1791-12-30 (static/transcriptions/1791/12/244.jpg)

180)

then went out, & stayed five or six minutes. I remained there all the time. When Middleditch returned, he took his firelock & began rubbing it with a piece of rag. He went towards the door of the barrack which leads to the varanda. He had not been gone more than 2 or 3 minutes when I heard the report of a piece. I went instantly toward the barrack-door & saw the prisoner returning with his piece in his hand. I (thinking he had only fired a blank cartridge) told him “he would be confined for his foolish tricks.” I went into the varanda, & saw corporal Hopkins going towards the other barack with his hand on his right side, & I heard Hopkins say “He was a dead man” it was I, who, observing that