heir respective
prison yards, and shut the gates after them. I saw the soldiers
advance up to the gates, and heard Capt. Shortland order them to
fire, which they not immediately obeying, I saw him seize hold of
a musket in the hands of a soldier, and direct it towards a
prisoner, and heard him again repeat--"_fire; God damn you,
fire_." Immediately afterwards the firing became general; the
prisoners were all endeavoring to get into the prisons, which was
attended with much difficulty, all the doors but one being
closed--and further the deponent saith not.

DAVID S. WARREN.

No. XVII.

We, the undersigned, being each severally sworn on the holy
evangelists of Almighty God, for the investigation of the
circumstances attending the late horrid massacre, and having heard
the depositions of a great number of witnesses, from our own
personal knowledge, and from the depositions given in as
aforesaid,

=REPORT AS FOLLOWS:=

That on the 6th of April, about six o'clock in the evening, when
the prisoners were all quiet in their respective yards, it being
about the usual time of turning in for night, and the greater part
of the prisoners being then in the prisons, the alarm bell was
rung, and many of the prisoners ran up to the market square to
learn the occasion of the alarm. There were then drawn up in the
square several hundred soldiers, with Capt. Shortland (the agent)
at their head; it was likewise observed at the same time, that
additional numbers of soldiers were posting themselves on the
walls round the prison yards. One of them observed to the
prisoners, that they had better go into the prisons, for they
would be charged upon directly. This, of course, occasioned
considerable alarm among them. In this moment of uncertainty, they
were running in different directions, enquiring the cause of the
alarm; some toward their respective prisons, and some toward the
market square. When about one hundred were collected in the
square, Capt. Shortland ordered the soldiers to charge upon them,
which order the soldiers were reluctant in obeying, as the
prisoners were using no violence; but on the order being repeated,
they made a charge, and the prisoners retreated out of the square,
into their prison yards, and shut the gate a