oes, and _tobacco_. The first may be called the
bare necessaries of life, but the latter contribute much to its
comfortable enjoyment. Whether the British government ought not to
have found the whole, I am not prepared to determine; but certainly,
before this addition from our own agent, our men complained bitterly:
and it is a fact, that the agent here more than once detained tobacco,
sent as a present to us from our agent at Boston.

In justice to Mr. Miller, the British agent, I ought to record that he
paid great attention to the cleanliness of the prison, and to the
clothes of the men; and I must, at the same time, say that some of our
men were very dirty, lazy fellows, that required constantly spurring
up to keep them from being offensive. This indolent and careless
disposition was observed to be chiefly among those who had been
formerly intemperate; they felt the loss of their beloved stimulus,
their spirits sunk, and they had rather lay down and rot, and die,
than exert themselves. There were a few who seemed to be like hogs,
innately dirty, and who had rather lie dirty than clean. Mr. Miller
had therefore great merit in compelling these men to follow the rules
prescribed to the whole prison. For this he had the thanks of every
considerate American.

It was a common remark, that the most indolent and most slovenly men
were the most vicious; and a dirty external was a pretty sure
indication of a depraved mind. Such as would not conform to the rules
of cleanliness were committed to the _black hole_, which was under the
prison, and divided into solitary cells. The agent had the power of
confining a prisoner in one of these dungeons during ten days. It is
to the credit of our seamen to remark, that they co-operated with the
agent most heartily in whatever tended to preserve the cleanliness of
their persons, and they applauded the confinement of such as were
disinclined to follow the salutary rules of the prison.

We were one day not a little shocked by the arrival of a number of
American soldiers who were entrapped and taken with Colonel
_Boestler_, in Upper Canada. They exhibited a picture of starvation,
misery, woe, and despair. Their miserable condition called forth our
sympathy and compassion, and I may add, excited our resentment against
the authors of their distress. These unfortunate landsmen had never
been used to "rough it" like sailors, but had lived the easy life of
farmers and mechanics. Some of them h