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

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Reading Time: 4 minutes [589 words]

Here is the translated text as follows:

Pedro Gibert and Others

At the brig, Captain Gibert was angry and sent another man into the maintop to keep a lookout with me. Shortly after, I saw two sails and called out to the captain, who asked where she was. I said she was astern of the American brig and so near that I could see her three masts. On the forecastle of the American brig, I saw one of the schooner's men keeping guard with a handspike in his hand. The captain shouted, "Take them out of the forecastle and shut them up in the cabin." The third mate had a sword, and the other men had knives. They chased the brig's crew into the cabin and locked them up with a padlock. I heard it said afterward that smoke was used to suffocate them.

After the hatches were all shut, the schooner's men left the brig for our own vessel, carrying the brig's boat with them and scuttling her. The boxes taken from the brig were marked with a letter—I cannot say whether it was a P or a D. The schooner went to Prince's Island, from which she came shortly afterward in great haste and was run ashore at Cape Lopez, near the river Nazareth.

I acted as the captain's servant, and when the captain arrived at Nazareth, I set the table for him in a room upstairs. There, I heard the captain and boatswain talking together. The former said he had been obliged to flee from Prince's Island because news of the American brig affair had reached that place. He had purchased $250 worth of provisions but had left without them. The captain came from Prince's Island in February and remained at Nazareth for four months.

At the expiration of that time, the English came up the river in boats. As soon as they were seen, the carpenter (Ruiz) went into the cabin of the Panda, took up the after scuttle, and put a match to a keg or bag of gunpowder. The crew then went ashore, and the carpenter followed soon after in a canoe, taking with him the ship's papers. They all went to the barracks (huts where they kept the slaves). The English took the schooner out to sea with them but returned in fifteen days. The English commander came ashore and demanded that the African king give up at least the captain and carpenter of the Panda, if not others of the crew. The king, however, refused, and the English then began to fire upon the town from the pivot gun of the Panda. This gun was a twelve or sixteen-pounder (brass), and she had, besides, two small carronades. During the firing, the schooner caught fire. The English left after three days.

After this, the money taken from the Mexican was hidden in a barrel on the beach, on the right-hand side. I did not know at the time whether all the money was hidden because an order came from the captain to go into the bush, as the English were coming in their boats. They later took the money up and buried it again at Cape Lopez. They went for it again in a few days, by order of the captain—five of them went, all now present. I was one of the number. Castillo and I dug up the money, and the others began to count it. I told them they had no time to count the money, to which they replied that they had the captain's permission.