7264. Did you make no inquiry as to the fate of those carpenters?--No, I did not, because I left Sierra Leone, I think, the day after the vessel was condemned, for Portendique, and I had no time to make inquiry on either of the two days that I was at Sierra Leone. I knew that the vessel was before the Vice-Admiralty Court who would decide upon the merits of the case. 7265. Was there a French gentleman also on board the vessel when you seized her?--There was a French person on board, whom I believed to be the supercargo, and, I rather think, was the brother of Mr. Marbeau. 7266. Did you find that he was the supercargo of the vessel?--He told me that he was the supercargo; and I believe that he was the brother of Mr. Marbeau, the owner. 7267. Was he not a passenger from Senegal to the Gambia?--It is impossible for me to say what he was. 7268. Had he been on shore at the Gambia previously to your seizing the vessel?--It is impossible for me to say. 7269. Did you carry a French gentleman from the Gambia to Sierra Leone, without making inquiry into his character and pursuits, and his connexion with that vessel?--All persons who were found on board the vessel, as I have before stated, with the exception of three black children, I sent to Sierra Leone, because I could not tell, of course, what he was doing in the vessel; he might be a French gentleman, or he might be there for the purpose of purchasing slaves; or he might be, for what I could tell, the very person who had got on board the three children, who, I have before stated, I thought were placed in a very suspicious position. My duty was to send everybody found in the vessel I had captured, on the suspicion of slave dealing, before the court appointed to adjudicate upon such cases. 7270. How did you consider him to be connected with those three children?--What I stated was, that he might be; I have not said that he was; I stated that I knew nothing about him, but finding him in the slave vessel, I sent him with the slave vessel before the court. 7271. You sent the three children on shore?--Yes; everybody else I sent before the court; and if any person in the world had been on board the vessel I should have sent him in the same way; if an English merchant had been on board, that merchant would have gone with the vessel likewise before the court; the court is to decide upon the legality or illegality of the conduct of persons found under such circumstances. 7272. _Chairman._] You conceive that that vessel, by her equipment was clearly seizable, as engaged in the slave trade?--Yes, or else I should not have seized her; I took upon myself a great responsibility in seizing her. 7273. And under those circumstances you felt yourself called upon to send every person found on board the vessel for adjudication before the proper court?--Yes; if I had not done so, I should have conceived that I laid myself open to the charge of not doing my duty.