1830.] ' Sierra Leone, and the Slave Trade. 285" 



will only be in reference to their actions, considered in a public capacity, 

 leaving our readers to form their own judgment of the accuracy of our 

 conclusions. 



The first idea of attempting to introduce civilization amongst the 

 savage tribes of Africa, by the establishment of a colony for that pur- 

 pose on their own coast, seems to have originated with Mr. Granville 

 Sharp. 



Mr. Smeathman, a gentleman who had lived for some time at the foot 

 of the Sierra Leone mountains, had also, but perhaps for purposes of a 

 more practicable nature, entertained the idea of establishing a colony 

 there ; and the discussions which, about that time, took place before 

 Lord Mansfield, on the subject of slaves who had come to England, 

 gave an impulse to public opinion, which, with other circumstances, 

 increased the number of liberated Africans until they had become a 

 nuisance in the streets of London. Their patron, Mr. Sharp, in con- 

 junction with Mr. Smeathman, collected above four hundred of them, 

 and, with the aid and assistance of government, they were shipped off, 

 with about forty Europeans, most of them kidnapped prostitutes, to 

 Sierra Leone, in February, 1787; under convoy of a sloop of war. 



Had Mr. Smeathman lived to conduct these unfortunate " civilizers 

 of Africa" to their destination, his practical experience and knowledge 

 of the country might have been of some service to them; but, unfortu- 

 nately, he died hi England before the sailing of the expedition, which 

 therefore proceeded under charge of the philanthropists ; and such was 

 the incapacity or misfortune of its conductors, that, before the end of 

 the first rainy season after their arrival in the country, scarcely one hun- 

 dred and twenty out of four hundred and forty-one remained alive, and 

 in one body ! This number was still further diminished, by famine, 

 disease, discontent, and desertion, to about forty ; " they plundered and 

 attacked one another, and sold all the stores that were left with them ;"* 

 and the whole were almost entirely annihilated in 1789, by the hostile 

 attack of one of the neighbouring tribes, whose enmity they had, perhaps 

 justly, incurred. 



Hitherto, therefore, the result of the scheme was a frightful sacrifice 

 of human life and loss of property ; but, instead of having made any 

 progress towards conciliating or civilizing the natives, they seem to have 

 roused their jealousy and provoked their resentment. 



About this period, principally through the zealous exertions of Mr. 

 Sharp, the Sierra Leone Company was formed, for the avowed purpose 

 of extending to Africa the blessings of " religious instruction, civiliza- 

 tion, and liberty." The members subscribed liberally for this laudible 

 purpose, and a charter was in due time obtained. Had their affairs been 

 conducted with that sound judgment, attentive discrimination, and unity 

 of purpose, which the association of so many respectable names, in a 

 scheme of philanthropy, would seem to have warranted, the disgraceful 

 close of the company's affairs, which took place in 1807, might have been 

 avoided j but, unhappily, in every scheme of this kind, individual mem- 

 bers are generally too much engrossed by their own affairs to pay that 

 attention which the strict discharge of their directorial duty would seem 

 to demand, and, in consequence, the management and details too often 

 fall into the hands of a few individuals, through whose eyes their asso- 



* Parliamentary History, vol. 29, p. G51. 



