The piratical schooner was shortly after driven ashore near the Cape, and so much damaged that it was found necessary to destroy her. A new sharp-built schooner was in consequence provided by their faithful friend in Havana, called the Picciana, and despatched to their rendezvous. In this vessel they cruised successfully for more than four years. Among the vessels taken and destroyed with their crews, were the Belvidere, Dido, a Dutch brig, the British barque Larch, the other vessels enumerated in the list furnished to Justice Hopson, and many others whose names are not recollected. They had a very narrow escape, at one time, from the English man-of-war brig Coronation. In the early part of October, eighteen hundred and twenty one, they captured a ship from Charleston, took her to Cape Antonio, and were busily engaged in landing her cargo, when the United States brig Enterprise, Captain Kearney, hove in sight, and discovering their vessels at anchor, sent in her barges to attack them. A serious engagement followed; they defended themselves for some time behind a four gun battery, but in the end were defeated with considerable loss, and compelled to abandon their vessels and booty, and fly to the mountains for safety.
They left hot poisoned coffee on the cabin table, in hopes that some of the American officers would drink it. This statement is confirmed by Captain Kearney.
On Friday, April twenty-second, 1831, Gibbs and Wansley paid the penalty of their crimes. Both prisoners arrived at the gallows about twelve o’clock, accompanied by the marshal, his aids, and some twenty or thirty United States marines. Two clergymen attended them to the fatal spot, where every thing being in readiness, and the ropes adjusted about their necks, the throne of mercy was fervently addressed in their behalf. Wansley then prayed earnestly himself, and afterwards joined in singing a hymn.
The boy Dawes was not prosecuted, having been received as State’s evidence against Gibbs and Wansley.
PIRACIES ON THE BRIG MEXICAN.
On the 26th day of August, 1834, His Britannic Majesty’s brig of war Savage, from Portsmouth, England, arrived at Salem, Massachusetts, having on board sixteen of the crew of the piratical schooner Panda, which robbed the brig Mexican, of Salem, on the high seas, nearly two years since.
The robbery committed upon the Mexican was one of the most audacious and cruel acts of piracy ever recorded. She was bound to Rio Janeiro from Salem; and was boarded by a piratical schooner under Brazilian colors, on the 20th of September, 1832, lat. 33, long. 34, 30, and robbed of twenty thousand dollars in specie, the officers and crew stripped of every thing valuable, and fastened below, and the vessel set on fire with the horrid intention of destroying her with all on board. Captain Butman and his men succeeded in getting on deck through the scuttle which the pirates had left unsecured, and extinguished the flames, and returned home. Our government ordered a vessel to cruise in pursuit, but she gave up the chase as hopeless. The piratical vessel was afterwards taken on the coast of Africa, by His Britannic Majesty’s brig Curlew, and destroyed, under the following circumstances:
The Curlew arrived at St. Thomas, west coast of Africa, from India, with orders to cruise on that coast; and her commander having obtained information that a schooner, suspected to be a pirate, was lying in the river Nazareth, on the southern extremity of the coast, immediately sailed in pursuit, and found the schooner as described. The boats of the Curlew were manned to take possession of her, when the crew of the schooner fled to the shore, with the exception of four who were taken prisoners. They had kindled a fire to destroy the schooner, and she had been stripped of every thing valuable. The fire was extinguished without damage. She had no cargo on board, but her water casks were all filled, and she was apparently ready for another cruise. In her cabin were found a compass, marked Boston, the flags and ensigns of different nations, and custom-house papers made out at Havana. In taking her down the river, she accidentally blew up, and the Curlew’s purser and one man were killed. The four men taken were shipped at St. Thomas after the robbery of the Mexican. The Curlew’s crew pursued the fugitives in various directions, and succeeded in capturing an additional number of the pirates; and several natives’ towns were burned by the Curlew’s men. The pirates had an examination in England before the proper authorities, when five of them offered to turn king’s evidence, two of whom were admitted to testify. They were fully committed, and the British government ordered them to this country for trial, and the affidavits and documents relative to their capture and subsequent confinement and examination were delivered to the authorities in this country.
The pirates were tried before the United States court at Boston, November 11th, 1834, which continued for fourteen days, and resulted in the conviction of seven of their number, five of whom were executed agreeably to their sentence, the other two received a reprieve from the President of the United States.
Execution of the Spanish Pirates.—[Thursday, June 11, 1835.]—Pursuant to previous arrangement, Captain Don Pedro Gibert, and Juan Montenegro, Manuel Castillo, Angel Garcia, and Manuel Boyga, were yesterday morning summoned to prepare for their immediate execution, agreeably to their sentence, for having, while belonging to the schooner Panda, committed piracy, by robbing the brig Mexican, of Salem, of twenty thousand dollars, and afterwards attempting to destroy the crew and all evidence of their crime, by setting fire to the vessel. It is understood, that, when the prisoners became thoroughly convinced that there was no longer any grounds to hope for a further respite, they entered into a mutual agreement to commit suicide on Wednesday night. Angel Garcia made the first attempt, in the evening, by trying to open the veins in each arm, with a fragment of a bottle, but was discovered before he could effect his purpose, and a stricter guard was afterwards maintained upon all of them during the remainder of the night, and every thing removed with which they might be supposed to renew any attempt upon their own lives. Yesterday morning, however, about nine o’clock, while the avenues of the jail resounded with the heavy steps of a host of acting marshals, and the “busy note of preparation” struck solemnly upon the ears of the spectators within reach of its echo, Boyga succeeded in inflicting a deep gash on the left side of his neck with a piece of tin. The officer’s eye had been withdrawn from him scarcely a minute, before he was discovered lying on his pallet, with a peculiar trembling of his knees, which induced the officers to examine if any thing had suddenly happened to him. They found him covered with blood, and nearly insensible; medical aid was at hand, and the wound was immediately sewed up, but Boyga, who had fainted from loss of blood, never revived again. Two Catholic clergymen, the Rev. Mr. Varella, a Spanish gentleman, and pastor of the Spanish congregation at New-York, and the Rev. Mr. Curtin, of this city, were in close attendance upon the prisoners during the whole morning; and at a quarter past ten, under the escort of the Marshal and his deputies, accompanied them to the gallows, erected on an insulated angle of land in the rear of the jail.