About this time vague rumors reached Corunna, that a Captain belonging to that place, engaged in the Slave Trade, had turned Pirate, been captured, and sent to America with his crew for punishment.  Report at first fixed it upon a noted slave-dealer, named Begaro.  But the astounding intelligence soon reached Senora de Soto, that her husband was the person captured for this startling crime.  The shock to her feelings was terrible, but her love and fortitude surmounted them all; and she determined to brave the terrors of the ocean, to intercede for her husband if condemned, and at all events behold him once more.  A small schooner was freighted by her own and husband’s father, and in it she embarked for New-York.  After a boisterous passage, the vessel reached that port, when she learned her husband had already been tried and condemned to die.  The humane people of New-York advised her to hasten on to Washington, and plead with the President for a pardon.  On arriving at the capital, she solicited an interview with General Jackson, which was readily granted.  From the circumstance of her husband’s having saved the lives of seventy Americans, a merciful ear was turned to her solicitations, and a pardon for De Soto was given her, with which she hastened to Boston, and communicated to him the joyful intelligence.

Andrew Jackson, President of the United States of America, to all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting:  Whereas, at the October Term, 1834, of the Circuit Court of the United States, Bernardo de Soto was convicted of Piracy, and sentenced to be hung on the 11th day of March last from which sentence a respite was granted him for three months, bearing date the third day of March, 1835, also a subsequent one, dated on the fifth day of June, 1835, for sixty days.  And whereas the said Bernardo de Soto has been represented as a fit subject for executive clemency—­

Now therefore, I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States of America, in consideration of the premises, divers good and sufficient causes me thereto moving, have pardoned, and hereby do pardon the said Bernardo de Soto, from and after the 11th August next, and direct that he be then discharged from confinement.  In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed to these presents.  Done at the City of Washington the sixth day of July, AD. 1835, and of the independence of the United States and sixtieth.  Andrew Jackson.

On the fatal morning of June 11th, 1835, Don Pedro, Juan Montenegro, Manuel Castillo, Angel Garcia and Manuel Boyga, were, agreeably to sentence, summoned to prepare for immediate execution.  On the night previous, a mutual agreement had been entered into to commit suicide.  Angel Garcia made the first attempt by trying to open the veins of each arm with a piece of glass; but was prevented.  In the morning, however, while preparations were making for the execution,