The English crew
put in charge of the prize procured liquor, and, in company of some of
the loose women of the town, went below to make a night of it. In the
dead of night the Frenchmen seized the ship, secured the hatches, cut
the cable, took her out of port, homeward bound, and escaped.
A writer in the London _Gazette_ in a letter to the Lord Mayor,
dated August 6th, 1776, says: "I was last week on board the American
privateer called the Yankee, commanded by Captain Johnson, and lately
brought into this port by Captain Ross, who commanded one of the West
India sugar ships, taken by the privateer in July last: and as an
Englishman I earnestly wish your Lordship, who is so happily placed at
the head of this great city (justly famed for its great humanity even
to its enemies), would be pleased to go likewise, or send proper
persons, to see the truly shocking and I may say barbarous and
miserable condition of the unfortunate American prisoners, who,
however criminal they may be thought to have been, are deserving of
pity, and entitled to common humanity.
"They are twenty-five in number, and all inhumanly shut close down,
like wild beasts, in a small stinking apartment, in the hold of a
sloop, about seventy tons burden, without a breath of air, in this
sultry season, but what they receive from a small grating overhead,
the openings in which are not more than two inches square in any part,
and through which the sun beats intensely hot all day, only two or
three being permitted to come on deck at a time; and then they are
exposed in the open sun, which is reflected from the decks like a
burning glass.
Pages:
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196