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The Panda after robbing the Mexican,
pursued her course across the Atlantic, and
made Cape Monte; from this she coasted
south, and after passing Cape Palmas entered
the Gulf of Guinea, and steered for Cape
Lopez which she reached in the first part of
November. Cape Lopez de Gonzalves, in lat.
0° 36' 2" south, long. 80° 40' 4" east, is
so called from its first discoverer. It is
covered with wood but low and swampy, as is
also the neighboring country. The extensive
bay formed by this cape is fourteen miles in
depth, and has several small creeks and
rivers running into it. The largest is the
river Nazareth on the left point of which is
situated King Gula's town the only
assemblage of huts in the bay. Here the
cargo of the Panda was unloaded, the greater
part was entrusted to the king, and with the
rest Capt. Gilbert opened a factory and
commenced buying various articles of
commerce, as tortoise shell, gum, ivory,
palm oil, fine straw carpeting, and slaves.
After remaining here a short time the crew
became sickly and Capt. Gilbert sailed for
Prince's Island to recover the health of his
crew. Whilst at Prince's Island news arrived
of the robbery of the Mexican. And the
pirate left with the utmost precipitation
for Cape Lopez, and the better to evade
pursuit, a pilot was procured; and the
vessel carried several miles up the river
Nazareth. Soon after the Panda left Prince's
Island, the British brig of war, Curlew,
Capt. Trotter arrived, and from the
description given of the vessel then said to
be lying in the Nazareth, Capt. Trotter knew
she must be the one, that robbed the
Mexican; and he instantly sailed in pursuit.
On nearing the coast, she was discovered
lying up the river; three boats containing
forty men and commanded by Capt. Trotter,
started up the river with the sea breeze and
flood tide, and colors flying to take the
desperadoes; the boats kept in near the
shore until rounding a point they were seen
from the Panda. The pirates immediately took
to their boats, except Francisco Ruiz who
seizing a fire brand from the camboose went
into the magazine and set some combustibles
on fire with the laudable purpose of blowing
up the assailants, and then paddled ashore
in a canoe. Capt. Trotter chased them with
his boats, but could not come up with them,
and then boarded the schooner which he found
on fire. The first thing he did was to put
out the fire which was in the magazine,
below the cabin floor; here was found a
quantity of cotton and brimstone burning and
a slow match ignited and communicating with
the magazine, which contained sixteen casks
of powder.
The Panda was now warped out of the river
and anchored off the negro town of Cape
Lopez. Negociations were now entered into
for the surrender of the pirates. An officer
was accordingly sent on shore to have an
interview with the king. He was met on the
beach by an ebony chief calling himself
duke. "We followed the duke through the
extensive and straggling place, frequently
buried up to the ankles in sand, from which
the vegetation was worn by the constant
passing and repassing of the inhabitants. We
arrived at a large folding door placed in a
high bamboo and palm tree fence, which
inclosed the king's establishment,
ornamented on our right by two old
honeycombed guns, which, although
dismounted, were probably, according to the
practice of the coast, occasionally fired to
attract the attention of passing vessels,
and to imply that slaves were to be
procured. On the left of the enclosure was a
shed, with a large ship's bell suspended
beneath, serving as an alarum bell in case
of danger, while the remainder was occupied
with neatly built huts, inhabited by the
numerous wives of the king.
"We sent in to notify him of our arrival;
he sent word out that we might remain
outside until it suited his convenience. But
as such an arrangement did not suit ours, we
immediately entered, and found sitting at a
table the king. He was a tall, muscular,
ugly looking negro, about fifty years of
age. We explained the object of our visit,
which was to demand the surrender of the
white men, who were now concealed in the
town, and for permission to pass up the
river in pursuit of those who had gone up
that way. He now expressed the most violent
indignation at our presumption in demanding
the pirates, and the interview was broken
off by his refusing to deliver up a single
man."
We will now return to the pirates. While
at Prince's Island, Capt. Gilbert bought a
magnificent dressing case worth nearly a
thousand dollars and a patent lever watch,
and a quantity of tobacco, and provisions,
and two valuable cloth coats, some Guinea
cloth and black and green paint. The paint,
cloth and coats were intended as presents
for the African king at Cape Lopez. These
articles were all bought with the money
taken from the Mexican. After arriving at
the Nazareth, $4000 were taken from the
trunk, and buried in the yard of a negro
prince. Four of the pirates then went to
Cape Lopez for $11,000, which had been
buried there. Boyga, Castillo, Guzman, and
the "State's Evidence," Ferez, were the ones
who went. Ferez took the bags out, and the
others counted the money; great haste was
made as the musquitoes were biting
intolerably. $5000 were buried for the
captain in canvas bags about two feet deep,
part of the money was carried to Nazareth,
and from there carried into the mountains
and there buried. A consultation was held by
Capt. Gilbert, De Soto, and Ruiz, and the
latter said, if the money was not divided,
"there would be the devil to pay." The money
was now divided in a dark room and a lantern
used; Capt. Gilbert sat on the floor with
the money at his side. He gave the mate
about $3000, and the other officers $1000,
each; and the crew from $300 to $500, each.
The third mate having fled, the captain sent
him $1000, and Ruiz carried it to him. When
the money was first taken from the Mexican,
it was spread out on the companion way and
examined to see if there was any gold
amongst it; and then put into bags made of
dark coarse linen; the boxes were then
thrown overboard. After the division of the
money the pirates secreted themselves in the
woods behind Cape Lopez. Perez and four
others procured a boat, and started for
Fernando Po; they put their money in the
bottom of the boat for ballast, but was
thrown overboard, near a rock and afterwards
recovered by divers; this was done to
prevent detection. The captain, mate, and
carpenter had a conversation respecting the
attempt of the latter, to blow her up, who
could not account for the circumstance, that
an explosion had not taken place; they told
him he ought to have burst a barrel of
powder over the deck and down the stairs to
the magazine, loaded a gun, tied a fish line
to the lock and pulled it when he came off
in the canoe.
View of the Negro village on the
river Nazareth, and the Panda at anchor.
The Panda being manned by Capt. Trotter and
an English crew, commenced firing on the
town of Cape Lopez, but after firing several
shots, a spark communicated with the
magazine and she blew up. Several men were
killed, and Captain Trotter and the others
thrown into the water, when he was made
prisoner with several of his crew, by the
King, and it required considerable
negociations to get them free.
Burying the money on the beach at
Cape Lopez.
The pirates having gone up the river, an
expedition was now equipped to take them if
possible. The long-boat and pinnace were
instantly armed, and victualled for several
weeks, a brass gun was mounted on the bows
of each, and awnings fixed up to protect the
crew from the extreme heat of the sun by
day, and the heavy dews at nightfall. As the
sea-breeze and the flood-tide set in, the
boats again started and proceeded up the
river. It was ascertained the war-canoes
were beyond where the Panda was first taken;
for fear of an ambuscade great caution was
observed in proceeding. "As we approached a
point, a single native was observed standing
near a hut erected near the river, who, as
we approached, beckoned, and called for us
to land. We endeavored to do so, but
fortunately the water was too shallow to
approach near enough.
"We had hardly steered about for the
channel, when the man suddenly rushed into
the bushes and disappeared. We got into the
channel, and continued some time in deep
water, but this suddenly shoaled, and the
boats grounded near a mangrove, just as we
came in sight of a village. Our crew jumped
out, and commenced tracking the boat over
the sand, and while thus employed, I
observed by means of my glass, a crowd of
natives, and some of the pirates running
down the other side of a low point,
apparently with the intention of giving us
battle, as they were all armed with spears
and muskets."
The men had just succeeded in drawing the
boats into deep water, when a great number
of canoes were observed coming round the
point, and at the same instant another large
party running down to launch; some more on
the beach, when they joined those already
afloat, in all made above twenty-eight
canoes, and about one hundred and fifty men.
Having collected all their forces, with loud
whooping and encouraging shouts to one
another, they led towards us with great
celerity.
We prepared instantly for battle; the
awnings were got down to allow room to use
the cutlasses and to load the muskets. The
brass guns were loaded with grape shot. They
now approached uttering terrific yells, and
paddling with all speed. On board the canoes
the pirates were loading the guns and
encouraging the natives. Bernardo de Soto
and Francisco Ruiz were conspicuous, in
manoeuvring the negro boats for battle, and
commenced a straggling fire upon the English
boats. In them all was still, each man had a
cutlass by his side, and a loaded musket in
his hand. On arriving within pistol-shot a
well directed fire was poured into them,
seconded by a discharge of the three
pounders; many of the balls took effect, and
two of the canoes were sunk. A brisk fire
was kept up on both sides; a great number of
the negroes were killed, and a few of the
pirates; the English loss was small. The
negroes now became panic-struck, and some
paddled towards the shore, others jumped
overboard and swam; the sharks caught
several. Captain Gilbert and De Soto were
now caught, together with five of the crew;
Ruiz and the rest escaped to a village, some
ways inland, and with the aid of a telescope
it was perceived the negroes were rapidly
gathering to renew the combat, urged on by
Ruiz and the other pirates; after dislodging
them from this village, negociations were
entered into by the king of Cape Lopez, who
surrendered Ruiz and several men to Captain
Trotter. They were carried in the brig
Curlew to Fernando Po, and after an
examination, were put in irons and conveyed
to England, and there put on board the
British gun-brig Savage, and arrived in the
harbor of Salem on the 26th August, 1834.
Her commander, Lieut. Loney, waited upon the
authorities of Salem, and after the usual
formalities, surrendered the prisoners into
their hands--stating that the British
Government waived their right to try and
punish the prisoners, in favor of the United
States, against whom the principal offence
had been committed. The pirates were landed
at Crowningshield wharf, and taken from
thence in carriages to the Town hall; twelve
of them, handcuffed in pairs, took their
places at the bar. They were all young and
middle-aged, the oldest was not over forty.
Physiognomically, they were not uncommonly
ill looking, in general, although there were
exceptions, and they were all clean and
wholesome in their appearance. They were now
removed to Boston and confined in prison,
where one of them, named Manuel Delgarno cut
his throat with a piece of glass, thus
verifying the old proverb, that those
born to be hung, will never be drown'd!
On the 11th of November, Don Pedro
Gilbert, Captain, Don Bernardo de
Soto, Mate, Francisco Ruiz,
Carpenter, Nicola Costa, Cabin-boy,
aged 15, Antonio Ferrer, Cook, and
Manuel Boyga, Domingo de Guzman, an
Indian, Juan Antonio Portana, Manuel
Castillo, Angel Garcia, Jose Velasquez, and
Juan Montenegro, alias Jose Basilio
de Castro, were arraigned before the Circuit
Court of the United States, charged with the
crime of Piracy. Joseph Perez appeared as
State's evidence, and two Portuguese
sailors who were shipped on board the Panda
at Prince's Island, as witnesses. After a
jury was empannelled, Mr. Dunlap, the
District Attorney, rose and said--"This is a
solemn, and also an unusual scene. Here are
twelve men, strangers to our country and to
our language, indicted for a heinous
offence, and now before you for life or
death. They are indicted for a daring crime,
and a flagrant violation of the laws, not
only of this, but of every other civilized
people." He then gave an outline of the
commission of the robbery of the Mexican.
Numerous witnesses were examined, amongst
whom were the captain, mate, and several
seamen of the Mexican, who recognized
several of the pirates as being the
individuals who maltreated them, and took
the specie. When Thomas Fuller, one of the
crew of the Mexican was called upon to
identify Ruiz, he went up to him and struck
him a violent blow on the shoulder. Ruiz
immediately started up, and with violent
gesticulations protested against such
conduct, and was joined by his companions.
The Court reprimanded the witness severely.
The trial occupied fourteen days. The
counsel for the prisoners were David L.
Child, Esq., and George Hillard, Esq., who
defended them with great ability. Mr. Child
brought to the cause his untiring zeal, his
various and profound learning; and exhibited
a labour, and desperation which
showed that he was fully conscious of the
weight of the load--the dead lift--he had
undertaken to carry. Mr. Hillard concluded
his argument, by making an eloquent and
affecting appeal to the jury in behalf of
the boy Costa and Antonio Ferrer, the cook,
and alluded to the circumstance of Bernardo
de Soto having rescued the lives of 70
individuals on board the American ship
Minerva, whilst on a voyage from
Philadelphia to Havana, when captain of the
brig Leon.
Explosion of the Panda.
If, gentlemen, said he, you deem with me,
that the crew of the Panda, (supposing her
to have robbed the Mexican,) were merely
servants of the captain, you cannot convict
them. But if you do not agree with me, then
all that remains for me to do, is to address
a few words to you in the way of mercy. It
does not seem to me that the good of society
requires the death of all these men, the
sacrifice of such a hecatomb of human
victims, or that the sword of the law should
fall till it is clogged with massacre.
Antonio Ferrer is plainly but a servant.
He is set down as a free black in the ship's
papers, but that is no proof that he is
free. Were he a slave, he would in all
probability be represented as free, and this
for obvious reasons. He is in all
probability a slave, and a native African,
as the tattooing on his face proves beyond a
doubt. At any rate, he is but a servant. Now
will you make misfortune pay the penalty of
guilt? Do not, I entreat you, lightly
condemn this man to death. Do not throw him
in to make up the dozen. The regard for
human life is one of the most prominent
proofs of a civilized state of society. The
Sultan of Turkey may place women in sacks
and throw them into the Bosphorus, without
exciting more than an hour's additional
conversation at Constantinople. But in our
country it is different. You well remember
the excitement produced by the abduction and
death of a single individual; the
convulsions which ensued, the effect of
which will long be felt in our political
institutions. You will ever find that the
more a nation becomes civilized, the greater
becomes the regard for human life. There is
in the eye, the form, and heaven-directed
countenance of man, something holy, that
forbids he should be rudely touched.
The instinct of life is great. The light
of the sun even in chains, is pleasant; and
life, though supported but by the damp
exhalations of a dungeon, is desirable.
Often, too, we cling with added tenacity to
life in proportion as we are deprived of all
that makes existence to be coveted.
Thomas Fuller striking Ruiz in Court.
"The weariest and most loathed worldly
life.
That age,
ache, penury and imprisonment
Can lay on
Nature, is a Paradise
To that we
fear of Death."
Death is a fearful thing. The mere
mention of it sometimes blanches the cheek,
and sends the fearful blood to the heart. It
is a solemn thing to break into the "bloody
house of life." Do not, because this man is
but an African, imagine that his existence
is valueless. He is no drift weed on the
ocean of life. There are in his bosom the
same social sympathies that animate our own.
He has nerves to feel pain, and a heart to
throb with human affections, even as you
have. His life, to establish the law, or to
further the ends of justice, is not
required. Taken, it is to us of no
value; given to him, it is above the price
of rubies.
And Costa, the cabin boy, only
fifteen years of age when this crime was
committed--shall he die? Shall the sword
fall upon his neck? Some of you are advanced
in years--you may have children. Suppose the
news had reached you, that your son was
under trial for his life, in a foreign
country--(and every cabin boy who leaves
this port may be placed in the situation of
this prisoner,)--suppose you were told that
he had been executed, because his captain
and officers had violated the laws of a
distant land; what would be your feelings? I
cannot tell, but I believe the feelings of
all of you would be the same, and that you
would exclaim, with the Hebrew, "My son! my
son! would to God I had died for thee." This
boy has a father; let the form of
that father rise up before you, and plead in
your hearts for his offspring. Perhaps he
has a mother, and a home. Think of the
lengthened shadow that must have been cast
over that home by his absence. Think of his
mother, during those hours of wretchedness,
when she has felt hope darkening into
disappointment, next into anxiety, and from
anxiety into despair. How often may she have
stretched forth her hands in supplication,
and asked, even the winds of heaven, to
bring her tidings of him who was away? Let
the supplications of that mother touch your
hearts, and shield their object from the
law.
After a luminous charge by Judge Story,
the jury retired to agree upon their
verdict, and at 9 o'clock the next morning
came in with their verdict.
Clerk. Gentlemen of the Jury, have
you agreed upon your verdict?
Jury. We have.
Clerk. Who shall speak for you?
Jury. Our foreman.
The prisoners were then directed
severally to rise as soon as called, and
receive the verdict of the jury. The
Captain, Pedro Gilbert, was the first
named. He arose, raised his hand, and
regarded the jury with a firm countenance
and steady eye.
Clerk. Jurors look upon the
prisoner; prisoner look upon the jurors. How
say you, Gentlemen, is the prisoner at the
bar, Pedro Gilbert, guilty or not guilty?
Foreman. GUILTY.
The same verdict was pronounced against
De Soto (the mate) Ruiz, (the
carpenter,) Boyga, Castillo, Garcia
and Montenegro. But Costa,
(the cabin-boy,) Ferrer (the negro,)
Guzman, Portana, and Velasquez,
were declared NOT GUILTY.
After having declared the verdict of the
Jury, the Foreman read to the Court the
following recommendation to mercy:
"The sympathies of the Jury have been
strongly moved in behalf of Bernardo de
Soto, on account of his generous, noble
and self-sacrificing conduct in saving the
lives of more than 70 human beings,
constituting the passengers and crew of the
ship Minerva; and they desire that
his case should be presented to the merciful
consideration of the Government."
Judge Story replied that the wish of the
jury would certainly be complied with both
by the Court and the prosecuting officer.
"The appearance and demeanor of Captain
Gilbert are the same as when we first saw
him; his eye is undimmed, and decision and
command yet sit upon his features. We did
not discern the slightest alteration of
color or countenance when the verdict of the
jury was communicated to him; he merely
slightly bowed and resumed his seat. With
De Soto the case was different. He is
much altered; has become thinner, and his
countenance this morning was expressive of
the deepest despondency. When informed of
the contents of the paper read by the
foreman of the jury, he appeared much
affected, and while being removed from the
Court, covered his face with his
handkerchief."
Immediately after the delivery of the
verdict, the acquitted prisoners, on motion
of Mr. Hillard, were directed to be
discharged, upon which several of the others
loudly and angrily expressed their
dissatisfaction at the result of the trial.
Castillo (a half-caste, with an
extremely mild and pleasing countenance,)
pointed towards heaven, and called upon the
Almighty to bear witness that he was
innocent; Ruiz uttered some words
with great vehemence; and Garcia said
"all were in the same ship; and it was
strange that some should be permitted to
escape while others were punished." Most of
them on leaving the Court uttered some
invective against "the picaro who had
sworn their lives away."
On Costa, the cabin boy, (aged 16)
being declared "Not Guilty" some degree of
approbation was manifested by the audience,
but instantly checked by the judge, who
directed the officers to take into custody,
every one expressing either assent or
dissent. We certainly think the sympathy
expressed in favor of Costa very ill
placed, for although we have not deemed
ourselves at liberty to mention the fact
earlier, his conduct during the whole trial
was characterized by the most reckless
effrontery and indecorum. Even when standing
up to receive the verdict of the jury, his
face bore an impudent smile, and he evinced
the most total disregard of the mercy which
had been extended towards him.
About this time vague rumors reached
Corunna, that a Captain belonging to that
place, engaged in the Slave Trade, had
turned Pirate, been captured, and sent to
America with his crew for punishment. Report
at first fixed it upon a noted slave-dealer,
named Begaro. But the astounding
intelligence soon reached Senora de Soto,
that her husband was the person captured for
this startling crime. The shock to her
feelings was terrible, but her love and
fortitude surmounted them all; and she
determined to brave the terrors of the
ocean, to intercede for her husband if
condemned, and at all events behold him once
more. A small schooner was freighted by her
own and husband's father, and in it she
embarked for New-York. After a boisterous
passage, the vessel reached that port, when
she learned her husband had already been
tried and condemned to die. The humane
people of New-York advised her to hasten on
to Washington, and plead with the President
for a pardon. On arriving at the capital,
she solicited an interview with General
Jackson, which was readily granted. From the
circumstance of her husband's having saved
the lives of seventy Americans, a merciful
ear was turned to her solicitations, and a
pardon for De Soto was given her, with which
she hastened to Boston, and communicated to
him the joyful intelligence.
Andrew Jackson, President of the United
States of America, to all to whom these
presents shall come, Greeting:
Whereas, at the October Term, 1834, of the
Circuit Court of the United States, Bernardo
de Soto was convicted of Piracy, and
sentenced to be hung on the 11th day of
March last from which sentence a respite was
granted him for three months, bearing date
the third day of March, 1835, also a
subsequent one, dated on the fifth day of
June, 1835, for sixty days. And whereas the
said Bernardo de Soto has been represented
as a fit subject for executive clemency--
Now therefore, I, Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States of America,
in consideration of the premises, divers
good and sufficient causes me thereto
moving, have pardoned, and hereby do pardon
the said Bernardo de Soto, from and after
the 11th August next, and direct that he be
then discharged from confinement. In
testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed
my name, and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed to these presents. Done
at the City of Washington the sixth day of
July, AD. 1835, and of the independence of
the United States and sixtieth. Andrew
Jackson.
On the fatal morning of June 11th, 1835,
Don Pedro, Juan Montenegro, Manuel Castillo,
Angel Garcia and Manuel Boyga, were,
agreeably to sentence, summoned to prepare
for immediate execution. On the night
previous, a mutual agreement had been
entered into to commit suicide. Angel Garcia
made the first attempt by trying to open the
veins of each arm with a piece of glass; but
was prevented. In the morning, however,
while preparations were making for the
execution, Boyga succeeded in inflicting a
deep gash on the left side of his neck, with
a piece of tin. The officer's eyes had been
withdrawn from him scarcely a minute, before
he was discovered lying on his pallet, with
a convulsive motion of his knees, from loss
of blood. Medical aid was at hand, the gash
sewed up, but he did not revive. Two
Catholic clergymen attended them on the
scaffold, one a Spanish priest. They were
executed in the rear of the jail. When the
procession arrived at the foot of the ladder
leading up to the platform of the gallows
the Rev. Mr. Varella looking directly at
Capt. Gilbert, said, "Spaniards, ascend to
heaven." Don Pedro mounted with a quick
step, and was followed by his comrades at a
more moderate pace, but without the least
hesitation. Boyga, unconscious of his
situation and destiny, was carried up in a
chair, and seated beneath the rope prepared
for him. Gilbert, Montenegro, Garcia and
Castillo all smiled subduedly as they took
their stations on the platform. Soon after
Capt. Gilbert ascended the scaffold, he
passed over to where the apparently lifeless
Boyga was seated in the chair, and kissed
him. Addressing his followers, he said,
"Boys, we are going to die; but let us be
firm, for we are innocent." To Mr. Peyton,
the interpreter, he said, "I die innocent,
but I'll die like a noble Spaniard. Good
bye, brother." The Marshal having read the
warrant for their execution, and stated that
de Soto was respited sixty and Ruiz
thirty days, the ropes were adjusted
round the necks of the prisoners, and a
slight hectic flush spread over the
countenance of each; but not an eye quailed,
nor a limb trembled, not a muscle quivered.
The fatal cord was now cut, and the platform
fell, by which the prisoners were launched
into eternity. After the execution was over,
Ruiz, who was confined in his cell,
attracted considerable attention, by his
maniac shouts and singing. At one time
holding up a piece of blanket, stained with
Boyga's blood, he gave utterance to his
ravings in a sort of recitative, the burden
of which was--"This is the red flag my
companions died under!"
After the expiration of Ruiz' second
respite, the Marshal got two surgeons of the
United States Navy, who understood the
Spanish language, to attend him in his cell;
they, after a patient examination pronounced
his madness a counterfeit, and his insanity
a hoax. Accordingly, on the morning of Sept.
11th, the Marshal, in company with a
Catholic priest and interpreter entered his
cell, and made him sensible that longer
evasion of the sentence of the law was
impossible, and that he must surely die.
They informed him that he had but half an
hour to live, and retired; when he requested
that he might not be disturbed during the
brief space that remained to him, and
turning his back to the open entrance to his
cell, he unrolled some fragments of printed
prayers, and commenced reading them to
himself. During this interval he neither
spoke, nor heeded those who were watching
him; but undoubtedly suffered extreme mental
agony. At one minute he would drop his chin
on his bosom, and stand motionless; at
another would press his brow to the wall of
his cell, or wave his body from side to
side, as if wrung with unutterable anguish.
Suddenly, he would throw himself upon his
knees on the mattress, and prostrate himself
as if in prayer; then throwing his prayers
from him, he would clutch his rug in his
fingers, and like a child try to double it
up, or pick it to pieces. After snatching up
his rug and throwing it away again and
again, he would suddenly resume his prayers
and erect posture, and stand mute, gazing
through the aperture that admitted the light
of day for upwards of a minute. This scene
of imbecility and indecision, of horrible
prostration of mind, ceasing in some degree
when the Catholic clergyman re-entered his
cell.
At 10 o'clock, the prisoner was removed
from the prison, and during his progress to
the scaffold, though the hue of death was on
his face, and he trembled in every joint
with fear, he chaunted with a powerful voice
an appropriate service from the Catholic
ritual. Several times he turned round to
survey the heavens which at that moment were
clear and bright above him and when he
ascended the scaffold after concluding his
prayer, he took one long and steadfast look
at the sun, and waited in silence his fate.
His powers, mental and physical had been
suddenly crushed with the appalling reality
that surrounded him; his whole soul was
absorbed with one master feeling, the dread
of a speedy and violent death. He quailed in
the presence of the dreadful paraphernalia
of his punishment, as much as if he had been
a stranger to deeds of blood, and never
dealt death to his fellow man as he ploughed
the deep, under the black flag of piracy,
with the motto of "Rob, Kill, and Burn."
After adjusting the rope, a signal was
given. The body dropped heavily, and the
harsh abrupt shock must have instantly
deprived him of sensation, as there was no
voluntary action of the hands afterwards.
Thus terminated his career of crime in a
foreign land without one friend to recognize
or cheer him, or a single being to regret
his death.
The Spanish Consul having requested that
the bodies might not be given to the
faculty, they were interred at night under
the direction of the Marshal, in the
Catholic burial-ground at Charlestown. There
being no murder committed with the piracy,
the laws of the United States do not
authorize the court to order the bodies for
dissection.
Ruiz leaving the Panda.
"We sent in to notify him of our arrival;
he sent word out that we might remain
outside until it suited his convenience. But
as such an arrangement did not suit ours, we
immediately entered, and found sitting at a
table the king. He was a tall, muscular,
ugly looking negro, about fifty years of
age. We explained the object of our visit,
which was to demand the surrender of the
white men, who were now concealed in the
town, and for permission to pass up the
river in pursuit of those who had gone up
that way. He now expressed the most violent
indignation at our presumption in demanding
the pirates, and the interview was broken
off by his refusing to deliver up a single
man."
We will now return to the pirates. While
at Prince's Island, Capt. Gilbert bought a
magnificent dressing case worth nearly a
thousand dollars and a patent lever watch,
and a quantity of tobacco, and provisions,
and two valuable cloth coats, some Guinea
cloth and black and green paint. The paint,
cloth and coats were intended as presents
for the African king at Cape Lopez. These
articles were all bought with the money
taken from the Mexican. After arriving at
the Nazareth, $4000 were taken from the
trunk, and buried in the yard of a negro
prince. Four of the pirates then went to
Cape Lopez for $11,000, which had been
buried there. Boyga, Castillo, Guzman, and
the "State's Evidence," Ferez, were the ones
who went. Ferez took the bags out, and the
others counted the money; great haste was
made as the musquitoes were biting
intolerably. $5000 were buried for the
captain in canvas bags about two feet deep,
part of the money was carried to Nazareth,
and from there carried into the mountains
and there buried. A consultation was held by
Capt. Gilbert, De Soto, and Ruiz, and the
latter said, if the money was not divided,
"there would be the devil to pay." The money
was now divided in a dark room and a lantern
used; Capt. Gilbert sat on the floor with
the money at his side. He gave the mate
about $3000, and the other officers $1000,
each; and the crew from $300 to $500, each.
The third mate having fled, the captain sent
him $1000, and Ruiz carried it to him. When
the money was first taken from the Mexican,
it was spread out on the companion way and
examined to see if there was any gold
amongst it; and then put into bags made of
dark coarse linen; the boxes were then
thrown overboard. After the division of the
money the pirates secreted themselves in the
woods behind Cape Lopez. Perez and four
others procured a boat, and started for
Fernando Po; they put their money in the
bottom of the boat for ballast, but was
thrown overboard, near a rock and afterwards
recovered by divers; this was done to
prevent detection. The captain, mate, and
carpenter had a conversation respecting the
attempt of the latter, to blow her up, who
could not account for the circumstance, that
an explosion had not taken place; they told
him he ought to have burst a barrel of
powder over the deck and down the stairs to
the magazine, loaded a gun, tied a fish line
to the lock and pulled it when he came off
in the canoe.
View of the Negro village on the
river Nazareth, and the Panda at anchor.
The Panda being manned by Capt. Trotter and
an English crew, commenced firing on the
town of Cape Lopez, but after firing several
shots, a spark communicated with the
magazine and she blew up. Several men were
killed, and Captain Trotter and the others
thrown into the water, when he was made
prisoner with several of his crew, by the
King, and it required considerable
negociations to get them free.
Burying the money on the beach at
Cape Lopez.
The pirates having gone up the river, an
expedition was now equipped to take them if
possible. The long-boat and pinnace were
instantly armed, and victualled for several
weeks, a brass gun was mounted on the bows
of each, and awnings fixed up to protect the
crew from the extreme heat of the sun by
day, and the heavy dews at nightfall. As the
sea-breeze and the flood-tide set in, the
boats again started and proceeded up the
river. It was ascertained the war-canoes
were beyond where the Panda was first taken;
for fear of an ambuscade great caution was
observed in proceeding. "As we approached a
point, a single native was observed standing
near a hut erected near the river, who, as
we approached, beckoned, and called for us
to land. We endeavored to do so, but
fortunately the water was too shallow to
approach near enough.
"We had hardly steered about for the
channel, when the man suddenly rushed into
the bushes and disappeared. We got into the
channel, and continued some time in deep
water, but this suddenly shoaled, and the
boats grounded near a mangrove, just as we
came in sight of a village. Our crew jumped
out, and commenced tracking the boat over
the sand, and while thus employed, I
observed by means of my glass, a crowd of
natives, and some of the pirates running
down the other side of a low point,
apparently with the intention of giving us
battle, as they were all armed with spears
and muskets."
The men had just succeeded in drawing the
boats into deep water, when a great number
of canoes were observed coming round the
point, and at the same instant another large
party running down to launch; some more on
the beach, when they joined those already
afloat, in all made above twenty-eight
canoes, and about one hundred and fifty men.
Having collected all their forces, with loud
whooping and encouraging shouts to one
another, they led towards us with great
celerity.
We prepared instantly for battle; the
awnings were got down to allow room to use
the cutlasses and to load the muskets. The
brass guns were loaded with grape shot. They
now approached uttering terrific yells, and
paddling with all speed. On board the canoes
the pirates were loading the guns and
encouraging the natives. Bernardo de Soto
and Francisco Ruiz were conspicuous, in
manoeuvring the negro boats for battle, and
commenced a straggling fire upon the English
boats. In them all was still, each man had a
cutlass by his side, and a loaded musket in
his hand. On arriving within pistol-shot a
well directed fire was poured into them,
seconded by a discharge of the three
pounders; many of the balls took effect, and
two of the canoes were sunk. A brisk fire
was kept up on both sides; a great number of
the negroes were killed, and a few of the
pirates; the English loss was small. The
negroes now became panic-struck, and some
paddled towards the shore, others jumped
overboard and swam; the sharks caught
several. Captain Gilbert and De Soto were
now caught, together with five of the crew;
Ruiz and the rest escaped to a village, some
ways inland, and with the aid of a telescope
it was perceived the negroes were rapidly
gathering to renew the combat, urged on by
Ruiz and the other pirates; after dislodging
them from this village, negociations were
entered into by the king of Cape Lopez, who
surrendered Ruiz and several men to Captain
Trotter. They were carried in the brig
Curlew to Fernando Po, and after an
examination, were put in irons and conveyed
to England, and there put on board the
British gun-brig Savage, and arrived in the
harbor of Salem on the 26th August, 1834.
Her commander, Lieut. Loney, waited upon the
authorities of Salem, and after the usual
formalities, surrendered the prisoners into
their hands--stating that the British
Government waived their right to try and
punish the prisoners, in favor of the United
States, against whom the principal offence
had been committed. The pirates were landed
at Crowningshield wharf, and taken from
thence in carriages to the Town hall; twelve
of them, handcuffed in pairs, took their
places at the bar. They were all young and
middle-aged, the oldest was not over forty.
Physiognomically, they were not uncommonly
ill looking, in general, although there were
exceptions, and they were all clean and
wholesome in their appearance. They were now
removed to Boston and confined in prison,
where one of them, named Manuel Delgarno cut
his throat with a piece of glass, thus
verifying the old proverb, that those
born to be hung, will never be drown'd!
On the 11th of November, Don Pedro
Gilbert, Captain, Don Bernardo de
Soto, Mate, Francisco Ruiz,
Carpenter, Nicola Costa, Cabin-boy,
aged 15, Antonio Ferrer, Cook, and
Manuel Boyga, Domingo de Guzman, an
Indian, Juan Antonio Portana, Manuel
Castillo, Angel Garcia, Jose Velasquez, and
Juan Montenegro, alias Jose Basilio
de Castro, were arraigned before the Circuit
Court of the United States, charged with the
crime of Piracy. Joseph Perez appeared as
State's evidence, and two Portuguese
sailors who were shipped on board the Panda
at Prince's Island, as witnesses. After a
jury was empannelled, Mr. Dunlap, the
District Attorney, rose and said--"This is a
solemn, and also an unusual scene. Here are
twelve men, strangers to our country and to
our language, indicted for a heinous
offence, and now before you for life or
death. They are indicted for a daring crime,
and a flagrant violation of the laws, not
only of this, but of every other civilized
people." He then gave an outline of the
commission of the robbery of the Mexican.
Numerous witnesses were examined, amongst
whom were the captain, mate, and several
seamen of the Mexican, who recognized
several of the pirates as being the
individuals who maltreated them, and took
the specie. When Thomas Fuller, one of the
crew of the Mexican was called upon to
identify Ruiz, he went up to him and struck
him a violent blow on the shoulder. Ruiz
immediately started up, and with violent
gesticulations protested against such
conduct, and was joined by his companions.
The Court reprimanded the witness severely.
The trial occupied fourteen days. The
counsel for the prisoners were David L.
Child, Esq., and George Hillard, Esq., who
defended them with great ability. Mr. Child
brought to the cause his untiring zeal, his
various and profound learning; and exhibited
a labour, and desperation which
showed that he was fully conscious of the
weight of the load--the dead lift--he had
undertaken to carry. Mr. Hillard concluded
his argument, by making an eloquent and
affecting appeal to the jury in behalf of
the boy Costa and Antonio Ferrer, the cook,
and alluded to the circumstance of Bernardo
de Soto having rescued the lives of 70
individuals on board the American ship
Minerva, whilst on a voyage from
Philadelphia to Havana, when captain of the
brig Leon.
Explosion of the Panda.
If, gentlemen, said he, you deem with me,
that the crew of the Panda, (supposing her
to have robbed the Mexican,) were merely
servants of the captain, you cannot convict
them. But if you do not agree with me, then
all that remains for me to do, is to address
a few words to you in the way of mercy. It
does not seem to me that the good of society
requires the death of all these men, the
sacrifice of such a hecatomb of human
victims, or that the sword of the law should
fall till it is clogged with massacre.
Antonio Ferrer is plainly but a servant.
He is set down as a free black in the ship's
papers, but that is no proof that he is
free. Were he a slave, he would in all
probability be represented as free, and this
for obvious reasons. He is in all
probability a slave, and a native African,
as the tattooing on his face proves beyond a
doubt. At any rate, he is but a servant. Now
will you make misfortune pay the penalty of
guilt? Do not, I entreat you, lightly
condemn this man to death. Do not throw him
in to make up the dozen. The regard for
human life is one of the most prominent
proofs of a civilized state of society. The
Sultan of Turkey may place women in sacks
and throw them into the Bosphorus, without
exciting more than an hour's additional
conversation at Constantinople. But in our
country it is different. You well remember
the excitement produced by the abduction and
death of a single individual; the
convulsions which ensued, the effect of
which will long be felt in our political
institutions. You will ever find that the
more a nation becomes civilized, the greater
becomes the regard for human life. There is
in the eye, the form, and heaven-directed
countenance of man, something holy, that
forbids he should be rudely touched.
The instinct of life is great. The light
of the sun even in chains, is pleasant; and
life, though supported but by the damp
exhalations of a dungeon, is desirable.
Often, too, we cling with added tenacity to
life in proportion as we are deprived of all
that makes existence to be coveted.
Thomas Fuller striking Ruiz in Court.
"The weariest and most loathed worldly
life.
That age,
ache, penury and imprisonment
Can lay on
Nature, is a Paradise
To that we
fear of Death."
Death is a fearful thing. The mere
mention of it sometimes blanches the cheek,
and sends the fearful blood to the heart. It
is a solemn thing to break into the "bloody
house of life." Do not, because this man is
but an African, imagine that his existence
is valueless. He is no drift weed on the
ocean of life. There are in his bosom the
same social sympathies that animate our own.
He has nerves to feel pain, and a heart to
throb with human affections, even as you
have. His life, to establish the law, or to
further the ends of justice, is not
required. Taken, it is to us of no
value; given to him, it is above the price
of rubies.
And Costa, the cabin boy, only
fifteen years of age when this crime was
committed--shall he die? Shall the sword
fall upon his neck? Some of you are advanced
in years--you may have children. Suppose the
news had reached you, that your son was
under trial for his life, in a foreign
country--(and every cabin boy who leaves
this port may be placed in the situation of
this prisoner,)--suppose you were told that
he had been executed, because his captain
and officers had violated the laws of a
distant land; what would be your feelings? I
cannot tell, but I believe the feelings of
all of you would be the same, and that you
would exclaim, with the Hebrew, "My son! my
son! would to God I had died for thee." This
boy has a father; let the form of
that father rise up before you, and plead in
your hearts for his offspring. Perhaps he
has a mother, and a home. Think of the
lengthened shadow that must have been cast
over that home by his absence. Think of his
mother, during those hours of wretchedness,
when she has felt hope darkening into
disappointment, next into anxiety, and from
anxiety into despair. How often may she have
stretched forth her hands in supplication,
and asked, even the winds of heaven, to
bring her tidings of him who was away? Let
the supplications of that mother touch your
hearts, and shield their object from the
law.
After a luminous charge by Judge Story,
the jury retired to agree upon their
verdict, and at 9 o'clock the next morning
came in with their verdict.
Clerk. Gentlemen of the Jury, have
you agreed upon your verdict?
Jury. We have.
Clerk. Who shall speak for you?
Jury. Our foreman.
The prisoners were then directed
severally to rise as soon as called, and
receive the verdict of the jury. The
Captain, Pedro Gilbert, was the first
named. He arose, raised his hand, and
regarded the jury with a firm countenance
and steady eye.
Clerk. Jurors look upon the
prisoner; prisoner look upon the jurors. How
say you, Gentlemen, is the prisoner at the
bar, Pedro Gilbert, guilty or not guilty?
Foreman. GUILTY.
The same verdict was pronounced against
De Soto (the mate) Ruiz, (the
carpenter,) Boyga, Castillo, Garcia
and Montenegro. But Costa,
(the cabin-boy,) Ferrer (the negro,)
Guzman, Portana, and Velasquez,
were declared NOT GUILTY.
After having declared the verdict of the
Jury, the Foreman read to the Court the
following recommendation to mercy:
"The sympathies of the Jury have been
strongly moved in behalf of Bernardo de
Soto, on account of his generous, noble
and self-sacrificing conduct in saving the
lives of more than 70 human beings,
constituting the passengers and crew of the
ship Minerva; and they desire that
his case should be presented to the merciful
consideration of the Government."
Judge Story replied that the wish of the
jury would certainly be complied with both
by the Court and the prosecuting officer.
"The appearance and demeanor of Captain
Gilbert are the same as when we first saw
him; his eye is undimmed, and decision and
command yet sit upon his features. We did
not discern the slightest alteration of
color or countenance when the verdict of the
jury was communicated to him; he merely
slightly bowed and resumed his seat. With
De Soto the case was different. He is
much altered; has become thinner, and his
countenance this morning was expressive of
the deepest despondency. When informed of
the contents of the paper read by the
foreman of the jury, he appeared much
affected, and while being removed from the
Court, covered his face with his
handkerchief."
Immediately after the delivery of the
verdict, the acquitted prisoners, on motion
of Mr. Hillard, were directed to be
discharged, upon which several of the others
loudly and angrily expressed their
dissatisfaction at the result of the trial.
Castillo (a half-caste, with an
extremely mild and pleasing countenance,)
pointed towards heaven, and called upon the
Almighty to bear witness that he was
innocent; Ruiz uttered some words
with great vehemence; and Garcia said
"all were in the same ship; and it was
strange that some should be permitted to
escape while others were punished." Most of
them on leaving the Court uttered some
invective against "the picaro who had
sworn their lives away."
On Costa, the cabin boy, (aged 16)
being declared "Not Guilty" some degree of
approbation was manifested by the audience,
but instantly checked by the judge, who
directed the officers to take into custody,
every one expressing either assent or
dissent. We certainly think the sympathy
expressed in favor of Costa very ill
placed, for although we have not deemed
ourselves at liberty to mention the fact
earlier, his conduct during the whole trial
was characterized by the most reckless
effrontery and indecorum. Even when standing
up to receive the verdict of the jury, his
face bore an impudent smile, and he evinced
the most total disregard of the mercy which
had been extended towards him.
About this time vague rumors reached
Corunna, that a Captain belonging to that
place, engaged in the Slave Trade, had
turned Pirate, been captured, and sent to
America with his crew for punishment. Report
at first fixed it upon a noted slave-dealer,
named Begaro. But the astounding
intelligence soon reached Senora de Soto,
that her husband was the person captured for
this startling crime. The shock to her
feelings was terrible, but her love and
fortitude surmounted them all; and she
determined to brave the terrors of the
ocean, to intercede for her husband if
condemned, and at all events behold him once
more. A small schooner was freighted by her
own and husband's father, and in it she
embarked for New-York. After a boisterous
passage, the vessel reached that port, when
she learned her husband had already been
tried and condemned to die. The humane
people of New-York advised her to hasten on
to Washington, and plead with the President
for a pardon. On arriving at the capital,
she solicited an interview with General
Jackson, which was readily granted. From the
circumstance of her husband's having saved
the lives of seventy Americans, a merciful
ear was turned to her solicitations, and a
pardon for De Soto was given her, with which
she hastened to Boston, and communicated to
him the joyful intelligence.
Andrew Jackson, President of the United
States of America, to all to whom these
presents shall come, Greeting:
Whereas, at the October Term, 1834, of the
Circuit Court of the United States, Bernardo
de Soto was convicted of Piracy, and
sentenced to be hung on the 11th day of
March last from which sentence a respite was
granted him for three months, bearing date
the third day of March, 1835, also a
subsequent one, dated on the fifth day of
June, 1835, for sixty days. And whereas the
said Bernardo de Soto has been represented
as a fit subject for executive clemency--
Now therefore, I, Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States of America,
in consideration of the premises, divers
good and sufficient causes me thereto
moving, have pardoned, and hereby do pardon
the said Bernardo de Soto, from and after
the 11th August next, and direct that he be
then discharged from confinement. In
testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed
my name, and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed to these presents. Done
at the City of Washington the sixth day of
July, AD. 1835, and of the independence of
the United States and sixtieth. Andrew
Jackson.
On the fatal morning of June 11th, 1835,
Don Pedro, Juan Montenegro, Manuel Castillo,
Angel Garcia and Manuel Boyga, were,
agreeably to sentence, summoned to prepare
for immediate execution. On the night
previous, a mutual agreement had been
entered into to commit suicide. Angel Garcia
made the first attempt by trying to open the
veins of each arm with a piece of glass; but
was prevented. In the morning, however,
while preparations were making for the
execution, Boyga succeeded in inflicting a
deep gash on the left side of his neck, with
a piece of tin. The officer's eyes had been
withdrawn from him scarcely a minute, before
he was discovered lying on his pallet, with
a convulsive motion of his knees, from loss
of blood. Medical aid was at hand, the gash
sewed up, but he did not revive. Two
Catholic clergymen attended them on the
scaffold, one a Spanish priest. They were
executed in the rear of the jail. When the
procession arrived at the foot of the ladder
leading up to the platform of the gallows
the Rev. Mr. Varella looking directly at
Capt. Gilbert, said, "Spaniards, ascend to
heaven." Don Pedro mounted with a quick
step, and was followed by his comrades at a
more moderate pace, but without the least
hesitation. Boyga, unconscious of his
situation and destiny, was carried up in a
chair, and seated beneath the rope prepared
for him. Gilbert, Montenegro, Garcia and
Castillo all smiled subduedly as they took
their stations on the platform. Soon after
Capt. Gilbert ascended the scaffold, he
passed over to where the apparently lifeless
Boyga was seated in the chair, and kissed
him. Addressing his followers, he said,
"Boys, we are going to die; but let us be
firm, for we are innocent." To Mr. Peyton,
the interpreter, he said, "I die innocent,
but I'll die like a noble Spaniard. Good
bye, brother." The Marshal having read the
warrant for their execution, and stated that
de Soto was respited sixty and Ruiz
thirty days, the ropes were adjusted
round the necks of the prisoners, and a
slight hectic flush spread over the
countenance of each; but not an eye quailed,
nor a limb trembled, not a muscle quivered.
The fatal cord was now cut, and the platform
fell, by which the prisoners were launched
into eternity. After the execution was over,
Ruiz, who was confined in his cell,
attracted considerable attention, by his
maniac shouts and singing. At one time
holding up a piece of blanket, stained with
Boyga's blood, he gave utterance to his
ravings in a sort of recitative, the burden
of which was--"This is the red flag my
companions died under!"
After the expiration of Ruiz' second
respite, the Marshal got two surgeons of the
United States Navy, who understood the
Spanish language, to attend him in his cell;
they, after a patient examination pronounced
his madness a counterfeit, and his insanity
a hoax. Accordingly, on the morning of Sept.
11th, the Marshal, in company with a
Catholic priest and interpreter entered his
cell, and made him sensible that longer
evasion of the sentence of the law was
impossible, and that he must surely die.
They informed him that he had but half an
hour to live, and retired; when he requested
that he might not be disturbed during the
brief space that remained to him, and
turning his back to the open entrance to his
cell, he unrolled some fragments of printed
prayers, and commenced reading them to
himself. During this interval he neither
spoke, nor heeded those who were watching
him; but undoubtedly suffered extreme mental
agony. At one minute he would drop his chin
on his bosom, and stand motionless; at
another would press his brow to the wall of
his cell, or wave his body from side to
side, as if wrung with unutterable anguish.
Suddenly, he would throw himself upon his
knees on the mattress, and prostrate himself
as if in prayer; then throwing his prayers
from him, he would clutch his rug in his
fingers, and like a child try to double it
up, or pick it to pieces. After snatching up
his rug and throwing it away again and
again, he would suddenly resume his prayers
and erect posture, and stand mute, gazing
through the aperture that admitted the light
of day for upwards of a minute. This scene
of imbecility and indecision, of horrible
prostration of mind, ceasing in some degree
when the Catholic clergyman re-entered his
cell.
At 10 o'clock, the prisoner was removed
from the prison, and during his progress to
the scaffold, though the hue of death was on
his face, and he trembled in every joint
with fear, he chaunted with a powerful voice
an appropriate service from the Catholic
ritual. Several times he turned round to
survey the heavens which at that moment were
clear and bright above him and when he
ascended the scaffold after concluding his
prayer, he took one long and steadfast look
at the sun, and waited in silence his fate.
His powers, mental and physical had been
suddenly crushed with the appalling reality
that surrounded him; his whole soul was
absorbed with one master feeling, the dread
of a speedy and violent death. He quailed in
the presence of the dreadful paraphernalia
of his punishment, as much as if he had been
a stranger to deeds of blood, and never
dealt death to his fellow man as he ploughed
the deep, under the black flag of piracy,
with the motto of "Rob, Kill, and Burn."
After adjusting the rope, a signal was
given. The body dropped heavily, and the
harsh abrupt shock must have instantly
deprived him of sensation, as there was no
voluntary action of the hands afterwards.
Thus terminated his career of crime in a
foreign land without one friend to recognize
or cheer him, or a single being to regret
his death.
The Spanish Consul having requested that
the bodies might not be given to the
faculty, they were interred at night under
the direction of the Marshal, in the
Catholic burial-ground at Charlestown. There
being no murder committed with the piracy,
the laws of the United States do not
authorize the court to order the bodies for
dissection.
Ruiz leaving the Panda.
View of the Negro village on the river Nazareth, and the Panda at anchor.
The Panda being manned by Capt. Trotter and an English crew, commenced firing on the town of Cape Lopez, but after firing several shots, a spark communicated with the magazine and she blew up. Several men were killed, and Captain Trotter and the others thrown into the water, when he was made prisoner with several of his crew, by the King, and it required considerable negociations to get them free.Burying the money on the beach at Cape Lopez.
The pirates having gone up the river, an
expedition was now equipped to take them if
possible. The long-boat and pinnace were
instantly armed, and victualled for several
weeks, a brass gun was mounted on the bows
of each, and awnings fixed up to protect the
crew from the extreme heat of the sun by
day, and the heavy dews at nightfall. As the
sea-breeze and the flood-tide set in, the
boats again started and proceeded up the
river. It was ascertained the war-canoes
were beyond where the Panda was first taken;
for fear of an ambuscade great caution was
observed in proceeding. "As we approached a
point, a single native was observed standing
near a hut erected near the river, who, as
we approached, beckoned, and called for us
to land. We endeavored to do so, but
fortunately the water was too shallow to
approach near enough.
"We had hardly steered about for the
channel, when the man suddenly rushed into
the bushes and disappeared. We got into the
channel, and continued some time in deep
water, but this suddenly shoaled, and the
boats grounded near a mangrove, just as we
came in sight of a village. Our crew jumped
out, and commenced tracking the boat over
the sand, and while thus employed, I
observed by means of my glass, a crowd of
natives, and some of the pirates running
down the other side of a low point,
apparently with the intention of giving us
battle, as they were all armed with spears
and muskets."
The men had just succeeded in drawing the
boats into deep water, when a great number
of canoes were observed coming round the
point, and at the same instant another large
party running down to launch; some more on
the beach, when they joined those already
afloat, in all made above twenty-eight
canoes, and about one hundred and fifty men.
Having collected all their forces, with loud
whooping and encouraging shouts to one
another, they led towards us with great
celerity.
We prepared instantly for battle; the
awnings were got down to allow room to use
the cutlasses and to load the muskets. The
brass guns were loaded with grape shot. They
now approached uttering terrific yells, and
paddling with all speed. On board the canoes
the pirates were loading the guns and
encouraging the natives. Bernardo de Soto
and Francisco Ruiz were conspicuous, in
manoeuvring the negro boats for battle, and
commenced a straggling fire upon the English
boats. In them all was still, each man had a
cutlass by his side, and a loaded musket in
his hand. On arriving within pistol-shot a
well directed fire was poured into them,
seconded by a discharge of the three
pounders; many of the balls took effect, and
two of the canoes were sunk. A brisk fire
was kept up on both sides; a great number of
the negroes were killed, and a few of the
pirates; the English loss was small. The
negroes now became panic-struck, and some
paddled towards the shore, others jumped
overboard and swam; the sharks caught
several. Captain Gilbert and De Soto were
now caught, together with five of the crew;
Ruiz and the rest escaped to a village, some
ways inland, and with the aid of a telescope
it was perceived the negroes were rapidly
gathering to renew the combat, urged on by
Ruiz and the other pirates; after dislodging
them from this village, negociations were
entered into by the king of Cape Lopez, who
surrendered Ruiz and several men to Captain
Trotter. They were carried in the brig
Curlew to Fernando Po, and after an
examination, were put in irons and conveyed
to England, and there put on board the
British gun-brig Savage, and arrived in the
harbor of Salem on the 26th August, 1834.
Her commander, Lieut. Loney, waited upon the
authorities of Salem, and after the usual
formalities, surrendered the prisoners into
their hands--stating that the British
Government waived their right to try and
punish the prisoners, in favor of the United
States, against whom the principal offence
had been committed. The pirates were landed
at Crowningshield wharf, and taken from
thence in carriages to the Town hall; twelve
of them, handcuffed in pairs, took their
places at the bar. They were all young and
middle-aged, the oldest was not over forty.
Physiognomically, they were not uncommonly
ill looking, in general, although there were
exceptions, and they were all clean and
wholesome in their appearance. They were now
removed to Boston and confined in prison,
where one of them, named Manuel Delgarno cut
his throat with a piece of glass, thus
verifying the old proverb, that those
born to be hung, will never be drown'd!
On the 11th of November, Don Pedro
Gilbert, Captain, Don Bernardo de
Soto, Mate, Francisco Ruiz,
Carpenter, Nicola Costa, Cabin-boy,
aged 15, Antonio Ferrer, Cook, and
Manuel Boyga, Domingo de Guzman, an
Indian, Juan Antonio Portana, Manuel
Castillo, Angel Garcia, Jose Velasquez, and
Juan Montenegro, alias Jose Basilio
de Castro, were arraigned before the Circuit
Court of the United States, charged with the
crime of Piracy. Joseph Perez appeared as
State's evidence, and two Portuguese
sailors who were shipped on board the Panda
at Prince's Island, as witnesses. After a
jury was empannelled, Mr. Dunlap, the
District Attorney, rose and said--"This is a
solemn, and also an unusual scene. Here are
twelve men, strangers to our country and to
our language, indicted for a heinous
offence, and now before you for life or
death. They are indicted for a daring crime,
and a flagrant violation of the laws, not
only of this, but of every other civilized
people." He then gave an outline of the
commission of the robbery of the Mexican.
Numerous witnesses were examined, amongst
whom were the captain, mate, and several
seamen of the Mexican, who recognized
several of the pirates as being the
individuals who maltreated them, and took
the specie. When Thomas Fuller, one of the
crew of the Mexican was called upon to
identify Ruiz, he went up to him and struck
him a violent blow on the shoulder. Ruiz
immediately started up, and with violent
gesticulations protested against such
conduct, and was joined by his companions.
The Court reprimanded the witness severely.
The trial occupied fourteen days. The
counsel for the prisoners were David L.
Child, Esq., and George Hillard, Esq., who
defended them with great ability. Mr. Child
brought to the cause his untiring zeal, his
various and profound learning; and exhibited
a labour, and desperation which
showed that he was fully conscious of the
weight of the load--the dead lift--he had
undertaken to carry. Mr. Hillard concluded
his argument, by making an eloquent and
affecting appeal to the jury in behalf of
the boy Costa and Antonio Ferrer, the cook,
and alluded to the circumstance of Bernardo
de Soto having rescued the lives of 70
individuals on board the American ship
Minerva, whilst on a voyage from
Philadelphia to Havana, when captain of the
brig Leon.
Explosion of the Panda.
If, gentlemen, said he, you deem with me,
that the crew of the Panda, (supposing her
to have robbed the Mexican,) were merely
servants of the captain, you cannot convict
them. But if you do not agree with me, then
all that remains for me to do, is to address
a few words to you in the way of mercy. It
does not seem to me that the good of society
requires the death of all these men, the
sacrifice of such a hecatomb of human
victims, or that the sword of the law should
fall till it is clogged with massacre.
Antonio Ferrer is plainly but a servant.
He is set down as a free black in the ship's
papers, but that is no proof that he is
free. Were he a slave, he would in all
probability be represented as free, and this
for obvious reasons. He is in all
probability a slave, and a native African,
as the tattooing on his face proves beyond a
doubt. At any rate, he is but a servant. Now
will you make misfortune pay the penalty of
guilt? Do not, I entreat you, lightly
condemn this man to death. Do not throw him
in to make up the dozen. The regard for
human life is one of the most prominent
proofs of a civilized state of society. The
Sultan of Turkey may place women in sacks
and throw them into the Bosphorus, without
exciting more than an hour's additional
conversation at Constantinople. But in our
country it is different. You well remember
the excitement produced by the abduction and
death of a single individual; the
convulsions which ensued, the effect of
which will long be felt in our political
institutions. You will ever find that the
more a nation becomes civilized, the greater
becomes the regard for human life. There is
in the eye, the form, and heaven-directed
countenance of man, something holy, that
forbids he should be rudely touched.
The instinct of life is great. The light
of the sun even in chains, is pleasant; and
life, though supported but by the damp
exhalations of a dungeon, is desirable.
Often, too, we cling with added tenacity to
life in proportion as we are deprived of all
that makes existence to be coveted.
Thomas Fuller striking Ruiz in Court.
"The weariest and most loathed worldly
life.
That age,
ache, penury and imprisonment
Can lay on
Nature, is a Paradise
To that we
fear of Death."
Death is a fearful thing. The mere
mention of it sometimes blanches the cheek,
and sends the fearful blood to the heart. It
is a solemn thing to break into the "bloody
house of life." Do not, because this man is
but an African, imagine that his existence
is valueless. He is no drift weed on the
ocean of life. There are in his bosom the
same social sympathies that animate our own.
He has nerves to feel pain, and a heart to
throb with human affections, even as you
have. His life, to establish the law, or to
further the ends of justice, is not
required. Taken, it is to us of no
value; given to him, it is above the price
of rubies.
And Costa, the cabin boy, only
fifteen years of age when this crime was
committed--shall he die? Shall the sword
fall upon his neck? Some of you are advanced
in years--you may have children. Suppose the
news had reached you, that your son was
under trial for his life, in a foreign
country--(and every cabin boy who leaves
this port may be placed in the situation of
this prisoner,)--suppose you were told that
he had been executed, because his captain
and officers had violated the laws of a
distant land; what would be your feelings? I
cannot tell, but I believe the feelings of
all of you would be the same, and that you
would exclaim, with the Hebrew, "My son! my
son! would to God I had died for thee." This
boy has a father; let the form of
that father rise up before you, and plead in
your hearts for his offspring. Perhaps he
has a mother, and a home. Think of the
lengthened shadow that must have been cast
over that home by his absence. Think of his
mother, during those hours of wretchedness,
when she has felt hope darkening into
disappointment, next into anxiety, and from
anxiety into despair. How often may she have
stretched forth her hands in supplication,
and asked, even the winds of heaven, to
bring her tidings of him who was away? Let
the supplications of that mother touch your
hearts, and shield their object from the
law.
After a luminous charge by Judge Story,
the jury retired to agree upon their
verdict, and at 9 o'clock the next morning
came in with their verdict.
Clerk. Gentlemen of the Jury, have
you agreed upon your verdict?
Jury. We have.
Clerk. Who shall speak for you?
Jury. Our foreman.
The prisoners were then directed
severally to rise as soon as called, and
receive the verdict of the jury. The
Captain, Pedro Gilbert, was the first
named. He arose, raised his hand, and
regarded the jury with a firm countenance
and steady eye.
Clerk. Jurors look upon the
prisoner; prisoner look upon the jurors. How
say you, Gentlemen, is the prisoner at the
bar, Pedro Gilbert, guilty or not guilty?
Foreman. GUILTY.
The same verdict was pronounced against
De Soto (the mate) Ruiz, (the
carpenter,) Boyga, Castillo, Garcia
and Montenegro. But Costa,
(the cabin-boy,) Ferrer (the negro,)
Guzman, Portana, and Velasquez,
were declared NOT GUILTY.
After having declared the verdict of the
Jury, the Foreman read to the Court the
following recommendation to mercy:
"The sympathies of the Jury have been
strongly moved in behalf of Bernardo de
Soto, on account of his generous, noble
and self-sacrificing conduct in saving the
lives of more than 70 human beings,
constituting the passengers and crew of the
ship Minerva; and they desire that
his case should be presented to the merciful
consideration of the Government."
Judge Story replied that the wish of the
jury would certainly be complied with both
by the Court and the prosecuting officer.
"The appearance and demeanor of Captain
Gilbert are the same as when we first saw
him; his eye is undimmed, and decision and
command yet sit upon his features. We did
not discern the slightest alteration of
color or countenance when the verdict of the
jury was communicated to him; he merely
slightly bowed and resumed his seat. With
De Soto the case was different. He is
much altered; has become thinner, and his
countenance this morning was expressive of
the deepest despondency. When informed of
the contents of the paper read by the
foreman of the jury, he appeared much
affected, and while being removed from the
Court, covered his face with his
handkerchief."
Immediately after the delivery of the
verdict, the acquitted prisoners, on motion
of Mr. Hillard, were directed to be
discharged, upon which several of the others
loudly and angrily expressed their
dissatisfaction at the result of the trial.
Castillo (a half-caste, with an
extremely mild and pleasing countenance,)
pointed towards heaven, and called upon the
Almighty to bear witness that he was
innocent; Ruiz uttered some words
with great vehemence; and Garcia said
"all were in the same ship; and it was
strange that some should be permitted to
escape while others were punished." Most of
them on leaving the Court uttered some
invective against "the picaro who had
sworn their lives away."
On Costa, the cabin boy, (aged 16)
being declared "Not Guilty" some degree of
approbation was manifested by the audience,
but instantly checked by the judge, who
directed the officers to take into custody,
every one expressing either assent or
dissent. We certainly think the sympathy
expressed in favor of Costa very ill
placed, for although we have not deemed
ourselves at liberty to mention the fact
earlier, his conduct during the whole trial
was characterized by the most reckless
effrontery and indecorum. Even when standing
up to receive the verdict of the jury, his
face bore an impudent smile, and he evinced
the most total disregard of the mercy which
had been extended towards him.
About this time vague rumors reached
Corunna, that a Captain belonging to that
place, engaged in the Slave Trade, had
turned Pirate, been captured, and sent to
America with his crew for punishment. Report
at first fixed it upon a noted slave-dealer,
named Begaro. But the astounding
intelligence soon reached Senora de Soto,
that her husband was the person captured for
this startling crime. The shock to her
feelings was terrible, but her love and
fortitude surmounted them all; and she
determined to brave the terrors of the
ocean, to intercede for her husband if
condemned, and at all events behold him once
more. A small schooner was freighted by her
own and husband's father, and in it she
embarked for New-York. After a boisterous
passage, the vessel reached that port, when
she learned her husband had already been
tried and condemned to die. The humane
people of New-York advised her to hasten on
to Washington, and plead with the President
for a pardon. On arriving at the capital,
she solicited an interview with General
Jackson, which was readily granted. From the
circumstance of her husband's having saved
the lives of seventy Americans, a merciful
ear was turned to her solicitations, and a
pardon for De Soto was given her, with which
she hastened to Boston, and communicated to
him the joyful intelligence.
Andrew Jackson, President of the United
States of America, to all to whom these
presents shall come, Greeting:
Whereas, at the October Term, 1834, of the
Circuit Court of the United States, Bernardo
de Soto was convicted of Piracy, and
sentenced to be hung on the 11th day of
March last from which sentence a respite was
granted him for three months, bearing date
the third day of March, 1835, also a
subsequent one, dated on the fifth day of
June, 1835, for sixty days. And whereas the
said Bernardo de Soto has been represented
as a fit subject for executive clemency--
Now therefore, I, Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States of America,
in consideration of the premises, divers
good and sufficient causes me thereto
moving, have pardoned, and hereby do pardon
the said Bernardo de Soto, from and after
the 11th August next, and direct that he be
then discharged from confinement. In
testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed
my name, and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed to these presents. Done
at the City of Washington the sixth day of
July, AD. 1835, and of the independence of
the United States and sixtieth. Andrew
Jackson.
On the fatal morning of June 11th, 1835,
Don Pedro, Juan Montenegro, Manuel Castillo,
Angel Garcia and Manuel Boyga, were,
agreeably to sentence, summoned to prepare
for immediate execution. On the night
previous, a mutual agreement had been
entered into to commit suicide. Angel Garcia
made the first attempt by trying to open the
veins of each arm with a piece of glass; but
was prevented. In the morning, however,
while preparations were making for the
execution, Boyga succeeded in inflicting a
deep gash on the left side of his neck, with
a piece of tin. The officer's eyes had been
withdrawn from him scarcely a minute, before
he was discovered lying on his pallet, with
a convulsive motion of his knees, from loss
of blood. Medical aid was at hand, the gash
sewed up, but he did not revive. Two
Catholic clergymen attended them on the
scaffold, one a Spanish priest. They were
executed in the rear of the jail. When the
procession arrived at the foot of the ladder
leading up to the platform of the gallows
the Rev. Mr. Varella looking directly at
Capt. Gilbert, said, "Spaniards, ascend to
heaven." Don Pedro mounted with a quick
step, and was followed by his comrades at a
more moderate pace, but without the least
hesitation. Boyga, unconscious of his
situation and destiny, was carried up in a
chair, and seated beneath the rope prepared
for him. Gilbert, Montenegro, Garcia and
Castillo all smiled subduedly as they took
their stations on the platform. Soon after
Capt. Gilbert ascended the scaffold, he
passed over to where the apparently lifeless
Boyga was seated in the chair, and kissed
him. Addressing his followers, he said,
"Boys, we are going to die; but let us be
firm, for we are innocent." To Mr. Peyton,
the interpreter, he said, "I die innocent,
but I'll die like a noble Spaniard. Good
bye, brother." The Marshal having read the
warrant for their execution, and stated that
de Soto was respited sixty and Ruiz
thirty days, the ropes were adjusted
round the necks of the prisoners, and a
slight hectic flush spread over the
countenance of each; but not an eye quailed,
nor a limb trembled, not a muscle quivered.
The fatal cord was now cut, and the platform
fell, by which the prisoners were launched
into eternity. After the execution was over,
Ruiz, who was confined in his cell,
attracted considerable attention, by his
maniac shouts and singing. At one time
holding up a piece of blanket, stained with
Boyga's blood, he gave utterance to his
ravings in a sort of recitative, the burden
of which was--"This is the red flag my
companions died under!"
After the expiration of Ruiz' second
respite, the Marshal got two surgeons of the
United States Navy, who understood the
Spanish language, to attend him in his cell;
they, after a patient examination pronounced
his madness a counterfeit, and his insanity
a hoax. Accordingly, on the morning of Sept.
11th, the Marshal, in company with a
Catholic priest and interpreter entered his
cell, and made him sensible that longer
evasion of the sentence of the law was
impossible, and that he must surely die.
They informed him that he had but half an
hour to live, and retired; when he requested
that he might not be disturbed during the
brief space that remained to him, and
turning his back to the open entrance to his
cell, he unrolled some fragments of printed
prayers, and commenced reading them to
himself. During this interval he neither
spoke, nor heeded those who were watching
him; but undoubtedly suffered extreme mental
agony. At one minute he would drop his chin
on his bosom, and stand motionless; at
another would press his brow to the wall of
his cell, or wave his body from side to
side, as if wrung with unutterable anguish.
Suddenly, he would throw himself upon his
knees on the mattress, and prostrate himself
as if in prayer; then throwing his prayers
from him, he would clutch his rug in his
fingers, and like a child try to double it
up, or pick it to pieces. After snatching up
his rug and throwing it away again and
again, he would suddenly resume his prayers
and erect posture, and stand mute, gazing
through the aperture that admitted the light
of day for upwards of a minute. This scene
of imbecility and indecision, of horrible
prostration of mind, ceasing in some degree
when the Catholic clergyman re-entered his
cell.
At 10 o'clock, the prisoner was removed
from the prison, and during his progress to
the scaffold, though the hue of death was on
his face, and he trembled in every joint
with fear, he chaunted with a powerful voice
an appropriate service from the Catholic
ritual. Several times he turned round to
survey the heavens which at that moment were
clear and bright above him and when he
ascended the scaffold after concluding his
prayer, he took one long and steadfast look
at the sun, and waited in silence his fate.
His powers, mental and physical had been
suddenly crushed with the appalling reality
that surrounded him; his whole soul was
absorbed with one master feeling, the dread
of a speedy and violent death. He quailed in
the presence of the dreadful paraphernalia
of his punishment, as much as if he had been
a stranger to deeds of blood, and never
dealt death to his fellow man as he ploughed
the deep, under the black flag of piracy,
with the motto of "Rob, Kill, and Burn."
After adjusting the rope, a signal was
given. The body dropped heavily, and the
harsh abrupt shock must have instantly
deprived him of sensation, as there was no
voluntary action of the hands afterwards.
Thus terminated his career of crime in a
foreign land without one friend to recognize
or cheer him, or a single being to regret
his death.
The Spanish Consul having requested that
the bodies might not be given to the
faculty, they were interred at night under
the direction of the Marshal, in the
Catholic burial-ground at Charlestown. There
being no murder committed with the piracy,
the laws of the United States do not
authorize the court to order the bodies for
dissection.
Ruiz leaving the Panda.
The men had just succeeded in drawing the
boats into deep water, when a great number
of canoes were observed coming round the
point, and at the same instant another large
party running down to launch; some more on
the beach, when they joined those already
afloat, in all made above twenty-eight
canoes, and about one hundred and fifty men.
Having collected all their forces, with loud
whooping and encouraging shouts to one
another, they led towards us with great
celerity.
We prepared instantly for battle; the
awnings were got down to allow room to use
the cutlasses and to load the muskets. The
brass guns were loaded with grape shot. They
now approached uttering terrific yells, and
paddling with all speed. On board the canoes
the pirates were loading the guns and
encouraging the natives. Bernardo de Soto
and Francisco Ruiz were conspicuous, in
manoeuvring the negro boats for battle, and
commenced a straggling fire upon the English
boats. In them all was still, each man had a
cutlass by his side, and a loaded musket in
his hand. On arriving within pistol-shot a
well directed fire was poured into them,
seconded by a discharge of the three
pounders; many of the balls took effect, and
two of the canoes were sunk. A brisk fire
was kept up on both sides; a great number of
the negroes were killed, and a few of the
pirates; the English loss was small. The
negroes now became panic-struck, and some
paddled towards the shore, others jumped
overboard and swam; the sharks caught
several. Captain Gilbert and De Soto were
now caught, together with five of the crew;
Ruiz and the rest escaped to a village, some
ways inland, and with the aid of a telescope
it was perceived the negroes were rapidly
gathering to renew the combat, urged on by
Ruiz and the other pirates; after dislodging
them from this village, negociations were
entered into by the king of Cape Lopez, who
surrendered Ruiz and several men to Captain
Trotter. They were carried in the brig
Curlew to Fernando Po, and after an
examination, were put in irons and conveyed
to England, and there put on board the
British gun-brig Savage, and arrived in the
harbor of Salem on the 26th August, 1834.
Her commander, Lieut. Loney, waited upon the
authorities of Salem, and after the usual
formalities, surrendered the prisoners into
their hands--stating that the British
Government waived their right to try and
punish the prisoners, in favor of the United
States, against whom the principal offence
had been committed. The pirates were landed
at Crowningshield wharf, and taken from
thence in carriages to the Town hall; twelve
of them, handcuffed in pairs, took their
places at the bar. They were all young and
middle-aged, the oldest was not over forty.
Physiognomically, they were not uncommonly
ill looking, in general, although there were
exceptions, and they were all clean and
wholesome in their appearance. They were now
removed to Boston and confined in prison,
where one of them, named Manuel Delgarno cut
his throat with a piece of glass, thus
verifying the old proverb, that those
born to be hung, will never be drown'd!
On the 11th of November, Don Pedro
Gilbert, Captain, Don Bernardo de
Soto, Mate, Francisco Ruiz,
Carpenter, Nicola Costa, Cabin-boy,
aged 15, Antonio Ferrer, Cook, and
Manuel Boyga, Domingo de Guzman, an
Indian, Juan Antonio Portana, Manuel
Castillo, Angel Garcia, Jose Velasquez, and
Juan Montenegro, alias Jose Basilio
de Castro, were arraigned before the Circuit
Court of the United States, charged with the
crime of Piracy. Joseph Perez appeared as
State's evidence, and two Portuguese
sailors who were shipped on board the Panda
at Prince's Island, as witnesses. After a
jury was empannelled, Mr. Dunlap, the
District Attorney, rose and said--"This is a
solemn, and also an unusual scene. Here are
twelve men, strangers to our country and to
our language, indicted for a heinous
offence, and now before you for life or
death. They are indicted for a daring crime,
and a flagrant violation of the laws, not
only of this, but of every other civilized
people." He then gave an outline of the
commission of the robbery of the Mexican.
Numerous witnesses were examined, amongst
whom were the captain, mate, and several
seamen of the Mexican, who recognized
several of the pirates as being the
individuals who maltreated them, and took
the specie. When Thomas Fuller, one of the
crew of the Mexican was called upon to
identify Ruiz, he went up to him and struck
him a violent blow on the shoulder. Ruiz
immediately started up, and with violent
gesticulations protested against such
conduct, and was joined by his companions.
The Court reprimanded the witness severely.
The trial occupied fourteen days. The
counsel for the prisoners were David L.
Child, Esq., and George Hillard, Esq., who
defended them with great ability. Mr. Child
brought to the cause his untiring zeal, his
various and profound learning; and exhibited
a labour, and desperation which
showed that he was fully conscious of the
weight of the load--the dead lift--he had
undertaken to carry. Mr. Hillard concluded
his argument, by making an eloquent and
affecting appeal to the jury in behalf of
the boy Costa and Antonio Ferrer, the cook,
and alluded to the circumstance of Bernardo
de Soto having rescued the lives of 70
individuals on board the American ship
Minerva, whilst on a voyage from
Philadelphia to Havana, when captain of the
brig Leon.
Explosion of the Panda.
If, gentlemen, said he, you deem with me,
that the crew of the Panda, (supposing her
to have robbed the Mexican,) were merely
servants of the captain, you cannot convict
them. But if you do not agree with me, then
all that remains for me to do, is to address
a few words to you in the way of mercy. It
does not seem to me that the good of society
requires the death of all these men, the
sacrifice of such a hecatomb of human
victims, or that the sword of the law should
fall till it is clogged with massacre.
Antonio Ferrer is plainly but a servant.
He is set down as a free black in the ship's
papers, but that is no proof that he is
free. Were he a slave, he would in all
probability be represented as free, and this
for obvious reasons. He is in all
probability a slave, and a native African,
as the tattooing on his face proves beyond a
doubt. At any rate, he is but a servant. Now
will you make misfortune pay the penalty of
guilt? Do not, I entreat you, lightly
condemn this man to death. Do not throw him
in to make up the dozen. The regard for
human life is one of the most prominent
proofs of a civilized state of society. The
Sultan of Turkey may place women in sacks
and throw them into the Bosphorus, without
exciting more than an hour's additional
conversation at Constantinople. But in our
country it is different. You well remember
the excitement produced by the abduction and
death of a single individual; the
convulsions which ensued, the effect of
which will long be felt in our political
institutions. You will ever find that the
more a nation becomes civilized, the greater
becomes the regard for human life. There is
in the eye, the form, and heaven-directed
countenance of man, something holy, that
forbids he should be rudely touched.
The instinct of life is great. The light
of the sun even in chains, is pleasant; and
life, though supported but by the damp
exhalations of a dungeon, is desirable.
Often, too, we cling with added tenacity to
life in proportion as we are deprived of all
that makes existence to be coveted.
Thomas Fuller striking Ruiz in Court.
"The weariest and most loathed worldly
life.
That age,
ache, penury and imprisonment
Can lay on
Nature, is a Paradise
To that we
fear of Death."
Death is a fearful thing. The mere
mention of it sometimes blanches the cheek,
and sends the fearful blood to the heart. It
is a solemn thing to break into the "bloody
house of life." Do not, because this man is
but an African, imagine that his existence
is valueless. He is no drift weed on the
ocean of life. There are in his bosom the
same social sympathies that animate our own.
He has nerves to feel pain, and a heart to
throb with human affections, even as you
have. His life, to establish the law, or to
further the ends of justice, is not
required. Taken, it is to us of no
value; given to him, it is above the price
of rubies.
And Costa, the cabin boy, only
fifteen years of age when this crime was
committed--shall he die? Shall the sword
fall upon his neck? Some of you are advanced
in years--you may have children. Suppose the
news had reached you, that your son was
under trial for his life, in a foreign
country--(and every cabin boy who leaves
this port may be placed in the situation of
this prisoner,)--suppose you were told that
he had been executed, because his captain
and officers had violated the laws of a
distant land; what would be your feelings? I
cannot tell, but I believe the feelings of
all of you would be the same, and that you
would exclaim, with the Hebrew, "My son! my
son! would to God I had died for thee." This
boy has a father; let the form of
that father rise up before you, and plead in
your hearts for his offspring. Perhaps he
has a mother, and a home. Think of the
lengthened shadow that must have been cast
over that home by his absence. Think of his
mother, during those hours of wretchedness,
when she has felt hope darkening into
disappointment, next into anxiety, and from
anxiety into despair. How often may she have
stretched forth her hands in supplication,
and asked, even the winds of heaven, to
bring her tidings of him who was away? Let
the supplications of that mother touch your
hearts, and shield their object from the
law.
After a luminous charge by Judge Story,
the jury retired to agree upon their
verdict, and at 9 o'clock the next morning
came in with their verdict.
Clerk. Gentlemen of the Jury, have
you agreed upon your verdict?
Jury. We have.
Clerk. Who shall speak for you?
Jury. Our foreman.
The prisoners were then directed
severally to rise as soon as called, and
receive the verdict of the jury. The
Captain, Pedro Gilbert, was the first
named. He arose, raised his hand, and
regarded the jury with a firm countenance
and steady eye.
Clerk. Jurors look upon the
prisoner; prisoner look upon the jurors. How
say you, Gentlemen, is the prisoner at the
bar, Pedro Gilbert, guilty or not guilty?
Foreman. GUILTY.
The same verdict was pronounced against
De Soto (the mate) Ruiz, (the
carpenter,) Boyga, Castillo, Garcia
and Montenegro. But Costa,
(the cabin-boy,) Ferrer (the negro,)
Guzman, Portana, and Velasquez,
were declared NOT GUILTY.
After having declared the verdict of the
Jury, the Foreman read to the Court the
following recommendation to mercy:
"The sympathies of the Jury have been
strongly moved in behalf of Bernardo de
Soto, on account of his generous, noble
and self-sacrificing conduct in saving the
lives of more than 70 human beings,
constituting the passengers and crew of the
ship Minerva; and they desire that
his case should be presented to the merciful
consideration of the Government."
Judge Story replied that the wish of the
jury would certainly be complied with both
by the Court and the prosecuting officer.
"The appearance and demeanor of Captain
Gilbert are the same as when we first saw
him; his eye is undimmed, and decision and
command yet sit upon his features. We did
not discern the slightest alteration of
color or countenance when the verdict of the
jury was communicated to him; he merely
slightly bowed and resumed his seat. With
De Soto the case was different. He is
much altered; has become thinner, and his
countenance this morning was expressive of
the deepest despondency. When informed of
the contents of the paper read by the
foreman of the jury, he appeared much
affected, and while being removed from the
Court, covered his face with his
handkerchief."
Immediately after the delivery of the
verdict, the acquitted prisoners, on motion
of Mr. Hillard, were directed to be
discharged, upon which several of the others
loudly and angrily expressed their
dissatisfaction at the result of the trial.
Castillo (a half-caste, with an
extremely mild and pleasing countenance,)
pointed towards heaven, and called upon the
Almighty to bear witness that he was
innocent; Ruiz uttered some words
with great vehemence; and Garcia said
"all were in the same ship; and it was
strange that some should be permitted to
escape while others were punished." Most of
them on leaving the Court uttered some
invective against "the picaro who had
sworn their lives away."
On Costa, the cabin boy, (aged 16)
being declared "Not Guilty" some degree of
approbation was manifested by the audience,
but instantly checked by the judge, who
directed the officers to take into custody,
every one expressing either assent or
dissent. We certainly think the sympathy
expressed in favor of Costa very ill
placed, for although we have not deemed
ourselves at liberty to mention the fact
earlier, his conduct during the whole trial
was characterized by the most reckless
effrontery and indecorum. Even when standing
up to receive the verdict of the jury, his
face bore an impudent smile, and he evinced
the most total disregard of the mercy which
had been extended towards him.
About this time vague rumors reached
Corunna, that a Captain belonging to that
place, engaged in the Slave Trade, had
turned Pirate, been captured, and sent to
America with his crew for punishment. Report
at first fixed it upon a noted slave-dealer,
named Begaro. But the astounding
intelligence soon reached Senora de Soto,
that her husband was the person captured for
this startling crime. The shock to her
feelings was terrible, but her love and
fortitude surmounted them all; and she
determined to brave the terrors of the
ocean, to intercede for her husband if
condemned, and at all events behold him once
more. A small schooner was freighted by her
own and husband's father, and in it she
embarked for New-York. After a boisterous
passage, the vessel reached that port, when
she learned her husband had already been
tried and condemned to die. The humane
people of New-York advised her to hasten on
to Washington, and plead with the President
for a pardon. On arriving at the capital,
she solicited an interview with General
Jackson, which was readily granted. From the
circumstance of her husband's having saved
the lives of seventy Americans, a merciful
ear was turned to her solicitations, and a
pardon for De Soto was given her, with which
she hastened to Boston, and communicated to
him the joyful intelligence.
Andrew Jackson, President of the United
States of America, to all to whom these
presents shall come, Greeting:
Whereas, at the October Term, 1834, of the
Circuit Court of the United States, Bernardo
de Soto was convicted of Piracy, and
sentenced to be hung on the 11th day of
March last from which sentence a respite was
granted him for three months, bearing date
the third day of March, 1835, also a
subsequent one, dated on the fifth day of
June, 1835, for sixty days. And whereas the
said Bernardo de Soto has been represented
as a fit subject for executive clemency--
Now therefore, I, Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States of America,
in consideration of the premises, divers
good and sufficient causes me thereto
moving, have pardoned, and hereby do pardon
the said Bernardo de Soto, from and after
the 11th August next, and direct that he be
then discharged from confinement. In
testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed
my name, and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed to these presents. Done
at the City of Washington the sixth day of
July, AD. 1835, and of the independence of
the United States and sixtieth. Andrew
Jackson.
On the fatal morning of June 11th, 1835,
Don Pedro, Juan Montenegro, Manuel Castillo,
Angel Garcia and Manuel Boyga, were,
agreeably to sentence, summoned to prepare
for immediate execution. On the night
previous, a mutual agreement had been
entered into to commit suicide. Angel Garcia
made the first attempt by trying to open the
veins of each arm with a piece of glass; but
was prevented. In the morning, however,
while preparations were making for the
execution, Boyga succeeded in inflicting a
deep gash on the left side of his neck, with
a piece of tin. The officer's eyes had been
withdrawn from him scarcely a minute, before
he was discovered lying on his pallet, with
a convulsive motion of his knees, from loss
of blood. Medical aid was at hand, the gash
sewed up, but he did not revive. Two
Catholic clergymen attended them on the
scaffold, one a Spanish priest. They were
executed in the rear of the jail. When the
procession arrived at the foot of the ladder
leading up to the platform of the gallows
the Rev. Mr. Varella looking directly at
Capt. Gilbert, said, "Spaniards, ascend to
heaven." Don Pedro mounted with a quick
step, and was followed by his comrades at a
more moderate pace, but without the least
hesitation. Boyga, unconscious of his
situation and destiny, was carried up in a
chair, and seated beneath the rope prepared
for him. Gilbert, Montenegro, Garcia and
Castillo all smiled subduedly as they took
their stations on the platform. Soon after
Capt. Gilbert ascended the scaffold, he
passed over to where the apparently lifeless
Boyga was seated in the chair, and kissed
him. Addressing his followers, he said,
"Boys, we are going to die; but let us be
firm, for we are innocent." To Mr. Peyton,
the interpreter, he said, "I die innocent,
but I'll die like a noble Spaniard. Good
bye, brother." The Marshal having read the
warrant for their execution, and stated that
de Soto was respited sixty and Ruiz
thirty days, the ropes were adjusted
round the necks of the prisoners, and a
slight hectic flush spread over the
countenance of each; but not an eye quailed,
nor a limb trembled, not a muscle quivered.
The fatal cord was now cut, and the platform
fell, by which the prisoners were launched
into eternity. After the execution was over,
Ruiz, who was confined in his cell,
attracted considerable attention, by his
maniac shouts and singing. At one time
holding up a piece of blanket, stained with
Boyga's blood, he gave utterance to his
ravings in a sort of recitative, the burden
of which was--"This is the red flag my
companions died under!"
After the expiration of Ruiz' second
respite, the Marshal got two surgeons of the
United States Navy, who understood the
Spanish language, to attend him in his cell;
they, after a patient examination pronounced
his madness a counterfeit, and his insanity
a hoax. Accordingly, on the morning of Sept.
11th, the Marshal, in company with a
Catholic priest and interpreter entered his
cell, and made him sensible that longer
evasion of the sentence of the law was
impossible, and that he must surely die.
They informed him that he had but half an
hour to live, and retired; when he requested
that he might not be disturbed during the
brief space that remained to him, and
turning his back to the open entrance to his
cell, he unrolled some fragments of printed
prayers, and commenced reading them to
himself. During this interval he neither
spoke, nor heeded those who were watching
him; but undoubtedly suffered extreme mental
agony. At one minute he would drop his chin
on his bosom, and stand motionless; at
another would press his brow to the wall of
his cell, or wave his body from side to
side, as if wrung with unutterable anguish.
Suddenly, he would throw himself upon his
knees on the mattress, and prostrate himself
as if in prayer; then throwing his prayers
from him, he would clutch his rug in his
fingers, and like a child try to double it
up, or pick it to pieces. After snatching up
his rug and throwing it away again and
again, he would suddenly resume his prayers
and erect posture, and stand mute, gazing
through the aperture that admitted the light
of day for upwards of a minute. This scene
of imbecility and indecision, of horrible
prostration of mind, ceasing in some degree
when the Catholic clergyman re-entered his
cell.
At 10 o'clock, the prisoner was removed
from the prison, and during his progress to
the scaffold, though the hue of death was on
his face, and he trembled in every joint
with fear, he chaunted with a powerful voice
an appropriate service from the Catholic
ritual. Several times he turned round to
survey the heavens which at that moment were
clear and bright above him and when he
ascended the scaffold after concluding his
prayer, he took one long and steadfast look
at the sun, and waited in silence his fate.
His powers, mental and physical had been
suddenly crushed with the appalling reality
that surrounded him; his whole soul was
absorbed with one master feeling, the dread
of a speedy and violent death. He quailed in
the presence of the dreadful paraphernalia
of his punishment, as much as if he had been
a stranger to deeds of blood, and never
dealt death to his fellow man as he ploughed
the deep, under the black flag of piracy,
with the motto of "Rob, Kill, and Burn."
After adjusting the rope, a signal was
given. The body dropped heavily, and the
harsh abrupt shock must have instantly
deprived him of sensation, as there was no
voluntary action of the hands afterwards.
Thus terminated his career of crime in a
foreign land without one friend to recognize
or cheer him, or a single being to regret
his death.
The Spanish Consul having requested that
the bodies might not be given to the
faculty, they were interred at night under
the direction of the Marshal, in the
Catholic burial-ground at Charlestown. There
being no murder committed with the piracy,
the laws of the United States do not
authorize the court to order the bodies for
dissection.
Ruiz leaving the Panda.
On the 11th of November, Don Pedro
Gilbert, Captain, Don Bernardo de
Soto, Mate, Francisco Ruiz,
Carpenter, Nicola Costa, Cabin-boy,
aged 15, Antonio Ferrer, Cook, and
Manuel Boyga, Domingo de Guzman, an
Indian, Juan Antonio Portana, Manuel
Castillo, Angel Garcia, Jose Velasquez, and
Juan Montenegro, alias Jose Basilio
de Castro, were arraigned before the Circuit
Court of the United States, charged with the
crime of Piracy. Joseph Perez appeared as
State's evidence, and two Portuguese
sailors who were shipped on board the Panda
at Prince's Island, as witnesses. After a
jury was empannelled, Mr. Dunlap, the
District Attorney, rose and said--"This is a
solemn, and also an unusual scene. Here are
twelve men, strangers to our country and to
our language, indicted for a heinous
offence, and now before you for life or
death. They are indicted for a daring crime,
and a flagrant violation of the laws, not
only of this, but of every other civilized
people." He then gave an outline of the
commission of the robbery of the Mexican.
Numerous witnesses were examined, amongst
whom were the captain, mate, and several
seamen of the Mexican, who recognized
several of the pirates as being the
individuals who maltreated them, and took
the specie. When Thomas Fuller, one of the
crew of the Mexican was called upon to
identify Ruiz, he went up to him and struck
him a violent blow on the shoulder. Ruiz
immediately started up, and with violent
gesticulations protested against such
conduct, and was joined by his companions.
The Court reprimanded the witness severely.
The trial occupied fourteen days. The
counsel for the prisoners were David L.
Child, Esq., and George Hillard, Esq., who
defended them with great ability. Mr. Child
brought to the cause his untiring zeal, his
various and profound learning; and exhibited
a labour, and desperation which
showed that he was fully conscious of the
weight of the load--the dead lift--he had
undertaken to carry. Mr. Hillard concluded
his argument, by making an eloquent and
affecting appeal to the jury in behalf of
the boy Costa and Antonio Ferrer, the cook,
and alluded to the circumstance of Bernardo
de Soto having rescued the lives of 70
individuals on board the American ship
Minerva, whilst on a voyage from
Philadelphia to Havana, when captain of the
brig Leon.
Explosion of the Panda.
If, gentlemen, said he, you deem with me,
that the crew of the Panda, (supposing her
to have robbed the Mexican,) were merely
servants of the captain, you cannot convict
them. But if you do not agree with me, then
all that remains for me to do, is to address
a few words to you in the way of mercy. It
does not seem to me that the good of society
requires the death of all these men, the
sacrifice of such a hecatomb of human
victims, or that the sword of the law should
fall till it is clogged with massacre.
Antonio Ferrer is plainly but a servant.
He is set down as a free black in the ship's
papers, but that is no proof that he is
free. Were he a slave, he would in all
probability be represented as free, and this
for obvious reasons. He is in all
probability a slave, and a native African,
as the tattooing on his face proves beyond a
doubt. At any rate, he is but a servant. Now
will you make misfortune pay the penalty of
guilt? Do not, I entreat you, lightly
condemn this man to death. Do not throw him
in to make up the dozen. The regard for
human life is one of the most prominent
proofs of a civilized state of society. The
Sultan of Turkey may place women in sacks
and throw them into the Bosphorus, without
exciting more than an hour's additional
conversation at Constantinople. But in our
country it is different. You well remember
the excitement produced by the abduction and
death of a single individual; the
convulsions which ensued, the effect of
which will long be felt in our political
institutions. You will ever find that the
more a nation becomes civilized, the greater
becomes the regard for human life. There is
in the eye, the form, and heaven-directed
countenance of man, something holy, that
forbids he should be rudely touched.
The instinct of life is great. The light
of the sun even in chains, is pleasant; and
life, though supported but by the damp
exhalations of a dungeon, is desirable.
Often, too, we cling with added tenacity to
life in proportion as we are deprived of all
that makes existence to be coveted.
Thomas Fuller striking Ruiz in Court.
"The weariest and most loathed worldly
life.
That age,
ache, penury and imprisonment
Can lay on
Nature, is a Paradise
To that we
fear of Death."
Death is a fearful thing. The mere
mention of it sometimes blanches the cheek,
and sends the fearful blood to the heart. It
is a solemn thing to break into the "bloody
house of life." Do not, because this man is
but an African, imagine that his existence
is valueless. He is no drift weed on the
ocean of life. There are in his bosom the
same social sympathies that animate our own.
He has nerves to feel pain, and a heart to
throb with human affections, even as you
have. His life, to establish the law, or to
further the ends of justice, is not
required. Taken, it is to us of no
value; given to him, it is above the price
of rubies.
And Costa, the cabin boy, only
fifteen years of age when this crime was
committed--shall he die? Shall the sword
fall upon his neck? Some of you are advanced
in years--you may have children. Suppose the
news had reached you, that your son was
under trial for his life, in a foreign
country--(and every cabin boy who leaves
this port may be placed in the situation of
this prisoner,)--suppose you were told that
he had been executed, because his captain
and officers had violated the laws of a
distant land; what would be your feelings? I
cannot tell, but I believe the feelings of
all of you would be the same, and that you
would exclaim, with the Hebrew, "My son! my
son! would to God I had died for thee." This
boy has a father; let the form of
that father rise up before you, and plead in
your hearts for his offspring. Perhaps he
has a mother, and a home. Think of the
lengthened shadow that must have been cast
over that home by his absence. Think of his
mother, during those hours of wretchedness,
when she has felt hope darkening into
disappointment, next into anxiety, and from
anxiety into despair. How often may she have
stretched forth her hands in supplication,
and asked, even the winds of heaven, to
bring her tidings of him who was away? Let
the supplications of that mother touch your
hearts, and shield their object from the
law.
After a luminous charge by Judge Story,
the jury retired to agree upon their
verdict, and at 9 o'clock the next morning
came in with their verdict.
Clerk. Gentlemen of the Jury, have
you agreed upon your verdict?
Jury. We have.
Clerk. Who shall speak for you?
Jury. Our foreman.
The prisoners were then directed
severally to rise as soon as called, and
receive the verdict of the jury. The
Captain, Pedro Gilbert, was the first
named. He arose, raised his hand, and
regarded the jury with a firm countenance
and steady eye.
Clerk. Jurors look upon the
prisoner; prisoner look upon the jurors. How
say you, Gentlemen, is the prisoner at the
bar, Pedro Gilbert, guilty or not guilty?
Foreman. GUILTY.
The same verdict was pronounced against
De Soto (the mate) Ruiz, (the
carpenter,) Boyga, Castillo, Garcia
and Montenegro. But Costa,
(the cabin-boy,) Ferrer (the negro,)
Guzman, Portana, and Velasquez,
were declared NOT GUILTY.
After having declared the verdict of the
Jury, the Foreman read to the Court the
following recommendation to mercy:
"The sympathies of the Jury have been
strongly moved in behalf of Bernardo de
Soto, on account of his generous, noble
and self-sacrificing conduct in saving the
lives of more than 70 human beings,
constituting the passengers and crew of the
ship Minerva; and they desire that
his case should be presented to the merciful
consideration of the Government."
Judge Story replied that the wish of the
jury would certainly be complied with both
by the Court and the prosecuting officer.
"The appearance and demeanor of Captain
Gilbert are the same as when we first saw
him; his eye is undimmed, and decision and
command yet sit upon his features. We did
not discern the slightest alteration of
color or countenance when the verdict of the
jury was communicated to him; he merely
slightly bowed and resumed his seat. With
De Soto the case was different. He is
much altered; has become thinner, and his
countenance this morning was expressive of
the deepest despondency. When informed of
the contents of the paper read by the
foreman of the jury, he appeared much
affected, and while being removed from the
Court, covered his face with his
handkerchief."
Immediately after the delivery of the
verdict, the acquitted prisoners, on motion
of Mr. Hillard, were directed to be
discharged, upon which several of the others
loudly and angrily expressed their
dissatisfaction at the result of the trial.
Castillo (a half-caste, with an
extremely mild and pleasing countenance,)
pointed towards heaven, and called upon the
Almighty to bear witness that he was
innocent; Ruiz uttered some words
with great vehemence; and Garcia said
"all were in the same ship; and it was
strange that some should be permitted to
escape while others were punished." Most of
them on leaving the Court uttered some
invective against "the picaro who had
sworn their lives away."
On Costa, the cabin boy, (aged 16)
being declared "Not Guilty" some degree of
approbation was manifested by the audience,
but instantly checked by the judge, who
directed the officers to take into custody,
every one expressing either assent or
dissent. We certainly think the sympathy
expressed in favor of Costa very ill
placed, for although we have not deemed
ourselves at liberty to mention the fact
earlier, his conduct during the whole trial
was characterized by the most reckless
effrontery and indecorum. Even when standing
up to receive the verdict of the jury, his
face bore an impudent smile, and he evinced
the most total disregard of the mercy which
had been extended towards him.
About this time vague rumors reached
Corunna, that a Captain belonging to that
place, engaged in the Slave Trade, had
turned Pirate, been captured, and sent to
America with his crew for punishment. Report
at first fixed it upon a noted slave-dealer,
named Begaro. But the astounding
intelligence soon reached Senora de Soto,
that her husband was the person captured for
this startling crime. The shock to her
feelings was terrible, but her love and
fortitude surmounted them all; and she
determined to brave the terrors of the
ocean, to intercede for her husband if
condemned, and at all events behold him once
more. A small schooner was freighted by her
own and husband's father, and in it she
embarked for New-York. After a boisterous
passage, the vessel reached that port, when
she learned her husband had already been
tried and condemned to die. The humane
people of New-York advised her to hasten on
to Washington, and plead with the President
for a pardon. On arriving at the capital,
she solicited an interview with General
Jackson, which was readily granted. From the
circumstance of her husband's having saved
the lives of seventy Americans, a merciful
ear was turned to her solicitations, and a
pardon for De Soto was given her, with which
she hastened to Boston, and communicated to
him the joyful intelligence.
Andrew Jackson, President of the United
States of America, to all to whom these
presents shall come, Greeting:
Whereas, at the October Term, 1834, of the
Circuit Court of the United States, Bernardo
de Soto was convicted of Piracy, and
sentenced to be hung on the 11th day of
March last from which sentence a respite was
granted him for three months, bearing date
the third day of March, 1835, also a
subsequent one, dated on the fifth day of
June, 1835, for sixty days. And whereas the
said Bernardo de Soto has been represented
as a fit subject for executive clemency--
Now therefore, I, Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States of America,
in consideration of the premises, divers
good and sufficient causes me thereto
moving, have pardoned, and hereby do pardon
the said Bernardo de Soto, from and after
the 11th August next, and direct that he be
then discharged from confinement. In
testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed
my name, and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed to these presents. Done
at the City of Washington the sixth day of
July, AD. 1835, and of the independence of
the United States and sixtieth. Andrew
Jackson.
On the fatal morning of June 11th, 1835,
Don Pedro, Juan Montenegro, Manuel Castillo,
Angel Garcia and Manuel Boyga, were,
agreeably to sentence, summoned to prepare
for immediate execution. On the night
previous, a mutual agreement had been
entered into to commit suicide. Angel Garcia
made the first attempt by trying to open the
veins of each arm with a piece of glass; but
was prevented. In the morning, however,
while preparations were making for the
execution, Boyga succeeded in inflicting a
deep gash on the left side of his neck, with
a piece of tin. The officer's eyes had been
withdrawn from him scarcely a minute, before
he was discovered lying on his pallet, with
a convulsive motion of his knees, from loss
of blood. Medical aid was at hand, the gash
sewed up, but he did not revive. Two
Catholic clergymen attended them on the
scaffold, one a Spanish priest. They were
executed in the rear of the jail. When the
procession arrived at the foot of the ladder
leading up to the platform of the gallows
the Rev. Mr. Varella looking directly at
Capt. Gilbert, said, "Spaniards, ascend to
heaven." Don Pedro mounted with a quick
step, and was followed by his comrades at a
more moderate pace, but without the least
hesitation. Boyga, unconscious of his
situation and destiny, was carried up in a
chair, and seated beneath the rope prepared
for him. Gilbert, Montenegro, Garcia and
Castillo all smiled subduedly as they took
their stations on the platform. Soon after
Capt. Gilbert ascended the scaffold, he
passed over to where the apparently lifeless
Boyga was seated in the chair, and kissed
him. Addressing his followers, he said,
"Boys, we are going to die; but let us be
firm, for we are innocent." To Mr. Peyton,
the interpreter, he said, "I die innocent,
but I'll die like a noble Spaniard. Good
bye, brother." The Marshal having read the
warrant for their execution, and stated that
de Soto was respited sixty and Ruiz
thirty days, the ropes were adjusted
round the necks of the prisoners, and a
slight hectic flush spread over the
countenance of each; but not an eye quailed,
nor a limb trembled, not a muscle quivered.
The fatal cord was now cut, and the platform
fell, by which the prisoners were launched
into eternity. After the execution was over,
Ruiz, who was confined in his cell,
attracted considerable attention, by his
maniac shouts and singing. At one time
holding up a piece of blanket, stained with
Boyga's blood, he gave utterance to his
ravings in a sort of recitative, the burden
of which was--"This is the red flag my
companions died under!"
After the expiration of Ruiz' second
respite, the Marshal got two surgeons of the
United States Navy, who understood the
Spanish language, to attend him in his cell;
they, after a patient examination pronounced
his madness a counterfeit, and his insanity
a hoax. Accordingly, on the morning of Sept.
11th, the Marshal, in company with a
Catholic priest and interpreter entered his
cell, and made him sensible that longer
evasion of the sentence of the law was
impossible, and that he must surely die.
They informed him that he had but half an
hour to live, and retired; when he requested
that he might not be disturbed during the
brief space that remained to him, and
turning his back to the open entrance to his
cell, he unrolled some fragments of printed
prayers, and commenced reading them to
himself. During this interval he neither
spoke, nor heeded those who were watching
him; but undoubtedly suffered extreme mental
agony. At one minute he would drop his chin
on his bosom, and stand motionless; at
another would press his brow to the wall of
his cell, or wave his body from side to
side, as if wrung with unutterable anguish.
Suddenly, he would throw himself upon his
knees on the mattress, and prostrate himself
as if in prayer; then throwing his prayers
from him, he would clutch his rug in his
fingers, and like a child try to double it
up, or pick it to pieces. After snatching up
his rug and throwing it away again and
again, he would suddenly resume his prayers
and erect posture, and stand mute, gazing
through the aperture that admitted the light
of day for upwards of a minute. This scene
of imbecility and indecision, of horrible
prostration of mind, ceasing in some degree
when the Catholic clergyman re-entered his
cell.
At 10 o'clock, the prisoner was removed
from the prison, and during his progress to
the scaffold, though the hue of death was on
his face, and he trembled in every joint
with fear, he chaunted with a powerful voice
an appropriate service from the Catholic
ritual. Several times he turned round to
survey the heavens which at that moment were
clear and bright above him and when he
ascended the scaffold after concluding his
prayer, he took one long and steadfast look
at the sun, and waited in silence his fate.
His powers, mental and physical had been
suddenly crushed with the appalling reality
that surrounded him; his whole soul was
absorbed with one master feeling, the dread
of a speedy and violent death. He quailed in
the presence of the dreadful paraphernalia
of his punishment, as much as if he had been
a stranger to deeds of blood, and never
dealt death to his fellow man as he ploughed
the deep, under the black flag of piracy,
with the motto of "Rob, Kill, and Burn."
After adjusting the rope, a signal was
given. The body dropped heavily, and the
harsh abrupt shock must have instantly
deprived him of sensation, as there was no
voluntary action of the hands afterwards.
Thus terminated his career of crime in a
foreign land without one friend to recognize
or cheer him, or a single being to regret
his death.
The Spanish Consul having requested that
the bodies might not be given to the
faculty, they were interred at night under
the direction of the Marshal, in the
Catholic burial-ground at Charlestown. There
being no murder committed with the piracy,
the laws of the United States do not
authorize the court to order the bodies for
dissection.
Ruiz leaving the Panda.
Thomas Fuller striking Ruiz in Court.
"The weariest and most loathed worldly
life.
That age,
ache, penury and imprisonment
Can lay on
Nature, is a Paradise
To that we
fear of Death."
Death is a fearful thing. The mere
mention of it sometimes blanches the cheek,
and sends the fearful blood to the heart. It
is a solemn thing to break into the "bloody
house of life." Do not, because this man is
but an African, imagine that his existence
is valueless. He is no drift weed on the
ocean of life. There are in his bosom the
same social sympathies that animate our own.
He has nerves to feel pain, and a heart to
throb with human affections, even as you
have. His life, to establish the law, or to
further the ends of justice, is not
required. Taken, it is to us of no
value; given to him, it is above the price
of rubies.
And Costa, the cabin boy, only
fifteen years of age when this crime was
committed--shall he die? Shall the sword
fall upon his neck? Some of you are advanced
in years--you may have children. Suppose the
news had reached you, that your son was
under trial for his life, in a foreign
country--(and every cabin boy who leaves
this port may be placed in the situation of
this prisoner,)--suppose you were told that
he had been executed, because his captain
and officers had violated the laws of a
distant land; what would be your feelings? I
cannot tell, but I believe the feelings of
all of you would be the same, and that you
would exclaim, with the Hebrew, "My son! my
son! would to God I had died for thee." This
boy has a father; let the form of
that father rise up before you, and plead in
your hearts for his offspring. Perhaps he
has a mother, and a home. Think of the
lengthened shadow that must have been cast
over that home by his absence. Think of his
mother, during those hours of wretchedness,
when she has felt hope darkening into
disappointment, next into anxiety, and from
anxiety into despair. How often may she have
stretched forth her hands in supplication,
and asked, even the winds of heaven, to
bring her tidings of him who was away? Let
the supplications of that mother touch your
hearts, and shield their object from the
law.
After a luminous charge by Judge Story,
the jury retired to agree upon their
verdict, and at 9 o'clock the next morning
came in with their verdict.
Clerk. Gentlemen of the Jury, have
you agreed upon your verdict?
Jury. We have.
Clerk. Who shall speak for you?
Jury. Our foreman.
The prisoners were then directed
severally to rise as soon as called, and
receive the verdict of the jury. The
Captain, Pedro Gilbert, was the first
named. He arose, raised his hand, and
regarded the jury with a firm countenance
and steady eye.
Clerk. Jurors look upon the
prisoner; prisoner look upon the jurors. How
say you, Gentlemen, is the prisoner at the
bar, Pedro Gilbert, guilty or not guilty?
Foreman. GUILTY.
The same verdict was pronounced against
De Soto (the mate) Ruiz, (the
carpenter,) Boyga, Castillo, Garcia
and Montenegro. But Costa,
(the cabin-boy,) Ferrer (the negro,)
Guzman, Portana, and Velasquez,
were declared NOT GUILTY.
After having declared the verdict of the
Jury, the Foreman read to the Court the
following recommendation to mercy:
"The sympathies of the Jury have been
strongly moved in behalf of Bernardo de
Soto, on account of his generous, noble
and self-sacrificing conduct in saving the
lives of more than 70 human beings,
constituting the passengers and crew of the
ship Minerva; and they desire that
his case should be presented to the merciful
consideration of the Government."
Judge Story replied that the wish of the
jury would certainly be complied with both
by the Court and the prosecuting officer.
"The appearance and demeanor of Captain
Gilbert are the same as when we first saw
him; his eye is undimmed, and decision and
command yet sit upon his features. We did
not discern the slightest alteration of
color or countenance when the verdict of the
jury was communicated to him; he merely
slightly bowed and resumed his seat. With
De Soto the case was different. He is
much altered; has become thinner, and his
countenance this morning was expressive of
the deepest despondency. When informed of
the contents of the paper read by the
foreman of the jury, he appeared much
affected, and while being removed from the
Court, covered his face with his
handkerchief."
Immediately after the delivery of the
verdict, the acquitted prisoners, on motion
of Mr. Hillard, were directed to be
discharged, upon which several of the others
loudly and angrily expressed their
dissatisfaction at the result of the trial.
Castillo (a half-caste, with an
extremely mild and pleasing countenance,)
pointed towards heaven, and called upon the
Almighty to bear witness that he was
innocent; Ruiz uttered some words
with great vehemence; and Garcia said
"all were in the same ship; and it was
strange that some should be permitted to
escape while others were punished." Most of
them on leaving the Court uttered some
invective against "the picaro who had
sworn their lives away."
On Costa, the cabin boy, (aged 16)
being declared "Not Guilty" some degree of
approbation was manifested by the audience,
but instantly checked by the judge, who
directed the officers to take into custody,
every one expressing either assent or
dissent. We certainly think the sympathy
expressed in favor of Costa very ill
placed, for although we have not deemed
ourselves at liberty to mention the fact
earlier, his conduct during the whole trial
was characterized by the most reckless
effrontery and indecorum. Even when standing
up to receive the verdict of the jury, his
face bore an impudent smile, and he evinced
the most total disregard of the mercy which
had been extended towards him.
About this time vague rumors reached
Corunna, that a Captain belonging to that
place, engaged in the Slave Trade, had
turned Pirate, been captured, and sent to
America with his crew for punishment. Report
at first fixed it upon a noted slave-dealer,
named Begaro. But the astounding
intelligence soon reached Senora de Soto,
that her husband was the person captured for
this startling crime. The shock to her
feelings was terrible, but her love and
fortitude surmounted them all; and she
determined to brave the terrors of the
ocean, to intercede for her husband if
condemned, and at all events behold him once
more. A small schooner was freighted by her
own and husband's father, and in it she
embarked for New-York. After a boisterous
passage, the vessel reached that port, when
she learned her husband had already been
tried and condemned to die. The humane
people of New-York advised her to hasten on
to Washington, and plead with the President
for a pardon. On arriving at the capital,
she solicited an interview with General
Jackson, which was readily granted. From the
circumstance of her husband's having saved
the lives of seventy Americans, a merciful
ear was turned to her solicitations, and a
pardon for De Soto was given her, with which
she hastened to Boston, and communicated to
him the joyful intelligence.
Andrew Jackson, President of the United
States of America, to all to whom these
presents shall come, Greeting:
Whereas, at the October Term, 1834, of the
Circuit Court of the United States, Bernardo
de Soto was convicted of Piracy, and
sentenced to be hung on the 11th day of
March last from which sentence a respite was
granted him for three months, bearing date
the third day of March, 1835, also a
subsequent one, dated on the fifth day of
June, 1835, for sixty days. And whereas the
said Bernardo de Soto has been represented
as a fit subject for executive clemency--
Now therefore, I, Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States of America,
in consideration of the premises, divers
good and sufficient causes me thereto
moving, have pardoned, and hereby do pardon
the said Bernardo de Soto, from and after
the 11th August next, and direct that he be
then discharged from confinement. In
testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed
my name, and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed to these presents. Done
at the City of Washington the sixth day of
July, AD. 1835, and of the independence of
the United States and sixtieth. Andrew
Jackson.
On the fatal morning of June 11th, 1835,
Don Pedro, Juan Montenegro, Manuel Castillo,
Angel Garcia and Manuel Boyga, were,
agreeably to sentence, summoned to prepare
for immediate execution. On the night
previous, a mutual agreement had been
entered into to commit suicide. Angel Garcia
made the first attempt by trying to open the
veins of each arm with a piece of glass; but
was prevented. In the morning, however,
while preparations were making for the
execution, Boyga succeeded in inflicting a
deep gash on the left side of his neck, with
a piece of tin. The officer's eyes had been
withdrawn from him scarcely a minute, before
he was discovered lying on his pallet, with
a convulsive motion of his knees, from loss
of blood. Medical aid was at hand, the gash
sewed up, but he did not revive. Two
Catholic clergymen attended them on the
scaffold, one a Spanish priest. They were
executed in the rear of the jail. When the
procession arrived at the foot of the ladder
leading up to the platform of the gallows
the Rev. Mr. Varella looking directly at
Capt. Gilbert, said, "Spaniards, ascend to
heaven." Don Pedro mounted with a quick
step, and was followed by his comrades at a
more moderate pace, but without the least
hesitation. Boyga, unconscious of his
situation and destiny, was carried up in a
chair, and seated beneath the rope prepared
for him. Gilbert, Montenegro, Garcia and
Castillo all smiled subduedly as they took
their stations on the platform. Soon after
Capt. Gilbert ascended the scaffold, he
passed over to where the apparently lifeless
Boyga was seated in the chair, and kissed
him. Addressing his followers, he said,
"Boys, we are going to die; but let us be
firm, for we are innocent." To Mr. Peyton,
the interpreter, he said, "I die innocent,
but I'll die like a noble Spaniard. Good
bye, brother." The Marshal having read the
warrant for their execution, and stated that
de Soto was respited sixty and Ruiz
thirty days, the ropes were adjusted
round the necks of the prisoners, and a
slight hectic flush spread over the
countenance of each; but not an eye quailed,
nor a limb trembled, not a muscle quivered.
The fatal cord was now cut, and the platform
fell, by which the prisoners were launched
into eternity. After the execution was over,
Ruiz, who was confined in his cell,
attracted considerable attention, by his
maniac shouts and singing. At one time
holding up a piece of blanket, stained with
Boyga's blood, he gave utterance to his
ravings in a sort of recitative, the burden
of which was--"This is the red flag my
companions died under!"
After the expiration of Ruiz' second
respite, the Marshal got two surgeons of the
United States Navy, who understood the
Spanish language, to attend him in his cell;
they, after a patient examination pronounced
his madness a counterfeit, and his insanity
a hoax. Accordingly, on the morning of Sept.
11th, the Marshal, in company with a
Catholic priest and interpreter entered his
cell, and made him sensible that longer
evasion of the sentence of the law was
impossible, and that he must surely die.
They informed him that he had but half an
hour to live, and retired; when he requested
that he might not be disturbed during the
brief space that remained to him, and
turning his back to the open entrance to his
cell, he unrolled some fragments of printed
prayers, and commenced reading them to
himself. During this interval he neither
spoke, nor heeded those who were watching
him; but undoubtedly suffered extreme mental
agony. At one minute he would drop his chin
on his bosom, and stand motionless; at
another would press his brow to the wall of
his cell, or wave his body from side to
side, as if wrung with unutterable anguish.
Suddenly, he would throw himself upon his
knees on the mattress, and prostrate himself
as if in prayer; then throwing his prayers
from him, he would clutch his rug in his
fingers, and like a child try to double it
up, or pick it to pieces. After snatching up
his rug and throwing it away again and
again, he would suddenly resume his prayers
and erect posture, and stand mute, gazing
through the aperture that admitted the light
of day for upwards of a minute. This scene
of imbecility and indecision, of horrible
prostration of mind, ceasing in some degree
when the Catholic clergyman re-entered his
cell.
At 10 o'clock, the prisoner was removed
from the prison, and during his progress to
the scaffold, though the hue of death was on
his face, and he trembled in every joint
with fear, he chaunted with a powerful voice
an appropriate service from the Catholic
ritual. Several times he turned round to
survey the heavens which at that moment were
clear and bright above him and when he
ascended the scaffold after concluding his
prayer, he took one long and steadfast look
at the sun, and waited in silence his fate.
His powers, mental and physical had been
suddenly crushed with the appalling reality
that surrounded him; his whole soul was
absorbed with one master feeling, the dread
of a speedy and violent death. He quailed in
the presence of the dreadful paraphernalia
of his punishment, as much as if he had been
a stranger to deeds of blood, and never
dealt death to his fellow man as he ploughed
the deep, under the black flag of piracy,
with the motto of "Rob, Kill, and Burn."
After adjusting the rope, a signal was
given. The body dropped heavily, and the
harsh abrupt shock must have instantly
deprived him of sensation, as there was no
voluntary action of the hands afterwards.
Thus terminated his career of crime in a
foreign land without one friend to recognize
or cheer him, or a single being to regret
his death.
The Spanish Consul having requested that
the bodies might not be given to the
faculty, they were interred at night under
the direction of the Marshal, in the
Catholic burial-ground at Charlestown. There
being no murder committed with the piracy,
the laws of the United States do not
authorize the court to order the bodies for
dissection.
Ruiz leaving the Panda.
And Costa, the cabin boy, only
fifteen years of age when this crime was
committed--shall he die? Shall the sword
fall upon his neck? Some of you are advanced
in years--you may have children. Suppose the
news had reached you, that your son was
under trial for his life, in a foreign
country--(and every cabin boy who leaves
this port may be placed in the situation of
this prisoner,)--suppose you were told that
he had been executed, because his captain
and officers had violated the laws of a
distant land; what would be your feelings? I
cannot tell, but I believe the feelings of
all of you would be the same, and that you
would exclaim, with the Hebrew, "My son! my
son! would to God I had died for thee." This
boy has a father; let the form of
that father rise up before you, and plead in
your hearts for his offspring. Perhaps he
has a mother, and a home. Think of the
lengthened shadow that must have been cast
over that home by his absence. Think of his
mother, during those hours of wretchedness,
when she has felt hope darkening into
disappointment, next into anxiety, and from
anxiety into despair. How often may she have
stretched forth her hands in supplication,
and asked, even the winds of heaven, to
bring her tidings of him who was away? Let
the supplications of that mother touch your
hearts, and shield their object from the
law.
After a luminous charge by Judge Story,
the jury retired to agree upon their
verdict, and at 9 o'clock the next morning
came in with their verdict.
Clerk. Gentlemen of the Jury, have
you agreed upon your verdict?
Jury. We have.
Clerk. Who shall speak for you?
Jury. Our foreman.
The prisoners were then directed
severally to rise as soon as called, and
receive the verdict of the jury. The
Captain, Pedro Gilbert, was the first
named. He arose, raised his hand, and
regarded the jury with a firm countenance
and steady eye.
Clerk. Jurors look upon the
prisoner; prisoner look upon the jurors. How
say you, Gentlemen, is the prisoner at the
bar, Pedro Gilbert, guilty or not guilty?
Foreman. GUILTY.
The same verdict was pronounced against
De Soto (the mate) Ruiz, (the
carpenter,) Boyga, Castillo, Garcia
and Montenegro. But Costa,
(the cabin-boy,) Ferrer (the negro,)
Guzman, Portana, and Velasquez,
were declared NOT GUILTY.
After having declared the verdict of the
Jury, the Foreman read to the Court the
following recommendation to mercy:
"The sympathies of the Jury have been
strongly moved in behalf of Bernardo de
Soto, on account of his generous, noble
and self-sacrificing conduct in saving the
lives of more than 70 human beings,
constituting the passengers and crew of the
ship Minerva; and they desire that
his case should be presented to the merciful
consideration of the Government."
Judge Story replied that the wish of the
jury would certainly be complied with both
by the Court and the prosecuting officer.
"The appearance and demeanor of Captain
Gilbert are the same as when we first saw
him; his eye is undimmed, and decision and
command yet sit upon his features. We did
not discern the slightest alteration of
color or countenance when the verdict of the
jury was communicated to him; he merely
slightly bowed and resumed his seat. With
De Soto the case was different. He is
much altered; has become thinner, and his
countenance this morning was expressive of
the deepest despondency. When informed of
the contents of the paper read by the
foreman of the jury, he appeared much
affected, and while being removed from the
Court, covered his face with his
handkerchief."
Immediately after the delivery of the
verdict, the acquitted prisoners, on motion
of Mr. Hillard, were directed to be
discharged, upon which several of the others
loudly and angrily expressed their
dissatisfaction at the result of the trial.
Castillo (a half-caste, with an
extremely mild and pleasing countenance,)
pointed towards heaven, and called upon the
Almighty to bear witness that he was
innocent; Ruiz uttered some words
with great vehemence; and Garcia said
"all were in the same ship; and it was
strange that some should be permitted to
escape while others were punished." Most of
them on leaving the Court uttered some
invective against "the picaro who had
sworn their lives away."
On Costa, the cabin boy, (aged 16)
being declared "Not Guilty" some degree of
approbation was manifested by the audience,
but instantly checked by the judge, who
directed the officers to take into custody,
every one expressing either assent or
dissent. We certainly think the sympathy
expressed in favor of Costa very ill
placed, for although we have not deemed
ourselves at liberty to mention the fact
earlier, his conduct during the whole trial
was characterized by the most reckless
effrontery and indecorum. Even when standing
up to receive the verdict of the jury, his
face bore an impudent smile, and he evinced
the most total disregard of the mercy which
had been extended towards him.
About this time vague rumors reached
Corunna, that a Captain belonging to that
place, engaged in the Slave Trade, had
turned Pirate, been captured, and sent to
America with his crew for punishment. Report
at first fixed it upon a noted slave-dealer,
named Begaro. But the astounding
intelligence soon reached Senora de Soto,
that her husband was the person captured for
this startling crime. The shock to her
feelings was terrible, but her love and
fortitude surmounted them all; and she
determined to brave the terrors of the
ocean, to intercede for her husband if
condemned, and at all events behold him once
more. A small schooner was freighted by her
own and husband's father, and in it she
embarked for New-York. After a boisterous
passage, the vessel reached that port, when
she learned her husband had already been
tried and condemned to die. The humane
people of New-York advised her to hasten on
to Washington, and plead with the President
for a pardon. On arriving at the capital,
she solicited an interview with General
Jackson, which was readily granted. From the
circumstance of her husband's having saved
the lives of seventy Americans, a merciful
ear was turned to her solicitations, and a
pardon for De Soto was given her, with which
she hastened to Boston, and communicated to
him the joyful intelligence.
Andrew Jackson, President of the United
States of America, to all to whom these
presents shall come, Greeting:
Whereas, at the October Term, 1834, of the
Circuit Court of the United States, Bernardo
de Soto was convicted of Piracy, and
sentenced to be hung on the 11th day of
March last from which sentence a respite was
granted him for three months, bearing date
the third day of March, 1835, also a
subsequent one, dated on the fifth day of
June, 1835, for sixty days. And whereas the
said Bernardo de Soto has been represented
as a fit subject for executive clemency--
Now therefore, I, Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States of America,
in consideration of the premises, divers
good and sufficient causes me thereto
moving, have pardoned, and hereby do pardon
the said Bernardo de Soto, from and after
the 11th August next, and direct that he be
then discharged from confinement. In
testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed
my name, and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed to these presents. Done
at the City of Washington the sixth day of
July, AD. 1835, and of the independence of
the United States and sixtieth. Andrew
Jackson.
On the fatal morning of June 11th, 1835,
Don Pedro, Juan Montenegro, Manuel Castillo,
Angel Garcia and Manuel Boyga, were,
agreeably to sentence, summoned to prepare
for immediate execution. On the night
previous, a mutual agreement had been
entered into to commit suicide. Angel Garcia
made the first attempt by trying to open the
veins of each arm with a piece of glass; but
was prevented. In the morning, however,
while preparations were making for the
execution, Boyga succeeded in inflicting a
deep gash on the left side of his neck, with
a piece of tin. The officer's eyes had been
withdrawn from him scarcely a minute, before
he was discovered lying on his pallet, with
a convulsive motion of his knees, from loss
of blood. Medical aid was at hand, the gash
sewed up, but he did not revive. Two
Catholic clergymen attended them on the
scaffold, one a Spanish priest. They were
executed in the rear of the jail. When the
procession arrived at the foot of the ladder
leading up to the platform of the gallows
the Rev. Mr. Varella looking directly at
Capt. Gilbert, said, "Spaniards, ascend to
heaven." Don Pedro mounted with a quick
step, and was followed by his comrades at a
more moderate pace, but without the least
hesitation. Boyga, unconscious of his
situation and destiny, was carried up in a
chair, and seated beneath the rope prepared
for him. Gilbert, Montenegro, Garcia and
Castillo all smiled subduedly as they took
their stations on the platform. Soon after
Capt. Gilbert ascended the scaffold, he
passed over to where the apparently lifeless
Boyga was seated in the chair, and kissed
him. Addressing his followers, he said,
"Boys, we are going to die; but let us be
firm, for we are innocent." To Mr. Peyton,
the interpreter, he said, "I die innocent,
but I'll die like a noble Spaniard. Good
bye, brother." The Marshal having read the
warrant for their execution, and stated that
de Soto was respited sixty and Ruiz
thirty days, the ropes were adjusted
round the necks of the prisoners, and a
slight hectic flush spread over the
countenance of each; but not an eye quailed,
nor a limb trembled, not a muscle quivered.
The fatal cord was now cut, and the platform
fell, by which the prisoners were launched
into eternity. After the execution was over,
Ruiz, who was confined in his cell,
attracted considerable attention, by his
maniac shouts and singing. At one time
holding up a piece of blanket, stained with
Boyga's blood, he gave utterance to his
ravings in a sort of recitative, the burden
of which was--"This is the red flag my
companions died under!"
After the expiration of Ruiz' second
respite, the Marshal got two surgeons of the
United States Navy, who understood the
Spanish language, to attend him in his cell;
they, after a patient examination pronounced
his madness a counterfeit, and his insanity
a hoax. Accordingly, on the morning of Sept.
11th, the Marshal, in company with a
Catholic priest and interpreter entered his
cell, and made him sensible that longer
evasion of the sentence of the law was
impossible, and that he must surely die.
They informed him that he had but half an
hour to live, and retired; when he requested
that he might not be disturbed during the
brief space that remained to him, and
turning his back to the open entrance to his
cell, he unrolled some fragments of printed
prayers, and commenced reading them to
himself. During this interval he neither
spoke, nor heeded those who were watching
him; but undoubtedly suffered extreme mental
agony. At one minute he would drop his chin
on his bosom, and stand motionless; at
another would press his brow to the wall of
his cell, or wave his body from side to
side, as if wrung with unutterable anguish.
Suddenly, he would throw himself upon his
knees on the mattress, and prostrate himself
as if in prayer; then throwing his prayers
from him, he would clutch his rug in his
fingers, and like a child try to double it
up, or pick it to pieces. After snatching up
his rug and throwing it away again and
again, he would suddenly resume his prayers
and erect posture, and stand mute, gazing
through the aperture that admitted the light
of day for upwards of a minute. This scene
of imbecility and indecision, of horrible
prostration of mind, ceasing in some degree
when the Catholic clergyman re-entered his
cell.
At 10 o'clock, the prisoner was removed
from the prison, and during his progress to
the scaffold, though the hue of death was on
his face, and he trembled in every joint
with fear, he chaunted with a powerful voice
an appropriate service from the Catholic
ritual. Several times he turned round to
survey the heavens which at that moment were
clear and bright above him and when he
ascended the scaffold after concluding his
prayer, he took one long and steadfast look
at the sun, and waited in silence his fate.
His powers, mental and physical had been
suddenly crushed with the appalling reality
that surrounded him; his whole soul was
absorbed with one master feeling, the dread
of a speedy and violent death. He quailed in
the presence of the dreadful paraphernalia
of his punishment, as much as if he had been
a stranger to deeds of blood, and never
dealt death to his fellow man as he ploughed
the deep, under the black flag of piracy,
with the motto of "Rob, Kill, and Burn."
After adjusting the rope, a signal was
given. The body dropped heavily, and the
harsh abrupt shock must have instantly
deprived him of sensation, as there was no
voluntary action of the hands afterwards.
Thus terminated his career of crime in a
foreign land without one friend to recognize
or cheer him, or a single being to regret
his death.
The Spanish Consul having requested that
the bodies might not be given to the
faculty, they were interred at night under
the direction of the Marshal, in the
Catholic burial-ground at Charlestown. There
being no murder committed with the piracy,
the laws of the United States do not
authorize the court to order the bodies for
dissection.
Ruiz leaving the Panda.
Clerk. Gentlemen of the Jury, have
you agreed upon your verdict?
Jury. We have.
Clerk. Who shall speak for you?
Jury. Our foreman.
The prisoners were then directed
severally to rise as soon as called, and
receive the verdict of the jury. The
Captain, Pedro Gilbert, was the first
named. He arose, raised his hand, and
regarded the jury with a firm countenance
and steady eye.
Clerk. Jurors look upon the
prisoner; prisoner look upon the jurors. How
say you, Gentlemen, is the prisoner at the
bar, Pedro Gilbert, guilty or not guilty?
Foreman. GUILTY.
The same verdict was pronounced against
De Soto (the mate) Ruiz, (the
carpenter,) Boyga, Castillo, Garcia
and Montenegro. But Costa,
(the cabin-boy,) Ferrer (the negro,)
Guzman, Portana, and Velasquez,
were declared NOT GUILTY.
After having declared the verdict of the
Jury, the Foreman read to the Court the
following recommendation to mercy:
"The sympathies of the Jury have been
strongly moved in behalf of Bernardo de
Soto, on account of his generous, noble
and self-sacrificing conduct in saving the
lives of more than 70 human beings,
constituting the passengers and crew of the
ship Minerva; and they desire that
his case should be presented to the merciful
consideration of the Government."
Judge Story replied that the wish of the
jury would certainly be complied with both
by the Court and the prosecuting officer.
"The appearance and demeanor of Captain
Gilbert are the same as when we first saw
him; his eye is undimmed, and decision and
command yet sit upon his features. We did
not discern the slightest alteration of
color or countenance when the verdict of the
jury was communicated to him; he merely
slightly bowed and resumed his seat. With
De Soto the case was different. He is
much altered; has become thinner, and his
countenance this morning was expressive of
the deepest despondency. When informed of
the contents of the paper read by the
foreman of the jury, he appeared much
affected, and while being removed from the
Court, covered his face with his
handkerchief."
Immediately after the delivery of the
verdict, the acquitted prisoners, on motion
of Mr. Hillard, were directed to be
discharged, upon which several of the others
loudly and angrily expressed their
dissatisfaction at the result of the trial.
Castillo (a half-caste, with an
extremely mild and pleasing countenance,)
pointed towards heaven, and called upon the
Almighty to bear witness that he was
innocent; Ruiz uttered some words
with great vehemence; and Garcia said
"all were in the same ship; and it was
strange that some should be permitted to
escape while others were punished." Most of
them on leaving the Court uttered some
invective against "the picaro who had
sworn their lives away."
On Costa, the cabin boy, (aged 16)
being declared "Not Guilty" some degree of
approbation was manifested by the audience,
but instantly checked by the judge, who
directed the officers to take into custody,
every one expressing either assent or
dissent. We certainly think the sympathy
expressed in favor of Costa very ill
placed, for although we have not deemed
ourselves at liberty to mention the fact
earlier, his conduct during the whole trial
was characterized by the most reckless
effrontery and indecorum. Even when standing
up to receive the verdict of the jury, his
face bore an impudent smile, and he evinced
the most total disregard of the mercy which
had been extended towards him.
About this time vague rumors reached
Corunna, that a Captain belonging to that
place, engaged in the Slave Trade, had
turned Pirate, been captured, and sent to
America with his crew for punishment. Report
at first fixed it upon a noted slave-dealer,
named Begaro. But the astounding
intelligence soon reached Senora de Soto,
that her husband was the person captured for
this startling crime. The shock to her
feelings was terrible, but her love and
fortitude surmounted them all; and she
determined to brave the terrors of the
ocean, to intercede for her husband if
condemned, and at all events behold him once
more. A small schooner was freighted by her
own and husband's father, and in it she
embarked for New-York. After a boisterous
passage, the vessel reached that port, when
she learned her husband had already been
tried and condemned to die. The humane
people of New-York advised her to hasten on
to Washington, and plead with the President
for a pardon. On arriving at the capital,
she solicited an interview with General
Jackson, which was readily granted. From the
circumstance of her husband's having saved
the lives of seventy Americans, a merciful
ear was turned to her solicitations, and a
pardon for De Soto was given her, with which
she hastened to Boston, and communicated to
him the joyful intelligence.
Andrew Jackson, President of the United
States of America, to all to whom these
presents shall come, Greeting:
Whereas, at the October Term, 1834, of the
Circuit Court of the United States, Bernardo
de Soto was convicted of Piracy, and
sentenced to be hung on the 11th day of
March last from which sentence a respite was
granted him for three months, bearing date
the third day of March, 1835, also a
subsequent one, dated on the fifth day of
June, 1835, for sixty days. And whereas the
said Bernardo de Soto has been represented
as a fit subject for executive clemency--
Now therefore, I, Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States of America,
in consideration of the premises, divers
good and sufficient causes me thereto
moving, have pardoned, and hereby do pardon
the said Bernardo de Soto, from and after
the 11th August next, and direct that he be
then discharged from confinement. In
testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed
my name, and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed to these presents. Done
at the City of Washington the sixth day of
July, AD. 1835, and of the independence of
the United States and sixtieth. Andrew
Jackson.
On the fatal morning of June 11th, 1835,
Don Pedro, Juan Montenegro, Manuel Castillo,
Angel Garcia and Manuel Boyga, were,
agreeably to sentence, summoned to prepare
for immediate execution. On the night
previous, a mutual agreement had been
entered into to commit suicide. Angel Garcia
made the first attempt by trying to open the
veins of each arm with a piece of glass; but
was prevented. In the morning, however,
while preparations were making for the
execution, Boyga succeeded in inflicting a
deep gash on the left side of his neck, with
a piece of tin. The officer's eyes had been
withdrawn from him scarcely a minute, before
he was discovered lying on his pallet, with
a convulsive motion of his knees, from loss
of blood. Medical aid was at hand, the gash
sewed up, but he did not revive. Two
Catholic clergymen attended them on the
scaffold, one a Spanish priest. They were
executed in the rear of the jail. When the
procession arrived at the foot of the ladder
leading up to the platform of the gallows
the Rev. Mr. Varella looking directly at
Capt. Gilbert, said, "Spaniards, ascend to
heaven." Don Pedro mounted with a quick
step, and was followed by his comrades at a
more moderate pace, but without the least
hesitation. Boyga, unconscious of his
situation and destiny, was carried up in a
chair, and seated beneath the rope prepared
for him. Gilbert, Montenegro, Garcia and
Castillo all smiled subduedly as they took
their stations on the platform. Soon after
Capt. Gilbert ascended the scaffold, he
passed over to where the apparently lifeless
Boyga was seated in the chair, and kissed
him. Addressing his followers, he said,
"Boys, we are going to die; but let us be
firm, for we are innocent." To Mr. Peyton,
the interpreter, he said, "I die innocent,
but I'll die like a noble Spaniard. Good
bye, brother." The Marshal having read the
warrant for their execution, and stated that
de Soto was respited sixty and Ruiz
thirty days, the ropes were adjusted
round the necks of the prisoners, and a
slight hectic flush spread over the
countenance of each; but not an eye quailed,
nor a limb trembled, not a muscle quivered.
The fatal cord was now cut, and the platform
fell, by which the prisoners were launched
into eternity. After the execution was over,
Ruiz, who was confined in his cell,
attracted considerable attention, by his
maniac shouts and singing. At one time
holding up a piece of blanket, stained with
Boyga's blood, he gave utterance to his
ravings in a sort of recitative, the burden
of which was--"This is the red flag my
companions died under!"
After the expiration of Ruiz' second
respite, the Marshal got two surgeons of the
United States Navy, who understood the
Spanish language, to attend him in his cell;
they, after a patient examination pronounced
his madness a counterfeit, and his insanity
a hoax. Accordingly, on the morning of Sept.
11th, the Marshal, in company with a
Catholic priest and interpreter entered his
cell, and made him sensible that longer
evasion of the sentence of the law was
impossible, and that he must surely die.
They informed him that he had but half an
hour to live, and retired; when he requested
that he might not be disturbed during the
brief space that remained to him, and
turning his back to the open entrance to his
cell, he unrolled some fragments of printed
prayers, and commenced reading them to
himself. During this interval he neither
spoke, nor heeded those who were watching
him; but undoubtedly suffered extreme mental
agony. At one minute he would drop his chin
on his bosom, and stand motionless; at
another would press his brow to the wall of
his cell, or wave his body from side to
side, as if wrung with unutterable anguish.
Suddenly, he would throw himself upon his
knees on the mattress, and prostrate himself
as if in prayer; then throwing his prayers
from him, he would clutch his rug in his
fingers, and like a child try to double it
up, or pick it to pieces. After snatching up
his rug and throwing it away again and
again, he would suddenly resume his prayers
and erect posture, and stand mute, gazing
through the aperture that admitted the light
of day for upwards of a minute. This scene
of imbecility and indecision, of horrible
prostration of mind, ceasing in some degree
when the Catholic clergyman re-entered his
cell.
At 10 o'clock, the prisoner was removed
from the prison, and during his progress to
the scaffold, though the hue of death was on
his face, and he trembled in every joint
with fear, he chaunted with a powerful voice
an appropriate service from the Catholic
ritual. Several times he turned round to
survey the heavens which at that moment were
clear and bright above him and when he
ascended the scaffold after concluding his
prayer, he took one long and steadfast look
at the sun, and waited in silence his fate.
His powers, mental and physical had been
suddenly crushed with the appalling reality
that surrounded him; his whole soul was
absorbed with one master feeling, the dread
of a speedy and violent death. He quailed in
the presence of the dreadful paraphernalia
of his punishment, as much as if he had been
a stranger to deeds of blood, and never
dealt death to his fellow man as he ploughed
the deep, under the black flag of piracy,
with the motto of "Rob, Kill, and Burn."
After adjusting the rope, a signal was
given. The body dropped heavily, and the
harsh abrupt shock must have instantly
deprived him of sensation, as there was no
voluntary action of the hands afterwards.
Thus terminated his career of crime in a
foreign land without one friend to recognize
or cheer him, or a single being to regret
his death.
The Spanish Consul having requested that
the bodies might not be given to the
faculty, they were interred at night under
the direction of the Marshal, in the
Catholic burial-ground at Charlestown. There
being no murder committed with the piracy,
the laws of the United States do not
authorize the court to order the bodies for
dissection.
Ruiz leaving the Panda.
Clerk. Who shall speak for you?
Jury. Our foreman.
The prisoners were then directed
severally to rise as soon as called, and
receive the verdict of the jury. The
Captain, Pedro Gilbert, was the first
named. He arose, raised his hand, and
regarded the jury with a firm countenance
and steady eye.
Clerk. Jurors look upon the
prisoner; prisoner look upon the jurors. How
say you, Gentlemen, is the prisoner at the
bar, Pedro Gilbert, guilty or not guilty?
Foreman. GUILTY.
The same verdict was pronounced against
De Soto (the mate) Ruiz, (the
carpenter,) Boyga, Castillo, Garcia
and Montenegro. But Costa,
(the cabin-boy,) Ferrer (the negro,)
Guzman, Portana, and Velasquez,
were declared NOT GUILTY.
After having declared the verdict of the
Jury, the Foreman read to the Court the
following recommendation to mercy:
"The sympathies of the Jury have been
strongly moved in behalf of Bernardo de
Soto, on account of his generous, noble
and self-sacrificing conduct in saving the
lives of more than 70 human beings,
constituting the passengers and crew of the
ship Minerva; and they desire that
his case should be presented to the merciful
consideration of the Government."
Judge Story replied that the wish of the
jury would certainly be complied with both
by the Court and the prosecuting officer.
"The appearance and demeanor of Captain
Gilbert are the same as when we first saw
him; his eye is undimmed, and decision and
command yet sit upon his features. We did
not discern the slightest alteration of
color or countenance when the verdict of the
jury was communicated to him; he merely
slightly bowed and resumed his seat. With
De Soto the case was different. He is
much altered; has become thinner, and his
countenance this morning was expressive of
the deepest despondency. When informed of
the contents of the paper read by the
foreman of the jury, he appeared much
affected, and while being removed from the
Court, covered his face with his
handkerchief."
Immediately after the delivery of the
verdict, the acquitted prisoners, on motion
of Mr. Hillard, were directed to be
discharged, upon which several of the others
loudly and angrily expressed their
dissatisfaction at the result of the trial.
Castillo (a half-caste, with an
extremely mild and pleasing countenance,)
pointed towards heaven, and called upon the
Almighty to bear witness that he was
innocent; Ruiz uttered some words
with great vehemence; and Garcia said
"all were in the same ship; and it was
strange that some should be permitted to
escape while others were punished." Most of
them on leaving the Court uttered some
invective against "the picaro who had
sworn their lives away."
On Costa, the cabin boy, (aged 16)
being declared "Not Guilty" some degree of
approbation was manifested by the audience,
but instantly checked by the judge, who
directed the officers to take into custody,
every one expressing either assent or
dissent. We certainly think the sympathy
expressed in favor of Costa very ill
placed, for although we have not deemed
ourselves at liberty to mention the fact
earlier, his conduct during the whole trial
was characterized by the most reckless
effrontery and indecorum. Even when standing
up to receive the verdict of the jury, his
face bore an impudent smile, and he evinced
the most total disregard of the mercy which
had been extended towards him.
About this time vague rumors reached
Corunna, that a Captain belonging to that
place, engaged in the Slave Trade, had
turned Pirate, been captured, and sent to
America with his crew for punishment. Report
at first fixed it upon a noted slave-dealer,
named Begaro. But the astounding
intelligence soon reached Senora de Soto,
that her husband was the person captured for
this startling crime. The shock to her
feelings was terrible, but her love and
fortitude surmounted them all; and she
determined to brave the terrors of the
ocean, to intercede for her husband if
condemned, and at all events behold him once
more. A small schooner was freighted by her
own and husband's father, and in it she
embarked for New-York. After a boisterous
passage, the vessel reached that port, when
she learned her husband had already been
tried and condemned to die. The humane
people of New-York advised her to hasten on
to Washington, and plead with the President
for a pardon. On arriving at the capital,
she solicited an interview with General
Jackson, which was readily granted. From the
circumstance of her husband's having saved
the lives of seventy Americans, a merciful
ear was turned to her solicitations, and a
pardon for De Soto was given her, with which
she hastened to Boston, and communicated to
him the joyful intelligence.
Andrew Jackson, President of the United
States of America, to all to whom these
presents shall come, Greeting:
Whereas, at the October Term, 1834, of the
Circuit Court of the United States, Bernardo
de Soto was convicted of Piracy, and
sentenced to be hung on the 11th day of
March last from which sentence a respite was
granted him for three months, bearing date
the third day of March, 1835, also a
subsequent one, dated on the fifth day of
June, 1835, for sixty days. And whereas the
said Bernardo de Soto has been represented
as a fit subject for executive clemency--
Now therefore, I, Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States of America,
in consideration of the premises, divers
good and sufficient causes me thereto
moving, have pardoned, and hereby do pardon
the said Bernardo de Soto, from and after
the 11th August next, and direct that he be
then discharged from confinement. In
testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed
my name, and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed to these presents. Done
at the City of Washington the sixth day of
July, AD. 1835, and of the independence of
the United States and sixtieth. Andrew
Jackson.
On the fatal morning of June 11th, 1835,
Don Pedro, Juan Montenegro, Manuel Castillo,
Angel Garcia and Manuel Boyga, were,
agreeably to sentence, summoned to prepare
for immediate execution. On the night
previous, a mutual agreement had been
entered into to commit suicide. Angel Garcia
made the first attempt by trying to open the
veins of each arm with a piece of glass; but
was prevented. In the morning, however,
while preparations were making for the
execution, Boyga succeeded in inflicting a
deep gash on the left side of his neck, with
a piece of tin. The officer's eyes had been
withdrawn from him scarcely a minute, before
he was discovered lying on his pallet, with
a convulsive motion of his knees, from loss
of blood. Medical aid was at hand, the gash
sewed up, but he did not revive. Two
Catholic clergymen attended them on the
scaffold, one a Spanish priest. They were
executed in the rear of the jail. When the
procession arrived at the foot of the ladder
leading up to the platform of the gallows
the Rev. Mr. Varella looking directly at
Capt. Gilbert, said, "Spaniards, ascend to
heaven." Don Pedro mounted with a quick
step, and was followed by his comrades at a
more moderate pace, but without the least
hesitation. Boyga, unconscious of his
situation and destiny, was carried up in a
chair, and seated beneath the rope prepared
for him. Gilbert, Montenegro, Garcia and
Castillo all smiled subduedly as they took
their stations on the platform. Soon after
Capt. Gilbert ascended the scaffold, he
passed over to where the apparently lifeless
Boyga was seated in the chair, and kissed
him. Addressing his followers, he said,
"Boys, we are going to die; but let us be
firm, for we are innocent." To Mr. Peyton,
the interpreter, he said, "I die innocent,
but I'll die like a noble Spaniard. Good
bye, brother." The Marshal having read the
warrant for their execution, and stated that
de Soto was respited sixty and Ruiz
thirty days, the ropes were adjusted
round the necks of the prisoners, and a
slight hectic flush spread over the
countenance of each; but not an eye quailed,
nor a limb trembled, not a muscle quivered.
The fatal cord was now cut, and the platform
fell, by which the prisoners were launched
into eternity. After the execution was over,
Ruiz, who was confined in his cell,
attracted considerable attention, by his
maniac shouts and singing. At one time
holding up a piece of blanket, stained with
Boyga's blood, he gave utterance to his
ravings in a sort of recitative, the burden
of which was--"This is the red flag my
companions died under!"
After the expiration of Ruiz' second
respite, the Marshal got two surgeons of the
United States Navy, who understood the
Spanish language, to attend him in his cell;
they, after a patient examination pronounced
his madness a counterfeit, and his insanity
a hoax. Accordingly, on the morning of Sept.
11th, the Marshal, in company with a
Catholic priest and interpreter entered his
cell, and made him sensible that longer
evasion of the sentence of the law was
impossible, and that he must surely die.
They informed him that he had but half an
hour to live, and retired; when he requested
that he might not be disturbed during the
brief space that remained to him, and
turning his back to the open entrance to his
cell, he unrolled some fragments of printed
prayers, and commenced reading them to
himself. During this interval he neither
spoke, nor heeded those who were watching
him; but undoubtedly suffered extreme mental
agony. At one minute he would drop his chin
on his bosom, and stand motionless; at
another would press his brow to the wall of
his cell, or wave his body from side to
side, as if wrung with unutterable anguish.
Suddenly, he would throw himself upon his
knees on the mattress, and prostrate himself
as if in prayer; then throwing his prayers
from him, he would clutch his rug in his
fingers, and like a child try to double it
up, or pick it to pieces. After snatching up
his rug and throwing it away again and
again, he would suddenly resume his prayers
and erect posture, and stand mute, gazing
through the aperture that admitted the light
of day for upwards of a minute. This scene
of imbecility and indecision, of horrible
prostration of mind, ceasing in some degree
when the Catholic clergyman re-entered his
cell.
At 10 o'clock, the prisoner was removed
from the prison, and during his progress to
the scaffold, though the hue of death was on
his face, and he trembled in every joint
with fear, he chaunted with a powerful voice
an appropriate service from the Catholic
ritual. Several times he turned round to
survey the heavens which at that moment were
clear and bright above him and when he
ascended the scaffold after concluding his
prayer, he took one long and steadfast look
at the sun, and waited in silence his fate.
His powers, mental and physical had been
suddenly crushed with the appalling reality
that surrounded him; his whole soul was
absorbed with one master feeling, the dread
of a speedy and violent death. He quailed in
the presence of the dreadful paraphernalia
of his punishment, as much as if he had been
a stranger to deeds of blood, and never
dealt death to his fellow man as he ploughed
the deep, under the black flag of piracy,
with the motto of "Rob, Kill, and Burn."
After adjusting the rope, a signal was
given. The body dropped heavily, and the
harsh abrupt shock must have instantly
deprived him of sensation, as there was no
voluntary action of the hands afterwards.
Thus terminated his career of crime in a
foreign land without one friend to recognize
or cheer him, or a single being to regret
his death.
The Spanish Consul having requested that
the bodies might not be given to the
faculty, they were interred at night under
the direction of the Marshal, in the
Catholic burial-ground at Charlestown. There
being no murder committed with the piracy,
the laws of the United States do not
authorize the court to order the bodies for
dissection.
Ruiz leaving the Panda.
The prisoners were then directed
severally to rise as soon as called, and
receive the verdict of the jury. The
Captain, Pedro Gilbert, was the first
named. He arose, raised his hand, and
regarded the jury with a firm countenance
and steady eye.
Clerk. Jurors look upon the
prisoner; prisoner look upon the jurors. How
say you, Gentlemen, is the prisoner at the
bar, Pedro Gilbert, guilty or not guilty?
Foreman. GUILTY.
The same verdict was pronounced against
De Soto (the mate) Ruiz, (the
carpenter,) Boyga, Castillo, Garcia
and Montenegro. But Costa,
(the cabin-boy,) Ferrer (the negro,)
Guzman, Portana, and Velasquez,
were declared NOT GUILTY.
After having declared the verdict of the
Jury, the Foreman read to the Court the
following recommendation to mercy:
"The sympathies of the Jury have been
strongly moved in behalf of Bernardo de
Soto, on account of his generous, noble
and self-sacrificing conduct in saving the
lives of more than 70 human beings,
constituting the passengers and crew of the
ship Minerva; and they desire that
his case should be presented to the merciful
consideration of the Government."
Judge Story replied that the wish of the
jury would certainly be complied with both
by the Court and the prosecuting officer.
"The appearance and demeanor of Captain
Gilbert are the same as when we first saw
him; his eye is undimmed, and decision and
command yet sit upon his features. We did
not discern the slightest alteration of
color or countenance when the verdict of the
jury was communicated to him; he merely
slightly bowed and resumed his seat. With
De Soto the case was different. He is
much altered; has become thinner, and his
countenance this morning was expressive of
the deepest despondency. When informed of
the contents of the paper read by the
foreman of the jury, he appeared much
affected, and while being removed from the
Court, covered his face with his
handkerchief."
Immediately after the delivery of the
verdict, the acquitted prisoners, on motion
of Mr. Hillard, were directed to be
discharged, upon which several of the others
loudly and angrily expressed their
dissatisfaction at the result of the trial.
Castillo (a half-caste, with an
extremely mild and pleasing countenance,)
pointed towards heaven, and called upon the
Almighty to bear witness that he was
innocent; Ruiz uttered some words
with great vehemence; and Garcia said
"all were in the same ship; and it was
strange that some should be permitted to
escape while others were punished." Most of
them on leaving the Court uttered some
invective against "the picaro who had
sworn their lives away."
On Costa, the cabin boy, (aged 16)
being declared "Not Guilty" some degree of
approbation was manifested by the audience,
but instantly checked by the judge, who
directed the officers to take into custody,
every one expressing either assent or
dissent. We certainly think the sympathy
expressed in favor of Costa very ill
placed, for although we have not deemed
ourselves at liberty to mention the fact
earlier, his conduct during the whole trial
was characterized by the most reckless
effrontery and indecorum. Even when standing
up to receive the verdict of the jury, his
face bore an impudent smile, and he evinced
the most total disregard of the mercy which
had been extended towards him.
About this time vague rumors reached
Corunna, that a Captain belonging to that
place, engaged in the Slave Trade, had
turned Pirate, been captured, and sent to
America with his crew for punishment. Report
at first fixed it upon a noted slave-dealer,
named Begaro. But the astounding
intelligence soon reached Senora de Soto,
that her husband was the person captured for
this startling crime. The shock to her
feelings was terrible, but her love and
fortitude surmounted them all; and she
determined to brave the terrors of the
ocean, to intercede for her husband if
condemned, and at all events behold him once
more. A small schooner was freighted by her
own and husband's father, and in it she
embarked for New-York. After a boisterous
passage, the vessel reached that port, when
she learned her husband had already been
tried and condemned to die. The humane
people of New-York advised her to hasten on
to Washington, and plead with the President
for a pardon. On arriving at the capital,
she solicited an interview with General
Jackson, which was readily granted. From the
circumstance of her husband's having saved
the lives of seventy Americans, a merciful
ear was turned to her solicitations, and a
pardon for De Soto was given her, with which
she hastened to Boston, and communicated to
him the joyful intelligence.
Andrew Jackson, President of the United
States of America, to all to whom these
presents shall come, Greeting:
Whereas, at the October Term, 1834, of the
Circuit Court of the United States, Bernardo
de Soto was convicted of Piracy, and
sentenced to be hung on the 11th day of
March last from which sentence a respite was
granted him for three months, bearing date
the third day of March, 1835, also a
subsequent one, dated on the fifth day of
June, 1835, for sixty days. And whereas the
said Bernardo de Soto has been represented
as a fit subject for executive clemency--
Now therefore, I, Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States of America,
in consideration of the premises, divers
good and sufficient causes me thereto
moving, have pardoned, and hereby do pardon
the said Bernardo de Soto, from and after
the 11th August next, and direct that he be
then discharged from confinement. In
testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed
my name, and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed to these presents. Done
at the City of Washington the sixth day of
July, AD. 1835, and of the independence of
the United States and sixtieth. Andrew
Jackson.
On the fatal morning of June 11th, 1835,
Don Pedro, Juan Montenegro, Manuel Castillo,
Angel Garcia and Manuel Boyga, were,
agreeably to sentence, summoned to prepare
for immediate execution. On the night
previous, a mutual agreement had been
entered into to commit suicide. Angel Garcia
made the first attempt by trying to open the
veins of each arm with a piece of glass; but
was prevented. In the morning, however,
while preparations were making for the
execution, Boyga succeeded in inflicting a
deep gash on the left side of his neck, with
a piece of tin. The officer's eyes had been
withdrawn from him scarcely a minute, before
he was discovered lying on his pallet, with
a convulsive motion of his knees, from loss
of blood. Medical aid was at hand, the gash
sewed up, but he did not revive. Two
Catholic clergymen attended them on the
scaffold, one a Spanish priest. They were
executed in the rear of the jail. When the
procession arrived at the foot of the ladder
leading up to the platform of the gallows
the Rev. Mr. Varella looking directly at
Capt. Gilbert, said, "Spaniards, ascend to
heaven." Don Pedro mounted with a quick
step, and was followed by his comrades at a
more moderate pace, but without the least
hesitation. Boyga, unconscious of his
situation and destiny, was carried up in a
chair, and seated beneath the rope prepared
for him. Gilbert, Montenegro, Garcia and
Castillo all smiled subduedly as they took
their stations on the platform. Soon after
Capt. Gilbert ascended the scaffold, he
passed over to where the apparently lifeless
Boyga was seated in the chair, and kissed
him. Addressing his followers, he said,
"Boys, we are going to die; but let us be
firm, for we are innocent." To Mr. Peyton,
the interpreter, he said, "I die innocent,
but I'll die like a noble Spaniard. Good
bye, brother." The Marshal having read the
warrant for their execution, and stated that
de Soto was respited sixty and Ruiz
thirty days, the ropes were adjusted
round the necks of the prisoners, and a
slight hectic flush spread over the
countenance of each; but not an eye quailed,
nor a limb trembled, not a muscle quivered.
The fatal cord was now cut, and the platform
fell, by which the prisoners were launched
into eternity. After the execution was over,
Ruiz, who was confined in his cell,
attracted considerable attention, by his
maniac shouts and singing. At one time
holding up a piece of blanket, stained with
Boyga's blood, he gave utterance to his
ravings in a sort of recitative, the burden
of which was--"This is the red flag my
companions died under!"
After the expiration of Ruiz' second
respite, the Marshal got two surgeons of the
United States Navy, who understood the
Spanish language, to attend him in his cell;
they, after a patient examination pronounced
his madness a counterfeit, and his insanity
a hoax. Accordingly, on the morning of Sept.
11th, the Marshal, in company with a
Catholic priest and interpreter entered his
cell, and made him sensible that longer
evasion of the sentence of the law was
impossible, and that he must surely die.
They informed him that he had but half an
hour to live, and retired; when he requested
that he might not be disturbed during the
brief space that remained to him, and
turning his back to the open entrance to his
cell, he unrolled some fragments of printed
prayers, and commenced reading them to
himself. During this interval he neither
spoke, nor heeded those who were watching
him; but undoubtedly suffered extreme mental
agony. At one minute he would drop his chin
on his bosom, and stand motionless; at
another would press his brow to the wall of
his cell, or wave his body from side to
side, as if wrung with unutterable anguish.
Suddenly, he would throw himself upon his
knees on the mattress, and prostrate himself
as if in prayer; then throwing his prayers
from him, he would clutch his rug in his
fingers, and like a child try to double it
up, or pick it to pieces. After snatching up
his rug and throwing it away again and
again, he would suddenly resume his prayers
and erect posture, and stand mute, gazing
through the aperture that admitted the light
of day for upwards of a minute. This scene
of imbecility and indecision, of horrible
prostration of mind, ceasing in some degree
when the Catholic clergyman re-entered his
cell.
At 10 o'clock, the prisoner was removed
from the prison, and during his progress to
the scaffold, though the hue of death was on
his face, and he trembled in every joint
with fear, he chaunted with a powerful voice
an appropriate service from the Catholic
ritual. Several times he turned round to
survey the heavens which at that moment were
clear and bright above him and when he
ascended the scaffold after concluding his
prayer, he took one long and steadfast look
at the sun, and waited in silence his fate.
His powers, mental and physical had been
suddenly crushed with the appalling reality
that surrounded him; his whole soul was
absorbed with one master feeling, the dread
of a speedy and violent death. He quailed in
the presence of the dreadful paraphernalia
of his punishment, as much as if he had been
a stranger to deeds of blood, and never
dealt death to his fellow man as he ploughed
the deep, under the black flag of piracy,
with the motto of "Rob, Kill, and Burn."
After adjusting the rope, a signal was
given. The body dropped heavily, and the
harsh abrupt shock must have instantly
deprived him of sensation, as there was no
voluntary action of the hands afterwards.
Thus terminated his career of crime in a
foreign land without one friend to recognize
or cheer him, or a single being to regret
his death.
The Spanish Consul having requested that
the bodies might not be given to the
faculty, they were interred at night under
the direction of the Marshal, in the
Catholic burial-ground at Charlestown. There
being no murder committed with the piracy,
the laws of the United States do not
authorize the court to order the bodies for
dissection.
Ruiz leaving the Panda.
Foreman. GUILTY.
The same verdict was pronounced against
De Soto (the mate) Ruiz, (the
carpenter,) Boyga, Castillo, Garcia
and Montenegro. But Costa,
(the cabin-boy,) Ferrer (the negro,)
Guzman, Portana, and Velasquez,
were declared NOT GUILTY.
After having declared the verdict of the
Jury, the Foreman read to the Court the
following recommendation to mercy:
"The sympathies of the Jury have been
strongly moved in behalf of Bernardo de
Soto, on account of his generous, noble
and self-sacrificing conduct in saving the
lives of more than 70 human beings,
constituting the passengers and crew of the
ship Minerva; and they desire that
his case should be presented to the merciful
consideration of the Government."
Judge Story replied that the wish of the
jury would certainly be complied with both
by the Court and the prosecuting officer.
"The appearance and demeanor of Captain
Gilbert are the same as when we first saw
him; his eye is undimmed, and decision and
command yet sit upon his features. We did
not discern the slightest alteration of
color or countenance when the verdict of the
jury was communicated to him; he merely
slightly bowed and resumed his seat. With
De Soto the case was different. He is
much altered; has become thinner, and his
countenance this morning was expressive of
the deepest despondency. When informed of
the contents of the paper read by the
foreman of the jury, he appeared much
affected, and while being removed from the
Court, covered his face with his
handkerchief."
Immediately after the delivery of the
verdict, the acquitted prisoners, on motion
of Mr. Hillard, were directed to be
discharged, upon which several of the others
loudly and angrily expressed their
dissatisfaction at the result of the trial.
Castillo (a half-caste, with an
extremely mild and pleasing countenance,)
pointed towards heaven, and called upon the
Almighty to bear witness that he was
innocent; Ruiz uttered some words
with great vehemence; and Garcia said
"all were in the same ship; and it was
strange that some should be permitted to
escape while others were punished." Most of
them on leaving the Court uttered some
invective against "the picaro who had
sworn their lives away."
On Costa, the cabin boy, (aged 16)
being declared "Not Guilty" some degree of
approbation was manifested by the audience,
but instantly checked by the judge, who
directed the officers to take into custody,
every one expressing either assent or
dissent. We certainly think the sympathy
expressed in favor of Costa very ill
placed, for although we have not deemed
ourselves at liberty to mention the fact
earlier, his conduct during the whole trial
was characterized by the most reckless
effrontery and indecorum. Even when standing
up to receive the verdict of the jury, his
face bore an impudent smile, and he evinced
the most total disregard of the mercy which
had been extended towards him.
About this time vague rumors reached
Corunna, that a Captain belonging to that
place, engaged in the Slave Trade, had
turned Pirate, been captured, and sent to
America with his crew for punishment. Report
at first fixed it upon a noted slave-dealer,
named Begaro. But the astounding
intelligence soon reached Senora de Soto,
that her husband was the person captured for
this startling crime. The shock to her
feelings was terrible, but her love and
fortitude surmounted them all; and she
determined to brave the terrors of the
ocean, to intercede for her husband if
condemned, and at all events behold him once
more. A small schooner was freighted by her
own and husband's father, and in it she
embarked for New-York. After a boisterous
passage, the vessel reached that port, when
she learned her husband had already been
tried and condemned to die. The humane
people of New-York advised her to hasten on
to Washington, and plead with the President
for a pardon. On arriving at the capital,
she solicited an interview with General
Jackson, which was readily granted. From the
circumstance of her husband's having saved
the lives of seventy Americans, a merciful
ear was turned to her solicitations, and a
pardon for De Soto was given her, with which
she hastened to Boston, and communicated to
him the joyful intelligence.
Andrew Jackson, President of the United
States of America, to all to whom these
presents shall come, Greeting:
Whereas, at the October Term, 1834, of the
Circuit Court of the United States, Bernardo
de Soto was convicted of Piracy, and
sentenced to be hung on the 11th day of
March last from which sentence a respite was
granted him for three months, bearing date
the third day of March, 1835, also a
subsequent one, dated on the fifth day of
June, 1835, for sixty days. And whereas the
said Bernardo de Soto has been represented
as a fit subject for executive clemency--
Now therefore, I, Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States of America,
in consideration of the premises, divers
good and sufficient causes me thereto
moving, have pardoned, and hereby do pardon
the said Bernardo de Soto, from and after
the 11th August next, and direct that he be
then discharged from confinement. In
testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed
my name, and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed to these presents. Done
at the City of Washington the sixth day of
July, AD. 1835, and of the independence of
the United States and sixtieth. Andrew
Jackson.
On the fatal morning of June 11th, 1835,
Don Pedro, Juan Montenegro, Manuel Castillo,
Angel Garcia and Manuel Boyga, were,
agreeably to sentence, summoned to prepare
for immediate execution. On the night
previous, a mutual agreement had been
entered into to commit suicide. Angel Garcia
made the first attempt by trying to open the
veins of each arm with a piece of glass; but
was prevented. In the morning, however,
while preparations were making for the
execution, Boyga succeeded in inflicting a
deep gash on the left side of his neck, with
a piece of tin. The officer's eyes had been
withdrawn from him scarcely a minute, before
he was discovered lying on his pallet, with
a convulsive motion of his knees, from loss
of blood. Medical aid was at hand, the gash
sewed up, but he did not revive. Two
Catholic clergymen attended them on the
scaffold, one a Spanish priest. They were
executed in the rear of the jail. When the
procession arrived at the foot of the ladder
leading up to the platform of the gallows
the Rev. Mr. Varella looking directly at
Capt. Gilbert, said, "Spaniards, ascend to
heaven." Don Pedro mounted with a quick
step, and was followed by his comrades at a
more moderate pace, but without the least
hesitation. Boyga, unconscious of his
situation and destiny, was carried up in a
chair, and seated beneath the rope prepared
for him. Gilbert, Montenegro, Garcia and
Castillo all smiled subduedly as they took
their stations on the platform. Soon after
Capt. Gilbert ascended the scaffold, he
passed over to where the apparently lifeless
Boyga was seated in the chair, and kissed
him. Addressing his followers, he said,
"Boys, we are going to die; but let us be
firm, for we are innocent." To Mr. Peyton,
the interpreter, he said, "I die innocent,
but I'll die like a noble Spaniard. Good
bye, brother." The Marshal having read the
warrant for their execution, and stated that
de Soto was respited sixty and Ruiz
thirty days, the ropes were adjusted
round the necks of the prisoners, and a
slight hectic flush spread over the
countenance of each; but not an eye quailed,
nor a limb trembled, not a muscle quivered.
The fatal cord was now cut, and the platform
fell, by which the prisoners were launched
into eternity. After the execution was over,
Ruiz, who was confined in his cell,
attracted considerable attention, by his
maniac shouts and singing. At one time
holding up a piece of blanket, stained with
Boyga's blood, he gave utterance to his
ravings in a sort of recitative, the burden
of which was--"This is the red flag my
companions died under!"
After the expiration of Ruiz' second
respite, the Marshal got two surgeons of the
United States Navy, who understood the
Spanish language, to attend him in his cell;
they, after a patient examination pronounced
his madness a counterfeit, and his insanity
a hoax. Accordingly, on the morning of Sept.
11th, the Marshal, in company with a
Catholic priest and interpreter entered his
cell, and made him sensible that longer
evasion of the sentence of the law was
impossible, and that he must surely die.
They informed him that he had but half an
hour to live, and retired; when he requested
that he might not be disturbed during the
brief space that remained to him, and
turning his back to the open entrance to his
cell, he unrolled some fragments of printed
prayers, and commenced reading them to
himself. During this interval he neither
spoke, nor heeded those who were watching
him; but undoubtedly suffered extreme mental
agony. At one minute he would drop his chin
on his bosom, and stand motionless; at
another would press his brow to the wall of
his cell, or wave his body from side to
side, as if wrung with unutterable anguish.
Suddenly, he would throw himself upon his
knees on the mattress, and prostrate himself
as if in prayer; then throwing his prayers
from him, he would clutch his rug in his
fingers, and like a child try to double it
up, or pick it to pieces. After snatching up
his rug and throwing it away again and
again, he would suddenly resume his prayers
and erect posture, and stand mute, gazing
through the aperture that admitted the light
of day for upwards of a minute. This scene
of imbecility and indecision, of horrible
prostration of mind, ceasing in some degree
when the Catholic clergyman re-entered his
cell.
At 10 o'clock, the prisoner was removed
from the prison, and during his progress to
the scaffold, though the hue of death was on
his face, and he trembled in every joint
with fear, he chaunted with a powerful voice
an appropriate service from the Catholic
ritual. Several times he turned round to
survey the heavens which at that moment were
clear and bright above him and when he
ascended the scaffold after concluding his
prayer, he took one long and steadfast look
at the sun, and waited in silence his fate.
His powers, mental and physical had been
suddenly crushed with the appalling reality
that surrounded him; his whole soul was
absorbed with one master feeling, the dread
of a speedy and violent death. He quailed in
the presence of the dreadful paraphernalia
of his punishment, as much as if he had been
a stranger to deeds of blood, and never
dealt death to his fellow man as he ploughed
the deep, under the black flag of piracy,
with the motto of "Rob, Kill, and Burn."
After adjusting the rope, a signal was
given. The body dropped heavily, and the
harsh abrupt shock must have instantly
deprived him of sensation, as there was no
voluntary action of the hands afterwards.
Thus terminated his career of crime in a
foreign land without one friend to recognize
or cheer him, or a single being to regret
his death.
The Spanish Consul having requested that
the bodies might not be given to the
faculty, they were interred at night under
the direction of the Marshal, in the
Catholic burial-ground at Charlestown. There
being no murder committed with the piracy,
the laws of the United States do not
authorize the court to order the bodies for
dissection.
Ruiz leaving the Panda.
After having declared the verdict of the
Jury, the Foreman read to the Court the
following recommendation to mercy:
"The sympathies of the Jury have been
strongly moved in behalf of Bernardo de
Soto, on account of his generous, noble
and self-sacrificing conduct in saving the
lives of more than 70 human beings,
constituting the passengers and crew of the
ship Minerva; and they desire that
his case should be presented to the merciful
consideration of the Government."
Judge Story replied that the wish of the
jury would certainly be complied with both
by the Court and the prosecuting officer.
"The appearance and demeanor of Captain
Gilbert are the same as when we first saw
him; his eye is undimmed, and decision and
command yet sit upon his features. We did
not discern the slightest alteration of
color or countenance when the verdict of the
jury was communicated to him; he merely
slightly bowed and resumed his seat. With
De Soto the case was different. He is
much altered; has become thinner, and his
countenance this morning was expressive of
the deepest despondency. When informed of
the contents of the paper read by the
foreman of the jury, he appeared much
affected, and while being removed from the
Court, covered his face with his
handkerchief."
Immediately after the delivery of the
verdict, the acquitted prisoners, on motion
of Mr. Hillard, were directed to be
discharged, upon which several of the others
loudly and angrily expressed their
dissatisfaction at the result of the trial.
Castillo (a half-caste, with an
extremely mild and pleasing countenance,)
pointed towards heaven, and called upon the
Almighty to bear witness that he was
innocent; Ruiz uttered some words
with great vehemence; and Garcia said
"all were in the same ship; and it was
strange that some should be permitted to
escape while others were punished." Most of
them on leaving the Court uttered some
invective against "the picaro who had
sworn their lives away."
On Costa, the cabin boy, (aged 16)
being declared "Not Guilty" some degree of
approbation was manifested by the audience,
but instantly checked by the judge, who
directed the officers to take into custody,
every one expressing either assent or
dissent. We certainly think the sympathy
expressed in favor of Costa very ill
placed, for although we have not deemed
ourselves at liberty to mention the fact
earlier, his conduct during the whole trial
was characterized by the most reckless
effrontery and indecorum. Even when standing
up to receive the verdict of the jury, his
face bore an impudent smile, and he evinced
the most total disregard of the mercy which
had been extended towards him.
About this time vague rumors reached
Corunna, that a Captain belonging to that
place, engaged in the Slave Trade, had
turned Pirate, been captured, and sent to
America with his crew for punishment. Report
at first fixed it upon a noted slave-dealer,
named Begaro. But the astounding
intelligence soon reached Senora de Soto,
that her husband was the person captured for
this startling crime. The shock to her
feelings was terrible, but her love and
fortitude surmounted them all; and she
determined to brave the terrors of the
ocean, to intercede for her husband if
condemned, and at all events behold him once
more. A small schooner was freighted by her
own and husband's father, and in it she
embarked for New-York. After a boisterous
passage, the vessel reached that port, when
she learned her husband had already been
tried and condemned to die. The humane
people of New-York advised her to hasten on
to Washington, and plead with the President
for a pardon. On arriving at the capital,
she solicited an interview with General
Jackson, which was readily granted. From the
circumstance of her husband's having saved
the lives of seventy Americans, a merciful
ear was turned to her solicitations, and a
pardon for De Soto was given her, with which
she hastened to Boston, and communicated to
him the joyful intelligence.
Andrew Jackson, President of the United
States of America, to all to whom these
presents shall come, Greeting:
Whereas, at the October Term, 1834, of the
Circuit Court of the United States, Bernardo
de Soto was convicted of Piracy, and
sentenced to be hung on the 11th day of
March last from which sentence a respite was
granted him for three months, bearing date
the third day of March, 1835, also a
subsequent one, dated on the fifth day of
June, 1835, for sixty days. And whereas the
said Bernardo de Soto has been represented
as a fit subject for executive clemency--
Now therefore, I, Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States of America,
in consideration of the premises, divers
good and sufficient causes me thereto
moving, have pardoned, and hereby do pardon
the said Bernardo de Soto, from and after
the 11th August next, and direct that he be
then discharged from confinement. In
testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed
my name, and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed to these presents. Done
at the City of Washington the sixth day of
July, AD. 1835, and of the independence of
the United States and sixtieth. Andrew
Jackson.
On the fatal morning of June 11th, 1835,
Don Pedro, Juan Montenegro, Manuel Castillo,
Angel Garcia and Manuel Boyga, were,
agreeably to sentence, summoned to prepare
for immediate execution. On the night
previous, a mutual agreement had been
entered into to commit suicide. Angel Garcia
made the first attempt by trying to open the
veins of each arm with a piece of glass; but
was prevented. In the morning, however,
while preparations were making for the
execution, Boyga succeeded in inflicting a
deep gash on the left side of his neck, with
a piece of tin. The officer's eyes had been
withdrawn from him scarcely a minute, before
he was discovered lying on his pallet, with
a convulsive motion of his knees, from loss
of blood. Medical aid was at hand, the gash
sewed up, but he did not revive. Two
Catholic clergymen attended them on the
scaffold, one a Spanish priest. They were
executed in the rear of the jail. When the
procession arrived at the foot of the ladder
leading up to the platform of the gallows
the Rev. Mr. Varella looking directly at
Capt. Gilbert, said, "Spaniards, ascend to
heaven." Don Pedro mounted with a quick
step, and was followed by his comrades at a
more moderate pace, but without the least
hesitation. Boyga, unconscious of his
situation and destiny, was carried up in a
chair, and seated beneath the rope prepared
for him. Gilbert, Montenegro, Garcia and
Castillo all smiled subduedly as they took
their stations on the platform. Soon after
Capt. Gilbert ascended the scaffold, he
passed over to where the apparently lifeless
Boyga was seated in the chair, and kissed
him. Addressing his followers, he said,
"Boys, we are going to die; but let us be
firm, for we are innocent." To Mr. Peyton,
the interpreter, he said, "I die innocent,
but I'll die like a noble Spaniard. Good
bye, brother." The Marshal having read the
warrant for their execution, and stated that
de Soto was respited sixty and Ruiz
thirty days, the ropes were adjusted
round the necks of the prisoners, and a
slight hectic flush spread over the
countenance of each; but not an eye quailed,
nor a limb trembled, not a muscle quivered.
The fatal cord was now cut, and the platform
fell, by which the prisoners were launched
into eternity. After the execution was over,
Ruiz, who was confined in his cell,
attracted considerable attention, by his
maniac shouts and singing. At one time
holding up a piece of blanket, stained with
Boyga's blood, he gave utterance to his
ravings in a sort of recitative, the burden
of which was--"This is the red flag my
companions died under!"
After the expiration of Ruiz' second
respite, the Marshal got two surgeons of the
United States Navy, who understood the
Spanish language, to attend him in his cell;
they, after a patient examination pronounced
his madness a counterfeit, and his insanity
a hoax. Accordingly, on the morning of Sept.
11th, the Marshal, in company with a
Catholic priest and interpreter entered his
cell, and made him sensible that longer
evasion of the sentence of the law was
impossible, and that he must surely die.
They informed him that he had but half an
hour to live, and retired; when he requested
that he might not be disturbed during the
brief space that remained to him, and
turning his back to the open entrance to his
cell, he unrolled some fragments of printed
prayers, and commenced reading them to
himself. During this interval he neither
spoke, nor heeded those who were watching
him; but undoubtedly suffered extreme mental
agony. At one minute he would drop his chin
on his bosom, and stand motionless; at
another would press his brow to the wall of
his cell, or wave his body from side to
side, as if wrung with unutterable anguish.
Suddenly, he would throw himself upon his
knees on the mattress, and prostrate himself
as if in prayer; then throwing his prayers
from him, he would clutch his rug in his
fingers, and like a child try to double it
up, or pick it to pieces. After snatching up
his rug and throwing it away again and
again, he would suddenly resume his prayers
and erect posture, and stand mute, gazing
through the aperture that admitted the light
of day for upwards of a minute. This scene
of imbecility and indecision, of horrible
prostration of mind, ceasing in some degree
when the Catholic clergyman re-entered his
cell.
At 10 o'clock, the prisoner was removed
from the prison, and during his progress to
the scaffold, though the hue of death was on
his face, and he trembled in every joint
with fear, he chaunted with a powerful voice
an appropriate service from the Catholic
ritual. Several times he turned round to
survey the heavens which at that moment were
clear and bright above him and when he
ascended the scaffold after concluding his
prayer, he took one long and steadfast look
at the sun, and waited in silence his fate.
His powers, mental and physical had been
suddenly crushed with the appalling reality
that surrounded him; his whole soul was
absorbed with one master feeling, the dread
of a speedy and violent death. He quailed in
the presence of the dreadful paraphernalia
of his punishment, as much as if he had been
a stranger to deeds of blood, and never
dealt death to his fellow man as he ploughed
the deep, under the black flag of piracy,
with the motto of "Rob, Kill, and Burn."
After adjusting the rope, a signal was
given. The body dropped heavily, and the
harsh abrupt shock must have instantly
deprived him of sensation, as there was no
voluntary action of the hands afterwards.
Thus terminated his career of crime in a
foreign land without one friend to recognize
or cheer him, or a single being to regret
his death.
The Spanish Consul having requested that
the bodies might not be given to the
faculty, they were interred at night under
the direction of the Marshal, in the
Catholic burial-ground at Charlestown. There
being no murder committed with the piracy,
the laws of the United States do not
authorize the court to order the bodies for
dissection.
Ruiz leaving the Panda.
Judge Story replied that the wish of the
jury would certainly be complied with both
by the Court and the prosecuting officer.
"The appearance and demeanor of Captain
Gilbert are the same as when we first saw
him; his eye is undimmed, and decision and
command yet sit upon his features. We did
not discern the slightest alteration of
color or countenance when the verdict of the
jury was communicated to him; he merely
slightly bowed and resumed his seat. With
De Soto the case was different. He is
much altered; has become thinner, and his
countenance this morning was expressive of
the deepest despondency. When informed of
the contents of the paper read by the
foreman of the jury, he appeared much
affected, and while being removed from the
Court, covered his face with his
handkerchief."
Immediately after the delivery of the
verdict, the acquitted prisoners, on motion
of Mr. Hillard, were directed to be
discharged, upon which several of the others
loudly and angrily expressed their
dissatisfaction at the result of the trial.
Castillo (a half-caste, with an
extremely mild and pleasing countenance,)
pointed towards heaven, and called upon the
Almighty to bear witness that he was
innocent; Ruiz uttered some words
with great vehemence; and Garcia said
"all were in the same ship; and it was
strange that some should be permitted to
escape while others were punished." Most of
them on leaving the Court uttered some
invective against "the picaro who had
sworn their lives away."
On Costa, the cabin boy, (aged 16)
being declared "Not Guilty" some degree of
approbation was manifested by the audience,
but instantly checked by the judge, who
directed the officers to take into custody,
every one expressing either assent or
dissent. We certainly think the sympathy
expressed in favor of Costa very ill
placed, for although we have not deemed
ourselves at liberty to mention the fact
earlier, his conduct during the whole trial
was characterized by the most reckless
effrontery and indecorum. Even when standing
up to receive the verdict of the jury, his
face bore an impudent smile, and he evinced
the most total disregard of the mercy which
had been extended towards him.
About this time vague rumors reached
Corunna, that a Captain belonging to that
place, engaged in the Slave Trade, had
turned Pirate, been captured, and sent to
America with his crew for punishment. Report
at first fixed it upon a noted slave-dealer,
named Begaro. But the astounding
intelligence soon reached Senora de Soto,
that her husband was the person captured for
this startling crime. The shock to her
feelings was terrible, but her love and
fortitude surmounted them all; and she
determined to brave the terrors of the
ocean, to intercede for her husband if
condemned, and at all events behold him once
more. A small schooner was freighted by her
own and husband's father, and in it she
embarked for New-York. After a boisterous
passage, the vessel reached that port, when
she learned her husband had already been
tried and condemned to die. The humane
people of New-York advised her to hasten on
to Washington, and plead with the President
for a pardon. On arriving at the capital,
she solicited an interview with General
Jackson, which was readily granted. From the
circumstance of her husband's having saved
the lives of seventy Americans, a merciful
ear was turned to her solicitations, and a
pardon for De Soto was given her, with which
she hastened to Boston, and communicated to
him the joyful intelligence.
Andrew Jackson, President of the United
States of America, to all to whom these
presents shall come, Greeting:
Whereas, at the October Term, 1834, of the
Circuit Court of the United States, Bernardo
de Soto was convicted of Piracy, and
sentenced to be hung on the 11th day of
March last from which sentence a respite was
granted him for three months, bearing date
the third day of March, 1835, also a
subsequent one, dated on the fifth day of
June, 1835, for sixty days. And whereas the
said Bernardo de Soto has been represented
as a fit subject for executive clemency--
Now therefore, I, Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States of America,
in consideration of the premises, divers
good and sufficient causes me thereto
moving, have pardoned, and hereby do pardon
the said Bernardo de Soto, from and after
the 11th August next, and direct that he be
then discharged from confinement. In
testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed
my name, and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed to these presents. Done
at the City of Washington the sixth day of
July, AD. 1835, and of the independence of
the United States and sixtieth. Andrew
Jackson.
On the fatal morning of June 11th, 1835,
Don Pedro, Juan Montenegro, Manuel Castillo,
Angel Garcia and Manuel Boyga, were,
agreeably to sentence, summoned to prepare
for immediate execution. On the night
previous, a mutual agreement had been
entered into to commit suicide. Angel Garcia
made the first attempt by trying to open the
veins of each arm with a piece of glass; but
was prevented. In the morning, however,
while preparations were making for the
execution, Boyga succeeded in inflicting a
deep gash on the left side of his neck, with
a piece of tin. The officer's eyes had been
withdrawn from him scarcely a minute, before
he was discovered lying on his pallet, with
a convulsive motion of his knees, from loss
of blood. Medical aid was at hand, the gash
sewed up, but he did not revive. Two
Catholic clergymen attended them on the
scaffold, one a Spanish priest. They were
executed in the rear of the jail. When the
procession arrived at the foot of the ladder
leading up to the platform of the gallows
the Rev. Mr. Varella looking directly at
Capt. Gilbert, said, "Spaniards, ascend to
heaven." Don Pedro mounted with a quick
step, and was followed by his comrades at a
more moderate pace, but without the least
hesitation. Boyga, unconscious of his
situation and destiny, was carried up in a
chair, and seated beneath the rope prepared
for him. Gilbert, Montenegro, Garcia and
Castillo all smiled subduedly as they took
their stations on the platform. Soon after
Capt. Gilbert ascended the scaffold, he
passed over to where the apparently lifeless
Boyga was seated in the chair, and kissed
him. Addressing his followers, he said,
"Boys, we are going to die; but let us be
firm, for we are innocent." To Mr. Peyton,
the interpreter, he said, "I die innocent,
but I'll die like a noble Spaniard. Good
bye, brother." The Marshal having read the
warrant for their execution, and stated that
de Soto was respited sixty and Ruiz
thirty days, the ropes were adjusted
round the necks of the prisoners, and a
slight hectic flush spread over the
countenance of each; but not an eye quailed,
nor a limb trembled, not a muscle quivered.
The fatal cord was now cut, and the platform
fell, by which the prisoners were launched
into eternity. After the execution was over,
Ruiz, who was confined in his cell,
attracted considerable attention, by his
maniac shouts and singing. At one time
holding up a piece of blanket, stained with
Boyga's blood, he gave utterance to his
ravings in a sort of recitative, the burden
of which was--"This is the red flag my
companions died under!"
After the expiration of Ruiz' second
respite, the Marshal got two surgeons of the
United States Navy, who understood the
Spanish language, to attend him in his cell;
they, after a patient examination pronounced
his madness a counterfeit, and his insanity
a hoax. Accordingly, on the morning of Sept.
11th, the Marshal, in company with a
Catholic priest and interpreter entered his
cell, and made him sensible that longer
evasion of the sentence of the law was
impossible, and that he must surely die.
They informed him that he had but half an
hour to live, and retired; when he requested
that he might not be disturbed during the
brief space that remained to him, and
turning his back to the open entrance to his
cell, he unrolled some fragments of printed
prayers, and commenced reading them to
himself. During this interval he neither
spoke, nor heeded those who were watching
him; but undoubtedly suffered extreme mental
agony. At one minute he would drop his chin
on his bosom, and stand motionless; at
another would press his brow to the wall of
his cell, or wave his body from side to
side, as if wrung with unutterable anguish.
Suddenly, he would throw himself upon his
knees on the mattress, and prostrate himself
as if in prayer; then throwing his prayers
from him, he would clutch his rug in his
fingers, and like a child try to double it
up, or pick it to pieces. After snatching up
his rug and throwing it away again and
again, he would suddenly resume his prayers
and erect posture, and stand mute, gazing
through the aperture that admitted the light
of day for upwards of a minute. This scene
of imbecility and indecision, of horrible
prostration of mind, ceasing in some degree
when the Catholic clergyman re-entered his
cell.
At 10 o'clock, the prisoner was removed
from the prison, and during his progress to
the scaffold, though the hue of death was on
his face, and he trembled in every joint
with fear, he chaunted with a powerful voice
an appropriate service from the Catholic
ritual. Several times he turned round to
survey the heavens which at that moment were
clear and bright above him and when he
ascended the scaffold after concluding his
prayer, he took one long and steadfast look
at the sun, and waited in silence his fate.
His powers, mental and physical had been
suddenly crushed with the appalling reality
that surrounded him; his whole soul was
absorbed with one master feeling, the dread
of a speedy and violent death. He quailed in
the presence of the dreadful paraphernalia
of his punishment, as much as if he had been
a stranger to deeds of blood, and never
dealt death to his fellow man as he ploughed
the deep, under the black flag of piracy,
with the motto of "Rob, Kill, and Burn."
After adjusting the rope, a signal was
given. The body dropped heavily, and the
harsh abrupt shock must have instantly
deprived him of sensation, as there was no
voluntary action of the hands afterwards.
Thus terminated his career of crime in a
foreign land without one friend to recognize
or cheer him, or a single being to regret
his death.
The Spanish Consul having requested that
the bodies might not be given to the
faculty, they were interred at night under
the direction of the Marshal, in the
Catholic burial-ground at Charlestown. There
being no murder committed with the piracy,
the laws of the United States do not
authorize the court to order the bodies for
dissection.
Ruiz leaving the Panda.
Immediately after the delivery of the
verdict, the acquitted prisoners, on motion
of Mr. Hillard, were directed to be
discharged, upon which several of the others
loudly and angrily expressed their
dissatisfaction at the result of the trial.
Castillo (a half-caste, with an
extremely mild and pleasing countenance,)
pointed towards heaven, and called upon the
Almighty to bear witness that he was
innocent; Ruiz uttered some words
with great vehemence; and Garcia said
"all were in the same ship; and it was
strange that some should be permitted to
escape while others were punished." Most of
them on leaving the Court uttered some
invective against "the picaro who had
sworn their lives away."
On Costa, the cabin boy, (aged 16)
being declared "Not Guilty" some degree of
approbation was manifested by the audience,
but instantly checked by the judge, who
directed the officers to take into custody,
every one expressing either assent or
dissent. We certainly think the sympathy
expressed in favor of Costa very ill
placed, for although we have not deemed
ourselves at liberty to mention the fact
earlier, his conduct during the whole trial
was characterized by the most reckless
effrontery and indecorum. Even when standing
up to receive the verdict of the jury, his
face bore an impudent smile, and he evinced
the most total disregard of the mercy which
had been extended towards him.
About this time vague rumors reached
Corunna, that a Captain belonging to that
place, engaged in the Slave Trade, had
turned Pirate, been captured, and sent to
America with his crew for punishment. Report
at first fixed it upon a noted slave-dealer,
named Begaro. But the astounding
intelligence soon reached Senora de Soto,
that her husband was the person captured for
this startling crime. The shock to her
feelings was terrible, but her love and
fortitude surmounted them all; and she
determined to brave the terrors of the
ocean, to intercede for her husband if
condemned, and at all events behold him once
more. A small schooner was freighted by her
own and husband's father, and in it she
embarked for New-York. After a boisterous
passage, the vessel reached that port, when
she learned her husband had already been
tried and condemned to die. The humane
people of New-York advised her to hasten on
to Washington, and plead with the President
for a pardon. On arriving at the capital,
she solicited an interview with General
Jackson, which was readily granted. From the
circumstance of her husband's having saved
the lives of seventy Americans, a merciful
ear was turned to her solicitations, and a
pardon for De Soto was given her, with which
she hastened to Boston, and communicated to
him the joyful intelligence.
Andrew Jackson, President of the United
States of America, to all to whom these
presents shall come, Greeting:
Whereas, at the October Term, 1834, of the
Circuit Court of the United States, Bernardo
de Soto was convicted of Piracy, and
sentenced to be hung on the 11th day of
March last from which sentence a respite was
granted him for three months, bearing date
the third day of March, 1835, also a
subsequent one, dated on the fifth day of
June, 1835, for sixty days. And whereas the
said Bernardo de Soto has been represented
as a fit subject for executive clemency--
Now therefore, I, Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States of America,
in consideration of the premises, divers
good and sufficient causes me thereto
moving, have pardoned, and hereby do pardon
the said Bernardo de Soto, from and after
the 11th August next, and direct that he be
then discharged from confinement. In
testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed
my name, and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed to these presents. Done
at the City of Washington the sixth day of
July, AD. 1835, and of the independence of
the United States and sixtieth. Andrew
Jackson.
On the fatal morning of June 11th, 1835,
Don Pedro, Juan Montenegro, Manuel Castillo,
Angel Garcia and Manuel Boyga, were,
agreeably to sentence, summoned to prepare
for immediate execution. On the night
previous, a mutual agreement had been
entered into to commit suicide. Angel Garcia
made the first attempt by trying to open the
veins of each arm with a piece of glass; but
was prevented. In the morning, however,
while preparations were making for the
execution, Boyga succeeded in inflicting a
deep gash on the left side of his neck, with
a piece of tin. The officer's eyes had been
withdrawn from him scarcely a minute, before
he was discovered lying on his pallet, with
a convulsive motion of his knees, from loss
of blood. Medical aid was at hand, the gash
sewed up, but he did not revive. Two
Catholic clergymen attended them on the
scaffold, one a Spanish priest. They were
executed in the rear of the jail. When the
procession arrived at the foot of the ladder
leading up to the platform of the gallows
the Rev. Mr. Varella looking directly at
Capt. Gilbert, said, "Spaniards, ascend to
heaven." Don Pedro mounted with a quick
step, and was followed by his comrades at a
more moderate pace, but without the least
hesitation. Boyga, unconscious of his
situation and destiny, was carried up in a
chair, and seated beneath the rope prepared
for him. Gilbert, Montenegro, Garcia and
Castillo all smiled subduedly as they took
their stations on the platform. Soon after
Capt. Gilbert ascended the scaffold, he
passed over to where the apparently lifeless
Boyga was seated in the chair, and kissed
him. Addressing his followers, he said,
"Boys, we are going to die; but let us be
firm, for we are innocent." To Mr. Peyton,
the interpreter, he said, "I die innocent,
but I'll die like a noble Spaniard. Good
bye, brother." The Marshal having read the
warrant for their execution, and stated that
de Soto was respited sixty and Ruiz
thirty days, the ropes were adjusted
round the necks of the prisoners, and a
slight hectic flush spread over the
countenance of each; but not an eye quailed,
nor a limb trembled, not a muscle quivered.
The fatal cord was now cut, and the platform
fell, by which the prisoners were launched
into eternity. After the execution was over,
Ruiz, who was confined in his cell,
attracted considerable attention, by his
maniac shouts and singing. At one time
holding up a piece of blanket, stained with
Boyga's blood, he gave utterance to his
ravings in a sort of recitative, the burden
of which was--"This is the red flag my
companions died under!"
After the expiration of Ruiz' second
respite, the Marshal got two surgeons of the
United States Navy, who understood the
Spanish language, to attend him in his cell;
they, after a patient examination pronounced
his madness a counterfeit, and his insanity
a hoax. Accordingly, on the morning of Sept.
11th, the Marshal, in company with a
Catholic priest and interpreter entered his
cell, and made him sensible that longer
evasion of the sentence of the law was
impossible, and that he must surely die.
They informed him that he had but half an
hour to live, and retired; when he requested
that he might not be disturbed during the
brief space that remained to him, and
turning his back to the open entrance to his
cell, he unrolled some fragments of printed
prayers, and commenced reading them to
himself. During this interval he neither
spoke, nor heeded those who were watching
him; but undoubtedly suffered extreme mental
agony. At one minute he would drop his chin
on his bosom, and stand motionless; at
another would press his brow to the wall of
his cell, or wave his body from side to
side, as if wrung with unutterable anguish.
Suddenly, he would throw himself upon his
knees on the mattress, and prostrate himself
as if in prayer; then throwing his prayers
from him, he would clutch his rug in his
fingers, and like a child try to double it
up, or pick it to pieces. After snatching up
his rug and throwing it away again and
again, he would suddenly resume his prayers
and erect posture, and stand mute, gazing
through the aperture that admitted the light
of day for upwards of a minute. This scene
of imbecility and indecision, of horrible
prostration of mind, ceasing in some degree
when the Catholic clergyman re-entered his
cell.
At 10 o'clock, the prisoner was removed
from the prison, and during his progress to
the scaffold, though the hue of death was on
his face, and he trembled in every joint
with fear, he chaunted with a powerful voice
an appropriate service from the Catholic
ritual. Several times he turned round to
survey the heavens which at that moment were
clear and bright above him and when he
ascended the scaffold after concluding his
prayer, he took one long and steadfast look
at the sun, and waited in silence his fate.
His powers, mental and physical had been
suddenly crushed with the appalling reality
that surrounded him; his whole soul was
absorbed with one master feeling, the dread
of a speedy and violent death. He quailed in
the presence of the dreadful paraphernalia
of his punishment, as much as if he had been
a stranger to deeds of blood, and never
dealt death to his fellow man as he ploughed
the deep, under the black flag of piracy,
with the motto of "Rob, Kill, and Burn."
After adjusting the rope, a signal was
given. The body dropped heavily, and the
harsh abrupt shock must have instantly
deprived him of sensation, as there was no
voluntary action of the hands afterwards.
Thus terminated his career of crime in a
foreign land without one friend to recognize
or cheer him, or a single being to regret
his death.
The Spanish Consul having requested that
the bodies might not be given to the
faculty, they were interred at night under
the direction of the Marshal, in the
Catholic burial-ground at Charlestown. There
being no murder committed with the piracy,
the laws of the United States do not
authorize the court to order the bodies for
dissection.
Ruiz leaving the Panda.
About this time vague rumors reached
Corunna, that a Captain belonging to that
place, engaged in the Slave Trade, had
turned Pirate, been captured, and sent to
America with his crew for punishment. Report
at first fixed it upon a noted slave-dealer,
named Begaro. But the astounding
intelligence soon reached Senora de Soto,
that her husband was the person captured for
this startling crime. The shock to her
feelings was terrible, but her love and
fortitude surmounted them all; and she
determined to brave the terrors of the
ocean, to intercede for her husband if
condemned, and at all events behold him once
more. A small schooner was freighted by her
own and husband's father, and in it she
embarked for New-York. After a boisterous
passage, the vessel reached that port, when
she learned her husband had already been
tried and condemned to die. The humane
people of New-York advised her to hasten on
to Washington, and plead with the President
for a pardon. On arriving at the capital,
she solicited an interview with General
Jackson, which was readily granted. From the
circumstance of her husband's having saved
the lives of seventy Americans, a merciful
ear was turned to her solicitations, and a
pardon for De Soto was given her, with which
she hastened to Boston, and communicated to
him the joyful intelligence.
Andrew Jackson, President of the United
States of America, to all to whom these
presents shall come, Greeting:
Whereas, at the October Term, 1834, of the
Circuit Court of the United States, Bernardo
de Soto was convicted of Piracy, and
sentenced to be hung on the 11th day of
March last from which sentence a respite was
granted him for three months, bearing date
the third day of March, 1835, also a
subsequent one, dated on the fifth day of
June, 1835, for sixty days. And whereas the
said Bernardo de Soto has been represented
as a fit subject for executive clemency--
Now therefore, I, Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States of America,
in consideration of the premises, divers
good and sufficient causes me thereto
moving, have pardoned, and hereby do pardon
the said Bernardo de Soto, from and after
the 11th August next, and direct that he be
then discharged from confinement. In
testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed
my name, and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed to these presents. Done
at the City of Washington the sixth day of
July, AD. 1835, and of the independence of
the United States and sixtieth. Andrew
Jackson.
On the fatal morning of June 11th, 1835,
Don Pedro, Juan Montenegro, Manuel Castillo,
Angel Garcia and Manuel Boyga, were,
agreeably to sentence, summoned to prepare
for immediate execution. On the night
previous, a mutual agreement had been
entered into to commit suicide. Angel Garcia
made the first attempt by trying to open the
veins of each arm with a piece of glass; but
was prevented. In the morning, however,
while preparations were making for the
execution, Boyga succeeded in inflicting a
deep gash on the left side of his neck, with
a piece of tin. The officer's eyes had been
withdrawn from him scarcely a minute, before
he was discovered lying on his pallet, with
a convulsive motion of his knees, from loss
of blood. Medical aid was at hand, the gash
sewed up, but he did not revive. Two
Catholic clergymen attended them on the
scaffold, one a Spanish priest. They were
executed in the rear of the jail. When the
procession arrived at the foot of the ladder
leading up to the platform of the gallows
the Rev. Mr. Varella looking directly at
Capt. Gilbert, said, "Spaniards, ascend to
heaven." Don Pedro mounted with a quick
step, and was followed by his comrades at a
more moderate pace, but without the least
hesitation. Boyga, unconscious of his
situation and destiny, was carried up in a
chair, and seated beneath the rope prepared
for him. Gilbert, Montenegro, Garcia and
Castillo all smiled subduedly as they took
their stations on the platform. Soon after
Capt. Gilbert ascended the scaffold, he
passed over to where the apparently lifeless
Boyga was seated in the chair, and kissed
him. Addressing his followers, he said,
"Boys, we are going to die; but let us be
firm, for we are innocent." To Mr. Peyton,
the interpreter, he said, "I die innocent,
but I'll die like a noble Spaniard. Good
bye, brother." The Marshal having read the
warrant for their execution, and stated that
de Soto was respited sixty and Ruiz
thirty days, the ropes were adjusted
round the necks of the prisoners, and a
slight hectic flush spread over the
countenance of each; but not an eye quailed,
nor a limb trembled, not a muscle quivered.
The fatal cord was now cut, and the platform
fell, by which the prisoners were launched
into eternity. After the execution was over,
Ruiz, who was confined in his cell,
attracted considerable attention, by his
maniac shouts and singing. At one time
holding up a piece of blanket, stained with
Boyga's blood, he gave utterance to his
ravings in a sort of recitative, the burden
of which was--"This is the red flag my
companions died under!"
After the expiration of Ruiz' second
respite, the Marshal got two surgeons of the
United States Navy, who understood the
Spanish language, to attend him in his cell;
they, after a patient examination pronounced
his madness a counterfeit, and his insanity
a hoax. Accordingly, on the morning of Sept.
11th, the Marshal, in company with a
Catholic priest and interpreter entered his
cell, and made him sensible that longer
evasion of the sentence of the law was
impossible, and that he must surely die.
They informed him that he had but half an
hour to live, and retired; when he requested
that he might not be disturbed during the
brief space that remained to him, and
turning his back to the open entrance to his
cell, he unrolled some fragments of printed
prayers, and commenced reading them to
himself. During this interval he neither
spoke, nor heeded those who were watching
him; but undoubtedly suffered extreme mental
agony. At one minute he would drop his chin
on his bosom, and stand motionless; at
another would press his brow to the wall of
his cell, or wave his body from side to
side, as if wrung with unutterable anguish.
Suddenly, he would throw himself upon his
knees on the mattress, and prostrate himself
as if in prayer; then throwing his prayers
from him, he would clutch his rug in his
fingers, and like a child try to double it
up, or pick it to pieces. After snatching up
his rug and throwing it away again and
again, he would suddenly resume his prayers
and erect posture, and stand mute, gazing
through the aperture that admitted the light
of day for upwards of a minute. This scene
of imbecility and indecision, of horrible
prostration of mind, ceasing in some degree
when the Catholic clergyman re-entered his
cell.
At 10 o'clock, the prisoner was removed
from the prison, and during his progress to
the scaffold, though the hue of death was on
his face, and he trembled in every joint
with fear, he chaunted with a powerful voice
an appropriate service from the Catholic
ritual. Several times he turned round to
survey the heavens which at that moment were
clear and bright above him and when he
ascended the scaffold after concluding his
prayer, he took one long and steadfast look
at the sun, and waited in silence his fate.
His powers, mental and physical had been
suddenly crushed with the appalling reality
that surrounded him; his whole soul was
absorbed with one master feeling, the dread
of a speedy and violent death. He quailed in
the presence of the dreadful paraphernalia
of his punishment, as much as if he had been
a stranger to deeds of blood, and never
dealt death to his fellow man as he ploughed
the deep, under the black flag of piracy,
with the motto of "Rob, Kill, and Burn."
After adjusting the rope, a signal was
given. The body dropped heavily, and the
harsh abrupt shock must have instantly
deprived him of sensation, as there was no
voluntary action of the hands afterwards.
Thus terminated his career of crime in a
foreign land without one friend to recognize
or cheer him, or a single being to regret
his death.
The Spanish Consul having requested that
the bodies might not be given to the
faculty, they were interred at night under
the direction of the Marshal, in the
Catholic burial-ground at Charlestown. There
being no murder committed with the piracy,
the laws of the United States do not
authorize the court to order the bodies for
dissection.
Ruiz leaving the Panda.
Now therefore, I, Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States of America,
in consideration of the premises, divers
good and sufficient causes me thereto
moving, have pardoned, and hereby do pardon
the said Bernardo de Soto, from and after
the 11th August next, and direct that he be
then discharged from confinement. In
testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed
my name, and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed to these presents. Done
at the City of Washington the sixth day of
July, AD. 1835, and of the independence of
the United States and sixtieth. Andrew
Jackson.
On the fatal morning of June 11th, 1835,
Don Pedro, Juan Montenegro, Manuel Castillo,
Angel Garcia and Manuel Boyga, were,
agreeably to sentence, summoned to prepare
for immediate execution. On the night
previous, a mutual agreement had been
entered into to commit suicide. Angel Garcia
made the first attempt by trying to open the
veins of each arm with a piece of glass; but
was prevented. In the morning, however,
while preparations were making for the
execution, Boyga succeeded in inflicting a
deep gash on the left side of his neck, with
a piece of tin. The officer's eyes had been
withdrawn from him scarcely a minute, before
he was discovered lying on his pallet, with
a convulsive motion of his knees, from loss
of blood. Medical aid was at hand, the gash
sewed up, but he did not revive. Two
Catholic clergymen attended them on the
scaffold, one a Spanish priest. They were
executed in the rear of the jail. When the
procession arrived at the foot of the ladder
leading up to the platform of the gallows
the Rev. Mr. Varella looking directly at
Capt. Gilbert, said, "Spaniards, ascend to
heaven." Don Pedro mounted with a quick
step, and was followed by his comrades at a
more moderate pace, but without the least
hesitation. Boyga, unconscious of his
situation and destiny, was carried up in a
chair, and seated beneath the rope prepared
for him. Gilbert, Montenegro, Garcia and
Castillo all smiled subduedly as they took
their stations on the platform. Soon after
Capt. Gilbert ascended the scaffold, he
passed over to where the apparently lifeless
Boyga was seated in the chair, and kissed
him. Addressing his followers, he said,
"Boys, we are going to die; but let us be
firm, for we are innocent." To Mr. Peyton,
the interpreter, he said, "I die innocent,
but I'll die like a noble Spaniard. Good
bye, brother." The Marshal having read the
warrant for their execution, and stated that
de Soto was respited sixty and Ruiz
thirty days, the ropes were adjusted
round the necks of the prisoners, and a
slight hectic flush spread over the
countenance of each; but not an eye quailed,
nor a limb trembled, not a muscle quivered.
The fatal cord was now cut, and the platform
fell, by which the prisoners were launched
into eternity. After the execution was over,
Ruiz, who was confined in his cell,
attracted considerable attention, by his
maniac shouts and singing. At one time
holding up a piece of blanket, stained with
Boyga's blood, he gave utterance to his
ravings in a sort of recitative, the burden
of which was--"This is the red flag my
companions died under!"
After the expiration of Ruiz' second
respite, the Marshal got two surgeons of the
United States Navy, who understood the
Spanish language, to attend him in his cell;
they, after a patient examination pronounced
his madness a counterfeit, and his insanity
a hoax. Accordingly, on the morning of Sept.
11th, the Marshal, in company with a
Catholic priest and interpreter entered his
cell, and made him sensible that longer
evasion of the sentence of the law was
impossible, and that he must surely die.
They informed him that he had but half an
hour to live, and retired; when he requested
that he might not be disturbed during the
brief space that remained to him, and
turning his back to the open entrance to his
cell, he unrolled some fragments of printed
prayers, and commenced reading them to
himself. During this interval he neither
spoke, nor heeded those who were watching
him; but undoubtedly suffered extreme mental
agony. At one minute he would drop his chin
on his bosom, and stand motionless; at
another would press his brow to the wall of
his cell, or wave his body from side to
side, as if wrung with unutterable anguish.
Suddenly, he would throw himself upon his
knees on the mattress, and prostrate himself
as if in prayer; then throwing his prayers
from him, he would clutch his rug in his
fingers, and like a child try to double it
up, or pick it to pieces. After snatching up
his rug and throwing it away again and
again, he would suddenly resume his prayers
and erect posture, and stand mute, gazing
through the aperture that admitted the light
of day for upwards of a minute. This scene
of imbecility and indecision, of horrible
prostration of mind, ceasing in some degree
when the Catholic clergyman re-entered his
cell.
At 10 o'clock, the prisoner was removed
from the prison, and during his progress to
the scaffold, though the hue of death was on
his face, and he trembled in every joint
with fear, he chaunted with a powerful voice
an appropriate service from the Catholic
ritual. Several times he turned round to
survey the heavens which at that moment were
clear and bright above him and when he
ascended the scaffold after concluding his
prayer, he took one long and steadfast look
at the sun, and waited in silence his fate.
His powers, mental and physical had been
suddenly crushed with the appalling reality
that surrounded him; his whole soul was
absorbed with one master feeling, the dread
of a speedy and violent death. He quailed in
the presence of the dreadful paraphernalia
of his punishment, as much as if he had been
a stranger to deeds of blood, and never
dealt death to his fellow man as he ploughed
the deep, under the black flag of piracy,
with the motto of "Rob, Kill, and Burn."
After adjusting the rope, a signal was
given. The body dropped heavily, and the
harsh abrupt shock must have instantly
deprived him of sensation, as there was no
voluntary action of the hands afterwards.
Thus terminated his career of crime in a
foreign land without one friend to recognize
or cheer him, or a single being to regret
his death.
The Spanish Consul having requested that
the bodies might not be given to the
faculty, they were interred at night under
the direction of the Marshal, in the
Catholic burial-ground at Charlestown. There
being no murder committed with the piracy,
the laws of the United States do not
authorize the court to order the bodies for
dissection.
Ruiz leaving the Panda.
After the expiration of Ruiz' second
respite, the Marshal got two surgeons of the
United States Navy, who understood the
Spanish language, to attend him in his cell;
they, after a patient examination pronounced
his madness a counterfeit, and his insanity
a hoax. Accordingly, on the morning of Sept.
11th, the Marshal, in company with a
Catholic priest and interpreter entered his
cell, and made him sensible that longer
evasion of the sentence of the law was
impossible, and that he must surely die.
They informed him that he had but half an
hour to live, and retired; when he requested
that he might not be disturbed during the
brief space that remained to him, and
turning his back to the open entrance to his
cell, he unrolled some fragments of printed
prayers, and commenced reading them to
himself. During this interval he neither
spoke, nor heeded those who were watching
him; but undoubtedly suffered extreme mental
agony. At one minute he would drop his chin
on his bosom, and stand motionless; at
another would press his brow to the wall of
his cell, or wave his body from side to
side, as if wrung with unutterable anguish.
Suddenly, he would throw himself upon his
knees on the mattress, and prostrate himself
as if in prayer; then throwing his prayers
from him, he would clutch his rug in his
fingers, and like a child try to double it
up, or pick it to pieces. After snatching up
his rug and throwing it away again and
again, he would suddenly resume his prayers
and erect posture, and stand mute, gazing
through the aperture that admitted the light
of day for upwards of a minute. This scene
of imbecility and indecision, of horrible
prostration of mind, ceasing in some degree
when the Catholic clergyman re-entered his
cell.
At 10 o'clock, the prisoner was removed
from the prison, and during his progress to
the scaffold, though the hue of death was on
his face, and he trembled in every joint
with fear, he chaunted with a powerful voice
an appropriate service from the Catholic
ritual. Several times he turned round to
survey the heavens which at that moment were
clear and bright above him and when he
ascended the scaffold after concluding his
prayer, he took one long and steadfast look
at the sun, and waited in silence his fate.
His powers, mental and physical had been
suddenly crushed with the appalling reality
that surrounded him; his whole soul was
absorbed with one master feeling, the dread
of a speedy and violent death. He quailed in
the presence of the dreadful paraphernalia
of his punishment, as much as if he had been
a stranger to deeds of blood, and never
dealt death to his fellow man as he ploughed
the deep, under the black flag of piracy,
with the motto of "Rob, Kill, and Burn."
After adjusting the rope, a signal was
given. The body dropped heavily, and the
harsh abrupt shock must have instantly
deprived him of sensation, as there was no
voluntary action of the hands afterwards.
Thus terminated his career of crime in a
foreign land without one friend to recognize
or cheer him, or a single being to regret
his death.
The Spanish Consul having requested that
the bodies might not be given to the
faculty, they were interred at night under
the direction of the Marshal, in the
Catholic burial-ground at Charlestown. There
being no murder committed with the piracy,
the laws of the United States do not
authorize the court to order the bodies for
dissection.
Ruiz leaving the Panda.
The Spanish Consul having requested that
the bodies might not be given to the
faculty, they were interred at night under
the direction of the Marshal, in the
Catholic burial-ground at Charlestown. There
being no murder committed with the piracy,
the laws of the United States do not
authorize the court to order the bodies for
dissection.
Ruiz leaving the Panda.
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