EMPIRE_.

We closed the day, on this memorable _Fourth of July_, pretty much as
we began it; we struck our flag at sun-set, and saluted the other
ships with three hearty cheers.--Throughout the whole, the prisoners,
even to the boys, behaved with becoming decorum; and the whole was
concluded without any disagreeable accident, or any thing like a
quarrel; and in saying this, we desire to acknowledge the
extraordinary good behaviour of all the British officers and men on
board the Crown Prince.

Excepting the apprehensions of being sent off to _Dartmoor prison_, of
which we entertained horrid ideas, we were tolerably happy. After the
measles ceased, we were all very healthy; and there exists a good
understanding between the prisoners and our commander, Osmore; which
they say, is owing to the influence of his amiable wife.--This worthy
woman has discovered that we are not a gang of vagabonds, but that
many of the American prisoners are not only men of solid
understanding, and correct principles, but men whose minds have been
improved by good education. The manner and style in which we
celebrated our national independence, have created a respect for us.
The officers extend a better course of treatment towards _us_; and
this has occasioned our treating _them_ with more respect. Politeness
generates politeness, and insult, insult.--They find that coaxing and
fair words is the only way to manage Americans.

There is a set of busy-idlers amongst us, a sort of newsmongers,
fault-finders, and predictors, who are continually _bothering_[L] us
with unsubstantial rumors. The newspapers we take, are enough to
confound any man; but these creatures are worse than the London
news-writers. Sometimes we are told that Baltimore is burnt; and then
that New York is taken; and we have been positively assured that _old_
New England has declared for the British; and that the governor of
Massachusetts and his council had dined on board a British man of war
in Boston harbor; and that PRESIDENT MADISON had been hanged in effigy
in Boston, Newburyport and Portsmouth. At other times we were told
positively, and circumstantially, that three frigates sent their boats
into Marblehead, and after driving out all the women and children, set
fire to the town, and reduced the whole to ashes; and this was for
some time credited. We have a number of fine Marblehead men here in
captivity, all staunch friends of their country's cause. I well
remember since