22 INTRODUCTION. 



It is precisely the same with emigrants 

 in similar circumstances from other coun- 

 tries ; who are in the same manner pur- 

 chased and treated as slaves. I will men- 

 tion a particular instance. A Dutchman 

 who had lost all his property, which was 

 considerable, and was reduced to great 

 distress, by the war with France, met with 

 a captain of an American ship, who offered 

 him and his two sons a free passage into 

 America ; but at the end of the voyage the 

 captain offered them all for sale to pay for 

 the passage. They were bought by Messrs. 

 Ricketts, whom I have before mentioned ; 

 who paid the captain ready money for them, 

 and the three emigrants had to repay those 

 gentlemen by labour for a certain number 

 of years. The father, finding himself so 

 wonderfully disappointed in the great ex- 

 pectations held out to him by the captain, 



