[1614.—"The 5th ditto came in a ship from Mollacco with 28 Portugals and 36 Blacks."—Foster, Letters, ii. 31.]
1676.—"We do not approve of your sending any persons to St. Helena against their wills. One of them you sent there makes a great complaint, and we have ordered his liberty to return again if he desires it; for we know not what effect it may have if complaints should be made to the King that we send away the natives; besides that it is against our inclination to buy any blacks, and to transport them from their wives and children without their own consent."—Court's Letter to Ft. St. Geo., in Notes and Exts. No. i. p. 12.
1747.—"Vencatachlam, the Commanding Officer of the Black Military, having behaved very commendably on several occasions against the French; In consideration thereof Agreed that a Present be made him of Six hundred Rupees to buy a Horse, that it may encourage him to act in like manner."—Ft. St. David Cons., Feb. 6. (MS. Record, in India Office).
1750.—"Having received information that some Blacks residing in this town were dealing with the French for goods proper for the Europe market, we told them if we found any proof against any residing under your Honors' protection, that such should suffer our utmost displeasure."—Ft. Wm. Cons., Feb. 4, in Long, 24.
1753.—"John Wood, a free merchant, applies for a pass which, if refused him, he says 'it will reduce a free merchant to the condition of a foreigner, or indeed of the meanest black fellow.'"—Ft. Wm. Cons., in Long, p. 41.
1761.—"You will also receive several private letters from Hastings and Sykes, which must convince me as Circumstances did me at the time, that the Dutch forces were not sent with a View only of defending their own Settlements, but absolutely with a Design of disputing our Influence and Possessions; certain Ruin must have been the Consequence to the East India Company. They were raising black Forces at Patna, Cossimbazar, Chinsura, &c., and were working Night and day to compleat a Field Artillery ... all these preparations previous to the commencement of Hostilities plainly prove the Dutch meant to act offensively not defensively."—Holograph Letter from Clive (unpublished) in the India Office Records. Dated Berkeley Square, and indorsed "27th Decr. 1761."
1762.—"The Black inhabitants send in a petition setting forth the great hardship they labour under in being required to sit as arbitrators in the Court of Cutcherry."—Ft. Wm. Cons., in Long, 277.
1782.—See quotation under [Sepoy], from Price.
" "... the 35th Regiment, commanded by Major Popham, which had lately behaved in a mutinous manner ... was broke with infamy.... The black officers with halters about their necks, and the sepoys stript of their coats and turbands were drummed out of the Cantonments."—India Gazette, March 30.
1787.—"As to yesterday's particular charge, the thing that has made me most inveterate and unrelenting in it is only that it related to cruelty or oppression inflicted on two black ladies...."—Lord Minto, in Life, &c., i. 128.