7265. Was there a French gentleman also on board the vessel when you seized her?—There was a French person on board, whom I believed to be the supercargo, and, I rather think, was the brother of Mr. Marbeau.
7266. Did you find that he was the supercargo of the vessel?—He told me that he was the supercargo; and I believe that he was the brother of Mr. Marbeau, the owner.
7267. Was he not a passenger from Senegal to the Gambia?—It is impossible for me to say what he was.
7268. Had he been on shore at the Gambia previously to your seizing the vessel?—It is impossible for me to say.
7269. Did you carry a French gentleman from the Gambia to Sierra Leone, without making inquiry into his character and pursuits, and his connexion with that vessel?—All persons who were found on board the vessel, as I have before stated, with the exception of three black children, I sent to Sierra Leone, because I could not tell, of course, what he was doing in the vessel; he might be a French gentleman, or he might be there for the purpose of purchasing slaves; or he might be, for what I could tell, the very person who had got on board the three children, who, I have before stated, I thought were placed in a very suspicious position. My duty was to send everybody found in the vessel I had captured, on the suspicion of slave dealing, before the court appointed to adjudicate upon such cases.
7270. How did you consider him to be connected with those three children?—What I stated was, that he might be; I have not said that he was; I stated that I knew nothing about him, but finding him in the slave vessel, I sent him with the slave vessel before the court.
7271. You sent the three children on shore?—Yes; everybody else I sent before the court; and if any person in the world had been on board the vessel I should have sent him in the same way; if an English merchant had been on board, that merchant would have gone with the vessel likewise before the court; the court is to decide upon the legality or illegality of the conduct of persons found under such circumstances.
7272. Chairman.] You conceive that that vessel, by her equipment was clearly seizable, as engaged in the slave trade?—Yes, or else I should not have seized her; I took upon myself a great responsibility in seizing her.
7273. And under those circumstances you felt yourself called upon to send every person found on board the vessel for adjudication before the proper court?—Yes; if I had not done so, I should have conceived that I laid myself open to the charge of not doing my duty.
7274. Sir T. D. Acland.] When you find a vessel reasonably suspected of being engaged in the slave trade, you think those who are found on board are liable to the same suspicion?—In the case of a vessel seized amenable to the British law.