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Church at Prince Town
Built by the French and American prisoners of war
many things that the market-people eagerly bought. There were also many French officers, who, having private means, lived well and had the London papers, which they allowed the Americans to see.
On December 22 Captain Congreve was superseded by Captain Thomas G. Shortland. He was at first not so indifferent to the prisoners' sufferings as Captain Congreve, and said he would do all he could and send any letter they might write to Beasley or Congress. He also informed the Board of Transport of their state, and ordered the assistant surgeons to visit the prisons daily and to send all sick to the hospital. The prisoners addressed a letter to Beasley and told him that they did not believe America would let her citizens starve or freeze, and that he, being her agent in England, should pledge her credit for a sum sufficient to provide some relief for the prisoners; that if some relief was not forthcoming speedily, the prisoners would apply en masse to enlist in the British navy, at the same time sending copies of all correspondence with him to the American government, telling why they did it and putting the blame on him.
January, 1814, opened with bitter cold, and the prisoners only left their hammocks for dinner, the one meal of the day. It was the coldest weather in fifty years, and the streams were frozen. It was so cold that the guards abandoned their posts and sought the guardroom. The only sentries posted were at the barracks. Taking advantage of the cold, eight prisoners at midnight tried to escape by a ladder which they found near the guard-house. They had scaled the first wall and were ascending the second when the guard discovered them and captured all but one. The seven were put in the dungeon and nearly perished, for without clothes necessary to cover them they were brought out more dead than alive. The man who escaped wandered for two days on the moor in the bitter cold, and was finally driven by hunger to a cottage. He was suspected, overpowered, and brought back, and, strange to say, he did not suffer from frost-bite.
In February, 1814, a letter came from Beasley for the first time since the confinement in April, 1813. It was as follows:
I am authorized by the government of the United States to allow you 1½d. per day for tobacco and soap, which will commence from January 1. I earnestly hope
