im at my room the
next morning; I did not learn from him who wrote the letter; he did not
describe the person of the woman in the letter written to me, only her
general appearance; Purnell said he burnt the letter.

Mr. Brown demanded the letter, or the proof of its destruction.

I never wrote myself, but my friend, Mr. Henry did; he said so; I never
received a letter; it was written to Robert J. Henry; part of the letter
was written to me, but not directed to me; the Louisa Truit, who wrote,
stated, that for the information he wanted $100 for one of the
fugitives; he was referred to the store of Taylor & Paulding, and Mr.
Henry would meet him there; when I got to the store, some of the concern
let Mr. Henry know that a man wanted to see him; I heard this at the
store; the man was there; he was a mulatto man, middle-aged, and
middling tall; he is not here, that I know of; can't tell when I last
saw him. His name I understood to be Gloucester.

Under the severe cross-examination that the witness had been subjected
to under D.P. Brown, he became very faint, and called for water. Large
drops of sweat stood upon his forehead, and he was obliged to sit down,
lest he should fall down. "Take a seat," said Mr. Brown tauntingly, "and
enjoy yourself, while I proceed with my interrogations." But the witness
was completely used up, and was allowed to withdraw to another room,
where fresh air was more plentiful. The cause of the poor slave woman
was greatly strengthened by this failure.

Another witness, named Zachariah Bowen, for the claimants, swore
positively that he knew the prisoner well, that she had been hired to
his brother for three years by Dr. Purnell, whose slave she was; also he
swore that he knew her parents, who were slaves to the said Doctor P.;
that he last saw her in 1827, etc. On cross-examination he swore thus:
"I last saw her in 1827, she was about sixteen or seventeen; she was
about an ordinary size, not the smallest size, nor the largest; she was
neither thick nor thin; there was nothing remarkable in her more than is
common; nothing in her speech; she was about the same color as the woman
here; I never saw a great deal of change in a nigger, from sixteen to
thirty-five or forty, sometimes they grow fatter, and sometimes leaner.
As to recognizing her in Philadelphia, he had not the slightest
difficulty. He went on to swear, that he first saw her in a cab, in the
city; I knew her yesterday; if you could see