* * * Never did any Howard or
angel of pity appear to inquire into or alleviate our woes. Once or
twice a bag of apples was hurled into the midst of hundreds of
prisoners, crowded together as thick as they could stand, and life and
limbs were endangered by the scramble. This was a cruel sport. When I
saw it about to commence I fled to the most distant part of the ship."
At night, he says, the prisoners were driven down to darkness between
decks, secured by iron gratings and an armed soldiery. He thus speaks
of the tasks imposed upon the prisoners: "Around the well-room an
armed guard were forcing up the prisoners to the winches to clear the
ship of water, and prevent her sinking; and little could be heard but
a roar of mutual execrations, reproaches and insults.
"Sights of woe, regions of sorrow, doleful shades;
Where peace and rest can never dwell
"When I became an inmate of this abode of suffering, despair, and
death, there were about 400 on board, but in a short time they were
increased to 1,200.
"All the most deadly diseases were pressed into the service of the
king of terrors, but his prime ministers were dysentery, small pox,
and yellow fever. The healthy and the diseased were mingled together
in the main ship."
He says that the two hospital ships were soon overcrowded, and that
two hundred or more of the prisoners, who soon became sick in
consequence of the want of room, were lodged in the fore-part of the
lower gun-deck, where all the prisoners were confined at night.
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