hase prisonners without my approbation can you? you
damn'd rascal. Sir, said I, I am no rascal; not a word out of your
mouth, says Hamilton, go about your business and take care of me or I
will fix you: I replied it had always been my study to take care of him;
not a word, says he, go about your business, and bless your stars I was
not here instead of Capt. Montpresent, for I would have fixed you, you
damn'd scoundrel. Here I took my leave, went home and determined to
think as little of Mr. Hamilton and his usage as possible, until I had
an opportunity of getting redress.

Notwithstanding the hatred of Hamilton and De Jeane; I spent the
forepart of the winter very happily, until the 25th of Jan. 1778, when
several Merchants of the town got permission to go to Sandusky to trade,
and as they proposed encamping about two leagues from the town, myself
and several others in a friendly manner, proposed and did accompany them
in our sleighs to their first stage; but on our return, I being a head,
was challenged by De Jeane, at the head of thirty or forty soldiers, by
asking who came there? To which I replied, John Dodge; he then ordered
the soldiers to seize me and the two gentlemen in the sleigh with me,
and forced us to return to the encampment we had just left, where he
seized the whole of the gentlemen who were going by permission to
Sandusky, with their goods, sleighs, &c. and carried the whole of us the
next morning back to the fort, and charged us with sending out goods to
supply (as he politely termed it) the rebels.

After being detained three days in prison I was taken to De Jeane's
house to see my papers, books, desk, &c. examined. They broke open my
desk pretending to have lost the key. On searching, they could not find
any thing worth their notice, or what they expected to find. De Jeane
then gave me my keys, and told me to send for my desk and take care of
myself as he would watch me: I told him, as he had taken it from my home
and broke it, he should mend it and send it home before I would receive
it: Stop a little said he, I will speak to the Governor and fix you yet
if I can; he then gave me into the case of the guard, and ordered me to
goal. About the fifth day after this, not hearing any thing from him, I
sent for my violin, and was diverting myself, when Governor Hamilton
passed by, and inquired who was playing on the violin, to which the
Corporal of the guard answer'd it was me. The next day De Jeane waite