THE 'WESTERN COAST. 
turbulence and disorder, and at last, by means of 
delegates, presented a spirited remonstrance to 
the Court of Directors, complaining of the high 
price of the Company's goods, and the low wages 
of labour, and that many of the promises made at 
their emigration had never been fulfilled. These 
disturbances were, with some difficulty, appeased, 
and the colony, emerging from its original obscu- 
rity, began to attract the notice of all the chiefs 
on the western coast of Africa, and to receive 
ambassadors from nations situated at a great dis- 
tance in the interior parts of the country, when 
its prosperity was interrupted by a deplorable re- 
verse of fortune. On the !^8th of September 1794< 
a French squadron suddenly appeared in the river, 
instigated with the hopes of obtaining an immense 
booty, by an American slave-captain, who imagin- 
ed that he had been affronted by the governor ; 
and, as the colony had been lulled into a fatal se- 
curity by the declaration of the French conven- 
tion, they plundered and destroyed the colonial 
town without meeting with any resistance. By 
this attack, the funds of the Company sustained 
an enormous loss, and the colony was again plung- 
ed into that calamitous situation, which the defi- 
ciency of provisions and the want of proper shelter 
had occasioned ; but harmony was effectually re- 
stored among the colonists, and by the exertions 
of the Company, their affairs were soon retrieved 
