6907. Mr. _Forster_.] Did the registrar inform you that the hollow place in the buoy was intended to conceal papers, or that papers were found concealed in it?--He told me that papers had been concealed in it. He did not say that they had been found there, but that it had been used for that purpose. 6908. Did he say that papers of that nature had been found in it at Sierra Leone?--No, I think not. 6909. Mr. _Milnes_.] Have you known many instances of the crews of men-of-war boats remaining on board during a search of that kind, and conducting themselves improperly, taking articles out of the cargo for their own use?--Extremely rarely. In this instance I am aware that some of my ship’s company misbehaved themselves; but they, well knowing the punishment that awaited them, managed to desert. 6910. Did you order the return of the goods which they had taken?--There were no goods taken; I believe there was a bottle or two of champagne drunk. 6911. Did you order the men for punishment?--The men escaped; the master did not bring them back with him. They both died shortly afterwards, or rather one died and the other one was very badly wounded in the Termagant’s boats, and never returned to the Wanderer. 6912. Is it not very difficult to prevent the men from committing those abuses?--I think not when the officers are strictly vigilant; but upon this occasion Mr. Elliott had been induced to go on shore by some representations of Mr. Canôt, who wished to prove to him that his intentions were honest and upright as regarded his abandonment of the slave trade; and that accounted for it. 6913. Were the men left by themselves?--No, they were not; there were the officers of the Termagant employed also, in whose charge they were left. 6914. Mr. _Forster_.] What means do you suppose the master of the Echo would have at the Havannah of knowing the character and pursuits of Mr. Canôt, to whom he was consigned upon the charter-party?--If he had made the smallest inquiry, he could not have been in doubt for a moment. 6915. Where should he have made inquiry?--In the Havannah; Mr. Canôt was as well known in the Havannah as Pedro Blanco himself. 6916. Is it the duty of a merchant captain in search of trade at a foreign port to make inquiries as to the character and pursuits of his consignee in another country?--Applying it to an English captain, I should say that he was just as much bound to ascertain that he was not engaged in the slave trade as an apothecary, when he sells arsenic, is bound, as far as in him lies, to ascertain that it is not intended to poison any body. 6917. Mr. _Milnes_.] Is it common for a ship to be condemned, and for the captain at the same time to be declared not guilty of aiding and abetting in the slave trade?--It occurs frequently, upon the very principle of the difficulty of proof of the individual being wilfully and knowingly engaged in the slave trade.