About one A. M, we were
called and told that one Bird was dying; we turned out and went to
where he lay, and found him just expiring. Thus, at 10 P. M, the young
man was apparently as well as any of us, and at one A. M. had paid the
debt to nature. Many others went off in the same way. It will perhaps
be said that men die suddenly anywhere. True, but do they die suddenly
anywhere from the same cause? After all these things it is, I think,
impossible for the mind to form any other conclusion than that there
was a premeditated design to destroy as many Americans as they could
on board the prison-ships; the treatment of the prisoners warrants the
conclusion; but it is mean, base, and cowardly, to endeavor to conquer
an enemy by such infamous means, and truly characteristic of base and
cowardly wretches. The truly brave will always treat their prisoners
well.
"There were two or three hospital-ships near the prison-ships; and so
soon as any of the prisoners complained of being sick, they were sent
on board of one of them; and I verily believe that not one out of a
hundred ever returned or recovered. I am sure I never knew but one to
recover. Almost, and in fact I believe I may say every morning, a
large boat from each of the hospital ships went loaded with dead
bodies, which were all tumbled together into a hole dug for the
purpose, on the hill where the national navy-yard now is.
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