"The first vessels used were transports in which cattle and other
stores had been brought over by the British in 1776. These lay in
Gravesend Bay and there many of the prisoners taken in battle near
Brooklyn in August, 1776, were confined, until the British took
possession of New York, when they were moved to that city. In 1778 the
hulks of ships were moored in the Wallabout, a sheltered bay on the
Long Island shore, where the Navy Yard now is."

The sufferings of the prisoners can be better understood by giving
individual instances, and wherever this is possible it shall be
done. We will commence by an abstract of


THE CASE OF JONATHAN GILLETT OF WEST HARFORD

This man with seven others was captured on Long Island on the 27th of
August, 1776, before they could take to their boats. He was at first
confined in a prison ship, but a Masonic brother named John Archer
procured him the liberty of the city on parole. His rank, we believe,
was that of a lieutenant. He was a prisoner two years, then was
allowed to go home to die. He exhibited every symptom of poison as
well as starvation.

When he was dying he said to his son, Jonathan Gillett, Junior,
"Should you enlist and be taken prisoner as I was, inquire for
Mr. John Archer, a man with whom I boarded. He will assist you."

In course of time his son enlisted, was taken prisoner, and confined
in the Old Sugar House on Liberty Street. Here he was nearly starved
to death. The prisoners ate mice, rats, and insects. He one day found