^70 THE WESTERN COAST. 
tioned, was commissioned to repair to Nova Scotia, 
and propose to the free blacks the terms upon 
which the Sierra Leone Company was willing to 
receive them, and afterwards to superintend their 
emigration. The proposals of the Company were 
accepted with the utmost eagerness ; about twelve 
hundred blacks embarked with the greatest ala- 
crity for Sierra Leone, where they arrived in 
March 1792. This accession of numbers inspired 
the colonists with additional energy, and induced 
the Company to exert themselves with redoubled 
vigour. The Directors increased their capital by 
subscription, in order to support an establishment 
proportional to the extent of their plan ; they sent 
out considerable stores, both to supply the exi- 
gencies of the colony, and to enable their com- 
mercial agent to establish a trade with the Afri- 
cans in the native productions of the country ; 
they adopted active measures for cultivating the 
most profitable tropical produce ; and, in order 
to discover new articles for commerce in the dis- 
trict of Sierra Leone and its vicinity, they en- 
gaged Mr A. Nordenskiold, an able mineralogist, 
and Mr A. Afzelius, an excellent botanist. The 
original settlement of the free blacks was again 
chosen as the most eligible situation for the colo- 
nial town, and great exertions were made to erect 
habitable huts before the commencement of the 
rainy season. But the exertions of the colonists, 
