The month of June commenced with deep distress; for disease was then added to nakedness and famine; and we were still more severely dealt by. For Doctor Dyer, who was head surgeon of the Hospital-department, would not permit an American prisoner to be brought into the hospital, until his complaint was completely confirmed, and often not until he was so weak, and reduced so low, that it would take four men to remove him on his hammock. For this conduct, he justified himself by saying, that he had been acquainted with the impositions of the Americans during the revolutionary war, and that these impositions were not to be played off on him any more.
A moment’s reflection must have convinced him, that it was impossible for these men not to be sick, in their starved, naked and wretched condition; sleeping in a prison, whose walls were constantly wet and cold, occasioned by the constant rainy, foggy, and damp weather on this mountain.
But he refused to admit the American prisoners into the hospital, because, he said, such numbers would breed every kind of pestilence and disease among the French prisoners. We attributed these evils to the shameful and criminal neglect of the agent of American prisoners, whose conduct deserves the severest censure of every prisoner, and requires a strict and impartial investigation by the authority of his country.
From the first to the fifteenth of May, we were every day called out of the prison and counted, to see if any remained in prison. The soldiers then entered the prison, and searched every hammock; if they found any prisoner, he was hastened out into the yard, though they were often found so weak and feeble, that it required assistance to enable them to walk.
The guards discharged this duty with great reluctance; their feelings often revolted, when compelled to do this unkind office, and though accustomed to scenes of distress, were very sensibly touched at the miserable situation of these their fellow beings.
On the eighteenth of May, we received letters from the other depots, and were informed that there were seven hundred prisoners at Plymouth, on board the Hector, which was so much crowded, that Captain Pelew, of the Royal Navy, and principal agent of the Board, had received orders from the Board, to remove the prisoners to other depots, either to that of Chatham, Dartmoor, or Stapleton, which is near Bristol. This last place was fixed on by the Board as a necessary precaution to prevent any disturbance, which was apprehended might arise, should too many American prisoners be confined in one place.
Accordingly, on the twenty-eighth, Captain Pelew ordered two hundred and fifty to be landed from the Hector and marched to Dartmoor. They arrived there on the same day, and after going through the same manœuvre as the first draft, they were committed to No. 4. These, together with the former draft, made four hundred and seventy Americans, and seven hundred naked outcast French, all intermixed in one prison.
Care was taken to keep the yard of this prison always locked, to prevent us from going to market. By this means, all we obtained from the market came through the hands of the French prisoners in the other prisons, who obliged us to pay twenty-five per cent. above the market price for all we had. At this time, about thirty were missing out of the number, some dead, and others had enlisted into the king’s service.
On the twenty-ninth, fifty more American prisoners were transported from on board the Hector, in a ship of war, round to Chatham. Two only at a time were permitted to come on deck; the others were compelled to remain below, without hammock, bed, or blanket. I leave the reader to judge whether this measure arose from wanton cruelty in those immediately concerned, or whether it was absolutely necessary to prevent their escape, or rising and taking the ship, which had her whole crew on board.
On the thirtieth, two hundred prisoners were ordered to go ashore, who accordingly made themselves ready, and landed at New Passage, under a guard of seamen and marines. Here they were received by a guard of soldiers, consisting of two hundred and fifty, who were to convey them on foot one hundred and thirty-four miles to Stapleton, within a few miles of Bristol.