I dined with the captain agreeable to his invitation, and oftentimes with the lieutenant, in the gun-room, but in general ate and drank with my friend Lovel and the other gentlemen who were prisoners with me, where I also slept.
We had a little berth inclosed with canvas, between decks, where we enjoyed ourselves very well, in hopes of an exchange; besides, our friends at Halifax had a little notice of our departure and supplied us with spirituous liquor, and many articles of provisions for the cost. Captain Burk, having been taken prisoner, was added to our company (he had commanded an American armed vessel) and was generously treated by the captain and all the officers of the ship, as well as myself. We now had in all near thirty prisoners on board, and as we were sailing along the coast, if I recollect right, off Rhode Island, Captain Burk, with an under-officer of the ship, whose name I do not recollect, came to our little berth, proposed to kill Captain Smith and the principal officers of the frigate and take it; adding that there were thirty-five thousand pounds sterling in the same. Captain Burk likewise averred that a strong party out of the ship's crew was in the conspiracy, and urged me, and the gentleman that was with me, to use our influence with the private prisoners to execute the design, and take the ship with the cash into one of our own ports.
Upon which I replied that we had been too well used on board to murder the officers; that I could by no means reconcile it to my conscience, and that, in fact, it should not be done; and while I was yet speaking my friend Lovel confirmed what I had said, and farther pointed out the ungratefulness of such an act; that it did not fall short of murder, and in fine all the gentlemen in the berth opposed Captain Burk and his colleague. But they strenuously urged that the conspiracy would be found out, and that it would cost them their lives, provided they did not execute their design. I then interposed spiritedly and put an end to further argument on the subject, and told them that they might depend upon it upon my honor that I would faithfully guard Captain Smith's life. If they should attempt the assault I would assist him, for they desired me to remain neuter, and that the same honor that guarded Captain Smith's life would also guard theirs; and it was agreed by those present not to reveal the conspiracy, to the intent that no man should be put to death, in consequence of what had been projected; and Captain Burk, and his colleague went to stifle the matter among their associates. I could not help calling to mind what Captain Smith said to me, when I first came on board: "This is a mutable world, and one gentleman never knows but that it may be in his power to help another." Captain Smith and his officers still behaved with their usual courtesy, and I never heard any more of the conspiracy.
We arrived before New York, and cast anchor the latter part of October, where we remained several days, and where Captain Smith informed me that he had recommended me to Admiral Howe and General Sir William Howe, as a gentleman of honor and veracity, and desired that I might be treated as such. Captain Burk was then ordered on board a prison ship in the harbor. I took my leave of Captain Smith and, with the other prisoners, was sent on board a transport ship which lay in the harbor, commanded by Captain Craige, who took me into the cabin with him and his lieutenant. I fared as they did, and was in every respect well treated, in consequence of directions from Captain Smith. In a few weeks after this I had the happiness to part with my friend Lovel, for his sake, whom the enemy affected to treat as a private; he was a gentleman of merit, and liberally educated, but had no commission; they maligned him on account of his unshaken attachment to the cause of his country. He was exchanged for a Governor Philip Skene of the British. I was continued in this ship till the latter part of November, where I contracted an acquaintance with a captain of the British; his name has slipped my memory. He was what we may call a genteel, hearty fellow. I remember an expression of his over a bottle of wine, to this import: "That there is a greatness of soul for personal friendship to subsist between you and me, as we are upon opposite sides, and may at another day be obliged to face each other in the field." I am confident that he was as faithful as any officer in the British army. At another sitting he offered to bet a dozen of wine that Fort Washington would be in the hands of the British in three days. I stood the bet, and would, had I known that that would have been the case; and the third day afterward we heard a heavy cannonade, and that day the fort was taken sure enough. Some months after, when I was on parole, he called upon me with his usual humor, and mentioned the bet. I acknowledged that I had lost it, but he said he did not mean to take it, then, as I was a prisoner; that he would another day call upon me, when their army came to Bennington. I replied that he was quite too generous, as I had fairly lost it; besides, the Green Mountain Boys would not suffer them to come to Bennington. This was all in good humor. I should have been glad to have seen him after the defeat at Bennington, but did not. It was customary for a guard to attend the prisoners, which was often changed. One was composed of tories from Connecticut, in the vicinity of Fairfield and Green Farms. The sergeant's name was Hoit. They were very full of their invectives against the country, swaggered of their loyalty to their king, and exclaimed bitterly against the "cowardly Yankees," as they were pleased to term them, but finally contented themselves with saying that when the country was overcome they should be well rewarded for their loyalty out of the estates of the whigs, which would be confiscated. This I found to be the general language of the tories, after I arrived from England on the American coast. I heard sundry of them relate, that the British generals had engaged them an ample reward for their losses, disappointments and expenditures, out of the forfeited rebels' estates. This language early taught me what to do with tories' estates, as far as my influence can go. For it is really a game of hazard between whig and tory. The whigs must inevitably have lost all, in consequence of the abilities of the tories, and their good friends the British; and it is no more than right the tories should run the same risk, in consequence of the abilities of the whigs. But of this more will be observed in the sequel of this narrative.
Some of the last days of November the prisoners were landed at New York, and I was admitted to parole with the other officers, viz.: Proctor, Howland, and Taylor. The privates were put into filthy churches in New York, with the distressed prisoners that were taken at Fort Washington; and the second night, Sergeant Roger Moore, who was bold and enterprising, found means to make his escape with every one of the remaining prisoners that were taken with him, except three, who were soon after exchanged. So that out of thirty-one prisoners, who went with me the round exhibited in these sheets, two only died with the enemy, and three only were exchanged; one of whom died after he came within our lines; all the rest, at different times, made their escape from the enemy.
I now found myself on parole, and restricted to the limits of the city of New York, where I soon projected means to live in some measure agreeably to my rank, though I was destitute of cash. My constitution was almost worn out by such a long and barbarous captivity. The enemy gave out that I was crazy, and wholly unmanned, but my vitals held sound, nor was I delirious any more than I had been from youth up; but my extreme circumstances, at certain times, rendered it politic to act in some measure the madman; and in consequence of a regular diet and exercise, my blood recruited, and my nerves in a great measure recovered their former tone, strength and usefulness, in the course of six months.