But, Sir, since you would not agree to the proposals I made,
since I was refused being permitted to visit the prison-ships: (for
which I conclude no other reason can be produced than your being
ashamed or afraid of having those graves of our seamen seen by one who
dared to represent the horrors of them to his countrymen,) Since the
commissioners from your side, at their late meeting, would not enter
into an adjustment of the accounts for supplying your naval and land
prisoners, on which there are large sums due us; and since your
superiors will neither make provision for the support of your
prisoners in our hands, nor accommodation for the mere existence of
ours, who are now languishing in your prison-ships, it becomes my
duty, Sir, to state these pointed facts to you, that the imputations
may recoil where they are deserved, and to report to those, under
whose authority I have the honor to act, that such measures as they
deem proper may be adopted.
And now, Sir, I will conclude this long letter with observing that not
having a sufficient number of British seamen in our possession we are
not able to release urs by exchange:--this is our misfortune, but it
is not a crime, and ought not to operate as a mortal punishment
against the unfortunate--we ask no favour, we claim nothing but common
justice and humanity, while we assert to the whole world, as a
notorious fact, that the unprecedented inhumanity in the _mode_
of confining our naval prisoners, to the amount of 800 in one old
hulk, which has been made use of as a prison-ship for more than three
years, without ever having been once purified, has been the real and
sole cause of the deaths of hundreds of brave Americans, who would not
have perished in that untimely and barbarous manner, had they, (when
prisoners,) been suffered to breathe a purer air, and to enjoy more
liberal and convenient accommodations agreeably to the practice of
civilized nations when at war, (and) the example which has always been
set you by the Americans.
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