José Gonçalves Rosa, for example, was a formerly enslaved man from the Costa da Mina who knew how to sign his own name and worked as a cook at the exclusive service of the captain of the São José Rei de Portugal, which travelled between Lisbon and Recife in the 1760s. Records are inexact as to his age and experience: in 1767 he was recorded to be over 40 , with over 25 years of seafaring experience, while in 1768 , the same type of record placed him at around the age of 30 , with over 15 years of experience in the profession. ${ }^{5}$ Alexandre Ferreira, a servant on the Santa Ana e São Francisco Xavier, was said to have been born in Mozambique, a 'black slave' to surgeon Antonio de Souza Ferreira, and was aged around 30, having lived on board for the previous two years. ${ }^{6}$ The cook Pedro Pereira, a freed "black man" from Cabo Verde, worked on the same voyage. His condition as a freedman was confirmed by a letter he carried with him signed two years prior, when he was around the age of 50 .