mmingled voices of
weeping, cursing and praying, joined to the ravings of the delirious;
such were the shocking scenes to which Van Arsdale was a witness, and
which added to his personal sufferings, made his situation one of the
most appalling to be conceived of. Fitly was this dungeon described by
one of its inmates as "a little epitome of Hell!" Kept near to
starvation, Van Arsdale, when allowed with other prisoners, a few at a
time, to go up on the quarter deck, was glad to eat the beans or crusts
he skimmed from the swill kept there to feed pigs, that he might
partially relieve the gnawings of hunger! But we forbear further comment
upon a fruitful topic, the cruel treatment of the American prisoners,
and which has fixed a stain upon the perpetrators never to be wiped out!

Sears had returned to the prisonship about the last of March, and in the
month of May he and Van Arsdale, with other prisoners, were picked out
and removed again to the Sugar House. This was probably a step towards
an exchange of prisoners, then contemplated, which made it necessary to
separate those belonging to the land service from the naval prisoners.
The Sugar House, with its five or six low stories, was crammed with
American patriots, and the passerby in warm weather could see its little
grated windows filled with human faces, trying to catch a breath of the
external air! But now a little more lenity seems to have been shown some
of the prisoners, perhaps in view of the exchange. Van Arsdale found a
friend in his father's cousin, Vincent Day, who had enlisted in Lamb's
Artillery, in 1775, but did not go to Canada, and was now regarded as a
loyalist. He was permitted to see Van Arsdale, bring him food, etc.,[28]
and a next step was to get leave for him to visit his house. This was a
most grateful relief; but it being suspected that Van Arsdale meditated
an escape (which my informant said was the case), this privilege was cut
off, and Day sent to the Provost for his humanity. This incident was
related to me by Mr. Abraham Van Arsdale, before mentioned.

Van Arsdale had dragged out some two months of miserable existence in
the Sugar House, and in all nine months and a half as a prisoner, when
the day of happy deliverance arrived. Gen. Washington had long been
trying to effect an exchange of prisoners, but to overcome the scruples
of the British commander took months of negotiation. Terms were at
length agreed upon by which some six hundred Amer