HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 357

was not the case, they were usually set at liberty as soon as the priviteer arrived in port;. as neither the owners, nor the town or State where they were landed, would be at the expense of their confinement and maintenance; and that the officers of the General Government only took charge of those seamen who were captured by the vessels in the public service. All which circumstances combined to render the number of British prisoners at all times by far too small for a regular and equal exchange.” Copies of the correspondence on the subject with the British authorities were also submitted1 by the general, whose interference was soon followed by an improvement in their fare—especially in the quality of the bread, and in the furnishing of butter instead of rancid oil. An awning was also provided, as well as a wind-sail, for the conducting of fresh air between the decks during the day—which, however, was of no advantage during the nights, as the keepers continued to fasten down the hatchways after dark. To their other privations, the prisoners were obliged to submit, hopingalmost against hope—that further favors might possibly be granted, although they saw “but little prospect of escaping from the raging pestilence, except through the interposition of Divine Providence.”

There was, indeed, one condition upon which these hapless sufferers might have escaped the torture of this slow but certain death, and that was enlistment in the British service. This chance was daily offered to them by the recruiting officers who visited the ship, but whose persuasions and offers were almost invariably treated with contempt, and that, too, by men who fully expected to die where they were.2 In spite of untold physical sufferings, which

1 The whole correspondence between the American and British authorities, relative to the condition of the American prisoners in the hulks, will be found in Dawson’s Dring (Appendix I). From these letters, it will be seen that Washington had not been unmindful of the sufferings of his unfortunate countrymen—his first letter to the British authorities being dated in January 25, 1781;—but his authority in the premises was limited, the real power to negotiate for the exchange of naval prisoners being vested not in him, but in the Financier of the American Government. Exchanges between the belligerents were to be made in kind; and owing, as above stated, to the course pursued by those engaged in privateering, in releasing captives without parole, or enlisting them in the American service, our Government had but few naval prisoners to offer; while, to accept the enemy's offer to receive soldiers in exchange, would, by furnishing him immediate re-enforcements in the field, have been subversive of the Interests of the United States.

2 Coffin, Dring, and others