CHAPTER II.

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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.

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.

"Nothing extenuate, or set down aught in malice."... SHAKESPEARE.

THE SECOND EDITION,

With considerable Additions and Improvements.

BOSTON:

PRINTED BY ROWE & HOOPER ... 78 STATE-STREET,

1816.

_District of Massachusetts, to wit:_

_District Clerk's Office._

(L. S.)

Be it remembered, that on the sixth day of March, A. D. 1816, and in

the fortieth year of the Independence of the United 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. 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." "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, during the times therein mentioned;" and also to an Act

entitled, "An 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 and proprietors of such copies during the times

therein mentioned; and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of

designing, engraving and etching, historical, and other prints."

WM. S. SHAW,

_Clerk of the District of Massachusetts._

TO

THE COMMON SENSE,

AND

HUMANE FEELINGS

_OF THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA_,

THIS JOURNAL IS INSCRIBED,

BY A LATE

_PRISONER OF WAR_

_WITH THE BRITISH_.

_Massachusetts, County of_ }

_Hampshire, 1815._ }

A JOURNAL OF A YOUNG MAN OF MASSACHUSETTS

In 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 fortune. With this in view we steered for

the coast of Brazil, 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 surrounded 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 ourselves from

these dangerous breakers. We were then about sixty 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 water 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 was necessary.

The next day a Portuguese ship of war came into the bay, on which we

thought it prudent to haul off, as we thought it not so easy to

impose on a public ship as on a private one, with our English colours

and uniform. In beating up to Pernambuco, we spoke with vessels every

day, but they were all Portuguese. When near to St. Salvadore, we were

in great danger of being captured by a British frigate, which 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 call _sweeps_, and in spite of their round and

grape shot, we got clear of her without any serious injury.

We would remark here, that sailors have a dialect of their own, and a

phraseology by themselves. Instead of right side, and left side, they

say _starboard_ and _larboard_. To tie a rope fast, is to _belay_ it.

To lower down a sail, or to pull down a colour, is to _dowse_ it; and

so of many other things. These peculiar phrases 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 hundred pounds by the scale. During the firing,

our little man stood upon the taffrail, 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 information, 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

disposition. Whether the following is a proof of it, I cannot

determine.

He allowed the crew but one gill of New England rum per day, which

they thought an under dose for a Yankee. They contended for more, but

he refused it. They expostulated, 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 keep his sluggish frame in the same degree of good spirits. 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, however, that I was very uneasy,

under the idea that we might all perish, from the obstinacy of the

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 New England 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 Roman soldier, or a

Carthagenian sailor, had his clothing, his meat, and his bread, and

his vinegar, he was contented, 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_; deprive him of these two articles,

which are neither food nor clothing, and he infallibly mutinies: that

is, he runs the risk of the severest punishment, even that of death,

rather than renounce these modern luxuries. I have observed among

sailors, that they bear the deprivation of rum with more patience than

the deprivation of tobacco. On granting the crew half a pint of rum a

day, they gave three cheers, and went to work with the greatest

cheerfulness and alacrity.

The Americans, I believe, drink more spirits than the same class of

people in England. The labouring people, and sailors, cannot get it in

Britain. A soldier whose regiment was quartered in Boston, just before

the revolution, held up his bottle to one of the new comers, and

exclaimed, "Here is a country for you, by J--s; I have been drunk once

to-day, and have got enough left to be drunk again: and all for six

coppers!" What they then called _coppers_, we now call _cents_, and

the Londoners _hap-pennies_.

The next day we descried three sail steering for St. Salvadore. We

gave chase to them; but when we came within gun shot of the stern

most, she fired her stern chasers at us. We brought our four guns on

one side, to attack, or to defend, as we should find ourselves

circumstanced; but night coming on, we saw no more of them.

Our water becoming short, we determined to gain our former watering

place; but not being able to reach it easily, we anchored off a little

settlement, twenty miles distant from the place where we watered

before. Here our captain put on a British uniform, and waited on the

commandant 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

commander returned to his vessel, and left the place very early next

morning.

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 catamaran: 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 Indians, and so were his family, but the 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. The colour of these merry girls was that of

the inside of a new leather shoe.

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 sailed 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 discovered a ship and a brig standing for us. We

tacked 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 nearest 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 frigate, 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; and she came within gun shot

about noon. She firing her bow-chasers, and we our stern-chasers. At

length she came almost within musket shot of us, when she fired

repeated broadsides into our little schooner, so as to cut 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 on board of us with a lieutenant and twelve

marines, swearing most bravely at the d--d _Yankees_. The name Yankee

is used with pride by an American sailor or soldier; but with derision

by the British. But as our men had, according to custom, when a vessel

surrenders, 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 nature, and for a moment they seemed

"all hale fellows well met." The boarding officer did not appear to be

so intent in securing the vessel, as in searching every hole and

corner for small articles to pocket. The Americans disdain this

dishonourable practice. The officers and crews of our men of war have

never soiled their characters by taking from their enemies the

contents of their chests and pockets, as the commanders of the British

frigates, whom we have captured, can testify. We were soon ordered on

board of his Britannic Majesty's ship the _Tenedos_, captain Parker.

I had always entertained a respectable opinion of the British,

especially of their national marine. I had read British history, and

listened to British songs, and had heard from my childhood of the

superior bravery and generosity of the British sailor, and had

entertained a real respect for their character; and being of a family

denominated _federalists_, I may be said to have entered the frigate

Tenedos, captain Parker, with feelings and expectations very different

from what I 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 people 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 those things have

conspired in making a wall of separation between us and that lively

people. But it is not so with the English. Our language, religion,

customs, habits, manners, institutions: and above all, books have

united to make us feel as if we were but children of the same great

family, only divided by the Atlantic ocean. All these things have a

natural and habitual tendency to 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

partialities about me, I went from our schooner over the side of the

British frigate with different feelings from what I should, had I been

going on board an enemy's 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, pen-knife, or

razor. We Americans never conduct so towards British prisoners. We

always respect the private articles of the officer and sailor.

On the same day we were put on board the brig Curlew, lieutenant Head,

a polite and humane gentleman, and much beloved 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

commander of the Tenedos: a man who allowed us to be stripped of all

our little pocket articles: not much to the honour of his commission,

or credit of his nation. 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

humanely treated by lieutenant Head, and his worthy surgeon. We can

discover real gentlemen at sea as well as on 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,

while marching through the streets to prison. The first thing they

did was to make us stand in platoons, and then the 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 captain Parker reviewed us on the deck of the Tenedos. We

were then commanded to _halt_. As we have no such word of command on

board of an American privateer, some crowded on, while a few stopped.

The young officer tried again, and made us stand all in a row. Some of

the crew told their comrades that when the captain sung 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

swab on his left shoulder, gave a second time the word of command,

"_march_;" by which word we all understood he meant, "_to heave a

head_," 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. I know not what

would have been the consequence of his ridiculous 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 march on in

our own way; upon which our sailors stuck their fists 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

have been informed, since my return from captivity, that all our

seamen, that were sent from Boston to Sackett's harbour, on 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'Donough. 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 colors, and streamers and music,

and heaving the lead amidst the acclamations of the country people,

who delight in a sailor and in a ship. While these things were thus

conducted 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, surrounded by a 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 uncommon interest in

the events of the war, and the news of the day, I 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 prisoners. It may, in

part, be owing to the nastiness and negligence 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 infested with vermin?--Were our prison ships in Boston

or Salem ever known to be lousy? Shame on, you Britons!

The buildings on Melville Island are constructed of wood. Beside the

prison, there is a cooking house, barracks for soldiers, and a

store-house; a house for the officers, and another for the surgeon.

There are a couple of cannon pointing towards the prison; and a

telegraph, for the purpose of giving intelligence to the fort, which

overlooks this island and the town of Halifax. These buildings are

painted red, and have upon the whole, a neat appearance. The prison

itself is two hundred feet in length, and fifty 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 commands

there.

The view from the prison exhibits a range of dreary hills. On the

northern side are a few scattered dwellings, and some attempts at

cultivation; on the southern nothing appears but immense piles of

rocks, with bushes, scattered here and there in their hollows and

crevices; if their summer appearance conveys the idea of barrenness,

their winter appearance must be dreadful in this region of almost

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 unfinished 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 country that never was conquered! To finish the picture,

you have only 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

hatred of the Americans, as we shall see in the course of this

narrative.

As to the inside of the prison at Melville Island, if the American

reader expects to hear it represented as a place resembling the large

prisons for criminals in the United States, such as those at Boston,

Charlestown, New York, or Philadelphia, he will be sadly disappointed.

Some of 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 honor 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 contrivance of this sort that

they attach the cords that support those canvass bags, or cradles,

called hammocks. Four tier of these hanging-nests were made to swing

one above another, between these stalls or stanchions. To those unused

to these lofty sleeping-births, they were rather unpleasant situations

for repose. But use makes every thing easy.

The first time I was shut up for the night, in this prison, it

distressed me too much to close my eyes. Its closeness and smell were,

in a degree, disagreeable, but this was 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 hen coop, for no crime, but for

fighting the battles of their country. Some were cursing and

execrating their oppressors; others, late at night, were relating

their adventures to a new prisoner; others lamenting their aberrations

from rectitude, and disobedience of parents, and head strong

wilfulness, 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 of "_turn

out--all out_," when each man took down his hammock 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, I 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 turns.--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 and 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 inclement.

When we arrived here in May, 1813, there were about nine hundred

prisoners; but many died by the severity of the winter; for the

quantity of fuel allowed by the British government was insufficient to

convey warmth through the prison. The men were cruelly harrassed by

the barbarous custom of mustering and parading them in the severest

cold, and even in snow storms. The agent, _Miller_, might have

alleviated the sufferings of our people, had he been so disposed,

without relaxation of duty. But he, as well as the turnkey, named

_Grant_, seemed to take delight in tormenting the Americans. This man

would often keep the prisoners out for many hours, in the severest

weather, when the mercury was ten and fifteen degrees below zero,

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 England and Ireland, can form no adequate idea of the

frightful climate of Nova Scotia. The description of the sufferings of

our poor fellows the past winter, was enough to make one's heart ach,

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 mounting the

stair-case, began a most passionate harrangue, declaring that the beef

was good enough, and a d--d deal better than they had in their own

country: and if they did not eat it they should have none. He then

went on as follows "Hundreds of you, d--d scoundrels, 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 absence; and now you have the impudence to

tell me to my face, that the king's beef is not good enough for your

dainty stomachs. Why some of that there beef is good enough for me to

eat. You are a set of mean rascals, you beg of an enemy the favours

which your own government won't grant 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 Britannic Majesty's 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 physic for you to take if you are sick, and a hospital

to go to into the bargain; and if you die, there are boards enough

(pointing to a pile of lumber in the yard) for to make you coffins,

and an hundred and fifty acres of land to bury you in; and if you are

not satisfied with all this, 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 Mr. 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 American soldier and sailor live

infinitely better in America, than the same class of people do in

Great Britain and Ireland. Generally speaking, an American eats three

times the quantity of animal food that fall to the share of the same

class of people in England, Holland, Germany, Denmark, or Sweden. He

sleeps more comfortably, and lives in greater plenty of fish, flesh,

vegetables, cider, and spirituous liquors. Add to this, his freedom is

in a manner unbounded. 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 him, he never will

rest quiet under the dishonour; 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 Yankee's revenge.

We often hear the British, if they are unsuccessful, lamenting 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 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,

working for the inhabitants, or teaching dancing, or fencing, or their

own language. Some were employed as butchers and cooks; others as

nurses in the hospital; and they were every where favoured for their

complaisance, obedience, and good humour. They had the character of

behaving 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 ordinary run of American seamen, who seemed too often

to look and speak as if they longed to try again the tug 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 United States used to come

round the prison to gratify their evil 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 clergymen, who came

occasionally to pray and preach with us in prison. We paid every mark

of respect to every modest 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, praying for king George

and the royal family of England. The men considered it as an insult,

and resented it accordingly. Some of these imprudent men would

fulminate the vengeance of Heaven, for what they conceived

_political_, instead of moral errors. The prisoners respected some of

these reverend gentlemen highly, while they despised some others. The

priesthood, however, have less 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 destroying their own craft,

by aiding the sly _dissenters_ in spreading the bible through every

family in Britain, and in America. In reading this blessed book, the

people will see how Christianity has been corrupted. They will compare

the archbishops and dignified clergy of the present degenerate days,

with the plainness of our Saviour, and with the simplicity of the holy

fishermen, 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 Episcopacy never has,

nor ever will, 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 rational thing. Its ministers are highly respected,

because their lives adorn their doctrines; and the parochial care of

their flock, who are principally Irish, is seen and commended. It is

observed throughout our sea ports, that the seafaring people are

generous supporters of their ministers; 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 peas. Over and

above this we received from the American agent a sufficiency of

coffee, sugar, potatoes, and _tobacco_. The first may be called the

bare necessaries of life, but the latter contribute much to its

comfortable enjoyment. Whether the British government ought not to

have found the whole, I am not prepared to determine; but certainly,

before this addition from our own agent, our men complained bitterly:

and it is a fact, that the agent here more than once detained tobacco,

sent as a present to us from our agent at Boston.

In justice to Mr. Miller, the British agent, I ought to record that he

paid great attention to the 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

up 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 stimulus,

their spirits sunk, and they had rather 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 lie dirty than clean. Mr. Miller

had therefore great merit in compelling these men to follow the rules

prescribed to the whole prison. For this he had 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 external 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 remark, 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

_Boestler_, in Upper Canada. They exhibited a picture of starvation,

misery, woe, and despair. Their miserable condition called forth our

sympathy and compassion, and I may add, excited our resentment against

the authors of their distress. These unfortunate landsmen had never

been used to "rough it" like sailors, but had lived the easy life of

farmers and mechanics. Some of them had never experienced the

hardships of a soldier's 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 board transports, like negroes in a Guinea ship,

where some suffered a lingering death, and others merely escaped it.

It appears 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 highly disgraceful to the British

name and nation.

We have it asserted uniformly, that the prisoners, who came from

Quebec to Halifax and to Boston, down the St. Lawrence, were treated

and provided for in a manner little above brutes. Colonel SCOTT, now

Major General Scott, came by that route from Quebec to Boston, and it

is well known that he complained, that there were neither

accommodations, provisions, nor any thing on board the ship proper for

a gentleman. He spoke of the whole treatment he received with deep

disgust and pointed resentment. If an officer of his rank and

accomplishments had so much reason for complaint, we may easily

conceive what the private soldier must have endured.

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 condition 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 provisions than what was needful for one. They assured

us, that if they had 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 deliver them all to the captain of the ship, who

withheld them from the American prisoners. Some of the prisoners 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

concerned, and has never been contradicted or doubted. We give this as

the common report; and as the Boston newspapers circulated freely

through Nova Scotia and Canada, we infer, that had the story been void

of truth, it would have been contradicted. This has been amply

confirmed.

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

personified the whole nation) was a humane, tender-hearted, generous

gentleman; but let him be once in the power of an Englishman, or what

is still worse, of a Scotchman, and it will correct his erroneous

notions. An Englishman 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 believed 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,

now afloat in the world.

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 London 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 they think of British humanity or British bravery. A

reliance on British veracity and honour caused these poor fellows to

surrender, when they found them worse than the Indians. These things

may be forgiven, but they ought never to be forgotten.

NOVA SCOTIA, or _New Scotland_, was formerly called _Chebucto_ by the

native Indians. It is a dreary region. The country, for many miles

west of Halifax, is a continued range of mountains, rising one over

the other, as far 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, with us in

Massachusetts. To us there was something hideous in the aspect of

their mountains; but this may have been partly owing to our own

hideous habitation, and low spirits. The same objects may have

appeared charming in the eyes of a Scotch family, just arrived from

the fag-end of the Island of Great Britain.

The capital, _Halifax_, was settled by a number of British subjects in

1749. It is situated on a spacious and commodious bay or harbour,

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 two hundred and thirty-six 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 suburbs are about two miles

in length; and the general width a quarter of a mile. It contained in

1793, about four thousand inhabitants and seven hundred 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 British 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 province. This city lying on the S coast of Nova Scotia has

communication with Pictou, sixty-eight miles to the NE on the gulf of

St. Lawrence, by a good cart road finished in 1792. It is twelve miles

northerly of Cape Sambro, which forms in part the entrance of the bay;

twenty-seven south easterly of Windsor, forty N by E of Truro, eighty

NE by E of Annapolis, on the bay of Fundy, and one hundred and

fifty-seven SE of St. Ann, in New Brunswick, measuring in a straight

line. N lat. 44, 40, W lon. 63, 15.

It was settled chiefly by Scotchmen; and since the revolutionary 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 style and tone as if they were sorry they could not

murder us without the risk of being hanged.

In 1757 to 1759, when the British were engaged in a war with the

French and Indians, and were in possession of Halifax with a large

land and naval force, they were obliged to fetch their wood for fuel

from Boston, as they could not venture, (says Capt. Knox, their

military historian) beyond their walls and breastworks; and yet

"_thinking Johnny Bull_" sent a land and naval force to conquer us, in

1814! of all "_thinking_" beings, of which we have ever had an

account this Mr. _Bull_ is the strangest! Peradventure much thinking

has had the same effect on this poor gentleman that _much learning_

has had on another.

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 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 the 3d (besides that of

loosing America) is the perfect conciliation of the Scotch. Whether

this was owing to my Lord Bute, or to his relation, I am unable to

say; but it is a singular thing in the history of nations, when we

take into consideration the cruel treatment of the Scotch so low down

as the year 1745. 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_, the _Pottowatomies_ and _Kickapoos_,

may hereafter become most attached to our government, and afford us

Judges, Secretaries of State, Admirals, Generals, Governors of

Provinces, Grooms of the Poet's 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 the story of _our_ border-wars; and who shall be able to

trace a long and illustrious line of ancestry, up to the renowned

chief _Split-log_, _Walk-in-the-water_, _Hanging-maw_, or to

_Tecumsch_? Who knows but that among these American Highlanders, we

may 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 disturbed 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

possible 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 brave

captain of the British frigate; who was every way prepared for the

action.

The rapid destruction of the British sloop of war Peacock, gave

Lawrence high reputation; and he felt as if 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 preparations. His first officer he left sick on shore, who died a

few days after the battle; 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 prudently dressed himself in a short

jacket and round hat, so as not to distinguish himself from the other

officers, our Capt. Lawrence, who was six feet and upwards 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 Halifax--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 pretended to be

alarmed, by a rumor that the prisoners on Melville Island, which is

about three miles, or less, from the town, meditated a sally, with the

determination of seizing the capital of Nova Scotia. They immediately

took the most serious precautions, and screwed up their municipal

regulations to the highest pitch. All the loyal citizens entrusted

with arms, were ordered to keep themselves in readiness to march at a

minute's warning to repel the meditated attack of about a thousand

unarmed Yankees, rendered formidable by a reinforcement of a few dozen

half starved soldiers, who were taken by the Indians and British, and

sent from Quebec down the river St. Lawrence to the formidable

American post on Melville Island, under the command of turnkey 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 really believed the

ridiculous story, we must confess that we enjoyed their terror, and

laughed, inwardly, at their formidable precautions of defence. They

placed a company of artillery, with two pieces 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 lengthwise, while sentries were placed at regulated

distances on the road, all the way into the town of Halifax. An

additional number of troops were stationed on the island, who

_bivouacked_[A] 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 reflected on our own

helpless condition, without any means of offence, beside our teeth and

nails, we could not but despise our enemies; and we did not omit to

increase their ridiculous alarm, by whispering together, pointing our

fingers sometimes E. and sometimes W. and sometimes N. and sometimes

S. and rubbing 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 little

longer, and not obstruct the kind intentions that were in train for

our deliverance from captivity; and he assured us, upon his honour,

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 friendship, and

protesting upon his honour, 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. The policy

of the English government was, it seems, to discourage the enlistment

of soldiers into our service by sending the prisoners, taken on the

frontiers, to England. They meant also to distress us by accumulating

our seamen in their prisons; and this they imagined would disenable us

from manning our men of war, or sending out privateers. They preferred

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 by land.

We were in good humor and 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 turnkey, 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 he 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 effectual method to provide

against the possibility of resistance 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 with great caution, as not entitled to entire

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 insurrection. We could easily trace all these different

stories to 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

duplicity, that we were "_to be sent home_." When Mr. Miller was

asked the same question, he replied, that he had a particular reason

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. We left the prison with light

hearts, not without pitying our companions, who were doomed to wait a

while longer before they could be made so happy as we then felt. We

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 cartel--"_There_," said he,

pointing to an old 44, "_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 such a picture of

paleness and dismay. The deception was cruel; the duplicity was

infamous. The whole trick from beginning to end, was an instance of

cowardice, meanness and villany. It proves that cowards are cruel;

that barbarity and sincerity never meet in the same bosom.

We now saw that the rumor of our rising upon our keepers, and marching

to Halifax was a miserable falsehood, spread abroad for no other

purpose than to double our guards, and prevent the imagined

consequences of desperation, should it be discovered that we were to

be sent across the Atlantic. It is possible we might have succeeded 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 an

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. Revenge

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 turnkey, we should

have given our enemies a fresh proof of American bravery, if not

imprudence. Had Miller been on board the boat with us, we should most

certainly have thrown him overboard. His base and dishonourable

artifice, first to raise our hopes and expectations to the height of

joy, and then to sink us in despair, was an infamous deed, worthy such

a reward. Speaking for myself, I declare, that my heart sunk within

me, and I came near fainting, and it was some time before tears came

to my relief; then in a burst of indignation, I cursed the perfidious

enemy, and felt my soul wound up to deeds of desperation.

CHAPTER II.

Had the agent informed us of the orders of his government, and made us

acquainted with our destination, we should have braced our minds up to

the occasion, and submitted to our hard fate like men. We should have

said to each other in the language of Shakespeare--"_if these things

be necessities, let's 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, precipitated into the dark and cold regions of

despair, was barbarous beyond expression. As much resentment as I feel

towards Miller and his subalterns, I 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 communications 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 Pandemonium_." I 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 informed 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 out our

provisions. To understand this, the reader must know that the British

have been in the habit, all the war, of giving to their prisoners a

less quantity of food than to their own 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 own men was barely sufficient,

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 windows, or air holes. All the air and light came

through the hatch 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 apprehension of our suffering

cruel death by suffocation. Here the black hole of Calcutta rose to my

view in all its horrors; and the very thought stopped my respiration,

and set my brain on fire. In my distress, I 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 benefit 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. We 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 thing, 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 property 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_ cubic 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

mixed with the common atmospheric air. When I considered that our

number amounted to an hundred, I could not drive from 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 prisoners of 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. I 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 fellow 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 _piggin_, 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 _swill_, 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 the human species in the United States. It is said

that this oatmeal porridge was introduced to the British prisons by

the Scotch influence, and we think that none but hogs and Scotchmen

ought to eat it. A mess more repellant to a Yankee'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

wholesome 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 favoured Scotch have the exclusive privilege of supplying

the miserable creatures whom the fortune of war has thrown into the

hands of the English, with this national dish, so delicious to

Scotchmen, and so abhorrent to an American.

Excepting this pint of oatmeal porridge, we had nothing 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 tortures of hunger; and perhaps there is no

torture more intolerable 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 deserved applause, and not torture.

And be it forever remembered, that the Americans always feed their

prisoners well, and treat them with humanity.

The _Regulus_, 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 bunks, or births, so large as to

contain six men in a birth. The only passages for light or air were

through the main and fore hatches, which were covered with a grating,

at which stood, day and night, a sentinel. The communication 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 to

rise and take the ship, which the brave British tars seemed constantly

apprehensive of. You may judge of their apprehensions by their

extraordinary precautions--they had a large store of muskets in their

tops to be ready for their marines and crew, should we Yankees drive

them from the hull to seek safety above. They had two carronades

loaded with grape and canister shot on the poop, pointing forward,

with a man at each; and strict orders were given not to hold any

conversation with the Americans, 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 British 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 manner 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 orders, and that would ensure us kind and humane treatment; 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 exchange, and that our comfort and happiness

depended entirely on our own submissive behaviour. 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 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 savage Indians conceal, and he

promised to accommodate them: but we never heard any more of him or

the clothing. However it may be accounted 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 and

activity. Disease and infirmity may check, or impede the benevolent

views of our government, and cast an odium on the officers of

administration. After all, we may find fault where we ought to praise.

It is possible that we may not have made due allowance for Mr. Miller,

the British agent, and we may sometimes have 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 Halifax in company

with the _Melpomene_, a man of war transport, armed en flute. On board

this ship were a number of Irishmen, who had enlisted in our

regiments, and were captured in Upper Canada, fighting under the

colours of the United States of America! or, in the language of the

English government, found fighting against their king and _country_.

The condition of these Irishmen was truly pitiable. Unable to live in

their own oppressed country, they, in imitation of our forefathers,

left their native land to enjoy the liberty, and the fruits of their

labor in another. They abandoned Ireland, where they were oppressed,

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, they got their living as laborers, or as seamen. The

embargoes and the war threw them out of business, and many of them

enlisted in our army; that is, in the army of the country which they

had chosen, and had a right to choose. Their consciences forbade them

not 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_. We fled from our native

land, said these 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 perhaps executed as rebels.

Beside the privations, hunger and miseries that we endured, these poor

Irishmen had before their eyes, the apprehension of a violent and

ignominious death. While 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 retaliation 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 insured the usual treatment of ordinary prisoners of

war to these American soldiers of Irish birth. This firm determination

of the American executive arrested the bloody hand of the British.

They remembered Major _Andre_, and they recollected Sir _James

Asgill_, under the administration of the great WASHINGTON, 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 of retaliating on the enemy any public punishment that

should be executed on these American soldiers, of Irish origin. While

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 venal pens

and voices to condemn Mr. _Madison_, and to justify the British

doctrine. This is a deep stain on the character of our clergy; and the

subsequent conduct of the British, may serve to shew these ever

meddling men, that our enemies despised them, and respected Madison.

Our voyage across the Atlantic afforded but few incidents for remark.

Every day brought the same distressed sensations, and every night the

same doleful feelings, arising from darkness, stench, increased

debility and disease. The general and most distressing in the

catalogue of our miseries was the almost unceasing torment of hunger.

Many of us would have gladly partaken with our father's hogs, in their

hog-troughs. This barbarous system of starvation reduced several of

our hale and hearty young men to mere skeletons. What with the

allowance of the enemy, and the allowance from our own government, in

which was good hot coffee for breakfast, we were generally 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

weakened, 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 American, 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,

we 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.

The manner in which the English generally treat their _poor_ in their

work-houses, in England, is infinitely worse than the treatment of our

convicts in our state prisons. There are no very heavy chains, huge

blocks, or iron stanchions in our prisons, as there are in the

receptacles of the poor in England. We treat them with tenderness, as

unfortunate fellow creatures, and not with harshness, as criminals.

Our constitutions, mind and body united, were so constantly impressed

and worried with the desire of eating, that the torment followed us

in our sleep. We were constantly dreaming of tables finely spread with

a plenty of all those good and savory things with which we used 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

insufficient 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 board 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 and tears; not being able

to determine whether they had best eat it all up at once, or eat it in

small portions through the day. Some 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 reasoned and debated a long time on the subject.

Prejudice said, throw the nasty thing away, while gnawing 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 we are dead, and so we will eat them first._" This shews

that misery can sometimes laugh. I 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 greater share of

compassion than the soldier. We had repeated 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 myriads of fleas. These were at

first a source of vexation, but at length their destruction became an

amusement. We could not, however, overcome them; like the persecuted

Christians of old times, when you killed one, twenty would seem to

rise up in his place. Had I have known what I have since learnt and

had been provided with the essential oil of pennyroyal, we should have

conquered all these light troops in a few days. A few drops of this

essential oil, dropped here and there upon the blankets infested with

fleas, and they will abandon the garment. The effluvium 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 of notice during our passage to England, excepting the retaking

of a brig captured a few hours before on the Grand Bank, by the

frigate President, commodore Rodgers. From information obtained from

the midshipman who commanded the prize, we learnt the course of the

President, whereupon we altered 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. We 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 kindness at this time. I

have certainly had occasion for remarking, 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 attack

from us, as in the case of alarm at Halifax. I am more and more

convinced that cowardice is the mother of cruelty. Were I to draw the

picture of cruelty, I would paint him with a feminine faintness. The

free and horrible use of the _halter_ in London, is from _fear_. I was

brought up, all my life, even until I left my father's house, 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

corrected 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 in the hole of a ship, or in a prison, where

the blessed air is changed into a poison, and where the articles given

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, sit down 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 bold cruelty, 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, which was the 5th 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 go and tell his captain that hunger and labour

were not friends, and never would go together; and that 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

officers' 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 blunderheaded fellow below, and let some

American take his place; but after this expression of brutality

towards the poor jambed up Dutchman, not a man would go near the

capstan, so one of their own crew filled up the vacancy made by the

wounded Hollander.

A Mr. S----, who had some office of distinction in Newfoundland, if I

mistake not he was the first in command of that dreary island. This

gentleman, who I think they called general Smith, was passenger on

board the Regulus. One day when I was upon deck, he asked me how many

of the hundred prisoners could read and 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, said he, New England must be

covered with charity schools.--I replied, that we had no _charity_

schools, or very few; at which he looked as if he thought I had

uttered an absurdity. I then related in a few words our school system.

I told him, that the primary condition or stipulation in the

incorporation of every town in Massachusetts, and which was a "_sine

qua non_" of every town, was a reserve of land, and a bond to maintain

a school or schools, according to the number of inhabitants; that the

teachers were supported 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 children 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 people, generally went to school in the

winter, while in the spring and summer they assisted their parents.

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 ordained and settled as a parish minister, he never or very

rarely keeps a school. At which the general appeared surprised. I

added that sometimes episcopal clergymen kept a school, but never the

presbyterian, or congregational ministers. He asked why the latter

could not keep school as well as the former; I told him, because they

were expected to write their own sermons, at which he laughed.

Besides, parochial 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 not too much time for composing sermons. They

moreover consider it derogatory to the honor of his flock to be

obliged to keep a school--when I told him that our clergymen bent all

their force to instructing youth in morality and religion, he said,

then they attempt to raise a structure before they lay a foundation

for it. He seemed very strenuous that our priests should be employed

in the education of youth, as he conceived that hired school masters

had not the pious zeal that the priest would have. I suspect said

General S. that your ministers are too proud and too lazy. I 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 else, teaching for money

merely. He did not know that our New England school masters were men

of character, and consequence. Some of our very first men in these

United States, have been teachers of youth. At this present time some

of the sons of some of the first men in Massachusetts are village

school masters; that is, they keep a school in the winter vacations of

the University; and some of them for the first year after leaving

college.

I was much pleased with the general; and 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.[B] I wish I 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, and of their education, 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 haughty, and

unfeeling captain 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 do you

imagine that the inhumane treatment of men every way as good as

yourselves, is 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 harsh treatment. One morning as the general and the

captain of the Regulus were walking as usual on the quarter deck, one

of our Yankee boys passed along the galley with his kid of "burgoo."

He rested it on the edge of the hatch-way, while he was adjusting the

rope ladder to descend with his "swill." The thing attracted the

attention of the general, who asked the man, how many of his comrades

eat of that quantity for their breakfast? "_Six Sir_," said the man,

"_but it is fit 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 English 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, and more force of muscle, if not more

cultivated powers of mind. There was a marine in the Regulus, who had

been wounded on board the Shannon in the battle with the Chesapeake,

who had a great antipathy to the Americans, and was continually

casting reflections on the Americans generally. 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 _Guerriere_

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 inquired into the cause of the

quarrel. 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 ordered

him to his hole again. What the British naval commanders call

insolence, is no more than the undaunted expression of their natural

and habitual independence. When a British sailor is called by his

captain, in an angry tone, on to the quarter-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 _Java_, was a deep mortification 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 off Portsmouth the fifth of 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 fumigated, and every exertion made by the officers to put her in a

condition for inspection by the 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 Regulous 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 it; but the rest of us said, that it was always

customary in America, when we left 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

attempt to force them was fruitless. I do not myself wonder that the

British officers, 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 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, Germans and Swedes, among

whom you could observe no precise national character; he adds, "but as

to New-England, they are all true English; and there you see one

uniform trait of national manners, habits and dispositions.--The

people are hardy, industrious, humane, obliging, obstinate and brave.

By kind and courteous usage, mixed with flattery, you can lead them,

like so many children, almost as you please;" _but_, he adds, "_the

devil from h--l, with fire in one hand, and faggots in the other,

cannot drive them_." Neither Caesar, nor Tacitus ever drew a more true

and concise character of the Gauls, or Germans, than this. Here is

seen the transplanted Englishman, enjoying "_Indian freedom_," and

therefore a little wilder than in his native soil of Albion; and yet

it is surprising that a people, 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 revolutionary war

was not sufficient to teach _John Bull_, that his descendants had

improved by transplantation, in all those qualities for which _stuffy

John_ most values himself. The present race of Englishmen are puffed

up, and blinded by what they _have been_, while their descendants in

America are proud of what they are, and what they know _they shall

be_.

After the ship had been cleansed, fumigated and partially

white-washed, so as to be fit for the eye and nose of the health

officer, she was examined by him, and _reported free from contagion_!

Now I conceive this line of conduct not very reputable to the parties

concerned. When we arrived off Portsmouth, our ship was filthy, and I

believe contagious; we miserable prisoners, were _encrusted_ with the

nastiness 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 to have cleaned her up, and altered her condition

for inspection. In the American service the captain, surgeon and

health officer would have all been cashiered for such a dereliction of

honour and duty. This is the way that the British board of admiralty,

the transport board, the parliament, and the people are deceived, and

their nation disgraced; and this corruption, which more or less

pervades the whole transport service, will enervate and debase their

boasted navy. We cannot suppose that the British board of admiralty,

or the transport board would justify the cruel system of starvation

practised on the brave Americans who were taken in Canada, and

conveyed in their floating dungeons down the river 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 towards their own government in the hearts of the surviving

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 system 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 harbor, 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 aggravated the

whole, was the stench of the place, owing to a diarrhoea with which

several were affected. Our situation was indeed deplorable. Imagine

yourself, Christian reader! _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 exerting 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.

Out stretch'd he lies, and as he pants for breath,

Receives at every gasp new draughts of death.

TASSO.

God of mercy, cried I, in my agony of distress, is this a sample of

the English humanity we have heard and read so much of from our school

boy years to manhood? If they be a merciful nation, they belong to

that class of nations "whose tender mercies are cruelty."

Representations were repeatedly made to the captain 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 answered 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 fellow's heart to be as hard as the

bed we slept on. Soon after, 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 alteration 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 appropriate one part of our residence to

this dirty purpose. This, as may be supposed, rendered our confinement

doubly disgusting, as well as unwholesome.

I do not recollect the name of the captain of the Malabar, 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 cannot help remarking that I have received more

ill-treatment from men of that nation than from individuals of any

other; and this is the general impression of my countrymen. The poet

tell us, that

"Cowards are cruel, but the brave

Love mercy, and delight to save."[C]

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 sailors 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 expressions of

contempt; more so than the English. It is said that a Scotch officer,

who superintends the horrid whippings so common in British camps, is

commonly observed to be more hard hearted than an English one. It is

certain that they are generally preferred as negro-drivers in the

West-India islands. It has been uniformly remarked that those

Scotchmen who are settled on the Canada frontiers are remarkable for

their bitterness towards our men in captivity.

We speak here of the _vagrant_ Scotch, the fortune-hunters 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.

Without mentioning their Ossian, Thompson and Burns, we may enumerate

their prose writers, such as Hume, and the present association of

truly learned and acute men, who write the _Edinburgh Review_. A

Scotchman may be allowed to show pride at the mention of this

celebrated work. As it regards 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

English, that the _Choctaws_, _Cherokees_, _Pottowatomies_ and

_Kickapoo Indians_ are to the common inhabitants of these United

States; and 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 general idea which our common people

have of what Walter Scott calls "_the border wars_." Some of them will

tell you that the Scotch go half naked in their own country--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, they 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, so as to form them

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

conduct of this harsh and self-interested race towards our prisoners,

will not expedite the period of correct ideas relative to the

comparative condition of the Scotch and English. 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 antipodes of Scotchmen, who, as it regards these

qualities, are cold, rough and barren; like the land that gave them

birth.

We moved from Portsmouth to the _Nore_ or Noah, for I know not the

meaning of the word, or how to spell it. The place so called is the

mouth of the river Thames, which runs through the capital of the

British nation. We were three days on our passage. Here we were

transferred to several tenders in order to be transported to Chatham.

We soon entered the _river Medway_, 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 defended 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 naval

station, where the English build and lay up their first rate men of

war. It is but about thirty miles from London; or the distance of

Newport, Rhode Island, from the town of Providence. We passed up to

where the prison ships lay, after dark. The prospect appeared very

pleasant, as the prison ships appeared to us illuminated. As we were

all upon deck, we enjoyed the sight as we passed, and the commander of

the tender appeared to partake of our pleasure. We 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. We 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 national characteristic, put more questions to us in ten

minutes, than we could well answer in as many hours. We passed the

evening and the first part of the night in mutual communications; and

we went to rest with more pleasure than for many a night before.

Our prison ship was moored in what they called Gillingham _reach_. We

would here remark, that the river, and 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

banks. This course of the river compels a vessel to _stretch_ along in

one direction, and then to _stretch_ along in a very different

direction. What the English call _reaching_, we in America call

_stretching_. Each of these different courses of the river they call

"_reaches_." They have their _long reach_ and their _short reach_, and

a number of reaches, under local, or less obvious names. Some are

named after some of their own pirates, which is here and there

designated by a gibbet; 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 disputing concerning our

tastes. The reach where our prison was moored was about three miles

below Chatham; and is named from the village of Gillingham. Now

whether _reach_ or _stretch_ be the most proper term 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 Reviewers_;

who, by the way, and we mention it _pro bono publico_, would very much

increase their stock of knowledge and usefulness, if they would depute

a few missionaries, for their own reverend body, to pass and repass

the Atlantic in a British transport, containing in its _black hole_ an

hundred or two of Yankee prisoners of war: We do wish that the _London

Quarterly Reviewers_ particularly would take a trip in the _Malabar_;

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 nation, and of that nearly lost tribe, the Caledonian

nation.

There were thirteen prison ships beside our own, all ships of the

line, and one hospital ship, moored near each other. They were filled,

principally, with Frenchmen, Danes and Italians. We found on our

arrival _twelve hundred_ Americans, chiefly men who had been

_impressed_ on board British men of war, and who had given themselves

up, with a declaration that they would not fight against their own

countrymen, and _they were sent here_ and _confined_, without any

distinction made between them and those who had been taken in arms.

The injustice of the thing 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 called, and

the forecastle;--which was a comfortable arrangement compared with the

_black holes_ of the Regulus and Malabar. There were three officers on

board our ship, a lieutenant, a sailing master, and a surgeon,

together with sixty marines and a few invalids, or superannuated

seamen to go in the boats. The whole were under the command of a

commodore, while captain _Hutchinson_, agent for the prisoners of war,

exercised a sort of control 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 complaints, and to

correct abuses, and to enforce wholesome regulations. All written

communications, and all intercourse by letter passed through the hands

of captain Hutchinson. If the letters contained nothing of evil

tendency, they were suffered to pass; but if they contained any thing

which the agent deemed improper, they were detained.

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 villanous scheme of starvation on board the Regulus, and

the still more execrable 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 herring, 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 compared with our former hard fare and cruel treatment. Upon

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;

not that we fared so well as the British prisoners fare in America.

Rich as the English nation is, it cannot well afford to feed us as we

feed the British prisoners; such is the difference in the two

countries in point of cheap food. On thanksgiving days, and on

Christmas days, and such like holy days, we, in America, used to treat

these European prisoners with geese, turkies, and plumb pudding. Many

of these fellows declared that they never in their lives sat down to a

table to a roasted turkey, or even a roasted goose. It is a fact, that

when the time approached for drafting the British prisoners in Boston

harbor, to send 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

attention of the British politician. _An American, in England, pines

to get home; while an Englishman and an Irishman 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 cannot 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 predominating flag, and you

long sighted politicians, see it as well as I do. The hard fare of

your sailors and soldiers, the scoundrelism of _some_ of your

officers, especially those concerned 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 wretchedly, for want

of consulting the human heart, in preference to musty parchments; and

the equally useless books on the law of nations. Believe me, ye great

men of England, 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_. Beside, 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_. We 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-operated with you in the same way.

Nothing stands still within the great frame of nature. On every

sublunary thing _mutability_ is written. Nothing can arrest the

destined course of republics and kingdoms.

"WESTWARD the course of empire takes its way."... _Dean Berkley._

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 shown that inclination. No--_Sawney_ is loyal,

and talks as big of _his_ king and his _country_, as would an English

country squire, surrounded 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

paradise, 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

into America,) is to people Nova Scotia and Newfoundland with

Scotchmen; where they can raise a few sheep, for _singing_, and for

_haggiss_; and where they can wear their Gothic habit, and be indulged

in the luxury of the bag-pipe, enjoy over again their native fogs, and

howling storms, and think themselves at home. Nature seems to have

fixed the great articles of food in Nova Scotia to fish and potatoes;

this last article is of excellent quality in that country. Then let

these strangers, these transplanted Scotchmen, these _hostes_, these

antipodes to the Americans, man the British fleet; and fill up the

ranks of their armies, and mutual antipathy will prevent the dreaded

coalition.

But I 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 hammocks. 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 surprising, that

after what the English philosophers have written concerning the

properties of the atmospheric air; after what Boyle, Mayhew, Hales and

_Priestly_ have written on this 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

surprising that in 1813, the commanders of national ships in the

English 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 myself 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 convenient 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, in a sort of

Indian freedom. Our situation was the most unpleasant during the

night. It was the practice, every night at sun-set, to count the

prisoners as they went down below; and then the hatch-ways were all

barred down and locked, and the ladder of communication 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 apprehension of the French as of the Americans. They said the

French were always busy in some little mechanical employment, 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 above 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, rowing 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 was 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, "a burnt child dreads

the fire," and an Englishman'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 got over that fright, but turns

pale and trembles ever since, at the sight, or name of a _republican_.