Third: With respect to the goods with which Our Lord has seen fit to bless me in this world I declare the following: It is my wish and command that my much beloved grandson JAMES DUNCAN BOWIE shall receive the following slaves, namely, Dick (alias) Richard Bowie, Cambridge, Pleto and Francisco, as well as a plot of land or tracts located Quazy in the CENTRE of the ysland generally known according to the various accepted names of SHINGLE HILL, Sergeant Ground and Coco Plum Bay with all houses located thereon. It is my wish and command that my beloved nephew Torquato Bowie shall receive the following slaves: Heny, Little Jim, Judy, Deptford and Charle, as well as a plot of land known as Lions Hill. It is my wish and command that my beloved grandson Richard Tunner Bowie shall receive the following slaves: Golo, Roys, Dummorea, Serphin and Rodney, as well as a plot of land located to the far south of the Ysland and known as Cay Bay. It is my wish and command that my beloved granddaughter Henrietta McKeten Bowie shall receive the following slaves: Dick, Titus, Lunar and Andress, it is my wish and command that my much beloved granddaughter Arabella McNiel Bowie shall receive the following slaves: Hannibal, Pheby, Abram, Arabella and Darley. It is my wish and command that my beloved granddaughter Mary Ann Bowie shall receive the following slaves: Jack, Duffice, Fejsy, William Moor and Harriet. It is my wish and command that my much beloved granddaughter Lousa Elizabeth Bowie shall receive the following slaves: Victoria, Jack, Thomas, Lucinda, Rebecca, Charles and Lettice. It is my wish and command that Robert Archbol Bowie shall receive the following slaves: Jack McKeller, Lawrence and Mongolo May. It is my wish and command that my beloved granddaughters shall receive in equal parts my lands on the Ysland of old Providencia known as Fresh Water Bay.

There’s information about the authorities at the time, names, titles that mean nothing to me…

…in whose testimony thus I sign in the presence of the foremost authority of the Canton and the undermentioned Secretary who likewise sign with me on the Ysland of San Andrés on this twentieth day of the Month of April in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and thirty six.

In a museum hall, I once saw a sixteenth-century diagram of how slaves were supposed to be transported in the hull of a ship. ‘Plan of lower deck with the stowage of 292 slaves. 130 of those being stowed under the shelves.’ The blueprint showed little coffee-coloured figures moulded to the outline of the vessel. Goods, merchandise, property. It explained how many people could fit between rows of other compartments. That’s how my slaves came to the island. My slaves. And their hands and shoulders are the ones that built, over time, my privileges.

Roll, light, puff.

Exhale.

I put the laptop away.