To gratify curiosity as to the price of Indians on those terms, the
     following extracts are made from an account of sales about this
     time;

     “To Anthony Low, five Indians, great and small, L8.

     “To James Rogers, two, for twenty bushels of Indian corn.

     “To Philip Smith, two, in silver, $4 10.

     “To Daniel Allen, one, in silver, $2 10.

     “To C. Carr, one, twelve bushels of Indian corn.

     “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 the Aborigines of the country, and this first induced the African to cultivate patches of ground in the neighborhood of the mines, for the raising of food for his own sustenance.  This trait in their character was observed, and regarded by the Spaniards with considerable interest; and when on contracting with the English slave-dealer, Captain Hawkins, and others for new supplies of slaves, they were careful to request them to secure a quantity of the seeds and different products of the country, to bring with them to the New World.  Many of these were cultivated to some extent, while those indigenous to America, were cultivated by them with considerable success.  And up to this day, it is a custom on many of the slave plantations of the South, to allow the slave his “patch,” and Saturday afternoon or Sabbath day, to cultivate it.