Our sloop
grounded, we struck our colors-fatal hour! We were conducted to New
York, introduced to the Jersey Prison Ship. We were all destitute of
any clothing except what we had on; we now began to taste the vials of
Monarchial tender mercy.
"About the 25th of Jan. 1778, we were taken from the ships to the
Sugar House, which during the inclement season was more intolerable
than the Ships.
"We left the floating Hell with joy, but alas, our joy was of short
duration. Cold and famine were now our destiny. Not a pane of glass,
nor even a board to a single window in the house, and no fire but once
in three days to cook our small allowance of provision. There was a
scene that truly tried body and soul. Old shoes were bought and eaten
with as much relish as a pig or a turkey; a beef bone of four or five
ounces, after it was picked clean, was sold by the British guard for
as many coppers.
"In the spring our misery increased; frozen feet began to mortify; by
the first of April, death took from our numbers, and, I hope, from
their misery, from seven to ten a day; and by the first of May out of
sixty-nine taken with me only fifteen were alive, and eight out of
that number unable to work.
"Death stared the living in the face: we were now attacked by a fever
which threatened to clear our walls of its miserable inhabitants.
"About the 20th of July I made my escape from the prison-yard.
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