From Andrew Douglass
ALS: American Philosophical Society
<Senlis, October 8, 1778: I am a prisoner in the city jail. Born
in the north of Ireland, I went with my parents at a young age
to live in Pequea, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where I
spent most of my life among the Douglass family. Last April I
unfortunately accepted employment on a brig sailing from
Boston to Cadiz. I was tricked “By A Spaniard through papish
Treachery” into the house of the English consul Don Joshua
Hardy. He took all my money, encouraged the British sailors
lodging there to plunder my effects and charged me for food
and drink that I never had. He sent me by boat to Portugal
with a pass for Britain. I was ill-used in England, and found
a cousin in Ireland who gave me money to get to Holland
where I expected to find an American ship. I got a pass to
France, intending to meet a ship, but after five days was committed
to prison. I am certain you must have seen some of my
relatives in Pennsylvania: Andrew Douglass, the justice, or his
son George of Potsgrove Square, or John Douglass, assemblyman.
“I have Responsable Writing from Pensylvenia
and Recomindations.” I have wealthy cousins. If you would
send me aboard an American privateer, my friends would redeem
my passage. The French prisoners abuse me and I am at
the jaws of death. You could grant me a pass to Holland where
I know the language. Merchants in Philadelphia would not let
me long lie here. I have seen no one who could read my papers.>
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