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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 among us Americans on board this prison ship, some men of
sense and principle; but there are many more, especially among the
soldiery, some of the lowest of the American community; the very dregs
of the American people. They are lazy, dirty, lying, and profligate;
and yet they are total strangers to some of the worst vices of these
Frenchmen. But I forbear to enlarge, and shall quit this odious
subject by wishing that all young Americans may stay at home, and if
possible, never mix with these veterans in vice, who inhabit what is
called the old world. Next to the French, I believe the Irish the next
in vicious actions. An Irishman appears to have more spirit than
brains. There are only two situations in which an Irishman seems
perfectly happy, viz. when he has plenty of liquor to drink, and a
number of friends to give it to; and perhaps we may add, when he is
wrangling in a mob. They are amiable, yet bloody; they have the
noblest feelings, with savage hearts. Their passions have the most
rapid transitions, so that they will hug a man one minute, and the
next knock him on the head. I speak only from my observations in this
confined place.--With the same limitation I speak of the Portuguese
and Spaniards, a few of whom are here among us. They are rattlesnakes;
shining, glossy, malignant and revengeful beyond any fellows I ever
met with. They are void, however, of one virtue of our rattlesnakes;
they will stab a man to the heart without giving him any warning. I
have charitably supposed that when in a violent passion, they are
bereft of reason, and become entirely insane. My observations,
however, like my remarks on Frenchmen are confined to the narrow
space of this floating prison. We should be very cautious in making
general or national censures. I have suspected whether among the Roman
Catholics, the practice of confession and absolution had not opened a
door for some horrid crimes, such as murder. It may be too, that they
look upon us, Protestants, as the Mahomedans do the Christians, a sort
of outcasts, the killing of whom amounts not to the horrid sin of
murder. It is certain that some of these people have been known to
plunge a knife into a man with no more compunction than an Englishman
or an American would use his fist.




CHAPTER VII.

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