Thomas Scott - 'Life of a Convict named "Isaacs" a Jew in Van Diemen's Land taken down from his own dictation in the year 1821 at Elizabeth River where he then was - Servant to Govr. Sorell as his Stock Keeper' - p61821

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I immedtly went & filed my own canteen with water placed it in the place 
where his was full of rum and took his away. I and two 3 more of us went & 
enjoyed ourselves - In 1/2 hour after the Captain called out where is my rum 
he finding the canteen full of water standing by his side - he called for me 
as I had cooked his supper, & asked if I had seen the rum I said no sir and 
then I changed the canteen again leaving his own empty & took mine away with 
the water - he then said he could find neither the Rum nor Canteen - I then 
turns round & said Sir here is your Canteen standing here but no rum in 
it - he said he wd give £5 to know the man who took it, I told him I wd try 
to find him out –

At about 2 in the mg the Americans began to fire again which caused all the 
pickets to be engaged & brought the whole body of the army down & there 
we semd firing till daylight - At 8 in the morning we sent a flag of truce to 
them for 12 hours, to by the dead - at 12 next night we were forced to retreat off the field altogether for 6 miles - In 2 days after we were forced to take 
refuge on bd the ships where we came from - being only 10 days ashore – 
We were landed upon an island called Dolphin Isd - the whole army 2 
Compys from each Regt were drafted to go & storm the Fort of Mobile 
about 12 ms from the Island - we went in flat bottomed boats & landed 
at 12 at night and at daylight we had everything ready for storming the fort 
We were commd by Major Monroe of the Artillery - we sent them 
word whether they intended to surrender or not - they sent that if they got 
until 12 noon they wd surrender - they were allowed to march out with the 
honors of war - 350 fine young men - We immdly took posision We began to 
look about the place & cd find nothing in it but sand bags, it being built 
of wood & mtd 26 guns -- we were in the fort 15 days and were very badly 
off for want of provisions -- they at one time gave us pork that we 
refused - they buried it in the sand it was so bad; in about 10 days after 
there being no provisions they dug the stinking pork up & served it out to 
us & said we must take it or want - In about 5 days after we were embarked 
on board the fleet & (in conseqce of peace being proclaimed) embarked