64. SAILORS FEAR THEIR CAPTAIN WILL KILL THEM! An interesting A.L.S. 2pp. legal folio, Boston, June 7, 1788, being a petition of sailors to Gov. John Hancock, seven of whom are incarcerated in Boston there because their captain accused them of attempting to break their contract by deserting. In part: "...We have received many threatening and [were] ill-used on our passage from Bristol to this...". They then explain that when they finished unloading the ship's cargo, the captain told them that if they did not return to ship they would get no wages. The sailors had gone before a judge, but it was their word against the captain's. Seven were then placed in jail for safekeeping until the vessel was ready to leave port: "...We all find it very hard that we must be confined in a gaol like so many felons waiting for the ship till she is ready to sail from here to the coast, and then we certainly will one and all be murdered...We have been advised by a captain of a vessel belonging to this port to send to your excellency, which we have made bold to do...". In addition to the seven jailed sailors, the petition is signed by four more men who are presumably free but wish to weigh in on the situation. Folds, some chipping to margins, overall very good. $300-500