TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 3S3 
as they invariably stiled His Excellency, who 
expressed himself highly pleased at their im- 
provement during his absence, in which short 
period large pieces of ground had been cleared 
and cultivated in the vicinity of all the towns, 
and every production of the climate raised in 
sufficient abundance to supply the inhabitants, 
and furnish the market at Free-town. 
His Excellencv visited the schools at the 
different towns, and witnessed the improve- 
ment which all the students had made, but par- 
ticularly those of the high-school at Regent- 
town, whose progress in arithmetic, geography, 
and history, evinced a capacity far superior to 
that which is in general attributed to the Ne- 
gro, and proves that they may be rendered 
useful members of society, particularly so in 
exploring the interior of the country, having 
previously received the education calculated to 
that peculiar service. 
From the change which has taken place in 
those villages since I saw them in 1817> I am 
satisfied, that a little time is alone necessary to 
enable the colony of Sierra Leone to vie with 
many of the West India islands, in all the produc- 
tions of tropical climates, but particularly in the 
article of coffee, which has been already raised 
there, and proved by its being in demand in the 
