Mr. Justice Maule. I have taken down the substance of what he has been saying, and it is this: He mentions five or six places where there are barracoons with the appurtenances; and “except at one or two, where native towns are near, I saw no sign of any other trade but the slave trade.” You were cruizing off there to watch the trade?—Yes.
Did you know of any trade but the slave trade?—No, the native king told me there was no other.
Mr. Clarkson. Never mind what the native king told you.
Mr. Justice Maule. We cannot even take the word of a king, so extreme is our repugnance to hearsay evidence.
Mr. Serjeant Talfourd. Do you know a merchant there of the name of Ignatio Rolo?—He was on board the Saracen for some two or three days. Captain Denman had taken a slave vessel—
Do you know of your own knowledge what his occupation was there?—I never saw him buy a slave, nor did I see him sell one; but as far as knowing the course of trade, I should say he was a slave dealer, and solely and only a slave dealer; but I never saw him buy one. Jaiera was his slave establishment, and there was no sign of any thing but the slave trade.
And there he resided himself?—I never saw him there. I understood from him that he did: in the first instance he denied it.
Mr. Kelly. Do not tell us what he denied. I must once for all take his Lordship’s opinion whether this course of evidence can be persisted in. I am extremely sorry to consume time, but it is essentially necessary for the interests of justice that the prisoner should be protected from answers of this kind. It seems that Captain Hill thinks it his duty, instead of answering the question put to him, to state any thing that occurs to his own mind.
Mr. Justice Maule. I cannot say that he seems to give answers quite connected with the subject; but he is not so well acquainted with what we exclude in evidence as you are.
Mr. Kelly. I only wish once for all, if he would be good enough to understand, that he is not to repeat what he heard; what he saw no one can object to; what conversations he had with other people can form no ground of charge against a party not upon the spot. —I was speaking of a conversation I had with Ignatio Rolo himself, he acknowledged to me he lived there.