733 Sheet – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Reading Time: 4 minutes [503 words]

Here is the translated text as follows:

Pedro Gibert and Others

In 1832, while patrolling off the coast of Africa for slavers, a British vessel captured the Spanish schooner Panda. Several crew members of the Panda were identified as the perpetrators who had robbed the brig Mexican, of Salem, on September 20, 1832, during its voyage from Salem to Rio de Janeiro. Some of the crew were apprehended and taken to England, while others escaped to shore, where they were protected by the natives.

On August 26, the British gun-brig Savage arrived in the harbor of Salem, carrying the following prisoners: Pedro Gibert, master mariner; Bernardo de Soto; Francisco Ruiz; Nicola Costa; Antonio Ferrer; Manuel Boyga; Domingo de Guzman; Juan Antonio Portana; Manuel Castillo; Angel Garcia; Jose Velazquez; and Juan Montenegro, also known as Jose Basilio de Castro. Juan Delgardo, another crew member, committed suicide in the Salem jail. The commander of the Savage, Lieutenant Loney, presented the prisoners to the authorities.

An indictment was filed against them, charging them with committing an act of piracy on board the brig Mexican of Salem. The trial included a full statement of the testimony, arguments from both sides, the charge of the court pronounced by the Honorable Judge Story, and the verdict of the jury. An appendix contained several documents that had never been published before. This account was recorded by a Congressional stenographer and published in Boston by Russell, Odiorne & Metcalf, in Providence by Marshall Brown & Co., in Portland by Colman & Chisholm, and in Salem by John M. Ives in 1834.

A detailed and accurate account of the trial, titled "Trial of the Twelve Spanish Pirates of the Schooner Panda, a Guinea Slaver for Robbery and Piracy Committed on Board the Brig Mexican, 20th Sept, 1832," was published in Boston by Lemuel Gulliver, 82 State Street, in 1834. The title page featured an engraving of the black King at Cape Lopez, who protected the crew of the Panda, and a pirate's long knife. Other illustrations included scenes such as the Panda navigating through the Bahama Channel, the mate begging for his life, Antonio Ferrer, the tattooed cook, the Panda anchored on the River Nazareth, and the pirates burying money on the beach at Cape Lopez.

Additional illustrations depicted the pirates concealed in the woods behind Cape Lopez, one of the boxes of dollars, the explosion of the Panda, a type of knife used by slavers, inhabitants of the island of Fernando Po, Bernardo De Soto, Don Pedro Gibert, Ruiz leaving the Panda after applying the slow match, natives carrying two of the pirates up the River Nazareth, the pirates carrying rum ashore to purchase slaves, Antonio on the top-gallant mast, the carpenter applying the match to the bag of powder in the magazine, and a blunt chart of the coast of Africa showing the haunts of the pirates.

The account "Half a Century with Judges and Lawyers" by Joseph A. Willard was published by Houghton-Mifflin & Company, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, in 1896.

See 1 Am. St. Tr. 44.

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