, by English ships and English press-gangs.
 They are the stoutest and most hardy  looking men in the
 prison.  This is easily accounted for.   When the British
 go on board an American merchant ship to look for Eng-
 lish sailors, they adopt one easy.rule. viz—they select the
 stoutest, most hardy and healthy looking men, and swear
 that  they are Englishmen.  After they have selected one
 of these fine fellow s, it is in vain that he produces his pro-
 tection, or any other evidence of his American birth an<f
 citizen ship.
   We learn from these seamen, that as soon  as conveyed
 on board the British men of war, they are examined as to
 the length of time they have been at sea, and according to
 the knowledge and experience they appear to have, they
 are stationed; and if they grumble at the duty assigned
 them, they are called  mutinous rascals, and  threatened
 with  the cat; the warrant  officers are charged to  watch
 them closely,  lest they should attempt to pervert the crew
 and to prevent them from sending letters from the ship to
 their friends.   Should any  letters  be  detected on them,
 the sailors are charged, on pain of the severest punish-
 ment, to deliver them to some of the commissioned officers.
   If they complained of their hard fate to their messmates,
 they were  liable to punishment, and if they attempted  to
 regain their liberty, and  were  detected, they were strip-
 ped, tied up and most cruelly and disgracefully whipped
 like a negro slave.   Can any thing  be conceived more hu-
 miliating to the feelings  of men, horn and brought up  as
 we all are? Can we ever be cordial  friends with such a
 people, even in time of peace ? Will ever a man of our
 country, or his children after him, forgive this worse than
 Algerine treatment?
   Several of the most intelligent of these impressed  men
 related to me the particulars of the treatment, they,  at
 various times, received, and I had committed them to pa-
 per, but they are too mean, low  and disgusting to be re-
 corded.  The pitiful evasions, unworthy arts, and even
falsehoods of some captains of his Britannic majesty's line 
160
JOURNAL.
of battle ships, when a seaman produced his protection, «r
offered to prove his nativity,  or identify his person, as
marked in his descriptive roll, were  such,  as to make me
bless my stars that I did  not belong  to  their service.
There were, however, some instances of noble and gener-
ous conduct, which came up to the idea we  once entertain-
ed of English honor, before the solid bullion of the  Eng-
lish naval character was beat into such thin,  such  very
thin gold leaf, as to gild so many .thousands of their epau-
letted seamen.  The officers of the Poictiers were spoken
of with respect; and, by .what 1 could learn, the smaller
the vessel, the worse treatment was experienced by our
prisoners, and impressed seamen ; your little big men  being
always the greatest tyrants.   Among these small fry of
the mistress of the ocean,  " you  damned yankee rascal,'"
was a common epithet.   Many of the impressed seamen
now here, have told me, that they have been lashed to the
gang-way, and most severely whipped, even to the extpnt
of tliree dozen, for refusing to do, what the captain  of a
British man of war called, " their duty !" Some of these
men have replied, " it is my duty to serve  my  own  coun-
try, and fight against its enemies ;" and  for saying so,
have been farther abused.  Have ever the  French, Span-
iards,  Portuguese, Italians,  Germans,  Dutch, Danes,
Swedes, Russians, Prussians, Turks, or Algerines treated
American citizens in this  way ?  And yet  our  federalists
can never bear to hear us  speak, in terms of resentment,
against " the bulwark of our religion."  O,  Caleb ! Caleb !
thou hast  a head and so has a beetle.*
   We had all more or less money from the American gov-
ernment, and some of the  impressed men brought money
with them.   This attracted the  avaricious spirit of our
neighbors ; so that our market was filled,  not  only  with
vegetables, but animal food.   There was also seen in our
market, piles of broad cloth, boxes  of  hats, boots, shoes,
and many other articles.  The greatest pick pockets  of all
were the Jews, with their watches, seals and trinkets, and

  * When we have read in the American  newspapers, which sometimes
reached Dartmoor prison, the speeches and proclamations of the governor
of Massachusetis, some of us have blushed  at the degradation of ournative
stau-; tha; state which  once took the lead in the opposition to Biitdin;
and that  Boston, once considered  the cradle of liberty, has become among
us, a name of reproach. Such are the effects of an unprincipled faction. 
JOURNAL.
161
 bad books.   A moral commander would have swept the
 prison clean of such vermin.   The women who attend our
 market are as sharp as the Jews, and worse to deal with,
 for a sailor cannot beat them down as he can Xme of these
 swindling Israelites.  Milk is cheap, only 4d. per gallon,
 but they know how to water it.
   The language  and phraseology of these market people
 are very rude. When puffing off the qualities of their goods,
 when they tajk xxrv fast, we can hardly understand them.
 They  do not speak near so good  English as our common
 market people do in America. The best of them use the pro-
 noun he in a singular manner—as can he pay me ? Can he
 change ? For can you pay me ?  Or you change ?  I am
 fully of opinion with those who say that the American peo-
 ple, taken collectively as a nation, speak the English lan-
 guage with more  purity thau the Britons, taken collective-
 ly.  Every man or boy of every part of the United States
 would be promptly understood by the men of letters in
 London ;  but every man and boy of Old England would not
 be promptly understood by the lettered men in the capital
 towns  of America.  Is it not the bible that has preserved
 the purity of our  language in America ?
   I am sorry to remark that the Christmas holy-days have
 been recently marked with no small degree of intoxication,
 and its natural consequence, quarrelling among the pri-
 soners.  The  news of peace, and the  expectation of being
 soon freed from all restraint, have operated to unsettle the
 minds  of the most unruly, and to encourage riot.   Drink-
 ing, carousing and noise, with little foolish tricks, are now
 too common.  Some one took off a shutter, or blind, from
 a window of No. 6, and  as the persons were  not delivered
 up by the standing committee,  Captain Shortiand punish-
 ed the  whole, college fashion, by stopping the market, or
 as this great man was pleased wittily to call it, an embar-
go.  At  length the men were given up to Shortiand, who
 put them in the black hole for ten days.
   To be a cook is the  most disagreeable and  dangerous
 office at this depot.  They are  always suspected, watched
 and hated, from  an apprehension that they defraud the
prisoner of his just allowance.  One was flogged the oth-
er day for skimming the fat off the soupJ  The grand Vi-
zier's office at Constantinople, is not more dangerous than
a cook's at this prison,  where  are collected four or five
             14 
162
JOURNAL.
thousand hungry American sons of liberty.  The prison-
ers take it upon themselves to punish these pot-skimmers
in their own way.
   We have in this collection of prisoners, a gang of hard-
fisted fellows, who call themselves " the rough allies."
They have assumed to themselves the office of accuser,
judge and executioner.  In my opinion, they are as great
villains as could be collected in  the United States.  They
appear  to have little principle, and  as  little humanity,
and many  of them are given up  to every  vice ; and yet
these ragamuffins have been allowed to hold the scale and
rod of justice.  These rough allies make  summary  work
with  the accused,  and seldom fail to drag him to punish-
ment.  I am  wearied out with such lawless conduct.
   January 30th.   The principal conversation  among the
most considerate is, when  will the treaty be returned, rat-
ified ; for knowing the high character of our commission-
ers, none doubt but that the President and Senate will rat-
ify, what they have approved.  We are all in an uneasy
and unsettled state of mind ; more so than before the news
of peace.   Before  that news arrived, we had settled down
in a  degree of despair; but  now we  are  preparing and
planning  our peaceable departure from  this loathsome
place.
   I would ask the  reader's attention to the conduct of capt.
Shortiand, the commanding officer of this depot of prison-
ers, as well as to the conduct of the men under his charge,
as  the conduct and events of this period  have led on to a
tragedy that has filled our native land with mourning and
indignation.   1 shall aim at  truth and impartiality, and
the reader may make such allowance as our situation may
naturally afford, and his cool judgment suggest.
   In  the month of January, 18t5, captain Shortiand com-
menced a practice of counting  over the  prisoners out  of
their respective prisons, in the cold, raw air of the yard,
where we  were exposed above  an  hour, unnecessarily  to
the severity of the weather.   After submitting to  this ca-
price of our keeper, for several mornings, in hopes  he
would be satisfied as to the accurate number of  the  men
in prison, we all refused to go out again in wet  and raw
weather.   Shortiand  pursued his  usual method  of stop-
ping  the market;  but finding that it had no effect, he de-
termined on  usuig force;  and sent his soldiers into  the 
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Ifi3
yard, and ordered them  to drive the prisoners into prison
in the, middle of the afternoon, whereas they heretofore re-
mained out  until the sun had set, and then they all went
quietly into  their dormitories.  The regiment of regulars
had  been withdrawn, and a regiment of Somersetshire mi-
litia had taken  their place,  a set of stupid fellows, and
generally speaking, ignorant officers.  The  regiment of
regulars were clever fellows, and  Shortiand was awed by
their character; but he felt uo awe, or  respect, for these
irregulars.
  The prisoners told the soldiers that this was an unusual
time of day  for them to leave the yard, and that they would
not tamely submit to  such  caprice.  The soldiers could
only answer  by  repeating  their  orders.  More soldiers
were sent for, but  they  took special care to assume a po-
sition to secure their protection.  The soldiers began now
to use force with their bayonets.   All this time  Shortiand
stood on the military walk with the major of the regiment,
observing the progress of his orders.  Our men  stood their
ground.  On  observing this opposition, Shortiand  became
enraged, and  ordered the major to give the word  for the
soldiers to fire. The soldiers were drawn up  iu a half cir-
cle, to keep them from scattering.
   We were now hemmed in between No. 7, and the wall,
 that divided this from the yard of No. 4.  The  major then
gave orders to the officer in the yard, to charge  bayonet.
 This did not occasion our prisoners to retreat; they rath-
 er advanced ; and some of them told the  soldiers, that if
 they  pricked  a single man,  they would disarm them.
 Shortiand was watching all these movements from behind
 the gate; and finding that he had  not men enough  to drive
 them in, drew his soldiers out of the yard. After this, the
 prisoners went into the prison of their own accord, when
 the turnkey sounded a horn.
   These militia-men have been somewhat intimidated by
 the threatenings of the " rough allies," before  mentioned.
 These national guards thought they could drive us about
 like so many Frenchmen;  but they have found their mis-
 take.  A man escaped from the black-hole, who had been
 condemned to remain in it  during the war, for attempting
 to  blow up a ship. The prisoners were determined to pro
 tect him ; and  when Shortiand found that the prisoners
 would not betray  him  into  his hands, he resorted to his 
164
JOURNAL.
 nsual embargo of the market, and sent his soldiers in after
 the prisoner;  but he might  as  well have sought  a needle
 in a hay-mow; for such was the difficulty of finding an in-
 dividual among six thousand.   They  ransacked  every
 birth, and lurking place, and passed frequently by the man
 without being able to identify him.  The prisoners mixed
 in so entirely with  the soldiers, that  the  latter could not
 act, and were actually fearful of being disarmed.  When
 these Somersetshire militia found that we were far from
 being afraid of them, they ceased to be insolent, andtieat-
 ed us with something like respect.  There was a consider-
 able degree of friendship between us and the late regiment
 of  regulars,  who  were gentlemen, compared with these
 militia.
  There are about four hundred and fifty negroes in pris-
 on No. 4, and  this assemblage  of blacks affords many cu-
 rious anecdotes, and much matter for  speculation.  These
 blacks have a ruler among them whom they call king dick.
 He is by far the largest, and I suspect  the strongest man in
 the prison.  He is six feet five inches in height, and pro-
 portionably large.   This black Hercules commands re-
 spect,  and his subjects tremble in his  presence.  He goes
 the rounds every day, and visits every birth to see if they
 are all kept clean.   When he goes the rounds, he puts on
 a  large  bear-skin cap, and  carries  in his  hand a  huge
 club.   If any  of his men  are  dirty, drunken, or grossly
 negligent, he threatens  them with a beating, and if they
 are saucy, they are sure to receive one.  They have sev-
 eral times conspired against him,  and attempted to de-
 throne him ; but he has always  conquered the rebels.  One
night several attacked him  while asleep in his hammock ;
he sprang up and seized the smallest  of them by his feet,
 and thumped another with him.  The  poor negro who had
thus been made a beetle of, was carried next day to the hos-
pital, sadly bruised, and provokingly laughed at. This rul-
er of the blacks, this king Richard the IVth, is a man of
good understanding,  and he exercises it to a good purpose.
If any one of his color cheats, defrauds, or steals from his
comrades, he is sure to be punished for it.  Negroes are
generally reputed to be thieves.   Their faculties are com-
monly found to be inadequate to the comprehension of  the
moral  system  ;  and  as to  the christian system, their no-
tions of it, generally  speaking, are  a,  burlesque to, every 
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 thing serious.   The punishment  which these blacks are
 disposed to inflict on one another for stealing, partakes of
 barbarity, and ought never to be allowed, where the white?
 have the control of them.
   Beside his majesty King Dick, these black prisoners
 have among them  a priest, who  preaches every Sunday.
 He can  read, aud he gives good advice to  his  brethren ;
 and his prayers are very much in the strain of what  we
 have been used to hear at home.  In the course  of his ed-
 ucation,  he has learnt, it  is said,  to know  the  nature of
 crimes and punishments; for,  it is said, that  while ou
 board the Crown Prince prison-ship, at Chatham, he re-
 ceived a dozen lashes for stealing some clothing; but we
 must make allowance for stories ;  for  preachers have al-
 ways complained of the calumnies of their enemies. If his
 whole history was known and correctly narrated, he might
 be found a duly qualified preacher, to such a congregation
 as that of prison No. 4.
   This black man has a good deal of art and cunning, and
 has drawn  several  whites into  his church ;  and his per-
 formances have an imposing cast, aud are often listened to
 with seriousness.  He appears to have learnt his sermons
 and prayers from a  diligent reading of good books ; but,
 as to  the christian system,  the man has no more  idea of it
 than he has of the New Jerusalem ; but then his good sen-
 tences, delivered, frequently, with great warmth, and his
 string of good advice, given  in the negro dialect, makes,
 altogether,  a novelty, that attracts maiiy to hear  him; and
 he certainly is of service to the blacks ; and it is a  fact,
 that the officers have heard him hold  forth,  without any
 expressions of ridicule,  while the majority of these miser-
 able people are too  much depraved  to pay any serious at-
 tention to his advice.
   It is curious  to observe the natural alliance between
 king Dick and this  priest.  Dick honors and protects him,
 while the priest inculcates  respect  and obedience to this
Richard the 4th.  Here we see the union of church and
 state in miniature.   Who told this negro that to  maintain
this influence, he must  rally round the huge club of the
strongest aud most powerful  man  in this black gang of
sinners?  And who told king Dick that  his nervous arm
and massy club, were insufficient without the aid of the
preacher of terror ? Neither of them had read or heard of
              14* 
ItitS                   JOURNAL,
Machiavel.    Who taught this black  orator, that the-
priesthood must seek shelter behind the  throne, from the
hostilities of reason? And who told '; thorough allies,"
the Janezaries of this imperium in imperio, that they musi
assist and countenance both Dick and the priest ? The sci-
ence of government is not so deep and complicated a thing
as king-craft and priest-craft would make us believe, since
these rude people, almost deserving the name of a bandit-
ti, threw themselves into a sort of government, that is to
be discerned in the early stages of every government. The
love of power, of influence, and of distinction, is clearly
discernible, even  among the prisoners at Dartmoor.
  Beside  king Dick,  and Simon,  the priest, there was
another black divine, named John.   He  had been a serv-
ant of Edward, duke of Kent, third son of the present king
of England ; on  which account, black John assumed no
small state and dignity.   He left the service of his royal
highness,  and was found on board an American ship, and
was pressed from thence into a British man of war, where
he served  a year  or two, in the  station of captain's stew-
ard ; but disliking the service, he claimed his release as an
American, and was sent with  a number  of other pressed
men, to the  prison-ships at Chatham, and he came to this
prison with  a number of other Africans.  After king Dick,
and  Simon,  the priest, black John was the next man of the
most consequence among the negroes; and considering his
family connection, and that  he knew how to read and
write, it  is not much to be wondered at.   John conceived
that his influence with his royal highness was sufficient to
encourage him to write to the duke to get him set at liber-
ty, who actually applied to the transport board with that
view ;  but they could not graut it.   He received, however,
a letter from Capt. Hervy, the duke's secretary, on the
subject, who added, that as he had been so unwise as to re-
fuse to serve his majesty, he must suffer for his lolly. We
have been particular in this anecdote, and we request  our
readers to bear it id mind, when we shall come to contrast
this  prompt  answer of the royal duke to the letter of a ne-
gro, with  the conduct of Mr.  B. our agent  for prisoners.
The prisoners themselves noticed it, and  envied the negro,
while they execrated the haughty,  unfeeling agent, who
seldom, or ever answered  their kttcrs, or took any notice
?4 their applications 
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ijsr
  The poor negro consoled himself for his disappointment
by turning christian; and being a pretty clever fellow, and
having formerly belonged  to the royal family, it was con-
sidered an act of kindness and magnanimity, to raise him
to the rank of deacon in Simon's church.  Deacon John
generally acts as a privy  counsellor to  the king, and is
sometimes a judge in criminal cases, when his majesty al
lows of one, which is not very often ; for he most common-
ly acts in as despotic and summary a manner as the dey of
Algiers himself.
  King Dick keeps a boxing-school, where the white men
are sometimes admitted.  No. 4 is noted, also, for fencing,
dancing and music ; aud, however extraordinary it may ap-
pear, they teach these accomplishments  to the white men.
A person, entering the cock-loft of No. 4, would be highly
amused with the droll scenery which it  exhibited, and if
his sense of smelling be  not too refined, may  relish,  for a
little while, this strange assemblage of  antics.   Here  he
may  see  boxing,  fencing, dancing, raffling,  and  other
modes of gambling ; and to this, we may add, drawing with
chalk and charcoal, and tricks of slight of hand, and all
this to gratify the  eye; and for the  sense of hearing,  he
may be regaled with the sound of clarionets,  flutes, vio-
lins, flagelets, fifes, tambarines, together with the whoop-
ing and singing of the negroes.  On Sundays this den of
thieves is transformed into a temple of worship, when Si-
mon, the  priest, mounted on a little  stool, behind a table
covered with green cloth, proclaims the wonders of crea-
tion, and salvation to the souls of true believers ; and hell
fire and brimstone, and weeping, and wailing, and gnash-
ing of teeth, to the hardened and impenitent sinner, and
obstinate rebel of proffered mercy.   As he approaches the
end of his discourse, he grows warmer and warmer, and,
foaming at  the mouth,  denounces all the terrors of the
law against every  heaven-daring, God-provoking sinner.
1 have frequently noticed the effect of this black man's or-
atory upon some of his audience.   While he has been thus1
thundering and lightning, sullen moans and hollow groans
issue from diff'ereut parts of  the  room,  a proof  that  his
zealous harrangtie solemnizes some of his hearers,  while
the greater part of them are making grimaces, or betray-
ing marks of  impatience; but no  oue dare be riotous; as
n^r the preacher  sat his majesty king Dick, with his ter- 
168
JOURNAL.
rible club, and huge bear-skin cap.   The members of the
church sat in an half circle nearest the priest, while those
who had never passed over the threshold of grace,  stood
behind them.
  A little dispute, if not quite a schism, has existed be-
tween Simon, the priest,  and deacon  John.  The  latter,
while in the tamily of a royal duke, had learned that it was
proper to read prayers, already made, and printed to their
hands;  but Simon said, he  should  make but few converts
if he read his prayers.   He said  that prayers  ought  to
spring at ouce, warm  from  the heart: and  that reading
prayers was too  cold a piece of work for him or his church.
But John said, in reply, that reading prayers was practiced
by his royal highness the duke of Kent, and all the noble
families in England, as well as on board all his Britannic
majesty's ships of war.   But Simon, who had never wait-
ed on royalty, nor ever witnessed the religious exercises  of
an English man of war, would not believe this practice  of
the British nation ought  to have weight with the reformed
ehristians of the United States.  There was a diversity  of
opinion in the black church, and the  dispute once grew  so
warm, that Simon told John, that it  was  his opinion, that
he who could not pray to his God, without a book, would
be damned.
  His majesty king Dick finding that this dispute might
endanger the peace of the church, and, possibly, diminish
his  own influence, advised that the dispute should be left to
the decision of  a  neighboring methodist preacher, who
sometimes visited the prison, in  a labor of love.  The
preacher came and heard, patiently, the arguments of both
sides, and finally decided, as king Dick doubtless foresaw,
in favor of Simon.   He said that the  reason why his royal
highness the duke of  Kent, and all the royal family, and
all  the nobility  andv parliament-men  read  their prayers,
was, because they had not time to make them, each one for
himself.   Now Deacon John was a  better reasoner than
Simon,  but  Simon had the most cant; and he, of course,
prevailed.  It is probable that John had concluded, that if
he could carry  a vote for reading prayers,  he, himself,
would be the reader, and then he should become as conspic-
uous as Simon.   Emulation, and the desire of distinction,
the  great, and indeed main-spring of this  world, was  as
apparent among these degraded sons of Africa, as among 
JOURNAL.                   169
 any white gentlemen and ladies in the land.  John's am-
 bition,  and his envy, operated just like  the ambition and
 envy of white people.   At length, when the deacon found
 that, since the decision of the methodist,  his supporters de-
 serted him, he made his mind up to follow the current, and
 to justify his conduct by inculcating a spirit of conciliation
 and union.  This shrewd fellow knew, that if  he did not
 follow the current, he should  lose  the privilege of sitting
 at the end of the table, opposite to  Simon,  and  of leaning
 his head on the great  bible, while  Simon was preaching;
 privileges too  great to be slighted  in such a church, and
 directly after a religious dispute.
   Since I returned home, and while transcribing this jour-
 nal for the press, I have thought that the  conduct of dea-
 con John  was from the self same principle with that which
 actuated the federalists, since the dissolution and disgrace
 of the Hartford Convention.   This faction  found them-
 selves after the peace, and after the battle of New  Orleans,
 going fast down the stream of popular opinion ;  and then
 it was that they preached up conciliation, liberality, and
 union ;  then it  was they caught hold of the skirts of the
 land  and  naval heroes; nay, they  went  so far as to hail
 Jefferson and  Madison as brother Unitarians!  In short,
 the situation of black John, and the federalists of Massa-
 chusetts, was exactly the same, and their conduct in every
 point, similar ;  and the leading federalists  of Boston have
 been  left, like  the deacon of  the negro  congregation, in
 No. 4, Dartmoor prison, to sleep upon the  great bible.
  Simon,  the priest, enjoyed one great and envied privi-
 lege, which John never pretended to, namely, an acquaint-
 ance  and intercourse with the angel Gabriel. He had many
 revelations from this celestial messenger, and related them
 to his church.    They related principally to the fate of his
 fellow prisoners ; one, in particular, he told to his church
 with awe and solemnity.
  I saw, said he, a great light, shining only through the
 grates of  one window, before  the  hour of  day  break.   I
 looked up, and saw something like a man with  wings,   I
 was at first frightened, and cried out,4{ who comes dare ;'*
for I could not see his face.  Directly the bars of the win-
dow bent each way, and his head and shoulders came in,
when 1 knew him to be  the angel Gabriel. " Simon," said
he, "I am come to tell you that this prison will  be sunk 
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before forty days, because its inhabitants are so wicked."
Den I tank him, and he drew back his head again, and the
iron bars were restored  to  their place again, when he
spread out his wings, which were covered with ten thous-
and stars,  which made a great light when he flew away.
Such was the  method used, by this  artful black man, to
rouse his countrymen out of the sink of vice; and it had
the desired effect.  This prediction solemnised several of
the negroes, and had more or less effect upon all of them.
They became  more liberal  in  their contributions, which
enabled Simon to purchase a new green coat.   It seemed
as if the most profligate of these  fellows, had a  secret
dread of Simon's prediction, and were willing to gain his
favor by contributions instead of repentance.  Has not this
disposition founded churches, monasteries and nunneries?
Many of Simon's church are strongly impressed with the
apprehension, of the prison sinking within forty days.
   These blacks have been desirous of having their prison
the centre  of  amusement.  They act plays twice a week,
and as far  as close imitation  of what they have seen and
heard,  and broad grimace, they are admirable, but they
are, half the time, ignorant of the  meaning of the  words
they utter.  The gate ways and centry boxes are plaister-
ed over with  play-bills,  announcing—Othello, for  the
first time, by Mr. Robinson—Desdemona, by Mr.  Jones.
I seldom failed to attend these exhibitions, and must con-
fess that I  never before or since, or perhaps  ever shall
Jaugh so heartily as at these troglodyte dramas.   Their
acting was assuredly  the most diverting beyond all com-
parison or  example I ever saw.  They would cut so many
negroish capers in tragedy, grin and distort their counte-
nances in such a variety of inhuman expressions,  while
they kept their bodies either stiff as so many stakes, or iu a
monkeyish wriggle, and ever and anon such a baboon stare
at Desdemona, whose face, neck and hands were  covered
with chalk and red paint to make him look like a beauti-
ful white lady—was altogether, considering  that they
themselves  were very  serious, the most ludicrous exhibi-
tion of two  legged ridiculousness 1 ever witnessed,   luthe
midst of my loud applauses, 1 could not,  when my sore
sides would allow me  to articulate,  help exclaiming—0 !
Shakespeare!  Shakespeare!—(J ! Garrick !  Garrick!-—
what would I not give  (a  despised American prisoner) 
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in
could I raise yen from the dead, that you might  see the
black consequences of your own transcendent guuiuses !—
When Garrick  rubbed himself over with burnt  cork to
make himself look like a Moor, or with lamp-black to re-
semble Mungo, it did pretty well; but for a negro man to
cover his forehead, neck and hands with chalk, and his
cheeks with vermillion, to make him look like an English
or American beauty, was too much.  Had I been going up
the ladder to  he hanged, I should have laughed at this
sight; for to all this outrageous grimace,  was added,  a
fantastic habiliment, and an odour from  Desdemona and
company, that associated the ideas of the skunk and the
polecat.  I  presume that their august majesties, the em-
peror and empress of Hayti, have some means of destroy-
ing this association of ideas, so revolting to Americans.
  After all, this may be in  us a disgust grounded more in
prejudice than nature.  What  we call delicacy is a refine-
ment of civilization, and of course a departure from na-
ture.  See how the brutes enjoy rolling and wallowing in
what we call dirt; next to them, we may observe the love
of what we  call  filth in savages,  and of those persons in
onr cities who stand nearest to  them.  Extreme cleanli-
ness is the offspring of riehes, leisure, luxury and extreme
refinement;  nevertheless it is true what Swift says, that
" persons with nice minds have nasty ideas."   I suffered
greatly, and so did many of our countrymen, on our first
acquaintance with filth and vermin in this our British cap-
tivity.  Many a time have I got up from my dinner as hun-
gry as I set  down, when disgust has been greater than ap-
petite.  I have gradually surmounted antipathies I once
thought insurmountable.  I am not the  only  one who has
often retired from our disgusting repast, to my bunk or
sleeping birth, in silent agony, there to breathe  out to my
Maker, woes too great for utterance.  O, Britain ! Bri-
tain ! will there not be a day of retribution for these thy
cruelties !
  There are  some  in this dismal prison, who  have been
used all their lives, not to conveniencies only, but to deli-
cacies ; who are obliged to submit to the disagreeables of
this uncivilized  mode of incarcerating brave men, for one
of  the first of Grecian, Roman, English and  American
virtues, the love of country, or patriotism.  These unfor-
tunate men, with  minds far elevated beyond the officers 
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JOURNAL.
who are placed here to guard and to torment them, sub-
mit  to  their  confinement  with  a  better grace than  one
could have expected.  When these men have eaten their
stinted ration, vilely cooked, and hastily served up,  they
return to their hammocks,  or sleeping  births, and there
try " to steep their senses in forgetfulness" until the recur-
rence of the next disgusting meal.  On the other hand,
«ome have  said  that they never before eat with such a
keen appetite, and  their  only  complaint has been, that
there  was not  one  quarter  enough for them to devour.
Some have since said, that they devoured their daily al-
lowance at Dartmoor, with  more relish than they ever
have since, when set down at tables, covered, as our Amer-
ican  tables  are, with venison, poultry, the finest fish and
the best fruits of our country, with choice old  cider, and
good foreign wines.
   A thing very disagreeable  to me, arose from causes not
occasioned by the  enemy.   I have been squeezed to sore-
ness by a crowd of rough, overbearing men, who oft times
appeared to be indifferent whether they trampled you  un-
der feet or not.  The " rough allies," so called, had no
feeling for  men smaller and weaker  than  themselves.
From this  gang,  yon could  seldom get a civil answer.
Their yells, and whooping, more like savages than white
men, were very troublesome.   The conduct of these, prov-
ed that it was natural for the strong to tyrannize over the
weak.  I have often thought that our assemblage of pris-
oners, resembled very much the Grecian  and Roman  de-
mocracies, which were far,  very far, beneath the just, ra-
tional, and wisely  guarded democracy of our dear Ameri-
ca, for whose existence and honor we are all still heartily
disposed to risk our  lives and spill our blood.
   As not allowing us prisoners a due and comfortable por-
tion of clean food, is the heavy charge 1 have to make a-
gainst the British nation,  I shall here,  once for all, at-
tempt to describe the agonies I myself felt, and observed
others to endure, from cravings of hunger—which are keen
descriptions in  young men, not yet arrived to their full
growth.—The hungry prisoner is seen to traverse the al-
leys,  backwards and forwards, with a gnawing stomach
and a  haggard look  ; while he sees the fine white loaves
on the tables of the bread-seller, when all that he possess-
es! cannot  buy a single loaf.  I have  known  many  men 
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ITS
tremble, and become sick at their stomachs, at the sight of
bread they could not obtain.  Sometimes a prisoner has
put away a portion of his bread, and sworn to himself that
he would not eat it until such an  hour after breakfast; he
has, however, gone to it, and picked a few crumbs from it,
and  replaced it; and sometimes  he could no longer resist
the  grinding torments of hunger, but devoured  with more
than canine appetite;  for it  must be understood that the
iuterval between the evening  and morning meal was the
most distressing.  An healthy, growing young man, feels
very uncomfortable if he fasts five hours ; but to be without
food, as we often were, for fourteen hours, was a cruel neg-
lect, or a barbarous custom.   Our resourse  from hunger
was  sleep ; not but that the sensations of hunger, and the
thoughts of the deprivation, often prevented me from get-
ting  asleep; and at other times,  when wrapt in sleep, I
have dreamed of setting down to a table  of the most deli-
cious food, and most savoury meats, and in the greatest
profusion ; and amidst my  imagined enjoyment, have wak-
ed in disappointment,  agony  and tears.  This  was the
keenest misery I ever endured, and at such times, have I
cursed the nation that allowed of it, as being more barba-
rous  than Algerines or wild  Indians.  The comparative
size  of the pieces of beef and bread is watched with a keen
and jealous eye ; so are even the bits of turnip in our soup,
lest one should have more  than the other.  1 have noticed
more acts of meanness and dishonesty in men of respecta-
ble character, in the division and acquisition of the arti-
cles  of our daily food, than in any other transaction what-
ever. Such as they would despise, were hunger out of the
question.   The best apology I can make for the practice
of gaming is, the hope of alleviating this most abominable
system of starvation.  Had we been duly and properly fed,
we never should have run  so deeply into the hell of gamb-
ling. We did not  want money to buy clothing, or wine, or
rum, but to buy beef,  and bread, and milk.  I repeat it, all
the irregularities,  and, finally,  the  horrors and  death,
that  occurred  in a  remarkable manner, in this den of des-
pair, arose from the  British  system of scanty  food for
young men, whose vigorous systems, and habits of being full
fed, demanded a third more solid flesh meat, than would sat-
isfy a potatoe-eating Irishman, an oat-feeding Scotchman,
o* an half starved English manufacturer.  After we have
              15 
174
J8URNAL.
finished onr own dinners in New England, we give to our
cats and dogs, and other domestic animals, more solid
nourishment, the remnant of our meals, than what we had
often allowed  us iu the ships and prisons of " the world's
last hope," Pickering's "fast anchor'd isle."
  Among the abuses of Dartmoor prison, was that of al-
lowing Jews to come among us to buy clothes, and the al-
lowing some other people, worse than Jews, to cheat us in
the articles we purchased.  How  far our keepers went
" snacks" with these harpies, we never could know.  We
only suspected that they did not enjoy all their swindling
privileges gratuitously.   Before the immoral practice of
gambling was introduced and countenanced, it was no un-
usual thing to see men in almost every birth, reading, or
writing, or studying navigation. I  have noticed the prog-
ress of vice in some, with pain and surprise.  I have seen
men, once respectable, give examples of vice that I cannot
describe, or even name ; and I am fearful that some of onr
young boys, may carry home to  their hitherto pure and
chaste country, vices they never had any idea of when they
left it.   I believe Frenchmen, Italians, and Portuguese,are
much worse examples for our youth, than English, Irish,
or  Scotchmen.  I must say of the British  that they are
generally men of far better  habits  and  morals  than some
of the continental nations.   But enough, and   more than
enough, on the depravity of the oldest of the European na-
tions.
  February 2Sth, 1815.—Time hangs heavily on the wea-
ry and restless prisoner.   His hopes of liberation, and his
anxiety, increase daily and  hourly.   The Favorite !  The
Favorite, is in every one's mouth; and every one fixes the
day of her arrival.  We  have just heard  that 6he  was
spoken  near the coast of America, by the Sultan, a British
T4, on the 2d day of February.  If so, then she must ar-
rive in a few days, with the  news of the ratification or re-
jection of the treaty of peace, by Mr. Madison ; and on this
great event our happiness depends.   Some of the  English
merchants are so confident that our president  will ratify
the treaty, that they are sending vast quantities of Eng-
lish manufactures out to Halifax, to be ready to thrust in-
to the porls of America, as  soon as we shall be able, le-
gally, to admit them.  It is easy to  perceive that the Eng-
lish are much more anxious  to send us their productions,
than we are to receive them. 
JOURNAL
173
  Our anxiety increases every day.   We inquire of every
one, the news.  We wait with impatience for the newspa-
pers,  and when we receive  them are  disappointed ; not
finding in them what we wish.  They, to besure, speak of
the sitting of the  Vienna Congress ; and we have been ex-
pecting,  every day, that this political old hen had hatched
out her various sort of eggs.   We expected that her mot-
ley brood would afford us some fun.  Here we expected to
see a young hawk, and there agoslin, and next a strutting
turkey, and then a dodo, a loon, an ostrich, a wren, a mag-
pie, a cuckoo, and a wag-tail. But the old continental hen
lias now set so long, that we conclude that her eggs are
addled, and incubation frustrated.   During all this  time,
the Gallic cock is on his roost at  Elba,  with his head un-
der his wing.
   We but now and then get a sight of Cobbett's Political
Register; and when  we do,  we devour it, and destroy it,
before it comes to the knowledge  of our Ceroebrus.   This
writer has a manner sui generis, purely his own ; but it is
somewhat surprising, how he becomes so well informed of
the actual state of things, and of  the feeliugs and opinions
of both parties in our country.  His acuteness, his wit, his
logic, and his surliness, form, altogether, a curious por-
traiture  of an English politician.   We, now and then, gefi
sight of American papers, but they are  almost all of them
federal  papers, and contain matter more hostile  to our
o-overnment than the English papers.   The most detesta-
ble paper printed in London is called, " The Times," and
 that is often thrown in our way ; but even this paper is not
 to be compared to the " Federal Republican," printed  at
 Washington  or Georgetown, or to the Boston federal pa-
 pers.  When such papers are shown to us by the English
 here, we are fairly brought up, and know not what  to say.
   I cannot answer, precisely, for the impressions governor
 Strong's speeches and proclamations have made on  others,
 1 can=only answer for myself.  They very much surprised
 and  grieved me. I was born in the same county where Mr.
 Strong  resided, and where, 1 believe, he has always lived,
 and  I had always entertained  a  respect for his  serious
 character,  and have,  from my  boyhood,  considered him
 among  the very  sensible men, and even saints of our coun-
 try ; and all my  connections and relations gave their votes
 for ""ood Caleb Strong, on whose judgment and public con- 
*»■
176                   JOURNAL.

duct, my parents taught  me to rely, with as much confi-
dence as  if he  had actually  been a thirteenth  apostle.
Judge then what must have  been  my surprise, on reading
his proclamations  for  fasts and  thanksgivings,  and \m
speeches and messages to the legislature, and  his conduct
relative to the general government and the militia; and
above all, for his strange conduct in organizing a conven-
tion of malcontents at Hartford, in Connecticut. No event
in New England staggered me so much.  When we learnt
that he proclaimed England to be " the bulwark of Ihe ho-
ly religion we prof ess," I concluded that it was a  party ca-
lumny, until 1 saw its confirmation, in the attempts of his
friends to vindicate the assertion.   I then concluded, that
one of two things  must have  existed; either  Mr. Strong
had become superannuated and childish, or that  the Eng-
lish Faction had got behind his chair of government, and
under the table of the counsel-board, and in  the  hollow
pannels of his audience chamber, and completely bewitch-
ed our political Barzilld. I suspected that gang of Jesuits,
the Essex Junto, had put out his eyes, and was leading
him into danger and disgrace.  It is undeniable, that gov-
ernor Strong has,  in his public addresses, sided more with
the declared enemy, Britain, than with his own  national
government; and that he has said a great deal, tending to
encourage the enemy to persist in their demands, and to
pursue the war, than he  has to discourage them.  It ap-
pears, in truth, that the English consider him, in a great
measure, their friend and well wisher.
   Is it possible that governor Strong can be deluded away
by the missionary  and bible societies of Old England, so as
to mistake the English for a religious people? I am very
confident, that there is less religion, or appearance of it, in
London, and in all their large cities, than in any other civ-
ilized country, of the same numbers, in Europe. Their na-
tional churches are  empty,  while  their streets and  their
harbors are full of lewdness ; and they have more thieves,
gamblers, forgers,  cheats and  bawds, than  any other na-
tion upon earth.   Add  to this, their laws are  bloody, be-
yond modern  example, their military punishments horri-
ble, and their treatment of prisoners of war a disgrace to
the name of christians.  Can governor Strong be totally
ignorant of the policy of some in patronizing bible and
missionary societies ? And does he not see the iinpractica- 
JOURNAL.
177
 bilily of the scheme contemplated by the latter ? If we di-
 vide the known countries  of the  globe  into  thirty equal
 parts,/u>g will be found to be Christians, six Mahometans,
 and nineteen Pagans.  R is difficult to believe that the
 hrst man,  the governor and  commander in chief of the
 great and respectable commonwealth of Massachusetts,
 can seriously expect  that the missionary societies of Eng-
 land and of Boston can effect this immense task ? Or that it
 ever was the design of Providence, that all the families of
 the earth should think alike  on subjects of  religion ?  Let
 us take things as the  sons of men have always found them,
 and not presume to oppugn Providence,  who has decreed
 that there shall  be, every  where, men of different colours,
 countenances, voices, manner of speaking, of different feel-
 ings and views of things, and also of different languages,
 and of different opinions, as it regards the Deity, andMiis
 government of the world; and that among this great, and,
 doubtless, necessary diversity of the views of him, we may
 have the most pure and rational system  of  any.   Let us
 then enjoy that system, encourage  a virtuous education,
 and love one another, and leave to his direction and con-
 troul, the myriads of rational beings on earth, of which
 we, christians, make so small a  part.  No, no, my coun-
 trymen, if  governor Strong will not attend exclusively to
 the mere affairs of the state,  with its  relative  duties, and
 leave the great world to the legislation of its great  Crea-
 tor, you had  better allow  him to retire  to Northampton,
 there to study, in  silence, how to govern his own heart,
 and how to work  out  his own  salvation, instead of contin-
 uing the tool of a turbulent  and  vicious party.   I still
 think Mr. Strong is a man of good intentions, and an hon-
 est patriot; but that he has been deluded by  artful men,
 who in their scheme of governing  the whole nation, have
 found their account in placing at the head of  their party iu
 Massachusetts, a man of correct morals and  manners, and
 of  a reputed religious cast of mind.  But Mr. Strong
 should reflect, and being a phlegmatic man,  he is able  to
 reflect calmly, and consider things deliberately. He should
 reflect, I say, on  the  impression his remarkable conduct
 must have on the  minds of his countrymen, who have risk-
 ed their lives, and are now suffering a severe  bondage in
(hat great national cause of "free trade and no  impress-
ment," which led the American people to  declare war
             15* 
1^8                    JOURNAL.
against Britain, by the voice of their representatives?, in
congress assembled.   How strange and how painful must
it appear to us, and to our friends in Europe, that the gov-
ernor of a great state should lean more towards the Prince
Regent of Britain,  than to the  President  of  the  United
States.  If, therefore, we consider Mr. Strong as a sensi-
ble and a  correct man, and a true patriot,  his conduct as
governor of Massachusetts, especially as to ihe time of or-
ganizing a  convention, of which the English  promised
themselves countenance and aid, must have appeared more
than strange to us in captivity.
   If we contemplate the character of the  leading men of
that party which put into office, and still supports Gover-
nor Strong, and  with whom he has co-operated, we can-
not clear this gentleman of reproach.  Previously to our
late contest with Britain, it was the  unceasing  endeavor
of the leaders of the federal party to bring into discredit
and contempt the worthiest and best men of the nation ;
to ridicule and degrade every thing American, or that re-
flected honor on the American Independence.  So bitter
was their animosity, so insatiate their thirst for  power
and high  places, that they  did not hesitate  to  advocate
measures  for the accomplishment of their grand  object,
whieh was  to get  into the places of those now  in power.
How often have we  seen the party declaring in their venal
prints that the American administration was base,and cow-
ardly, and tamely suffering  the outrages, abuses and con-
tempt of the  nations of Europe, without  possessing the
.spirit to resent, or the power to resist them ; and that "we
could not  be kicked into a war."  Yet after  the administra-
tion had exhausted  every effort to bring  England to do
justice, and war was declared,  these very federalists call-
ed the act wicked and inhuman,  and denounced the Presi-
dent for plunging the country into  hostilities  with  the
mistress of  the  ocean, the most powerful nation  of the
earth.  They called this act  of Congress,  " Madisonrs
 War," and did  every thing in their power to render  that
upright man odious in the eyes of the unthinking part of
the community.  This was not all ;  these arrogant men,
assumed to themselves all the  talents and  all the virtues
of the country, used every mean in their power to paralyze
the arm of government, and reduce the energies of the na-
tion,  iu the  face aud front of  our adversary.  By argn- 
JOURNAL,
179
metils and threats, they induced the monied men in Mas-
sachusetts, very  generally  to  refuse  loans of money to
government, and to ruin our resources.  Did not this par-
ly, denominated federalists, exult at  the disasters  of our
arms ; and did they not vote in the Senate of Massachu
setts, that it was  unworthy  a religious and moral people,
to rejoice at the immortal achievements of our gallant sea-
men ?   In the midst of our  difficulties, when this  power-
ful enemy threatened  us by sea and land, with a powerful
force from Penobscot, another through Lake Champlain,
another landed at  the Chesapeake, while nothing but re-
sistance and insurgency was talked of and hinted at with-
in.   In this state of things, and with these circumstances,
did not Governor Strong, and the federal party generally.,
seize hold of this alarming state of our affairs, to  call the
Convention at Hartford, and that  not merely to perplex
the government, but to be the organ of communication be-
tween the enemy and the malcontents ? Did they not then
talk loudly of our worm eaten Constitution, and did they
not call the Union " a rope of sand,"  that could no longer
hold together ?  If there be  a line of transgression,  beyond
the bounds vf forgiveness,  the leaders of that party, who
put Mr. Strong up for Governor, have attained it.   These
things I gather from the papers, and from the history of
the day, as I have collected them since my return home.
Aud to all this must be added the damning fact of Te De-
unis, orations, toasts, and processions of the clergy, judg-
es, with all the leaders of the federal, or opposition party,
on the success of the Spaniards in restoring the Inquisition,
and recalling the reign of superstition and terror,  against
which we have been preaching and  praying ever since the
first settlement of our country.
   Onr American  newspapers, if they  are not so correctly
written as the London papers, are informing and amusing.
They show the enterprize,  the activity,  and the  daring
thoughts of a free and an intrepid people  ; while the Lou-
don papers are filled with  a catalogue of nobles and  no-
blesses, w ho  were assembled to bow, to flatter, to  cringe,
and to prink at the levee of the Great Prince Regent, the
presumptive  George the IVth, with now and then some ac-
count of his wandering wife, the Princess of Wales.  We
are  there  also entertained with a daily account  of the
health and gestr.tion of Joanna Southcote, for whose repu- 
186
JOURNAL.
 tation and welfare, thinking Johnny Bull  is  vastly anx-
 ious, insomuch that were any continental nation to run
 obstinately counter to the popular  opinion respecting her,
 we do deem it not impossible  that  the majority of the na-
 tion might be led to sign addresses to the Prince to go to
 war with them, in honor of Saint Joanna !   Their papers
 likewise contain a particular account of the examination of
 rogues by the Bow-street officers, highway robberies,  and
 executions; together with quack puff's and  miraculous
 cures.  These, together with the most  glorious and un-
 parralleled bravery  of  their  officers  and seamen, and of
 their generals and soldiers, with the highest  encomiums
 on the religion, the  learning,  the generosity, contentment
 and happiness of the people of Britain and Ireland, make
 up the sum  and substance of all the London papers, Wil-
 liam Cobbett's alone excepted ; and  he speaks with a bri-
 dle in his mouth  !
   This month (February) Captain Shortiand stopped the
 market for six days, in consequence of some unruly fellows
 taking away certain  wooden  stanchions from  Prison No.
 6.   But the old market women, conceiving that the Cap-
 tain encroached upon their copy-hold, would  not quietly
 submit to it.  They told him that as the men  were going
 away soon, it was cruel to curtail their traffic.  We al-
 ways believed that these market women, and the shop and
 stall keepers, and Jews, purchased  in some way or  other
 the  unequal traffic  between  them and us.  Be that as it
 may, Shortiand could not  resist the commercial interest,
 so that he, like good Mr. Jefferson, listened to the clamor
 of the merchants, and raised the embargo.
  No sooner was quiet  restored, and  the  eld  women and
 Jews pacified, but a serious discontent arose  among  the
 prisoners, on discovering that these Jews, of all complex-
 ions, had raised the price of their articles, on the idea, we
 supposed, that we  should not much longer remain  the sub-
jects of their impositions.   The rough allies, a sort of reg-
 ulators, who were too stout, and most commonly too inso-
 lent, to be governed by our  regular and moderate commit-
 tees, turned out in a  great rage, and tore down several of
 the small shops, or  stalls, where  slops were exposed for
 sale.  These fellows at  length  organized themselves into
a company of plunderers.  I have seen men run from  their
sleeping births, in which  they spent nearly their whole 
JOURNAL.
181
tune, and plunder these little shop keepers, and carry the
articles they plundered, and secrete  them in their beds.
These mobs, or gangs of robbers, were  a scandal to the
American character, and  strongly reprobated by every
man of honor  in  the prisons.  Some of these little mer-
chants found themselves stripped of all they possessed in
a few minutes, on the  charge of exorbitant prices.  We
never rested, nor allowed these culprits  to rest, until  we
saw the cat  laid well on their backs.  These  plunderings
were in consequence of informers, and there was no name,
not even that of a federalist, was  so odious with  all  the
prisoners, as  that  of an informer.  We never failed to
punish an informer.  Nothing but the advanced age of a
man, (who was sixty years old) prevented him from being
whipped for informing Capt. Shortiand  of what  the  old
man considered an  injury, and for  which he put the man
accused, into the blaek hole.  An informer, a traitor, and
an avowed federalist,  were objects of detestation at Dart-
moor.
   During the time that passed between the news of peace,
 and that of its ratification, an uneasy  and mob like dispo-
sition, more than once  betrayed  itself.   Three impressed
American seamen had been  sent in here from a British
ship of war,  since  the peace.   They were on board the
Pelican, in  the action with the American ship Argus,
when fell our brave  captain Allen.  One  day, when all
three were a little intoxicated,  they boasted  of the feats
they performed, in fighting agaiust their own countrymen ;
and even boasted of the prize money they had shared for
capturing the Argus. This our prisoners could not endure ;
and it soon reached the ears of the rough allies, who seized
them, and  kicked aud cuffed them about unmercifully ;
and they took one of them,  who had talked more impru-
dently than the rest, and led him to the lamp iron tiiat pro-
jected from  one of the prisons, and would in all probabili-
ty, have hanged him thereon, had  not Shortiand  rescued
him by  an armed force.  They had fixed a paper on  the
fellow's  breast, on  which was written in large  letters, A
Traitor  and a Federalist.
   It may seem strange  to  some,  but I am confident  that
there is no class of people among us more strongly attach-
ed to the American soil, than our seamen,  who are float-
ing about the world and seldom tread on the ground. The 
182
JOURNAL.
sailor who roams about the world, marks the difference of
treatment and exults in the superior advantages of his
eountrymen.  The American custom of allowing on board
merchant ships the common sailors to traffic a little in ad-
ventures, enlarges their views, makes them think and en-
quire, and excites an interest in the sales of the whole car-
go.  The common sailor here feels a sort of  unity of in-
terest; aud he is habituated to  feel as a member of the
floatiug store-house which he is navigating.  It is doubt-
ful whether the British sailor feels any thing  of this.
  I have had often to remark on the tyrannical conduct
and unfeeling behaviour of Captain Shortiand, but he had
for it the excuse of an  enemy; but the neglect of Mr. Beas-
ley, with his supercilious behaviour towards his country-
men here confined, admits of no  excuse.  He was bound to
assist us aud befriend us, and to listen to our reasonable
complaints.  When negro John  wrote to his Royal High-
ness' the Duke of Kent, sou of king George the 3d, and
brother of the Prince Regent, he received an answer in
terms of kindness  and reason; but Mr. Beasley,  who was
paid  by  our  government for being our agent, and official
friend, never condescended to answer our letters,  aud  if
they ever were noticed, it was in the style of reproof—His
conduct is  here condemned by six thousand of his country-
men, and as many curses are daily uttered on him in this
prison.  It is almost treason in this our dismal Common-
wealth or  rather common misery, to  speak in his favour.
If Shortiand and  Beasley were  both drowning,  and one
only  could be taken out by the prisoners of Dartmoor,  I
believe in my soul, that that one would be Shortiand;  for
as 1 said before, he has the excuse of an enemy.
   The prisoners have been long determined to testify their
feelings towards Mr. Beasley,  before they left Dartmoor,
and the time for it has arrived.  The most  ingenious of
our countrymen are now making a figure resemblance, or
effigy of this distinguished personage.  One has contribu-
ted a coat, another pantaloons,  another a shirt bosom or
frill, another a stuffed  out cravat, and so they have made
up a pretty  genteel,  haughty  looking  gentleman  agent,
with heart and brains full equal, they think, to the person
whom they wish to represent.    They called this figure
Mr. B------They then brought him to trial.  He was
indicted for many  crimes towards them and  towards the 
JOURNAL.
183
character of the United States.  The jury declared him
guilty of each and every charge, and he was sentenced by
an unanimous decree of his judges, to be hanged by the
neck until  he was dead, and after that to be burnt.   Thev
proceeded with him to the place of execution, which was
from the roof of prison No. 7, where a pole was rigged out,
to which was attached an halter.  After silence was pro-
claimed, the halter was fastened round the neck of the ef-
figy, and then a solemn pause ensued, which apparent so-
lemnity was befitting the character of men who were con-
vinced of the necessity of the punishment  of the guilty,
while they felt for the sufferings and shame of a fellow-
mortal.   After hanging the proper time, the hangman,
who was a negro, cut him down; and then the rough al-
lies took possession  of him, and conducted him to a con-
venient  spot in the yard, where they burnt him to  ashes__
This  was not,  like the  plunder of the shop-keepers, the
conduct of an infuriate mob;  but it was begun and carried
through by some of the steadiest men within the  walls of
Dartmoor prison.  They said  they  had uo other way of
testifying their contempt of a man, who they supposed had
injured  them all, and disgraced their country.   Such was
the fact; as to the justness of their charges, I have noth-
ing to  say.  I hope Mr. B. can vindicate his conduct to
the world,  and 1 hope this publication may lead to a thing
so much wished for.
  During all this solemn farce, poor Shortiand looked like
a eulprit under sentence of death.  Some of the rogues had
written, with chalk, on the walls, Be you also  ready!
This commander's situation eould not be an enviable one.
He was, probably, as courageous a  man as the  ordinary
run of British officers : but it was plainly discoverable that
he was half his time in dread, and  during the scene just
described, in terror, which was perceivable  amidst his af-
fected smiles,  and assumed gaiety.  He told a gentleman,
belonging to this depot, that he never saw, nor ever  read,
or heard of such a set of Devil-daring, God-provoking fel-
lows, as these  same yankees.   And he added, I had rather
have the charge of five thousand Frenchmen, than  five
hundred of these sons of liberty ; and yet, said he, I love
the dogs better than I do the damn'd froz-eaters.
  On the 30th of March  we  received the heart-cheering
news of the total defeat of the British army before New - 
18*                   JOURNAL.
Orleans, with the death of its commauder in chief, Sir
Edward  Packenham,  and Generals Gibbs and Kean, with
a great number of other officers, and about five thousand
rank and file killed  and wounded ;  and what  appeared to
be absolutely incredible, this unexampled slaughter of the
enemy was achieved with the loss of less than  twenty kill-
ed and wounded on  our side.  Instead of shouting and re-
joicing, as in ordinary victories, we seemed mute with as-
tonishment.  Yes ! when we saw the Englishmen walking
with folded arms, looking down on  the ground, we had not
the heart to  exult, especially as the war was now  ended.
I speak for  myself—there  was no event that tended  so
much to  reconciliation  and forgiveness as  this immense
slaughter of the English.  We felt that this victory was
too bloody not to stifle loud exultation.
  We had heard of Generals Dearborn, Brown, Scott, Rip-
ley, Gaines and Miller, but no one knew  who General An-
drew Jackson was; but we said  that it was a New England
name, and we had no doubt but be was a full blooded yan-
kee, and  that there were many of that name in New Hamp-
shire, Massachusetts,  Vermont,  Rhode  Island and  Con-
necticut.   But I have since heard  that  he was a  village
lawyer in Tennessee, and a native of South Carolina.
  The more particulars we hear  of this extraordinary
victory, the  more we  are astonished.  We cannot be too
grateful to Heaven for allowing us, a people of yesterday,
to wind up the war  with the great and terrible nation, the
mistress of the ocean, in a manner and  style that will in-
spire  respect from  the  present and future race of  men.
Nothing  now is thought of or talked of,  but New Orleans
and Jackson, and Jackson and New Orleans.    We already
perceive  that we are treated  with more respect, and our
country spoken  of  in honorable terms.  The language
now is—we  are all one of the same people.  You have all
English blood  in your veins, and  it is no wonder that you
fight bravely !  Sometimes they  have  uttered  the slang of
" The Times," and cast reflections on the government, and
on President Madison, but we have always  resented it,
nor do we ever allow  any one  to speak disgracefully of
our illustrious chief magistrate.
  About  the middle of the present  month, (March) we
received the news of the landing of Napoleon in France,
while every  one  here  supposed him  snug at Elba.  The 
JOURNAL.
185
news came to England, and passed through it like thun-
der and  lightning, carrying with it astonishment and dis-
may.  But as much as they dread, and of course hate Bo-
naparte, the British cannot but admire his fortune and his
glory.  There are a  number of Frenchmen yet here, and
it is impossible  for man  to shew  more joy at this news
from France.  They collected together, and shouted Vive
VEmpereur ! and the Yankees joined them, with huzza for
Bonaparte, and this we kept up incessantly, to plague the
British.   The English bear any thing from us with more
patience, than our expressions of affection for the Emperor
Napoleon.  Now the fact is, we care no more for the
French,  than they do  for us ; and  there is  but little love
between  us ;—yet we pretend great  respect and affection
for that  nation,  and  their chief principally to torment
overbearing surly John Bull, who thinks that  we ought to
love nobody  but him, while he himself never does any thing
to inspire that love.
   About the 20th of  this month,  we received the heart
cheering tidings of the Ratification of  the Treaty
of Peace, by the President of the United States.
This long expected event threw us all into such a raptur-
ous  roar of joy, that we  made old Dartmoor shake under
us, with  our shouts ; and to testify our satisfaction we il-
luminated this depot of misery.  Even Shortiand affected
joy,  and was seen more than once, like Milton's Devil, to
" grin horribly a ghastly smile."
   As there can be now no longer a doubt of our being soon
set at liberty, our attention is directed to  the agent for
prisoners for fixing the  time and arranging the  means.
Mr.  Beasley had written" that as  soon as the  Treaty  was
ratified, he would make every exertion for our speedy de-
parture.   He must be aware of our extreme impatience to
leave this dreary spot, whose brown and grassless surface
renders it a place more proper for convicts, than an assem-
blage of patriots.
   We are all watching the countenance and conduct  of our
surly keeper, Shortiand ;  and it is the general opinion that
he is deeply chagrined at the idea  of no longer domineer-
ing over  us.   It may be, also, that the peace may  reduce
him to half pay   I, myself, am of  opinion  that he  is dis-
satisfied  at the idea of our escaping his fangs, with  whole
            16 
186
JOURNAL.
 skins ; and his dark and sullen countenance gathers every
 day additional blackness.
   April  4rA.—The contractor's clerk being desirous to
 get off his hands the hard biscuit, which  had been held in
 reserve in case of bad weather, attempted to serve  it out
 to the prisoners at this time ;  but ihe committee refused to
 receive it.  Nothing but hard bread was  served  out to
 them this day.  In the evening,  several  hundred of the
 prisoners entered the market square, and demanded their
 soft bread ; but it was refused.  The officers  persuaded
 them to  retire,  but they would not, before they received
 their usual soft bread.  The military officers, finding that
 it was in  vain to  appease them,  as they had  but  about
 three hundred militia to guard five  or six thousand, com-
 plied with their request, and all was quietness and content-
 ment.
   During this little commotion,  Captain Shortiand was
 gone from home.  He returned next day, when he express-
 ed his dissatisfaction at  the conduct of the military, who
 he said, should not have complied with the demand of the
 prisoners.  As it was, however,  past, and  the  prisoners
 were tranquil, and no signs of disturbance remaining, he
 grew pacified.
   On the 4th of April, we received intelligence, which we
 supposed correct, that seven cartel ships  were to sail from
 the Thames for Plymouth, to transport us home, and that
 several more were in preparation. This  inspired us with
 high spirits and good  humor ; and 1 distinctly remember
 that the  prisoners appeared  to enjoy  their amusements,
 such as playing ball  and the like,  beyond what I had be-
 fore observed.  We  all,  in fact,  felt light hearted, from
 the expectation  of soon  leaving this dreary abode, to re-
 turn  to our dear  homes, and  adored country.  But how
 was the  scene changed before the light  of another day !
 Dead and wounded men, blood and  horror, made  up the
 scenery of this fatal evening !
   The best account that could possibly be given, is that of
 a  respectable  committee, selected  from  among the best
 characters in this large assemblage of American prisoners.
The greater part of this committee, were men  of no mean
talents.  They were not young men, but had  arrived at
that period of life, when judgment is  the  soundest, and
when passion does not betray reuson.  The anxiety of all 
JOURNAL.
isr
to know  the truth,  and  the  solemn manner in which the
evidence was collected and given, stamped the transaction
with the characters of truth.   I did not see the beginning
of this affray.   I was, with  most of  the other prisoners,
eating my evening's meal in the  building,  when 1  heard
the alarm bell, and soon after a volley of musketry.  There
were, 1 believe, before the alarm bell  rung, a few hundred
prisoners,  scattered  here and there about the yards, as
usual; but.I had  no  idea of any particular collection of
them, nor had I auy suspicion of any  commotion existing,
or meditated.  But  I forbear ;  and will here insert the re-
port of the committee, in the correctness of which 1 place
an entire confidence.
DARTMOOR MASSACRE.
    Having  seen in print several different statements of the  massa-
cre of the American prisoners of war at Dartmoor, and,  on perusal,
finding, that, though they corroborate each other, as to the leading facts,
yet it seems the public are not in possession of all the particulars neces-
sary to form a proper judgment of the same.
  While in prison,  we  having been members of  the committee through
■whom was transacted all their public  business, and through  whose h.nds
passed all their correspondence with  their agent in London, and having
iu our  possession several documents relating to the before mentioned
brutal butchery, we deem it a duty we owe to our murdered countrymen
and fellow-citizens in general to have them published.
  Respecting the conduct of T. G. Shortland,  (commander of the
depot of Dartmoor) prior to the bloody  and ever  nieruorable  sixth  of
April, it was a series of continued insult, injury and  vexation to the pris-
oners  generally.  Incapable of appreciating the  beneficial effects of the
liberal policy of a gentleman,  his sole study appeared  to be devising means
to render the situation  of the prisoners as disagreeable as possible. To
instance a few of his proceedings will sufficiently warrant the foregoing as-
sertion.   His-conduct to the American officers was marked with pecu-
liar baseness and indignity.   In the  construetion of the depot at Dart-
moor, there was a separate prison, built and enclosed for the more com-
modious accommodation of those  officers (prisoners of war) who were
not considered by them entitled to a parole.   Instead of Shortiand allow-
ing those officers to occupy that prison, they were turned into the other
prisons promiscuously, with  their men.  His conduct to the prisoners
generally was of the same stamp.  There not being, at any time, a suf-
ficient number to occupy all the prisons,  he kept the two best, which
were built by the Frenchmen during their confinement, and more con-
veniently fitted for the  accommodation of prisoners, shut aud unoccupi-
ed, wh K the upper stories of those prisons in which the Americans » ere
put, were in such a state, that on every rain storm the floors were near-
ly inundated.   The pernicious effect this had on the health of the p*»s- 
lss
JOURNAL.
oners  may  be easily judged of by the great mortality that prevailed
among them during the last winter season.
   Another instance of his murderous disposition,  was his ordering his
guards to fire into the prisons, when, at any time, a light was seen burn-
ing during the night,  as specified in the general report.   While the
Frenchmen were confined in that depot, it was a custom for the turnkey,
with a sentry, to go into each prison, and  see the lights  extinguished at
a stated hour ;  although frequently lighted again there  was  no further
molestation.  Instead of pursuing this plan with the Americans, Short-
land gave orders for the guards to fire into the prisons whenever  there
should be a light burning.  Frequently, on the most trivial occasions, he
would prevent the prisoners, for ten days at a time, from purchasing, in
the market, of the country people, such articles of comfort and  conven-
ience as their scanty means would admit of.   His last act of this kind,
was but a short time previous to tbe massacre, and his alledged reason for
it was, tnat the prisoners  would not deliver up to him a man who had
made his escape from the black hole,  (a place  of confinement for crim-
inals) and had taken refuge among the prisoners  in general.  This man
was one  of a prize  crew, who was confined  in that dark and loathsome
cell, on a short allowance  of provisions, from June, 1814, until the ratifi-
cation of the treaty.  On that man beiug demanded, the prisoners stated
to Shortiand, that  they did not presume that the British  government
would expect them to stand sentry over each other—that he might send
his turnkeys and soldiers in and  look for the  man, but they would not
seek him and deliver him up—upon which  he ordered  the  military  to
fire upon the prisoners, but owing to the  coolness and deliberation of the
then  commanding  military  officer, in restraining them, this order was
not obeyed.
   To sum up the whole in  a few words,  his conduct, throughout, was
marked  by  the same illiberal prejudice, overbearing insult, and savage
barbarity, which characterises the majority of English officers when they
have  Americans  in their power.
  The enclosed  papers, from No.  1 to 16 inclusive, are the depositions
taken by the committee of investigation on the 7th  Colonel  ,\yre ar-
rived from Plymouth and took command of this depot.  Shortiand sent
in a message to the committee, requesting their attendance at his office,
to which was returned for answer, that considering hiin a murderer, they
were  determined to have no communication with him—but added, if tbe
commanding officer from Plymouth had any thing to communicate, they
would wait on him; an), at  his request, they went up to  the gate, where
they stated to him all the.particulars of the  affair.
  He expressed  great regret for what had occurred, and assured the pris-
oners that no further violence should he used upon them,  in the mean
time Shortiand made his  appearance.   Instantly the indignant cry  of
murderer, scoundrel, villain, burst from  the lips of  hundreds.  The
guilty wretch stord appalled, not daring to offer a syllable in  vindication
of his conduct; hut with a pallid visage and trembling step,  returned  to
his guard-house, from whence he was never seen to emerge while we re-
mained there.  In the com-se of the day,  a rear admiral and  post captain
arrived from Plymouth, sent by Sir J. T.  Duckworth, commander in
chief on  that station, to enquire into the transaction ; to whom  we like-
wise fully stated, by the committee, all the particulars, together with
Shortland's previous infamous conduct. Their scandalous misrepresen-
tation of the sairre to the admiralty board, as will be seen in their state-
ment Xo. 20, k truly characteristic of the British official  accounts.  We 
JOURNAL.
139
 likewise Wrote to Mr. Beasly on that day, giving him a short history of
 the  affair, but as he did not acknowledge the receipt of the  letter, we
 concluded it had been intercepted.  On the 14th  we received a letter
 from him dated the 12th. ot which No. 18 is a copy—in answer to which
 No. 19 is a copy.  On the 16th we received another from him, of which
 No  20 is a copy; in the interim  he had  seen a copy of our report, sent
 by a private conveyance, which seemed to have greatly altered his opin-
 i <n concerning the affair.  In his letter of the 14th was an extract from
 the statement or report sent him by the admiralty board   On receiving
 which we wrote to admiral Duckworth, of which No 21 is a copy.
  On tbe 22d of April, Mr. King, appointed by the American agents at
 London, and a Mr. Larpent on the part of the government, with  a mag-
 istrate of the county of Devon, arrived at the depot to investigate ihe af-
 fair;  they were employed the greater part of  three days in taking the
 depositions  respecting the same; aud though we would not hastily pre-
judge Mr. King's report, we deem it necessary  to state, that our antici-
 pations of it are not of the most favorable nature, from his not appearing
 to take that interest iu the affair which the injuries his countrymen had
 received demanded, as far the greater part of their time was employed
 in taking the depositions of Shortland's witnesses, most of whom were the
 }>riucipal actors, on that day, and of course were implicated with  him  in
 >is guilt.  On learning Mr. King was about leaving the depot, we address-
 ed a note to him, stating, that we had a number of witnesses wailing,
 whose depositions we conceived would be of importance, and requested
 Iiiin to have them taken ; we received to this note no answer,  and  he im-
 mediately left  the depot.  The particular points on which those depo-
 sitions would have born, related to picking the hole in the wall and break-
 ing the locks of the gate leading into the market square—they would have
 exonerated  the prisoners generally from having any share in  those acts,
 or even a knowledge of their having been committed.  As these were
 the two principal points on which Shortiand  rested his plea of justifica-
 tion, we deemed it highly necessary that they should have been placed  in
 a proper  point  of view.    As  for an  idea of the  prisoners attempting  lii
 b eakout, a moment's reflection would convince any impartial man of its
improbability.   Every prisoner that had a sufficiency of money l.»  defray
his expenses, could obtain his release and a passport, b) applying  to Mr.
Beasley, or  through their correspondence in  England; those who had
not funds would not have left the depot had the gates been thrown open,
having no means of subsistence in a foreign country, and  there being a
very hot press of seamen at that time, they knew their  risk of being Lid-
napped was great, and when, by staying a tew days longer, they were as-
sured they would be embarked for their native country.   The infamous
falsehoods circulated in the English prints, of the prisoners having arm-
ed themselves with knives, clubs, stones,  &c seized a  part of the guard
 and disarmed them, and other similar reports, are  unworthy  of notice;
 for when the disturbance occurred  on  the fourth of April, concerning
 bread, the prisoners having burst open the inner gatt.s, had they the least
 disposition,they might ha\e immolated the whole garrison, as thty were
 completely surprised and panic struck.
  Tiie artful policy of the Biitish officers in coupling the transactions  of
the  6th of April with that of burning Mr. Beasley's  effigy, nay eabiiy be
been through ; the latter was done a fortnight previous, by a few individ-
ual s, without its being generally known, or the least disturbance concern-
ing it ;  and  we deem it butjuslice to state, that whatever negligence Mr.
Beasley may have been guilty of, respecting the affairs ol tbe  prisoners,
he should be totally exonerated from all blame respecting tne massacre.
  There was an instance that  occurred on the evening  of the  tub, v\ui«u
                 16* 
190
JOURNAL.
reflects so much credit on the American?, it should not be passed over m
bltence.   When the brutal soldiery were following the prisoners in the
yards, stabbing and firing among them, a lamp lighter, who had come in
a lew moments previous, ran into No. 3 prison, to escape being murder-
ed bv  his own countrymen; on being recognized, a rope was fixed for
hanging  him immediately.   In this moment of irritation,  when  their
slaughtered and bleeding countrymen lay groaning around them in the
agonies of dissolution,  such an  act of vengeance,  at that time would noi
have been singular—but on its being represented to them, by some influ-
ential characters,  that such a deed would stain the American name, to
their honor be it recorded, that  humanity triumphed over vengeance, the
trembling wretch was released, and told to go—" We disdain to copy af-
ter your countrymen, and murder you at this advantage, we will seek a
more noble revenge "
  Wc deem it necessary here to remark, as some editors have manifest-
ed a disposition to vindicate Shorlland's conduct, that, allowing every cir-
lumstance  to be placed in the most unfavorable point of view for the pris.
oners, suppose, for a moment, it was their intention to break out,  and a
number had collected in the market square for that purpose, when, being
charged  upon by the military, they retreated out of the square into their
respective prison-yards, and shut the gates after them without making
any  resistance whatever;  under such circumstances no further opposi-
tion  eou'd  have been expected, and, consequently, their intention must
have  been completely defeated.   What justification  can  there then be
ui.ide  to appear for the subsequent brutal, unprecedented butchery and
mutilation?  None!  The  most shameless and barefaced advocates and
jpok.gi-zers for British injustice cannot produce any.
                            WALTER COLTON,-)  Members of
                            THOS B.  MO IT,    J-      the
                            WM. HOB A It 1',      J   Committee.

                       DEPOSITION No.  I.
  f,  .hhlifion IMmcs,  being solemnly sworn  on  the  holy evangelists of
Almighty  Gou, depose alid say—
  That on the Gtn of April, about 6 o'clock in the evening, I was in the
market square, where the soldiers  w?re drawn up.  Tneie was a num-
ber of Americans in the square—to the best (f my judgment, between
fifty  and a  hundred.  I distinctly heard Captain Shortiand order the sol-
diers to charge on the prisoners, which they did not do till the order was
repeated by their  own officers, when they charged, and tiie prisoners re-
treat ci through the gaits, which they shut to alter them.  Jn this inter-
im I had i;ut behind a sentry box,  in the square, and  the soldiers went
past me.   5 ss>w Cap'.aii) Shortiand open the gates, and distinctly  heard
him  give the word to lire, which was not immediately obeyed, the com-
manding offirer fif the soldiers observing, that he would not order the
in en to fire, hut that he (Shortiand) might do as he  pleased.  I  then saw
Capt. Shortiand seize hold of a musket, in the hands of a soldier, which
was'immediately fired—but I am not able to say  whether he or the  sol-
dier pulled the trigger.  At this time I was endeavoring to get ihrougti
the gate to the prison  yard—-in so  doing several  stabs were made  at me
with  bayonets, which  I evaded.   Immediately after the firing became
general, and I retreated, with 'Jie remainder of the prisoners, tlown the
yard, the soldiers  following and firing on the prisoners; after I had got
int > \o. 3 prison, 1 heard two vollies fired into the prison, that killed one
man and wounded uuotuer— and further the deponent faith not
                                            ADDISON HJLMES". 
J 0 V R X A L.
191
  We, the undersigned, being duly appointed and sworn as a committee
to take the depositions of those persons who were eye witnesses of tbe
late horrid massacre, certify that  the above deponents, being duly and
solemnly sworn on the holy evangelists of Almighty Cod, did depose and
say as before written, which was severally read to each one who subscrib-
ed the same.
            lVUHcm B. Orne,             Mm. llobart,
            Fvends Joseph,              James Adams,
            Walter CoUon,                James Bogg-s.
  [A  certificate similar to the foregoing, is attached to each of the depo-
sitions.  The originals are now in our hauds.J

                             No.  II.
  We, the undersigned, being each severally sworn on the holy evangel-
ists of Almighty Cod, depose and say—
  That on the 6th  Apri:, about six o'clock in the evening,  as we were
walking in the yard of No.  1 and No. 5 prisons, just before the usual
time of turning in, we heard the alarm bell ring   At this time most of
the prisoners were in the prisons ;  a number w th us ran  up the market
square, out of curiosity, to see what was the matter;  there were about
one hundred collected in the  squaie,  and a number were standing by the
gates inside the prison yard ; the soldiers were drawn up in  the upper
part of the square; orders were given them to charge,  on which the
prisoners retreated out  of the square, and some of the last which came
through the gates, shut them to ; the soldiers then commenced firing on
them through  the iron pailings, and fired  several vollies in succession.
The  prisoners were, at this  time endeavoring to get into their respec-
tive prisons,  when the  soldiers  perceived that they were all dispersed
from  the gates, they followed them into the yard, and continued firing
on them ; and after all the piiseners  had got into the prisons, a party of
soldier- pursuing them, came up to the door of No 3 prison, and fired
two vollies into the prison, which killed  one man and mortally wounded
another.
   We further solemnly declare,  that there was no pre-concerted plan or
intention among the prisoners to make an attempt to break out, or to re-
sist, in any manner, the authority of the government of the depot.
    John T. Foster,     Charles Perry,       Geo.  Stinchecomb,
    Elisha  Whitten,     James Grennlaw,    William  Perry,
    Isaac  L.  Burr,     Wm.  B. Orne,      Richard Doivning.
   Done at Dartmoor Prison, this 7th  day of April, 1815.

                             No III.
  I,  Andrew Davis, Jun. being solemnly sworn upon the holy evangel-
ists of Almighty Cod, depose and say—
   That on the 6th of April, about six o'clock in the evening, while walk--
ing iri the vard of No. 3 prison,  1 heard the alarm bell ring, and 1 went
up towards the gate : I saw several men bearing a wounded man towards
the gate, whomit appeared had been wounded by the soldiers' bayonets;
when  the prisoners were retreating out of the square, I  heard Captain
Shortiand order a part of them to  let go the wounded man, which some
of them did ; one of the remaining remonstrated to Capt. Shortiand, say-
hig that the man was so badly wounded that it required several  to sup-
port him ; on which Capt. Shortiand struck him several blows with his
fists,  and  he appeared to me, from the v* hole of his conduct, to be much
intoxicated with liquor—aud further the deponent saith not
                                       ANDP.EW DAVIS, Jun. 
1§2
JOURNAL.
                             No. IV.
  We, the undersigned, depose and say—
  That on the 6th of April, in the evening, we were in the yard of Na.
1 and No  3 prisons, when we heard the firing at the ga.es, andsaw the
prisoners all endeavoring to get into their respective prisons   in going
down towards the lower doors of the prisons, we saw a party of soldiers,
who were posted on the walls, commence firing on the prisoners, and
we saw a man fall, who immediataly died, and several others were badly
wounded before they were able to get into the prisons.
            Amos Cheeney,             Harris Keeney,
            Washington Fox,          James  Coffen,
            John Smith,                Thomas Williams,
                                       Henry  Casey.
                              No. V.
  Homer Hull, after being duly sworn on the holy evangelists of Almigh-
ty Cod, deposeth and saith —
  On the  6th of April, about six o'clock in the evening, I was walking in
the yard of No  7 prison ; all being as  tranquil  among the prisoners as
usual, I observed an unusual  number  of soldiers mounting the  walls;
and one of them called to one of the prisoners and told him he (the pris-
oner)  had hefter go into  the prison, as the prisoners -would soon be
charged upon.  While  he was  asking the cause of such a proceeding, I
heard  the alarm bell ringing; I immediately run to the gales leading to
the square, when I saw Capt. Shortiand at the head of the armed soldiery
marching down to the  gratings, the prisoners at the same time running
to see what was the matter;  on the soldiers coming to the gratings, Capt.
Shortiand ordered them to charge, which they  ditl ;  the prisoners im-
mediately run to their respective  prisons ; on passing through the inntr
gate they closed it after them.  Then  I heard Captain Shortiand order
the soldiers to fire, which they commenced to do in every direction of
the yard, when the prisoners  were makiug every effort to reach their
prisons.   I did not see any violence used on the part of the prisoners, nor
do 1 believe any violence was intended or premediated.
                                                HOMER  HULL.
  I, Joseph C. Morgan, having been duly sworn, and having read the
foregoing deposition, do declare the statement therein mentioned to be
true.                                          J. C. MORGAN.
                              No.  VI.
   We, the undersigned, depose and say-
   That on the sixth of April, about six o'clock  in the evening, we were
in the market square—we distinctly heard Capt. Shortiand give orders to
the soldiers to charge on the prisoners—and after we retreated.through
the gates, we heard him give orders to the soldiers to fire,  which, on
his repeating several times was executed.
             Joseph Reeves,            Isaac L. Burr,
             James  Greenlaw,         Thomas  Tindal.

                              No. VII.
   We, the undersigned, depose and say—
   That, on the 6th of April, in  the evening, after all the prisoners in No.
 I and  3 yards had got into their respective  prisons,  a  party  of soldier*
same up to the doer of No. 3 prison—we were standing near the door at
the time, and saw them fire two  vollies into the prison, which kill-
ed one man and wounded another.
             Wiliam Scanck,            J0hn Latham,
             James  Greenlaw,           j0/m G7c*s. 
JOURNAL
1«J3
                             No V1II.
  Enoch Burnham, having been duly sworn, deposetli—
  That he  was standing at the market-gate at the time Capt. Shortiand
came into the market square with a large party of soldiers (it being then
^ibout six o'clock.)  They immediately former! a line in the  square—at
that -iine a number of prisoners got into the square from the yard of No.
1 prison, an 1 had advanced a few steps ;  the soldiers then charged,  and
the prisoners immediately retreated  to their prisons  without the least
resistance.   After the prisoners had retired to the yards of the prison,
the soldiery formed a line and commenced  firing  in the Yards, the pris-
on gates being closed by the prisoners ; shortly after they kept up  a hea-
vy fire, and I saw one man fall.  I immediately hastened to No. 5 prison,
but on reaching  No. 7, I found there  was a  party of soldiers on the wall,
firing from every direction.   1 then  got safe in No. 7,  wher^, after re-
maining at  the north end window a few moments, I saw a man (a pris-
oner J leaning against the -will, apparently wounded,  with his hands in
a supplicating posture—at the same time, I saw several soldiers present
and fire at the prisoner and he immediately fell dead on the spot.
                                           ENOCH BURNHAM.
                             No.  IX.
  Edward  Cojfin, being duly sworn, deposed, that on the sixth of  April,
about six o'clock in the afternoon, a few prisoners belonging to No. 5 and
7 prisons, broke a hole through the vvaP  opposite No. 7 prison, as they
said to gel  a ball out of the  barrack yard, which they had lost in their
play-  After they had  broke throi gh the wall, the officers and soldiers
that were in the barrck yard, told them to  desist or they would fire upon
 them.  Immediately after that the drum  beat to arms, and the square
was filled with soldiers, and  without  telling the piisoners to go to their
prison, immediately  commenced to  charge and  fire upon them.  1 im-
mediately started to go to No. 5 prison, and the soldiers on the platforms
on  the walls commenced firing, and 1 should think near forty fired at
myself and three others, as 1 am sure there were no other men in sight
at that tine between No's 5 and 6 prisons.  In going round No. 5 cook-
house a prisoner was shot and killed, very near me.
  Attest, Henry Allen.                 EDWARD  COFFIN.
                              No  X.
   Thomas  B. M.ott, having been duly sworn, deposed—
   About s>x o'clock in  the evening of tlit 6th of April, 1 was called on by
a number of persons, requesting me as one of the committee to put  a stop
to some boys whom they said were picking a hole through an inner wall,
for which, they  caid, our provisions would be stopped to pay for   I  ask-
ed what was their intentions in making the  hole ;  they said it was for the
pur.i'Se of obtaining a b ill which  they had  lost in their play  1 then re-
paired with a number of respectable  men to make them desist , but be-
fore we got into the  yard  a  quick firing commenced   On my walking
up the yard was  met by a number of prisoners retreating to their prisons,
much  alarmed ;  one  of which I observed was  badly wounded,  he was
bleeding lively from his wound;  I could see  the yard was clear of pris-
oners, or not more than two or three to  be seen, and  iliey retiring fast.
1 requested the  wunded man to lean upon me, and 1  would assist  him
in some medical aid.   We hail  not  advanced but a few steps when we
were fired  on   ' advanced, assuring the soldiery we had  no hostile in-
teutioi.s. 1  then  tnnk the fainting man in  my arms, when a volley of mus-
ketry wa- discharged full at us.   I then retired immediately; there was
hut one of my prison  doors unlocked, which was on the back of the pris-
on.   On turning the corner of the cook-house, I found myself uuexjicci- 
19*
JOURNAL.
edly open to the fire of soldiers on the ramparts of the south wall;  their
fire was kept up in so  brisk a manner that it appeared almost impossible
to enter without being shot; but finding my situation very dangerous, I
was determined to enter the prison or die in the attempt.  For that pur-
pose myself, with i number of others that had  been standing behind the
wing of the cook house, sallied out for the purpose of gaining our prison
door, when a volley of musket balls showered in amongst us, killing two
and  wounding others.   On our entering the prison our doors  were shut
to keep them from firing in.  Some iittle time after the turnkey inquir-
ed  for me; I went forward to the window ; he requested me to deliver
up the dead and wounded ; I requested him to open the door, which he
did, for that purpose.   On passing out the dead and wounded, I was in-
sulted by tiie soldiery, and on  my replying was charged upon, and whh
difficulty escaped  without being butchered ;  they likewise insulted the
wounded as  I gave them up, and threw the dead down in the mud, and
spurned at them in a  very unfeeling manner.     THO'S  B. MOTf.

                             No XI.
  I, William Mitchell, being  duly sworn upon the  holy evangelists of
Almighty God, depose and say—
  That, on the evening of the  6th of April, when the alarm commenced,
I was in the lower part of No.  1 yard.  I walked up towards the gate to
learn the cause, when I had got about halfway, I heard asingle musket
fired, and immediately after a whole volley.  1 then  saw several men
carrying one that was wounded,  the soldiers keeping up the whole time
a steady  fire, and the prisoners  all endeavoring to get into the prisons;
the lower doors being closed in the interim ; it was with  much difficulty
they could get in, the soldiers  pursuing them the whole time and charg-
ing them with bayonets; and  after getting into the prison, 1 heard the
firing of musketry in all directions round the prison—and further the de«
ponent saith not.                        WILLIAM MITCHELL.
                             No. XII.
  I, John G.  Gatchell, having been duly sworn, depose and say—
  That I was walking in the yard towards the gate.   The first  I knew,
vas the soldiers coming into the yard, with Captain Shortiand  at llicir
he;.d, when an immediate fire  began from the soldiers, and one  man fell
within six feet of me.   While  in the act of rendering this man assistance,
I heard Captain Shortiand order the soldiers to kill the damn'd  rascal-
meaning me ;  immediately the soldiers came and pricked me with their
bayonets, and I was forced to run to the prison at the hazard of my life,
sud  leave the man that was wounded.     JOHN G.  GATCHELL.

                             No. XIII.
  James Taylor, having been duly sworn, deposeth, that he was  standing
at the gate in the market square, at the time Captain Shortiand,  with a
file of soldiers, entered  the square.  Captain Shortiand ordered a pris-
oner in the square to  go into the prison, when he immediatety complied.
He then ordered the soldiers to charge;  and  instantly observed to the
commanding officer of the military—" It  is no use  to  charge on the
damn'd Yankee rascals—FIRE''—when  this commenced immediately.
The prisoners at that  time we'e  rushing  in the prisons as fast as possible
and principally out of the square.  After ihe prisoners were mostly  in the
prison of No. 4, a boy, of ten  years of age, was shot through the body
and killed, while in the door passage trying to get in, by the  soldiers is
the yam, in my presence, I being inside the prison;  likewise one other
man was shot through the thigh.               JAMES TAYLOR. 
JOURNAL.                        195
                             No. XIV.
  Samuel Loxudy having been duly sworn, deposeth as follows  :
  That he was in the yard of piison No. 4, at the time Robert Haywood
was shot by the soldiery.  He immediately took  him up, for  the purpose
of carrying him to the hospital.   In the square  he  met  Capt. Shortiand,
and said, Capt. Shortiand, this man is  very  badly  mounded—I want to
carry him to the hospital.   Capt. Shortiand replied, you damn'd son of a
bitch, carry him back to the pr*son ; and he was obiiged to comply  Af-
ter getting to the prison, one of the soldiers called him back, and he went
up to the square with the man, and met Capt. Shortiand, who said, heave
him down there, (pointing to a sentry box) and away with you to the pris-
on , at that  time they  were firing in the different yards.  On leaving the
square, we found the man was dead.             SAMUEL  LOWDY.
  John Battice having been sworn, corroborates the evidence of Samuel
Lowdy.                                        JOHN BATTICE.
                             No. XV.
  William Potter, having been duly sworn, deposed—
  That while pafling between No. 5and 6prifons, the foldierscommenced
firing from the walls in three divifions,  at a few of us ;  at that time there
were only four prifoners in fight.   After advancing a  few fhps, I found
a man badly wounded.  I flopped and  picked the man up ; during which
time the foldiers kept an inceffant  fire  at us, as likewife till we got to the
prifon of No. 5.                            WILLIAM POTTER.
                             No  XVI.
  I, DavidS. Warren,  being duly  fworn on the holy evangelifts of Al-
mighty God. depofe and fay—
  That, on the evening of the 6th of April, when the alarm commenced, I
was in the lower part of the yard  No. 1 prifon.   I walked up to the gate
to learn the caufe.   I there faw there were a  number of prifoners in the
market fquare, and a great number of foldiers drawn up acrofs the fame;
foon after they charged on the prifoners, who retreated out of the fquare
into theii tefpective prifon yards,  and  fhut the  gates after them.   I faw
the foldiers advance up to the gates, and heard Capt. Shortiand  order thern
to fire, which they not immediately obeying.  I faw him  feize hold of a
mufket in the hands of a  foldier,  and  direct it towards a prifoner, and
heard him again repeat, "fire—God damn you. fire !"   Immediately after-
wards the firing became general ;  the prifoners were all endeavoring to get
into the prifons, which was attended with much difficulty, all  the doors
but one being clofed—and further the deponent faith not.
                                          DAVID S. WARREN.
                            No. XVII.
  We, the underfigned, being each  fevera'.ly fworn on the holy evangelifts
of Almighty God, for the inveftigation of the circumftances attending the
late horrid maffacre,  and having  heard  the depofitions of a great number
of witneffes, from our own perfonal knowledge, and from the depofitions
given  in as aforeiaid,
                REPORT JIB FOLLOWS:
  That on the 6th of April, about  fix o'clock in the evening,  when the
prifoners were all quiet in their refpective yards,  it being about the ufual
time of turning in for night, and the greater part of the prifoners being
then in the prifons,  the alarm bell  was rung, and many of the prifoners
ran up to the market fquaie to learn the occafion of the afarm.   There were
then drawn up in the fquare feveral hundred  foldiers, with Capt. Short-
land (the agent) at their head ;  it  was likewife obferved at the  fame time, 
196
JOURNAL.
that additional numbers of foldiers-were porting themfelves on the w.ii..
round the prifon yards.   One of them obferved to the prifoners, that they
had better go into the prifons. for they would be charged  upon directly.
This, of courfe, occafioned confiderable alarm among them   In this mo-
ment of uncertainty, they  were running  in different directions, enquiring
the caufe of the alarm ; fome toward their refptttive prifons, and fome to-
ward the market fquare.   When about one hundred  were collected in the
fquare, dipt Shortiand ordered the  foldiers  to charge upon them, which
order the  foldiers were relu&ant in obeying,  as the  prifoners  were ufing
no violence ; but on the order being repeated, they made a charge,  and the
prifoners  retreated out of the fquare into their prifon yards, and {hut the
gate  after them   Capt  Shortiand,  himfelf, opened the gates, and ordered
the foldiers to fire in  among the prifoners, who were all retreating in dif-
ferent directions towards  their  refpeftive prifons.   It appears there was
fome hefitation in the minds of the officers, whether  or not it was proper
to fire  upon the prifoners in that lituation ; on which Shortiand feized a
mufket out of the hands of a foldier, which he fiiedi  Immediately after
the file became general,  and many of the  prifoners  were either killed or
wounded.  The  remainder were endeavoring to get into the prifons, when
going towards the lower doors, the  foldiers on the walls commenced firing
on them from that quarter, which killed fome and wounded others  Af-
ter much  difficulty, (all the doors being  clofed in the entrance, but one in
each piifon) the furvivors  fucceeded  in gaining the prifons;  immediately
after which, parties  of foldiers came to the «'oors of Nos. 8 and 4 prifons,
and  fired  feveral vollies into them through the windows and doors, which
killed one man in each prifon, and feverely wounded others.
   It likewife appears, that the  preceding butchery was followed up with
a difpofition of peculiar inveteracy  and barbarity.
   One man who  was teverely wounded  in  No. 7 prifon yard, and being
unable to make his  way to the  prifon, was come up with by the foldiers,
whom he implored  for mercy, but  in vain ;  five of  the hardened wretches
immediately levelled  their pieces at him, and  (hot him dead on the fpot.
The  foldiers who were on the walls, manifefted equal cruelty, by keeping
up 1 conftant fire  on every prifoner they could fee in the yards endeavoring
to get into the prifons, when their numbers were veiy few, and when not
the leaft fhadow of  refinance could  be made or expefted.   Several of them
had  got into No  6 prifon cook houfe, which was pointed out  by  the fol-
diers on the walls, to thofe who were marching in from the fquare.  They
immediately went up and fired into the fame, which wounded feveral.—
One of the prifoners ran out, with the intention of gaining his prifon, but
was  killed before he reached the door.
   On an impartial confideration, of  all circumftances of the cafe, we are
induced to belip.ve that it was a premeditated fcheme  in the mind of Capt.
Shortiand, forreafons which we will now proceed to give.   As an illuci-
dation of its origin, we will recur back to an event which happened  fome
days previous   Captain Shortiand was at the time, abfent  at   Plymouth;
but before going, he ordered the contractor, or his clerk,  to ferve out one
pound of  indifferent, hard bread, inftead of one pound and an half of  foft
bread, their ufual allowance.   Thisthe prifoners refufed to receive.  They
waited all day  in expectation of their ufual  allowance  being ferved out -r
but  at  funset, finding  this  would not  be the cafe,  burft open the lower
gates, and went up to the ftore, demanding to have their  bread
  The officers of the garrifon, on   being alarmed, and informed of thefe
proceedings, obferved that it  was no more than right the prifoners fliould 
J0URNAL.
197
 have their ufual allowance, and ftrongly reprobated captain Shortiand, in
 withholding it  from them.   They  were  accordingly  ferved  with their
 bread, and quietly returned to their prifon.   This circumftance,  with the
 cenfures that were thrown on his conduct, reached the ears of  Shortiand,
 on his return home,  and he muft then have determined on the  diabolical
 plan of feizing the firfl flight pretext to turn  in the military,  to butcher
 the prifoners for the  gratification of his malice  and revenge.  It unfortu-
 nately happened, that in the afternoon of the fixth  of April, tome boys
 who were playing ball in No. 7 yard, knocked their ball oyer into the
 barrack yard, and on the fentry in that yard refusing to throw it back to
 them, they picked a  hole in the wall, to get in after it.
   This afforded Shortiand his wifhed for pretext, and he took his  meaf-
 ures accordingly.  He had all the garrifon drawn up in the military walk,
 additional numbers  poftedon the walls, and  every thing prepared,  ieftre
 the alarm-bell was rung ; this he naturally concluded would draw the at-
 tention of a great number of prifoners towards the gates, to learn the caufe
 of the alarm, while the turnkeys were difpatched into the yards to lock
 all the doors but one, of each prifon, to prevent the prifoners retreatingout
 of the way,  before he had  fufficiently wreaked his vengeance.
   What adds peculiar weight to the belief of its being a premeditated, de-
 termined maffacre, are,
   fryrt_The  fanguinary  difpofition  manifefted on every  occafion  by
 Shortiand, he having prior to  this time, ordered the foldiers to fire into
 the prifons, through  the prifon windows, upon unarmed prifoners afleep
 in their hammocks,  on account of a light being feen in the prifons; which
 barbarous act was repeated feveral nights fucceflively.  That  murder was
 not then committed,  was  owing to an overruling Providence alone ;  for
 the balls were picked up  in the prifons, where they palled  through the
 hammocks of men then afleep in them.   He  having alfo  ordered the fol-
 diers to fire upon the prifoners in the yard of No. 7 prifon, becaufe they
 would not deliver up to him a man who had efcaped from his cachot, which
 order the commanding officer of the foldiers refufed to obey;  and general-
 ly, he having feized  on  every flight  pretext  to  injure the prifoners, by
 popping their marketing for ten days repeatedly, and once, a third part of
 their provifions for the fame lengthof time.
  Secondly—He having been heard  to fay, when tbe boys bad picked the hole
 in the wall,  and  fometime before the alarm  bell  was rung, while all the
 prifoners  were quiet  as ufual in their refpective yards—" I'll fix the damn'd
 rafcali directly.'                           _
   Thirdly—His having all the foldiers on their pofts, and the garrifon fully
 prepared  before  the alarm bell rung.   It could  not  then, of courfe, be
 rung to affemble the  foldiers, but to alarm the prifoners, and create confu-
 fion among them.                                                  .
   Fourthly—I he foldiers upon the wall, previous to the alarm bell  being
 rung, informing the prifoners that they would be charged upon directly.
   Fifthly—The turnkeys going into the yard and clofing all the doors but
 one, in each prifon, while the attention of the prifoners was attracted by
 the alarm bell.   This was done about  fifteen  minutes  fooner than  ufual,
and without informing the prifoners it was time  to (hut up.   It was ever
the invariable practice of (be turnkeys, from which they never deviated be-
 fore that night, when coming into the yard to (hut up,  to  halloo to the
 prifoners, fo loud as  to  be heard throughout the yard, " turn in, turn in .
 while on  that night it was done fo fecretly, that not one man in a hundred
 knew, they were (hut; and in particular, their (hutting the door or No. 
198
JOURNAL.
7, prifoners ufually go in and  out  at, and  which  was formerly alwayj
clofed laft, and leaving one open in the other end of the prifon, which was
expofed to a crofs fire from the foldiers on the walls, and which the prifon-
ers had to Dafs in gaining the prifons.
  It appears to us that the foregoing reafons fufficiently warrant the con-
clufion we have drawn therefrom.
  We likewife believe, from the depofitions of men who were eye wit-
neffes of a part of Shorthmd's conduct, on the evening of the 6th of April,
that he was intoxicated with liquor at the time ; from his brutality in beat-
ing a prifoner then fupporting another feverely wounded, from the black-
guard and abufive language he madeufeof, and from his frequently having
been feen in the  fame ftate. His being drunk was, of courfe, the means of
inflaming his bitter enmity  againft  the  prifoners, and  no doubt was the
caufeof the indifcriminate butchery, and of no quarter being given.
  We here folemnly aver, that there was no pre-concerted plan to attempt
a breaking out.  There cannot be produced  the lead fhadow of a reafon or
inducement for that intention, becaufe the prifoners were daily  espefting
to bereleafed, and to embark onboard cartels for  their native country.
And we  likewife folemnly affert, that  there wasno intention of refilling, in
in any manner, the authoiity of this depot.
   N. B. Seven were killed, thirty dangeroufly wonnded, and thirty (light-
ly do.  Total, fixty-feven killed and wounded.
       [Wm. B. Orne,           Win. Hobart,
   £   James Boggs;           James Adams,     j
   g <J J. F. Trowbridge,       Francis Joseph,     ^Committee.
   2  ! John Rust,               Henry Allen,       '.
   w  IWaUer Colton,           Thomas B. Mott, J

                            No. XVIII.
Letter from Mr. Beafiy, agent for American prifoners of war at London, to the
        Committee of American prifoners of mar in Dartmoor prifon.
                         Agency for American prifoners of war, )
                               London, April  12, 1815.       J
   Gentlemen—It having been dated in fomeof the newfpapers publifh-
ed here, that the American government intended to fend fome (hips of war
bound to the Mediterranean, to this country, for the purpofe of complet-
ing their crews from among the prifoners; and having been informed that
this idea has got among the prifoners, it becomes my  duty to requeft, that
you will inform them that the fact is not fo.
   I have  already informed you of the meafures which  had been taken to
provide conveyances for the prifoners.  You will let  them know, that
eight large tranfports have been engaged, fome of which  muft be now at
Plymouth ; others will follow, until the whole of the prifoners are fent off.
   It is much to be lamented, that at a moment when every exertion was
making to reftore them to their country, theyfhould have fallen into an excefs
which has proved fatal to fome.  And I am at a lofs to conceive how they
could, under fuch circumftsnees, ptetend to fay, that the caufe of this un-
fortunate but (hameful conduct, was the neglect of their government or its
agent.   This, I am informed, they  have dated to  the officers  who  were
fent to examine into the affair.  I am, gentlemen, your obedient fervant,
                                                R. G. BEASLEY.
  The  Committee of the American prifoners, Dartmoor. 
JOURNAL.
199
                             No.  XIX.
                                      Dartmoor, April 14, 1815.
  Sir—Yours, of the lath inst. came to hand this morning.  It is with as-
touifhmcnt we note its contents, that the officers who came to inquire into
the circumdances of the late unfortunate affair, (hould have informed you,
that the prifoners dated to them, the caufe of that event was that their gov-
ernment or its agent had neglefted them.  This is a mod deliberate falfe-
hood, let your authors be who they may   We deny  not, that the anxiety
of the prifoners to get releafed from here has been great; they have even ccn-
fured you  as being dilatory in your preparations for that  purpofe—but
their government they  have never implicated—and you may reft  affured,
that they have too much of the genuine fpirit of Americans, to apply to tho
officers of a foreign government for relief, or to make them a party in any
difpute with the government or its agents.
  We  folemnly affure you, that whatever anxiety among the  prifoners,  or
want of confidence in your exertions, as  above ftated, may  have exidect
among them, that it can in no way be conftrued to  have any collufion or
connection with the late event, and was exprefsly fo ftated to  the admiral,
who came here from Plymouth.
  We. on the contrary, in the name of the five thoufand prifoners confined
here, accufe Shortiand of a deliberate, pre-determined aft of atrocious mur-
der—we have fufficient evidence in our poffeffion to prove it to the world,
and  we call on you (there being at prefent no accredited minifter or charge
des affaires at the court of London) to make drift inquiries  into the cir-
cumflances of the cafe, and procure all the evidence neceffary for a proper
inveltig3tion into the fame; for well  do we feel affured, that  our govern-
ment will not thus fufferits citizens to he facrificed, for the gratification of
national prejudice, malice or revenge  of the petty officers of a foreign date.
   We are at no lofs to impute the mifreptefentation  of the Britifh officers
to their proper motives.  They artfully wifh to excite  in your bread, a
fpirit of enmiiy and refentment againft the prifoners, that you might ufe
lets  perfeverance, or feel yourfelf lefs intereded in making the proper  in-
quiries into the late affair.
   With much refpeft  we remain, fir, your mod obedient  and humble
fervants,
                                    WILLIAM HOBART,
                                    WALTER  COLTON,
                                    HENRY  ALLEN.
   R. G. Beafiey, Efq. Agent for Prifoners, London.

                               No. XX.
           2d Letter from Mr. Beafiey to the American Committee.
                           Agency for American Prifoners  of War,
                                 London, April 14, 1815.
   Gentlemen—My letter to you of the 12th ind. on the  fubject of the
melancholy event, was written under an impreffion which I received from
a report of it, tranfmitted to me by this government : I have  fince received
your report of thecircumdanccs.  Had  I been in poffeffion of  the infor-
mation therein contained, the letter would have been differently expreffed.
 I am, gentleman, your obedient fervant,            R. G. BEASLEY.
   Committee of American Prifoners, Dartmoon
   P. S. 1 fubjoin an extract of the report alluded to from the Lords Com*
 mifliowers of tbe Admiralty : 
 200                         JOURNAL.

   " The rioters, it appears, endeavored to overpower the guard, to force
 the prifon, and had actually feized the arms of fome of the foldiers, and
 made a breach in the walls of the depot,  when the guard found itfelf obli-
 ged to  have recourfe to their fire arms, and five of the rioters were killed,
 and thirty-four wounded,  after which the tumult fubfided, and the depot
 was placed in a ftate of tranquility and fecurity.
   " Admiral Sir J. T. Duckworth, Commander in Chief at Plymouth,
 having received information of this unfortunate event, lod no timejndi-
 refting Rear Admiral  Sir Jofias Rowley, Baronet,  K. C.  B. and  Schorn-
 berg, the two fenior officers at that port,  to proceed  to Dartmoor, and to
 enquire into thecircumftances.  Thofe officers accordingly repaired to the
 depot,  where they found, on examination of the officers of the depot, and
 all the American  prifoners who were called before them, that the  circumftancea
 of the riot were as before dated ; but that no excufe could be affigned for
 the conduft of the  prifoners,  but  their impatience to be releafed ;  and the
 Americans unanimoufly  declared, that their complaint of delay  was not
 againft the Britifh  government, but againft their own, which  ought to have
 fent means for their early conveyance home, and in replies to diftinct quef-
 tions to that effect;, they declared they had no ground of complaint what-
 fbever."
                              No. XXI.
                                     DARTMOOR, APRIL 17,  1815.
 To Rear Admiral Sir J. T. Duckworth,
     Sir—The  officers  whom you fent to this  place to  inquire into the
 circumftance of the unfortunate occurrence of the 6th inft. whatever right
 they had to reprefent the conduft of Capt. Shortiand in the moft favorable
 manner, we conceive it an aft of grofs injuftice that  they fhould have giv-
 en to you fuch a  falfe  and fcandalous reprefentation  of  what they were
 told by the prifoners.
   In the report from the admiralty board to Mr. Beafiey, (a copy of which
 he has tranfmitted to usj  it is  ftated that the prifoners, when called  upon to
 give an account of thecircumftances of the 6th, exonerated Capt Shortiand
 and the Englifh  government  from any blame refpefting the fame,  and ac-
 cufed their own government and its agent  of being the caufe.
   We,  on the contrary, folemnly declare that it was exprefsly ftated to Ad-
 miral Rowley, that whatever anxiety might  have exifted among the prif-
 oners for a fpeedy releafe, could, in no way whatever, be conftrued  to have
 had any collufion or connexion  with  that event.  That the  prifoners, fo
 far from haying any idea of attempting to  break out,  if the gates had  been
 opened,  and every one differed to go  who might wifh  to  do fo, not one
 in a hundred would have left the prifon, having no means of  fubfiftence in
 a foreign country, and  being  likewife  liable to impressment,  when by
 Haying a few days  longer, they would,  probably, be embarked for their
 native country.
   They, on the contrary, accufed Capt. Shortiand of being the fole mover
and principal perpetrator of the unprovoked and horrid butchery.
   Conceiving, from your well known charafter in ihe  Britifh navy for
 integrity and candor, that you would not  wifh to have your name the me-
 dium of impofing fuch a grofs mifreprefentation and fuch direftfalfehoods
 on the admiralty board and the Britifh public, we have taken the liberty of
 thus addreffing you, and have the  honor to fubfcribe ourfelves your moft
 ohcdient and very humble fervants,
       Wm. Hobart, Walter Colton,  Henri/ Allen,  Thomas B.
             Molt, Wm. B.  Orne,
                          Committee  of American Pri'somrs^  Dnrtmyxr. 
JOURNAL.                       201
    [In addition to the documents furnifhed by the committee of the Dart-
 moor prifoners, we lay the following affidavit of Archibald Taylor before
 the public.  Will people doubt this evidence alfo ?   Is it likely that com-
 mon foldiers, hired affaffins, would make ufe of  fimilar expreffions from
 their own impulfes ?   or is it not much more conformable to common
 Tenfe to believe that this was  the language held by their officers, and that
 they echoed it.]
                                              City of New York, ss.
    Archibald Taylor, late commander of the Paul Jones private armed  vef-
 fel of war, being duly fworn, doth depofe and fay—
   That he was a priibner in Dartmoor prifon at the time of the late maf-
 sacreof the Americans  ; that after the affair of the 6th of  April, and on
 the night of the fame day, he was in the prifon No.  3, affifting Thomas
 Smith, late his boatfwain, who was (hot through his  leg by the  foldiers in
 the yard,  when  an ordei was  received to have all the wounded removed
 from the  prifons to the hofpital ; and while this deponent was carrying
 the faid Thos. Smith  to the  door of the prifon, to deliver him to the*
 guards felefted to receive him,  fome of the  foldiers  obferved to this de-
 ponent, " this is in turn for the affair at New Orleans, where you killed
 our men, and now we have  our revenge"—and further this deponent faith
 not.                                   ARCHIBALD TAYLOR.
         Sworn before  me, this 28th June, 1815.
                            AARON H. PALMER, Notary Public.

          KING AND LARPENT'S REPORT,
                                          Plymouth, Wth April, 1815.
     We the undersigned commissioners, appointed on behalf  of our
 respective  governments, to inquire into and  report upon, the unfortu-
 nate occurrence of the 6th April inst. at  Dartmoor Prison; having
 carefully perused  the proceedings of the several courts of inquiry, in-
 stituted immediately after that event,  by the orders of  Admiral Sir
 John T Duckworth and Major-General Brown,  respectively, as well
 as the depositions taken  at the  coroner's inquest upon the bodies of
 the prisoners, who lost their lives upon that melancholy occasion; upon
 which inquest the jury found  a  verdict of justifiable homicide; pro-
 ceeded immediately to the examination upon oath in the presence of
 one or more of the magistrates of the vicinity, of all the  witnesses,
 both American and Engligh, who offered themselves for that purpose;
 or who could be discovered as likely to afford  any material  informa-
 tion on the subject, as well as those who had been previously exam-
 ined before the coroner, as otherwise, to the number in the  whole of
 about eighty.  We further proceeded to a minute examination of the
 prisons, for the purpose of clearing up some points which, upon the
evidence alone, were scarcely intelligible ; obtaining from the prison-
ers, and from the  officers of the depot, all the necessary  assistance
and explanation;  and  premising, that  we have been from necessity
compelled to draw many of our conclusions  from statements  and evi-
dence highly contradictory, we do now make upon the whole proceed.
ings the following  report:—
  During the period which has elapsed since the arrival in this coun-
try  of the account of the ratification of the treaty of Ghent, an increas-
ed degree of restlessness and impatience of confinement appears to
                17* 
.202
JOURNAL.
have prevailed amongst the American prisoners at Dartmoor, whiti/,
though not exhibited in the shape of any violent excesses, has been
principally indicated by threats of breaking out if not soon released.
   On the 4th of this month in particular,only two days previous to the
events which are the subject of this inquiry, a large body of the pri-
soners rushed  into  the market-square, from  whence, by the regula-
tions of the prison they are excluded, demanded bread instead of bis-
cuit, which had on that day been issued by the officers of the depot;
their demands having been then almost immediately complied with,
they returned  to  their own yards,  and the employment of force on
that occasion became unnecessary.
   On the evening of the 6th, about six o'clock, it was clearly proved
to us, that a breach  or hole had been made in  one of the prison walls,
sufficient for a full sized man to pass, and that others had been com-
menced  in  the course of the day near the same  spot, though never
completed.
   That a number of the prisoners were over the railing erected to
prevent  them  from communicating with the  centinels on the walls,
which was of course forbidden by the regulations of the prison,  and
that in the space- between the railing and  those walls they were tear.
jng up pieces of turf, and wantonly pelting each other in a noisy and
disorderly manner.
   That a much more  considerable number of the  prisoners was col-
lected together at that time in one of their yards near the place where
the breach was effected,  and that although such collection of prison-
ers was not unusual at other times (the Gambling Tables being com-
monly kept in  that part of the yard) yet, when connected with the
circumstances of the breach, and the time of the day, which was after
the hour the signal for the prisoners to retire to their respective  pri-
sons had ceased to sound, it became a natural and just ground of
alarm to those who had charge of the depot
   It was also in evidence that in the building  formerly the petty  offi-
cers* prison, but now the guard barrack, which stands in the yard to
which the hole in the wall would serve as  a communication, a part of
the arms of the guard who were off duty,  were usually kept in the
racks, and though there  was no evidence that this was, in any re-
spect, the motive which induced the prisoners to make  the opening
in the wall,  or even that they were ever acquainted with the fact, it
naturally became at least a further cause of sucpicion and alarm,  and
an additional reason for precaution
   Upon these grounds Capt. Shortiand  appears to us to have been
justified  in giving the order, which about this time he seems to have
given, to sound the alarm bell, tbe usual signal for collecting the  offi-
cers of the depot and putting the military on the alert.
   However reasonable and justifiable this was as a measure of pre-
caution, the effects produced thereby in the prisons, but which could
not have been intended, were most unfortunate, and deeply to be re-
gretted.   A considerable number of the prisoners in the yards where
no disturbance existed before,  and who  were either already within
their respective prisons, or quietly retiring  as usual towards them,
immediately upon  the sound of the bell  rushed  back from curiosity
Itis it appears) towards the gates, where by that time the crowd  had 
JOURNAL.                       20S
assembled, and many who were at the time  absent from their yards,
were  also from  the plan of the prison, compelled, in order to reach
their  own homes, to  pass  the same spot,  and thus  that which was
merely a measure of precaution,  in  its operation increased the evil
it  was intended  to prevent-   Almost at  the same instant that  the
alarm bell rung,  (but whether before or subsequent is upon the evi-
dence doubtful, though Capt. Shortiand states it positively as one of
his further reasons for causing it to ring) some one or more of  the
prisoners broke the iron chain, which was the only fastening of No. 2
gate, leading into the market square by means of an iron bar;  and a
very considerable number of the prisoners immediately rushed towards
that gale; and many of them began  to press forwards as fast as the
opening would permit into the square-
   There was no  direct proof before us of previous concert or prepar-
ation on the part of the prisoners, and  no evidence of their intention
or disposition to effect their escape on  this  occasion, excepting that
which arose  by inference from the whole of the above detailed circum=
stances connected together.
   The natural and almost irresistible inference to be drawn, however,
from the conduct of the prisoners by Capt. Shortiand and the military
was, that an intention on the part of the prisoners to escape was on
the point of being carried into execution, and it was at least certain
that they were by force passing beyond the limits prescribed to them
at a time when they ought to have been quietly going in for the night.
It was also in evidence that the outer gates of the market square were
usually opened about this time to let the bread waggons pass and re-
pass to the store, although at the period in question they were in fact
closed.
   Under these circumstances, and with these impressions necessarily
operating upon his mind, and a knowledge that if the prisoners once
penetrated through the square, the power of escape  was almost to a
certainty afforded to them, if they should be so disposed; Capt. Short-
land in the first instance proceeded down the square towards the pri-
soners, having ordered a part of the different guards, to the number of
about fifty only at first, (though they were increased afterwards) to
follow him.   For some time both he and Dr. Magrath endeavored by
quiet means and persuasion, to induce the prisoners to return to their
own yards explaining to them the fatal consequences which must en-
sue it they refused, as the military would in that case be necessarily
compelled to employ force   The guard was by this time formed in
the rear of Capt. Shortiand,  about two thirds of the way down  the
square—the latter is about one hundred feet broad, and the guard ex-
tended  nearly all across.   Capt  Shortiand, finding that persuasion
Was all in vain, and that  although some were induced by it to make
an effort to retire, others pressed on in considerable numbers, at last
ordered about 15 file of the  guard, nearly in front of the gate which
had been forced, to charge the prisoners back to  their own yards.
   The prisoners were in some places so near the military, that one of
"the soldiers states that he could not  come fairly down to the charge;
and the military were unwilling to act as  against an enemy   Some
struggling ensued between the* parties, arising partly from  intentions
but mainly from the pressure of those behind preventing those in front 
&01
JOURHAL
 from getting back.   After some little time, however, this charge ap«
 pears to have been so far effective, and that with little or no injury to
 the prisoners, as  to have driven them for the most part quite down
 out of tlje square, with the exception  of a small number who continued
 their resistance about Iso 1 gate.
   A great crowd atill remained collected after this in the passage be-
 tween the square and the prisoners' yards, and in the part of those
 .yards in the vicinity of the gates__This  assemblage still  refused to
 withdraw, and according to most of  the English witnesses and some
 of the American,  was making a noise, hallowing, insulting and pro-
 voking, and daring the military to fire, and according to the testimony
 of several of the soldiers, and some others were pelting the military
 with large stones, by which some of them were actually struck.  This
 circumstance is, how ever, denied by many of the American witnesses;
 and some of the Engligh, upon having the  question put to them, stated
 that they saw no stones thrown previously  to the firing, although their
 situation at  the time was such as to enable them to see  most of the
 proceedings in the square.
   Under these circumstances the firing commenced —With regard to
 any order having been given to fire tbe evidence is very contradictory.
 Several of the Americans swear possitively, that Capt Shortiand gave
 that order ;  but the manner in which from the confusion of the mo-
 ment, they described this part, of the transaction,  is so different in its
 details that it is very difficult  to reconcile their testimony.   Many of
 the  soldiers and other  English witnesses, heard the word given by
 some one, but no one of them can  swear it was by Capt. Shorthand,
 or by any one in particular, and some, amongst whom is the officer
 commanding the guard, think, if Capt. Shortiand had given such an
 order that they must have heard it, which they did not.  In addition
 to this Capt. Shortiand denies the fact; and from the situation which
 he appears to have been placed at the time, even according to the;
 American witnesses, in front of the soldiers, it may appear somewhat
 improbable that he should then have given such an order.
   But, however, it may remain a matter of doubt whether the firing
 first began in the  square by order, or  was a spontaneous act of the
 soldiers themselves, it seemed clear that it was continued and renewed
 both there and elsewhere without orders; and that on the platforms,
 and  in several places about  the prison, it  was certainly commenced
 without any authority.
   The fact of an order having been given at first, provided the firing
 was  under the existing circumstances justifiable, does not appear very
 material in any other point of  view, than  as shewing a want of self
 possession and discipline in the troops if they should have fired with-
 out order.
   With regard to the above most important consideration, of whether
 the  firing was justifiable or not, we  are of opinion, under all the cir-
 cumstances of the  case, from  the apprehension  which the  soldiers
 might fairly entertain, owing fothe numbers and conduct of the prison-
ers,  that this firing to a certain extent  was justifiable in  a military
point of view, in order to intimidate the prisoners, and compel them
thereby to desist from all acts of violence, and to  retire as they were or-
dered.from a situation in  which the responsibility of tbe agents, and
the military, could not permit them with safety to remain. 
JOURNAL.
ms
   From the fact of the crowd being so close and the firing at first be-
 ing  attended with very little injury,  it appears  probable that a large
 proportion of the muskets were, as stated by one  or two of the witness-
 es, levelled over the heads of the prisoners ; a circumstance in some
 respects to be  lamented, as it induced them to cry out "blank cart-
 ridges," and merely irritated and encouraged them to renew their in-
 suits to the soldiery, which  produced a repetition of the firing in a
 manner much more destructive.
   The firing in  the square having continued for some time, by which
 Several of the prisoners sustained injuries, the greater part of them ap-
 pear to  have  been  running back with the utmost precipitation and
 confusion to their respective prisons, and the cause for further  firing
 seems  at this period to  have ceased.  It appears, accordingly, that
 Capt. Shortiand was in the market square exerting himself and giving
 orders to that effect, and that Lieut.  Fortye had succeeded in stop-
 ping the fire of his part of the guard.
   Under these  circumstances, it is very difficult to find any justifica-
 tion  for the further continuance and renewal of the firing, which cer-
 tainly took  place both in the prison yards and elsewhere;  though we
 have some evidence of  subsequent provocation given to the military,
 and resistance to the turnkeys in shutting the prisons,  and of stones
 being thrown out from within the prison doors.
   The subsequent firing rather appears to have arisen from the state
 of individual irritation and exasperation on the part of the soldiers, who
 followed the prisoners into their yards, and from  the absence of nearly
 all of  the officers who might have restrained it,  as well as from the
 great difficulty of putting an end  to  a firing when once commenced
 under such circumstances.   Capt. Shortiand was from this time  busily
 occupied with the turnkeys in the square, receiving and taking care of
 the wounded   Ensign White remained with his guard at the breach,
 and  Lieuts  Ayelyne and Fortye, the only  other  subalterns known to
 have been present, continued with the main bodies of their respective
 guards.
   The time of the day, which was the officers' dinner hour, will in some
 measure explain this, as it caused the absence of every officer from the
 prison whose presence was not indispensable there.  And this circum-
 stance  which has been urged as an argument to prove the intention of
 the prisoners to take this opportunity to escape, tended to increase the
 confusion, and to prevent those great exertions being made  which
 might perhaps have obviated a portion at least of the mischief  which
 ensued.
   At the same time that the firing was going on in the square, a cross
 fire was also kept up from several of the platforms on the walls round
 the prisoners where the centries stand,  by  straggling parties of sol-
 diers who ran up there for  that  purpose.   As far as this fire was di-
 rected to disperse the men assembled round the breach, for which pur-
pose  it  was most effectual, it seems to stand upon the same ground as
that in the first instance in the square — That part  which it is positively
sworn was directed against straggling- parties of prisoners running about
the yards and endeavoring to enter in the few doors which t he turnkeys,
 according to their usual practice, had left open, does seem, as stated,
 -?j have been wholly without object or excuse) and to have been a war»» 
206
JOURNAL.
ton attack upon the lives of defenceless, and at that time, unoffending
individuals.
   In the same, or even more severe terms, we must remark upon what
was proved as to the firing in the door-ways of the prisons, more par-
ticularly into that of No 3 prison,  at  a time when the men were in
crowds at the entrance.  From the position of the prison and the door,
and from the marks of the balls which were pointed out to us, as well
as from the evidence, it was  clear  this firing  must have proceeded
from soldiers a very few feet from the door way ; and although it was
certainly sworn that the prisoners were at the time of part of the firing
at least,  continuing to  insult and occasionally to throw stones at the
soldiers, and that they were standing in  the way  of, and impeding the
turnkey, who was there for the purpose of closing the  door,  yet still
there was nothing stated which could, in our view, at all justify such
excessively harsh and severe treatment of helpless and unarmed pri-
soners, when all idea of escape was at an end.
   Under these impressions, we used every endeavor to  ascertain if
there  was the least prospect of indentifving any of the soldiers who
had been guilty of the particular outrages here alluded to, or of tracing
any particular death, at that time to the firing of any particular indi-
vidual, but without success; and all hopes of bringing the offenders
to punishment would seem to be at an end.
   In conclusion,  we, the undersigned, have only to add, that whilst
we lament, as we do most deeply, the unfortunate transaction which
has been the subject of this inquiry, we  find ourselves  unable to sug-
gest any steps to be taken as to those parts of it which seem to call for
redress and punishment.
                       (Signed)            CHARLES KING,
                          FRANCES  SEYMOUR LARPENT.

                                       Plymouth, April 26, 1815.
   Sir—In pursuance of the instructions received from Messrs Clay
and Gallatin, I have now the honor to transmit to you the report pre-
pared by  Mr. Larpent and myself on behalf of our respective govern-
ments, in relation to the unfortunate transactions at Dartmoor Prison of
War,  on  the 6th of the present month   Considering it of much  im-
portance that the report, whatever it might be, should go forth under our
joint signatures, 1 have  forborne to press some of the points which it
involves, as far as otherwise  I  might have done, and it therefore may
not  be improper in this letter  to enter  into some little explanation of
such parts of the report.
  Although  it does appear that a part of the prisoners were on that
evening: in such a state, and under such circumstances as to have jus-
tified  in the view which the  commander of the depot could not  but
take of it, the intervention of the military  force, and even in a strict
sense,  the first use of fire arms, yet I cannot but express it as my set*
tied opinion,  that by conduct a little more  temporising this dreadful
alternative of firing upon unarmed prisoners might have been avoided.
Yet as this opinion has been the result of subsequent examination, and
after liaving acquired a knowledge of the comparatively harmless state
of t'.e prisoners, it may be but fair to consider, whether in such a mo-
ment of confusion and alarm, as that appears to have been, the officer 
JOURNAL.
207'
 commanding could have fairly estimated his danger, or have measured
 out with precision the extent and nature of the force necessary to guard
 against it.
   But when the firing became general, as it afterwards appears to have
 been, and caught with electric rapidity from the square to the plat-
 forms, there is no plea nor shadow of* excuse for it, except in the per-
 sonal exasperation of the soldiery, nor for  the  more deliberate, and
 therefore more unjustifiable firing which took place into three of the
 prisons, No. 1, 3 and 4, but more particularly into No 3, after the pri-
 soners had retired into them, and there was no longer any pretence of
 apprehensions, as to their escape —Upon this ground, as you, sir, will
 perceive by the report, Mr Larpent and myself had no difference of
 opinion, and I am fully persuaded that my own regret was not greater
 than his at perceiving how hopeless would be the attempt to trace to
 any individuals of the military these outrageous proceedings.
   As to whether the order to fire came from Capt. Shortiand, I yet
 confess  myself unable to form any satisfactory  opinion  though per-
 haps the bias of my mind is, that he did give such an order-  But his
 anxiety and exertions to stop it after it had continued for some little
 time, are fully proved, and his general conduct previous to this occur-
 rence, as far  as we could with propriety enter  into such details, ap-
 pears to have been characterized with great fairness, and even kind-
 ness, in the relation in which he stood towards the prisoners.
  On the  subject of any complaints against their own government exist-
 ing among the prisoners, it was invariably answered to several distinct
 questions put by me on that head, that none  whatsoever exitted or had
 been  expressed by  them, although  they confessed themselves to enter-
 tain some animosity against Mr. Beasley, to whom they attributed their
 detention  in this  country; with what justice, you sir,  will be better
 able to judge.  They made no complaint whatsoever as to their pro-
 visions and general mode of living, and treatment in the prison.
  1 have transmitted to Mr. Beasley, a list of the killed and wounded
 on this melancholy occasion, with a request that he would forward it
 to the United States, for the information of their  friends at home, and
 I am pleased to have it in my power to say, that  the wounded are for
 the most part doing well.
  I have also enclosed to Mr. Beasley, the notes taken by me of the
 evidence adduced before  us, with a request that  he  would have them
 fairly copied, as also a copv of the depositions taken before the  Coro-
 ner, and desired him to submit  them to you when in order.
  I cannot conclude, sir, without expressing my  high sense of theim-
 partiality and  manly fairness with which this enquiry has been con-
 ducted on the  part of Mr. Larpent, nor without mentioning that every
facility was afforded to us in its prosecution, as  well by the military
officers commanding here and at the prison, as bv the magistrates in
 the vicinity.
  I have the honor to be, with much respect, your most obedient hum.
ble servant.         (Signed)                 CHARLES KING.
  His Excellency John 3J. Adams, &c G-c. 
                      DARTMOOR PRISON.
A Return of American prisoners of-war killed and wounded in an attempt to force the
               military guard on the evening of the 6th of Apiil, 1815._____________
3 Ml
  I !C
Ship.
Whether man
of war, merch.
vessel, or pri-
vateer.
Remarks.
1	4884
2	970
3	3134
A	1347
5	3936
1	6520
2	2647
3	5769
4	1722
S	5003
6	3614
7	1965
8	5326
9	2148
10	1881
11	3652
12	1236
13	685
14	94
15	436
16	1024
17	1546
18	486
19	1640
20	1819
31	5015
22	2013
23	380
24	2884
25	338
26	4153
27	4493
2R	4109
29	1228
30	6123
31	1812
32	3080
33|	2662 |
^, f William Leveridge
-  ' James Mann,
iU
John Haywood,
tl j Joseph T. Johnson
  '-John Washington,
  'Thomas Jackson,
James Campbell,

John Gier,
William Renn,

Cornelius Garrison,
H. Hontcalm,
Robert Willet,

John Peach,
Edw. Wittlebark,

James Thornbull,
James Wells,
Philip Ford,
James Bell,
John Grey,
Wm. Leversage,
Edward Gardner,
Stephen Phipps,
John Roberts,
Thomas Smith,
Caleb Codding,

Jacob Davis,
James Esdaille,
Peter Wilson,
William Blake,
John Hogabets,
Ephraim Tincoln.
Thomas Findlay,
John Howard,
Joseph Masick,

Robert Fillez,
John Willett,

John Perry,
.John Wilson.

 (Signed)
 (Signed?
Seaman
  do.
  do.

  do.
  do.
  Boy,

Seaman,

  do.
  do.

  do.
  do.
  do.

  do.
  do.

  Boy.
Seaman
  do.
  do.
  do-
  do.
  do.
  do.
  do.

  do.
  do.

  do
  do.
  do.
  do.
2d Mate,
Seaman,
  do.
  do.
  do.

  do.
  do.

  do.
   do.
Enterprize, prize to
Sii-o,    [Saratoga.
Gavehimself upfront
 H. M. S. Scipion
Paul Jones,
Rolla,
Gavehimselfupfrom
 H. M. S. Prnttes
Gavehimself upfront
 H M.S.Volontaire
Rambler,
Dispatch,

Invincible,
Homeby, p.G.Tom
Gavehimself upfront
H. M. SA ndromache
Enterprize,
Gavehimself upfront
H.M S.Ro.miliam,
Elbridge Gerry,
Thorn,
Ga himself up fr.H.
J.Barlow,[JvI S.Sult.
St.Martin'sPlanter.
Magdalene,
Joseph,
Zebra,
Two Brothers,

Paul Jones.
Gavehimself upfront
 H M.S.Swiftsure.
Charlotte.p.toMam-
G.Tomkins,  [moth,
Virginia Planter,
G.himsefupfr.HM
Gd.Frieiuis&SRepu.
Argus,
Enterprize,
Flash,
Ga- himself up from
 H. M. S. Furieux.
Grand Turk,
Ga himself upfront
 H. M. S. Rosario.
Do.fr.H.MS.Tiger
DofH.M.SHrtvna
Privateer,
Let.of marque
Privateer,
Merch. vessel,
Merch. vessel,
    do.

Let. of Marq
Privateer,
Privateer,
Privateer,
   do.

Mercht.vessel
     do.
     do.
     do.
Let.  of Marq.
Privateer,
Privateer,
   do.
Mercht.vessel,

Mercht.vessel
   do-
Privateer,
   do.
Impres'd.
Imp. died
Ap.7,1815
Imp. died
Ap.7,181i

Impres'd.
atLondon
Impres'd.
Impres'd.
Impres'd.
 Impress-
ed at Cork

Impres'd.
Impres'd.
Impres'd.


Impres'd.

Impres'd
Impres'd.
THOMAS GEORGE SHORTLAND, Agent.
GEORGE MAGRATH, Surgeon. 
JOURNAL.
209
       Reply to King  and Labpent's  Report.

               To the People of the United States.
 Having perused, with attention,  the  report of Mr.  Charles King,
   and  Francis Seymour  Larpent,' on their examination of the
   unfortunate occurrence at Dartmoor, on the 6th of April last—
   We,  the  undersigned, being there at the time this unfortunate oc-
 currence took  place,  deem it a duty we owe to the surviving suffer-
 ers of that bloody transaction, to  our  fellow-citizens, and ourselves, to
 make some remarks upon such a singular report   Although we pre-
 sume the door is forever closed  against any further investigation of
 that ever to be remembered transaction, we cannot help, however con-
 trary it may be to our wishes to irritate the public feeling, already so
 much excited, entering into a detailed investigation of that report.
   In the committee's address to  the public  on the 27th of June last,
 preceding the publication of  the  affidavits of some  of the prisoners,
 taken on that melancholy affair,  they have justly  anticipated  what
 would be the report  of the commissioners,  after their investigation ;
 they drew their conclusions from the singular manner in which the in-
 vestigation was conducted    The report commences by  stating, that,
 after carefully perusing the proceedings of the several courts of inqui-
 ry, instituted immediately after that  event,  they proceeded immedi-
 ately to the examination, upon oath, of /VLLthe witnesses, both Amer-
 ican and Pnglish, who offered themselves for that purpose.  How far
 this part of the  report  is correct, we shall leave the public to judge
   On the arrival of the  commissioners at  the  depot,  the commit-
 tee of  the  prison  were sent for;  after waiting some time at the
 door of the room, where  the enquiry was held, they were called in
 separately and questioned as to their knowledge of the transactions of
 the sixth.   The depositions of those who were eye witnesses  of that
 disgraceful scene were taken  ; some were questioned as to the gener-
 al conduct of Shortiand, previous to that affair ; it was represented by
 them as it would have been  by all,  as being universally cruel, over-
 bearing and oppressive.  After having finished the examination of the
 committee,  they requested them  to bring forward  all  the evidence
 that  was likely  to cast any light on the subject of enquiry  They ac-
 cordingly, returned into the prison, and drew up a list of the names
 of some of the eye-witnesses of that day's occurrence.—Although they
 could have  brought hundreds  to  the examination,  and the sum of
 whose evidence would have amounted to the same, yet, the committee
 not wishing to impede the progress of the investigation,  by a  redun-
 dancy of evidence, they were  careful to select such men  as were most
 likely to give a  clear and distinct account of all the circumstances, as
 they  occurred, under their knowledge, taking care, at the same time,
 to procure those  whose different  situations afforded them an oppor-
 tunity of witnessing that transaction, from the commencement to the
close.  Such was the evidence the  committee had selected, to the num-
ber of about fifty, very few of whom were ever examined, although
they were kept waiting in the turnkey's lodge (where they were or-
dered to stay until called for) during the hours  of investigation   In
 the course of the enquiry, it seems, the commissioners found it neces-
               18 
210
JOURNAL.
 sary to survey the particular situation of the prisons,  and the points
 from which the different attacks were made ; they accordingly came
 into the yard for that purpose, and after  having been shown  all the
 places from whence the firing was continued, where the crowd  ofpris.
 oners had assembled on the first alarm, and where the hole, so much
 made a handle of, had been made—after a slight survey of these dif-
 ferent places, they retired into their session room, leaving orders, once
 more, with the committee to hold their evidence in readiness, as they
 would soon be called upon for examination.  The committee replied
 that they had been in readiness since the commencement of the en-
 quiry, and were then only waiting  their orders to appear before them,
 feeling happy in the idea of having it  in their power to show to the
 court, and to the world, by the evidence they had to produce, that the
 attack of Shortiand on the defenceless prisoners, was premeditated
 arid unjustifiable in any point of view.                            i
   After attending in the turnkey's lodge during the sitting of the com-
 missioners,  until the middle of the third day, without having but very
 few of the  evidences  sent for, and being fearful that they might be
 waiting for  them, the  committee  sent them word that the witnesses
 were still in attendance.   No answer being returned to this message
 for some time, the committee became uneasy on account of the  long
 examination of the officers, soldiers, clerks, and turnkeys, attached to
 the depot, without admitting the prisoners to an equal privilege ; and
 understanding  the  commissioners were about closing their enquiry,
 they again sent word  they would  be glad to have an  interview for a
 few moments, forthe purpose of explaining  the  nature of their evi-
 dence, and the necessity of a full hearing on both sides af the question.
 No answer being returned to this request,and still waiting
 with the anxious hope  that they would soon send for some of us when
 we were told  by one of the turnkeys, that the commissioners were
 prepared to depart, having finished the examination   Astonished to
 think they meant to leave the depot without clearly investigating the
 circumstances that were the cause of their meeting, and feeling indig-
 nant that a cause of so much importance should be passed over so
 partially, the committee addressed a note to  Mr  King, begging him
 not to shut the door of communication against the prisoners, by clos-
 ing the inquiry without giving them the privilege of a hearing, as the
 greatest part of our witnesses were yet unexamined, and their evidence
 they conceived to be of the utmost importance to the investigation.
 No reply toas made to this note; hut, in a few moments, we were told,
that the commissioners had left the depot.  How far they are justifia-
ble in saying they examined all the evidences that offered themselves,
 we think is sufficiently  shewn.
  The commissioners  next go  on  to mention the insurrection  of the
prisoners about the bread, on the 4th, two days previous to the events,
the subject of that enquiry.  Although the report correctly states, the
prisoners  quietly returned to  their own yards,  after their demands
having been complied with, Mr King forgot to  mention,  that it  was
clearly represented to him, had the prisoners been so disposed on that
night, they could have easily made their escape.  Although that trans-
 action had nothing to do, as relates to the prisoners, with the events ei
 the sixth, we merely represent tills  circumstance to shew, that there 
JOURNAL.
211
was no intention whatever on their part to break out of the prison,  as
Shortiand and his adherents have attempted to prove.
  The report now goes on to mention,  that on the evening of the sixth
of April, about six o'clock in tbe evening,  a hole was made in one of
the walls of the prison sufficient for a full-sized man to pass, and others
had been commenced, but never completed, and that a number of the
prisoners were over the railing erected to prevent them from commu-
nicating with the sentinels on the walls, and that they were tearing up
pieces of turf, and wantonly pelting each other in a noisy manner.
  As  to the hole made in the wall, we  believe the causes and reasons
have been  already sufficient!)* explained by the affidavits laid before
the public.  With respect to the prisoners being between the iron pal-
ing and the wall, it could have been, if it was not, easily explained to
Mr. King, had he given an opportunity. It seems, that on the  after-
noon of the 6th, some of the prisoners having obtained leave of the sen-
tinels  on  the walls to go over  and  lay  upon the  grass, others  seeing
them  laying so much at their ease, went over  to  enjoy the same privi-
lege ;  and as the sentinels made no objection  to this proceeding, the
number was soon increased to such a degree, that it  became no longer
an enjoyment to those who first obtained the privilege ; some  scuffling
then ensued among themselves, and they began to pelt each other with
turf and  old shoes, principally in play, and among so many, no doubt,
their  must have been considerable noise; but how they can possibly
connect this circumstance with the hole made  in the wall, is entirely
out of our power to conceive, as the iron railings separated them from
the pretended breach in the wall,  and distant from it  more than half
the length of the yard;  of course, had the hole been intended as a
breach, the iron paling would  have become a barrier, instead of facil-
itating the  means of an escape.
•  As  to that part of the report which mentions the guard-barracks be-
ing the repository for the arms of the guard offduty, and of its stand.
in'g in the  yard  to which the hole in the wall would serve as a com-
munication, and of its being a further cause of suspicion and alarm  to
Captain Shortiand—to one acquainted with the situation of the prison,
such an idea would be ridiculous ; but to those who are not acquainted
with it, it will be only necessary for us to mention, that if the prisoners
had the intention of breaking out through this passage, and had actu-
ally got into the barrack-yard, the difficulties they would then have to
encounter would be  much greater than to break a passage through
the market square, or the back part of the yard.   As to the idea of
their possessing themselves of the muskets standing in  the racks in the
guard-barracks  (even if they knew of any being there) it is childish ;
for how easy  would it have been for the commanding  officer, on the
shortest intimation of such an attempt, with one blast of his bugle,  to
have called all his guards to the spot before a hundredth  part of the
prisoners could  have got into the yard, and by that means instantly
put a  stop to any further proceedings on their part.
  We cannot conceive how Mr. King can  possibly come forward and
say, on  these grounds, it appeared  to him that Capt Shortiand was
■justified in giving the order for sounding the  alarm bell,  when, if he
found the  prisoners  were conducting  themselves improperly, had he
scut  for  the committee (as always had  been his custom heretofore, 
212
JOURNAL.
when he had any charge against the prisoners for improper conduct)
and  told them that the prisoners were breaking the wall  (which cir-
cumstance, as lias been published before, was not known to one tenth
of the prisoners) and requested them to have represented  to those en-
gaged in it, the consequences that  must ensue if they persisted in
such conduct, we have not a moment's hesitation in saying, they would
have put a stop to any  further proceedings of that kind.
  That part which relates to the breaking of the iron chain which fast-
ened No. 1 gate, aud which follows next in the report, sat s there  was no
evidence to show whether it was done be ft. re or after the alarm  bell
Fang.  As this was a material point on which they grounded Shurtlanil's
justification, we have to regret that the evidence we had to lay before the
commissioners, and which would, in  our opinion, have sufficiently clear-
ed up that point, was not examined.
  On the ringing of the alarm bell, the rush towards the gates leading
into the market square was so  great (attracted as has been before stated
by curiosity) that those in front were irresistiblv pushed forward by those
in the rear, and if the chain had not broke the lock must have-given way
to the pressure, and by this opening, it is but natural to suppose, that a
number must have been shoved into the square in front 0' the soldiers,
who were drawn up in  a line across  the square, with Shortiand at their
head.
  If, as the report now goes on to state, there was no direct proof before
(hem of a previous  concert or preparation on the part ot the prisoners,
and  no evidence of their intention or disposition to effect their escape on
this  occasion, excepting that which arose by inference from the whole of
the detailed circumstances connected together, had Mr. King examined
the evidence on the  part of the prisoners, as minutely as it seems he ex-
amined those on the part of Shortiand, he could not even have drawn the
shadow of an inference of that being their intention.
   Where the commissioners gvt their evidence for asserting that Capt.
Shortiand, by quiet means and persuasion, endeavored to persuade the
prisoners to retire into their respective yards,  is unaccountable to us, as
those who know Captain Shortiand, know he is not a man of persuasion.—
It is correct that Dr. M'Gralh used  every  exertion to persuade the pris.
oners to retire out of the square, which  if Shortiand had allowed suffi-
cient time,  would have been quietly done—but the crowd, by this time,
had  become so  great,  and the pressure from the rear so  strong,  that
those in front could  not retreat until time should he allowed for those in
the rear to fall back, but the hasty, haughty, and overbearing temper of
Shortiand coufl uot allow him to use such conciliatory means.   He or-
ders (the report says) fifteen file of the guard fronting the open gate, to
the charge ;  and after some little time the charge whs so effectual, with
but  very little  or no injury to the prisoners, as to drive them, for the
most part, quite out of the square, with the exception of a small number
who continued their resistance about No. 1 gate.   Under these circum-
stances, continued the report, the firing commenced.
  litre we  beg leave to  request an  attentive perusal of the affidavits of
some of the prisoners, taken by the committee, and which relate par-
ticularly to this part of the transaction. It is there positively staled  that
on ihe soldiers  coming  to tiie charge the prisoners ALL retreated into
the yard and pushed the gate to after them.  If the commissioners bad
examined that evidence, this part  of the report ought to have been uif-
ferently expressed
  We  cannot conceive  how Mr. King finds it difficult to reconcile the
testimony respecting Captain Siiortland's giving the orders U fire; when 
JOURNAL,
213
he reports that several  of the Americans swear  positively,
that Captain Shortiand gave that order—and many of the  soldiers and
the Lnghsh witnesses heard the  word given by some one, but could not
swear it was by Capt. Shortiand ; and some of them (among whom is the
officer commanding  the guard)  think,  if Capt. Shortiand had  given
such an order, they must have heard it, which they did not.  Thus, then,
stands  the  foundation for  this part  of the report.   An English  officei-
thinks it is not so,  and several Americans swear it is so ;  and hefinds'
it very difficult to reconcile their testimony.   The lightness with which
they seem to have passed over this most important  point of that  day's
transaction, cannot but be^deeply regretted by those who feel for the un-
happy sufferers,  when they go on to state, "It may remain a matter of
doubt whether the firing first began in  the square  by an  order,  or
whether it was a spontaneous act of the soldiers themselves ; it seemed
clear it was continued and renewed, both there and elsewhere, w ithout
orders—and that on the platforms and several places about the  prison it
was certainly commenced -without any authority."  We must once  more
request the attention of the public to the affidavits already published ; it
is there sworn by one of the  witnesses, that previous to the alarm bell
being rung, and  while walking in the yard, a soldier called to him from
the -walls and told him to go in, as they -would soon be fired upon.  How,
then, can it be possible, that a soldier on the walls should know that they
would soon be fired upon,  if the order had not been  previously  given to
that effect ? And  had the Imgie-mati been examined, he could have stated,
that previous to the  ringing of the  alarm bell, be received orders  to
sound to fire ; so that when the soldiers took their stations on the walls,
they were charged and prepared for that purpose  With such informa-
tion, we conceive the committee to stand fully justified in stating in their
report, the belief of its being a pre-concerted plan, on the part of Short-
land ;  and if the commissioners had possessed  themselves with a knowl-
edge of these circumstances, which they could and ought to have don«,
would they, then,  reported  Shortiand as justifiable, eveii in a military
point of view ?
  The next thing  we have to notice in the report is, that very singular
paragraph, which says, " from the fact of the  erowd  being so close, and
the firing sX first being attended with very little injury, it appears proba-
ble, that a large proportion of the muskets were, as stated by one or two
of the witnesses, levelled over the heads  of the prisoners,  a  circum-
stance, in some respects, to be lamented."  Is it, then, to be lamented,
that the soldiers  did not level their pieces, on the first  fire, directly into
the crowd,  which they have  stated to be so great and so close that  a sol-
dier declared he could not come fairly down to a charge ? or is it to be
lamented, that one or two hundred were not killed at the fir-at discharge*
and a thousand or two wounded ? If so, we think it much to be lamented,
that the reporters were not there, and place.d  foremost in »he crowd.
  The circumstance of so few being  hurt at the first discharge  is not
strange to those  who are acquainted with the situation  ;  and this occur-
rence alone corroborates the American evidence, and ought to have been
sufficient proof to the commissioners that the prisoners upon being charg-
ed upon, retreated through the gates,  and shut them after them,  before
the firing commenced ; and which circumstance, alone, should have shut
the door of justification against  Shortiand for commencing a fire upon
them, as they were in their own  yards.  As this was the actual situation
of the prisoners on  the first discharge, and  the soldiers having to fire
through the iron paling, and the prisoners retreating on a descending
ground, of course brought the muskets, when down  to a level, over the
heads of the -prisoners— it  was swing to this fortunate  circumstance that
                                                 18* 
214
JOURNAL.
 go few were injured on the first discharge of the musketry ; and it seeraa
 the inhuman Shortiand was aware of this circumstance, when he was dis-
 tinctly heard to order his soldiers to fire low.   This does not appear to
 correspond with that part of their report which says, "Capt.  Shortiand
 was  in the market square exerting himself in  giving orders to stop the
 firing"
   That there was any provocation given to the sol.liers to justify  their
 subsequent brutal conduct,  the  commissioners themselves seem to find
 it very difficult to trace any evidence, although they say, it appears, that
 there was some resistance made to the turnkevs in  shutting the prison,
 and that stones were thrown at  the military.   Had they  examined the
 prisoners sufficiently, thev would have been convinced that no resistance
 was  made to the  turnkeys in shutting ihe doors.  As to throwing stones
 at the military while they were chasing them from corner to corner, and
 firing at them in every  place where they had -aken shelter from the
 balls, could it be expected but  they  would seize on something for self-
 defence, when they saw the soldiers  running at them with their bayo-
 nets, and having  no possible means of escape, as it has been before stated,
 all the doors in the prisons had been pieviously closed except one, and
 that one, perhaps, the length of the prison from him  Is there a man, in
 sueh a situation,  but  would seize on the first weapon that offered itself,
 and sell his life as dear as possible.  How can they, then, make that the
 slightest justification  for such outrageous conduct on the part of Short-
 iand or the military ?
   As to most of the officers being absent is erroneous; it could have been
 proved that there was an officer in every yard, and in one iustance where
 he was heard to give the order to fire on a party of prisoners close by the
 d'sor, and running and making every exertion to enter the prison.
   As to Capt. Shortiand  being busy in  the square  with the turnkeys, re-
 ceiving and taking care of the wounded, certainly  shows the commission-
 ers' want of correct information, for it  is already before the public, in af-
 fidavit, the cruel manner in which the wounded were treated by  him,
 and of his abuse  to the prisoners who  were bearing the wounded to the
 hospital gate.  That part of the report which  relates that the time and
 commencement of this transaction  was the officers'dinner hour,  is too
 ridiculous for a comment.  We do not believe that there whs a prisoner
 in the depot that  knew when or  where the  officers dined, and therefore,
 Can be no ground for an argument, that the prisoners were taking this
 opportunity  to escape.
   The report goes on  to state, *' the cross-fire,  wh'rch was kept up from
 several of the platforms  on the walls  round the prison,  and directed
 Pgainst straggling  parties of prisoners running about the yard,  endeavor-
 ing to enter the prison hy the door which the turnkey left open, accor-
 ding  to their usual practice does seem to have been w ithout object or ex-
 cuse, and to have been a wanton attack upon  the lives of defenceless,
 and, at the same time, unoffending individuals.'' In answer to this para-
 graph, we shall only reply, that had the commissioners examined  all
 the Ameiican evidence, and attached the same credit to it, which it ap-
 pears they have done to all the English evidence, similar expressions
 would have been  made use  of against  Shortland's conduct throughout
 the whole of their report.
   It appeals to us, after an attentive examination of this report, that the
 commissioners meant to justify Shortiand in commencing his murderous
 attnek upon the prisoners, and to condemn the soldiers for continuing it.
 Singular as this idea appears, it is no  less  strange to us,  how it can be
 possible they could reconcile it to their feelings to make up a report con-
taining such  a direct eoutiadicliOR to reason;  for  surely if bborllasd 
JOURNAL.
215
oouhl be justified in  using coercive measures in tbe first instance, the
miliary certainly should be acquitted for the subsequent massacre, as tiie
whole was conducted  under his immediate command ;—and if he had A
right to kill one, on the same ground he might have extended it to a
thousand.  And, on the other hand, if any part of the transaution is to be
condemned, Shortiand should answer for the whole ;  for what necessity
could there be made to attempt indentifying any of the soldiers  Surely
the commissioners could not think of bringing them to punishment, as
they acted  by  the direct orders of Shortiand and his officers >—and if any
one could or  ought to  be made  to answer for the outrage,  it slnuld be
Shortiand.
  In addition to the contradictions contained in the commissioners'joint
report, Mr King, in  hi= letter to his excellency J. Q. Adams, almost de-
nies the ground on which they havr,-in  part founded Shortland's justifi-
cation, when  he  says (alluding to have  heard several Arueric-ns s-weur,
positively, that Shortiand did give the order to fire, and an  officer ot die
g.iard thinking that he  did not, as he should have heard him) " perhaps
the bias of m<i  mind was, that Shortiand did give that order; and wish-
ing the report to go forth under our joint signatures, I forbore to press
some of the points so  far as otherwise I might have done "
  If,  then, any part has been neglected, or passed over for accommoda-
tion,  or any  other purpose (ami one there certainly has, in not paying
the same attention to  the American as was done to the English evidence)
it is to be regretted tint Mr  King should so far forget the sacred duties
attached to the appointment  of a commissioner to enquire into the mur-
der of his countrymen, as to pass over any points  which might  have
brought to light  the  means of punishment for the murder, or obtained
in some measure  an  indemnitv  for the surviving unhappy sufferers.
  Will not the shades of the  departed victims haunt him in his midnight
sluu bers, and pointing to their lacerated bodies, say, these still remain
unavenged  ?   Will not the unhappy survivors show the stumps ot their
amputated  limbs, and say, these wounds fester, and still remain  unalon-
ed ?  Will  not the widow and the helpless orphan raise their innocent
hands to heaven, and crv, why was justice denied us ? Why was the heart
so callous to our sufferings '—And why was the bosom shut to sympathy I
Let Mr. King point out some means to  appease these bitter complaints,
and we shall be satisfied.                              ,
  \Ve shall now close these unpleasant remarks, by noticing another un-
accountable error in Mr. King's letter to Mr Adams,  where he men-
tions, speaking of Shortiand, "and his general conduct, previous to this
occurrence, as far as I  could with propriety enter into such details, ap-
pears to have been characterised with  great fairness and even kmdness
in the relation in which he stood towards the prisoners.    We shall not
pretend to ask Mr.  King where he obtained the evidence on which he
grounds this assertion ;  we are »ure it was not from the prisoners,  who
ought to have been the  best judges of that circumstance ; but, instead ot
all that, all the Americans who were permitted to express an opinion on
that subject, at the examination,  declared, without  reserve, as.wouldlaII
the prisoners  in the depot, had they been asked the question, thafshort-
land's conduct, from the commencement ot h.s appointment to that_sta.
tion,  had been cruel, oppressive,  and overbearing , and, instead ot taking
measure*  to  alleviate the distresses of the wretched objects under h.m,
» aTellng man would have done, he seemed to  take a pleasure in  har.
rasting them whenever he could  find the slightest pretext for so doing.
  W. Cotton, Joseph Swain, Arch'd Taylor David ^\^^
S'-rmin   Arch'd 1.  Mackay,  Philip  Black, Homer Hall, James B.
MaSed 'ibr'm M'lntire, "fm. Cochran, Henry Dolliver John Jones-,
B  7&ek, IVm.  Venerea,  Thomas Ward, William K. H>l»t«- 
216
JOURXAf.-
                         REMARKS.

  In presenting to the world the record of a transaction, probably the
most barbarous which  the history of modern warfare can furnish, \vc
cannot refrain from remarks —Whatever our feelings may be, upon a
subject so amply calculated to excite the indignation and abhorrence of
every friend to humanity, and every one who has respect for the  laws
of civilized and mitigated warfare, we will, nevertheless, refrain, so far
as  the circumstances  of  outraged  humanity will permit, from the
violence of invective, and wholly from unwarranted crimination. Those,
into whose hands these documents may fall, will, however, preserve
them as a monument erected  to the memory of their slaughtered coun-
trymen, and a memento of the unfeeling cruelty of our late enemy.
  Though we are far from believing that there are not persons of noble
and humane minds in the English nation, yet, a uniformity of conduct, on
the part of the Government and its agents, has taught us to believe that
they, at least, are blood thirsty and cruel.
   The incarceration of Americans in the Jersey Prison Ship at New-
York, and Mill Prison, in England, in the Revolutionary war, raised in
the minds of the sainted heroes of those times, the most exalted feelings
of indignation and abhorrence.  The history of those prisoners, where
hundreds were compelled to wear out an existence, rendered miserable
by the cruelty of an enemy, professing a reverence for the sublime prin-
ciples of Christianity, is already familiarized to the minds of the Ameri-
can people.   If the feelings of Americans were  then indignant, what
should they be, on beholding those cruelties renewed with  more  than
ten fold severity ?   The conduct of" Thomas George Shortiand, the agent
at Dartmoor Prison, is such as should " damn him to everlasting fame"
   Upon what principles the conduct of this man, precedent to the  ever
memorable 6th of April, 1815, can be justified,  we cannot determine.
The indiscriminate confinement of both officers and men in the same pri-
sons, and those the most unfit, decayed, and loathsome of any which the
Government could furnish, was an infraction of the established laws of
civilized nations for the treatment of prisoners of war.   It was equally
abhorrent to the principles of humanity, and only sanctioned by British
governmental agents, and those petty Nations of Savages, whose known
usages of warfare have hitherto kept them beyond the pale of national
law.  The history of modern European wars can furnish no parallel
to this part of the history  of Dartmoor.  But when we arrive at the
slaughter of prisoners on the 6th of April, the climax of barbarity is com-
plete, and the mind is sated  with the contemplation of principles as
shocking to humanity  as the consequences are degrading to the charac-
ter of the English nation.
  An eminent writer upon national law, has formerly extolled the
" English and French for their treatment given to prisoners of war," and
at the same time  mentions the case of Charles I. King of Naples, who
having defeated and taken  prisoner Conrade, his competitor, caused
him, together with his  fellow-prisoner, Frederick of Austria, to be be-
headed at Naples.   Upon this case our author has the following perti-
nent remarks :—"This barbarity raised an universal horror,  and Peter
the third, King of  Arragen, reproached Charles with it, as a detestable 
JOURNAL.
217
Crime, till then unheard of among christian  princes.  However,  the
ease was of a dangerous rival contending with him for the throne  But,
supposing the claims of his rival were unjust, Charles might have kept
him in prison until he had renounced them, and given security  for his
future behavior."   If this act of Charles raised an -' universal horror,"
what should be the excitement produced by the cold blooded massacre
of a number of unarmed and unoffending prisoners of war in confine-
ment  ?  Humanity shudders at the thought, and language furnishes no
appropriate epithet with which to brand  the infamous perpetrator of so
f.Jul.  so hitherto unheard of a crime.   Did that writer now live, he
would no longer extol the humanity of the English nation,  but in com-
mon with the friends of humanity, he would join in the " universal hor-
ror" which British cruelty has excited.
   The complexion of this transaction is rendered still more dark and
barbarous, and its criminality most shockingly enhanced, by the cir-
cumstances under which many of those unfortunate men became pri-
soners, and finally were  offered up as victims to gratify the cruel and
insatiate feeling of the British agent    They were American Citizens,
•who had been impressed into the service and bondage of Great Britain,
in time of peace   They had served that government from a necessity,
arising from the assumed principle of a right  to search neutral ves-
sels  for British seamen, and  the practice of taking Americans  and
compelling them  to  service.  We cannot,  however, too much ap-
plaud the magnanimity of those  men, in  refusing to fight against and
slaughter their countrymen ;  nor can we too much detest the conduct
of Great  Britain,  in confining them as prisoners of war.
   This practice. as3umed as a right in the first moments of our exist-
ence  as an independent and commercial nation, has  '• grown with our
growth"  and the evil thereof has in  reased   in proportion  as  our
commercial rivaiship has become  more alarming to the  pride and  in-
justice of Great Britain.  It is a  practice which cannot be traced to
any principal of justification ;  and ye? we have seen the  legislators of
 Massachusetts, clothed with a garb of official  sanctity, send to the world
 a report, amounting almost to  a denial, that such a practice was in exist-
 ence !  We pretend not to judge of their motives; but we remark, how
 soon they are confounded by the report of Shortiand and Magrath.
 By that instrument it appears, that of thirty-eight who were killed or
 wounded,  twelvt were of the number of Impressed Americans, who had
 given themselves up as prisoners  of war, upon the commencement of
 hostilities.  If  this be the correct proportion of their prisoners, who
 have been impressed from American vessels, and as  it is an official doc-
 ument of British authority, we cannot believe the ratio  to be less,  we
 see the advocates of British  mi.gnanimi:y  confounded  and  put to
 shame.by the test mony of those same British agents, whose justifh ation
 they have so eagerly,though unsuccessfully attempted.   It migxt.  in-
 deed, have been supposed, t  at after having so frequently been treat-
 ed with the same contempt, they might have learnta sufficient caution,
 at least, to stay their measures until the pleasure of their transatlantic
 friends should be  known.   But their overweening anx-ety I as only
 tended to plunge them in deeper embarrassments, and should teach
 them, that more prudence and less zeal in the cause o.  a national eue» 
218
JOURNAL.
my,  might secure them a safer retreat in the moments when those
whose friendship they had so anxiously sought, had deserted, and con-
demned them.
  By the report of the Legislature Of Massachusetts upon the subject
of impressments, it would appear, that no more than sixteen had been
impressed from this Commonwealth.  What must be our conclusion
upon a comparison of this report, with that of Messrs. Shortiand and
Magrath ?  It is irresistable, either that the former did not report the
full number of impressments, or that the latter have aggravated their
guilt and condemnation, by swelling the number to a degree  beyond
what the  facts would justify, from  some cause, unknown to  their
American advocates, and in favor of the facts and principles, for which
the American government have uniformly contended.  A few of those
assumed as facts,  by  the present dominant  party in New-England,
may aid us in this enquiry, and perhaps conduct us to a correct con-
clusion.   Thtyhave repeatedly told us, that New-England,  and more
particularly Massachusetts, has ever been the nursery of our seamen.
That this section had furnished more than the whole remaining part
of the United States.   Admitting the correctness  of the  report of
Shortiand and Magrath, we are wholly unable to reconcile the report
of our Legislature with those which they assume as facts, and  upon
which the principles of their report were, in part, predicated.   It ex-
hibits to  our view  a disposition to fritter away the enormities of the
British Government.and a determination  to justify them in every act of
 barbarity, however unjustifiable in its circumstances, or however shock-
 ing in its operation.
   The report of  Messrs. King and Larpent may here claim a portion
 of our attention   Unpleasant as the task may be, to reflect, even indi-
 rectly upon the conduct of one of our countrymen, acting in the high
 and solemn capacity to which Mr. King was called, we cannot, how-
 ever, without doing violence to our own feelings, and criminating num-
bers of our countrymen  perhaps equally entitled to credibility with
 Mr. King himself,  afford our credence to his singular report; espe-
 cially when we see it contradicted  unconditionally, by the unfortu-
 nate witnesses of the unhappy and barbarous transaction.
   Even Mr. King himself in his letter to Mr Adams  furnishes a tar-
dy acknowledgment, that he  had not completed the duties to which
 he had been called. "Considering  it of much importance (he says)
 that the report, whatever it might be, should go forth under our joint
 signatures,  I  have foreborn to press sorr.e  of  the points which it in-
 volves as far  as  otherwise  r  might have done. *  And  why  did Mr.
 King forbear to  press every point involved  in the report ?   Was it
from a disposition to perform his whole duty >o his country; or. rather,
from a too common admiration of British principles and British char-
acters.
   The numerous affidavits accompanying the report made by the com-
mittee of the prisoners, together with the reply to the report of Mes-
 srs  King and Larpent, afford the most positive testimony in contradic-
tion to many of its prominent features.   We can form no other opin-
ion  respecting this report, than either that Mr. King was overreached 
JOURNAL.
219
by his colleague, or that he was predetermined  to  fritter down the
abuses which the British Government and its agents had lavished upon
their  American prisoners   Why either Messrs King or  Larpent
should decline the examination of all the witnesses offered by the pri-
soners,  is wholly inexplicable, unless we attribute  to them a mutual
and fixed determination to justify the conduct of Shortiand and his
accomplices,  at the expense of  criminating hundreds of Americans,
who were no  less entitled to credibility than either of themselves.
Hereafter, " let no such men  be trusted."
  The treatment to the prisoners appears to have proceeded from the
same principles of inhumanity, which have  given rise  to the hostile
operations  of the British t  ommanders upon our  maritime and inland
frontiers, during the continuance of the late contest.  Such principles
belong only to Savages  or their allies.  The outrages at the river Rai-
sin, Hampton, Havre de Grace, Washington  ; nd those attempted at
New-Orleans, it was thought, might have filled the measure of British
barbarities   But  to the prisons of  Dartmoor was transferred the
scene of ;ts completion.   Americans, armed  in defence of their  soil,
their Constitution, and natural rights, were too invincible to the " ve-
teran" conquerors of the East.   Prisoners of war in confinement, and
without arms,were selected as the objects upon which they might glut their
malice.
  We have heard much from a certain class  of our politicians of the
burning of Newark and St  Davids ; but little have  they said of the
destruction ef Buffalo, of Washington City, or the massacre of our un-
fortunate countrymen at Dartmoor; and that tittle has been directed  to
the justification of the perpetrators   The conflagration of our Capitol,
with  the appendages of art and taste, and even  the slaughter of our
countrymen, could not excite in those minds one feeling of indignation;
whilst the unauthorised destruction  of a few  houses,  within the terri-
torial Um us of our  enemy,  not only excited their warmest sympathies
for the enemy, but  their foulest denunciations of our own Govern-
ment
  We might here attempt a comparison of the treatment of each Gov-
ernment to their prisoners   But the contrast is so  evident, that we
shall commit  it to our readers without remark.
  Where is the American, whose feeiings do not become indignant, af-
ter a full and  dispassionate view of all the circumstances connected with
this savage transaction ?—Though we may again  be told, that Great
Britain is the " Bulwark of our Religion ,■" yet it may be hoped, that
few, indeed, will be found to worship in a temple stained  with the
blood of their countrymen  or consign their consciences to the keeping
of the upholders of the  the temple of Juggernaut, or the restorers of
Papal power.
  Though our policy  as  an Independent Republic  is pacific, yet
should our rights again be assailed, and future wars ensue, WE WILL
UEMEMJBElt DAKTMOOR! 
220
JOURNAL.
   The night following the shocking massacre was spent
 in deep disquietude.   As we knew not what had actually
 occasioned  this,  in some,  degree, deliberate slaughter, so
 we were filled with anxiety as to its final termination. The
 horrors of" Paris,  under Robespiere, rose to view, and de-
 prived us of sleep ; or if wearied nature got a moment's re-
 lief, many waked tip screaming with the impression, that
 they were under the  hands of a murderer dressed in red.
   The gates of our prison were closed up  in the morning,
 and each one seemed describing to his neighbor what he
 had seen  and heard ; and every one execrating the villain
 who had occasioned the massacre.  In the course of the
 day, a British colonel, whom we had  never before seen,
 appeared at the inner gate,  attended by the detestible
 Shortiand, who was  pale and haggard like ordinary mur-
 derers.   The colonel asked us, generally, What was the
 cause of this unhappy state  of things ? We related some
 particulars  as well as we could ; but all united  in accusing
 capt. Thomas Shortiand of deliberate murder.  On Short-
' land's denying some of the accusations, the colonel turned
 round to him, and said, in a very  serious tone, " Sir,  you
 have no right to speak at this time." Upon  which I thought
 the valiant  captain  would  have fainted.   He, doubtless,
 thought of  an halter.  The  colonel went to the other
 yards, and received, as we were informed, statements not
 materially differing from what he first heard. The colo-
 nel's manner left an agreeable impression on our minds.
 He appeared to  be seriously grieved, and desirous to find
 out the  truth.
   The next day major general B-----came up  from Plym-
 outh in  the  forenoon, and made some trifling inquiries in
 the afternoon.  Soon after  came  admiral R----,  and  a
 captain in the navy,  whose name I do not remember. They
 went into the military walk over the gates, when the space
 below  was  soon filled with prisoners.  The admiral did
 not  impress  us  quite  so  agreeably  as the colonel, who
 seemed  to speak and look his own good feelings;  while
 the former appeared  to have got his lesson, and have come
 prepared to question  us, like an attorney rather than like
 a  frank and open seaman.   The admiral  informed the
prisoners  that he was appointed  by the  commander in
chief at Plymouth, to  inquire, whether the prisoners had
any cause for complaint against the British government, as 
JOURNAL.
221
fo their provisions ? There ensued a short silence, until
our countryman, Mr. Colton, a  man who was neither in-
timidated by rank, nor disconcerted by parade, answered
him and said, that  " the affair  of provisions was not tbe
occasion of their present distress and anxiety, but that it
was the horrid massacre of their unoffending and unresist-
ing countrymen, whose blood cried  from the ground,  like
the blood of Abel, for justice.   We have nothing  now to
say about our provisions ; that is but a secondary concern.
Our cry is for due vengeance on tbe murderer Shortiand,
to expiate tbe horrors of the 6th of April.  We all  com-
plain  of his  haughty, unfeeling, and tyrannical conduct,
at all times, and on all  occasions"——" That we have
nothing to do with," said the admiral, and then  repeat-
ed the former question, relative  to the British government
an'i the provisions ;  to which Mr. Colton replied in a still
more  exasperated tone  of accusation against the murder-
er and the murder.  " Then you do not,'' said tbe admiral,
" complain of the British government for detaining you
here ?''  " By no means," said our spokesman, " the pris-
oners, one and all, ascribe our undue attention  here, to a
neglect of duty in our own agent. Mr. Beasly."  " Then
J  hope."  said  the  admiral, "  that you  will all  remain
tranquil.  I lament  as much as you,  the unfortunate oc-
currence that has taken place.''   Upon this, Mr.  Colton
mentioned particularly the  murder of the boy who was
shut up  in  No. 4, after tbe prisoners were  all   driven in
through the doors, and averred that be was  killed by tiie
direct order of a British officer, who came to  the  door
wilh some of tbe guard.   " That is the lobster-backed vil-
lain," exclaimed a young man, " that stands behind you,
sir ! who, I heard deliberately order his men  to fire on the
prisoners, after they had all got into  the building.  1  saw
him, and heard him give the orders, and had liked  to have
been bayonetted myself  by  his soldiers."   Tbe Admiral
looked round on the officer, who  reddened almost to a pur-
ple, and sneaked away, and Mas seen no more ;  and thus
ended what was probably called Admiral R's examination
ii>t ) the causes of the massacre !
   I know of no examination after this, if such  an inter-
view  may be called an examination: fur  on  the —of Ap-
ril, mvse'lfand a few others uere set at liberty.  We  had
made "application tbe night  before, and passed the ui-lit 
<i->:s
JOURNAL.
in sleepless anxiety.  At 10 o'clock orders were sent down
to collect our things. We dare not call our wretched bag-
gage, by any other than the beggarly name of"' duds.''—•
In consequence of  this order, the turnkey conveyed us to
the upper gate, where we remained a while fluttering  be-
tween fear and hope.  At length the sergeant of the guard
came, and opened the gate, and conducted us to tbe guard
room, where our fears began to dissipate and our hopes to
brighten.   When the clerk entered, he must have seen
anxiety in  our countenances, and was disposed  to sport
with our feelings.  He put on a grave  and solemn phiz,
mixed with  a portion of the insolence of office, as if he
were about  to read our  death-warrants, while we  cast a
look of misery at each other. At length, with apparent
reluctance,  he  vouchsafed to  hand to each of us, like a
miser paying a debt, the dear delicious paper, tbe  evi-
dence of our liberty ! on which was written," by order of
the transport board."   This was enough.  We devoured
it with our eyes, clinched it fast in our fists,  laughed,  ca-
pered, jumped, screamed, and kicked up the dirt like so
many  mad  men ;  and away  we started  for  Princetown,
looking back as we ran, every minute, to see  if our cere-
bus, with  his bloody jaws, was not at our heels.   At ev-
ery step  we took from the hateful prison, our  enlarged
souls expanded our lately  cramped bodies.  At length we
attained a rising ground ;  and O, how our hearts did swell
within us at the sight of the ocean ! that ocean that wash-
es the shores of our dear  America, as well as those of
England.   After taking breath,  we talked  in  strains of
rapture to  each other.  This ground, said I. belongs to
the British ; but that ocean, and this air, and that sun. are
as  much ours as theirs 5 or  as any  other nations.  Tiiey
arc blessings to that nation which knows best how to de-
serve and  enjoy them.  May the arm of  bravery  secure
them all to us, and  to our children forever.  Long  and
dismal as our captivity has  been, we  declared  with  one
voice, that  should our government again arm and declare
war for "free trade and sailor's rights." we  would,  in  a
moment, again try the tug of war, with the bard hearted
Britons; but with the fixed resolution of never beins.' talc-
en  by  them alive ; or, at least, unwounded. or unmulilat-
ed.  I see, I feel that the love of country is our " nilin"
passion j" and it is this that has aud will ghe  us  the su- 
JOURNAL.
223
periority in battle, by land and by sea, while the want of
it will cause some folks to recoil before the American bay-
onet and bullets,  as the British  did at  Chippewa,  Erie,
Plattsburg and New Orleans.
  While the  British  prisoner retires from our places of
confinement iu good health, and with unwilling and reluc-
tant step, we, half famished Americans, fly from theirs as
from a pestilence, or  a mine just ready to explode.  If the
British cannot alter these feelings in the two nations, her
power will dgsert her, while that of America will increase.
  After  treading tbe  air, instead of touching the ground,
we  found ourselves at tbe Devonshire arms in Princetown,
where the comely  bar-maid appeared  more than mortal.
The sight of her rosy cheeks, shining  hair, bright eyes,
and pouting  lips, wafted  our imaginations, in the twink-
ling of an eye, across  the atlantic to  our own dear country
of pretty girls.   I struck the fist of my right band into the
palm of my left, and cried out—" O,for unhorse with
icings J" The girl stared with amazement, and concluded,
I guess, that 1 was mad ; for she looked as if she said  to
herself—" poor  crazy lad ! who ever saw a horse with
wings r"
  We called for some wine, and  filling our glasses, drank
to the power, glory aud honor, and everlasting happiness
of our beloved country;  and  after that to all the pretty
girls in America.   During this, we, now and then, looked
around  us, to be  certain that all this  was not a dream, and
asked each other if they were  sure  there was no red coat
watching our movements, or surley  turn-key listening  to
our conversation ? and whether what we saw were really
the walls of  an  house, where ingress  and egress were
equally free ? It is inconceivable how we  are changed by
habit.   Situations and circumstances ennoble the mind or
debase it.
  From what I myself experienced, and saw in others, on
the day we left our hateful  prison, I do not wonder that
sudden transitions from the depressing effects of imprison-
ment, sorrow, chagrin, impatience, or feelings  bordering
on despair, to that of liberty and joy, should so effect the
vital organs, as to bring on a fatal spasm,  or that the sud-
den  exhilarations of tbe  animal spirits,  might produce
phrenzy.  We were animated anew with a moderate por-
tion of generous liquor;  but absolutely intoxicated with 
224
JOURNAL.
joy.   We asked a thousand questions without waiting lor
an answer. In the midst of our rapture we had  a message
from Shortiand, who seemed to be afraid that we should be
so near him, and yet out of  his power, that if we did not
hasten our march  on tn  Plymouth, he  would have  us
brought back to prison. At the sound of his hateful name,
and the idea of his person, we  started off like so  many
wild  Zebras.  We, however,  stepped  a  little out  of
the road  to an eminence, to take another,  and a last look
of the Dartmoor depot of misery, when we*saw  waving
over it, the American Sag, like tbe colors sans tache, wav-
ing over the  walls  of Sodom and Gomorrha.   We gave
three cheers, and then resumed our road to  Plymouth,
where we soon after arrived.
   While dining at the inn, an old man- in the next room,
hearing we were Americans, came in, and  asked us if  we
knew his son who lived in  America, and mentioned  his
name. Yes, said one of my companions ; he is a mechan-
ic ; I think a carpenter—1 know him very well,  and  he is
a very clever fellow.  Tbe old man caught hold  of him,
and shook him by the hand as if he would shake his arm
eff.  Yes, yes, you are right, my son is a ship carpenter,
and it almost broke  my heart when he went off to seek his
fortune in a far country.  In the fullness of his  heart, tbe
poor old man offered to treat  us with the best liquor the
house afforded ; but we all excused ourselves and declined
his generosity.   This would have been carrying the joke
too far, for neither of us  ever had any knowledge of  his
son.   We felt happy; and we thought, if we thought  at
all, that we would make the  old man happy also.  The
English and Americans are equally addicted to bantering,
hoaxing,  quizzing,  humming, or by whatever ridiculous
name we  may deuote this more than ridiculous folly.   I
never heard  that the French, Germans, Spaniards,  or
Italians, were addicted to this unbeneVolent wit, if coward-
ly imposition can merit that name.
  As we  strolled through Plymouth, we gazed  at every
thing we  saw, as if  we had just fallen  into it  from the
moou.  In staring about we lost our  way,  and accosted a
grave looking, elderly man,  who directed us. As we ask-
ed him several questions, he thought  he had a right to ask
one of us ; when, to our surprise, he  asked us if we had
nny gold to sell ?  We how perceived that we had takyi 
JOURNAL.
2^
 for our director one of the sons of Abraham, whose home
 is no where, and that he took us  to be either privateers-
 men  or pick-pockets.   Piqued at this,  we thought  we
 would be even with him, and we asked him if his name
 was not Shortiand ?  He said no.  We asked him if he
 had no relations of that name.  He enquired if  dit Short-
 land vas Jew or Christian r We told him he was neither
 one nor the other.  Den, said Moses, he  must be Turk ; for
 dere be bat three so/1 of peoples in tbe  vorld  ; and this
 set us a laughing at the expence of the despised i>raelite,
 until we lost him in some o-f the dirty alleys of this noisy
 seaport.
   1 slept that night  at the Exchange Coffee  House.  It
 was so long since I had been cut off from the decencies of
 life, that I could hardly be said t> enjoy  them.  I could
 not, at first, reconcile myself to the civil attention of ser-
 vants and waiters.  At tbe  hour of sleep, I was shown ta
 such  a bed as I used to sleep on in  my father's house.—
 But who would believe it,  that  my predominant misery
 during this night, was a. feather bed and a pillow, render-
 ed uneasy because it was as soft as down ! Yes. astonish-
 ed reader I 1 felt about as uneasy iu a feather bed, as Mr.
 Beasley, or any  other fine  London gentleman  would, at
 laying on a plank, or the ballast of a transport.  Such is
' the power of habit, and such the effect  of custom.
   The next morning  before I left my bed, I pondered oyer
 the events and conduct of the preceding day, but not vvith
 satisfaction, or self approbation.   The seventh chapter of
 Ecelesiastes  came fresh to my mind.   I said  to myself,
 adversity and constraint are more favourable to wisdom,
 than liberty  and  prosperity;  or  to,express  it in better
 w,mls_" sorrow is better than  laughter, for by the sadness
 of the countenance  the heart is made better ;  and for tins
 maxim of wisdom we are indebted to a Jew.
    We remained a fortnight longer in Plymouth, and learnt
 by  degrees to relish civility.   We were kindly noticed by
 several <-ood people,  who seemed to be rather partial to us
 Americans than  otherwise.   While there, i heard but very
 little uttered against America, or Americans    We were
 spoken to, and'treated infinitely better than at Halifax. By
 the time of our embarkation which was the 23d of April,
  1815, we felt considerable attachment  to the  people about
  ,!S    We arrived at New-York the 7th of June following, 
226
JOURNAL.
without any thing occurring in the passage worth commit-
ting to paper,  unless it be to record  the  striking  contrast
in our feelings in our passage to, and from England.
  My sensations on first settiug my  foot once more on my
native soil,  were such as I have  not power to describe.
Tears gushed from my eyes, and had 1 not been ashamed,
I should  have  kneeled down and kissed tbe earth of the
United  States.  I believe similar sensations,  more or
less, fill the hosom of every American, on returning to bis
own country from British captivity.   It is hardly possible
that I shall, so  long as my faculties remain entire, forget
the horrors of the British transports, and several scenes
and sufferings  at Dartmoor Prison :  yet I hope to be able,
before I quit this world of contention, to forgive  the con-
tempts, the contumely, the starvations and filthiness inflict-
ed on me and on my countrymen,  by an  unfeeling enemy,
while we remained in  his power  as prisoners of war, at
Halifax, on ship board, and at  Dartmoor.
Return we, from this gloomy view,
To native fcenes, of fairer hue.
Land of our fires ! the Hero's home !
Weary and fick, to thee we come;
The heart fatigued with foreign woes,
On »hy fair bofjm feeks repoTe
Columbia! hope of future times !
Thou wonder of furrounding climes !
Thou laft and only refting place
Of Freedom's ocrfecuted race!
Hail to thy tonfecrated domes !
Thy fruitful fields, and peaceful homes;
The hunter, thus, who  long has toil'd
O'er mountain rude, and foreft wild,
Turns from the dark and cheerlefs way,
Where howls the favage beaft of prey,
To where yon curls of fmoke afpire,
Where brifkly burns his crackling fire ;
Towards his cot delighted moves,
Chetred by the voice of thofe he loves,
And welcomed by domeftic smiles,
Sings cheerly, and forgets his toils. 
   \                 POSTSCRIPT.
   SO >IE, to -whom I had shown my Journa  in manuscript, have thought
 that I had, now and then, expressed my feelings too unguardedly against
 some of the subjects of Great Britain, and some of my own countrymen-.
 In  consequence of this friendly remark,  I  have struck out  a  few
 passages,  but have not been able to  comply with all  the wishes of my
 connexions.^ But, alter all, had a political cant phrase or two been omit-
 ted, some good people would have been  gratifi d, and  the publication
 not the worse for it.   I have severely suffered, felt keenly, am! express-
 ed myself honestly, and wi'hout malice   I may not have made due al-
 lowance for the conduct of certain officers and agents   I may not have
 entered, as far as I ousjht, into  their  situations; and there might have
 been reasons and  excuses,  that my chafed feelings prevented me from
 attending to.   If so, ttie cool and candid  reader  both here, and on the
 other side the allantic,  will make that allowance which I  could hardly
 make myself   I must, nevertheless, maintain, that I  have expressed the
  feelings of the moment, and cannot now honestly alter my language; for
  whenever my soul calls up many occurrences in my captivity, my tongue
  and my pen will be found the faithful organs of my feelings
    I have endeavored to give due credit to the humane conduct of sever-
  al'sailors, soldiers, and  private subjects of the enemy   But, if, at this
  period  of peace, when it may he supposed that resentment was cooled
  down,  I try to obliterate tiie impressions made by crueltv and  by con~
  tempt,  and find  I cannot, then  must the reader take it as a trait of the
  imperfect character of a young man, on whose mind adversity has not
  had its best effect
     If an animosity actually  exists between the  English  and Americans,
  do you mend the matter by denying the  fact?  This animosity has  been
'J avowed to exist, within a few months past,  in the parliament, of England.
  The following article  is  extracted  from a London paper.   In a debate,
  (Feb  14th, 1816) a member said, "the  spirit of animosity in \merica,
  would  justify an increase of the naval force in the  West indies'' This
 , called  up  Lord Castlereagh, who  said—"As to  America, if it  is said
  great prejudices exist there against us, it must be recollectel that great
 { prejudices exist here  against her.   It was," he said,  ' his most ardent
  wish to discountenance this feeling on both sides, and  to promote  be-
  tween the,two nations feelings of reciprocal amity and regard "
     What has occasioned this avowed animosity in us towards the British I
   Our merchants, generally, feel not  this animosity ; neither is it to  he
   found, in a grealdegree," amongst our legislators  How came we bv it?
   Our sailors and our soldiers,  who huve  been  in British  prisons, and  on
   board British  men of war, and transports, have brought with them this
   animosity home to their families and their friends. They tell them their
   own stories in their own artless, and sometimes  exaggerated way, and
   these  are reported with, probably,  hia;h coloring, whereas, 1 have made
   it a point of honor, a matter of conscience, and a rule  of justice, to ad-
   here to truth ; and am contented that the British reader should ssv  all
   that fairness admits, to soften down the coloring of some pictures of Brit-
   ish barbaritv. provided he does nor  attempt to impeach my veracity.
     Beside individual animosity, there may possibly be a  linking national
   one, thinly covered over with the  fashionable mantle of courtesy   The
   conflicting interests of the two nations may endanger pjace. The source
   of national aggrandizement in both nations, is commerce ; and the high
   road  to them  the ocean.  We and  the British are  travelling the same
   way,  in keen  pursuit of the same  objects ; and it  is scarcely probable,
   thi>'t we shall he preserved in a state of peace hy  abstract, love of justice.
      I have been disposed to allow that the conduct  of  our  countrymen, 
228                        JOURNAL.
 •while on board the prison ships and  at Dartmoor, was, at times, ylva
 yoking to the British officers set over them, but never malignant, much
 less, bloody. It could he always traced to a spirit of fun and  frolic, which
 our people indulge in beyond all others in the world ;  and this ought to
 be considered  as ore of the luxuriant shoots of our tree of liberty ; for
 it is too harsh  to call it an excrescence.  It, shows the strength, depth
 and extent of its roots, and the richness of the soil.
   This Journal has not been published to increase the ani«josity now
 subsisting between the American and  British people  So  far from it,
 the writer  pleases himselt with the idea that this publication may reme-
 dy the evils complained of, or mitigate them ; and cut off the source of
 deep complaint against the English, for their treatment of  prisoners,
 should war i age again  between the two nations    It the present race of
 Britons  have not  become  indifferent to a  sense of national  character,
 their government  will take measures ;o wipe off the stain from her gar-
 ments.   Let the nations of  Europe inquire  how  the  Americans treat
 their prisoners of war.  If we treat them \<ith hyrha ity  publish our dis-
 grace to  the wide world, and speak of us accordingly.  1 .t  th-m. at the
 same time, inquire how the English treated t;>>>sVcf  as who ii:ne  had
 the great misfortune of falling into their hart's  ;;:id let them  be spc ken
 of accordingly.  My serious opinion is, that this uttlc  book win aid the
 great cause of hum .nity.                              ,
   Although 1, with some thousands of  my count<  men, v. > re iuclosi d in
 a large prison during  the greater part of the wn, i' ;ve.l  «ii'i us as
 with those  people who seldom go  out  of theii h"t. es,  who he;.r more
 news than those who are abroad in  the world   It  was, however,  pretty
 much all of one sort: for we seldom saw any other A   •. r;c::n news pa-
 pers, than  those of the federal, or opposition ps<r y.  These were- £* n-
 erally filled with abuse of the Presi dent, and of ihe government gen-
 erally, and with praises of the English, which, in  <ur sh nation, 'produc-
 ed a  strong sensation, as our support, our protection, our  pride, our
 honor were identified  in the person of the President, and ips adminis-
 tration.  The  ettorts of the federal party in Massachusetts to ein h^-. ,;i.sa
 and tie the hands of our government, and disgiace its brave officers, cre-
 ated in us all a  hatred of the very name  of federalism    ] record the
 fact, and appeal to all the prisoners who ha\e now le'.imied h< me, to
 confirm  my assertion , and I declare I have .erased not a  little on this
 head out of courtesy to  a large and  sangui ie party, who have erred, and
 strayed from the right way, by not knowing the  true character of the
 English.
   I fee! no  animosity, or disrespect to  any gentleman r>f the federal, or
 opposition party ;  but  they must  excuse me for  remarking that their
 conduct,  aud their sentiments, as they appeared in imssrg< s, proclama-
 tions, speeches and resolves, and their combinations for  u nlihoiding !o«nV8
 of money from government,  with their denunciations of a war,  w; .■•d
 professedly, ard as we  knew, really, for " ^i.iior's Mights." n;:te> an
 impression  on our  minds so  decidedly  against the fidcinihts, that the
 verv term, federalism,  was with us all, will out  one single except-in,
 a term of deep reproacJi.—L"t him who doubts it  ask any piisui ei  who
 made a part of  the six  thousand  confined  in Eu..land during Uu two
 years of our late bitter war  with England, and  he will be satisfied that
 I hsve "nothing extenuated,  or set down aught  i?i malice.'''
  1 hope and pray for onion among ourseh es ; ard that all party  names
3f:d distinctions, may be lost in that of  A ME 111'  ANS.
          " Henceforth let Whig and Tory cease,
          " And turn all parly rage to  peace ;
          " House and revive your ai.cient  ;;-!erv,
          " UNI I'E, and drive the -w:rld before you .'" 
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