I Beseech your Lordships pardon, for this rude approach of a Slave, One of those many mentioned in the Slaves Petition to the Parliament, thrown together, out of this, (sometime free and noble) Nation of England, and obscurely buried alive in the disconsolate vault, the Protestants Purgatory, Barbados, whence I am escaped, I cannot say free, but ra­ther, as one brought over in a Coffin, out of which I may not peep, untill the protection of this Parliament unlock it, and say, Arise Free­man and walk; In the mean time, I account my self, equally miserable with my fellow sufferers left behind, who do all unanimously by me cry unto your Lordship and to all the members of your great Assembly, (the Assertors of Eng­lands Freedome) in the words of the Souls un­der the Altar, Quousque Domine, quousque? They are now become Prisoners indeed, and Slaves of hope, looking upon this great body, (made up of so many generous souls) to be the Angel of their Deliverance, and humbly beg your Lordship vigorously to prosecute the Restitu­tion of poor Englands freedome. They look u­pon themselves as least concerned in this great businesse (though sufficiently miserable) being [Page 9] but a poor handfull compared to Englands mul­titude: the Lot is cast upon them to be whipt, as ('tis said) other youths are, in the presence of young Princes; That they may be sensible, of the smart due to themselves, (and which they may expect, if they will not learn their books better,) And if our Torment will but make this Princely Assembly look about them, and in us, as in a looking-Glasse, to behold the face of their own Condition, they will certainly find, that 'tis but hodie mihi, & cras Tibi, & can promise themselves no longer freedome from our Con­dition, then they continue members of the Peo­ples Representative: For the House being once dissolv'd, they are exposed to a possibility, (I may not say a probability) of the like violence, Parliament-protection onely makes the diffe­rence; Else, my Lord, for ought I know, I ought to be as free from being the goods and chattels of Martin Noel and Henry Hatsel, (for Thomas Aldern that had the thirds of us, hath al­ready, (I hear) given an account of his un­righteousnesse to a greater Tribunall) as any man, though he might have been once a mem­ber of Parliament; For I never made any con­tract with them, nor do I know whether there be such persons, or whether the Master of the ship used their names sictitiously, as Lawyers do formally, Iohn Anokes and Iohn Astiles: My Lord I do not go about to conceal that I was some­time an unworthy Officer in the late Kings [Page 10] Army: But this I affirm, I was never in any mili­tary Action, since we were disbanded upon Ar­ticles at Truro in Cornewall in the end of the year 1644. Indeed I have had my share in the suffe­ring part since, upon jealous suggestions and false surmises: After that disbanding, I have also had the benefit and protection of an Act of Oblivion from the Parliament, and further be­ing upon unjust pretences indicted as a Traitor at Exon in the West in 1655, I was there by the grand Jury of the County of Devon, pronoun­ced Innocent, by their Ignoramus, and so de­clared in form of Law; And if neither the Arti­ticles of a Victorious Army, nor the Act of Oblivion of an English Parliament, nor the formality of a Tryal by a Iury, and the Declaration of Law make us Innocent, and preserve us ftom being sold for Slaves, whence shall we expect freedom. My Lord your spatious soul, can certainly never undertake a more charitable Office, then to en­deavour the Redemption of the Innocent Slaves at Barbados, and the prevention of the further slavery of England. (Our case, is but your Touchstone, by which you may discover whether English, be Slaves or Freemen,) which I humbly beg you Lordship to be zealous in, I can only pray for your Lordships good success, & heartily subscribe my self, to be, (as far as without my pretended Owners consent, I can promise)

HAving had former Experience of your goodnesse, and having been eased by your hand, upon my Letter, when I was heretofore under some oppression (though of nothing so high a nature as now, being with some scores more of free-born English men, sold into slavery,) That gives me the confidence, & you the trouble of this second Letter, though you cannot now, (as then) singly help me, yet in conjunction with others, of your great As­sembly, (all inclin'd for the freedome of the people) I hope you will further mine and all the others liberties, who are now Slaves at Barbados, and Petitioners at your Bar; For if this man-stealing trade hold good, that all they that were at the Salisbury Rising shall be sold to the Indies for Slaves, because they were there; And all those too, that were not at the Salisbury Rising, shall be also sould thither, because they were not there; which is the case of a great number of the Petitioners who never either saw Salisbury, or heard of that Rising, nor knew why they were committed to Prison, yet found themselves indicted for treason, and being thereupon quitted by the Iury of life & death, [Page 12] which is the case of Augustine Greenwood and Ni­cholas Broadgate (two of the Petitioners) to my knowledge, (whatever more of that petitioning number were so quitted, which I do not remem­ber) are notwithstanding that acquitment in­slaved: If this be allowed, an easie understand­ing will quickly find, what must necessarily be­come, of all the (formerly free) People of Eng­land: And these Merchants of men shelter them­selves, and hope to continue hidden from the punishment of their Iniquities, and to continue and encrease Englands slavery, by an unheard of wile, which unlesse this brave Assembly of Parliament doe wisely look into, and vigo­rously stand to their own, and the Peoples pre­servation; They themselves, may chance to be cheated of lives, liberties and estates. And the Maior, Aldermen, and Citizens of London, by this law, (or rather lawfulness) will in time, not be spared by these West Indian spirits; though they begin with Countrey Gentlemen and others, as a more private and silent thing: These subtile Sophisters, do not seem to be so impu­dent, as publickly to establish Iniquity by a Law, for that the free People would perceive, (and at least murmure at, though they might not be able to help) But these use the way of a more sly violence, and pick up free People tra­velling upon their occasions, and take others out of their houses upon pretences of publick Iustice, and so do piously shelter their own [Page 13] private and profitable malice, of the former number. I believe the greatest part, (if not all) of the Petitioners were, (amongst whom, is not any one condemned person) but that's no mat­ter, they were as proper men as those taken in Arms at South-moulton, and some of them of bet­ter trades, and so would prove more profitable Commodities, and yield more Sugar, then those Gentlemen, that could not work so lusti­ly) But I'le instance but in one taken out of his house, (though I could name more) there was one Master Diamond, a Devonshire Gentle­man, (as proper as ancient) being at his sale, threescore and sixteen years of age, he was ta­ken up at Tiverton, (where he dwelt) and the greatest offence, that they accused him guilty of, (for ought I could ever hear) was, that when Sir Ioseph Waggstaffe, and the party, came through that town, and the poor old Gentle­man, wondering to see, so unexpectedly, so ma­ny gallant men, travelling together, askt who they were, and 'twas answered, Cavaliers. Marry, said he, (as they pretend) they are very brave Gentlemen, were I, as young as I have been, I would goe along with them, whither he said so or no, God knows, I know not, but that was all they had to alledge against him, which they ne­ver went about to prove, though he were kept prisoner a whole year, most of the time in the inner prison, of the common Goal, amongst the felons and murderers, from which the high [Page 14] Goal of Exon, is never free, and the rest of the time, in a Room in straw, amongst three or fourscore Prisoners more; and he was so far from being indicted, that he was never, (I am confident) so much as examined by a Iustice of Peace; and yet was this good old Gentle­man ravisht away with the rest of us, from the bosome of the wife of his youth, and from the youthfull, (but now unhappy) Children of their aged Parents, and notwithstanding his age and Innocencie (for it might have been chari­tably lookt upon as an effect of his doteage, though he should have said as dangerous words, (as had I wisht, comes to) be; this aged Gentlemen was driven on shipboard, the grave Matron his wife, and their dutifull chil­dren. (Having first made application (but in vain) to the inexorable High Sheriff) followed him with their affectionate teares, and heart-breaking groans, a [...] far as Plymouth, but could never see him, so much as to take leave of him but sent to him on ship-board, to let him know, that they were come thither to mourn with him at parting; but off from the ship-board, he might not pass, to salute his wife, and bless his children, though it had been to have saved his soul; and to him, he forbad them to come, upon his love and blessing, for fear they should make him yet more miserable, in being snatcht away with him: thus was this ancient Gentleman thrown out of the Conversible world at best, (if not [Page 15] really into his grave,) then all the voyage, be­moaning himself, (to the great grief of all the rest,) as a miserable man, to be stolne away from his aged wife, of whose constant affections he had scores of years experience, and who he feared would now break her heart for grief, and never be able to see her own home again. In this high agony of love, and grief, and fear, and danger, above all he was troubled, that he should goe out of the world, leaving his poor Countrey, in this slavish condition, which he had so many years heretofore seen noble and free. Now Sir, if this be the liberty and privi­ledge of the subject, so long promised us, the people of England are in but a sad condition. And if there be no redemption of us, already so enslaved by a tyrannicall force, for whose ser­vice our masters have nothing under our hands to shew, nor have we any thing under their hands to shew, whether ever or never the tearm of our slavery shall end. Sir, I know it cannot but grieve your righteous soul, to hear of these afflictions of your Brethren, if this be not re­dressed, you know not how soon, the Citizens and Commons of London, whose Representative you are, may likewise be carried into the like sad captivity; to prevent which, methinks, since Petitions are voted the peoples priviledge, they should petition to the Parliament, (if not for our freedome, yet for themselves, that there may an Act passe to secure them, and all [Page 16] the free people of England, from this violent spiriting, least they also upon these miserable tearms, should be brought into this place of torment. Sir, I shall pray, that God will blesse you, and all the great Assembly, in the preser­vation of Englands Freedome, and rest,

THe great Report of your publick spirit, and high asserting of the enslaved people of Englands freedome gives me this confi­dence, to bemoan to you in particular, and to the great counsell of the whole nation in gene­rall, the misery of my own, (and of the many o­ther slaves at Barbados) sad and to be pitied fate, for though we have never forfeited our selves to the Law, by any guilt, yet, notwith­standing our innocency, by a strange mysteri­ous riddle, a blustering power, furious as a stor­my Harricane, blowing from all the points of the compasse, (but fixed in none) are we hurri­ed to the heathenish Indies, and are sold in the publick market, as beasts, and become to all in­tents and purposes, like those our fellow-crea­tures that have no understanding, being bought and sold still, from master to master, or attacht as their goods, by the processe of their cruell creditours, so that he that hath a good master too day (for some such there are) may have a tyrant too morrow, that shall whip him at the whipping-post, as a revenge on his baffling debtour. Oh Sir, did this glorious nation, whose complacent and tender (mixt with a [Page 18] couragious) disposition, was wont to make them appear lovely, to all the nations of the world, ever think that this would have been the English Translation, of those Latine words, which are as a Proclaimation throughout the earth, being so eminently written in capitall Letters of gold. Over the place of the displaced statue of the late King Charls, upon the Royall Ex­change, London, (the intelligible center of Chri­stendome,)

Anno primo, libertatis Angliae restitutae. 1648.

Sir, had these men-stealers committed this hor­rid violence, before that publication of liberty, we might have had somewhat less cause to won­der at their felony (though cause enough,) being a thing unknown before in any part of the world, and which the Low-Countreys, Holland, and other free nations will not yet believe, though we should swear it unto them. Sir, I be­seech you therefore to be instrumentall to­wards the obtaining of a Committee (or some other Court) impowred for the hearing of the poor slaves, (whose Petition is already in your house) that so your servant, (for that title I would fain exchange for slave) may make all the points of their Petition appear true, by the testimony of able persons, upon their oaths, to which purpose your Petitioner desires the Par­liaments protection of his person, which ob­tained, he shall be able to make good both in [Page 19] substance and circumstances the saddest relati­on of the most unparallel'd breach upon En­glands freedome, that was yet ever committed since the Creation, and from which flavish con­dition I do earnestly beg, that you would use all your powers, (in a Parliamentary way) to redeem us, and to restore us once again, to our pristine condition of being men, and then shall I be able more properly to subscribe my self, (which now being not my own) I do presum­ptuously,

I Beseech you accept of my thanks, for your charitable and cheerfull delivering of the Slaves Petition to the grand Committee of Grievances, which, I hear was not onely discus­sed before them; but the next day solemnly debated in the House: Sir in this your gallant asserting of the Freedome of your Native Countrey, you have shown a Mosaicall courage, that dare do so much towards the relieving of the oppressed English, from their (more then Egy­ptian) Taskmasters. Sir you cannot but know (I believe,) the truth of that part of the Petiti­on which concerns the Ignoramus returned upon my Indictment the acquitment of Nicholas Broad­gate by the Iury of life and death, and the Inno­cency of all the rest of your Petitioners that were sent from Exeter: (for although Eight of the there condemned persons, were sent and sold with us, yet we have not intermix'd them within our Petition; referring that to some other way of their own, or friends, (as time & opportunity shall permit.) Sir I believe also you have often heard from the sad and charita­ble Citizens of Exon, the Tragicall history of our being barbarously driven thence, into the Land of our Captivity, with much like vio­lence, I believe, as the Heard of swine were dri­ven [Page 21] into the sea, and they needs must goe that are so driven; when two foot souldiers and one horse-man, all armed, were allotted to the guard of every two (intended) Slaves, the horse-man riding between every Couple, and on each side of the paired Prisoners, a foot souldier guar­dant, beating some that came to pity us; and the Power imprisoning one for wishing, God blesse us, thus they hurried us through the City: Being upon the Forlorn march, which conti­nued three dayes; those few of us, which were allowed beds by the way, had a Guard of armed souldiers all night in the Room to guard us in our sleeps, least we might make an escape in our dreams: and we were not suffered to write back this sad kind of usage, to our friends at Exon, least it should appear too harsh a truth: the breathlesse prisoners having been stifled up, for a whole year, more then three­score, lying in a room all that while in straw to­gether, were not able to march so lustily, as their high fed and furious drivers expected, yet being surbated and almost dead, through sore­nosse of travelling, and fainting down through wearinesse, were thence cudgell'd up again, by these unchristian Janisaries, more cruelly, then a mercifull man would have beaten his rusty jade. Thus began our misery, and so we were brought on ship-board, where it continued, for we were all put under deck together, and lockt down. On the same deck was a bulk-head [Page 22] (so called) or a partition boarded, we being kept on one side, and a main Guard of seamen on the other side of that bulk-head, through which were port-holes made, and through them great guns, laden with case-shot, levell'd against us, that so, if there should have been any rebel­lion under that tyranny (which any one or two rude fellows, against the consent of the rest, might seem to begin, if they had pleased, then might the Guard and Gunners more easily de­stroy us, which happily vpon a jealousy (which was once amongst them,) they would have done, had not our provident and covetous ow­ners (those merchants of Babylon, (taken care to bring us to a more profitable market, to secure which Vice Admiral Hatsell offered the Mr. of our ship, a states man of war for his Convoy. In this voyage, so great oppression was laid upon us by our invisible Owners, that whereas every vitious servant which Bridewell and Newgate had vomited into that ship, had an Hamaka to sleep in, and keep him from the vermin, which amongst such a crew must inevitably swarme all the voyage, untill the Extremity of heat (under the Tropick) destroy them, we were for­ced to ly on the bare hard boards, they refu­sing to let us to have so much as mattes to ease our weary bones; though their Factour mo­ved them, (or one of them) to allow it, and he would have disbursed the money. Being arri­ved at Barbados, we were there sold as Beasts, [Page 23] and made otherwayes miserable, beyond the power of my tongue or pen to expresse: From this bruitish condition, Sir, if you please to set too your helping hand to free us, and look­ing upon us, as Beasts fallen into a ditch, will use your endeavour to help us out, 'tis such a piece of charity, as will be acceptable to God, and all good men. So the reward of the merci­full attend you, for they shall receive mercy, I rest,