The New Hampshire Gazette

Letters have been received by the wife of Samuel Pray, late mate of the ship Laconia, Capt. John Walker of this Port, and owned by Samuel and William Hale, Esqs. of Dover, dated at Bayonne, March the 16, 1810, wherein he states, he has suffered every thing but death in prisons and hospitals, and just recovered from a severe sickness, occasioned by unwholesome air, and diet, and close confinement with-which he is afflicted; that the Merchants who own the Privateer, which captured the Laconia, are determined not to release him, nor allow him any assistance, until the money is paid, or security given for its payment, which was promised on the release of the ship; that he has applied to the American Consul there for assistance, who has afforded nothing for his relief, and that he depends for his daily support on charity from American vessels, which have been carried into France, and should they be condemned he expects no better fate than to starve in prison, unless some better measures are taken than has been, to ransom him. The others of the crew that were taken out of the Laconia, are with him, and share the same fate.