Mr. Kelly. I merely meant to correct what I supposed to be an inadvertent mistake.
Mr. Serjeant Bompas. My learned friend is quite right to interfere, if he thinks I am under a mistake. My object is to call your attention to what he said at the time; every word will be read to you, and you will form your own opinion upon it. “Is he known at the Havannah as a dealer in slaves?—I do not know, but I believe so; I do not know why it should not be known at the Havannah, if it is known in other parts.” My learned friend will make his own observation upon that, I shall read that as evidence before you; you will consider whether it is sufficient proof that he knew that Martinez & Co. dealt in slaves.
Gentlemen, I was reading to you the charter-party of the ship: it proceeds in these words—“That the said ship being tight, staunch, and strong, and every way fitted for the voyage, shall, with all convenient speed, load from the factors of Messrs. Pedro Martinez & Co., a cargo of legal goods, which the said merchants bind themselves to ship, not exceeding what she can reasonably stow and carry over and above her tackle, apparel, provisions, and furniture; and being so loaded, shall therewith proceed to Gallinas, on the coast of Africa, or so near thereunto as she may safely get, and deliver the same; after which she may be sent on any legal voyages between the West Indies, England, Africa, or the United States, according to the directions of the charterers’ agents (restraint of princes and rulers, the act of God, the Queen’s enemies, fire, and all and every other dangers and accidents of the seas, rivers, and navigation of whatever nature and kind soever, during the said voyage, always excepted). The freight to be paid on unloading and right delivery of the cargo, at the rate of 100l. sterling per calendar month that the ship may be so employed, commencing with this present month, all port charges and pilotages being paid by the charterers, and days on demurrage over and above the said laying days at pounds per day. Penalty for non-performance of this agreement 500l. The necessary cash for ship’s disbursements to be furnished to the captain free of commission. The charterers to be at liberty of closing this engagement at the end of any voyage performed under it on settling the freight due to the vessel. The captain being indebted to the charterers in certain sums as per acknowledgment elsewhere, the freights earned by the vessel to be held as general lien for such sum, and in any settlement for such freight, the said advances to be deducted from the vessel’s earnings.—Thomas Jennings.”
Then, here is the addition to the charter-party:—“I, Thomas Jennings, captain and owner of the ship ‘Augusta,’ of this port, hereby I declare, I have received from Messrs. Pedro Martinez & Co., of Havannah, through Messrs. Zulueta &, Co., of this city, 1,100l. sterling for the disbursements of the said ship, her fitting out and provisions, which I engage myself to repay with the earnings of the same, according to the charter-party entered this day with the said gentlemen, and under the following conditions:—1st. All the earnings of the ship will be accounted for and applied to the said Pedro Martinez & Co., they furnishing the necessary cash for all expenses, repairs, provisions, and crew’s wages, including 15l. per month for my salary as captain. 2nd. At any time, when the said gentlemen may think proper to close the charter-party, I will make out the account, and deliver to them, or to their representatives, a proper bill of sale for the said ship and all her appurtenances, to cover the balance due to them in the said account. 3rd. That I am in no other way responsible for the settlement of the above-mentioned debt, but with the said ship and her earnings; and that the said Messrs. Pedro Martinez & Co. will take on themselves the insurance and risk on the vessel.—Thomas Jennings.”
Now, Gentlemen, it will be most material for you to consider the effect of this charter-party, and what is called the loan. It is nominally chartered by Thomas Jennings, as the captain of the vessel, to Pedro Martinez & Co. through Zulueta & Co.; and Zulueta & Co. are the persons employing that vessel: there can be no doubt of that. Now what is the effect of these two documents? Is it that Jennings is the real party who engages to pay? No such thing. “I am in no other way responsible for the settlement of the above-mentioned debt, but with the said ship and her earnings; and that the said Messrs. Pedro Martinez & Co. will take on themselves the insurance and risk on the vessel.” So that he is not in the slightest degree indebted to them: he is not bound to pay, but it is only that he is indebted to them on the vessel. Can he say I will pay you the money and keep the vessel? No; whenever Messrs. Martinez & Co. choose, the vessel is to be made over to them. Can he make over the vessel and apply the money to his own use? No; he has only 15l. a month, and can be required to make over the vessel whenever they please. But that would be the ordinary transaction in peace time; the money would be advanced to him; the vessel would be the security for it at any one moment at which Martinez & Co., or their representatives—that is, Messrs. Zulueta & Co.—might call upon Jennings to deliver up the vessel to them. He is always accountable to them for the earnings of the vessel, and he is in no respect personally responsible. The question you will have to decide is this: Is this a method by which it shall appear that Thomas Jennings is the owner of the vessel, so that no other person shall have a right to say that he is the owner? He is to appear to be so; but the other parties have a right to say, “Give the vessel up to us;” he borrowing, but having nothing but the vessel; he being to receive his wages of 15l. a month as captain. It will be undoubtedly a very material consideration whether this is matter of concealment; a mode in which Jennings is to be made the apparent and not the real owner, or whether he is the real bonâ fide, owner. It is clear he would be in no respect responsible under this arrangement entered into at Liverpool. You will have, in connexion with the evidence, to examine the statement made by Mr. Zulueta. The letters, which will be read, undoubtedly treat Zulueta & Co. as purchasers on behalf of Martinez & Co.; and the charter-party is made by them as agents for Martinez & Co., by which the factors are to ship these goods for Africa as agents for Martinez & Co.
Gentlemen, the vessel went to Liverpool; she was there loaded in the ordinary course, according to the account given by Mr. Zulueta in his evidence. He is asked, “You did not imagine that in being the instrument of sending lawful goods to any part of Africa, you were doing any thing which required concealment?—Nothing at all of the kind; and the proof of that is, that in the bills of entry in Liverpool any body could see our names as consignees of the vessel, and see entries made in our names of every thing.” No doubt, gentlemen, according to that charter-party, if it was a bonâ fide charter-party, shippers might ship goods on board the vessel in their name; every thing would be in their name; and the papers on board that vessel might be in the name of Zulueta, and not in the name of Captain Jennings: but if Captain Jennings was the owner of the vessel, and Messrs. Zulueta the factors of Martinez, he would have only to receive the goods shipped on board that vessel by Messrs. Zulueta. It is clear a cargo was put on board that vessel, and if she was going on a legal voyage, there is no reason why every thing should not be in the name of Messrs. Zulueta, and why the ship’s papers should not be in their names as the owners of this vessel. But all the ship’s papers were made out in the name of Thomas Jennings; the bill of lading is made out as shipped by Thomas Jennings; and none of the shipments are made by these factors, who, according to the charter-party, were to ship the whole. No doubt it will be for you to consider how far that is a wilful act of concealment or not.
Gentlemen, this vessel was going to the Gallinas. The Gallinas is a port in Africa, about 200 miles from Sierra Leone. It is necessary you should know the nature of that port. It will be impossible but that persons engaged in trade should know the nature of that port. It is a settlement, or rather a native State, that consisted of a harbour and a river, and it is called the Gallinas. The sole trade carried on there is the slave trade. It consisted of a few, I think there were five, of what are called barracoons. It is hardly necessary I should state that a barracoon is a place in which slaves are kept; that slave traders by attacking a village, or other means, take possession of the people, who are taken down to warehouses erected for their use—barracoons as they call them—places where they are kept until an opportunity arises, whereby they may be shipped off either to the Havannah or to Cuba: the two great places to which slaves are sent from this place are the Havannah and Cuba. The place consists of five barracoons, as they are called; five warehouses, where the slaves are kept. It is not a trading place in any other way. Slaves are purchased by the barter of cotton goods or other goods from England, or by doubloons, which are raised by drawing bills on persons in England. There is no other trade but the mere slave trade. In the barracoons and places, these unfortunate people are kept until an opportunity arises for selling them, to be disposed of either in Cuba or the Havannah. One was kept by a person of the name of Rolo, another by a person named Ximines, another by Alvarez, another by a person of the name of Buron, and another by a person of the name of François. This vessel and cargo therefore were dispatched to a place which was wholly a slave trade establishment. There is no other trade whatever. I believe there was not at that time, nor had been long before. Since the slave trade has been stopped there, it is somewhat a different thing; but at that time it was a place used entirely for the slave trade, and the goods which were sent there were used for barter, and the doubloons for which the bills were drawn were employed in the purchase of slaves. The three consignees of this vessel were the three persons I have first mentioned, three persons having barracoons in the Gallinas. It is possible that a name of a fourth may appear in the evidence. You will remember that the fourth is named Buron. The vessel therefore went out from England with a cargo consigned to these three persons, Rolo, Ximines, and Alvarez.
Gentlemen, when the vessel got some little distance from England, I believe a hundred miles from Cork, she encountered a considerable gale: upon that the captain determined to go to Cadiz; the wind was unfavourable for Cadiz: she was about a hundred miles from Cork, and there was a perfect facility of going to Cork or to Falmouth, where they might have arrived in the course of a day. It would take 18 or 19 days to go to Cadiz, I believe 19; but the captain determined to go to Cadiz, the crew resisted this, and they came to the determination that some of the crew should be discharged at Cadiz, Mr. Zulueta having a house at Cadiz, and Mr. Martinez too; and it was at Cadiz she received the dispatches which were found on board, as to the consignees, as to what was to be done with the shipment on board, and what was the object of the shippers. Part of the goods appear to have been landed there by the firm of Zulueta & Co., and Mr. Zulueta received an award for the injury which had occurred, the injury the cargo had sustained in that gale. I believe the principal part of the tobacco was landed. It will appear by the bill of lading the shipment of goods was by these three persons. The tobacco was landed by Mr. Zulueta of the house in Cadiz, and the house in London received compensation for the loss upon that, they having shipped the same in London.
Gentlemen, the vessel afterwards sailed from Cadiz. She arrived, I believe, about the 6th of December, and sailed in the early part of January. She was captured on the 7th of February, 1841, by Captain Hill, when she came near the coast of Africa. It happened that Captain Hill, whose duty it was to capture those vessels, either Spanish or English, which had dealings in slaves, met with her, and he was not a little surprised at seeing so soon a vessel he had captured as a slaver, under the name of the Gollupchik, come under English colours with a new name. He boarded her, and saw Jennings on board. She was not then, of course, to use the technical term, equipped as a slave trader; she having sailed from England with goods on board, it was impossible she should be. He asked to whom she was consigned: Jennings refused to tell.
Mr. Kelly. Are we to have the conversations with Jennings, the master, long after the felony is supposed to have been committed by Mr. Zulueta in England? Is the conversation with every person, in every quarter of the world, to be given in evidence?