Trial of Pedro de Zulueta, jun., on a Charge of Slave Trading, under 5 Geo. IV, cap. 113, on Friday the 27th, Saturday the 28th, and Monday the 30th of October, 1843, at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, London / A Full Report from the Short-hand Notes of W. B. Gurney, Esq.

by Pedro de Zulueta; William Brodie Gurney

7245. Mr. Aldam.] Was this vessel, which was fitted up for the purpose of procuring negroes for the French service, fitted up as an ordinary slave ship?—As an ordinary slave ship.

7246. There were the same means of restraint?—Precisely; iron bars across the hatchway, and the usual equipment of a slave vessel.

7247. So that it appeared that men were intended to be kept under restraint upon the voyage?—Certainly.

7248. Mr. Forster.] Were there any slave-irons on board?—I do not at this period remember very minutely her equipment, but there was quite sufficient ground to authorise my seizing the vessel.

7249. What were those carpenters doing on board?—They were at work upon the vessel.

7250. Can you describe the work they were doing?—I cannot do that: they were performing their work as carpenters.

7251. Chairman.] Do you recollect whether they were caulking outside, or performing work inside the vessel?—I saw them at work, but I do not remember whether they were caulking the outside or the inside; but I see in my report that she had caulkers on board belonging to St. Mary’s, who were caulking and equipping her.

7252. Mr. Forster.] When you found that those carpenters belonged to St. Mary’s, did you send them on shore?—No, most assuredly not.

7253. Did you seize them with the vessel?—I sent them up with the vessel to Sierra Leone, and put them into the court with the vessel; and with respect to the three children that were on board, I considered, from their age, that they could be in no way connected with the equipping of the vessel, or otherwise concerned in the vessel beyond a general suspicion arising in my mind of what was intended to be done with those children, and I therefore sent them on shore to the governor of the Gambia, that he might make such inquiry respecting those children as he might judge proper.

7254. Did you consider that those carpenters, working for hire on board a vessel in the harbour, were justly chargeable with a participation in the slave trade?—They were found on board the vessel, and I considered it was necessary that I should send them with the vessel before the Vice-Admiralty Court.