ſpirit manifeſted in Mr. Keith's ſuggeſtions prevailed. In a letter from Mr. Cotton to his brother Mather, on the 20th of March following, on another ſubject, there is this incidental remark: 'Philip's boy goes now to be ſold.'" Davis's Morton's Memorial, Appendix, pp. 353–5.
In the winter of 1675–6, Major Waldron, a Commiſſioner, and Magiſtrate for a portion of territory claimed by Maſſachuſetts (now included in that of Maine), iſſued general warrants for ſeizing every Indian known to be a manſlayer, traitor, or conſpirator. Theſe precepts, which afforded every man a plauſible pretext to ſeize ſuſpected Indians, were obtained by ſeveral ſhipmaſters for the moſt ſhameful purpoſes of kidnapping and ſlave-trading. One with his veſſel lurked about the ſhores of Pemaquid, and notwithſtanding warning and remonſtrance, ſucceeded in kidnapping ſeveral of the natives, and, carrying them into foreign parts, ſold them for ſlaves. Similar outrages were committed farther eaſt upon the Indians about Cape Sable, "who never had been in the leaſt manner guilty of any injury done to the Engliſh." Hubbard adds to his account of this affair, "the thing alleadged is too true as to matter of Fact, and the perſons that did it, were lately committed to priſon in order to their further tryal." If the careful reſearch of Maſſachuſetts antiquarians can diſcover any record of the trial, conviction and juſt puniſhment of theſe offenders, it will be an honorable addition to their hiſtory—far more creditable than the conſtant reiteration of the ſtory of "the negro interpreter" in 1646, which has been ſo long in ſervice, "to bear witneſs againſt ye
