[CHAPTER XIII.]
RENDEZVOUS AT CAPE FEAR.—SICKNESS.—HALIFAX JAIL.—LETTER TO GENERAL MASSEY.—VOYAGE TO NEW YORK.—ON PAROLE.
The third day of May we cast anchor in the harbor of Cape Fear, in North Carolina, as did Sir Peter Parker's ship, of fifty guns, a little back of the bar; for there was not depth of water for him to come into the harbor. These two men-of-war, and fourteen sail of transports and others, came after, so that most of the fleet rendezvoused at Cape Fear for three weeks. The soldiers on board the transports were sickly, in consequence of so long a passage; add to this the small-pox carried off many of them. They landed on the main, and formed a camp; but the riflemen annoyed them, and caused them to move to an island in the harbor; but such cursing of riflemen I never heard.
A detachment of regulars was sent up Brunswick River; as they landed they were fired on by those marksmen, and they came back next day damning the rebels for their unmanly way of fighting, and swearing they would give no quarter, for they took sight at them, and were behind timber, skulking about. One of the detachments said they lost one man; but a negro man who was with them, and heard what was said, soon after told me that he helped to bury thirty-one of them; this did me some good to find my countrymen giving them battle; for I never heard such swaggering as among General Clinton's little army, who commanded at that time; and I am apt to think there were four thousand men, though not two-thirds of them fit for duty. I heard numbers of them say that the trees in America should hang well with fruit that campaign, for they would give no quarter. This was in the mouths of most who I heard speak on the subject, officer as well as soldier. I wished at that time my countrymen knew, as well as I did, what a murdering and cruel enemy they had to deal with; but experience has since taught this country what they are to expect at the hands of Britons when in their power.
The prisoners who had been sent on board different men-of-war at the cove of Cork were collected together, and the whole of them put on board the Mercury frigate, Captain James Montague, except one of the Canadians, who died on the passage from Ireland, and Peter Noble, who made his escape from the Sphynx man-of-war in this harbor, and, by extraordinary swimming, got safe home to New England and gave intelligence of the usage of his brother prisoners. The Mercury set sail from this port for Halifax about the 20th of May, and Sir Peter Parker was about to sail with the land forces, under the command of General Clinton, for the reduction of Charleston, the capital of South Carolina, and when I heard of his defeat in Halifax, it gave me inexpressible satisfaction.
I now found myself under a worse captain than Symonds; for Montague was loaded with prejudices against everybody and everything that was not stamped with royalty; and being by nature underwitted, his wrath was heavier than the others, or at least his mind was in no instance liable to be diverted by good sense, humor or bravery, of which Symonds was by turns susceptible. A Captain Francis Proctor was added to our number of prisoners when we were first put on board this ship. This gentleman had formerly belonged to the English service. The captain, and in fine, all the gentlemen of the ship were very much incensed against him, and put him in irons without the least provocation, and he was continued in this miserable situation about three months. In this passage the prisoners were infected with the scurvy, some more and some less, but most of them severely. The ship's crew was to a great degree troubled with it, and I concluded it was catching. Several of the crew died with it on their passage. I was weak and feeble in consequence of so long and cruel a captivity, yet had but little of the scurvy.
The purser was again expressly forbid by the captain to let me have anything out of his store; upon which I went upon deck, and in the handsomest manner requested the favor of purchasing a few necessaries of the purser, which was denied me; he further told me, that I should be hanged as soon as I arrived at Halifax. I tried to reason the matter with him, but found him proof against reason; I also held up his honor to view, and his behavior to me and the prisoners in general, as being derogatory to it, but found his honor impenetrable. I then endeavored to touch his humanity, but found he had none; for his prepossession of bigotry to his own party had confirmed him in an opinion that no humanity was due to unroyalists, but seemed to think that heaven and earth were made merely to gratify the king and his creatures; he uttered considerable unintelligible and grovelling ideas, a little tinctured with monarchy but stood well to his text of hanging me. He afterward forbade his surgeon to administer any help to the sick prisoners. I was every night shut down in the cable tier with the rest of the prisoners, and we all lived miserably while under his power. But I received some generosity from several of the midshipmen who in degree alleviated my misery; one of their names was Putrass; the names of the others I do not recollect; but they were obliged to be private in the bestowment of their favor, which was sometimes good wine bitters and at others a generous drink of grog.
Some time in the first week of June, we came to anchor at the Hook of New York, where we remained but three days; in which time Governor Tryon, Mr. Kemp, the old attorney-general of New York, and several other perfidious and overgrown tories and land-jobbers, came on board. Tryon viewed me with a stern countenance, as I was walking on the leeward side of the deck with the midshipmen; and he and his companions were walking with the captain and lieutenant on the windward side of the same, but never spoke to me, though it is altogether probable that he thought of the old quarrel between him, the old government of New York, and the Green Mountain Boys. Then they went with the captain into the cabin, and the same afternoon returned on board a vessel, where at that time they took sanctuary from the resentment of their injured country. What passed between the officers of the ship and these visitors I know not; but this I know, that my treatment from the officers was more severe afterward.