In the course of investigations, Fuseng-be's status was described using terms with varying meanings. When McGregor asked Fuseng-be if she was an apprentice to Francis, she answered that 'she was his servant'. The fact that the conversation was conducted through the means of an interpreter may, however, have generated confusion as there were important differences between how Africans viewed slavery and 'British attitudes about slavery and pawnships, indentures, apprenticeships and subordinate status within its own settlement'. When summoned before McGregor, Francis gave contradictory accounts of the woman's status within his household. He initially claimed she was an apprentice bound to him for eleven years. It was in the interest of Francis, a settler who held various civic and religious positions in the settlement, to protect his reputation by claiming he had not intended to use her as a slave. When he was asked to explain his actions to the magistrate, he claimed that it was pity that had motivated him to buy her. By reporting that Peters had told him that she would be sold to a slave ship if no one purchased her, Francis attempted to claim humanitarian motives for his actions. He intimated that, by purchasing Fuseng-be, he had saved her from a far worse fate. He asserted that he intended to 'put her on his farm to raise fowls and ducks', an explanation suggesting a milder and less demanding form of servitude. Francis may have thought that this explanation would find favour with colonial officials, interested in promoting agricultural pursuits. Yet, Fuseng-be's account of her role to McGregor reveals that she had been used to carry out a range of menial and laborious household tasks. Francis also tried to lessen his culpability by stating that it was her father who had sold her in the first instance. He claimed that his actions in acquiring Fuseng-be had been approved by Acting Governor Thomas Ludlam, and he produced a paper certificate signed by Ludlam to support his claim. This printed certificate granted permission to Francis to keep Fuseng-be, alias Betsey