thoir suffer irii-^s and died. Dioffendorffi^r's .sufforin^^.s 

 were mitigated by the kindness of a Mr. jMiller, Jfessiau 

 commissary in tfje English service; having heen at 

 Lancaster, he had taken lodging at the public house of 

 Michael Dieffendf^rrfer, and wfjo, in a cdjiversation, told 

 Miller he had a :^on, a suffering prisoner, at Nev/ York, 

 and if he had an opportunity, would send him some 

 monr;y. Miller informed him he would shortly retiirn to 

 New York, and would be pleased to have it in liis power 

 to befriend him or his sufff^ring son; the opportunity was 

 improved, and four half-johannes, placed in the hands of 

 the commissary, who, with the chiaracteristic fidelity of 

 an honest Hessian, on his arrival, delivered the gold to 

 David.* He received, he said, with gratitude, and in 

 tears, the money, a kind father liad sent him. ilis condi- 

 tion was greatly amelir)rated. 



Notwithstanding the economy he used, his money, a:, 

 his imprisonment was protracted, was reduced to a few 

 cents; and while, as a prisoner of ?iope, he was meditat- 

 ing how his future sufferings should he mitigated, Capt. 

 Michael Smyser,t of York county, on his return from 

 Long Island, by way of New York, to his hom^-, handed 

 him an P^nglish giainea. After five months' suffering, 

 in the latter part of October, he went to Long Island 

 where he was, on parole, laboring for ?iis board and 

 clothing for some time; he returned to New York ; was 



•This statement we have from the old father himself; while 

 relating to us the incidents of his eventful life, at this particu- 

 lar, we saw steal down his cheeks, in hurried succession, tears 

 from his sightless organs ; he added, "I had a kind father." 



f Captain Michael Smyser was one of the virtuous band of 

 the gloomy period of 76. At the unfortunate capture of Fort 

 WaHhiriglon, he was made prisoner, and could appreciate the 

 sufferings of his fellow-citizens. 



18* 



