What number
lived to reach the lines I cannot ascertain, but, from concurrent
representations which I have since received from numbers of people who
lived in and adjacent to such parts of the country, where they were
received from the enemy, _I apprehend that most of them died in
consequence of the vile usage of the enemy._ Some who were eye
witnesses of the scene of mortality, more especially in that part
which continued after the exchange took place, are of opinion that it
was partly in consequence of a slow poison; but this I refer to the
doctors who attended them, who are certainly the best judges.
"Upon the best calculation I have been able to make from personal
knowledge, and the many evidences I have collected in support of the
facts, I learn that, of the prisoners taken on Long Island and Fort
Washington and some few others, at different times and places, about
two thousand perished with hunger, cold, and sickness, occasioned by
the filth of their prisons, at New York; and a number more on their
passage to the continental lines; most of the residue who reached
their friends having received their death wound, could not be restored
by the assistance of their physicians and friends: but like their
brother prisoners, fell a sacrifice to the relentless and scientific
barbarity of the British. I took as much pains as the circumstances
would admit of to inform myself not only of matters of fact, but
likewise of the very design and aims of General Howe and his council,
the latter of which I predicated on the former, and submit it to the
candid public.
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