St. Eustatia, or Sint Eustatius in Dutch, is a Caribbean island originally colonized by the French and English. Trading hands for decades in the 1600s, the island eventually stabilized as a main stop on the Atlantic Slave Trade's Triangular network, trafficking captured slaves and other cargo to the New World. It's in this context that Olaudah Equiano writes about the island, as he believes he is readily approaching his freedom, which gets put off for just one more minute over and over again. He is a ship hand on a boat sailing into the port of the St. Eustatia island and actually transports slaves from the island to the Georgia colony.

"My traffic had hitherto succeeded so well with me, that I thought, by selling my goods when we arrived at Montserrat, I should have enough to purchase my freedom. But, as soon as our vessel arrived there, my master came on board, and gave orders for us to go to St. Eustatia, and discharge our cargo there, and from thence proceed for Georgia. I was much disappointed at this; but thinking, as usual, it was of no use to encounter with the decrees of fate, I submitted without repining, and we went to St. Eustatia." (Equiano, Ch. 7).