5479. Mr. _Forster_.] Are you aware that the house of Zulueta & Company is one of the first Spanish houses in this country, and perhaps in Spain?--I am aware that it is a very large house. 5480. You are consequently aware that it has commercial correspondence and transactions with most of the principal houses at Havannah and in the south of Spain?--I think it is very likely; I am not aware of it; but I know it to be a large mercantile house. 5481. That being the case, do you not think that bills might be drawn by Pedro Blanco on Messrs. Zulueta & Company without any direct correspondence between that house and Pedro Blanco himself, but accepted by order and on account of houses residing in Spain or in the Havannah?--It is quite impossible that Mr. Zulueta should have been ignorant of the only trade in which Pedro Blanco was engaged. 5482. But might not those bills be drawn without Messrs. Zulueta & Company having any direct account with Mr. Pedro Blanco?--Yes, it is possible. 5483. Then supposing a slave vessel were purchased at Sierra Leone and sent to this market for public sale, do you see any thing extraordinary in the party to whom the sale of that vessel is intrusted in London selling her to one of the first Spanish houses in this country?--If it was an Englishman who sold the vessel to the party to whom Mr. Zulueta sold her, I should think it very extraordinary indeed, because it was perfectly well known that Pedro Martinez, to whom she was sold, was a slave dealer. 5484. Then you think a London merchant who is intrusted with the sale of a vessel on the part of his correspondent in Africa, and whose duty it is to take that vessel to the best market, would be justified in refusing an offer for the vessel from Messrs. Zulueta & Company?--I think it would be his duty to do so, because the chances would be ten to one that she very soon afterwards would be employed in the slave trade. 5485. Then what justification, in your opinion, would that agent in London be able to make to his correspondent for refusing to sell the vessel to the highest bidder?--If the correspondent was an honest man, I think he would be perfectly well satisfied with the representation of his agent that the acceptance of such an offer would necessarily involve the introduction of the vessel immediately afterwards into the slave trade. 5486. But supposing the agent to act in that manner, would that prevent Messrs. Zulueta & Company buying the same vessel in a circuitous manner in this market?--No, it might not. 5487. _Chairman._] Have you any thing further to say with regard to the connexion of Zulueta with the slave trade?--I would refer to his connexion with the Gollupchik, which was lately captured. In that case, it appeared that the vessel went out direct to the Gallinas from London. 5488. But you would not object to a British vessel trading lawfully with a slave trade factory?--No.