358 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

might well have shaken the resolution of the strongest; in spite of the insinuations of the British that they were neglected by their Government—insinuations which seemed to be corroborated by the very facts of their condition; in defiance of threats of even harsher treatment, and regardless of promises of food and clothing—objects most tempting to men in their condition; but few, comparatively, sought relief from their woes by the betrayal of their honor.1 And these few went forth into liberty followed by the execrations and undisguised contempt of the suffering heroes whom they left behind. It was this calm, unfaltering, unconquerable SPIRIT OF PATRIOTISM defying torture, starvation, loathsome disease, and the prospect of a neglected and forgotten graveÑwhich sanctifies to every American heart the scene of their suffering in the Wallabout, and which will render the sad story of the “prison-ships” one of ever-increasing interest to all future generations. “They chose to die, rather than injure the Republic. And the Republic hath never yet paid them the tribute of gratitude!Ó

At the expiration of the war, the prisoners remaining on board the “Old Jersey” were liberated, and the old hulk, in whose “putrefactive bowels” so many had suffered and died, was abandoned where She lay.“The dread of contagion prevented every one from venturing on board, and even from approaching her polluted frame. But the ministers of destruction were at work. Her planks were soon filled with worms, who, as if sent to remove this disgrace to the name of our common humanity, ceased not from their labor, until they had penetrated through her decaying bottom; through which the water rushed in, and she sunk. With her went down the names of many thousands of our countrymen, with which her inner planks and sheathing were literally covered; for but few of her inmates had ever

1 Coffin (Hist. Martyrs, p. 35) says he never knew of but one who so enlisted. Fox, however, admits that some did enter the British service, and was himself one of a small party who enlisted thus for garrison duty in Jamaica—a. step which they all bitterly repented afterwards. We have also similar testimony from other sources; yet these were but rare exceptions to the pure spirit of patriotic heroism displayed, in so surprising a degree, by the great mass of the sufferers in the prison-ships.

In many cases, forcible impressment of our brave sailors was practised by the British (see Fox, pp. 134, 135), and was justly characterized by Washington, in a letter to Lord Howe, in 1777, as “unprecedented.”