But, ere the extracts come, it may be well to preface them with a remark.

The document selected, from among many others, for partial translation, contains the deposition of Benito Cereno; the first taken in the case. Some disclosures therein were, at the time, held dubious for both learned and natural reasons. The tribunal inclined to the opinion that the deponent, not undisturbed in his mind by recent events, raved of some things which could never have happened. But subsequent depositions of the surviving sailors, bearing out the revelations of their captain in several of the strangest particulars, gave credence to the rest. So that the tribunal, in its final decision, rested its capital sentences upon statements which, had they lacked confirmation, it would have deemed it but duty to reject.

I, Don José de Abos and Padila, His Majesty’s Notary for the Royal Revenue, Register of this Province and Notary Public of the Holy Crusade of this Bishoprick, etc., do certify and declare, as much as is requisite in law, that, in the criminal cause commenced the twenty-fourth of the month of September in the year seventeen hundred and ninety-nine against the negroes of the ship San Dominick, the following declaration before me was made:

Declaration of the first witness, Don Benito Cereno

The same day and month and year, His Honour, Dr Juan Martinez de Rozas, Councillor of the Royal Audience of this Kingdom, and learned in the law of this Intendancy, ordered the captain of the ship San Dominick, Don Benito Cereno, to appear; which he did in his litter, attended by the monk Infelez; of whom he received the oath, which he took by God, our Lord and a Sign of the Cross; under which he promised to tell the truth of whatever he should know and should be asked; and being interrogated agreeably to the tenor of the act, commencing the process, he said, that on the twentieth of May last, he set sail with his ship from the port of Valparaiso, bound to that of Callao; loaded with the produce of the country, beside thirty cases of hardware and one hundred and sixty blacks, of both sexes, mostly belonging to Don Alexandro Aranda, gentleman, of the City of Mendoza; that the crew of the ship consisted of thirty- six men, beside the persons who went as passengers; that the negroes were in part as follows:

Here, in the original, follows a list of some fifty names, descriptions, and ages, compiled from certain recovered documents of Aranda’s and also from recollections of the deponent, from which portions only are extracted.

One, from about eighteen to nineteen years, named José, and this was the man that waited upon his master, Don Alexandro, and who speaks well the Spanish, having served him four or five years … A mulatto, named Francesco, the cabin steward, of a good person and voice, having sung in the Valparaiso churches, native of the province of Buenos Aires, aged about thirty-five years … A smart negro, named Dago, who had been for many years a gravedigger among the Spaniards, aged forty-six years … Four old negroes, born in Africa, from sixty to seventy, but sound, calkers by trade, whose names are as follows: the first was named Mure, and he was killed (as was also his son named Diamelo); the second, Nacta; the third, Yola, likewise killed; the fourth, Ghofan … And six full-grown negroes, aged from thirty to forty-five, all raw, and born among the Ashantees—Matinqui, Yau, Lecbe, Mapenda, Yambaio, Akim, four of whom were killed … A powerful negro named Atufal, who being supposed to have been a chief in Africa, his owner set great store by him … And a small negro of Senegal, but some years among the Spaniards, aged about thirty, which negro’s name was Babo … That he does not remember the names of the others, but that still expecting the residue of Don Alexandro’s papers will be found, will then take due account of them all and remit to the court … And thirty-nine women and children of all ages.

The catalogue over, the deposition goes on:

… That all the negroes slept upon deck, as is customary in this navigation, and none wore fetters because the owner, his friend Aranda, told him that they were all tractable; … that on the seventh day after leaving port, at three o’clock in the morning, all the Spaniards being asleep except two officers of the watch, who were the boatswain, Juan Robles, and the carpenter, Juan Bautista Gayete, and the helmsman and his boy, the negroes revolted suddenly, wounded dangerously the boatswain and the carpenter,