immediate redress. That for the purpose of their deliverance the
British officer attended. That the British General should be also well
informed of the Facts. On this, after some little hesitation from a
dread of their keeper, the Provost Martial, one of them began and
informed us that * * * some had been confined in the Dungeon for a
night to await the leisure of the General to examine them and forgot
for months; for being Committee men, &c, &c. That they had received
the most cruel Treatment from the Provost Martial, being locked up in
the Dungeon on the most trifling pretences, such as asking for more
water to drink on a hot day than usual--for sitting up a little longer
in the Evening than orders allowed--for writing a letter to the
General making their Complaints of ill-usage and throwing (it) out of
the Windows. That some of them were kept ten, twelve, and fourteen
weeks in the Dungeon on these trifling Pretenses. A Captain Vandyke
had been confined eighteen months for being concerned in setting fire
to the City, When, on my calling for the Provost Books, it appeared
that he had been made Prisoner and closely confined in the Provost
four days before the fire happened. A Major Paine had been confined
eleven months for killing a Captain Campbell in the Engagement when he
was taken Prisoner, when on examination it appeared that the Captain
had been killed in another part of the Action. The charge was that
Major Paine when taken had no commission, though acknowledged by us as
a Major.

"Most of the cases examined into turned out wholly false or too
trifling to be regarded. It also appeared by the Declaration of some
of the Gentlemen that their water would be sometimes, as the Caprice
of the Provost Martial led him, brought up to them in the tubs they
used in their Rooms, and when the weather was so hot that they must
drink or perish. On hearing a number of these instances of Cruelty, I