He appeared rather more fleshy than when at Kingston; but still remained the same subtle, mysterious being. I understood that he was the first that had ever effected an exemption from labor in that prison by or on any pretence whatever. He kept himself clean and decent, and among the wretched victims who were daily brought from the horrid pit in chains and fetters to their daily labor of making nails, William Newman appeared quite a distinguished character. So obtuse was he that he could not be taught to make a nail, and yet so ingenious was he, that he made a jew’s harp to the greatest perfection, without being discovered at work and without its being known until he was playing on it. It was in the city of New Haven that the author published the first edition of these Memoirs, being aware that here, where his character and unprecedented actions were perfectly known throughout the country, the publication of his doings at Kingston, and his career throughout the Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia would not only be desirable and acceptable, but would also be received with less scrupulousness, when brought, as it were, in contact with facts of a similar nature publicly known and believed. While these papers were being prepared for the press, a gentleman from Washington, Major McDaniel, on his return from Boston, boarded some time in the same house with me, that of Mr. Joseph Nichols, and having heard some details from me of his unprecedented character and actions in New Brunswick, and having also become acquainted with the facts relating to his imprisonment and escape, etc., in that place, could not repress his curiosity in going to see him, and requested me to accompany him at his own expense. He observed that it would be a high gratification to him, on his return to Washington, that he would not only have one of my books with him, but would also be able to say that he had personally seen the sheriff from New Brunswick that had written the book, and had seen the remarkable character in the prison of Newgate that had constituted the subject of the book, and also the prison of New Haven from which he escaped.