Space of 96 hours if
Retaken by any private man of War the Captures shall be
Intituled to the one half for Salvage free from all Charges.
As this [h]as been fully proved in Court that the time the
Ennemy [h]as had her in possession is above 96 hours I dont
doubt but the one half free of all Charges will be allotted
Us for Salvage.

[Footnote 61: Not 12, but 13 Geo. II., ch. 4, sect. 18. The
recaptors were entitled to one-eighth for salvage if the
vessel had been in enemy possession 24 hours, a fifth if
24-48 hours, a third if 48-96, a half if 96.]

The thing in dispute is the three Mollatos and one Negro,
all Slaves taken on board the prize, said to belong to some
of Vassalls or Subjects of the King of Spain and is by this
Court put to Us too prove they are so, which hope to do by
some Circumstances and the Insufficiency of the Evidence in
their favour which amounts to nothing more than hearsay.

The first Evidence in their favour is that of John Evergin,
a Native of No.Carolina,[62] who professes himself to be a
Child of the Spirit, who for the Value of a Share in April
last having been taken prisoner by the said Don Pedro
Estrado and brought to St. Augustine did Consent to pillott
them in the Bowells of his Native Country and betrayed them
to that Cruel and Barbarous Nation. Can Your Honour Confide
in a Man who has betrayed his Countrymen, Robbed them of
their Lives and also what are dearer to them their Liberty,
One who has Exposed his Bretheren to Eminent Dangers and
Reduced them and their familys to Extream wants by fire and
Sword? Can the Evidence, I say, of so vile a Wretch who has
forfeited his Leige to his King by Entring in the Ennemys
Service, and unnaturally sold his Countrymen, be of any
weight in a Court of Justice? No, Im Certain, and I hope it
will meet with None to prove that these Slaves are freemen
for all that he as [has] said as he owns was only but
hearsay. The other Evidence is of a Villain of another Stamp
a French Runnagado, Juan Baptist Domas. his Evidence is so
Contrary to the Questions askt Francisco and Aug'ne that I
hope it will meet with the same fate as the first deserves
not to be Regarded. I'll own he has sworn to it, but how? On
a peice of a Stick made in the shape of a thing they name a