Respect of position and rank
found no favor in the eyes of their ungenerous captors, and no appeal
could reach their hearts except through the promises of bribes. Many
languished and died in those places, away from country and friends,
whose fate was not known until long after they had passed away. But it
was not altogether abroad that they were so cruelly maltreated. The
record of their sufferings in the prisons of the enemy, in our own
country, is left to testify against these relentless persecutors.
"In New York and Halifax many of the Virginian officers and seamen
were relieved of their pains, alone by the hand of death; and in their
own State, at Portsmouth, the like fate overtook many more, who had
endured horrors rivalled only by the terrors of the Black Hole of
Calcutta. * * * The reader will agree that we do not exaggerate when
he shall have seen the case as given under oath by one who was in
every respect a competent witness.
"It will be remembered that, in another part of this narrative,
mention was made of the loss in Lynhaven Bay of the galley Dasher, and
the capture of the officers and the crew. Captain Willis Wilson was
her unfortunate commander on that occasion. He and his men were
confined in the Provost Jail at Portsmouth, Virginia, and after his
release he made public the 'secrets' of that 'Prison House,' by the
following deposition, which is copied from the original document.
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