in fifty yards, and another within two
hundred and fifty, and they propose to sink wells within the piquet. Of
four thousand people, it should be expected, according to the ordinary
calculations, that one should die every day. Yet, in the space of near
three months, there have been but four deaths among them; two infants
under three weeks old, and two others by apoplexy. The officers tell me,
the troops were never before so healthy since they were embodied.

But is an enemy so execrable, that, though in captivity, his wishes and
comforts are to be disregarded and even crossed? I think not. It is
for the benefit of mankind to mitigate the horrors of war as much
as possible. The practice, therefore, of modern nations, of treating
captive enemies with politeness and generosity, is not only delightful
in contemplation, but really interesting to all the world, friends,
foes, and neutrals. Let us apply this: the officers, after considerable
hardships, have all procured quarters comfortable and satisfactory to
them. In order to do this, they were obliged, in many instances, to
hire houses for a year certain, and at such exorbitant rents, as were
sufficient to tempt independent owners to go out of them, and shift as
they could. These houses, in most cases, were much out of repair.
They have repaired them at a considerable expense. One of the general
officers has taken a place for two years, advanced the rent for the
whole time, and been obliged, moreover, to erect additional buildings
for the accommodation of part of his family, for which there was
not room in the house rented. Independent of the brick work, for the
carpentry of these additional buildings, I know he is to pay fifteen
hundred dollars. The same gentleman, to my knowledge, has-paid to one
person, three thousand six hundred, and seventy dollars, for different
articles to fix himself commodiously. They have generally laid in their
stocks of grain and other provisions, for it is well known that officers
do not live on their rations. They have purchased cows, sheep, &c, set
in to farming, prepared their gardens, and have a prospect of comfort
and quiet before them. To turn to the soldiers: the environs of the
barracks are delightful, the ground cleared, laid off in hundreds of
gardens, each enclosed in its separate paling; these well prepared, and
exhibiting, a fine appearance. General Riedesel, alone, laid out upwards
of two hundred pounds in garden seeds, for the Ger