ic virtue that filled and
sustained the brave heart of this noble sailor, you would cease to
eulogize these tyrants of the ocean, or to revile your own government
for drawing the sword, and running all risks to redress the wrongs of
the oppressed sailor. The cruel conduct of the British ought to be
trumpeted through the terraqueous globe; but we would feign cover
over, if possible, the depravity of some few of our merchants and
politicians, who regard a sailor in the same light as a truckman does
his horse.

Several of these impressed men have declared, that in looking back on
their past sufferings, on board English men of war, and comparing it
with their present confinement at Chatham, they feel themselves in a
Paradise. The ocean, the mirror of heaven, is as much the element of
an American as an Englishman. The great Creator has given it to us, as
well as to them; and we will guard its honor accordingly, by chasing
cruelty from its surface, whether it shall appear in the habit of a
_Briton_ or an _Algerine_.

CHAPTER V.

It is now the last day of the year 1813; and we live pretty
comfortably. Prisoners of war, confined in an old man-of-war hulk,
must not expect to sleep on beds of down; or to fare sumptuously every
day, as if we were at home with our indulgent mothers and sisters. All
things taken into consideration, I believe we are nearly as well
treated here, in the river Medway, as the British prisoners are in
Salem or Boston; not quite so well fed with fresh meat, and a variety
of vegetables, because this country does not admit of it. We
nevertheless do suffer as we did at Halifax; and above all, we
suffered on board the floating dungeons, the transports, and
store-ship Malabar, beyond expression.

All the Frenchmen are sent out of the ship, excepting about forty
officers; and these are all gamblers, ready and willing, and able to
fleece us all, had we ever so much money. I wonder that the
prison-ship-police has not put down this infamous practice. It is a
fomenter of almost all the evil passions; of those particularly which
do the least honor to the human heart. Our domestic faction have
uttered a deal of nonsense about a _French influence_ in America.--By
what I have observed here, I never can believe that the French will
ever have any influence to speak of, in the United States. We never
agreed with them but in one point, and that was in our hatred to the
English. There we united cordially; there