ad never experienced the
hardships of a soldier's life, but were raw, inexperienced militia
men. They were taken at some creek between Fort George and Little
York, by the British and their allies the Indians, who stripped them
of most of their clothing, and then wore them down by very long and
harrassing marches; first to Montreal, and then to Quebec; and soon
after crowded them on board transports, like negroes in a Guinea ship,
where some suffered a lingering death, and others merely escaped it.
It appears from their account, and from every other account, that the
treatment of these poor fellows at their capture, and on their march,
and more especially _on board the transports from Quebec to Halifax_,
was barbarous in the extreme, and highly disgraceful to the British
name and nation.

We have it asserted uniformly, that the prisoners, who came from
Quebec to Halifax and to Boston, down the St. Lawrence, were treated
and provided for in a manner little above brutes. Colonel SCOTT, now
Major General Scott, came by that route from Quebec to Boston, and it
is well known that he complained, that there were neither
accommodations, provisions, nor any thing on board the ship proper for
a gentleman. He spoke of the whole treatment he received with deep
disgust and pointed resentment. If an officer of his rank and
accomplishments had so much reason for complaint, we may easily
conceive what the private soldier must have endured.

We paid every attention in our power to these poor soldiers, whose
emaciated appearance and dejection gave us reason to expect that an
end would soon be put to their sufferings by death. They, however,
recruited fast; and we were soon convinced, that they were reduced to
the condition we saw them in, absolutely _for want of food_. The
account which these soldiers gave of their hardships was enough to
fill with rage and resentment the heart of a saint. Four men were not
allowed more provisions than what was needful for one. They assured
us, that if they had not secretly come at some bags of ship bread,
unknown to the officers of the transport, they must have perished _for
want of food_. We cannot pass over one anecdote. Some fish were caught
by our own people on the passage, in common with the crew, but they
were compelled to deliver them all to the captain of the ship, who
withheld them from the American prisoners. Some of the prisoners had a
little money, and the captain of the transport was mean