For consolation in our present miserable condition, we were informed that the said _honorable_ Board had indulgently permitted the American prisoners to establish and carry on any branch of manufacture, except such as netting, woollen fabrics, making straw hats and bonnets, &c. &c.; or rather, they prohibited every branch of manufactory which they were capable of pursuing. At this time they could have carried on the making of straw into flats for bonnets with very considerable advantage, as almost every sailor was more or less capable of working at this art, and, by strict attention to the business, could have earned six or eight pence sterling per day: but this was not permitted, and we considered this prohibition a contrivance of the agents of government to induce the prisoners to enter his majesty’s service. Their situation was now so abject and wretched, that they were willing to embrace any opportunity where there was the least prospect of bettering their condition, however repugnant to their feelings or sentiments; and though their country’s interest was ever nearest to their hearts, yet, through the faint hope of ameliorating their condition, and some day or other of returning to their native land, their wives and families, some of less fortitude were induced to join in arms against their country. It could not be a crime; for self-preservation is the first law of nature. From the first of our imprisonment, which was shortly after the commencement of the war, prisoners were constantly arriving, and immediately disposed of in one or other of these depots:--among them were great numbers of American seamen who had been delivered up from the different ships of war in the English service, on board of which they had remained from one to ten years, and after receiving many dozen lashes at the gangway of the ships, were sent to prison with the appellation of “dammed rebellious villains, unfit for his majesty’s service!” During the fall of the year one thousand eight hundred and twelve, until April in one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, the English had collected at the following depots the number hereinafter mentioned, who were mostly prisoners delivered up from ships of war, and citizens of the United States detained in them for some time before. At Chatham were collected about nine hundred; at Portsmouth, about one hundred; and at Plymouth, about seven hundred. These unfortunate men had often made application to Mr. Beasley, the agent for American prisoners of war, who resided in England, but were never able to obtain an answer from him. At this time, great numbers of the oldest prisoners were completely destitute of clothing, and the most active and cleanly unable to avoid being covered with vermin.