40 tons, built at Portsmouth in 1745. The owner was William Johnson of Newport. That, in addition to her being small, she was a cheaply built vessel is evident, not only from her subsequent career, but from the fact that during the year she was built, she was offered for sale for £450 at a time when the cost of building a first-class ship of her size was about £1000. Johnson found no sale for the Sanderson, so he sent her, with Lindsay in command, to the West Indies for molasses. Lindsay had misgivings as to the staunchness of his vessel, for he wrote home from the Indies, with apparent relief, that his ship was "tite as yett.'

Upon her return to Newport, she found a cargo of rum awaiting her and soon set sail for Africa. Notwithstanding the unseaworthiness of the boat, insurance was effected in New York for £100, but at the rate of 18 per cent! It is apparent from Lindsay's letters that he must have been on the African coast a number of months trying to get his cargo of slaves. He had been at least two months on the coast at Anamaboe, when he wrote, "I have Gott 13 or 14 hhds of rum yet Left abord, and God noes when I shall Gett clear of it. Ye traid is so dull it is actually a noof to make a man creasey."

In addition to poor trade, Lindsay had other troubles. His chief mate, after making four or five trading ships ashore, was taken sick. Mr. Taylor, the second mate, succeeded "& he got not well." And then James Dixon, the third mate,

succumbed to the fever. All of this Lindsay takes as a matter of course, but "wors than that," he writes, "have wore out my small cable, also oakum & have been obliged to buy one heare, for I thought the consequeance of yr intrust on bord this vessel was Two great a Rusk without a cable to trust, therefore I begg you not to Blaim me in so doeing." There would no better evidence than this cringeing apology from the otherwise stalwart captain of the absence of any signs of humanity on the part of the owner of the vessel. We can gather from Lindsay's last remark that William Johnson was miserly and avaricious, as were most of the slave and rum merchants of the time. Captain Simeon Potter, of whom more later, sums up his philosophy with, "I would Plow the ocean into pea porridge to make money."

Captain Lindsay was not happy nor easy. "I should be glad I cood come Rite home with my slaves, for my vesiel will not last to proceed farr. We can see daylight al round her bow under deck. However I hope She will carry me safe home once more. I need not inlarge." But he could not proceed at once for there was too much competition and it was slow work bartering rum for slaves. Alongside Lindsay's vessel lay Captains Hamlet, Jepson, Carpenter, Butler, Gardner and Ferguson. "All these is Rum Ships."

Finally he secured his cargo and set sail for Barbados. His bad luck continued. He was ten

weeks on the "middle passage" as the second leg of the triangular voyage was called. For twentytwo days on end, the Brigantine Sanderson battled wind and rain, which tore the sails to shreds. She arrived in Barbados on June 15, 1753. On June 17th, he wrote, My slaves is not landed yet; they are 56 in number for owners all in helth & fatt. I lost one small gall. I've got 40 oz. gould dust & eight or nine hundred weight Maligabar peppers for owners. Not to Inlarge, shall rite in a day or 2. We are all well on bord. Mr. Sanford died the 3d day of March and one John Wood who went in ye boat with him, died ye 3d of April, at sea. I left Capt. Hamblet at Cape Coast, sick. His slaves had rose & they lost the best of what they had. Heare is no slaves at market now." Surely, if there was ever a man who merited the modern distinction of being "hard-boiled" it was Captain David Lindsay of Newport.

In 1754, Lindsay again set sail, this time in a new schooner, the Sierra Leone of 40 tons, owned jointly by William Johnston & Co. of Newport and some Boston parties. As was customary at the time, the captain received in addition to his salary a commission on the business transacted. On this voyage, Captain Lindsay was to have four parts out of one hundred and four for "Coast Commission," five per cent on sale of the cargo in the West Indies, also five per cent on the goods purchased (molasses, rum, etc.) for the return cargo. In

addition, Lindsay had the privilege of bringing over five slaves for his own account, and the two mates could bring over two slaves apiece.

The voyage of the Sierra Leone was a more fortunate one than that of the Sanderson. The triangular trading cruise was completed in ten months, and the Boston interests wrote enthusiastically (New England enthusiasm) to their Newport partners: "April 28, 1755-Lindsay's arrival is very agreeable to us, and we wish he may never make a worse voyage. Are you determined to get a larger vessel for him?" This they apparently did, for in 1756 we find Captain Lindsay in command of the Hanover, a snow of about 112 tons, "a fine vessel for ye Guinea trade." On this trip, Lindsay not only handled slaves, but carried gold coin and bought some gold dust on the coast. He succeeded in landing only 133 slaves in Barbados out of 151, losing more than 10% in the "middle passage." Unfortunate it was that this crusade turned out so poorly as regards the loss of life, for it set out under an apparent holy dispensation, at least so the bill of lading would indicate: "Shipped by the Grace of God in good Order and well conditioned, by William Johnson & Co., owners of the said Schooner, call the Sierra Leone, whereof is master under God for this present voyage, David Lindsay, & now riding at Anchor in Harbour of Newport, & by God's grace bound for the Coast of Africa." Then followed the usual list of rum,

food, and shackles with "sixty musketts, six half barrels Powder" and so on, the bill ending with this blasphemy: "And so God send the good Schooner to her desired port in Safety. Amen."

A contemporary of Captain Lindsay was Captain Griffen, who sailed out of Newport in 1736 with a cargo of rum. When he arrived at Anamaboe he found plenty of competition. He writes: "Am like to have a long and troublesum voyage of it, for their was never so much Rum on the Coast at one time before. Nor ye like of ye french ships was never seen before, for ye whole coast is full of them." He did not know when he could get away, for he had only been able to purchase twenty-seven slaves after considerable time on the coast. At one time he had eighteen vessels competing with him for Negroes. "Ships that used to carry pryme slaves off is now forsed to take any that come: here is 7 sails of us Rum men that we are ready to devour one another, for our Case is Desprit." Captain Griffen entreated the owner of the vessel to take care of his family and see that they were not in want for he did not know when he would be able to return. "Capt. Hamond has bin heare six months and has but 60 slaves on bord." A hard life, indeed, for the Captain and his crew waiting six months and more in the broiling sun to complete his cargo. But what of the cargo itself? The Negro, shackled in the hold of a ship, within sight of his native land, possibly