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

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Reading Time: 4 minutes [564 words]

Here is the translated text as follows:

PEDRO GIBERT AND OTHERS

Pedro Gibert and others. 733°

Six, or six and a half. A clipper will, on average, sail one-third faster than a merchant vessel. The Panda and Mexican would not be likely to meet because the schooner ought to be much ahead of the brig. I am well acquainted with the currency on the African coast. Spanish dollars are current there—even doubloons and ounces will pass. I have been on the coast as far as Congo and thirty leagues up the river. Petty Sestos and Nyphoo are not the same places. Vessels going from Havana always carry specie. If they had a full cargo, fitted for trade with the natives, they would carry about one or two thousand dollars. It is five thousand two hundred and eighty miles from Havana to Cape Monte. I am acquainted with Captain Gibert; he bears a good character in Havana among the most respectable mercantile houses. I have also heard Bernardo de Soto spoken well of by captains and merchants. I do not know whether Captain Gibert has any property. I know that de Soto owned a schooner in '32 and that he sold her. Afterwards, I heard that he had bought the Panda and gone out in her. In '27, Captain Gibert was concerned in a mercantile house; I think the goods in their warehouse might be worth from eight to ten thousand dollars.

**Cross-examined:** By being in the African trade, I mean to say that I have been in the slave trade; the English themselves sell slaves.

Captain Joseph Smith: I have been twenty-five years in the Navy of the United States, as a midshipman, lieutenant, and master-commandant. I have examined the course of the Mexican, as marked on her chart. She must be a dull sailor not to have gotten farther in twenty days than 33—34.20. I should think the difference in sailing between such a vessel and a clipper, in a light wind, would be twenty-five percent. In rough weather, it would not be so much; not more than ten percent. In August and September, the winds, in the latitude in question, are westerly and southerly. In making the passage from Havana to Africa, the clipper would probably get out of the Gulf Stream in three days and go north as far as lat. 30 or 35 [place where Mexican was robbed] in order to get a favorable wind. The clipper would reach the above latitude in about six days from Havana. I do not think the schooner and brig could meet.

**Cross-examined:** If the vessels should meet, it would be about where the Mexican was met by the pirate.

Captain Bethune: I have been ten or twelve years acquainted with nautical matters. I do not know much about clippers, but I should think there was a twenty or twenty-five percent difference between their rate of sailing and that of merchantmen. It is a mere matter of opinion whether the Panda and Mexican would meet, but I should think it probable that they would.

Edward H. Foucon: I have been to sea for twelve years; I am the master of a vessel and in the employ of Bryant & Sturgis. I do not know the difference in sailing between a clipper and a merchantman, except by reputation; I should think there would be a thirty percent difference in favor of the clipper.