He then (in response to Mr. Wilding's questions) told how
he had been beaten and ill-treated, hanged and thwacked, from the moment
he came on board, to which usage he ascribed his death. Sometimes his
senses seemed to sink away, so that I almost thought him dead; but by and
by the questions would appear to reach him, and bring him back, and he
went on with his evidence, interspersing it, however, with dying groans,
and almost death rattles. In the midst of whatever he was saying, he
often recurred to a sum of four dollars and a half, which he said he had
put into the hands of the porter of the hospital, and which he wanted to
get back. Several times he expressed his wish to return to America (of
which he was not a native), and, on the whole, I do not think he had any
real sense of his precarious condition, notwithstanding that he assented
to the doctor's hint to that effect. He sank away so much at one time,
that they brought him wine in a tin cup, with a spout to drink out of,
and he mustered strength to raise himself in his bed and drink; then
hemmed, with rather a disappointed air, as if it did not stimulate and
refresh him, as drink ought to do. When he had finished his evidence
(which Mr. Wilding took down in writing from his mouth), he marked his
cross at the foot of the paper, and we ceased to torment him with further
question. His deposition will probably do no good, so far as the
punishment of the persons implicated is concerned; for he appears to have
come on board in a sickly state, and never to have been well during the
passage.
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