David S. Baldwin deposed—I live at Islip; I know the prisoner; I saw him on board the sloop on the 13th March; he was helping to get out oysters; Captain Burr was not on board; the prisoner told me that he was going to Virginia with Captain Burr for a load of oysters; he told me that night, that if I wanted to go up town he would stay on board and mind the vessel; I was cook; this valise I saw before; the prisoner handed it to me when he came on board on the 13th; the prisoner did not stay on board that night (examines the contents of the valise); I saw this knife before with the prisoner, on board; he took it out to cut a piece of string; I know it by this piece of the handle being rough, and the rivet being bright; at that time the prisoner wore his whiskers as he does now; I saw the prisoner on Wednesday morning on board the sloop at breakfast; I did not see him again until to-day.
Cross-examined.—I had been cook with Captain Burr; I left the sloop on Wednesday; Smith Watts took my place as cook; the prisoner first came on board between six and seven o’clock on Tuesday morning; I never saw him before; I don’t know how he came to tell me he was going to Virginia with Captain Burr; the captain told Johnson if he wanted to go up town that night he could go; Johnson said to me if I wanted to go he would stay on board.
James H. Bacon deposed—I am in the oyster business; I know the prisoner at the bar; I saw him on board the E. A. Johnson on the 13th March; I was there two days getting out oysters; Johnson was there shovelling out oysters; he wore his whiskers same as he does now; he had a check shirt, short coat, and comforter about his neck; I next saw him after his arrest, when I was called on to identify him.
Cross-examined.—I reside at Port Richmond; I was examined before the Commissioner; he was working on board the boat helping me to fill out the oysters; I think he had a dark pair of pantaloons and a Kossuth hat; I think in the morning he had on a monkey coat, and when he went to work he pulled on a blue shirt; I had no conversation with him more than to tell him to fill the baskets a little fuller.
Reuben Keymer deposed—I am in the oyster and fish business; I knew of the sloop E. A. Johnson being at Gravesend in March last; I don’t recollect the date; she came there on Sunday and left on Tuesday night; the next day (Wednesday) I saw the sloop towed up by a steamer; I saw the prisoner the day the sloop sailed from Gravesend; he came ashore after one of the Wattses; it was just at sunset; he came ashore in the yawl boat; the sloop was about one hundred yards off; the prisoner was sculling the yawl; I was afraid he would run foul of me; the prisoner and Watts returned to the sloop in the yawl boat; the prisoner was dressed in a coat of the description of the one produced; I watched the sloop going out; she went southwest to clear Coney Island, and then she took a southerly course (a chart of the bay produced—the witness describes to the jury where the sloop lay, and her course); I saw her three miles out to the east of Sandy Hook; the wind was west northwest; the sloop was going about eight knots an hour; when she got out, she set her flying jib; at the rate she was going she would pass Sandy Hook in about an hour; when I saw Johnson come ashore from the sloop, I think I recognized the boy that went back with him as one I had seen on the sloop the day before.
Cross-examined.—I was not well acquainted with any of them except Capt. Burr. I am certain of the prisoner being the man who sculled the yawl; I told the man in my boat not to run into him; I turned to the prisoner and said to him, “Now I suppose you are going to give it to her;” I was in a row boat; we were rowing our boat; I next saw the prisoner in Court before the Commissioner; I think I stated before the Commissioner that the prisoner had a monkey jacket on when I saw him in the boat; I stood about five minutes on the shore and then went to my house; I saw from the house about three miles out; if she kept the southerly course I suppose she would have fetched up about the Highlands, below Sandy Hook; she made a straight wake. (Witness again described the course of the sloop on the chart.)
Charles Baker deposed—I live at Gravesend; I knew Capt. Burr; I know the sloop E. A. Johnson; I saw her in March last at Gravesend; I saw Capt. Burr come ashore at Gravesend bay; knew Smith and Oliver Watts by sight; I saw the prisoner Johnson come ashore and take away one of the hands; I saw the sloop go away in about eight or ten minutes after the prisoner and the young man got on board; Capt. Burr was on board; there were four on board altogether.
Cross-examined.—The young man had a small bundle under his arm; never saw the prisoner before that; had no conversation with him; he was a stranger and I took a little more notice of him than if I knew him; he had a kind of monkey coat on; he had whiskers; he had none on his upper lip then that I could see; I was not nearer to him than the length of this room; I did not see which of the Watts boys went along with him.
John S. Whitworth deposed—I live in Gravesend; I saw the prisoner at Gravesend beach on the 19th or 20th of March last; he came ashore in a yawl boat; I saw him raise the bow of the boat on the beach; I was painting a vessel at the time; the boat was not more than a few minutes there when I saw her go back again toward the E. A. Johnson, which was about 100 or 120 yards off; I saw the prisoner on the day following; he came ashore in the yawl boat; I did not see him go back to the sloop that day; I don’t think he had any coat on on Monday; I think he had a monkey coat on on Tuesday.
Cross-examined by Mr. Sayles.—The next yawl boat was coming ashore when I left off work on Tuesday; I went away before she came to the beach; the prisoner’s side was to me when he pulled the boat on the beach on Monday.