On the fourth arrived a draft of prisoners, lately captured in the privateer Brutus. At this time a new, and most dreadful calamity now alarmed and endangered the life of every man; the African pox had, by some unfortunate means, got among the prisoners, and threatened destruction to every living soul. The disorder was so violent that when it attacked a person, he had nothing to expect but immediate death; numbers died daily. On the fifth, the London papers mentioned two American frigates cruising in the channel, which excited great alarm. On the sixth, the pestilence had grown so mortal, that the chief surgeon in England visited the prison; he imagined the distemper to arise from a want of pure air; that so many people crowded together in one building must render the air very impure, and unfit for respiration. He tried the difference of temperature of the air in the prison, and outside, which he found to differ twenty-five degrees by Farenheit’s thermometer, the air being much warmer inside. This difference of heat arose entirely from the heat of the human body, as no fire was kept in the prisons; each prison now contained about 1200 persons on an average. It is highly probable the distemper had generated itself in the bad state of air, and had not been introduced from abroad, as was first supposed. On the eighth arrived an order from the Board of Transport, for Capt. Shortland to ascertain the number and description of all prisoners belonging to the Island of Nantucket, for the purpose of giving them their discharge; like the citizens of Denmark and Sweden, they were neutral. On the tenth arrived a draft of prisoners, lately captured on their voyage to France; on the same day a number of prisoners were called on to give evidence on the part of the crown, concerning the marking the traitors in the cheek. The king’s solictor was a long while busy in endeavouring to obtain information, but all the satisfaction he got was, that they had heard by report that the men that marked the traitors, were to be tried at Exeter the next assizes. At the same time a small quantity of clothing arrived from Mr. Beasley, who it seemed always took care to send clothing to those who last arrived, as in this instance, although they had not been prisoners but a few weeks; he seemed to have an idea that they always come into prison naked, and when they were there, one suit would last them all their life; for the oldest prisoners had not received any clothing since the last May, and it was now ten months, and every garment entirely worn out. He supposed, that during two years imprisonment, such as we had had, we must have got used to every species of hardship, and that going naked was so slight an evil that we did not mind it at all.