334 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
English market to be of as good (if not superior) 
quality to that imported from our other colonies. 
That the soil on the mountains is well adapted 
to the growth of that valuable berry has been 
too well proved by the flourishing state of some 
of the plantations in the immediate vicinity of 
Free- town to need any comment of mine. Arrow- 
root has also been cultivated with advantage on 
some of the farms belonging to private indivi- 
duals, and there can be no doubt of the capa- 
bility of the soil to produce the sugar-cane, as 
some is already grov/n there, but whether it is 
of as good a description as that of the West 
Indies I cannot pretend to say, as the experi- 
ment had never been tried at Sierra Leone, at 
least to my knowledge. The cultivation of all 
these with the cotton, indigo, and ginger, could 
here be carried on under advantages which our 
West India islands do not enjoy, namely, the 
labour of free people, who would relieve the 
Mother Country from the apprehensions which 
are at present entertained for the safety of pro- 
perty in some of those islands, by revolt and in- 
surrection amongst the slaves, and from the de- 
plorable consequences of such a state of civil con- 
fusion ; those people would, by receiving the bene- 
fits arising from their industry, be excited to exer- 
tions that must prove beneficial to all concerned 
