Though the abuse of power is always detestable, yet it may not be improper to look at home before we devote others to destruction as monsters of unheard of cruelty. I neither have palliated, nor do I mean to palliate, the sufferings of the prisoners at New York: they were shocking to humanity, and no one witnessed them with more anguish than myself; but this is no reason that we should not ask ourselves, whether it was to be expected, that they were, at once, to be set at liberty, and, if not, what other mode or place of confinement was within the power of the enemy? Or, if the want of good and sufficient food and other accommodations was the cause of the mortality, are we perfectly sure they had better to administer? If, in an entirely new state of the world, we are, on account of former injuries, to reject the aid of the only nation upon earth which has power to rescue us from impending perdition, it certainly behoves us to inquire calmly into the extent of her aggressions, and, for our own sakes, if not for her's or the sake of justice, to admit the effect of any alleviating circumstances which may be found. But few of us, I trust, are in the happy predicament to have been so hysterically alarmed during the war as to be unable to forgive; or to have incurred disgraces which can only be washed out and avenged by the common destruction of our old enemy and ourselves.

AUTHOR LEAVES LONG ISLAND.

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CHAPTER XI.

The Author leaves Long Island for New York and Elizabethtown—Arrives at Philadelphia-Meets the Object of an Early Attachment-Public Feelings.

It was not long before the welcome summons arrived for our repairing to New York for the purpose of being transported from thence, in a flag vessel, to Elizabethtown; and, upon this occasion, we were escorted, to the end of the village, by a no small troop of our less lucky fellow prisoners. It was made a condition, by Loring, that our boarding should be paid before we left Flatbush; and the heart of old Jacob was accordingly gladdened, by the sight of a sum of money he had despaired of receiving. He and I parted very good friends; and it is but justice to say, that the treatment I received from him, and his family, Mr and Mrs Hagerman, was both civil and obliging. As there was no subject upon which we prisoners had been so much in the dark, and were, at the same time, so anxious to be informed of, as that of the state of our army and public affairs in general, Tudor, on my coming away, furnished me with a kind of cypher, by which, as soon as I had time to inform myself, I was to satisfy him by letter on certain points he particularly wished to know. The disguise was not in the character, but in the substitution of one piece of information for another,—for instance, a lady,

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who was to be named, was to signify the army, and, if that was strong and in a prosperous train, it was to be indicated by announcing the health and charming looks of the lady. There was a scale in the key by which the intelligence might be graduated; and it was so contrived, as to admit of the transmission of pretty satisfactory information in a few important particulars. Knowing the deep interest that was taken in the expected communication, it was among my first cares, on getting home, to perform this duty. But I must admit, that my statements, though correct in the main, were rather more flattering than rigid truth would warrant. I could not endure the thought of reducing my companions in misfortune to despair. It was certainly admissible, on this occasion, to adopt the practice of painters; and, in preserving the lineaments and character of the countenance, to render the portrait as pleasing as possible. It had the effect, as I afterwards learned, to put them in good heart: for, although I had not said every thing which might have been wished, it was ascribed to a propensity I was supposed to have, of looking rather on the unfavourable side of things; and, as I, so little sanguine, had ventured to say so much, it was inferred, that I might, with truth, have said a great deal more.

The particulars of this pleasing trip to New York have entirely escaped my memory; as how we travelled, though I presume it was in a waggon for the convenience of carrying our baggage; whether it was in the forenoon or afternoon; whether we left the city on the day we reached it, &c. though, as to this, it is more than probable that it was not until the day after, as I well recollect breakfasting with my mother at the house of Mr Matthews, the mayor, and that his daughter, who

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entertained us, was so much to my taste, that, for the moment, I quite forgot the politics of her father, and might even have swerved, perhaps, from my loyalty to an allegiance, a thousand times sworn elsewhere. But it must not be imagined, from the circumstance of this breakfast, that I had apostatized from my principles. I have, fortunately, an excuse for accepting civilities from the offspring of an inveterate, and reputedly persecuting Tory, which, I am not without hope, will obtain my pardon from the most determined and least compounding republican of the present hour. A Miss Seymour, a cousin of Miss Matthews, had long been desirous of getting to Philadelphia to see her father, who lay sick there; and as it was known to Mr Matthews that my mother was soon to go thither, he had made himself acquainted with her, and recommended his niece to her protection in the meditated journey. This it was that procured me the honour of breakfasting with Miss Matthews, with whom her cousin stayed. But who, pray, was this sick Mr Seymour ? methinks I hear some high-toned fastidi ous seventy-six man exclaim. He was, you may rest assured, Sir, no "anti-revolutionary adherent of the enemy." He was no less a personage than Commodore Seymour, who at this time had the command of the Delaware gunboats.-Yes, commodore of the gunboats! Another peccadillo, if haply they may be so called, of a similar complexion, I must confess myself guilty of; though, from an exuberance of good fortune not always attending my imputed apostacies, I have, if I would avail myself of it, an equally good come-off here. To make a profert, then, of my offence, with its ablution along with it, I undertook to bring out, and actually did bring out with me, at the request of Mr Tench Coxe, now in the

T

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TRAVELLING COMPANIONS MR COXE.

full tide of republican orthodoxy, a letter to a lady in Philadelphia, to be delivered by my own hand to another lady in that city; which commission I faithfully executed. I cheerfully did that for him, which shortly before would have been the greatest favour to myself:

Haud ignarus mali, miseris succurrere disco.

Having alluded to this gentleman before, and in a manner that may not be pleasing to him, although I have said nothing which does not arise from facts, of which he will not deny the correctness, I here sincerely avow, that I am much more disposed to do him a good than evil office. Notwithstanding the contrasted vicissitudes of our fortune, and that the great eras of his political ascension have been those of my depression, I have not forgotten our boyish days, of which he, not long since, put me in mind; my early acquaintance in his family; the pleasant hours I have passed with himself and his brother, (nearer my own age,) as well at his father's house in town, as at his seat on the Schuylkill; and that his mother was always spoken of by mine as the nearest friend of her youth. Such recollections are far more grateful to the heart than the bitter collisions of interested manhood, or the “fury passions" of political dissension.

But not to linger in New York at a moment so precious, I have to state, that, after the signing of a new parole by Miles, West, and myself, at the office of Mr Loring, our little party, with the addition of Miss Seymour, embarked in a small sloop for Elizabethtown-point, then held by us. The officer commanding on this occasion was a son of Dr Achmuty, among the most distinguished in New York for his zeal in the royal cause. The beha viour of this gentleman was perfectly agreeable to us;