(SLAVE TRADE.) Notes on the interrogation of two Spanish slave-traders in Sierra Leone. Manuscript Document Signed by Andrew Tymon as registrar, by Captain José Selma by mark, and by carpenter Don Magin Mora. 3 pages, 13 x 8 inches, on 2 folding sheets with integral blanks; minor soiling, two holes punched in inner margins. [Sierra Leone], 15 July 1814
These slave traders were captured by the British Navy near Cape Mount in present-day Liberia, near its northern border with Sierra Leone. The first sheet has the questions, headed "Special interrogatories put to Jose Selma the master of the Spanish bombarde Nuestra Senhore de la Bella & to Don Magin Mora, carpenter of the said vessel." The second sheet has their answers, on opposite sides.
The first question: "With whom did the captain or supercargo trade at Cape Mount?" The captain responded "The chief mate was trading with the Black king for slaves, and with no other." The second question: "Was it not with two Europeans named Thomas & Pack?" The captain assured them that he "has neither heard nor saw anything about slave dealers. He had not been on shore"; the carpenter also "has not been on shore, heard of no white men being at that place." The final question was directed only to the captain: "What instructions did you give to the two mates who you say are on shore at Cape Mount?" He replied that he "gave instructions to the first mate to treat with the king on his quitting the ship with the cargo, and intended to follow him when the weather permitted."
