ts of property were violated by every larceny,
but this case was peculiar and enormous. Other kinds of property were
protected by their want of intelligence; but the intelligence of this
kind of property greatly diminished the security of its possession. The
jury therefore were to give such a construction to the laws and the
facts as to subject violators of it to the most serious consequences.

The facts which seemed to be relied upon by the District Attorney as
establishing the alleged larceny were--that I had come to Washington,
and staid from Monday to Saturday, without any ostensible business, when
I had sailed away with seventy-six slaves on board, concealed under the
hatches, and the hatches battened down; and that when pursued and
overtaken the slaves were found on board with provisions enough for a
month.

It is true that Houver swore that the hatches were battened down when
the Pearl was overtaken by the steamer; but in this he was contradicted
by every other government witness. This Houver was, according to some
of the other witnesses, in a considerable state of excitement, and at
the time of the capture he addressed some violent language to me, as
already related. He had sold his two boys, after their recapture, to the
slave-traders; but had been obliged to buy them back again, at a loss of
one hundred dollars, by the remonstrances of his wife, who did not like
to part with them, as they had been raised in the family. Perhaps this
circumstance made him the more inveterate against me.

As to the schooner being provisioned for a month, the bill of the
provisions on board, purchased in Washington, was produced on the trial,
and they were found to amount to three bushels of meal, two hundred and
six pounds of pork, and fifteen gallons of molasses, which, with a
barrel of bread, purchased in Alexandria, would make rather a short
month's supply for seventy-nine persons!

It was also proved, by the government witnesses, that the Pearl was a
mere bay-craft, not fit to go to sea; which did not agree very well with
the idea held out by the District Attorney, that I intended to run these
negroes off to the West Indies, and to sell them there. But, to make up
for these deficiencies, Williams, who acted as the leader of the steamer
expedition, swore that I had said, while on board, that if I had got off
with the negroes I should have made an independent fortune; but on the
next trial he could not say whether it was I w