14 down at the face

To Mr Drake [?][?] - I worked in the North of England in three or four different mines before I came here. In some of them they worked with safety lamps and in others they did not. In this mine here as long as the air kept travelling it was safe enough. There was no cross cut in my stall. I have worked up at the roof of my stall but have found no gas there; I have no idea as to the cause of this explosion. There appeared to be the usual quantity of air in the third of May. I have been down once in the mine [?] that day but not exactly with an exploring party. I went down in the company with the exploring company to get my tools in my stall. A good deal of coal had fallen and there were caves in there like in the other places. I found my tools in my stall. I could not judge [?of] or form any idea of the [?] of the explosion from what I saw there. I did not observe whether the stoppings were blown out or not.

To Mr Young - I do not know of anyone having been burned in that diagonal slope. I could not say exactly to a day as to when the dust was last watered down it was very shortly before the explosion Taken upon oath and acknowledged this 25th day of May in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eight seven before me } Robert Hindmarsh [Whymm strathern?] Cormer