The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-04-12

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.dss This title deed was sswsd 10 other papera
| With ptban white thread, and shat co1Nsnced me
Shat itse6d been put there within few days, and
Mat itX6As fraud.
l Quss Then tho fact of the alcslde keeping his
pepers'n something like order, And heing. as it
might possibly have been, . short time before,
Fpewed 1eme papers together for the enrpose Of
your dosbts7 The ssciean white thread OF the al
Cade ss4tied the whole business and you did not go
to see the mine therein described, because the
"cIean white thread" convinced you the title
Ans l did not go because, as have already
told you that that among other reasons, convinced
me the thing was fraud.
Mr.: MAY: Was the title fully examined in the
alcalde's Office 7
Ans. 1t was.
Cues. Did you inquire for the places mentioned
Ans did, and no such places could be found.
Cues. Are specimens of ore easily obtained
| there
| Ans. They are if they are brought there.
! CUES. The object was to get Dr.. Gardiner com.
mitted to say where his mines were?
Ans. Yes.
| Qaes. Was the advertisement published before
! we knew that DR.. Gardiner was in Laguinillas?
| Ans. 1t was printed in San Luis Potosi We
knew nothing Of DR.. Gardiner being there when
| it was printed.
| Mr. CARLISLE. Did you understand from that
offer that you were to be shown silver mine in
| the district of Laguinillas!
Ans We did
| CUES And was not that enough to convince you
that there was to be seen in Laguinillas what Cap
tain Barry and yourself and others said you could
not find?
Ans. If we had had Captain Barry with us we
| could have found it out without Mr.. Abbot or his
guide.
Cues. What could you have lost by accepting
| this offer?
A.,s. If the offer had come to us in a proper
| ef,a we ha We o,,f
as commission to make this invesigation and
we were the judges of whether this was proper
| offer or not
Mr. CARLISLE. And the way you made the in
vestigaton by riding along the beaten path
| through the district, without ever leaving the
| road
Mr. BRADLEY If any one else had offered you
| this Information, would you have accepted it
Ans. Perhaps we would.
CUES. But you went to get information for the
committee of the Senate; and matter who offered
you that information, was it not your duty to &C.
| cept it?
| Ans. We were to be the Judges of that.
Cues. And you did not accept Mr.. Abbot's offer
because Captain Barry had been through the dis
| trict before?
Ams We knew that Captain Barry knew as
much about that district as perhaps any other
man.
| Cues. But how did you know but that Mr.. Alb.
bot had been there in 1874 to 1896 He might have
been able to show you these mines. You said that
you filed petition to take depositions; was that
to take the d positions of the persons who signed
Dr. GARDENERS papers?
Ans. 1t was not because we did not know that
any such persons were there.
Captain Barry was again recalled, and gave evi.
dence in regard to the passport similar in sub
stance to that already given by Mr.. Partridge.
Colonel William Payne, recalled.
Mr. BRADLEY showed the witness a number of
papers, and inquired whether they were the same
| that were before the Board of Commissioners, and
on which they had acted in the investigation of
Dr. GARDENERS claim?
Witness could not identify them positively, but
believed they were. He identified the red backed
book of accounts, and the translation of it.
CUES. State whether or not you as commits
soner. examined carefully the original papers filed
before that commission?
Ans. examined every paper carefully and RI
gidly
Cues. Do you remember comparing the original
with the translation?
Ans did, as far as l was capable of doing. 1
have an imperfect knowledge of the Spanish lam
guage, and with the assistance of the secretary of
the board, and sometimes that of gentleman who
was teaching Spanish, when was in doubt as
to the meaning Of sentence or phrase, and could
not satisfy myself, referred to them
CUES Do you remember whether or not you
carefully examined the papers to see whether they
were properly authenticated
Ans. did, according to the rules prescribed by
the board. gave this case unusual attention. be.
cause thought it was one of those cases in which
| we might be more easily imposed upon than in
| many others. We knew that the mining business
was precarious that in some instances it might be
worth million of dollars while in others it might
| not be worth cent. For this, and many otter
reasons, we examined this claim carefully-very
carefully-in order that we might not be imposed
upon.
Q,les 1 believe the commission at no time had
any doubt as to the validity of the claim!
Ans. The only difficulty they had was as to the
amount. The papers, as we supposed, made out a
| good case
! Or. Ma 40, o~or,;,,. ~. ..:-u -,
| with the book?
Ans. We did, very carefully and diligently l
| took the papers to my own room, and had them
there examining them for week.
| MIR. May. Did you examine the signatures and
! the rutricas?
Ans. We did, If there had been no rubrica, l
should have taken it for granted that the papers
| were not genuine because | knew that f was ne
cessary under the Mexican law.
CUES Was your attention particularly called to
| the rubricas?
Ans. / think not
CUES. Did you notice at the time that there was
| no signature to the title?
Ans. Wetook it to be mere abstract of title
the evidence that there title upon record ex-
listing in that country. do not remember whether
or not there was signature tot In fact, do not
| see the propriety of signature to an abstract.
| Cues. Did you consult the laws of Mexico in
regard to miningi
| leve that our knowledge of the Mexican law was
| imperfect.
CUES. Did you require any evidence of the au.
hentcity of the seals other than the appearance of
| the seals themselves?
| Ans. We took 1t for granted that when person
from Mexico, acting in official capacity as min
lister to the United States, assured US Of the gen.
uineness OF these seals they must be genuine We
did not go beyond that in our investigation. be.
| cause We supposed every thing was right. This
prevented any suspicion entering our miuds !
believe that these papers sent to Senior Rosas
to ascertain the genlipeness ofthese certifcations
Mr. johnson, think, was sent; and be brought
reply that the documents were properly .authenti
Gated That is the impression upon nv mind. I
remember that the members of the Board waited
| on Senior Rosas in the fret instance,
Az rule, held out no induce ment to make an
increase Of damages, rather desiring, in all cases.
to bring them as low possible; and for that rea.
son the commission cared less about the title az
the claim being admitted to be good In other re-
spects, the only object In proving title would be to
increase the amount of damages. There was no
title, as considered it, that entitled him to make
claim beyond the actual damages. 1t was con.
tended, the part of his counsel, that we should
allow the value Of the mine, but the commissioners
objected to that. on the ground that if he owned
the mine then he owned it still, and we did not
therefore ask him to bring evidence of hia title
The board only required that evidence, If thew
were to give him any further award That na
per, containing an abstract Of the title was fled
/ md IN 49, L. 1vrs'