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site the Fort. They were unwearied in their efforts to alleviate our situation. Day after day, for weeks and months together, they manifested their good will in the most generous and substantial way. Food for those who were too poor to buy a decent meal, delicacies of all kinds for the sick, luxuries for others—all these were supplied by Mrs. Gelston, with a bountiful and untiring hand. To her tender sympathy and generosity, very many of the prisoners were indebted for comforts which were absolutely necessary to enable them to endure the privations to which they were exposed, and I know I but inadequately fulfil the wishes of every one of the former inmates of Fort La Fayette, in thus giving public expression to thanks which they had no opportunity to return to their good friends in person.
It is scarcely necessary to say, that our opinions as to the sort of resistance we should offer to our oppressors, underwent no change in consequence of our cruel imprisonment in Fort La Fayette. I found on reaching there, that my father and most of his companions had taken the same view of their duty under the circumstances, as we had done; and with every day's prolongation of our sufferings, we were the more and more convinced, that with a despotism so atrocious, we ought to make no compromise.
