the Spanish settlement of Florida, and with the Norse discoveries on the New England coast. If it be admitted that Eric the Red landed on the New England coast, then it is probable that he carried a woman slave ashore with him. That the Spaniards had negro slaves in their settlement in Florida is not now disputed. Peter Menendez, who held a commission of the King of Spain for a settlement in Florida, landed at St. Augustine on September 8, 1565. He undoubtedly had negro slaves in his party. If anyone wishes to make an exhaustive study of the matter of the landing of the first slaves in America, he can find nearly all the references to authorities needed in the Magazine of American History for November, 1891; but the question of interest to the present history is not when the first slaves were brought within the present limits of the United States, but when the first slave-ship came here in the prosecution of its traffic in human beings. Certainly neither the Viking nor the Spaniard came as a slave-merchant.
The first American-built slaver of which there is definite record was the ship Desire, a vessel of 120 tons, built at Marblehead, in 1636. It does not appear that she was in the trade to Africa, but Winthrop's Journal has the following under the date of February 26, 1638:
"Mr. Pierce in the Salem ship, the Desire, returned from the West Indies after seven months. He had been at Providence, and brought some cotton and tobacco and negroes, etc., from thence, and salt from Tortugas." To this is added a remark worth considering: "Dry fish and strong liquors are the only commodities for those parts."
