Of this distemper numbers died daily, and many others by their
confinement and the sultry season contracted fevers and died of
them. During their sickness, with these and other diseases, they had
no medicines, nothing soothing or comfortable for sick people, and
were not so much as visited by the physician for months together.
"Nor ought we to omit the insults which the humane Britons offered to
our people, nor the artifices which they used to enlist them in their
service to fight against their country. It seems that one end of their
starving our people was to bring them, by dint of necessity, to turn
rebels to their own country, their own consciences, and their God. For
while thus famishing they would come and say to them: 'This is the
just punishment of your rebellion. Nay, you are treated too well for
rebels; you have not received half you deserve or half you shall
receive. But if you will enlist into his Majesty's service, you shall
have victuals and clothes enough.'
"As to insults, the British officers, besides continually cursing and
swearing at them as rebels, often threatened to hang them all; and, on
a particular time, ordered a number, each man to choose his halter out
of a parcel offered, wherewith to be hanged; and even went so far as
to cause a gallows to be erected before the prison, as if they were to
be immediately executed.
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