olesome, but even this
was limited in quantity to two-thirds of a British soldiers when at sea,
which was one-third less than the allowance upon land; in consequence of
which they suffered everything but death from hunger and cold. Nor was
this the worst. The prisoners, from these and other causes, became very
sickly, and died off in great numbers. Abel Wells and four others of the
Fort Montgomery party, being tailors, were sent from the prisonship to
the Provost, November 24th, to make clothing for the prisoners
there.[27] They informed Judge Fell, a prisoner, that their company was
then reduced to one hundred. This mortality would seem to have been
heavy among Col. Dubois's men, very few of whom ever rejoined their
regiment. Van Arsdale was taken sick about the 20th of December, and had
the good fortune to be sent to the hospital, where he had some care, and
soon recovered. Shortly after going there he was joined by Sears, who
was in a suffering and helpless condition, his feet and legs having been
badly frozen in the prisonship. Fortunately Van Arsdale was getting
better, so that he was of great service to his friend, and which also
tended to divert his mind from his own misfortunes. He even begged
"coppers" from the British officers to buy little comforts for Sears;
but which, had it been for himself, he declared he would have scorned to
do, in any extremity. Sears always held that Van Arsdale saved his life,
and he spoke feelingly of his kindness to him to the day of his death.
Van Arsdale finding his condition in the hospital much more tolerable,
managed to prolong his stay, by tying up his head and feigning illness
when the doctor made his daily call. The latter would leave him some
powders, but only to be thrown away. This did not long avail him, and
when reported well enough to remove, he was taken back to the
prisonship, to endure its indescribable miseries for several weary
months. Words cannot portray the horrors of this prison, which was
loathsome with filth and vermin, and where to the pangs of hunger and
thirst, were aided the alternate extremes of heat and cold. Especially
when the hatches were closed, as was always done at night, the heat and
stench caused by the feverish breath of hundreds of prisoners became
almost suffocating. Consequently dysentery, smallpox and jail fever made
fearful ravages. The ghastly faces of the starved and sick, and the pale
corpses of the dead, the groans of the dying, the co