I said that the court seemed to infer, and were pressing it on the jury,
that the absence of any commission or letter of marque from a superior
officer, or from any of the Spanish authorities, was strong evidence
that they were marauders--in fact pirates.
"Ah!" he exclaimed; "gracias, gracias!" Then, with an agitated hand, he
drew from his bosom a parchment, folded like the manifest of a merchant
ship, and at the same moment the gruff fierce--looking elderly man did
the same, with another similar instrument from his own breast.
"Here, here are the commissions--here are authorities from the Captain
General of Cuba. Read them."
I looked over them; they were regular to all appearance; at least as
there were no autographs in court of the Spanish Viceroy, or any of his
officers, whose signatures, either real or forged, were affixed to the
instruments, with which to compare them, there was a great chance, I
conjectured, so far as I saw, that they would be acquitted: and in this
case we, his majesty's officers, would have been converted into the
transgressing party; for if it were established that the vessels taken
were bona fide Guarda Costas, we should be placed in an awkward
predicament, in having captured them by force of arms, not to take into
account the having violated the sanctity of a friendly port.
But I could see that this unexpected production of regular papers by
their officers had surprised the pirates themselves, as much as it had
done me,--whether it was a heinous offence of mine or not to conceal
this impression from the court, (there is some dispute about the matter
to this hour between me and my conscience,) I cannot tell; but I was
determined to stick scrupulously to the temporary duties of my office,
without stating what I suspected, or even translating some sudden
expressions overheard by me, that would have shaken the credibility of
the documents.
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