(3) That prisoners had been put upon half allowance in the _cachot_ or Black Hole for staying in the wards on account of not having sufficient clothing to leave them. Reply: They were not put in the _cachot_, but upon half allowance for remaining in the wards during the day contrary to the Regulations. There was no need for them to lack ‘cloaths’. (4) That they were put upon half allowance for appearing at a sudden muster without clothes. Reply: This muster was ordered by the agent, Cooke, because he suspected the prisoners of embezzling clothes and of gambling them away. (5) That the prisoners had been threatened with being deprived of their turn of Exchange for signing this Petition to the Board of Admiralty. Reply: There was no foundation for this statement. (6) That Cooke had refused to pay them for more than eighteen days’ work in carrying coals, although they were twenty-eight days. Reply: In reality they had only worked for parts of these days, and had been paid for the work actually done. (7) That Cooke showed no zeal for the welfare of the prisoners. Reply: That there is no foundation for this statement. (8) That they were ill-treated by the Militia guards. This last complaint was the most serious of all, and the examination into it revealed a state of affairs by no means creditable to the authorities. Here it should be stated that on account of the great and constant demand made by the war upon the regular troops, the task of guarding the prisons was universally performed by the Militia—undesirable men from more than one point of view, especially from their lack of self-restraint and their accessibility to bribery. The following cases were cited. On November 28, 1757, Ferdinand Brehost, or Gratez, was shot dead by a sentry of General Amherst’s regiment. The sentry in defence said that he had had orders to fire upon any prisoners who did not take down the clothes they hung upon the palisades when ordered to. It was adjudged that the sentry fired too precipitately. On the night of October 29, 1759, the prisoner Jacobus Loffe was shot dead in his hammock by a sentry. In defence the sentry said that he called out several times for the prisoners to put out their lights. They refused and bid him fire and be damned. The evidence showed that all the prisoners were asleep, and that the light seen by the sentry was the reflection on the window of a lamp outside the building. The same judgement as in the other case was given. On July 11, 1760, two prisoners were shot by a sentry. John Bramston, the sentry, said in defence that a prisoner came too near the forbidden barrier, refused to keep off when ordered to, with the result that Bramston fired, killed him, and another prisoner further away.