61 



God ! and have brought many fine things, though 

 not many specimens, because the Sierra Leone cli- 

 mate is very damp and inseciiferous . Their fruit and 

 capsules are the most wonderful. I recollect the 

 Swiss Melampyrnm cristatum struck me at Geneva 

 as uncommonly beautiful. Can ours be different? 

 There I found it in a grove. Ours is a corn plant?! 



You say Galium pusillum intrigues you: if you 

 talk thus, Mrs. Davall will become jealous. 



Adieu ! God bless you. 



J. E. Smith. 



Mr. Afzelius to J. E. Smith. 



Freetown, Sierra Leone, 

 My dear Friend, Nov. 19, 1794. 



I am sorry to be a messenger of bad news ; but 

 an event that has taken place so openly cannot be 

 concealed; it must be known sooner or later; and as 

 I have myself unfortunately been a party concerned 

 in the common calamity, I hasten to inform you 

 of this melancholy affair. 



The 28th of September last the French arrived 

 here with a force far superior to what we had to 

 oppose them, and they made themselves therefore 

 soon masters of the place. They landed and plun- 

 dered all the houses and the store. They carried 

 on board their own vessels what they wanted them- 

 selves, and the rest they either broke to pieces, or 

 plunged into the sea, or consecrated to the flames. 

 They killed all the live stock in the colony. They 

 burnt the public buildings and all the houses be- 



