To his Honor the Judge of the second
Election:

Don Miguel Pietry, merchant in this place, do in due and legal form appear before your honor, and represent to you, that in the criminal cause that was prosecuted against Carlos Gonzalez, I was appointed depository of his effects, and after sentence was pronounced, I became his bondsman for the due and strict compliance with the terms of the said sentence and payment of one thousand eight hundred dollars, as has been paid by me, and voucher thereof appears in the acts; but whereas, at the present time, there do not remain in my possession any effects whatever belonging to the said Carlos, and there still remain the costs to be paid; and to the intent that no prejudice whatever may fall on me, in consequence of the aforesaid bond entered into, I now, in full and solemn form, exhibit the document granted in my fa vour by Juana Talavera, the lawful wife of the said Carlos, by which she binds herself, with her effects, to make good whatever might be deficient towards the full payment of the said costs; and whereas the said Juana Talavera is ready to depart from this island, I request your honor will in justice be pleased to order (on the costs of the suit being taxed) the said Juana to discharge the same, causing it to be intimated to her not to depart without payment thereof, depositing for this purpose equivalent effects, that I may be pronounced exonerated and discharged from the bond, having already fulfilled my part; I therefore request your honor may pronounce and decree accordingly, the same being justice that I solicit; and I make oath to have no sinister motive, also the needful, &c.

(Signed) MIGUEL PIETRY.

Let Juana Talavera be notified not to depart from this island without terminating the suit pending, which the party (Signed) BLACK.

refers to.

His honor the ordinary judge of the second clection of this island of Trinidad, thus decreed and signed hereto, on the eighteenth day of November, in the year one thousand eight hundred and two,

Before me FRANCISCO DE CASTRO.

ified the same to the petitioner. (Signed) CASTRO.

THOMAS PICTON, Esq.

Don Francisco de Castro, president of the illustrious municipality of this island of Trinidad, and likewise royal notary public to the government thereof, deposes on his oath, that during the exainination he underwent as a witness in this prosecution, on the twelfth day of this present month of January, before the most illustrious brigadier-general Don Thomas Hislop, lieutenant-governor of this said island, to whom was addressed the order for the examination of witnesses residing in this island of Trinidad, relative to the sundry matters on which the accusations are founded, he was so much oppressed and influenced by sundry weighty and well-founded motives,

that it prevented him, at that time, from relating the truth of the past occurrences, that is to say, as far as the extent of his knowledge could have permitted him; he perceiving that his total ruin would ensue and be caused by persons residing in this island. The deponent, well knowing that he has not declared the whole truth in his answers to the questions that were put to him by the counsel on the behalf of the accused, he immediately as the court closed, which was on the said twelfth day of January, protested against his said answers to the questions that were put to him; also against his aforesaid evidence, given under such fears and apprehensions; and he the deponent swears, and farther declares, that he verily believes that his discovering and relating the truth before any court in this said island, in a strictly true and conscientious manner, and as he ought, and as is his wish to do, as a man of sincerity, would insure his loss of those effects he has hitherto acquired, and might also endanger his personal liberty: That he finds that notwithstanding his honor the lieutenant governor is ever ready to render justice to all the world, as well to the persons who are parties in this prosecution as also to all others under his government; he may still not have it in his power to shield him from the ruin he might be involved in from the subtilty of some men and whom it might be equally dangerous for him, the deponent, to point out; and from whom he apprehends these dangers, should he explain the motives on which his fears are founded: but he is nevertheless ready to appear before the honorable Court in Europe, whenever process or trial takes place of this prosecution; and he will then readily before the Court give his evidence, and declare the truth to the best of his knowledge, as a man of probity and conscience ought to do, and which he is anxious to do under the protection of the said honorable Court, and to explain the motives of his fears, and the names of the persons who are now meditating his ruin, should he, the deponent, make a deposition contrary to their wishes. Port of Spain, 21st January, 1805.

(Signed) FRANCISCO De Castro.

Sworn before me in court,

this 22nd of January,

In the year of our Lord, 1805.
T. HISLOP.

EXHIBIT D.

[Vide antè p. 254]

To facilitate him (Castro) to make his deposition in the cause of Luisa Calderon,

he claims the protection of your excellency, and should he be set at liberty, he requires :

There may be given him a copy of his declaration, for the greater regularity. That on giving him a copy of the questions, he will reply thereto in his own hand-writing, taking them first to his own house to enable him to consider and well digest his answers, without inserting any superfluous matter. That he shall not be obliged to answer any questions that may injure himself by his answers; his intention not being in any way to prejudice himself. That he enjoys the office of president of the municipality, by reason that his dismissal from that office has not as yet been notified to him; and that the same is his property, having purchased it with his money; and by the capitulation he was continued in it, and his excellency has been wrong informed.

EXHIBIT E.

[Vide antè p. 308.]

Examination and report made on oath relative to the registers delivered by the beneficed curate Don Josef Maria Angeles to the Court of Session; said exanination and report made by the beneficed priest Don Pedro Josef Reyes Bravo vicar, with set jurisdiction out of the ecclesiastical court, and is ecclesiastical judge, in this windward island of Trinidad; by order of his excellency the lieutenant-governor and brigadier-general Don Thomas Hislop.

Observation 1st.-The curate, Don Josef Maria Angeles, has delivered to the Court, the first register-book kept by him from the time of his appointment as curate of the New Colonists in Port of Spain; that is to say, from the year 1784: This Register-book is titled volume 1st, and is divided into two books, Book the first and Book the Second.

2nd. In the title of book the 1st is found written, in the actual hand-writing of father Don Joseph Maria Angeles, "This book contains in all 88 leaves to serve, or written on, without comprising this and the last, which is to have written thereon the certificate o its completion, one marked numeri cally, as may be seen in its place as aforesaid.

3rd. At the end of December in the

year 89, which reaches to the end of fo. 88, is further written, in the handwriting of the said curate Angeles, "Finis."

4th. There is written on the 89th leaf,

or fo. 89, which had remained as a

May, 1805, which ancient registers and old memorandum books were transmitted to me by the secretary of the court; and these latter ones have been examined in the presence of his excellency and of father Angeles, in court, on the 12th day of May. I had the honour of remarking to your excellency on this same occasion, that the five sewed books delivered in by this priest were not the continuation of the register as required from the month of August, 1795 up to the year 1805; but that they were merely some sewed books of memorandums made at the time of the baptisms, to be immediately afterwards inserted in a regular manner in the register, as is expressly required by the civil and canon laws that govern us; which said laws ordain that the curates should keep the registers in the best order and regularity, by reason that on frequeut occasions the life, the property, and the right of inheritance of their parishioners depend thereon.

14th. The father curate Don Josef Maria Angeles being again commanded by his excellency in court to find and deliver up the continuation of the register (as required from him) from August 1795, has declared that he is ready to make oath that he had not in his possession any other registers than the sewed books of memorandums or notes-than those he has delivered; and that the insects had eaten the sewed books that were the continuation of the register.

15th.-On his being again commanded by his excellency in court to declare the truth, and to deliver up the continuation of the register as had been required of him, after a deal of hesitation and diffi culties he went home in search of the new register, which he has exhibited in Court, and which begins on the 1st January 1801; but there are not entered therein any more entries than those of the month of January, 1801, and one of the 2nd of February in the same year in an unfinished state. I have to remark to the Court that the first register delivered to him begins in 1784, which was the time when he entered on the curacy of Port of Spain; that this register was titled by him volume 1st, and that the latter which he has presented he titled volume 2nd: this proves in an incontestable manner, that the continuation 95 to the end of December, 1800, existed in the several sheets of the Register, volume 1st, and that these sewed sheets, or portions of the book, have been maliciously cut out or extracted by him; it not being possible that the insects should have eaten the same, as he has stated, being about five years' registers, without his producing some small remnants or scraps thereof, which naturally would have been left.

16th.-Relative to the assertion of the father curate, Don Josef Maria Angeles, that there does not exist in his possession any other register than those he has delivered, and the sewed sheets of memorandums, I have remarked to the said curate, in the presence of your excellency in court, that there is not to be found either in the registers or in the sewed sheets of memorandums, the original certificate or entry of a baptism which I obtained, dated the 24th of May, 1799, which certified copy was granted by him and authenticated solemnly by his signature as having been copied from his register, which proves by evidence the existence of the continuation of the register from and after the year 1795 until 1800, as the new Register volume 2nd begins in January, 1801, and that he has extracted the latter sheets or parts of the Register volume 1st.

17th. It is to be observed, that father Angeles has delivered five sewed books of memorandums; and that the said sewed books begin from the commencement of 89 until May, 1805, which proves that he regularly entered the memorandums of the baptisms that were solemnized in his curacy; and that having entered therein the year 1784, it is to be presumed that he pursued the same method from the beginning, and that in consequence he ought to deliver in the same manner his sewed books of notes from the year 1784 until the end of 1788; but instead of this he has denied the existence of the said note or memorandum books.

18th. Your excellency has ordered me, at the solicitation of the advocate of Luisa, to present or produce in court, as curate of Arima and of Saint Joseph, the registers kept by me in these parishes during the time I have enjoyed the said curacies: I had the honour to present them to your excellency in court, on the 12th May, as also those kept by my predecessors; and,have to observe to you, with regard to those registers, that the years follow each other regularly without any intermission of blank leaves between the end of one year and the beginning of another; this being direct contrary to usage, custom, and good faith for any blank spaces to be left in registers without they are filled up with lines to indicate that the same had happened through inadvertence, and to prevent any improper use of the said blank spaces as has been practised by the curate Angeles, with sundry blank spaces in his registers, excepting the one he has availed himself of to introduce the baptism of Luisa: and that if in the registers that have been presented by me to your excellency there has been any cer

tificates of baptisms omitted, they have been entered in the registers, as is customary and usual, the instant that said omission was discovered, as can be seen. And it is the rule that when the entry of a baptism has been omitted and that it has not been entered in its proper place, no certificate whatever thereof is ever given by the curate to the party interested who may require it, without a memo rial being presented to the ecclesiastical judge, or in default of such judge then to the ordinary judges that an examination may be strictly taken of the wit nesses and relations who may depose to the truth of the matter previous to the granting any such certificate; and it is my duty to observe to the Court and to your excellency, that if in this case this formality had been observed, as is the rule and is the custom, the disgusting circumstances of this suit would have been avoided, as also the scandal of a minister of our religion so publicly compromising the morality of his ministry.

19th. It is to be further observed, that by strictly inspecting the memorandum books that were delivered by the curate Angeles up to the date of the same in May 1805, it is evidently seen that the ink that was made use of in the said books in July 1803, which was the time of the departure of Luisa Calderon for London, is the same that was used to insert the entry of the baptism of Luisa on the blank leaf of fo. 89 in the Register at the end of the year 1789; which leaves no doubt whatever but that the whole was contrived at that period of time.

20th. In this state of my observations relative to the Register afore-mentioned, titled volume 1st, and relative to the sewed books of notes or memorandums, I thought proper, previous to concluding them, to make a general examination of the register of the people of colour of the ancient colonies, combining various circumstances, as well the aspect of Luisa as also the ages of other persons of the district who had assured me of their being a little more or less of the same age. I searched the years preceding that of 1788, and I discovered that in the year 1780, at fol. 158, there was an entry of a female infant called Luisa Antonia daughter of Maria Nunes born, as expressed in the said entry, on the 25th day of August, 1786, being Saint Louis's day, king of France; her godfather and godmother were Juan Santiago, and Luisa Antonio. I assure your excellency that my discovering this entry caused in me a very extraordinary emotion; for excepting the difference of surnames Nunez and Calderon, in every other respect this solemnization of the baptism in 1786, by the reverend father Antonio

Alverado agrees with the register on the blank leaf titled fo. 89; for which reason, and my being certain that among the old Spaniards in Port of Spain there never were any with the surname of Nunez, and that in the city of Cariaco there are of this surname, it came into my mind that perhaps this same Maria Calderon might have formerly called herself Maria Nunez; and accordingly I discovered this was the case, the said Maria having been born in Cariaco, being the daughter of Domingo Nunez, the female slave of Don Francisco Enriques Nunez and of Donna Juana Acosta; that the surname of Calderon she took from a man of that name who obtained her liberty; and that the said Maria was always known at Cariaco by the appellation of Mary Nunez Calderon: this narrative I received from Maria del Rozario Rapala, a native of said Cariaco in the presence of Don Josef Francisco Farfan, the day previous to her embarkation for her own country.

Conclusion.-Your excellency having in court directed me, in quality of ecclesias tical judge, and as the superior of the curate Don Josef Maria Angeles, to minutely inspect the registers and memorandum books produced by him, I have fulfilled, with the greatest exactness, the commission that was conferred on me on the oath that I was sworn; I conclude my opinion with acquainting your excellency that, notwithstanding all the circumstances that obscure the registers and note books submitted to my inspection, and especially in consequence of discovering the entry in the year 1786 in the registers of the antient colonists, it is my duty to declare, and accordingly I do declare, that the certificate of the baptism of Luisa Calderon inserted at fo. 89 of the register by the father curate Don Josef Maria Angeles is false, and of no validity; and that the entry found in the register of the ancient colonists ought to be considered as the true one, unless the said curate Angeles, as parish priest, who ought to have a knowledge of his parishioners, should bring forward persons who themselves may prove circumstances to establish his said entry; and I sign hereto, in this city of St. Joseph de Oruna on the 21st day of May, in the year 1805.

(Signed) The Beneficed Curate PEDRO Sworn to before me, in court, JOSEF REYES BRAVO.

T. HISLOP, Lt. Gov. July 22nd, 1805.

EXHIBIT F.

[Vide antè p. 311.]

The island of Trinidad having sub