There is no reason to suppose that the invocations to the Deity were a mere vain following of custom. There is the record of ‘"one good old elder, whose ventures on the coast had uniformly turned out well." He "always returned thanks on the Sunday following the arrival of a slaver in the harbor of Newport, that an overruling Providence has been pleased to bring to this land of freedom another cargo of benighted heathen, to enjoy the blessing of a Gospel dispensation."? As the author of "Examen de l'Esclayage en Général," a French pro-slavery work, says: "Devotion was at that time the great occupation in Europe; and it was believed that Christians and sugar might easily be made at the same time."
In 1801, when the prices on the slave-coast were at the highest, the following goods were given for one prime slave. The list is quoted from Gower Williams:
The captain of another slave-ship, writing in 1757, gives a list of his cargo as follows:
"Have on bord 140 hhds. Rum for owners, 100 lbs. Provitions, 12 Thousand lbs. bread, six 4-pounders, 4