Part 7

They undertook to enter the hole, but after entering a few feet, their lights went out, and they could not keep them burning; and being unacquainted with the materials, and method used by us to light the hole and expel the dead air, could not penetrate to the extent, nor did they ever enter near all the distance.

They were no less astonished to conceive what had become of the dirt taken from the passage, and it ever remained a great mystery to them.

Every man was strictly cautioned, should any discovery take place, not to give any account whatever of the means they had made use of to light the hole, or how they had disposed of the dirt; and when they were strictly examined by the officers, they gave no other answer, than that each man eat his proportion, to make up his scant allowance.

To prevent any further operation of this kind, Capt. Shortland had every prisoner removed from the yard which encloses No. 5, 6, and 7, into the enclosure on the north side, which contained No. 1, 2, and 3; but having no suspicions of any attempts to escape in No. 4, they let the prisoners there remain.

After the prisoners were removed from the other two prisons, they filled the entrance of the hole up with stone: they supposed these were not eatable.

We remained in No. 2 till the eighth, when we were again removed to the south side, on account of prison No. 2 being out of repair. This gave us fresh hopes. As the noise had not yet entirely got silent, we thought best to stop all operations in No. 4 for the present.

In the mean while, our court of judicature was sitting, and several persons were arraigned at the bar, and charged with having given information of our design to escape; all the evidence against them was produced, but the crime being of a capital nature by our laws, required positive and direct evidence, which the court considered had not been produced; and although very strong circumstantial evidence had been given, yet they considered that such evidence ought never to take a man’s life, which must have been the case had any one been found guilty.

We afterwards believed it must have been accidental; that some person had spoken too loud, or in an unguarded manner in the presence of the turnkeys; for we found no discovery had been made of the operations in No. 4 or 5, although Capt. Shortland had declared himself to be acquainted with them in No. 5.

After the bustle of the discovery had a little blown over, and the officers and keepers had ridiculed the futile idea of our making our escape, by saying they had guards and spies in all directions; we then gave orders to the blacks in No. 4 to proceed on with their work. At this time, the 10th, a draft of prisoners arrived from Chatham; these were mostly men delivered up from ships of war in England, and some few were sent from the West Indies, Bermuda, and New Providence.--This draft increased the number of prisoners at this depot to three thousand five hundred in all.

When these men arrived, we were under great apprehensions that they would be ordered into No. 5, and in the hurry and bustle of entering, before they were cautioned, might lead to a discovery of the work in that prison; but happily, they were ordered into No. 7, and all the white prisoners from No. 4 ordered in with them; and all the blacks were now to be kept by themselves.

They were directed to proceed as we mentioned before, and to report progress every evening. As the hole in No. 6 was farthest advanced, we formed a communication to let each other know their progress each day, that all the holes might proceed with equal progress, and come out at the same time.

With this arrangement we proceeded on, and on the 12th, in No. 6, we dug down, and the next day had gone quite round the stones which were thrown in to fill up the entrance of the hole, and came out into the former passage: this was done in the night, and in the day time we carried on the work in No. 5, disposing of the dirt as before.

The work went on with the greatest care, secrecy and success, and every man was animated with the liveliest hope of soon gaining his liberty, till each hole had come within thirty-five or forty feet of the intended place of coming out.

We could always ascertain the distance we were from the top of the ground by measuring with our line and rule, and had concluded to work that distance in one week: every man was now provided with a dagger, made by prisoners who worked at black-smithing.

When the work was complete, we were to make our move some dark stormy night at the hour of ten, which would give every man who wished, an opportunity to reach Torbay, about ten miles distant, at which place lay a large number of unarmed vessels, fishing boats and other small craft; we could reach this place a little after midnight, and then proceed as fast as possible for France; on leaving the outlet of the passage every man was to separate and take care of himself. When we were once out, we had determined to reach France or sell our lives at the dearest rate; for, by this time, life was of little consequence to us, when we compared it to the miseries we must suffer, if we should be brought back, and therefore we were determined to hazard it at all events.

But I hasten from our future resolutions to relieve the reader from his anxiety, by showing the event.

At this moment, when every man was well pleased with the prospect, how was his just indignation raised, and his fierce anger kindled!--a man by the name of [1]Bagley, another Sinon, walked out in the open day, before all the prisoners then in the yard, went up to the turnkeys and marched off with them to the keeper’s house, gave him information of all the operations and designs, and we never saw him after; for could we have catched him, we should scarcely have tried him, but should have torn him in atoms before the life could have time to leave his traitorous body.

This Judas received the price of his iniquity from the Transport Board, and got a passport to go where he pleased, and the public’s humble servant put into the cachot;--but I can tell him, should this work ever reach his infamous hand, that it is the sincere wish of every prisoner, that he may fall, and like that other Judas, his bowels may gush out.

The prisoners were then immediately removed to the north side of the enclosure, and confined to No. 1 and 3; and to repair the damages which had been done to the prisons, Capt. Shortland put every man on two thirds allowance, and took the other third to pay expenses of repair; this he did for ten days successively; if we had eaten the dirt up, we had to starve it back again.

Our hopes were all blown up to the moon, and we left to despair; we had no prospect by which we could hope to be relieved, but every thing seemed to threaten us with imprisonment for life. We again resigned ourselves to our situation, and placed all our hopes of life and liberty on that Almighty arm, which had brought us to these sufferings by His Divine pleasure. Every man with reluctance now returns to his usual occupation, hoping to gain a few articles of clothing, which he stood in need of. The shoes furnished by Mr. Beasley, which were the poorest that could be made in England, were now worn out, and we needed others.

It was reported among the prisoners, that an exchange was about to take place; but as we had no account to that effect from Mr. Beasley, we could place no dependence on it; the only hope we had was bribing the guards, and that of peace.

By letters from Plymouth, we had information that an action had been fought between the Essex, Capt. Porter, and the British frigate Phebe, Capt. Hillyar, and a sloop of war. The action was long and severe, and much blood spilt on both sides; and although the Essex was taken, the honour of the day belonged to the Americans. She fought under every disadvantage, and gallantly stood the fire of both the enemy’s vessels, and bore hard for a victory, till chance decided against her. The magnanimity of the officers and crew commands the noblest sentiments of respect from every American; they deserved no common meed of praise; I therefore undertook to celebrate their valorous deeds in verse.

A large draft of prisoners, from Chatham, arrived at this place the latter end of this month; among them were great numbers of men who had been detained on board His Majesty’s ships from eight to twelve years, and one who had been detained eighteen years. The greatest part of this draft were men who had been delivered up from the navy; they were collected at Chatham, and brought round by water to Plymouth, landed, and then ordered to prepare to march for Dartmoor prison, the sufferings of which they had long been acquainted with, by report; but previous to their departure, they, anticipating their treatment there, prepared the following motto, in capitals, and fixed it to the fore part of their hats: “_British gratitude for past services_.” With this on their hats, they marched the distance of eighteen miles. During the march, the officers tried every means to persuade them to take it off, but they absolutely refused, saying it was truth, and, as prisoners of war, they had a just cause to complain of the treatment and ingratitude of a government which they had so long served. They insisted that it was cruelty to make them prisoners, after they had served so many years as good and faithful servants; and it was much more ungrateful now to send them to the worst prison in England, as a compensation for their long and faithful services.

The garrison was now reinforced by a large number of soldiers, and the prisoners separated; the whites in the north and south wing, occupying two prisons in each yard, and the blacks one in the centre. The prisoners were not permitted to have intercourse with one another from the different prisons, except on Sundays.

The number being now very large, it was feared they would rise, and take possession of the guard-house, and then make their escape. They had some ground to fear the event might take place, for the prisoners did not consider these walls, nor the soldiers, any very great obstacle in the accomplishment of such an undertaking, had it been their design. But they knew very well the consequence of doing this; although, on the first _sortie_, the officers, soldiers and guards, must fall into their power, yet as the prisoners must all march in a body to keep them under, the alarm would spread over all England, and the militia be raised upon them, before they would be able to reach the sea-coast and take shipping.

Capt. Shortland was in daily fear of such an attack, for there was scarce a day but some dispute or strife took place between the turnkeys or guards and the prisoners, and kept a continual alarm. The prisoners would not hear any abusive language against the President of the United States; and on the first disrespectful word from a sentry, stationed singly in the yard, they would knock him down, and he could get no relief till they were willing to release him, for the prisoners immediately surrounded him by hundreds; and the garrison declared that they had more trouble with four thousand Americans than they should have with twenty thousand Frenchmen.

On the last day of this month, another draft arrived, among whom were the crew of the United States brig Rattlesnake and some others, sent from Halifax.

The prisoners became sickly again, and upwards of one hundred in the hospital; but they had much better attendance than before, having now a new surgeon, Dr. Magrath, to superintend that department; he was a humane, skilful and attentive man, and a friend to the sick and distressed prisoner. I know of nothing more agreeable to the human feelings than the presence of a friend by our sick-bed; and this man administered more of the medicine of life by the sympathetic emotions of his heart than all the anodynes in the apothecary’s shop.

We had much rain and stormy weather during the month of September. One tedious month had now passed by, and another lay in hopeless prospect before us; but our hopes were a little revived on the second of October by a letter which we received from Mr. Beasley, informing us that a partial exchange would take place between the two countries. This exchange would extend to none but those taken in the United States vessels; this letter was to inform the crew of the Argus more particularly, as they were the oldest prisoners taken in the United States service. The same letter gave general information that there was great prospects of a speedy peace between the two belligerants.

_Several persons made their escape by bribing the sentries after this news_, and passing out in the night, with a soldier’s coat and cap on, under his protection. But this method was discovered and stopped, and eight only were able to make their escape by it.

We received the account of the United States ship Wasp sinking the Reindeer and Avon. The particulars seemed too galling to their feelings to publish. After reading the account in the London paper, I composed a dirge, and put it up on the front of the prison, in full sight of all the soldier-officers and guards, as a tribute of respect to departed worthies of His Majesty’s navy.

Almost every draft of prisoners brought intelligence of new victories of the Americans by sea, and every British paper was filled with complaints of American privateers destroying British property in their own waters, and in sight of their cities. The prisoners, being animated with the success of the arms of their country, could not forbear expressing their joy in some pleasant feat. The following anecdote has something of the features of the attack of Don Quixotte on the wind-mill. The prisoners, the night after the news of the Wasp, took a jacket at twelve at night, lowered it down towards the ground along the rope of the prison; the soldiers saw it, and concluded it must be a man sliding down the rope to make his escape; the alarm was given, and Capt. Shortland and all the soldier-officers at the head of the picket, entered, and hailed the man on the rope, but no answer; they then drew themselves up in martial array, and every man sat his teeth and screwed his courage up to the sticking place, ready for battle; Capt. Shortland, an experienced officer, gave orders to fire, and instantly a volley of musketry was poured in upon the enemy, and down came the jacket; they rushed in upon it, and, to their astonishment, they had conquered a jacket.

The keepers who had been so insolent the day before, by wishing Mr. Madison in the prison, now showed great resentment, and gave themselves many airs upon the occasion. The soldiers discovered a candle burning in the prison, and called aloud, “put out that candle;” but the order not being instantly obeyed, they discharged a volley through the window; but a divine interposition of goodness seemed to direct the balls, for every one lodged in some part of the hammocks, which almost formed a solid column, and not a single man hurt or touched, though asleep in the hammocks. The next morning I thought the battle with the jacket and the attack on the sleeping prisoners deserved to be celebrated in some signal way, and sung like the deeds of the gallant Quixotte.

It had been remarked by the prisoners that, about the time of some reverse of the arms of the enemy, the keepers treated them with much greater severity, and seemed to wish to wreak their vengeance in retaliation on the prisoners.

On the eighteenth, orders, together with a list of names, came to discharge sixty-two of the crew of the late United States brig Frolic, who had been exchanged, and were to repair immediately to Dartmouth, thirty miles from the depot, to go on board the cartel Janey, then lying at that place with the greater part of her number, which consisted of prisoners late belonging to the United States navy and army.

Those sixty-two of the Frolic were obliged to carry the baggage themselves or leave it behind, for they were allowed no means to transport it. Twelve miles of the distance is water carriage; the other eighteen is land--this distance they had to march on foot; they received a shilling each man, and one day’s provision, at the commencement of the journey.

By letters from Plymouth, we received intelligence that another cartel, the St. Philip, was preparing to take on board part of her complement at that place, then to proceed to Dartmouth, and receive the crew of the late United States brig Argus, and her officers, and non-combatants from Ashburton. The same letters informed us that all the prisoners in England, then nearly five thousand, would shortly be removed to this prison; and, accordingly, at the latter end of this month they all were removed to this depot, and made, with some few lately from sea, five thousand and twenty. They were badly prepared to stand the inclemency of the approaching season; they were all miserably clothed, and the shoes they had received from Mr. Beasley lasted but a few weeks, and they were now quite destitute and very sickly, and the weather cold and stormy for several days together. On the third we received a letter from Mr. Beasley, informing us that his clerk, Mr. Williams, was on his way from London to this place with clothing, which he would distribute among the prisoners captured since the middle of last May, and to those captured before that date he would deliver one shirt and one pair of shoes and stockings, which should be their supply for nine months. The old prisoners stated their situation to Mr. Beasley, by letter, at the same date, and informed him that they were in need of clothing; that what they received in May was worn out, also their shoes, and that they were not supplied with sufficient bedding to make them any way comfortable through the approaching winter, especially as they were sickly, and had the small-pox in the prison, and that they should not be able to endure the hardships of their condition, though their two and a half pence a day was some relief; yet as all the workmen were turned into prison, and not permitted to go out any more on account of one man, whom we believe to be Capt. Swain, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, taking a very sudden move and leaving the whole establishment without giving notice; this left them unprovided with sufficient means to take care of themselves.

Now the surly blasts of chill November had made all surrounding nature wear the sad aspect of decay, and the barefooted prisoner stood shivering by the walls, in the pale and feeble ray of a winter sun, when Mr. Williams arrived with the clothing, as was expected, and on the third saw the crew of the Argus take their departure from this prison, to go on board the St. Philip, then lying at Dartmouth, bound for the United States. The draft of this crew consisted of one hundred, which was all that was taken from this place; she had previously taken in her complement, except this number, at Chatham. Shortly after her sailing from Dartmouth she was so unfortunate as to spring her mast, and obliged to return into port.

At this time the Phebe and the late United States frigate Essex arrived in England. The editors who published the arrival of these two ships, made no remark or observation whatever, only barely said they had arrived.

The reader will not have forgotten the circumstance of the four men, whom we mentioned were committed to close confinement during the war, on suspicion of an intention to blow up the ship. We, at this time, made application to the Board of Transport, to mitigate the punishment of these four men, late of the Surprise, and who had remained ever since in close confinement in the cachot, but our petition was not granted; the board said the sentence had passed and could not be recalled--they must suffer according to the sentence. These poor fellows had endured the three months imprisonment with a magnanimity becoming Americans. The prisoners seeing they could not get them relieved, agreed to allow them a halfpenny a month out of every man’s pay, which was cheerfully done by every man. They supplied them with such articles as the board would allow them to have.

Our hope now brightened amidst the clouds of sufferings and despair, by the reports from Ghent of a speedy peace, which swelled every London paper.

The guards, both officers and soldiers, stationed here, were much disaffected with the government of the country; and informed us that the military through the whole kingdom had the same disaffection, and that they had gone so far as to inform the government, in direct terms, that if a peace did not take place before the first of April, that they would lay down their arms.

The battle and destruction of Washington had now crossed the Atlantic, and was sounding with great applause to the British arms; every paper was swelled with the most pompous description of the great battle, and the unparalleled bravery and magnanimity of their officers and soldiers, that had defeated and drove the whole American army, headed by Mr. Madison in person, and that they were in so close pursuit of him that he had a severe race all the way from Bladensburgh to Washington, which they were disposed to ridicule by comparing to John Gilpin’s celebrated race.

They also gave a description of Washington, which they declared was one of the greatest cities in the known world; the grandeur and magnificence of it surpassed that of Paris or London; it contained thirteen hundred spacious squares. But they did not mention that those squares contained no houses or inhabitants.

These stories could not gain the belief of persons acquainted with the American nation and its capitol, but we were led to believe that the conduct on both sides deserved much censure, and that the burning of that capitol was a disgrace to both nations.

Nothing very material occurred among the prisoners this month; they received their monthly pay as usual, but were more sickly, and the weather cold and tedious, but could not be compared with the November before. The prisoners, though far from being as comfortable as they ought to be, suffered much less, and were in a better condition to endure the hardships of a prison than the year before, now they were supplied with one pair of shoes and stockings, and allowed two and a half pence per day. They did not shrink at the approaching season so much as before.

Mr. Williams returned to London at the end of the month; he had been with us all the month, distributing the several articles above mentioned.

As the season advanced the hard weather increased, and the snow fell in great abundance in the beginning of December, and the prisoners, much chilled with the cold, applied for permission to keep fire, as had been permitted to the French prisoners, but were peremptorily refused and absolutely forbid.

But to make the best of these evils of life, they applied themselves every man to some occupation; they endeavored to cherish and keep the mind alive if the body decayed, and to cultivate that nobler part of our being, they established a number of schools, and the young men and boys were instructed in them for nearly two years, and many of them, who were perfectly unacquainted with letters when they came to this prison, had acquired a tolerable education in the English branches of science.

There has, from the earliest ages of antiquity, been frequent instances of men who have been weary of life, and had not the courage and fortitude to bear those ills which are incident to it, and have, therefore, by a sort of false heroism, attempted to avoid them by destroying their own life. The Stoic philosophy, which seemed to be a cultivated degree of insensibility, encouraged it, and called it heroism; but the act is cowardly, and a great offence against the laws of God and man.