ak for myself; and I hear the same expression from others.
Winter is commencing to add to our miseries. Poor clothing, miserable
lodging, poor, and inadequate food, long dismal nights, darkness, foul
air, bad smells, the groans of the sick, and distressed; the
execrations and curses of the half distracted prisoner, the unfeeling
conduct of our keepers and commander--all, all, all conspire to fill
up the cup of our sorrow; but we hope that one drop will not be added
after it is brim full; far then it will run over, and death will
follow!

_December._ Nothing new, or strange, worth recording; every day, and
every night brings the same sad picture, the same heart sinking
impressions. Until now, I could not believe that misfortune and
confinement, with a deprivation of the accustomed food, ease and
liberty enjoyed in our own dear country, could have wrought such a
change in the human person. The young have not only acquired wrinkles,
but appear dried up, and contracted in body and mind. I can easily
conceive that a few generations of the human species, passed in such
misery and confinement, would produce a race of beings, very inferior
to what we now are. The sailor, however, suffers less in appearance
than we landsmen; for my short cruise in a privateer, does not entitle
me to the name of a sailor. How often have I reflected on my rash
adventure! To leave the house of plenty, surrounded with every thing
comfortable, merely to change the scene, and see the watery world. To
quit my paternal roof, half educated, to dress wounds, and cut off the
limbs of those who might be mutilated, was about as mad a scheme as
ever giddy youth engaged in. But repining will do no good. I must not
despair, but make the best of my hard lot. If I have lost a portion of
ordinary education, I have passed the severer school of misfortune;
and should I live to return to America, I must strive to turn these
hardships to the best advantage. He who has not met adversity, has not
seen the most profitable part of human life.

There were times, during my captivity, especially in the long and
cheerless nights, when home, and all its endearments, rushed on my
mind; and when I reflected on my then situation, I burst into tears,
and wept aloud. It was then I was fearful that I should lose my
reason, and never recover it. Many a time have I _thought_ myself into
a fever, my tongue covered with a furr, and my brain seemed burning up
within my skull. It was co