294 Sierra Leone, and [MARCH, 



barbarism, or become vagrants about Freetown," or, what we consider 

 still more likely, be caught by the nearest tribes, and massacred, or re- 

 sold to the slave-dealers ! !* 



The second division of the reportf states the number of the popula- 

 tion, in April 1826, as follows : 



Europeans - - - - - - - -113 



Nova Scotians - '-- ... 578 



West Indians and Americans ..... 141 



Maroons .... '* ... 636 



Discharged soldiers - .... 949 



Liberated Africans ------ -10,716 



Kroomen, Mandingoes, Timanees, and others - - 3,113 



16,246 



It thus appears, that of the 441 original settlers in 17&7, the 1131 in 

 1792, the 85 rebels in 1819, and the 1,222 pensioners in 1822, in all 

 2,879, only J.,668 remain. And what is still more appalling, out of 

 24,434 slaves, landed from 1808 to 1827 inclusive, scarcely 12,000 re- 

 main, being about one half, exclusive of births ! ! We have already 

 seen, that it is not the poor and wretched alone that fall victims to this 

 climate the whole of our governors, (except Sir C. Macarthy) have been 

 cut off. General Turner arrived in 1825 ; he died in 1826 and since 

 then, Sir Neil Campbell, Colonel Denham, Colonel Lumley, and other 

 brave officers, have followed him to the grave with frightful rapidity. 

 The Church Missionary Society state, " that, to the end of 1824, they 

 had lost by death, and removed, from ill health, 77 European, and 

 30 native, preachers and teachers in Sierra Leone/'J 



(f The proportion of deaths amongst the officers, may be considered as 

 a tolerably fair criterion of the effects of climate. The total number of 

 officers upon the coast during the eight years subsequent to the cession 

 of Senegal and Goree, was 269, and the number of deaths 65, or one- 

 fourth of the whole. In 1824, the total number was 41, and the number 

 of deaths 26. In 1825, the total number was 51, and the number of 

 deaths 17/' 



The European troops stationed on the western coast of Africa June 

 1816 to December 1825 exclusive of officers, was 5,823, the number 

 of deaths was 1,912, or nearly one-third. But from the manner in which 

 the returns are made up the whole mortality is not shewn. 



In one year 301, out of 346, died ! ! In 1825 there were 1,193 Euro- 

 peans of these 621 died. " In the end of 1825, 108 young men, 

 between 17 and 30 years of age, who had enlisted in the Royal African 

 corps, and accompanied General Turner to the coast, were sent to the 

 Isles de Loss. When these islands were visited by the commissioners in 

 March 1826, 52 of them had died, and the remainder, with few exceptions, 

 were suffering from disease. Out of 350 cases of fever in the hospital 

 at Freetown, from 21st December, 1825, to 1st November, 1826, 160 



In fact, a recent traveller expressly tells us, " one of our companions had a slave 

 whom he said he had procured at Sierra Leone." " I saw the poor slave carrying on his 

 head a burden (which he could scarcely carry), fastened to a rope, the other end fastened 

 to his leg, so that it was out of his power to run away." Caillie^s Tombuctoo, vol. i. 

 p. 256. Colburn and Bentley, 1830. 



f Pages 18, 19, 21. 



J Missionary Register for May, 1826. 



