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

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Here is the translated text as follows:

718

X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS

While in the canoe, the captain asked why the ship had not been blown up. The carpenter replied that he did not know why an explosion had not occurred. The captain and mate questioned him further, asking why he had not burst a barrel of powder over the deck, loaded a gun, tied a fish-line to the lock, and pulled it when he came off in the canoe. The cabin scuttle leads down into the magazine.

Sixty negroes had been bought with the cargo of the Panda, and the remainder had been sent off to buy more. The captain said he intended to take 450. The natives were against the English. The captain of the Panda asked the African king to allow a guard of negroes to stand on the beach, armed with muskets, to prevent the English from landing. When I reached Fernando Po, I was asked if I belonged to the Panda, and I said no; but when they put me under oath, I confessed. All the rest denied it until the boatswain, being confronted with a Portuguese, confessed. They were then examined before Governor Nichols, the captain of the English boat that brought them to Fernando Po, and some clerks. When I told them about the $20,000 taken from the Mexican, one of the clerks, who had an American paper in his hand, said, "Very true, very true."

Before I left Nazareth, a Portuguese pilot boat left that place to coax Capt. Gilbert to Prince's Island so that he might be caught. They told me if I did not tell all about the matter, I would be hung; my heart failed me, and I confessed. Delgardo also confessed a short time afterward. The governor told Delgardo he need not be afraid, for he would write to England and get his pardon. Captain Trotter was present at these examinations. The rest of the crew were in the hospital; I was in the hospital when the boatswain of the Panda died. Presents or money were never offered to Delgardo to make him confess. His own fear made him tell all; he was told if he spoke truthfully, he might get off with a short imprisonment.

Nov. 14.

Perez: I did not come here bribed by anyone. Domingo Guzman had confessed on board the English vessel that they had robbed two vessels, one besides the Mexican; in the former, however, they got no money. I do not know of any inducements being held out to Delgardo to make him confess. He confessed without the English saying a word to him. When Delgardo saw the corpse of the boatswain, he did not say: "God forgive me for the false witness I have borne against you." I do not remember whether I said at Fernando Po that I could not read or write; I said so at Salem.

Mr. Child here gave Perez the indictment to read, and he read part of it with greater facility than he did the previous day. Mr. Child then wished him to write.

The Court said that the counsel for the prisoners had no right to put the witness to this test. The District Attorney asked that the experiment be permitted to be made, under the proviso that the witness should not be called upon to write his own name, as many men could write that who could write nothing else. Perez then came down from the stand and took up the pen.