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 invite our readers to peruse the _historical journal_ of the
campaigns of 1759, by Capt. Knox, where the immortal Wolfe cut such a
glorious figure in burning the houses, and plundering the wretched
peasantry of Canada. He says, "The detachments of regulars and
rangers, under Major Scott and Captain Goreham, who went down the
river on the 1st instant, are returned. They took a great quantity of
black cattle and sheep; an immense deal of plunder, such as _household
stuff, books and apparel, burnt above eleven hundred houses, and
destroyed several hundred acres of corn_, beside _some fisheries_, and
made sixty prisoners;"--and this just before winter! Have we,
Americans, ever been guilty of such deeds? Yet we, Yankees, have been
taught from our childhood to eulogize _Wolfe_, and _Amherst_, and
_Monckton_, and to speak in raptures of the glorious war in 1759, when
British soldiers joined the savages in scalping Frenchmen!
During this month, a number of prisoners have been sent to this prison
from Plymouth. They came here from Halifax; they were principally
seamen, taken out of prizes, which the English retook. They all make
similar complaints of hard usage, bad and very scanty food, and no
attention to their health or comfort. There are now, at this depot,
about _Twenty-Three Hundred and Fifty Americans_, who were
_impressed_, previously to the war, into the British service, by
English ships and English press-gangs. They are the stoutest and most
hardy looking men in the prison. This is easily accounted for. When
the British go on board an American merchant ship to look for English
sailors, they adopt one easy rule, viz.--they select the stoutest,
most hardy, and healthy looking men, and swear that they are
Englishmen. After they have selected one of these fine fellows, it is
in vain that he produces his protection, or any other evidence of his
American birth and citizenship.
We learn from these seamen, that as soon as conveyed on board the
British men of war, they are examined as to the length of time they
have been at sea; and according to the knowledge and experience they
appear to have, they are stationed; and if they grumble at the duty
assigned them, they are called mutinous rascals, and threatened with
the cat; the warrant officers are charged to watch them closely, lest
they should attempt to pervert the crew, and to prevent them from
sending letters from the ship to their friends. Should any letters be
detected on them, the sailors are charged, on pain of the severest
punishment, to deliver them to some of the commissioned officers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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