Page:United States v. Samperyac.pdf/27

144 Rh   have been present to witness the execution of twenty-four deeds from dilferent persons to John J. Bowie, and most of them on different days? Could it have been necessary that Bowie should have employed this Mr. Cook to travel round with him to become a witness to their execution? Could Bowie have procured witnesses residing near these claimants to attest their deeds or transfer to himself? How does it happen Bowie is so fortunate as to ﬁnd these original claimants so soon after the decree of the court was made’! One of them he found in a few days after the decree, in a shorter time than would be required to travel beyond the limits of the territory. Having been fortunate in the commencement, his good fortune never seems to desert him until he obtains all the transfers. On the 4th February he ﬁnds one of them; one of them on the 6th; he is equally fortunate on the 8th; on the 9th he ﬁnds two, and on the 11th his efforts are still crowned with greater success, he ﬁnds three; on the 23d of the same month he ﬁnds three others; and by the 29th February, he discovers all of them. Thus it would seem that these original claimants, not one of whom can now be found to answer these bills of review, these men whom the counsel employed by John J. Bowie to advocate their rights, never saw; not one of whom are proven to be living, or that they ever did exist. These are the men whom John J. Bowie ﬁnds residing so near each other, that he could obtain the deeds of three of them in one day, and ﬁnd all of them in little more than one month after the decrees. If, however, we could believe all this, is it not passing strange that Mr. Cook, whom nobody knows, should have happened to be present at all these various times and places ready to attest these transfers from the original claimants to John J. Bowie? Unless we indulge the presumption, that Bowie employed this Mr. Cook to go along with him to attest these deeds, for which we can see no reasonable motive, we are unable to account for his presence whenever wanted or called for by Bowie. Bowie must have had a talisman, possessed of the magical power of Aladdin's lamp, by which he calls up, at his bidding, this omnipresent witness. We have no doubt that this witness, like the genius