They felt secure because Pritchard was there but had shifted his quarters that very night. After they got at Haerlem Peacock escaped by knocking down the sentry and going upon an island and the next night he got across to the main [X]. Peacock proposed to Smith that they should escape together who would not consent. Peacock at length said: "Smith, I am going now." He then made a necessary excuse and the sentinel, accompanied him. He then pretended he had lost something, and the sentinel stooped down to help to look for it, when Peacock, watching his oppor- -tunity knocked the sentinel down and ran. [The sentinel was an
[X] body.?
- Hufeland Index Page 820 -
Irishman of the lower grade. He got up and came into the guard house. "Be Jasus!" said he, "and he's gone!] Carpenter, being a lieutenant, was paroled. Smith was confined at first in the sugar house, and after- -wards went at large. He was a tailor and worked at his trade making clothes for the officers for which he was paid. Once he was kept on Staten Island. This was the hard winter. Lieutenant Rawdon's regiment was then on Staten Island and all Irish. While Smith was there the Americans attacked the Island draw- -ing cannon over on the ice. Peacock told Smith, "If the British take me they'll hang me." He was a deserter from the British, and I believe he was an American. This informa- -tion I got from John Smith himself.