The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1779-11-09 00:00:00, page 4

The regular officers said that they were happy to
fee Col. Allen : I answered them, that I should ra
ther chose to have seen them at Gen. Montgomery's
camp. The gentlemen replied, that they gave full
credit to what I said, and as I walked to the town,
which was (as I should guess) more than two miles, a
British officer walked at my right hand, and one of
the French noblesse at my left ; the latter of which in
the aftion, had his eyebrow carried away by a glan
cing shot, but was nevertheless very merry and face
tious, and no abuse was offered me till I came to the
barrack-yard at Montreal, where I met General Pres
cott, who asked me my name, which! told him: He
then asked me, whether I was that Col. Allen who
took Ticonderoga. I told him I was the very man :
Then he Ihook his cane over my head, calling many
hard names, among which he frequently used the
word rebel, and puthimfelf in a great rage. I told
him he would do well not to cane me, for I was not
accuhomed to it, and shook my fift at him, telling
him that that was the beatle of mortality for him, if
he presumed to Itrike ; upon which Capt. M'Cloud
of the British, pulled him by thefkirt, and wbifper
ed to him (as he afterwards told me) to this import ;
that it was inconsistent with his honour to strike a pri
soner. He then ordered a sergeant's command with
fixed bayonets to come forward, and kill thirteen
Chadians, which were included in the treaty afoie
faid.
It cut me to the heart to fee the Canadians in so
hard a case, in consequence of their having been true
to me ;they were wringing their hands, faying their
prayer's, (as I concluded) and expected immediate
death. I therefore hepped between the execution
ers and the Canadians, opened my eloaths, and told
Gen. Prescott to thrust his bayonets into my bread,
for I was the cause of the Canadians taking up arms.
The guard in the mean time, rolling their eye-balls
from the General to me, as though impatiendy wait
ing his dread commands to fheaih their bayonets in my
heart ; 1 could however plainly discern, that he was
in a fufpence and quandary about the matter: This
gave me additional hopes of succeeding; for my de
sign was not to die, but to save the Canadians by a
fineffe. The General flood a minute, when he made
me the following reply: " i^^t execute you no <w ;
butjou feall grace a baiter at Tyburn, God damnye."
I remember i disdained his mentioning such a place : £
was notwithflanding a little inwardly pleated with the
expression, as it fignificantly conveyed to me the idea
of postponing the piefent appearance of death : be
sides his Sentence was by no means final, as to " gra
cing a halter, altho' I had anxiety about it after I
landed in England; as the reader will find in the
course of this history. Gen. Prescott then ordered
one of his officers to take me on board the Gafpee
schooner of war, and confine me, hands and feet, in
irons, which was done the fame afternoon I was
taken.
The action continued an hour and three quarters
by the watch, and I know not to this day how
many of my men were killed, though I am certain
there were but few'; if I remember right, seven
were wounded ; one of them William Stewart by
name, was wounded by a savage with a tomahawk,
after he was taken prisoner and disarmed, but was
refeued by Some of the generous enemy ; and so far
recovered his wounds, that he afterwards went with
the other prisoners to England.
Of the enemy were killed a Major Carden, who
had been wounded in eleven different battles, and an
eminent merchant Patterson of Montreal, and some
The officer I capitulated with, then direfled me
and my party to advance towards him, which was
done; I handed him my sword, and in half a mi
nute after a savage, part of wnofe head was shaved,
being almost naked and painted, with feathers inter
mixed with the hair of the other fide of his head,
came running to me with an incredible fwiftnefs ; he
feemd to advance with more than mortal speed ; (as
lie approached near me, his hebifh viiage was be
yond all defciiption; snakes eyes appear innocent in
CQmpirifon of his; his features extorted ; malice,
death, murder, and the wrath of devils and damned
spirits are the emblems of his countenance) and in less
than twelve feet of me, presented his firelock; at
the infant of his present, 1 twitched the officer to
whom 1 gave my sword, between me and the savage ;
but he flew round with great fury, trying to single
me out to ffioot me without killing the officer; but
by this time I was near as nimble as he, keeping the
officer in such a position that his danger was my de®
fence; but in less than half a minute, I was attack
ed by just such another imp of hell : Then I made
the offier fly round with incredible velocity, for a
few seconds of time, when I perceived a Canadian
(who had 101 l one eye, as appeared afterwards) taking
my part against the savages; and in an instant an
Irishman came to my assistance with a fixed bayonet,
and drove away the fiends, (wearing by Jafus he
would kill them. This tragic feene composed my
mind. The Leaping from so awful a death, made
even imprisonment happy ; the more so as my con
querors on the field treated me with great civility
and politnefs.
PHILADELEHI^• Printed and Sold by JOHN DUNL AP, in Market~ftrects
others, but I never knew their whole loss, as their
accounts were different. I am apprehensive that it
is rare, that so much ammunition was expended, and
so little execution done by it ; though such of my
party as flood their ground, behaved with great for
titude, much exceeding that of the enemy, but were
not the belt of marksmen, and I am apprehensive,
were all killed or taken ; the wounded were put into
the hospital at Montreal, and those that were not,
were put on board different vessels in the river, and
shackled together by pairs, viz. two men faftenedto
gether by one hand-cuff, being cl@fely fixed to one
wrist of each of them, and treated with the greatest
severity, nay as criminals.
I come now to the description of the irons, which
were put upon me: The hand -cuff was of a com.
mon size and form, but my leg-irons (I Should ima
gine) would weigh thirty pounds : the bar was eight
feet long, and very substantial ; the fhacklus which
encompassed my ancles, were very tight. I was
told by the officer who put them on, that it was the
king's plate, and I heard other of their officers fay,
that it would weigh forty weight. The irons were
so elofe upon my ancles, that 1 could not lie down in
any other manner than on my back. I was put into
the lowed and moll wretched part of the vessel, where
I got the favour of a chess to fit On ; the fame ans
wered for my bed at night, and having procured
some little blocks of the guard (who day and night
with fixed bayonets, watched over me) to lay under
each end of the large bar of my leg-irons, to pre
serve my ancles from galling, while 1 set on the chest,
or lay back on the lame, though molt of the time
night and day, 1 let on it ; but at length having a
desire to lie down on my fide, which the closeness
of the irons forbid, desired the Captain to loosen
them for that purpose, but was denied the favour :
The Captain's name was Royal, who did not seem
to be an ill natured man ; but oftentimes said, that
his express orders were to treat me with such severity,
which was disagreeable to his own feelings; nor did'
he ever insult me, though many others, who came on
board, did. One of the officers, by the name of
Bradley, was very generous to me ; he would often
fend me visuals from his own table; nor did a day
fail, but that he sent me a good drink of grog.
The reader is now invited back to the time I was
put into irons, I requeued the privilege to write to
Gen. Prescott, which was granted. I reminded him
of the kind and generous manner of my treatment to
the prisoners I took at Ticonderoga; the injustice
and ungentleman-like usage, which 1 had met with
from him, and demanded gentleman like usage, but
received no answer from him. 1 soon after wrote to
Gen. Carlton, which met the fame success. In the
mean while many of those who were permitted to fee
me, were very insulting.
I was confined in the manner I have related, on
board the Gafpee schooner, about fix weeks ; during
which time I was obliged to throw out plenty of ex
travagant language which answered certain purposes,
(at that time) better than to grace a history.
To give an instance upon being inlulted, in a fit
of anger I twilled off a nail with my teeth, which I
took to be a ten-penny nail; it went through the
mortise of the bar of my hand-cuff, and at the fame
time 1 swaggered over those who abused me ; particu
larly a Doctor Dace, who told me that 1 was outlaw
ed by New-York, and deserved death for several
years palt ; was at last fully ripened for the halter
and in a fair way to obtain it: When! challenged
him, he excused himfclf in consequence, as he said,
of my being a criminal ; but I flung such a flood of
language at him, that it Shocked him and the Ipe&a
tors, for my anger was very great. I heard one lay
damn him, can he eat iron? After that a small pad
lock was fixed to the hand-cuff, instead of the nail;
and as they were mean-spirited in their treatment to
me, so it appeared to rae, that they were equally
timorous and cowardly.
I was alter sent with the prisoners taken with me to
an armed vessel in the river, which lay off againh
Quebec, under the command of Capt. M'Cloud of
the British, who treated me in a very generous and
obliging manner, and according to my rank; in about
twenty-four hours 1 bid him farewel with regret; but
my good fortune still continued : The name of the
Capt of the vessel I was put on board, was Little
john; who, with his officers, behaved in a polite,
generous, and friendly manner. I lived with them
in the cabin, and fared on the bell ; my irons being
taken off, contrary to the order he had received from
the commanding officer; but Capt. Little John (wore,
that a brave man should not be used as a rascal, on
board his Ihip.
Thus I found mfelf in possession of happiness once
more, and the evils 1 had lately fuffered, gave me an
uncommon relish for it.
Capt. Little John used to go to Quebec almost e^
very day, in order to pay his refpe&s to certain gen
tlemen and ladies ; being there on a certain day, be
happened to meet with some disagreeable treatment
(as he imagined) from a lieutenant of a man of war,
and one word brought on another till the lieutenant
challenged him to a duel on the plains of Abraham,
Capt. Little John was a gentleman, who entertained
a high sense of honour, and could do no less than ac
cept the challenge.
At nine o'clock the next morning they were to fight.
The Captain returned in the evening, and acquaint
ed his lieutenant and me with the affair: His Lieu
tenant was a high blooded Scotchman as well as him
felf, who replied to bis Captain, that he should not
want for a second. With this I interrupted him, and
gave the Captain to underhand, that fiqce an oppor
tunity had presented, 1 would be glad lo teftify my
gratitude to him, by acting the part of a faithful se
cond, on which he gave me his hand, and said that he
wanted no better man. Says he, lam a king's of
ficer, and you a prisoner under my care; you must
therefore go with me to the place appointed, in dis
guise, and added further: '' You mutt engage to
" me, upon the honour of a gentleman, that whe
" ther I die or l.ve, or whatever happens, (pro
" vided you live) that you will return to my Lieu
" tenant on board this hup." All this I solemnly
engaged him. The combatants were to difeharge
each a pocket pistol, and then to fall on with their
iron-hilted muckle-whangers; and one of that fort
was allotted for me; but some British officers, who
interposed early in the morning, fettled the contro
verfey without fighting.
Now having enjoyed eight or nine days happiness,
from the polite and generous treatment of Captain
Little John and his officers, I was obliged to bid
them farewel, parting with them in as friendly a
manner, as we had lived together, which, to the
bellof m/memory, was the 11th of November :
When a detachment of Gen. Arnold's little army
appeared on point Levy, opposite Quebec, (who
had performed an extraordinary march through a
wilderness country, with design to have furprized
the capital of Canada) I was then taken on board a
vessel called the Adamant, together with the prison
ers taken with me, and put under the power of an
English merchant from London, whose name was
Brook Watson ; a man of a malicious and cruel dis
position, and-who was probably excited in the ex
ercise of his malevolence, by a junto of tories, who
failed with him to England; among whom were
Col. Guy Johnson, Col. Clofs, and their attendants
and associates, to the number of about thirty.
All the fhip's crew (Col. Clofs, in his personal
behaviour, excepted) behaved towards the prisoners
with that Ipirit of bitterness, which is the peculiar
chaiafferihic of tories, when they have the friends
of America in their power, measuring their loyalty
to the English king by the barbarity, fraud, and de
ceit which they exercise towards the whigs.
A small place in the vessel, enclosed with whites
oak plank, was aligned for the pri oners, and for
me among the rest. I Ihould imagine that it was not
more than twenty feet one way, and twenty-two the
other : Into this place we were all, to the numberof
thirty four, thrust and hand cuffed, (two prisoners
more being added to our number) and were provid
ed with two excrement tubs; in this circumference
we were obliged to eat and perform the office of eva
cuation, during he voyage to England ; and were in
sulted by every black-guard sailor and tory on board,
in the cruellest manner ; but what is the most fur
prizing is, that not one of us died in the passage.
When 1 was firft ordered to go into the filthy en
closure, through a small fort of door, I positively
refufed, and endeavoured to reason the before named
Brook Watson out of a conduct so derogatory to e
very sentiment of honour and humanity, but all to
no purpose, my men being forced into the den al
ready ; and the rascal who had the charge of the
prisoners, commanded me to go immediately in a
mong the rest : He further added that the place was
good enough for a rebel ; that it was impertinent for
a capital offender to talk of honour or humanity ;
that any thing short of a halter, was too good for
me ; and that, that would be my portion soon after
I landed in England ; for which purpose only I was
sent thither.
Just imported and to be fold by
WILLIAM HEDERICKS,
Living on the cast fide of Second-street, near Vine
ftreet, and next door to Mr. Schloffer's,
BEST Bohea Tea in half and quarter chests,
Congo Tea in cannifteis,
Leaf Sugar,
B^ft London Madeira Wine by the quarter cefk,
China Plates,
Ditto Coffee Cups and Saucers,
Ladies Dressing Glasses,
Scaleton Wires,
Cotton Romals,
Fine India Pocket Handkerchiefs,
White Nankeens,
Corded Dimothy,
Bed Ticks,
Gauze Handkerchiefs,
With sundry other Dry Goods too tedious to men
tion.
(To be continued.)