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PEDRO GIBERT AND OTHERS. 763

said previously that he could not read, and that in contradic-
tion of that assertion he did read in court, this ciroumstance
would be one of the strongest proofs that he had testified
truly. It would prove that however bad he was in other re-
spects, whatever falsehoods he might have stated elsewhere,
he had come into court upon the present occasion with a full
knowledge of his precarious situation; with the conviction
that his life depended upon his veracity; and with a determi-
nation to tell the truth, even should he contradict any thing
he might have previously stated. How easy would it have
been for him, when asked by the eounsel for the defense ‘‘if
he could read,’’ to have replied in the negative.

To proceed to the consideration of the question ‘‘whether
the whole of the prisoners were implicated, supposing the
captain and officers to be guilty.” In relation to this ques-
tion, there is one cireumstance which removes all doubts that
the whole crew were copartners in the crime; which extin-
guished at once in my bosom, the hope I had so fondly cher-
ished in favor of Ferrer, the cook, and Costa, the eabin boy.
This damning circumstance is the fact that not a single indi-
vidual of the crew had ever mentioned the robbery to the
Portuguese, who were so many months their companions, This
unnatural silence proved that they were all equally impli-
cated in the crime and all felt the necessity of keeping the
secret; that they had cast in their lot with their officers, and
were bound together as a band of brothers, by a common sense
of guilt and danger, the captain being like Byron’s Conrad,
the master-spirit of the whole—‘‘one formed to lead the
guilty, guilt’s worst instrument.’’

The nautical gentlemen, who were brought forward by the
counsel for the defense in numerous instanees, although
called in behalf of the prisoners, corroborated the evidence
of the government witnesses, Almost all piracies are now
committed by slavers, slavery being the only pretence on
which a piratical vessel could now-a-days be fitted ont. Mr.
Dunlap concluded by passing an eloquent eulogiam upon
Capt. Trotter, and the English navy generally for the gal-

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