entreaties availed; that, before Amasa Delano’s coming on board, no
hint had been given touching the capture of the American ship: that to
prevent this project the deponent was powerless; * * *—that in some
things his memory is confused, he cannot distinctly recall every event;
* * *—that as soon as they had cast anchor at six of the clock in the
evening, as has before been stated, the American Captain took leave, to
return to his vessel; that upon a sudden impulse, which the deponent
believes to have come from God and his angels, he, after the farewell
had been said, followed the generous Captain Amasa Delano as far as the
gunwale, where he stayed, under pretense of taking leave, until Amasa
Delano should have been seated in his boat; that on shoving off, the
deponent sprang from the gunwale into the boat, and fell into it, he
knows not how, God guarding him; that—
[_Here, in the original, follows the account of what further happened
at the escape, and how the San Dominick was retaken, and of the passage
to the coast; including in the recital many expressions of “eternal
gratitude” to the “generous Captain Amasa Delano.” The deposition then
proceeds with recapitulatory remarks, and a partial renumeration of the
negroes, making record of their individual part in the past events,
with a view to furnishing, according to command of the court, the data
whereon to found the criminal sentences to be pronounced. From this
portion is the following_;]
—That he believes that all the negroes, though not in the first place
knowing to the design of revolt, when it was accomplished, approved it.
* * * That the negro, José, eighteen years old, and in the personal
service of Don Alexandro, was the one who communicated the information
to the negro Babo, about the state of things in the cabin, before the
revolt; that this is known, because, in the preceding midnight, he use
to come from his berth, which was under his master’s, in the cabin, to
the deck where the ringleader and his associates were, and had secret
conversations with the negro Babo, in which he was several times seen
by the mate; that, one night, the mate drove him away twice; * * that
this same negro José was the one who, without being commanded to do so
by the negro Babo, as Lecbe and Martinqui were, stabbed his master, Don
Alexandro, after he had been dragged half-lifeless to the deck; * *
that the mulatto steward, Francesco, was of the first band of
revolters, that he was, in all things, the creature and tool of the
negro Babo; that, to make his court, he, just before a repast in the
cabin, proposed, to the negro Babo, poisoning a dish for the generous
Captain Amasa Delano; this is known and believed, because the negroes
have said it; but that the negro Babo, having another design, forbade
Francesco; * * that the Ashantee Lecbe was one of the worst of them;
for that, on the day the ship was retaken, he assisted in the defense
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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