prizes from the Spaniard and many negroes." Long afterwards Dr. Belknap ſaid of the ſlave-trade, that the rum diſtilled in Maſſachuſetts was "the mainſpring of this traffick." M. H. S. Coll., i., iv., 197.
Joſſelyn ſays, that "they sent the male children of the Pequets to the Bermudus." 258. M. H. S. Coll., iv., iii. 360.[1]
This ſingle cargo of women and children was probably not the only one ſent, for the Company of Providence Iſland, in replying from London in 1638, July 3, to letters from the authorities in the iſland, direct ſpecial care to be taken of the "Cannibal negroes brought from New England." Sainſbury's Calendar, 1574–1660, 278.[2]
And in 1639, when the Company feared that the number of the negroes might become too great to be managed, the authorities thought they might be ſold and ſent to New England or Virginia. Ib., 296.
The ſhip "Deſire" was a veſſel of one hundred and twenty tons, built at Marblehead in 1636, one of the earlieſt built in the Colony. Winthrop, i., 193.
In the Pequot War, ſome of the Narraganſetts
- ↑ Governor Winthrop in his will (1639–42) left to his ſon Adam his iſland called the Governor's Garden, adding, "I give him alſo my Indians there and my boat and ſuch houſehold as is there."—Winthrop's Journal, ii., 360., App.
- ↑ "We would have the Cannibal negroes brought from New England inquired after, whoſe they are, and ſpecialll care taken of them." P. R. O. Col. Ent. Bk., Vol. iv., p. 124. In the preface to the Colonial Calendar, p. xxv., Mr. Sainſbury explains why no anſwers to the Company's letters are in the State Paper Office. The Bahama Iſands were governed abſolutely by a Company in London, and unfortunately the letters received by the Company have not been preſerved, or if ſo, it is not known where they now are. MS. Letter.
