[632] _Indian Book_, 1710–1718, i, p. 17, in Columbia, South Carolina, Historical Commission Department. The letters of the missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts stationed in South Carolina contain frequent mention of the traders’ action: Letters of Le Jau, 1708: February and July, 1711 (The letter of February 20, 1711, relates an instance of the traders bringing back one hundred Indian slaves); August 10, 1714; Letters of Johnston, January 27, 1715; December 19, 1715, in _Records of the S. P. G. F. P._ [633] _Indian Book_, 1710–1718, i, p. 29, in Columbia, South Carolina Historical Commission Department, (directions given to traders, July 24, 1716). [634] _Ibid._, i, p. 156, (directions given to traders, May 14, 1717); i, p. 28, (directions given to traders July 24, 1716); i, p. 40, (directions given to traders, July 27, 1716). [635] Logan, _op. cit._, i, p. 180. [636] Logan, _op. cit._, i, p. 187. [637] On being handed over to the board, the Indians were ordered to be sold at auction at a specified time and place to anyone who would promise to export them from the province within a specified time. In the meantime they were fed and sheltered at public expense. Logan, _op. cit._, i, p. 156. [638] Logan, _op. cit._, i, p. 171. Johnson became governor in 1703. [639] _Ibid._, i, p. 182. [640] Logan, _op. cit._, i, pp. 175, 177, 180, 181, 182, 183 cites such trials. A letter of Steevens, missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in South Carolina, 1708, tells of the trial and acquittal of traders for the illegal enslavement of Spanish Indians. _Records of S. P. G. F. P._ [641] Logan, _op. cit._, i, p. 180. [642] _Ibid._, i, p. 182. [643] _Ibid._, i, pp. 183–186. Case of Alexander Long and Eleazer Wiggon who in revenge stirred up the Cherokee to destroy the Euchee. [644] On July 15, 1715, Mr. Byrd, one of the council of Virginia, appeared before the Board of Trade, and in reply to questions regarding the hostilities lately committed by the Indians on Carolina, declared the action of the Indians to be due to the cupidity of the traders and the custom of encouraging the Indians to wage war on each other that the traders might buy the captives as slaves. _Journal of the Board of Trade, B. P. R. O._, Co. 391, 25 R., xvii, pp. 167–168. Similar statements were made by Mr. Banister, _Ibid._, p. 169, Mr. Kettleby, _Ibid._, p. 175 and Mr. Crawley, _Ibid._, p. 191. [645] _South Carolina Public Records_, April to December, 1720, vii, p. 226; _British Public Record Office, South Carolina, Board of Trade_, Co. 5, 358 A 14 and 15, October 27, 1720. [646] Logan, _op. cit._, i, p. 189. Though no estimate of the number of Indians enslaved during this long period in the south is possible, it was so large that the decay of the coast Indians has been attributed to it. Thomas, _The Indians of North America_, etc., ii, p. 95.