heads of inquiry, &c., ſtated that there were "not above 200 ſlaves in the colony, and thoſe are brought from Guinea and Madagaſcar." He alſo mentioned that ſome ſhips had recently ſailed to thoſe parts from Maſſachuſetts. Hutchinſon's Collection of Papers, pp. 485, 495. Governor Andros reported that the ſlaves were not numerous in 1678—"not many ſeryants, and but few ſlaves, proportionable with freemen." N. Y. Col. Doc., iii., 263.
In May, 1680, Governor Bradſtreet anſwered certain Heads of Inquiry from the Lords of the Committee for Trade and Foreign Plantations. Among his ſtatements are the following:
"There hath been no company of blacks or ſlaves brought into the country ſince the beginning of this plantation, for the ſpace of fifty years, onely one ſmall Veſſell about two yeares ſince, after twenty months' voyage to Madagaſcar, brought hither betwixt forty and fifty Negroes, moſt women and children, ſold here for 10l., 15l., and 20l., apiece, which ſtood the merchant, in near 40l. apiece: Now and then, two or three Negroes are brought hither from Barbadoes and other of his Majeſtie's plantations, and ſold here for about twenty pounds apiece. So that there may be within our Government about one hundred or one hundred and twenty. …… There are a very few blacks borne here, I think not above [five] or ſix at the moſt in a year, none baptized that I ever heard of…" M. H. S. Coll. iii., viii., 337.
The following century changed the record. Many "companies" of ſlaves were "brought into the country," and the inſtitution flouriſhed and waxed ſtrong.
