, came on board of the _Caroline_ and requested this
deponent and other officers of the boat to permit them to remain on
board during the night, as they were unable to get lodgings at the
tavern near by; these requests were acceded to, and the persons thus
coming on board retired to rest, as did also the crew and officers of
the _Caroline_, except such as were stationed to watch during the night;
that about midnight this deponent was informed by one of the watch that
several boats filled with men were making toward the _Caroline_ from the
river, and this deponent immediately gave the alarm, and before he was
able to reach the dock the _Caroline_ was boarded by some seventy or
eighty men, all of whom were armed; that they immediately commenced a
warfare with muskets, swords, and cutlasses upon the defenseless crew
and passengers of the _Caroline_ under a fierce cry of "G--d d--n them,
give them no quarters; kill every man. Fire! fire!"; that the _Caroline_
was abandoned without resistance, and the only effort made by either the
crew or passengers seemed to be to escape slaughter; that this deponent
narrowly escaped, having received several wounds, none of which,
however, are of a serious character; that immediately after the
_Caroline_ fell into the hands of the armed force who boarded her she
was set on fire, cut loose from the dock, was towed into the current of
the river, there abandoned, and soon after descended the Niagara Falls;
that this deponent has made vigilant search after the individuals,
thirty-three in number, who are known to have been on the _Caroline_ at
the time she was boarded, and twenty-one only are to be found, one of
which, to wit, Amos Durfee, of Buffalo, was found dead upon the dock,
having received a shot from a musket, the ball of which penetrated the
back part of the head and came out at the forehead; James H. King and
Captain C.F. Harding were seriously though not mortally wounded; several
others received slight wounds; the twelve individuals who are missing,
this deponent has no doubt, were either murdered upon the steamboat or
found a watery grave in the cataract of the Falls; and this deponent
further says that immediately after the _Caroline_ was got into the
current of the stream and abandoned, as before stated, beacon lights
were discovered upon the Canada shore near Chippewa, and after
sufficient time had elapsed to enable the boats to reach that shore this
deponent distinctly heard loud