308 
THE WESTERN COAST. 
dent by the statements which they have chosen to 
submit to the public. They very candidly, however, 
admit the circumstances which have obstructed the 
accomplishment, to the full extent, of the objects for 
which it was founded. It has been found impos- 
sible to preserve a uniform good understanding 
with the native powers, whose volatile and turbu- 
lent habits render them always prompt to embark 
in hostilities. The abolition of the slave-trade also 
has caused the colony to be viewed by no means 
with a favourable eye by the native chiefs. The 
wars in which it was repeatedly involved with 
them, gave a very serious check to its improve- 
ment. The management also of the negroes 
captured on their route to the West Indies, is 
also attended with considerable difficulty. The 
plan of making them purchase their liberty by 
a temporary bondage, under the name of indenture, 
though it cannot deserve the epithets which have 
been applied to it, seems yet to have been very 
properly discontinued. The motley and equivocal 
character, however, which necessarily attaches to a 
great part of the population, renders it very diffi- 
cult to preserve the degree of order and propriety 
necessary to render it useful in itself, and credi- 
table in the eye of the Africans. The introduction 
of the English forms of law has produced a most 
violent spirit of litigation. The suits for petty as- 
saults and defamation are almost innumerable, and 
