During the intercolonial wars the French Indians were accustomed to take both their white and red captives to Canada, where the latter became slaves. As a part of their protective, diplomatic and military policy, the English sought to regain the freedom of these Indians, and thus retain the friendship of the Six Nations. In 1688, Governor Dongan demanded of the French agents that certain New York Indians who had been sent from Canada to France, be returned to the English consul at Paris or to the authorities in London, so that they might be brought home and be given their freedom. _New York Colonial Documents_, iii, p. 526. The French authorities agreed, and the Indians were brought back. _Ibid._, iii, pp. 621, 732, 733. In 1748, Governor Shirley sought to obtain the freedom of a Rhode Island Indian who had been sold as a slave in Canada, and on another occasion sent fourteen French prisoners to South Carolina to redeem certain members of the Six Nations who were held there. _Ibid._, vi, p. 448. Throughout the French and Indian struggle the governors of New York insisted that the members of the Six Nations, when captured in war, should be treated exactly as other English subjects, or, in other words, that they should not be enslaved. [547] _Hakluyt Society Publications_, vii, p. 23; Beazley, _John and Sebastian Cabot_, p. 118. [548] Beazley, _op. cit._, p. 118. [549] Historians differ regarding the place where these Indians were captured. J. G. Kohl, in _A History of the Discovery of the East Coast of North America_, reprinted in _Maine Historical Society Collections_, series 2, i, p. 142, expresses the opinion that Cabot probably obtained them on some shore south of New York harbor. James S. Buckingham, in _Canada, Nova Scotia_, etc., pp. 168, 337; and Samuel G. Drake, in _The History and Antiquities of Boston_, i, p. 1, regard Newfoundland as the probable home of the savages. [550] Best, _Frobisher’s First Voyage_, in _Voyages of the Elizabethan Seamen to America_, Payne’s edition, pp. 65, 66. [551] _Ibid._, pp. 76–88. [552] _Ibid._, p. 136. [553] Mather, _Magnalia Christi Americana_, etc., first American edition, (1820), i, p. 52; Prince, _A Chronological History of New England in the Form of Annals_, edition of 1887, ii, p. 26; Rosier, _A True Relation of the most prosperous Voyage made this present year_, etc., in _Massachusetts Historical Society Collections_, series 3, viii, p. 145. [554] Gorges, _A True Relation of the late Battell fought in New England_, etc., in _Massachusetts Historical Society Collections_, series 3, vi, p. 51; Williamson, _The History of the State of Maine from its first Discovery_, i, p. 207; Young, _Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers of New England_, etc., second edition, p. 190. [555] Stith, _History of Virginia_, bk. i, pp. 33, 34; Drake, _The Old Indian Chronicle_, edition of 1867, pp. 10–13.