Page:Notes on the History of Slavery - Moore - 1866.djvu/58

 heads of inquiry, &c., tated that there were "not above 200 laves in the colony, and thoe are brought from Guinea and Madagacar." He alo mentioned that ome hips had recently ailed to thoe parts from Maachuetts. Hutchinon's Collection of Papers, pp. 485, 495. Governor Andros reported that the laves were not numerous in 1678—"not many eryants, and but few laves, proportionable with freemen." N. Y. Col. Doc.,, 263.

In May, 1680, Governor Bradtreet anwered certain Heads of Inquiry from the Lords of the Committee for Trade and Foreign Plantations. Among his tatements are the following:

"There hath been no company of blacks or laves brought into the country ince the beginning of this plantation, for the pace of fifty years, onely one mall Veell about two yeares ince, after twenty months' voyage to Madagacar, brought hither betwixt forty and fifty Negroes, mot women and children, old here for 10l., 15l., and 20l., apiece, which tood the merchant, in near 40l. apiece: Now and then, two or three Negroes are brought hither from Barbadoes and other of his Majetie's plantations, and old 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 ix at the mot in a year, none baptized that I ever heard of…" M. H. S. Coll., viii., 337.

The following century changed the record. Many "companies" of laves were "brought into the country," and the intitution flourihed and waxed trong.