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

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Reading Time: 3 minutes [387 words]

Here is the translated text as follows:

At the time she was taken, what became of them after they left the vessel? They sought refuge among the negroes and in the forest. How different was the conduct of the Portuguese, who shipped at Prince’s Island and had no concern with the robbery. One of them went on board the Panda immediately after the English had taken possession of her, and the other sought a passage home in a vessel lying very near the Panda. From the instructions of the captain of the Panda, I believe the whole affair was a regular piratical and slaving speculation on the part of certain individuals in Havana. The Panda did not have a sufficient cargo to purchase the number of slaves (450) she was going for, and the wages of the crew were $1000 per month. Mr. Peyton informed the court that slaves on the coast of Africa could be purchased for $12 each.

I shall now address the alleged contradictions in the evidence of Perez. The statement of this witness, "that he had not been drunk, and had not had rum given to him," was not contradicted by the statement he made in jail to Mr. Badlam. He told Mr. Badlam that on that occasion he had been given wine, but never acknowledged that he received rum or that he had been drunk. The witness's state of mind, too, when he said this should be taken into consideration. He believed he had been dealt with faithlessly by the government, and under this impression, he made use of words attributed to him. At the conclusion of the interview, however, he stated that "when before the judge he would tell the truth," thus clearly intimating that his previous statement about the wine was a falsehood. In relation to Perez's declaration that he could not read or write, he used the words in their common acceptance and meant to say that he could not read as others did, with any degree of fluency.

If Perez had declared he could read and had given no better specimen than he did in court (reading or rather spelling two lines in five minutes), the counsel for the prisoners could have accused him of laying claim to a qualification which he did not possess. But, even admitting that Perez had...

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