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New York Morning Herald, September 9, 1839.
The Case of the Captured Negroes
The highly important nature of the case connected with the disposal of the negroes
recently captured on board of the L’Amistad, has induced us to take more than the
ordinary measures to get all the facts and main features of this interesting affair
as fully and as accurately as possible. The extraordinary fabrications that have
been put forth by the “Journal of Commerce,” in relation to this important case,
require to be promptly exposed and refuted. The whole affair is of too serious a
nature to be treated with levity, or to be made the subject of the ridiculous invention,
overdrawn and exaggerated statements, and catch-penny falsehoods, to which the Journal
of Commerce, copying from some penny paper, has given credence, publicity, and sanction.
It is a matter of the utmost moment; affecting the credit and character of the Spanish
government, of the authorities of this country, and of the lives of 30 or 40 human
beings.
In order, therefore, to arrive at the truth, and the full details of the affair,
we have despatched two highly intelligent and competent correspondents, for that
purpose, to Connecticut; one to New London, and one to New Haven, to obtain all the
facts of the case, a letter from each of which we this day lay before our readers,
promising that all our information is obtained from the most direct and unquestionable
source. In addition to this, Senor Ruiz, the owner of a majority of the negroes on
board of the L’Amistad, called on us personally, yesterday, and furnished us with
full and accurate information in connection with this curious transaction from its
commencement down to this time. He states the two thirds of the account in the “Journal
of Commerce” is but a tissue of falsehoods, without the least foundation in fact;
calculated to injure all parties, to mislead the public on every important point,
and to make an entirely false issue in a case that is of itself, upon the strength
of its simple facts, sufficiently complicated to create a great deal of ill feeling,
and difficult in arriving at a correct decision on its merits.
Senor Ruiz states that the character and conduct of the negroes as totally different
from the statements published and endorsed by the “Journal of Commerce;” so far from
being a hero, Cinguiz is as miserably ignorant and brutalized a creature as the rest
of them; that the speeches and declarations reputed to have been uttered by him,
are all pure invention from beginning to end; that he made no speech whatever; and
that if he had, there was no one who could translate what he said; the cabin boy
knows nothing of the language, as asserted by the “Journal;”and had he been able
to tell Mr. Hyde, according to the “Journal’s” account, Mr. Hyde knows nothing of
Spanish, and the boy cannot speak English. The accounts, therefore, in the “Journal
of Commerce” must be looked upon, by all who are desirous of understanding the real
merits of the case, and of getting at the facts, as worthy only of derision and contempt;
and as an impudent attempt on the part of that paper to palm off upon an intelligent
community, the most infamous fabrications in a matter that deeply concerns the character,
the credit, and the best interests of all classes of our citizens.
Senor Ruiz informs us, that he first met these negroes in the fields close to Havana;
he saw them and examined them for two or three days before he made his purchases;
and even then he did not purchase the whole of those that he found there. He did
not inquire whether they were Congo negroes, or Mandangoes, or where they came from;
he saw they were stout bodied men and he bought them; he took them to Havana, entered
them according to the laws of the place, got out his bill of lading, and shipped
them under the sanction of the authorities of the place. These are the topics and
points upon which the whole difficulty of the case will hinge. These are the pivots
upon which the decisions turn. Senor Ruiz says that he had no idea of the Spanish
minister claiming them from this government as property; but he believes the minister
will claim them as murderers, to be delivered up and sent to Havana for trial, for
murdering a Spanish ship master, on board a Spanish vessel, in Spanish waters.--And,
as we see, by the papers, that Senor D’Argaiz, the new Spanish minister, has arrived
at Washington, the presumption is that they will be demanded forthwith, and therefore
that all these difficult, intricate, troublesome and long mooted points will come
up at once, be met, and set at rest at once and forever.
In the meantime the abolitionists are making immense exertions to get the negroes
set free; they are raising subscriptions, collecting money, clothing and feeding
them; employing the most able counsel, riding over the country, by night and day,
to get interpreters who can converse alike in their language and in English; rummaging
over musty records, old statutes, treaties and laws, in order to “get a peg to hang
a doubt upon” in relation to delivering them up. Some of them they will endeavor
to have used as states evidence, (if tried here) in order to prove that there was
no legal authority for shipping them on board the L’Amistad. The canting semi-abolition
papers, like the “Journal of Commerce” and the “American” and “Post” are all endeavoring
to mis-state, misrepresent, and throw difficulties upon the matter in order to get
the black murderers set free. The Southern papers have articles proving the propriety
of the surrender.--Meanwhile, the negroes are getting fat and lazy; perfectly indifferent
to the disposal to be made of them. They only do two things on the coast of Africa;
that is, eat and steal. On board the L’Amistad, after the murders, they did little
else but eat and steal. They quarreled with themselves about the food, they drank
up what little liquor there was on board; and then, although having entire possession
of the vessel, they began to steal individually every thing they could lay their
hands on and to cram the articles into bags. After this, they rummaged and searched
parts of the vessel daily. One day they would find one thing, and another day another;
at last they opened a locker and found six demijohns of wine; these they drank in
two days, and then they began to steal from each other. And if released and sent
back to Africa, they will have no other occupation than eating and stealing again.--Senor
Ruiz says that they are all great cowards, and had the captain killed one on the
night of the mutiny they would have been subdued instantly, and all have run below.
His impression is that they will be sent out to Havana, the ringleaders executed,
and the rest given up to him. We shall see. It is a most singular case; we shall
follow it up closely; and, unlike the “Journal of Commerce,” we shall do so accurately.
