I waited patiently till his evidence was nearly closed, but he had then made no unfavourable statements to the house.

I desired, therefore, that a question might be put to him, and in such a manner, that he might know that they, who put it, had got a clue to his secrets.

He became immediately embarrassed; his voice faltered; he confessed with trembling that he had lost a third of his sailors in his last voyage.

Pressed hard immediately by other questions, he then acknowledged that he had lost one hundred and twenty, or a third of his slaves, also.

But would he say that these were all he had lost in that voyage?
No; twelve others had perished by an accident, for they were drowned.