Opening the text

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 : $b 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 ofWaterhouse, Benjamin

History

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 : $b 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

Waterhouse, Benjamin

Dartmoor Prison; United States -- History -- War of 1812 -- Prisoners and prisons

We soon arrived at the gates of this very extensive prison, and were
admitted into the first yard, for it had several. We there answered to
the call of our names; and at length passed through the iron gates to
prison No. 7. We requested the turnkey to take in our baggage, as it
contained our bedding; but it was neglected, and rained on during the
night; for on this bleak and drizzly mountain there are not more than
ninety fair days in the year. It took us several days to dry our
_duds_, for they merited not the name of baggage.

The moment we entered the dark prison, we found ourselves jammed in
with a multitude; one calling us to come this way, another that; some
halloing, swearing and cursing, so that I did not know, for a moment,
but what I had died through fatigue and hard usage, and was actually
in the regions of the damned. Oh, what a horrid night I here passed!

The floors of this reproach to Old England were of stone, damp and
mouldy, and smelling like a transport. Here we had to lay down and
sleep after a most weary march of 15 miles. What apology can be made
for not having things prepared for our comfort? Those who have been
enslaved in Algiers found things very different. The food and the
lodging were in every respect superior among the Mahometans, than
among these boasting Christians, and their general treatment
infinitely more humane; some of our companions had been prisoners
among the Barbary powers, and they describe them as vastly more
considerate than the English.

After passing a dreadful night, we next day had opportunity of
examining our prison. It had iron stanchions, like those in stables
for horses, on which hammocks were hung. The windows had iron
gratings, and the bars of the doors seemed calculated to resist the
force of men, and of time. These things had a singular effect on such
of us, as had, from our childhood, associated the idea of _liberty_
with the name of _Old England_; but a man must travel beyond the smoke
of his own chimney to acquire correct ideas of the characters of men,
and of nations.--We however saw the worst of it at first; for every
day our residence appeared less disagreeable.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.