In 1638, eight years after the original settlement of Boston, a ship named Desire arrived in Boston with the first American slaves. Built in Marblehead, the merchant vessel brought its cargo of cotton, tobacco, and slaves from Providence Island in the Bahamas. There is reason to believe that Black Africans were in the Boston area even earlier than 1638. John Josselyn, an early writer of New England history, visited Noddles Island in Boston harbor in 1637 and reported that he found in the possession of Samuel Maverick, three Negroes, two women and one man. Josselyn reported in his 'Two Voyages to New England' that the women could not speak English and the man seemed to have been a person of high rank in Africa.