by Mr. Maverick, on Noddle's Iſland." Hiſtory of New England, II., 30, note. If there is any evidence to ſuſtain this ſtatement, it is certainly not in the authority to which he refers. On the contrary, the inference is irreſiſtible from all the authorities together, that the negroes of Mr. Maverick were a portion of thoſe imported in the firſt colonial ſlave-ſhip, the Deſire, of who{[ls}}e voyage we have given the hiſtory. It is not to be ſuppofed that Mr. Maverick had waited ten years before taking the ſteps towards improving his ſtock of negroes, which are referred to by Joſſelyn. Ten years' ſlavery on Noddle's I{[ls}}land would have made the negro-queen more familiar with the Engliſh language, if not more compliant to the brutal cuſtoms of ſlavery.
It will be obſerved that this firſt entrance into the ſlave-trade was not a private, individual ſpeculation. It was the enterpriſe of the authorities of the Colony. And on the 13th March, 1639, it was ordered by the General Court "that 3l 8s should be paid Leiftenant Davenport for the preſent, for charge diſburſed for the ſflaves, which, when they have earned it, hee is to repay it back againe." The marginal note is, "Lieft. Davenport to keep ye ſlaues." Maſs. Rec., i., 253.
Emanuel Downing, a lawyer of the Inner Temple, London, who married Lucy Winthrop, ſiſter of the elder Winthrop, came over to New England in 1638. The editors of the Winthrop papers ſay of him, "There were few more active or efficient friends of the Maſſachuſetts Colony during its earlieſt and moſt critical period." His ſon was the famous Sir George Downing, Engliſh ambaſſador at the Hague.
