At the commencement of August, we found ourselves limited and very much straitened in our regulations. We were not permitted to go out of the yard. A more alarming scene of distress than any we had before experienced, now presented itself before us, and death seemed to be the inevitable lot of every man.
The King of Terrors daily reached forth his inexorable hand, and removed the sufferer from the pale of this clay tenement; for the small-pox had got among the prisoners, and its ravages were so alarming, that every prisoner expected each day would be his last; for numbers died daily.
The prisoners who remained able, collected themselves together, and formed a committee of correspondence, who, by bribing the guards, conveyed letters daily to Mr. Beasley; particularly describing their situation, that they were almost naked, and defrauded by the Contractor of half their rations, which before were but one-third enough. That the small-pox had got among them, and numbers died daily—that they were covered with animalcula, and unless he could do something for their relief, they must all perish together.
To these complaints he paid no kind of attention, neither came to see whether they were true or false, nor sent any answer either written or verbal.
The reader can easily figure to himself what must have been our feelings, when five hundred men, closely confined in one apartment, with that mortal epidemic among them without any assistance, or possibility of escape.
The evil must lie somewhere; we were in doubt whether to believe it was the will of the general government, of the people at large of this country, or whether it was not entirely the fault of our agent, in not seeing that all the officers in whose immediate care we were, acted the honest part in the performance of those duties, which both this government and that of the United States had intrusted to them. It was not a general thing, and the evil was near at hand. The prisoners at Halifax fared well; they did not, nor could not, complain; prisoners in other places in England were tolerably well provided for.
After so many fruitless applications to our agent, we despaired of any relief from that quarter, and then made application to Captain Cotgrave, and demanded of him, what provisions the government of England made for prisoners of war, when neglected by their own government. He gave us every opportunity to search out the fault, by producing the following printed rules and regulations, made by the Transport Board.
The honorable Transport Board have made arrangements with certain agents or contractors, to supply all prisoners of war, as follows:
Each prisoner to receive per day, for five days in the week, one and a half pounds of coarse brown bread; one-half pound of beef, including the bone; one-third of an ounce of barley; the same quantity of salt; one-third of an ounce of onions; and one pound of turnips. The residue of the week, the usual allowance of bread; one pound of pickled fish, and just a sufficient quantity of coals to cook the same. These to be served out daily by the contractors.
We watched the contractor, and found he weighed all the articles at once, neat weight; and saw him scrimp the weight, to fill his pocket out of the prisoners’ bellies.