" Still he
declares that he has "a continued gnawing in his stomach." The people
of the neighborhood came to see them daily when they were exercising
in the prison yard, and sometimes gave them money and provisions
through the pickets of the high fence that surrounded the prison
grounds. Herbert had a mechanical turn, and made boxes which he sold
to these visitors, procuring himself many comforts in this manner.
About ten prisoners were brought in daily. They were constantly
digging their way out and were sometimes recaptured, but a great
number made their escape. On the twentieth of July he records that
they begin to make a breach in the prison wall. "Their intention is to
dig eighteen feet underground to get into a field on the other side of
the wall.
"We put all the dirt in our chests."
August third he says: "There are 173 prisoners in the wards. On the
fifth thirty-two escaped, but three were brought back. These were
confined in the Black Hole forty days on half allowance, and obliged
to lie on the bare floor.
"September 12th. We had a paper wherein was a melancholy account of
the barbarous treatment of American prisoners, taken at Ticonderoga.
"Sept. 16th. Today about twenty old countrymen petitioned the Board
for permission to go on board His Majesty's ships.
"Jan. 7th. 1778. 289 prisoners here in Plymouth. In Portsmouth there
are 140 prisoners.
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