ount you can give us, with that
expedition which the shortness of the time requires.

"Memorandum. This letter, mutatis mutandis, was writ to the
Governors of Barbadoes, the Leeward Islands, Bermuda, New
York, New Jersey, Maryland, the President of the Council of
Virginia, the Governor of New Hampshire and the
Massachusetts Bay, the Deputy Governor of Pennsylvania, the
Lords proprietors of Carolina, the Governors and Companies
of Connecticut and Rhode Island."[457]

The good Queen of England was interested in the traffic in human
beings; and although the House of Commons was too busy to give
attention to "a matter of so great weight," the "Board of Trade" felt
that it was "absolutely necessary that a trade so beneficial to the
kingdom should be carried on to the greatest advantage." England never
gave out a more cruel document than the above circular letter. To read
it now, under the glaring light of the nineteenth century, will almost
cause the English-speaking people of the world to doubt even "the
truth of history." Slavery did not exist at sufferance. It was a crime
against the weak, ignorant, and degraded children of Africa,
systematically perpetrated by an organized Christian government,
backed by an army that grasped the farthest bounds of civilization,
and a navy that overshadowed the oceans.

The reply of the governor of Rhode Island was not as encouraging as
their lordships could have wished.

GOVERNOR CRANSTON'S REPLY.

"May it please your Lordships: In obedience to your
Lordships' commands of the 15th of April last, to the trade
of Africa.

"We, having inspected into the books of Her Majesty's
custom, and informed ourselves from the proper officers
thereof, by strict inquiry, can lay before your Lordships no
other account of that trade than the following, viz:

"1. That from the 24th of June, 1698, to the 25th of
December, 1707, we have not had any negroes imported into
this colony from the coast of Africa, neither on the account
of the Royal African Company, or by any of the separate
traders.

"2. That on the 30th day of May, 1696, arrived at this port
from the coast of Africa, the brigantine Seaflower, Thomas
Windsor, master, having on board her forty-seven negroes,
fourteen of which he disposed of in this colony, for betwixt
L30 and L35 per head; the rest he transpo