THE WESTERN COAST. 
a soil of surprising fertility indeed, but which it 
was necessary to clear and cultivate before they 
could derive any profit from its productions. They 
found that it was necessary to build houses for their 
shelter, to plant rice and maize for their subsist- 
ence ; and, therefore, dreading the rainy season, 
and chagrined at the Canabacs, both on account of 
the courage they had displayed, and of their in- 
dolence in leaving the island in so bad a state 
of cultivation, they all returned in the same ships 
to England, except a few who sailed to Ame- 
rica and the West Indies \ and Mr Beaver re- 
mained as chief of the colony, with twenty men, 
four women, and four children. The judicious 
discrimination that had been employed in the choice 
of colonists by the Sierra Leone Company, was one 
of the original causes which had so rapidly swelled 
the lists of the Bulama subscribers ; here, from in- 
attention to this circumstance, the majority of 
those who went out with Mr Dalrymple were per- 
sons of the most infamous characters and vicious 
habits. "When the numerous convicts of Britain 
were accustomed to be transported to America, Dr 
Franklin thought, that the only method by which 
America could testify her gratitude, was by return- 
ing an equal number of rattlesnakes to her mother 
country. Yet such were the crew of idlers, drunk- 
ards, cowards, and assassins, accustomed to live in 
open violation of law, who were left with Mr Bea- 
