The reply to this letter was laconic.
"The King's Ambassador recognizes no letters from Rebels, except when
they come to ask mercy."
Inclosed in the letter from our representatives were the following
depositions.
THE DEPOSITION OF ELIPHALET DOWNER
Eliphalet Downer, Surgeon, taken in the Yankee privateer, testifies
that after he was made prisoner by Captains Ross and Hodge, who took
advantage of the generous conduct of Captain Johnson of the Yankee to
them his prisoners, and of the confidence he placed in them in
consequence of that conduct and their assurances; he and his
countrymen were closely confined, yet assured that on their arrival in
port they should be set at liberty, and these assurances were repeated
in the most solemn manner, instead of which they were, on their
approach to land, in the hot weather of August, shut up in a small
cabin; the windows of which were spiked down and no air admitted,
insomuch that they were all in danger of suffocation from the
excessive heat.
Three or four days after their arrival in the river Thames they were
relieved from this situation in the middle of the night, hurried on
board a tender and sent down to Sheerness, where the deponent was put
into the Ardent, and there falling sick of a violent fever in
consequence of such treatment, and languishing in that situation for
some time, he was removed, still sick, to the Mars, and
notwithstanding repeated petitions to be suffered to be sent to prison
on shore, he was detained until having the appearance of a
mortification in his legs, he was sent to Haslar hospital, from whence
after recovering his health, he had the good fortune to make his
escape.
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