Ruiz and Montez are thus described by a correspondent of the New London
Gazette, who visited the Amistad immediately after its capture:
"Jose Ruiz, is a very gentlemanly and intelligent young man, and
speaks English fluently. He was the owner of most of the slaves
and cargo, which he was conveying to his estate on the Island of
Cuba. The other, Pedro Montez, is about fifty years of age, and
is the owner of three of the slaves. He was formerly a ship
master, and has navigated the vessel since her seizure by the
blacks. Both of them, as may be naturally supposed, are most
unfeignedly thankful for their deliverance. Pedro is the most
striking instance of complacency and unalloyed delight we have
ever witnessed, and it is not strange, since only yesterday his
sentence was pronounced by the chief of the bucaneers, and his
death song chanted by the grim crew, who gathered with uplifted
sabres around his devoted head, which, as well as his arms, bear
the scars of several wounds inflicted at the time of the murder
of the ill-fated captain and crew. He sat smoking his Havana on
the deck, and to judge from the martyr-like serenity of his
countenance, his emotions are such as rarely stir the heart of
man. When Mr. Porter, the prize master, assured him of his
safety, he threw his arms around his neck, while gushing tears
coursing down his furrowed cheek, bespoke the overflowing
transport of his soul. Every now and then he clasped his hands,
and with uplifted eyes, gave thanks to 'the Holy Virgin' who had
led him out of his troubles."
It will be necessary to contrast the deeds of these "gentlemanly and
intelligent" _Christians_ with that of the "ruthless gang of African
bucaneers," from whose grasp they were so providentially rescued. In
giving the subsequent detail, I would not be understood as compromising
for a single instant my belief in the inviolability of human life,
though it must I think be confessed that in the instance related below,
the heathen and barbarous negroes contrast very favorably with the
civilized and Christian Spaniards.
"The following communication from Mr. Day, of New Haven, gives a
summary account of the African captives, as stated by
themselves, from the time they left Africa, till the time they
obtained possession of the Amistad:
"NEW HAVEN, OCT. 8, 1839.
[To the Editor of the Journal of Commerce.]
"Gentlemen--The following short and plain narrative of one or
two of the African captives, in whose history and prospects such
anxious interest is felt, has been taken at the earliest
opportunity possible, consistently with more important
examinations. It may be stated in general terms, as the result
of the investigations thus far made, that the Africans all
testify that they left Africa about six months since; were
landed under cover of the night at a small village or hamlet
near Havana, and after ten or twelve days were taken through
Havana by night by the man who had bought them, named Pipi, who
has since been satisfactorily proved to be Ruiz; were cruelly
treated on the passage, being beaten and flogged, and in some
instances having vinegar and gunpowder rubbed into their wounds;
and that they suffered intensely from hunger and thirst. The
perfect coincidence in the testimony of the prisoners, examined
as they have been separately, is felt by all who are acquainted
with the minutes of the examination, to carry with it
overwhelming evidence of the truth of their story.
Yours respectfully,
"GEORGE E. DAY."
"MONDAY, OCT. 7.
"This afternoon, almost the first time in which the two
interpreters, Covey and Pratt, have not been engaged with
special reference to the trial to take place in November, one of
the captives named Grabeau, was requested to give a narrative of
himself since leaving Africa, for publication in the papers. The
interpreters, who are considerably exhausted by the examinations
which have already taken place, only gave the substance of what
he said, without going into details, and it was not thought
advisable to press the matter. Grabeau first gave an account of
the passage from Africa to Havana. On board the vessel there was
a large number of men, but the women and children were far the
most numerous. They were fastened together in couples by the
wrists and legs, and kept in that situation day and night. Here
Grabeau and another of the Africans named Kimbo, lay down upon
the floor, to show the painful position in which they were
obliged to sleep. By day it was no better. The space between
decks was so small,--according to their account not exceeding
four feet,--that they were obliged, if they attempted to stand,
to keep a crouching posture. The decks fore and aft were crowded
to overflowing. They suffered (Grabeau said) terribly. They had
rice enough to eat, but had very little to drink. If they left
any of the rice that was given to them uneaten, either from
sickness or any other cause, they were whipped. It was a common
thing for them to be forced to eat so much as to vomit. Many of
the men, women, and children died on the passage.
"They were landed by night at a small village near Havana. Soon
several white men came to buy them, and among them was the one
claiming to be their master, whom they call Pipi, said to be a
Spanish nick-name for Jose. Pipi, or Ruiz, selected such as he
liked, and made them stand in a row. He then felt each of them
in every part of the body; made them open their mouths to see if
their teeth were sound, and carried the examinations to a degree
of minuteness of which only a slave dealer would be guilty.
"When they were separated from their companions who had come
with them from Africa, there was weeping among the women and
children, but Grabeau did not weep, 'because he is a man.'
Kimbo, who sat by, said that he also shed no tears--but he
thought of his home in Africa, and of friends left there whom he
should never see again.
"The men bought by Ruiz were taken on foot through Havana in the
night, and put on board a vessel. During the night they were
kept in irons, placed about the hands, feet and neck. They were
treated during the day in a somewhat milder manner, though all
the irons were never taken off at once. Their allowance of food
was very scant, and of water still more so. They were very
hungry, and suffered much in the hot days and nights from
thirst. In addition to this there was much whipping, and the
cook told them that when they reached land they would all be
eaten. This 'made their hearts burn.' To avoid being eaten, and
to escape the bad treatment they experienced, they rose upon the
crew with the design of returning to Africa.
"Such is the substance of Grabeau's story, confirmed by Kimbo,
who was present most of the time. He says he likes the people of
this country, because, to use his own expression, 'they are good
people--they believe in God, and there is no slavery here.'
"The story of Grabeau was then read and interpreted to Cinque,
while a number of the other Africans were standing about, and
confirmed by all of them in every particular. When the part
relating to the crowded state of the vessel from Africa to
Havana was read, Cinque added that there was scarcely room
enough to sit or lie down. Another showed the marks of the irons
on his wrists, which must at the time have been terribly
lacerated. On their separation at Havana, Cinque remarked that
almost all of them were in tears, and himself among the rest,
'because they had come from the same country, and were now to be
parted for ever.' To the question, how it was possible for the
Africans when chained in the manner he described, to rise upon
the crew, he replied that the chain which connected the iron
collars about their necks was fastened at the end by a padlock,
and that this was first broken, and afterwards the other irons.
Their object, he said, in the affray, was to make themselves
free. He then requested it to be added to the above, that 'if he
tells a lie, God sees him by day and by night.'"
The interpreters alluded to in the preceding extract were two Africans
belonging to the crew of the British brig of war Buzzard, which
providentially arrived at New York, from a cruise on the coast of
Africa. They were found to speak the same language as the prisoners, and
with the consent of Captain Fitzgerald, their services were immediately
secured by the indefatigable committee for the African captives. By
their aid much information was elicited respecting the native country
and previous history of these negroes, with many incidental particulars
of great interest, some of which will appear in the following account.
The criminal proceedings against the Mendians being quashed, there
remained the claim of Ruiz and Montez to have the negroes returned to
them as their property. To sustain this claim they produced the license,
signed by the proper authorities at Havana, permitting the removal of
these negroes from that port to Principe, in the same island. This
document is signed by General Espelata, Captain-General of Cuba, and
countersigned by Martinez, one of the most extensive slave-traders in
the known world. This pass or license described the negroes as
_ladinos_, a term used to designate Africans who have been long settled
in Cuba. It was proved, however, that they were _Bozal_ negroes, that
is, such as had been very lately introduced, and the testimony on both
sides, on this point, established a fact that is but too notorious, that
the slave trade to Cuba is openly carried on with the connivance, and
even with the corrupt participation of the authorities. One of the
witnesses, D. Francis Bacon, gives the following account of the slave
trade:--
"Mr. Bacon stated that he left the coast of Africa on the 13th
of July, 1839. He knew a place called Dumbokoro [Lomboko] by the
Spaniards: it was an island in the river or lagoon of Gallinas.
There is a large slave factory or depot at this place, which is
said to belong to the house of Martinez in Havana; there are
also different establishments on different islands. Mr. Bacon
stated that he had seen American, Russian, Spanish, and
Portuguese vessels at Gallinas. The American flag was a complete
shelter; no man-of-war daring to capture an American vessel. The
slave trade on that part of the coast is the universal business
of the country, and by far the most profitable, and all engaged
in it who could raise the means. Extensive wars take place in
Africa, for obtaining slaves from the vanquished. Different
towns and villages make war upon each other for this purpose.
Some are sold on account of their crimes, others for debts. The
slaves are all brought on to the coast by other blacks, and sold
at the slave factories, as no white man dare penetrate into the
interior. Some of the blacks who have been educated at Sierra
Leone, have been principal dealers in the slave trade."
The decision of the District Court of Connecticut on this question of
property, was to the effect that since their original introduction into
Cuba was plainly illegal, they were free by the law of Spain, and of
course could not be the property of Spanish subjects.
The subsequent proceedings were undertaken on behalf of the United
States' Government. "The District Attorney, Mr. Holabird, filed his
claim under Lieut. Gedney's libel, on two distinct grounds; one that
these Africans had been claimed by the Government of Spain, and ought to
be retained till the pleasure of the Executive might be known, as to
that demand; and the other, that they should be held subject to the
disposition of the President, to be re-transported to Africa, under the
act of 1819." The Court finally decreed that the Africans should be
delivered to the President of the United States, to be transported to
Africa, there to be delivered to an agent appointed to receive and
conduct them home. Against this decision, though it is what he had asked
for, Holabird appealed on behalf of the United States' Government, and
through a protracted series of law proceedings, it was finally carried
before the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest tribunal in
the nation. The counsel employed on both sides, in the different stages,
were of the highest reputation; and finally the venerable John Quincy
Adams, after an absence from the Courts of nearly forty years, during
which interval he had filled the highest offices of state, at home and
abroad, in the service of his country, did not think it beneath him to
defend the Mendians before the Supreme Court, against the _conspiracies_
of Forsyth, the Secretary of State, and the Spanish Ambassador. In his
first communication to the latter, Forsyth says:
"All the proceedings in the matter, on the part of both the
executive and judicial branches of the government, have had
their foundation in the assumption that Montez and Ruiz alone
were the parties aggrieved; and that their claim to the
surrender of the property was founded in fact and in justice."
The Spanish minister and his successor, complained bitterly, in the
course of a long correspondence, of the delay in giving up the Africans,
on the ground, as emphatically stated in one of their letters to the
Department of State, that "the public vengeance had not been satisfied;
for be it recollected that the legation of Spain does not demand the
delivery of slaves, but of assassins." In a previous communication it
was intimated that "the infliction of capital punishment in this case
(in the United States,) would not be attended with the salutary effects
had in view by the law, when it resorts to this painful and terrible
alternative, namely, to prevent the commission of similar offences."
Notwithstanding these dreadful intimations of the fate awaiting the
Africans in Cuba, the American Government deliberately adopted the
design of delivering them up, either as _property_ or as assassins. That
Government found willing agents in the United States' Marshal, and the
District Attorney of Connecticut. The following extracts from the
argument of John Quincy Adams, will explain these disgraceful
transactions:
"On the 7th of January, the Secretary of State writes to the
Secretary of the Navy, acknowledging the receipt of his letter
of the 3d, informing him that the schooner Grampus would receive
the negroes of the Amistad, 'for the purpose of conveying them
to Cuba, in the event of their delivery being adjudged by the
Circuit Court, before whom the case is pending.' This singular
blunder, in naming the Court, shows in what manner and with how
little care the Department of State allowed itself to conduct an
affair, involving no less than the liberties and lives of every
one of my clients. This letter enclosed the order of the
President to the Marshal of Connecticut for the delivery of the
negroes to Lieut. Paine. Although disposing of the lives of
forty human beings, it has not the form or solemnity of a
warrant, and is not even signed by the President in his official
capacity. It is a mere order.
"'The Marshal of the United States for the District of
Connecticut will deliver over to Lieut. John S. Paine,
of the United States Navy, and aid in conveying on board
the schooner Grampus, under his command, all the
negroes, late of the Spanish schooner Amistad, in his
custody, under process now pending before the Circuit
Court of the United States for the District of
Connecticut. For so doing, this order will be his
warrant.
"'Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this
7th day of January, A.D. 1840.
"'M. VAN BUREN.
"'By the President:
"'JOHN FORSYTH, Sec. of State.'
"That order is good for nothing at all. It did not even describe
the Court correctly, under whose protection those unfortunate
people were. And on the 11th of January, the District Attorney
had to send a special messenger, who came, it appears, all the
way to Washington in one day, to inform the Secretary that the
negroes were not holden under the order of the Circuit Court,
but of the District Court. And he says, 'Should the pretended
friends of the negroes'--the pretended friends!--'obtain a writ
of Habeas Corpus, the Marshal could not justify under that
warrant.' And he says, 'the Marshal wishes me to inquire'--a
most amiable and benevolent inquiry--'whether in the event of a
decree requiring him to release the negroes, or in case of an
appeal by the adverse party, it is expected the Executive
warrant will be executed'--that is, whether he is to carry the
negroes on board of the Grampus in the face of a decree of the
Court. And he requests instructions on the point."
On the 12th of January, the very next day after the letter of the
District Attorney was written at New Haven, the Secretary of State
replies in a despatch which is marked 'confidential.'
"'[CONFIDENTIAL.]
"'DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Jan. 12,1840.
"'SIR,--Your letter of the 11th inst. has just been received.
The order for the delivery of the negroes of the Amistad is
herewith returned, corrected agreeably to your suggestion. With
reference to the inquiry from the Marshal, to which you allude,
I have to state, by direction of the President, that if the
decision of the Court is such as is anticipated, the order of
the President is to be carried into execution, unless an appeal
shall actually have been interposed. YOU ARE NOT TO TAKE IT FOR
GRANTED THAT IT WILL BE INTERPOSED. And if, on the contrary, the
decision of the Court is different, you are to take out an
appeal, and allow things to remain as they are until the appeal
shall have been decided.