But it was not by fostering the slave trade and prosecuting any restrictions on it, only, that the British government made itself responsible for African slavery in its American colonies. In the year 1730 seven of the principal Cherokee Chiefs from the unsettled country west of South Carolina, were carried to England by Sir Alexander Cumming, and while there they were induced to enter into a treaty with the Board of Trade then having charge of colonial affairs, by which provision was made for the return to their owners, by the Indians, of all runaway slaves; and in the year 1732, an act of parliament was passed "for the more speedy recovery of debts in America" by English creditors, among the provisions of which was one subjecting slaves to execution in judgments for all demands. While England thus became so identified with the introduction of African slavery into America, all the commercial nations of Europe were likewise implicated in the trade; and if England took the lead in it, that fact was owing to the superior intelligence and energy of her merchants and traders, and not to any qualms of conscience on the part of other nations. In fact during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, until towards the close of the latter, when a very few "philanthropists" appeared, there was no sentiment in any Christian or unchristian country which regarded the reduction of the negroes of Africa to slavery as opposed to moral right or religious duty, or in any other light than as a blessing to the negroes themselves and a great benefit to their owners. It is a fact, not undeserving of notice, in reviewing the conduct of England in forcing African slaves upon her American colonies, that during the whole period from the settlement to the revolt of those colonies, all trade with them to and from Ireland was absolutely forbidden, and hence it is that the Irish formed so inconsiderable an element in their population previous to the Revolution. The native Irish were then regarded by their rulers as having but few more rights than the negroes of Africa. * * * * * Having thus briefly shown the origin and progress of the slave trade, I will now trace the settlement of the colonies, which afterwards became the United States, and the introduction of slavery into them. CHAPTER II =Origin of Slavery in the United States=