Such action as that referred to in this measure was taken at a town meeting in Portsmouth, March 8, 1675. The meeting, fearing that the holding of Indian slaves might prove “prejudicial”, ordered that all persons of the town having any Indian slave of either sex should be given but one month to sell and send such out of the town, and that no inhabitant after that time should buy or keep an Indian slave under penalty of £5 fine for each month thus holding such a slave, the amount of the fine to be paid to the town treasurer.[546] CHAPTER VI +Processes of Enslavement: Kidnapping+ The process of obtaining Indians by kidnapping was common to the early English explorers in America, as well as to those of Spain and France. In 1498, the expedition of Sebastian Cabot brought back to England three natives from the New World.[547] Lord Bacon states that two of the Indians “were seen two years afterward, dressed like Englishmen, and not to be distinguished from them”.[548] The Cabots had set off, promising to bring home heavy cargoes of spices and oriental gems. They returned with empty ships and with nothing to relate concerning the sought-for land of Cathay. Their expedition had not reached its desired destination, but some of the natives would serve as proof of another land discovered, and would, perhaps, provoke sufficient interest to assure the fitting out of a second expedition.[549] These Indians were not destined for the slave markets, and were probably kept as curiosities. England still hoped to find the northwest passage to the Orient. In 1576, Frobisher made another attempt in that direction. He desired to take away some token as proof of his having been in the New World, and, as it was supposed the Indians had destroyed or stolen three of his men who were lost, he decided to take some savages captive by luring them to trade. In this way one was captured, but died on reaching England.[550] A similar instance occurred on the second voyage in 1577. Frobisher planned to seize several Indians, bestow gifts upon them, and send them to their own people, hoping thus to win the friendship of the natives, after keeping one of them as interpreter. An attempt was made to seize two, but one escaped. As a companion for this man, an Indian woman was afterward captured. Frobisher attempted to trade these captives for some lost Englishmen, but was unsuccessful;[551] so it is probable that they were carried to England. The relation of the third voyage, 1578, mentions a similar man and woman, but the narrator does not state whether these were the same two taken on the second voyage, carried to England, and brought back to America on the third voyage, or two others taken on the third voyage. These Indians provoked much curiosity and comment in England, and pictures of them were made for the queen and others.[552]