"To Elisha Smith, one, in wool, 100 lbs.

"To Elisha Smith, one, for three fat sheep."

From 1492, the discovery of Hispaniola, to 1502, the short space of but
four years, such was the mortality among the natives, that the Spaniards
then holding rule there, "began to employ a few" Africans in the mines
of the Island. The experiment was effective--a successful one. The
Indian and African were enslaved together, when the Indian sunk, and the
African stood. It was not until June the 24th of the year 1498, that the
Continent was discovered by John Cabot, a Venetian, who sailed in August
of the previous year 1497, from Bristol, under the patronage of Henry
VII., King of England, with two vessels, "freighted by the merchants of
London and Bristol, with articles of traffic," his son Sebastian, and
300 men. In 1517, but the short period of thirteen years from the date
of their first introduction, Carolus V., King of Spain, by the right of
a patent, granted permission to a number of persons, annually, to supply
to the Islands of Hispaniola, (St. Domingo,) Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto
Rico, natives of Africa, to the number of four thousand annually. John
Hawkins, an unprincipled Englishman--whose name should be branded with
infamy--was the first person known to have engaged in so inhuman a
traffic, and that living monster his mistress, Queen Elizabeth, engaged
with him and shared in the profits.

The natives of Africa, on their introduction into a foreign country,
soon discovered the loss of their accustomed food, and mode and manner
of living. The Aborigines subsisted mainly by game and fish, with a few
patches of maize or Indian corn near their wigwams, which were generally
attended by the women, while the men were absent. The grains and
fruits, such as they had been accustomed to, were not to be had among