This is the substance of that boy's evidence.
Now, if the first part of it was true, of the tall
man's forcing him to fire the gun off twice, it
would not be much worth inquiring into, as it
would relate only to persons unknown, and,
we might well presume, not belonging to the
custom-house. For, if they had belonged to
it,
this boy, who is a servant of Mr. Manwaring,
who has an employment in the customs, must in
all probability have known them. But it is a
strange and incredible story. For if the tall
man, as the story supposes, meant to do the peo-
ple mischief, why did he not fire off the gun
himself rather than force the boy to do it, espe-
cially when he observed that the boy had fired
the first time sideways up the street instead of
directly forwards upon the people? I know no
way of accounting for this, if we admit the fact
to be true, but by supposing that some of the in-
habitants themselves had thrust themselves into
the custom-house, and had forced the boy to
fire
a gun out of the window for the sake of charg-
ing the custom-house officers with having
had a
hand in the destruction of the inhabitants that
evening, but at the same time had taken care
that he should fire in such a direction as not to do
them any real mischief. But 'tis more probable
that the whole fact is false, and therefore needs
no explanation; for there were in the house at
the same time Mr. Hammond Green, who, as
this boy says, let him in, and three women,
Elizabeth Avery, Mary Rogers, and Ann
Green.