ontrary, solemnly declare, that it was expressly
stated to Admiral Rowley, that whatever anxiety might have existed
among the prisoners for a speedy release, could, in no way
whatever, be construed to have had any collusion or connection
with that event.--That the prisoners, so far from having any idea
of attempting to break out, if the gates had been opened, and
every one suffered to go who might wish to do so, not one in a
hundred would have left the prison, having no means of subsistence
in a foreign country, and being likewise liable to IMPRESSMENT,
when by staying a few days longer, they would, probably, be
embarked for their native country.

They, on the contrary, accused Captain Shortland of being the sole
mover and principal perpetrator of the unprovoked and horrid
butchery.

Conceiving, from your well known character in the British navy for
integrity and candor, that you would not wish to have your name
the medium of imposing such a gross misrepresentation and such
direct falsehoods on the admiralty board and the British public,
we have taken the liberty of thus addressing you, and have the
honor to subscribe ourselves, your most obedient and very humble
servants,

_Wm. Hobart_, _Walter Colton_, _Henry Allen_,
_Thomas B. Mott_, _Wm. B. Orne_,

Committee of American Prisoners, Dartmoor.

[In addition to the documents furnished by the committee of the
Dartmoor prisoners, we lay the following affidavit of Archibald
Taylor before the public. Will people doubt this evidence also? Is
it likely that common soldiers, hired assassins, would make use of
similar expressions from their own impulses? or is it not much
more conformable to common sense to believe that this was the
language held by their officers, and that they echoed it.]

_City of New York, ss._

_Archibald Taylor_, late commander of the Paul Jones, private
armed vessel of war, being duly sworn, doth depose and say--

That he was a prisoner in Dartmoor prison at the time of the late
massacre of Americans; that after the affair of the 6th of April,
and on the night of the same day, he was in the prison No. 3,
assisting Thomas Smith, late his boatswain, who was shot through
his leg by the soldie