The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-15 00:00:00

EXCHEQUER.-(THIS DAY.)

BURON U. DENMAN.
Tbe ATTORNEY- GENERAL (in continuation from our
Afternoon Edition), said—
Now, what were the real facts of the case,
and he must regret , that his Learned Friend
bad not acted in this case with his usual
candour in stating the whale facts to the jury, which
must bare been well known to him at the time. The
facts of the case were shortly the following :—ln the
year 1840, the defendant being then upon the station,
as senior officer in command, holding then the post
of commander in her Majesty's navy, upon the coast
of Africa ; within the limits of that station was the
Gal/Inas River, having under his command the
Ro'ilo, the Saracen, and the Wanderer vessels, of in-
ferior rank, and sailing under general instructions, for
'the suppression of the slave trade. While upon this
station he received a communication from Sir
Richard Doherty, the Governor of Sierra Leone,
a station belonging to this country in that neigh-
bourhood, where existed the mixed commission, and
where the liberated negroes were taken, educated and
vet free, and put in the way of obtaining an honest
livelihood. The defendant received this communica-
tion upon the 30th of October, 1840. Before that
time it appeared that a woman of the name of [Fri
Norman, with her child, a subject of her Britannic
.I.Viajesty, residing at Sierra Leone bad been taken
Into captivity and held in slavery by the eldest
son of King Siacchi, Prince Manna at the Gallinas.
This person had written from the Gallinas to a friend
at Sierra Leone, who had laid her communications
before the governor, and the result was the letter
addressed to the defendant, of which the following
was a copy :

" Freetown, Oct. 30, 1840.

" Sir,—l do myself the honour to inclose
for your information a communication lately
received from Mr. Ferguson, of this colony,
with two letters written from the Gallinas
by a woman named Fry Norman to her husband
and her late mistress, both residing in Freetown;
and I send open a letter addressed by me to King
Siachi at the same river, with the request that
baying perused it, you will cause it to be conveyed
'to that chief as soon as you can conveniently do so."
" These papers, the three first of which I transmit'3in
original, and be may be returned to me, will place
you in possession of circumstances attending the
detention in captivity at Gallinas, by a son of King
Siachi, named Manna, of Tri Norman and her child,
subjects of her Majesty, and inhabitants of this colony.
"In communicating this information I have to
make it my special request that you will use your
best endeavours for the immediate restoration to
liberty of the persons thus unjustly and insolently
detained, and that should it be found impossible to
effect this object without resorting to force you will
employ force in as far as may be necessary, and as
your orders and the rules of the service may permit.:
" Should circumstances require it I shall be pre-
pared to assist you to the extent of my ability with a
military party from this garrison, or in such other
manner as may appear to you advisable.
"With the other enclosures I transmit a letter
received from King Siachi himself respecting the
blockade at this moment of the Gallinas and the
slaves of the Spanish brig Elisa Davidson, lately
condemned as prize in the colony, that you may more
fully understand my letter now addressed to him,
which is partly a reroy to that communication.
t` f have, &c.,
(signed) " R. DOHERTY.
" The lion. Commander Denman, R.N., &c."
In addition to this woman, who was in captivity at the
Gallinas, and which set the defendant in motion,
there were also found two other British subjects in
captivity, who would be called before the jury to give
their evidence as to what took place. Acting upon
these intentions the defendant issued a general
larder on the 16th of November to the men
under his command, setting out the mode in
-which the attack was to be made. Early in
the morning of the 19th of November the expedition
rowed into the river of the Gallinas ; the defendant
took up his head-quarters at Dombocorrob. He
then found that a great number of slaves had been set
free from their fetters, and had been driven into the
bushes in the interior. The defendant found in the
baracoons unmistakable signs of slaves having been
kept there. At Dombocorroh the defendant found
not a single persod to interrupt his landing, the
Spaniards having all fled, knowing the result which
awaited them. From Dombocorroh the defendant
addressed a letter to King Siachi, of which the fol-
lowing was a copy :
(Sent fin crossing the bar, addressed to King Siachi,
or Mr. Rogers.)
" Her Britannic Majesty's ship Wanderer,
off Gallinas, 19th Nov., 1840.

" King Siachi, Gallinas,—The Hon. Joseph Den-
man, commanding her Britannic Majesty's ships and
vessels from Cape Verde to Cape Palmas, has been
requested by the Governor of Sierra Leone to deliver
* dispatch to the King of Gallinas, and to see him,
for the purpose of talking to him upon several matters
of the utmost importance to the King of Gallinas and
his subjects.
"Captain Denman has also some other matters of
greatimportance to speak to the King about; but the
'whit. Tutu who have set down in the Gallinas to
make this bad trade of buying and selling black men
as if t'ney were brutes, instead of human beings like
theaaselves, have plenty of big guns, and threaten
to make war on men-of'-war's boats if they
rasa their slave factories. They have also cut
off all intercourse with the shore, so the cnly
way left to Captain Denman is to bring with him
a force able to defend itself from their bad
white men ; but he does not come to do injury to King
"Siachi or his people, unless King Siachi should refuse
that which the Governor of Sierra Leone, in the
name of the Queen of England, justly demands.
46 Captain Denman therefore requests that the King
and hi 3 head men will colmeertotomethete
Khirngasth
se
lent t ea rs
deliver
possible, that he may „.
from the Governor cf Sierra Leone, and the causes of
complaint that now friendly
exist may be ended 'in a
manner without delay.
(Signed)
PENMAN, Commander."
Several meetings took place subsequently upon the
subject, and finally
a treaty was entered into between
the defendant on the part of her Majesty, and Prince
Manna on the part of K.
defendant bound himself to destroy Siachi, by which the
the buildings and
baracoons of the plaintiff, he having taken possession
of the islands of the Gallinas, and set the King and
his subjects at defiance. This treaty bore date the
rev
21st of November, and was completed
any attack whatever had been made by the defendant.
to
defendant.
The articles in the treaty directly bearing upon the
question were the following :
" 1. King Siachi engages totally to destroy the
factories belonging to these white men without
delay,
"2. Ding Siachi engages to give up to Commander
Denman all the slaves who were in the baracoons of
the white slave-dealers when he entered the river,
and have been carried off into the bush.
"3. King Siachi engages to send these bad white
mefi„out of his country by the first opportunity, and
within four months from this date.
" 4. King Siachi binds himself in the most Solemn
manner, that no white men shall ever for the future
settle in his country for the purpose of slave-dealing.'
With respect to the disposal of the goods of the
plaintiff the defendant, knowing the treachery of the
Spaniards, had directed the casks of gunpowder to