New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1859-10-20
NUMBER 1913.

on board at View York. Witness discovered tI,ere
was powder on board on Saturday night, the sth /
hsrg ad gat NJ hass been twelve fourteen kegs Of
which witness did of his own accord ,.ss ~ .;j
OF the second and siTrd mates and two men Cnn,. M,
menced the work At 10 O'clock and kent AZ 4 I'll
daylight: me Custosn>House officer was on board /
az the time, but wheTe, witness cannes tell The |
ship had not been ssized up to that tm9. The
CustOm-H House officer had been on board from
O'Clock in the afternoon. After witness discovered
them he threw overboaTd lot of the 1rsrskets. |
bayonets belts tin pans, cartridges and 10 or Il
Kegs Of powder. Did not count the muskets or
bayonets separately; there. were couple of b1n-
dies OF belts, and two boxes of cartouche boxes.
The men who arrested witness were Thomas DaeDn
and another man, name forgotten. Witness threw
the things over without aBxHody's instruction.;
never told any one he intended doing it, except
those who helped him. " Diansnd x" was the
mark on the boxes. Witness aftarward saw on the
river bank near the ship, some Of the things that
had been thrown overheard. Witness has been
introduced to the defendants within the last few
days; never saw them before te know them.
The Captain said nothing about tiae stopping at
any point after leaving the city. Heard that the
ship had been refused clearance.
". ". Sc,N scorn.-1s cltief engineer of the
Philadelphia. Was instructed to etready az soon
as possible, as the vessel was bound from New Or
leans to Aspinwall. to finish the contract of taking
the mails to New York. Never saw any Of the de-
1ehdants 1 on board never saw any Of the men said
how the ship was to be employed on the way to
Aspinwall, or whether she was to stop at any
point; Never heard anything of the arms on
board.
Joh, J. Tusflagfnn, s,royn-Is second assist
ant engineer Of the Philadelphia Did not hear
what was to be the destination of the ship after
leaving New Orleans. Never knew there were any
arms on board. First Maury at the Gem Cof-
feehouse; never saw him any of the defendants
on board the ship. Knew nothing Of the body of
men said to be assembled below the city,. Know
7 hat n%a%
N. r.. Bos,rosth s,corn.-Was purser of the
| Philadelphia. Knew nothing of the arms on board.
witnesses duty is to receive freight, make out Gus
Of the vicualling Of the ship. The freight at New
York was received by several persons N Mr.
[ Larose was charged with the delivery of the
freight here. Witness furnishes the freight list and
| the freight bills are collected by the agents. Wit
ness furnished the freight list trip and handed to
| the discharging clerk. The captain told witness
to clear the vessel for Aspnwall. Witness identi-
hes the printed form in court as duplicate of the
one he handed in at the Custom-House. As witness
understood the ship was going to Aspnwall, stores
were laid in, as a matter of course The seamen
would want something to eat. Cannot tell on what
/ day the provisions were taken on board did not
see the requiston. The requisition is made out by
| the steward and countersigned by the captain
| Do not know what stores were on board. Saw MIR.
| Anderson on board the ship, but that was about
three months ago; he has not been aboard since.
| Never saw Anderson or Maury with Capt. Griffin.
/ Witness became acquainted with Capt. Maury after
his arrest;, got acquainted with Mr.. Anderson
three months ago as passenger on the Grenada,
not on the Philadelphia. Maury said nothing to wit
ness about the expedition or about the Philadel.
phia, or about the party going down on the Pan
ther, or their purposes, or anything at all about
| the business.
A. O. Murphy s,roa7a.-Is Custom House officer;
has the steamship Philadelphia in his charge Took
her in charge on Sunday, the llth October. Wit
ness was ordered to go down, and went aboard
about 2 O'Clock, with three inspectors, and re-
mained till O'Clock. Witness then went to see
after stevedore's gang he had ordered down.
Whilst witness was absent the men came and COM
| menced removing the coal and continued working
till quarter to 8 O'Clock, and then a man named
| Mclnerny came on board with instructions not to
let any thing go ashore except baggage. Witness
was sent for on Tuesday BY O.Sullivan, and went
Immediately. Got down at II o'clock; saw powder
scattered about the deck cartridge cases, several
pieces of broken boxes, etc. Witness attention
was called to these things by O'Sullivan. Saw a
cartridge box that had been picked up alongside
and put on the guard. When witnessleft on Satur-
day night there were no fragments of boxes OF
powder lying about. Witness prosecuted the
search further. Found in the lower hold three
boxes of muskets and rifles and seventeen boxes of
ball cartridges, five kegs of powder, some Minnie
rifle cartridges some cane knives, two barrels of
lead and barrel marked carbine cartridges. The
hatchway was covered with provisions and the
whole deck was covered with tar. Found several
boxes marked X in diamond. The provisions
were OH the deck over the hatchway; witness
had to scrape the deck and take away the
provisions before he could discover the hatch
way. Knew there must be hatchway, as witness
saw ring-holt, which proved to be over the hatch
when the tar was scraped away. The tar looked
as if it hadspiled from bursted or broken barrel
could not tell if it had been freshly spilled There
must have been five six thousand barrels of coal
on board it was moved partially, but not taken
out. Witness attention was first directed to the
Philadelphia on Saturday the sth; was not sent up
never noticed any of the defendants on board the
Philadelphia: never saw them with Capt. Griffin
Witness did see the body of men who were ut the
powder house; noticed them two or three days
previous to their leaving Don't know how the
men got to that point never saw the defendants
down there.
Joseph TMarubia, J'., s,corn.-Is q member o
steamship Philadelphia. The philadelphia belong
to the U. S. Mail Steamship Company. A letter o
instructions was received by DeVisser & Co. from
the Company, informing him that special ar
partment to bring the California mails of the 2Otl
J September from Aspinwal; and directing tn
agents to instruct Capt. Griffin to clear for Aspir
wall, without taking either passengers or freig
for that voyage. [The witness produced this lette
of instruction from the Company; the Philade
: phias freight list from New York to this city wa
also produced in evidence. The list contained n
mention q Of arms or :. munitions Of war.] Witnes
had no other instructions about the vessel. Capt
Griffin never said anything to the agents about tn
: destination of the vessel or anything about his in
tention to stop at any point between this and As
|
PENDANTS. The Company's instructions were re
ceiyed on the oath September; the ship arrived OF
the 30th. The New York steam packets usually
remain here seven orseight days. The proposition
was made to witness to put Custom House Officer
on board the Philadelphia; witness declined till h,
could see the Cuptain. The Captain and witness
agreed to grant the request but the Collector thel
|, declined. The request was acceded to about hal
an hour after the proposition made. Captain
Griffin made no objection but said he wished frs
to consult his lawyer; this he did.
Cross Examined. = The California mails wer
previously taken by connection with Havana thi
company now connects with Aspinwall If til
Philadelphia had left she would have brought tn
| California mails of the 20th; witness presumes sh
would have received extra compensation ther
was no contract. None of the defendants coul
have obtained passage on the Philadelphia. D
not know that during the year 1861 the Philade
phia ran direct to Aspinwall.
d. ~. Walden SlrOln.-ls a Deputy Collector ,
the Customs. The Philadelphia applied for clea
ance for Aspinwall, without freight or passenger
/; WITNESS produced the manifest offered: it sal
simply, in ballast.''l There is considerable pa.
. senger traffic to Aspinwal; it is usually by tn
! regular line OF steamers connecting at Havana.
is unusual for vessel to clear for Aspnwal; ther
is no direct trade between that port and this. TIL
n application for clearance first made to wit
ness, and after that to the Collector. Capt. Griti
: said nothing to witness particularly pointed abou
s the proposition to put an officer on board, unles
it was casual remark about its being unusual t.
n do such thing.
e Joseph VMarubid, J., recaNed.-H passenger
t, had gone by the PHILADELPHIA, they could not lay