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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 : $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

There are two extremes of the mind producing a disregard for life. The
one is, the fever or delirium of battle, augmented and kept up by the
cannon's roar, the sight of blood, and military music; here a man,
being all soul, thinks nothing of his body. The other case is, where
his body is debilitated, his spirit half extinguished, and his soul
desponding, and his body paralized. Here existence is a burden, and
the attachment to life next to nothing. It is here that death appears
to open the gate of the prison. I found, to my surprize, that several
of our countrymen were in this desponding state.

Some refused to be vaccinated, from a persuasion that the kine pock
was no security against the small pox. When I endeavoured to convince
several of them of their error, one asked me if a weak man could drive
away a strong one; or a small evil drive away a great one? A man need
not despair in making a certain class of people believe any thing but
truth.

It is surprizing that when our countryman, Dr. Waterhouse, first
introduced this new inoculation into America, in the year 1800, what
an opposition the practice met with; and nothing but the most
persevering and unwearied exertions, and public experiments, could
overcome the reluctance, in numbers, to receive this great blessing.
The same perversity of judgement was observable among individuals in
this prison ship.

As the spring advanced, the men, contrary to my expectation, became
more desponding, and the _Typhus fever_, or rather the _jail fever_,
appeared among them. From four to six are taken down with it every
day. We have about nine hundred men on board this ship; eight hundred
of us wretched prisoners, and one hundred Englishmen. We are more
crowded than is consistent with health or comfort. Our hammocks are
slung one above another. It is warm and offensive in the middle of our
habitation; and those who have hammocks near the ports, are unwilling
to have them open in the night. All this impedes the needful
circulation of fresh air. It is a little singular, that it is the
robust and hearty that are seized with this fever, before those who
are weak in body, and, apparently, desponding in mind.

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