Extract of a Letter from Bristol, January 3, 1776

v4:543

The rifleman, who was brought a prisoner here from Quebeck, being taken in crossing the river St˙ Lawrence, is confined in Bridewell. He is a Virginian, about six feet high, stout, and well proportioned. His behaviour is manly, but very modest. He was drafted from his corps, at Cambridge, to go on Arnold' s expedition. His dress is a loose dress of coarse woollen, adapted to that cold climate, for which his regimentals were exchanged, or rather, taken from him, at Quebeck.

He says the pay of his corps was forty shillings currency per month, regularly paid (about twenty-five shillings sterling) in dollars, out of which they found their clothes. He was a fortnight in the camp, where, he says, every thing was in good order, provisions plenty, and exact discipline. He can strike a mark, with the greatest certainty, at two hundred yards distance. He has the heavy, Provincial pronunciation, but otherwise speaks good English. The account he gives, is, that the troops, in general, are such kind of rnen as himself, tall, and well proportioned. He was very clear and explicit in his answers, which he delivered with great modesty, but entirely free from any fear for the consequences of his being brought to England.

He was discharged on Saturday, as there were no grounds for his commitment.