haynos and crying ſinn of man-ſtealing," in behalf of "The Genral] Corte" of Maſſachuſetts. Hubbard's Narrative, 1677, pp. 29, 30. Williamſon's Maine, i., 531.
After the death of King Philip, ſome of the Indians from the weſt and ſouth of New England who had been engaged in the war, endeavored to conceal themſelves among their brethren of Penacook who had not joined in the war, and with them of Oſſapy and Pigwackett who had made peace.
By a "contrivance" (as Mather calls it) which ſavors ſtrongly of treachery, four hundred of theſe Indians were taken priſoners, one half of whom were declared to have been acceſſories in the late rebellion; and being "ſent to Boſton, ſeven or eight of them, who were known to have killed any Engliſhmen, were condemned and hanged; the reſt were ſold into ſlavery in foreign parts."
Some of thoſe very Indians, who were thus seized and ſold, afterwards made their way home, and found opportunity to ſatisfy their revenge during the war with the French and Indians known as King William's War. Belknap, i., 143, 245. Mather's Magnalia, Book vii., 55 (699).
IV.
At firſt, the number of ſlaves in Maſſachuſetts was comparatively ſmall, and their increaſe was not large until towards the cloſe of the ſeventeenth century. Edward Randolph, in 1676, in an anſwer to ſeveral
