“And then his lawyer got up and made a smart plea for him and set down; but then you might know he was a rowin’ agin the tide, for he was a pleadin’ for the devil himself.
“Then the Attorney Gineral got up, and says, ‘My Lords and Judges, and Gentlemen of the Jury, &c. &c.’ And if he didn’t make a splendid plea then I’m no judge—I once could tell all about it, for you see I was all ear when them big fellers spoke and we all talked it over on the v’yge so much, and what one forgot ‘tother recollected, and then besides ’twas published in the Bristol papers; and once I could say it all to a T, and I only wish I could remember it word for word, it would be sich great stuff for this book. But my memory has kind’a failed me for a few years; only I know the Gineral made all on us cry, he talked so fine, and I do remember the closin’ off sayin’. ‘My Lords, I have now finished the defence for the crown, and I submit the case to your lordships, feeling that your verdict will respect the rights of the throne and the liberties and safety of its loyal subjects. My Lords I have done.’ And down he sat.
“And there that big room—it was as big as the whole of our big red barn—was crowded full as it could stick and hold, and there was a’most all nations on ‘arth there. And I tell you if I didn’t feel fine to git up afore my lords, (as that ere Attorney Gineral called ’em,) and all them big bugs, and tell about that poor lady there; and there agin I was treated better than I ever was in an American court in my life; for I never got up in a court room in this country to give testimony or see a black man, who warn’t rather laughed at by somebody. Well, when the Attorney Gineral had finished, three of these ’ere lords I tell on went into another room, and stayed there a few minutes, and come back, and then the chief lord of the establishment got up, and drew on a kind of a black cap, and commanded the attention of all present, and the room was so still you could hear a pin drop. The prisoner was fetched forward, and the Judge turns to him and says:—
“‘By the testimony of Captain Truesdell and crew, and by your own confession, I find you, accordin’ to the laws of our king and country, guilty of this murder; and have you any thing to offer why sentence of death should not be pronounced upon you?’ The Spaniard shook his head, and then the Judge pronounced his doom.
“‘In the Name of the King of the Realm, and by the Authority of Almighty God, I sentence you to be executed this evening at half-past six o’clock, until you are dead, DEAD, DEAD; and may God have mercy on your soul.’
“Well, the sheriff took the prisoner and ordered us to be sent back in a large carriage and four milk white horses to the ship.
Next mornin’ at ten o’clock the Spanish lady came aboard, and went down in the cabin with the captain, and sot there and talked a good while about the affair, and cried a good deal, and when she got up she put her hand into her little huzzy and took out twenty doubloons, and give ’em to the captain, and told him to divide that with his crew, and she calls for me and gives me a half-joe, and says she, ‘I give you that for bein’ so good as to find my darter,’ and she went off, and I had a doubloon and a half-joe, and that night we heard the Spaniard was hung.
“Well, we lay in port about four weeks, and we had fine times and see a good many big characters, and I was in England arter this, and I see some of the biggest kind of bugs they got, and I’ll tell about that when I git to it. Well, we took in a load of goods, and weighed anchor for home, and had as fine a passage as ever was sailed over the brine. We made New York and the hands was all paid off, and I had one hundred and sixty dollars in specie except a little on the Manhattan Bank. Then I quit Captain Truesdell, and he gin me a recommend, and I hired to Captain James Williams, and we hadn’t been in port but four weeks afore I sailed with him for Gaudaloupe. We started in November, on Sunday mornin’ jist as the bells begun to ring for church, and weighed anchor for the West Indies, and then I see the difference atwixt the sailor’s Sunday and a Yorker’s, and it made me feel kind’a serious and rother bad.
“The captain had started on a tradin’ and carryin’ v’yge; so when we’d cruised round some months in the West Indies, we took a load and sailed for Gibralter, and if that Gibralter warn’t a pokerish lookin’ place I never see one. We come into the bay and cast anchor under the fort, and they fired three guns over our ship, as a shakin’ hands, to let us know we was welcome, and then the captain and officers had to go ashore and account for themselves. As we lay there and looked up, we could see three tiers of cannon one above another, and soldiers with blue coats trimmed with red, and horseskin caps (as I calls them) paradin’ there. And as soon as the captain got leave of tradin’ back and forth from the governor, all these ’ere cannons was drawn back.
“The English colors way flyin’ from the top of the Rock, and at twelve o’clock every day the drums beat, and they played what they called ‘The roast beef of old England.’ In the mornin’ the revelie beat and six cannon was fired from the fort, and if any armed ships lay in the harbor they answered ’em; and every single hour in the night we could hear the sentinel’s heavy tread on the Rock, and his cry, ten o’clock and all’s well, eleven o’clock and all’s well, &c., and so he kept it up all night. Some on ’em told me they’d had distressed times round the old Rock afore this. About the time of our Revolutionary War the French and Spaniards leagued together and got hundreds of ships and thousands of sogers together, and battered away at the old fort, and shot more red hot cannon balls agin it than you could shake a stick at; but they only went ‘bum, bum,’ and shivered the Rock a little, and fell down into the sea, and they attacked the fort on the land side and worked away there, day arter day, but they didn’t hurt a hair of the old Rock’s head, and finally they agreed to quit it.—Why Sir, all the nations on the globe could not take that fort. The English will always have it till the end of the world. Well I looked up through the straits, and it did look beautiful; I could see the African shore; yis, the same Africa where so many millions of my poor brothers and sisters had been stole and carried off into slavery—oh! I felt bad. Well, we sold our load of provisions to the governor of the Rock, and bought a few things and started for England.