The long endurance of their
privations had rendered them almost indifferent to their fate, and
they appeared to look forward to death as the only probable
termination of their captivity.
"In a few days our messengers returned to New York, with a letter from
General Washington, addressed to the Committee of Prisoners who had
signed the Memorial. The prisoners were all summoned to the Spar-deck
where this letter was read. Its purport was as follows:--That he had
perused our communication, and had received, with due consideration,
the account which our messengers had laid before him; that he viewed
our situation with a high degree of interest, and that although our
application, as we had stated, was made in relation to a subject over
which he had no direct control, yet that it was his intention to lay
our Memorial before Congress; and that, in the mean time, we might be
assured that no exertions on his part should be spared which could
tend to a mitigation of our sufferings.
"He observed to our messengers, during their interview, that our long
detention in confinement was owing to a combination of circumstances,
against which it was very difficult, if not impossible, to provide.
That, in the first place, but little exertion was made on the part of
our countrymen to secure and detain their British prisoners for the
sake of exchange, many of the British seamen being captured by
privateers, on board which, he understood, it was a common practice
for them to enter as seamen; and that when this was not the case, they
were usually set at liberty as soon as the privateers arrived in port;
as neither the owners, nor the town or State where they were landed,
would be at the expense of their confinement and maintenance; and that
the officers of the General Government only took charge of those
seamen who were captured by the vessels in public service.
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