of females between 1805 and 1808: three girls were bought in neighbouring areas and transferred into the colony, and another girl was purchased from a Portuguese slave ship and taken into the colony. George Nicol, a European carpenter formerly employed by the Sierra Leone Company, admitted in August 1808 that he had arranged for the purchase of a 'native girl' of about seven years of age. He had instructed a person named Dominique Garel to purchase a young girl from Pedro Naimbanna (also known as Bartholomew Naimbanna), and he paid $\$ 60$ for the girl in March 1806. Following his acquisition of the girl, he re-named her Nancy and took her to his house. In explaining the circumstances of Nancy's purchase, Nicol's testimony also revealed how Nancy's mother had changed hands several times among settlers in Freetown. Nancy's mother had been given to a Frenchman named Berault in partial repayment of a debt, and Berault had given her to Sophia Small, a Nova Scotian shopkeeper in Freetown. Thereafter, Small passed the woman on to George Nicol, suggesting that each saw some value in her labour. Nicol explained that Nancy's mother was old and decrepit, and he implied he had shown compassion by agreeing to her request to purchase her daughter so that they could live together. In common with Francis, Nicol thereby tried to shift some of the moral responsibility for her purchase by claiming that it was the girl's family who had initially made her available for purchase. In defending his actions, Nicol claimed that he had acted 'ignorantly, blindly, and for lack of better knowledge'. This explanation lacks credibility, however, as the same newspaper article reported how he had purchased another girl from a Portuguese slave ship for $\$ 100$. This girl, aged around 11 years, was described as a 'Native of the Bijuga islands' (Bissagos or Bijagós Islands). His track record of purchases also included the payment of $\$ 100$ for a boy named Yabo in June 1805. Yabo, one of 'two Mandingoes' who had been brought to Freetown by a European trader named Lee