[Untitled], this 17th day of December, 1866

[Untitled]

State of Texas, county of Cameron:

Personally appeared before me, the undersigned authority, J. W. Tompkins, to me known, who being duly sworn, upon his oath doth declare and say that he is master of the American schooner Mary Bertrand, now totally a wreck on the coast of Mexico, a few miles below the mouth of the Rio Grande; that she sailed from the port of Tampico, Mexico, on the 3d day of December, A. D. 1866, for the port of Brazos Santiago, in the county and State aforesaid; that he obtained from the customs officers at Tampico the usual clearance papers; that there was, at the time of sailing from said port, twenty thousand silver dollars, in nine wooden boxes, the property of A. A. McGaffey and others—the same specie having been laden and put on board the said schooner by the Mexican customs authorities of said port; that the said authorities furnished affiant with the proper permit for the exportation of said specie, which was taken at the mouth of the Tamesi river by the proper officer, as is usual at said port; that subsequently, to wit, on the 9th day of December, A. D. 1866, the said schooner Mary Bertrand was wrecked and cast away on the Mexican coast aforesaid, and the said specie was removed from on board and taken ashore, the schooner herself being a total wreck.