“Captain Pearson presents his compliments to Captain Jones, and is sorry to find himself so little attended to in his present situation, as not to have been favored with either a _Call_ or a line from Captain Jones since his return from Amsterdam. Captain Pearson is sorry to say that he cannot look upon such behavior in any other light than as a breach of that _Civility_ which his rank, as well as behavior on all occasions entitles to; he, at the same time, wishes to be informed, by Captain Jones, whether any steps has been taken towards the enlargement or exchange of him, his officers and people, or what is intended to be done with them. As he cannot help thinking it a very unprecedented circumstance their being keeped here as prisoners, on board of ship, being so long in a neutral port.” The dignified reply of Captain Jones deserves insertion in full. The English Government, through its ambassador at the Hague, had positively refused to ransom the English prisoners, at the Texel, by exchanging for them American prisoners. Captain Pearson could not have been ignorant of this fact. The reply was dated on board the Serapis, October 20th, 1779. “As you have not been prevented from corresponding with your friends, and particularly with the English ambassador at the Hague, I could not suppose you to be unacquainted with his memorial of the 8th, to the States General, and therefore I thought it fruitless to pursue the negociation for the exchange of the prisoners of war now in our hands. “I wished to avoid any painful altercation with you on that subject. I was persuaded that you had been in the highest degree sensible that my behavior toward you had been far from a breach of civility. This charge, sir, is not a civil return for the polite hospitality and disinterested attentions you have hitherto experienced. “I know not what difference of respect is due to _Rank_ between your service and ours. I suppose however the difference must be thought _very great_ in England, since I am informed that Captain Cunningham, of equal denomination, and who bears a senior rank, in the service of America, than yours in the service of England, is now confined in England, _in a dungeon and in fetters_! “Humanity, which has hitherto superseded the plea of retaliation in American breasts, has induced me, notwithstanding the procedure of Sir Joseph Yorke,[B] _to seek after permission to land_ the dangerously wounded, as well prisoners as Americans, to be supported and cured at the expense of our continent. The permission of the government has been obtained; but the magistrates continue to make objections. I shall not discontinue my application. I am ready to adopt any means you may propose for their preservation and recovery; and, in the meantime, we shall continue to treat them with the utmost care and attention, equally, as you know, to the treatment of our people of the same rank. ----- Footnote B: