r food appeared to be damaged.
As for the pork, we were cheated out of more than half of it, and when it
was obtained one would have judged from its motley hues, exhibiting the
consistency and appearance of variegated fancy soap, that it was the flesh
of the porpoise or sea-hog, and had been an inhabitant of the ocean rather
than the sty. The peas were about as digestible as grape-shot; and the
butter--had it not been for its adhesive properties to retain together the
particles of biscuit that had been so riddled by the worms as to lose all
their attraction of cohesion, we should not have considered it a desirable
addition to our viands. The flour and oatmeal were sour, and the suet
might have been nosed the whole length of our ship. Many times since, when
I have seen in the country a large kettle of potatoes and pumpkins
steaming over the fire to satisfy the appetite of some farmer's swine, I
have thought of our destitute and starved condition, and what a luxury we
should have considered the contents of that kettle aboard the 'Jersey.'...
About two hours before sunset orders were given the prisoners to carry all
their things below; but we were permitted to remain above until we retired
for the night into our unhealthy and crowded dungeons. At sunset our ears
were saluted with the insulting and hateful sound from our keepers of
'Down, rebels, down,' and we were hurried below, the hatchways fastened
over us, and we were left to pass the night amid the accumulated horrors
of sighs and groans, of foul vapor, a nauseous and putrid atmosphere, in a
stifled and almost suffocating heat.... When any of the prisoners had
died during the night, their bodies were brought to the upper deck in the
morning and placed upon the gratings. If the deceased had owned a blanket,
any prisoner might sew it around the corpse; and then it was lowered, with
a rope tied round the middle, down the side of the ship into a boat. Some
of the prisoners were allowed to go on shore under a guard to perform the
labor of interment. In a bank near the Wallabout, a hole was excavated in
the sand, in which the body was put, then slightly covered. Many bodies
would, in a few days after this mockery of a burial, be exposed nearly
bare by the action of the elements."

Such was, indeed, the end of many of the most gallant of the Revolutionary
privateersmen; but squalid and cruel as was the fate of these
unfortunates, it had no effect in deterring others from seeki