I saw no better way than to take them before Sir Sampson Wright, who was
then at the head of the police of the metropolis. He examined and
cross-examined them several times, and apart from each other. He then
desired their evidence to be drawn up in the form of depositions, copies
of which he gave to me. He had no doubt that the murder would be proved.
The circumstances of the deceased being in good health at nine o'clock
in the evening, and of his severe sufferings till eleven, and of the
nature of the wounds discovered to have been made on his person, and of
his death by one in the morning, could never, he said, be done away by
any evidence who should state that he had been subject to other
disorders which might have occasioned his decease. He found himself,
therefore, compelled to apply to the magistrates of Liverpool, for the
apprehension of three of the principal officers of the ship; but the
answer was that the ship had sailed, and that they whose names had been
specified were then, none of them, to be found in Liverpool.
It was now for me to consider whether I would keep the two witnesses,
Ormond and Murray, for a year, or perhaps longer, at my own expense, and
run the hazard of the death of the officers in the interim, and of other
calculable events.
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