"
Captain Jabez Fitch was a prisoner eighteen months. After the
Revolution he lived in Vermont, where he died in 1812.
CHAPTER VII
THE HOSPITAL DOCTOR--A TORY'S ACCOUNT OF NEW YORK IN 1777--ETHAN
ALLEN'S ACCOUNT OF THE PRISONERS
The doctor spoken of by Jabez Fitch as Dr. Dibuke is perhaps the
notorious character described by Mr. Elias Boudinot in the Journal
from which we have already quoted. On page 35 of this book he gives us
the following:
"AN ACCOUNT OF THE FRENCHMAN WHO POISONED. AMERICAN PRISONERS IN NEW
YORK, AND WAS REWARDED FOR SO DOING BY GENERAL, HOWE
"When the British Army took possession of New York they found a
Frenchman in Goal, under Condemnation for Burglery and Robbery. He was
liberated. He was a very loos, ignorant man. Had been a Servant. This
fellow was set over our Prisoners in the Hospital, as a Surgeon,
though he knew not the least principle of the Art. Dr. McHenry, a
Physician of note in the American Army, and then a Prisoner, finding
the extreme ignorance of this man, and that he was really murdering
our people, remonstrated to the British Director of the Hospital, and
refused visiting our sick Prisoners if this man was not dismissed. A
British Officer, convinced that he had killed several of our People,
lodged a complaint against him, when he was ordered to be tryed by a
Court Martial, but the morning before the Court were to set, this
Officer was ordered off to St Johns, and the Criminal was discharged
for want of Evidence.
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