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760 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

the probability of his having perjured himself by the sup-
pression of important truths.

I will now eall your attention to another class of this wit-
ness’ testimony. He has stated that the carpenter put fire
to a bag of powder in the hold. Would the witness himeelf
be willing to try this experiment? Would the carpenter have
sueceeded in auch an attempt, and made his escape to the
shore in safety? Is it not more probable he would have been
in another world before reaching his boat? But he (the wit
ness) has ptated to you subsequently that he is not positive it
was a bag, ‘‘that the powder was in # keg or a bag.”

Remember the many contradictory statements which have
been made by Perez in relation to the removal of the eleven
thousand dollars at Nazareth, the attack on the English cor-
vette by the schooner, and the money sent by Capt. G. to the
second mate after the latter had absconded. Think of the
probability that the division of money on the coast, mentioned
by Perez was nothing more than the payment of wages to the
erew, and it was very doubtful that a false log-book had ever
‘been made by the mate, If such a log-book had been made,
why had it never been presented by the prisoners to prove
their innocence of the crime with which they were charged?

Compare the evidence of Perez with that of the other wit-
nesses, and remember that it is easier for witnesses to adhere
to one falsehood, than for a number of witnesses to adhere to
one course of evidence without detection, Here, I would ad-
vert for a moment to the difference between the statements of
Perez and those of Capt. Butman. The former has told you
that at the time of the capture of the Mexican a musket shot
was fired from the Panda; while the latter tells you ‘‘that the
achooner gave chase, fired a gun to leeward and hoisted pa-
triot colors.”’, And, in connection with this matter, the dis-
trict attorney asked, was the gun shotted?

I next called attention to the statement made by Capt. But-
man in hig log-book, that there were 60 or 70 men on board
the schooner, and that she had two brass ten-pounders; while
Perez said there were but 30 men on board, and both he end

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