328 



SIERRA LEONE COLONY. 



[1829. 



much ; but much more yet remains to be done. The root, the source, 

 the foundation of the evil is in the ignorance and superstition of the 

 poor negroes themselves. Could they become only partially civilized, 

 and sufficiently enlightened to see the beauty of the plainest moral 

 precepts of our religion, they would no longer feel themselves obligated 

 to obey the unjust mandates of a ruthless despot, who levies war on 

 his neighbours, not for any real or imaginary injury received, but for 

 the sole purpose of raising a revenue by the sale of his captives. 

 This state of things can only be brought about by the labours of mis- 

 sionaries, patiently pursued for a series of years. 



However severe the edicts which nations may pass against the 

 slave-trade, they will never deter from engaging in it a certain class of 

 reckless adventurers which are found in every country ; whose motto 

 is " Neck or nothing." They are willing to run the risk of dying the 

 death of pirates, in consideration of the immense emolument which 

 attends a successful issue of the perilous enterprise. Like every 

 species of smuggled goods, slaves will always find a ready market, 

 and a price proportionably high to the hazard of introducing them ; 

 and so long as a door remains open for disposing of human beings, the 

 progress of reform in this particular will be very slow. 



It is comparatively of but little use to lock up the mouths of the 

 Senegal, the Gambia, the Zaire, the Coanza, and the Cameroon's, or 

 any other river of Africa, while the whole extent of coast remains open, 

 and may be landed on at different seasons of the year. Nothing but 

 a total unqualified prohibition of this soul-debasing traffic by every 

 power in both hemispheres, particularly by those of South America, 

 can afford any rational hope of its final abolition. And even then, 

 there is too much reason to fear that men-stealers will still exist, and 

 that planters will be found of natures sufficiently diabolical to reward 

 them for their labours of barbarity. 



England and the United States have set the world some glorious 

 examples on this important subject. The colony of the former at 

 Sierra Leone, and that of the latter at Liberia, on the west coast of 

 Africa, are both in a flourishing condition ; and their projectors and 

 founders merit the prayers and blessings of philanthropists in every sec- 

 tion of the globe. Sierra Leone lies between the seventh and tenth 

 degrees of north latitude, and derived its name from mountains abound- 

 ing with lions. This is the nearest point of the African coast to the 

 most western point of South America, on the Brazilian coast, the dis- 

 tance from Pernambuco to Sierra Leone being only about five hundred 

 leagues. 



The English settlement of Sierra Leone was formed in the year 

 1787, for the express purpose of labouring to civilize the Africans. In 

 1825, four years previous to my visiting Benguela, it contained eighteen 

 thousand inhabitants ; of whom about twelve thousand consist of lib- 

 erated Africans, who for the most part occupy the parishes in the 

 mountains, where they inhabit villages, surrounded by tracts of culti- 

 vated ground, and containing schools for both sexes. In this quarter 

 the English have made the greatest exertions to limit, if not to abolish, 

 the trade in slaves ; but, in the language of M. Malte Brun, " philan- 



