ation of arms to take care of the wounded and bury
the dead, which was refused: what a woeful tendency war has to
harden the human heart against the tender feelings of humanity.
Well may it be called a _horrid art_ thus to change the nature of
man. I thought that even barbarous nations had a sort of religious
regard for their dead."

After this the journal contains many references to warlike scenes on the
river and warlike sounds from the country around. Numbers of gondolas
filled with soldiers went up and down the river, at times cannon from
distant points firing alarums. At other times the roaring of great guns
from a distance, showing that a battle was going on, kept the people of
Burlington in a continual excitement; and Mrs. Morris, who was entirely
cut off from her relatives and friends, several of whom were living in
Philadelphia, was naturally very anxious and disturbed in regard to
events, of which she heard but little, and perhaps understood less.

One day she saw a number of gunboats, with flags flying and drums
beating, that were going, she was told, to attend a court-martial at
which a number of refugees, men of her party, were to be tried by
General Putnam; and it was believed that if they were found guilty they
would be executed.

After a time, Mrs. Morris found an opportunity of showing, that,
although in principle she might be a Tory, she was at heart a good, kind
Quaker lady, ready to give help to suffering people, no matter whether
they belonged to the side she favored or to that which she opposed.

Some of the people who came up the river in the gunboats--and in many
cases the soldiers brought their wives with them, probably as
cooks--were taken sick during that summer; and some of these invalids
stopped at Burlington, being unable to proceed farther.

Here, to their surprise, they found no doctors; for all the patriots of
that profession had gone to the army, and the Tory physicians had
departed to the British lines. But, as has been said before, the women
in the early days of New Jersey were often obliged to be physicians; and
among the good housewives of Burlington, who knew all about herb teas,
homemade plasters, and potions, Mrs. Morris held a high position. The
sick Continentals were told that she was just as good as a doctor, and,
besides, was a very kind woman, always ready to help the sick and
suffering.

So some of the sick soldiers came to her; and from what