Q. How is it that, being engaged as a carpenter, you were buying rubber?—A. There was no more carpentering to be done, and as I had not completed my contract, I was ordered to buy rubber. Formerly I used to buy rubber at the same time as I was doing the carpentering.
Q. Have you ever killed, ill-treated the natives, or burnt down their houses?—A. On my oath, I never have.
Q. Do you understand the nature of an oath?—A. Yes; and if there were a Bible here I would swear on it.
Q. Can you read and write?—A. Only a very little—just my name.
Q. Were you aware that people were being shot or otherwise ill-treated, and that their villages were burnt?—A. Yes; I heard of such things going on, but I never witnessed anything of the sort except on one occasion at my own station. It was one day (the 9th December, 1902) when I was lying down, and suddenly I heard firing from outside, and a shot came through my house and nearly hit me. When I went outside I found a white agent of the Company, who had ordered his men (soldiers) to fire on a man and woman from about 120 yards’ distance. They were both killed. The woman was pregnant. When I asked the white agent (whose name I cannot remember) why he came and upset the people of my station, he replied, “How dare you speak to me, you black man; don’t you see that I am a white man, and can give what orders I like!”
Q. Were you ever ordered to go and punish the natives?—A. Yes. On one occasion, especially, I was ordered to send and punish some people who had fled into the bush. So I thought for a time as to what I should do, and at last resolved to send four soldiers into the bush to try and catch the people and bring them to me to see if I could make friends with them. I ordered the soldiers not to shoot any one, and sent my boy (a Bangala) with them to see that no shooting was done. They caught a man and a woman in the bush and took them to Little Basango (about three hours from my station), instead of coming back to me. It was my Bangala boy who shot the woman whilst she was stooping down at the side of the river, and she fell into the water and was carried away. I never saw the woman or her corpse, as it was carried away by the stream. I went down the river (about two and a-half hours’ journey in a canoe going there, and about six hours to come back) to report the affair to the white agent at the post there. It is for this affair, I am given to understand, that I am punished. But really I am not to blame, as I gave strict orders to the soldiers not to shoot any one.
Q. Did you know when you were sent for to come to Boma that you were going to be tried for committing certain outrages on the natives?—A. No.
Q. Were you brought down to Boma under a military escort?—A. No; I came down alone; but when I arrived at Boma I was met by a guard of soldiers, and was taken to the prison, where I remained five days, and was then let out.
Q. Did you know that you were going to be tried for various outrages committed on the natives?—A. No; I was under the impression that I had been called as a witness against that man.
[Jones pointed to a man who was writing at a desk in the gaoler’s office, who, I was told, was M. Caudron.]