Captain Lindsay, that is also bound west, and immediately Captain Scott not only writes a letter to the owners of his ship, which he gives to Lindsay to carry, but he also entrusts all the gold-dust he had obtained to the same hand.
Manifestly Lindsay must have had a fast ship, and he was a man known to make quicker voyages, at least, than Scott. What is of equal importance, Lindsay must have had a reputation as an honest man. Our introduction to Lindsay, though it comes from an unknown slaver and out of the sea, is decidedly in his favor.
The next reference to Lindsay in these documents is in 1752, when he was in command of the brigantine Sanderson, belonging to William Johnson, of Newport, R. I. The register of the vessel has been preserved, and reads in part:
"The Brigantine Sanderson, whereof David Lindsay is at present master, being a square stern'd vessel of the burthen of about forty tons, was built at Portsmouth, in the colony aforesaid, in the year Seventeen Hundred and Forty-five, and that this deponent at present is sole owner thereof, and that no Foreigner, directly or indirectly, hath any share or part or interest therein." William Johnson.
Not only was she small—there are few, if any, of the Hudson River brick schooners that will not carry more cargo—she was a cheaply built vessel, as appears from another document which shows that during the year she was built she was offered for sale for £450, when the cost of building a first-class ship varied from £24 to £27 per ton register.
Finding no sale for her she was kept going, and in the year 1752, with Lindsay in command, she went to
