564 Sierra Leone Sqints, and Went India Sinners. Nov 



the humane Messrs. Brougham, Buxton, Macaulay, and Co., and their 

 followers ! 



To return to Sierra Leone, the following extracts of a letter, dated 

 from Freetown, July, 1830, will give some idea of the results of the 

 religious instruction and civilization plans of the " philanthropists." 



" You would be astonished to see the prevalence of vice in this wretched place. 

 All the great landmarks of civilization are noticed only with the view of 

 drawing fresh supplies and support from the northern country. They are 

 never dwelt on as being conducive to happiness, or practised in the search of it. 

 Here the European and the African, with some few exceptions, Itnow but the 

 semblance of virtue, and that only as the means of enabling them to indulge in vice. 

 Of this we have recently had a frightful example. A liberated African, a mis- 

 sionary schoolmaster, named Thomas Edward Cowan, has been convicted of 

 stealing a boy, one of his own pupils, and also a liberated African, for the pur- 

 pose of selling him into that horrible state of slavery from which he had been 

 snatched by British courage and philanthropy. This monster was tried in 

 June, at our General Quarter Sessions, and the charge of the new Chief Jus- 

 tice, Mr. Jeffcott, to the grand jury, is worthy of particular notice. Some pas- 

 sages in it will shew you that I was not misinformed, when I stated that the slave 

 trade is carried on to a considerable extent in this very colony; and I expect shortly 

 to be able to forward you several interesting cases, which will still further 

 prove the accuracy of my statement. The following are the passages in the 

 Chief Justice's statement, to which I allude : 



" ' I have heard and from the source from which my information is derived, 

 I am bound to believe what I should otherwise have deemed incredible that 

 persons are to be found in this colony, who, if riot directly engaged in, aid and 

 abet the abominable traffic in slaves. That such persons are to be found, I 

 repeat it, in THIS COLONY a, colony founded for its suppression, towards whose 

 establishment, and in whose support so much wealth has been expended, and so many 

 valuable lives sacrificed ; and, further, that men holding respectable stations 

 men having all the outward appearance arid show of respectability, are not 

 ashamed I should rather say, are not afraid to lend themselves to this nefa- 

 rious, this abominable trade ! 



" ' It has come to the ears of the Government of this colony, that aid and 

 assistance have been afforded in the fitting out of ships, well known to be 

 destined for such unlawful traffic, and that vessels have been so fitted out 

 from time to time by persons resident in this colony, for the Gallinas and else- 

 where. 



" ' Is it to be tolerated that this colony, established for express purpose of 

 suppressing this vile traffic, should be made a mart for carrying it on ? Is it 

 to be borne, that this harbour, miscalled if all I have heard and am led to be- 

 lieve be true the harbour of Free-town, should shelter within its bosom, while 

 the British flag waves over its ramparts, vessels, purchased after their con- 

 demnation by the Mixed Commission Courts, to make a second and a third 

 experiment in the slave-trade ? to be perhaps again captured by our cruisers, 

 and again bought up by the skulking foreigners who prowl about this place, 

 as the one best calculated for their iniquitous purpose ? 



" ' I have, since my arrival here, taken some pains to ascertain the number 

 of liberated Africans imported into this colony within a given period, as com- 

 pared with the number now located in the different villages ; and, although the 

 census of the latter is not quite complete, I have every reason to believe, that 

 whereas there have been imported into the colony of Sierra Leone, within the 

 last ten years, upwards of 22,000 Africans, who have obtained their liberation, 

 and have been located here at the expense of the British Government an 

 expense which, "upon the most moderate calculation, including that of the 

 civil establishment of this colony, and of the naval and military force attached 

 to it, together with the sums paid to the higher and subordinate officers of the 

 Mixed Commissions, amounts to 300. per man, or nearly seven millions ster- 



